Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 116

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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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116
“Yang Sang-heon, are you alright?”
“Huh? Me? I’m fine.”
Yang Sang-heon smiled and insisted he was fine, but in his current state, entering a Gate would get him mistaken for an undead and shot on sight—his face and skin were deathly pale. The body once covered in muscle had withered away, leaving him a hollow shadow of his former self.
“What did Gaff say to make you like this?”
“Gaff? Nothing really. He just helped me a little.”
“Helped you? With what?”
“It’s nothing major.”
“Yang Sang-heon….”
“Brother.”
Yang Sang-heon looked directly at me. His complexion was poor and his body damaged, but his eyes shone with unprecedented clarity, burning with unwavering resolve.
“You know I’m a Hunter too, right?”
“I do.”
“Then please trust me and wait.”
“Alright. I’m sorry.”
I immediately searched the area for Gaff. People greeted me, but I was too preoccupied to respond.
“Gaff! What have you done?!”
I grabbed Gaff by the collar and lifted him.
“Huh? I didn’t do anything?”
Dangling helplessly from my grip, he looked down at me without a shred of concern.
“And look, I can’t show hostility first.”
Boom!
A tremendous force crushed down upon me, and my grip loosened as Gaff retreated. It was the same type of ability I’d experienced from Eres.
“Ugh….”
My knees buckled.
“You can… endure this?”
Gaff hovered in surprise at my resistance. Days of suffering under Eres’s pressure had given me just enough fortitude to withstand it.
“What did you do to Bae Na-young and Yang Sang-heon?!”
I pushed against the crushing weight and stepped forward toward Gaff, extending my hand.
“I’m telling you again—I did nothing wrong. I simply listened to their stories and offered a little assistance.”
“Making a pact with a demon wasn’t—”
“Is that racial discrimination? That hurts my feelings. Anyway, don’t take your anger out on an innocent demon like me. Why don’t you go train instead? You’ll need to stop those Heavenly Kingdom bastards coming your way, right?”
Gaff cackled and flew away, the crushing force vanishing with him.
Damn it, the creature was right. The immediate threat was the Angels. I worried for Bae Na-young and Yang Sang-heon, but all I could do was trust them and wait.
* * *
I woke early and began my usual routine.
I warmed up lightly on the electromagnet platform, bearing tens of tons of weight.
After washing off the grime, I ate a simple meal. Normally I’d have breakfast with Bae Na-young or Yang Sang-heon, but since they’d been avoiding me, I sat at a random table in the Cafeteria.
People from the Academy and Hospital came to chat with me.
Afterward, I toured the Academy and Hospital. The Hospital’s construction was already complete, and equipment and personnel continued to be added.
The Academy’s main campus construction had also been completed. However, hunters from both domestic and international sources were flooding in far more than anticipated, so we were expanding by constructing additional buildings on newly acquired land.
“Ji-seok~”
Adriana waved at me and approached with a smile.
“Adriana.”
“Why do you look so exhausted lately?”
Adriana began massaging my shoulders, deliberately pressing her chest forward.
“Angels are coming. I need to prepare.”
Monsters emerging from Gates, the next Legion Commander who could arrive at any moment, the Angels, and now demons to worry about. My strength was growing, yet enemies were multiplying at an even faster pace.
“My, look at that tension in your shoulders. Let me ease it for you.”
It was an obvious advance, but I lacked the energy to either welcome it or find it bothersome.
“That’s alright. I’m fine now….”
I was about to say I’d had enough.
“I can do that instead.”
Bae Na-young, with dark circles under her eyes, approached and grabbed Adriana’s hand, squeezing it firmly.
When Bae Na-young, whose physical strength was exceptional even among mages, gripped Adriana’s wrist, Adriana withdrew.
“Ouch, when a woman gets too rough….”
Bae Na-young glared at Adriana sharply.
“See you next time~”
Adriana nimbly evaded Bae Na-young’s gaze and left the area.
“Brother, I worked really hard.”
“Hm? On what?”
“Now we don’t have to worry even if the Angels come down.”
Behind Bae Na-young stood Jae-in, whose eyes were twice as dark-circled.
“Bae Na-young… please take her away. Chairman….”
Jae-in collapsed onto the floor.
“What did you two do?”
“We spent time creating and testing this item.”
Bae Na-young tapped the tiara on her head and an unfamiliar staff.
It was a staff and tiara gleaming in lustrous black. The design was simple and elegant, without unnecessary ornamental clutter.
“If I attempted mental interference while there were many Angels, I could be in danger. I covered that weakness with this newly developed item and strengthened my mental barrier through training. By my calculations, even if those Angels from last time came in greater numbers, they couldn’t penetrate my mental barrier.”
Bae Na-young showed me a notebook filled with calculations. Though her usual handwriting was as neat as printed text, the notes she showed me now were scribbled hastily, almost like doodles.
“Since we calculated it together, it should be correct.”
Jae-in added.
“No, it’s not that I don’t trust you. I just can’t understand it even if I look.”
“Ah…. Anyway, I’m going to sleep now.”
Among us, Jae-in was probably the busiest. She was developing cores using Dragon Hearts, creating new items for Rigen, and researching the Angels’ magic circles. Amid all that work, it seemed Bae Na-young had been keeping her occupied with item development.
“You were avoiding me because of this?”
“Avoiding? No, I was just busy thinking about this.”
Even when I called out to her multiple times, she’d respond halfheartedly, and when I suggested eating together or taking a walk, she’d say she was busy. It was simply that she’d been too preoccupied to notice.
If I’d read her expression more carefully, this wouldn’t have happened. It was my mistake—being close to her, I let emotion cloud my judgment.
