Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 118
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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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118
“Ji-seok, they’ve arrived! They’re here!”
Gaff came rushing over.
“What?”
“Hunter Lee Ji-seok! The Angels have attacked Japan!”
From the other side, Director Baek Young-shin came running over.
“What?! I got here first?”
Gaff’s face went blank at Director Baek Young-shin’s quickness.
“What’s the scale of the Angels? Can we confirm the situation on the ground?”
“We’ve obtained satellite imagery.”
Director Baek Young-shin showed me the screen on his tablet.
White-winged Angels were pouring out through a Gate that had torn open in the sky. The fortunate part was that a barrier at the Gate was holding back the Angels, slowing their emergence.
Thanks to that, tens of thousands weren’t coming through simultaneously—only dozens at a time. Yet they continued flowing endlessly.
“The Gate opened just ten minutes ago, and the Angel count has already exceeded ten thousand and continues rising. Moreover, we’re seeing Angels we’ve never encountered before. Fortunately, most Angels are stationed to guard the Gate, but some are attacking civilians.”
“What’s Japan’s response?”
“Two thousand Japanese Hunters are engaging, including S-rank Hunter Akiko and Hunter Takahashi.”
“Two thousand? Isn’t that too few?”
“Correct. Two thousand is woefully insufficient against over ten thousand unknown enemies.”
“Japan has over a hundred thousand Hunters, so it can’t be a manpower shortage, can it? If they don’t stop them, Japan could be completely devastated.”
“They might be planning to use strategic weapons. The two S-rank Hunters should be able to escape before any detonation.”
“Nuclear weapons? Japan has nuclear weapons?”
“Officially they have none, but it wouldn’t be surprising if they possessed them secretly.”
“Weaker ones could be wiped out with nukes, but if there are strong enemies, it won’t work. The fact that two S-rank Hunters can’t control the situation means there’s definitely a powerful enemy present. I need to go now.”
“That’s… the Japanese government is refusing assistance.”
“The Japanese government is refusing help? Why?”
“They didn’t state a reason. They’re rejecting support, claiming they can handle it themselves.”
“They’re definitely hiding something. Still, I need to go. If I leave it alone, it’ll spread across the world.”
Japan alone couldn’t stop an enemy of this caliber, yet they were refusing aid? They were clearly concealing something.
“Well then, I’ll obtain emergency authorization from the World Hunter Association for non-selective support. In this situation, they’ll definitely approve it.”
If a neighboring country failed to handle rampaging monsters in time, an uninvolved nation could suddenly face catastrophe. The World Hunter Association had established a law allowing countries to deploy forces preemptively for self-defense without waiting for support requests when neighboring nations experienced abnormal monster outbreaks.
Such cases had occurred very rarely in weaker nations, but this was the first time it had happened in a powerful country like Japan.
Most nations receiving aid were reluctant because Hunters would charge massive fees or destroy cities while hunting, but wasn’t that better than collapse?
“Gaff, do you have any other information?”
“Ah… well… that they came from over there and there are many of them… and…”
Information I already knew. It wasn’t even accurate, so listening only to Director Baek Young-shin’s briefing was more reliable.
He’d promised to tell me first when Angels arrived, yet Director Baek had brought far more information.
He’d even already revealed all the Angel information while I was absorbed in games, allowing me to gather rough data on Angels from the Ninth Tier down to the Second Tier.
There was no longer any reason for Gaff to remain here. He couldn’t properly use his power on Earth anyway, and relying on demonic strength felt unreliable.
He’d stayed under the pretense of alerting me when Angels arrived, so now I could send him back.
“Thanks. Go back now.”
I left Gaff standing there in dismay and headed toward the airfield.
“Brother! What about training?!”
Yang Sang-heon snapped back to attention and asked.
“When do we have time to train now? Besides, there’s no better training than real combat. Let’s go.”
“… Then…. What was my training for?”
Yang Sang-heon’s legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground.
* * *
“Damn it! When are the reinforcements coming?!”
Takahashi fired two pistols in rapid succession. Since these guns fired pure aura without bullets, there was no need to reload, and their rapid fire rate made them spray like machine guns rather than pistols.
Yet despite firing so much, every single shot struck an Angel with precision.
“If you have time to curse, shoot one more round!”
Akiko swept her hand, and mithril spheres orbited her at high speed, striking the approaching Angels. Those struck by the heavy mithril spheres infused with aura burst apart as if hammered.
Akiko walked, stopped, and subtly shifted direction to evade the Angels’ attacks. Thanks to her precognition ability, she perceived the attacks beforehand and, despite her movements not being particularly fast, dodged them all by the narrowest of margins.
Boom!
“Watch your back!”
Akiko dealt with an Angel that had rushed at Takahashi from behind.
“Thanks! Communications! When’s the support arriving?!”
[It’s coming now! Just hold on a bit longer!]
“Does that even make sense?!”
Over forty minutes had passed since the two began fighting the Angels. Their numbers kept multiplying endlessly, yet no allied reinforcements appeared. The Hunters and Self-Defense Force members who had been there initially were nowhere to be seen—likely all dead.
