Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 105

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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105
“You don’t have to become Hunters if you don’t want to.”
Hyung-bin spoke to his younger siblings running beside him. They were all covered in mud from rolling through the mud pit multiple times.
“Hyung-bin, are you abandoning us?”
“Si-hwan, why do you always twist my words like that? That’s not what I meant. You all look exhausted.”
“What about you, Hyung-bin?”
“I’m exhausted too, but… it’s manageable.”
Hyung-bin glanced back at Ye-seul running behind them. Even when he wanted to give up, seeing Ye-seul made it impossible. She would continue being a Hunter no matter what.
“We can manage too. Following Hunter Lee Ji-seok gives us purpose.”
Jin-woo answered first, and Si-hwan nodded in agreement. Jin-woo quietly followed behind them.
“Then… let’s push through together. We’ll do exactly what those guys are doing. What makes us any different?”
Hyung-bin gestured with his chin toward the five convicts.
“Let’s do this.”
Si-hwan picked up speed and grabbed the rope on the obstacle wall ahead.
* * *
“I’ll implement rewards and penalties. The team that completes 100 laps first gets a proper dinner. The losing team eats minimal rations and runs an additional 100 laps until nightfall.”
I announced this from atop the container.
“Run!!! Anyone who comes in late dies!”
The convicts’ eyes blazed as they began sprinting, and Hyung-bin’s team did the same.
Yang Sang-heon climbed onto the container and watched from beside me.
“Wow… you’re really pushing them hard…”
“Yang Sang-heon.”
“Yes?”
“You look comfortable there?”
Our eyes met. We stood in silence for about three seconds.
“…I’ll run too.”
Yang Sang-heon bowed his head deeply.
“Yang Sang-heon, you’re the only B-rank here. You need to come in first, don’t you?”
“Wait, didn’t those guys already run 50 laps ahead? If I can’t come in first…”
I smiled gently at Yang Sang-heon. He sighed, lowering his head to the ground.
“Why did I come here…”
Muttering his regret, he threw himself into the mud pit.
Hyung-bin extended his hand to Ye-seul, who was catching her breath at the base of the obstacle wall. She hesitated for a moment, then took his hand and climbed over the obstacle together.
“Hyung-bin oppa.”
Ye-seul called out to Hyung-bin after descending from the obstacle.
“Yes?”
“Don’t help me.”
Hyung-bin froze at Ye-seul’s request. Now that they’d grown closer and he’d become accustomed to her expressionless face, hearing such words in that same blank tone made his face stiffen.
“…Did I upset you? I’m sorry.”
“No. No, that’s not it. I know you’re trying to protect me. I’m truly grateful for that feeling. But I’m a Hunter too. If I don’t grow stronger, I can’t survive. I need to be able to protect myself so that you and everyone around us can be safe.”
“Understood. But if you need any help, just say the word.”
“Got it. Let’s go ahead first.”
Ye-seul pushed Hyung-bin’s back. He glanced behind as if reluctant to leave, then took off first, with Ye-seul running after him.
“Huff… huff…”
Hyung-bin’s team had all arrived, leaving only Ye-seul. Though her natural stamina paled compared to the Warriors, she gritted her teeth and ran until her face turned ashen.
On the opposing team, only Shin Mu-yeol hadn’t made it inside yet. Sweat poured from his bulky frame like rain as he ran. He was technically a Warrior-class Hunter, but his negligence in training made him slower than Ye-seul, the Healer. Had he skipped training for the past week, he wouldn’t have stood a chance at all.
“Why aren’t you coming faster?! If you’re late, I’ll kill you!”
Yang Deok-su growled, but Shin Mu-yeol couldn’t hear him anymore. His eyes had lost focus.
Thud.
Ye-seul crossed the finish line first, while Shin Mu-yeol collapsed on the ground just meters away from it.
“That’s it. Hyung-bin’s team wins. Go wash up and eat dinner. You lot have 100 additional laps.”
* * *
It was past midnight when the convicts finally completed their quota and returned to the Dormitory. They looked so exhausted that even someone held prisoner for years would appear in better condition.
“You damn pig!”
Jeon Dong-gun kicked Shin Mu-yeol without hesitation.
“Ugh… hack… I’m sorry…”
“Because of you, how many times?! Huh?! Do we need to run more?! Let’s take a break! You bastard!”
With each word, his foot drove into Shin Mu-yeol’s body. To ordinary people, all criminals might look the same, but there’s a hierarchy among them. Child sexual abusers rank at the very bottom—they get beaten regardless of what they do. Since Shin Mu-yeol had made them run for hours longer, the intensity of the violence was fiercer than usual.
“Huff… huff…”
Jeon Dong-gun, exhausted from kicking, stepped back.
“My turn now?”
Choi Mi-ran approached Shin Mu-yeol. It was her turn to relieve stress.
Shin Mu-yeol’s face was shattered and his bones broken, but since he was within the World Tree’s sphere of influence, he would heal anyway. The other convicts beat him far more savagely than usual.
Shin Mu-yeol was beaten throughout that entire night.
* * *
Click!
“Starting today, we’re adding live fire to the obstacle course. Dodge or block as needed and push through.”
I racked the rifle.
Rat-a-tat-tat!!!
“You crazy bastard!”
Even the convicts, who had been relatively subdued, thought this was too much and spat out curses. But bullets don’t stop for complaints, so each of them used their abilities to dodge the incoming fire.
They were all D-Rank or higher Hunters, so the shots wouldn’t be fatal, but the pain of bullets tearing through flesh was absolutely not to be taken lightly.
“Aren’t you shooting?”
“I… I’m sorry!”
