A few moments later, Yan Hanu opened his eyes.
He found himself in front of a statue. Not a woman, but an angel: the statue of a kneeling man, held fast by the hands of demons that were trying to bind him.
He was still confused. How had he survived?
He quickly pulled up the system notification and read it carefully. He had never heard of anything like a hidden mission before. Did such a thing really exist?
Yan Hanu did not know whether he should call it luck or not. But one thing was certain. He was alive. That was nothing short of a miracle.
Then he remembered something. He went closer to the statue, placed his hand on its surface and looked at his reflection — and then he saw it.
His body was still small. It had not returned to its original form.
Then another notification came. It stated that the system-arranged revival replicated the player's body exactly as it had been at the precise moment of death.
Which meant that his current body was exactly the same as it had been when he died.
What was happening now was completely unexpected. His companions had known nothing about the hidden mission. He had planned nothing connected with the system. They had only wanted to deceive him. The reason he was small was that mysterious potion alone, the one they had secretly swapped.
The system had revived him after death. But since the potion had already taken effect, he had stayed small.
So even if he had come back alive, what difference did it make? Right now his body was like that of a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old boy. At that age his strength should be somewhere around C grade. And the weakest of his old companions was SS grade.
Defeating them was nothing but a dream.
Yan Hanu sat down gently on the ground. Quietly, he wondered what he had to do next. After a while he took a deep breath, then lay flat on the ground. For now, he decided to accept what had happened.
Then his eyes widened in surprise.
Did it mean that even though his body and his level were low, he could become the most powerful again?
Another notification had come. The No-Level System. Its full name was the Unlimited Restriction Equipment System. Keeping it, he could use equipment of any level. He would no longer be bound by his rank or his level.
Then another notification came. It reminded him that apart from the rebirth granted for completing the hidden mission, he received one more reward: the no-level-limit system. This system gave the user permission to use any item regardless of level. It was non-transferable, and it would stay connected to the user forever.
Yan Hanu read every line with attention. The more he read, the more surprised he became. The system was telling him that he could use any weapon or equipment without any limitation from his current level.
Meaning that even if he was C rank, he could probably use B rank, A rank, S rank weapons — perhaps even higher than that.
For a man like him, this was almost unbelievable. Something had just happened to him. The team he had trusted was the team that had betrayed him. After that, it was difficult to trust anything at all.
He asked the system whether the capability was really guaranteed.
At first the system stayed completely silent. Then it replied in a strange, nonchalant tone. As though he must be joking. If he did not want this ability, he could ignore it and forget that the system existed.
Yan Hanu answered immediately. He needed this capability very much.
Another notification appeared in front of him.
The system had detected that the host's current level was C rank. So it would issue its first reward: a weapon of any rank. This weapon would be non-tradable and would stay connected to the host forever. Now the host would have to choose the weapon type.
Then, suddenly, countless kinds of weapons appeared in front of Yan Hanu, as if they were floating in the air. Short swords, cannon-type weapons, great swords, sais, hammers and much more.
Yan Hanu looked at everything carefully. He began wondering what he needed to choose.
For a moment he thought he should take a light saber type, since that was what he had used before. Its attack range was wide and its damage was good.
But if he wanted a weapon suited to dealing out death, a short sword would be more practical. He was about to choose the short sword. But when he looked again, he felt something was missing. It was very small. There was no feeling of power or skill in it. With one hand he quickly swept that option aside and looked at the remaining options.
His gaze came to rest on the great sword.
Compared to a light saber, a great sword's attack range might be a little less. But in terms of powerful strikes and cutting speed, this was far better. It was a weapon that focused entirely on raw power.
Without any hesitation, he made his choice.
Another notification. Great sword type selected. Weapon issued to host. B rank great sword, Steel Radiance.
The system also said that in the future, follow-up missions would be given to the host in order to obtain higher-level weapons.
A sword slowly appeared in front of Yan Hanu. The blade had a faint metallic sheen to it, as if both hope and destruction were settled together inside it.
He stepped forward and took hold of the weapon. The moment his hand touched the hilt, he felt a powerful flow of energy.
This weapon was extraordinary. And even more surprising was the fact that the system was really working. He was only a C rank hunter. Yet a B rank weapon had come to him without restraint.
Usually this would have been absolutely impossible. But now it was happening right in front of him.
With this weapon, everything had changed. His physical strength was not at its peak right now. But now he had a chance. A chance to get back whatever had been taken from him.
This was the first step of his revenge.