“I thought you made a deal with Gaff.”
“Gaff? No way. I’m not an idiot, and nobody openly contracts with a demon.”
“Right?”
I felt reassured. But then… why did hearing Yang Sang-heon say that make me even more anxious?
* * *
Korea had roughly fifty A-rank Hunters. The number fluctuated constantly as people died and others advanced in rank.
Fifty out of forty million people. Recently, territory expanded northward and the population more than doubled, but the number of A-rank Hunters didn’t increase proportionally.
Even accounting for nearly one hundred million people, one hundred A-rank Hunters meant they were among the one-in-a-million elite.
Yet my surroundings were crawling with monsters. Lee Ji-seok was an S-rank Hunter who ranked among the world’s finest, and Bae Na-young was counted among the few S-rank Hunters capable of fighting multiple S-rankers simultaneously.
Jae-in constantly developed new items, seemingly determined to make Rigen the world’s premier equipment company.
Chang-hee lacked flashy skills, but his extraordinary focus allowed him to wield Jae-in’s massive sniper rifle without issue—weapons others couldn’t handle. He was growing explosively, and his promotion to A-rank couldn’t be far off.
I was supposedly one in a million, yet watching everyone around me advance so rapidly made me feel utterly pathetic.
“So, can you help Lee Ji-seok?”
Gaff spoke to me, buried in darkness. He struck at the very doubts I’d been harboring, and I couldn’t ignore them.
“Ugh….”
Consumed by darkness, I collapsed to the ground, only to be lifted again by the World Tree’s power—this happened repeatedly.
“It’s hard, isn’t it? Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. I thought you had the ability for this. Just give up. Lee Ji-seok will manage somehow on his own. Hasn’t he always?”
Gaff spoke to me with what seemed like pity as I lay there exhausted. To my battered body and spirit, it was a tempting offer.
“Give up… I won’t… Again….”
I pushed myself up on my knees, every ounce of strength drained from me until I felt like an undead creature.
“Good. Work hard.”
Beyond the darkness spreading toward me, I could see Gaff grinning wickedly. What was his purpose? What did he gain from making me suffer?
But pushing back the darkness with light was more urgent than pondering that.
“Light Sword!”
I wrapped my blade in radiance. Before, darkness consumed me in an instant, but now it retreated. Yet it only withdrew slightly—barely a hand’s breadth around the sword. The darkness still gnawed at the rest of my body. My face, back, torso, and feet lost their vitality, turning ashen gray.
Stronger. Brighter. I craved greater power.
‘Give up.’
Was that Gaff? Or a hallucination? Or perhaps a voice I’d created because I wanted to surrender?
My senses were so scrambled I couldn’t tell if what I heard was real or imaginary.
‘Why struggle so hard? Leave it to someone else and just handle the weak ones.’
‘Lee Ji-seok doesn’t even care about you. He only cares about Bae Na-young, Jae-in, and Ye-seul.’
‘Your abilities are worthless. You won’t succeed anyway.’
My usual doubts magnified and twisted, echoing through my mind.
Even with concentration, it wasn’t enough. Distracting thoughts and hallucinations weakened the Light Sword’s radiance.
I wasn’t without resentment toward my brother. But gratitude overwhelmed everything else.
He saved me from nearly dying at Choi Mi-ran’s hands.
Before he arrived, Hwagok Recovery—the company my father ran—was hemorrhaging money. Now my father sat as president of Rigen, a major corporation. The original members of Hwagok Recovery who suffered alongside my father all received excellent treatment at Rigen.
Without him, I would’ve languished in F-rank for far longer. He carved time from his busy schedule to train me constantly. Those sessions were grueling, but thanks to them, I climbed to A-rank.
I remembered the brutal training he put me through.
He made me sharpen my Light Sword by taking hits relentlessly. I fell to the ground hundreds of times. Once, I ingested poison and was rushed to the emergency room.
I’ve even thrown people into Gates and told them to survive on their own.
I’ve blindfolded them, assured them it was fine, then tossed them among dozens of monsters while I snacked with Bae Na-young.
Now that I think about it, I’ve put them through quite a lot.
So… I have to repay it. Since I received it.
“I’ll… hit you with light attribute attacks. Until you develop immunity, hyung.”
I gritted my teeth and gradually intensified the light of the Light Sword.
* * *
“Damn it!”
Takashi Jun-teukwi, who had received one month from the Prime Minister, hurled the failed experimental results onto the floor.
“How many circuits haven’t we proven yet?”
Takashi asked the senior researcher.
“Approximately three hundred remain.”
All information about the infinite healing magic circle had been extracted from Angelus’s mind. However, they hadn’t been able to theoretically prove how this magic circle produced such effects.
Unable to blindly activate something they didn’t understand, they were gradually dividing the circuits to experiment and analyze them, but time was running out.
“Sigh… Tomorrow is the day the Prime Minister mentioned, and we still have three hundred left…”
Silence filled the laboratory.
“We’ll activate the magic circle tomorrow. Prepare yourselves.”
Takashi Jun-teukwi spoke as he removed his glasses, his resolve firm.
“But… we haven’t confirmed the magic circle’s design yet. We don’t know what results will occur.”
Frankly, instead of granting life force, it might create a black hole of life force that drains infinitely.
It was completely uncharted territory—one misstep and they’d be inviting catastrophe upon themselves.
“How long do you think it will take to analyze the remaining three hundred at our current pace?”
“At this rate, at least four more months…”
They were working through the nights, but the information extracted from the Angel’s mind was far too vast.
“We proceed as scheduled. Tomorrow.”
“But…”
“Do you want to die?”
Takashi Jun-teukwi glared at the researchers.

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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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