Yang Sang-heon fired alongside me at Hyung-bin’s team.
“Sang-heon! Weren’t we friends?!”
Si-hwan shouted.
“If I don’t do this, I’ll die!”
I could hear the friendship between Yang Sang-heon and the Oh Brothers cracking, but training takes priority. Reconciliation can come later.
Compared to how mercilessly I was shooting the convicts, what they were doing was far gentler. It’s discrimination, but… well, these vicious criminals deserve some discrimination.
Everyone utilized their skills to the fullest, evading and running. Firing a gun didn’t erase the bet. Teams arriving late faced an additional hundred-lap penalty.
* * *
“Huff… huff…”
Jin-woo had never been fond of physical exertion. This time, he genuinely hadn’t wanted to participate. When Hyung-bin suggested he could stop, I’d meant to say I’d give up—but Si-hwan and Min-woo answered first that they could do it, and the moment slipped away from me.
Knowing my passive nature, Hyung-bin sought me out after training and asked several times if I was certain.
Hyung-bin waited patiently for my answer, and I could have quit if I’d wanted to, but I didn’t want to disappoint the Detective Agency family, including Hyung-bin. And I didn’t want to be left behind alone.
Since childhood, I’d been indecisive and slow. When I had something to say, I should have said it, but my reactions were as sluggish as my large frame—my answers always came too late. Before I knew it, being swept along had become my daily reality.
My large build came from my father. My father was a Yakuza executive who made a name for himself in the neighborhood.
My mother was merely my father’s bedmate. That Yakuza never brought me or my mother into his home, and by the time I grew older, he stopped visiting altogether.
My mother simply treated it as a passing breeze and resumed her life. She harbored no greed, suffered no ailments, so though we weren’t affluent, we never went hungry.
When I was in elementary school, I collided with friends while playing at school. Since I was a head or two taller than my peers, the friend I bumped into flew back limply.
“Waaahhhhh!!”
When a friend cried, I should have apologized, but my body froze and my mouth locked shut.
“Hey! Aren’t you going to apologize?!”
“Jin-woo, you did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
The children feared me, standing silent and staring at the injured child, so they gradually avoided me. I hadn’t pushed anyone intentionally—I was simply frozen.
After such incidents occurred several times, only children of poor character approached me. Si-hwan’s situation was similar, but I couldn’t refuse their proposals and was often dragged along.
With good durability and strength, I always stood at the front in street fights. I’d strike down opponents while taking punches from all directions.
“This monster bastard! Die!”
While fighting intensely, someone from behind swung a wooden club down at my head.
The club shattered, and blood burst from my head. Then I grabbed that guy’s skull and slammed it into the ground.
I was simply swept along as always, but after a few street fights, no high school student in the neighborhood dared oppose my group anymore.
I knew all too well that the children who clung to me as friends saw me as a tool. For someone like me, my only neighborhood companions were the neighbor’s dog and a stray cat.
My mother wasn’t kind or gentle toward me. It worsened as I grew. Seeing me, who resembled the man who abandoned her, made her depressed, so she didn’t even speak to me. Later, as she worked and met men, the days she left me alone at home and didn’t return grew more frequent.
I hated going to an empty house, so I went to the Rear Mountain park where no one gathered. Sitting quietly on a bench eating breadcrumbs, birds came to eat the fragments.
“Why? Are you trying to use me too?”
I picked a fight with the innocent bird, but naturally, it didn’t respond.
Among them, a bird with beautiful red breast feathers approached right up to my feet. Unlike other people who feared me and kept their distance, this bird didn’t fear me.
“You’re not scared? What if I caught and ate you?”
The bird tilted its head and pecked at the breadcrumbs near my feet.
“You don’t have friends either? I’ll be your friend.”
Strangely, when I spoke to the bird that couldn’t answer, words flowed easily, and I rambled on with many stories.
Going up to the Rear Mountain for several consecutive days to feed it, I grew close to the red bird. Now it would perch on my hand when I extended it.
The neighborhood dogs and cats followed me well, and so did this bird.
“Hey. Some punk’s been causing trouble lately? Go rough him up today.”
Jin-wook, the leader of the delinquent group that constantly used me, spoke.

“Huh? I can’t make it today….”
Jin-wook was irritated that Jin-woo, who usually came without complaint, was backing out, but he needed Jin-woo’s strength, so he held back for now.
“Hey! What’s the point of having a friend? Just do me this favor. Let’s grab food after. I’ll buy you meat.”
Jin-wook was the worst kind of punk—working under the Yakuza, extorting money from kids in the neighborhood—yet he only ever treated Jin-woo to meals and bragged about it. Jin-woo knew this, but he didn’t particularly care about money.
“Don’t call me anymore.”
* * *
“Damn it! We got our asses kicked because that bastard didn’t show up!”
The gang that had been using Jin-woo took a beating without him. They barely won by swinging a wooden club without thinking about the consequences, but everyone was in rough shape.
“Jin-wook, how much has that bastard made us all this time? How are you just letting him walk away?”
“He won’t get off easy. He’s got to cough up what he’s taken.”
“How? Even if we all jump him together, that guy… he’s ridiculously tough.”
How many fights had they won because of Jin-woo? The gang had watched him fight enough times to know they couldn’t beat him.
Jin-wook thought for a moment.
“That bastard’s been going to the Rear Mountain lately, right? What’s he doing out there?”
“Something about feeding birds, I think?”
“Birds?”
“Yeah. I saw him in the neighborhood the other day and it was perched right on his shoulder. Looks like he tamed it.”
“Hmm…. Really?”
Jin-wook’s mind always worked best when scheming something cruel.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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