With only the two of them left, they’d managed to hold out this long only because the Angels hadn’t all attacked simultaneously. Most of them were occupied guarding the Gate in the sky and the magic circle glowing on the ground.
Takahashi gritted his teeth and fired at the Angels.
The weaker ones died from a single aura bullet, but some did not.
An Angel hovering high in the sky, holding a thick tome. He used the weaker Angels as shields and hadn’t managed to eliminate a single one. He was like a queen ant commanding her workers.
Another Angel wielding a greatsword either dodged or blocked the aura bullets, requiring multiple shots.
That alone was overwhelming odds, but the massive spherical eyeball monster pushing through the Gate torn in the sky was clearly far stronger than any of the Angels that had emerged so far.
Under the endless barrage of Angels, both Akiko and Takahashi had already exhausted their aura to the limit and could barely hold on any longer.
[Hunter Takahashi, I’m sending this on a private channel. Just listen quietly.]
While fighting, a transmission came through Takahashi’s earpiece.
[Leave Hunter Akiko behind and quietly withdraw. New missiles will reach the target within three minutes.]
Takahashi’s mind began to race.
‘Right now, only Akiko and I are holding back the Angels from spreading in all directions. If I leave, Akiko won’t last long. But if we both run, the Angels will definitely follow us…’
[This is not a request. This is an order. The missiles have already been fired. They’re a newly developed type—their explosion will be something even an S-Rank Hunter cannot survive.]
Hearing that, his brief deliberation ended. When it came down to dying together or one person surviving, there was no need to hesitate.
Takahashi continued to appear as if fighting as before, but he concentrated his fire on the Angels behind him, quietly opening an escape route.
Akiko had spent over forty minutes protecting both herself and Takahashi with her precognition ability. Even for an S-Rank Hunter, her power was beginning to wane, so she failed to notice Takahashi’s actions.
A sound of something approaching at high speed came from the sky, and Takahashi concentrated his aura in his legs, sprinting backward at full power.
“Takahashi…!”
Watching Takahashi flee without even looking back, Akiko instinctively realized she had been abandoned. What was coming from the sky was unmistakably a missile meant to obliterate this place.
Akiko couldn’t move at high speed like Takahashi, and with him gone, the Angels were now concentrating their assault entirely on her.
I used my foresight to track the Angels’ movements while desperately rotating the mithril orbs in all directions to defend myself.
However, when hundreds of Angels rushed at me simultaneously, even my foresight skill offered no visible escape route.
Akiko couldn’t see it through the swarm of Angels, but what pierced through the clouds from the sky wasn’t a missile—it was a high-speed aircraft from Rigen. The plane’s rear opened and people jumped out, while the aircraft itself continued flying straight toward the Gate.
Several Angels lunged at the aircraft, but they were shredded by tens of thousands of kilograms of metal hurtling through the air at high speed.
However, as countless Angels clung to it like a swarm of locusts, the aircraft began to lose power and its altitude started dropping.
Crack!
The metal plating of the aircraft’s fuselage tore away.
Boom!
The engine exploded, killing several Angels in the process.
The aircraft crashed to the ground, and the Angels scattered as if they had no further business here.
Boom!
The moment the Angels turned their backs as the aircraft hit the ground.
Akiko was no longer visible, hidden behind the swarm of Angels, and from where the aircraft had fallen came a blinding flash and a deafening roar.
* * *
“Prepare for descent!”
Only I, Bae Na-young, Hong Long, and Yang Sang-heon participated in this operation. Since incompetent Hunters would be more of a burden than a help in numbers, we kept it minimal.
Yang Sang-heon took a deep breath and jumped first, with the rest of us following in succession.
The aircraft continued on autopilot toward the Gate. The Angels tore the fuselage apart and detonated the engines.
“No humans detected at the site! Detonate!”
I swept the area to confirm no remaining personnel and relayed the order through an earpiece to the communications officer standing by in the East Sea.
Just in case, I’d gathered all the new bombs left over from the sparrow-hunting operation, and since there were only Angels around, I could detonate them without worry.
[Detonating after impact! Brace for shock!]
As I fell, I enlarged myself and cradled my companions in my embrace, while Bae Na-young added an additional mana shield.
Boom-boom-boom-crash!!!
A blindingly bright light erupted as if hundreds of giant claymores had detonated inside the aircraft, sending razor-sharp fragments flying in all directions.
Thousands of Angels were instantly riddled with holes, and even those Angels that had strangely clustered together like a ball were caught in the explosion and scattered.
As the Angels were blown away by the explosion, I spotted a person lying on the ground. The Angels surrounding that person had shielded them, allowing them to survive even that blast.
Thud!!
We landed on the ground without taking any damage.
Many had died in the explosion, but far more were waiting above. The moment we landed, Angels dove toward us.
“Yang Sang-heon! Save that person!”
Yang Sang-heon rushed forward and grabbed Angelus by the throat, slamming him to the ground.
“Bae Na-young. Will this one work?”
“Yeah. Let me try.”
Bae Na-young, wearing a new item on her head, placed her hand on Angelus’s head.
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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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