Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 165

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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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165
[Want to race with me too?!]
Luna emerged from the Gate with her ears fluttering, approaching the vigilant Bae Na-young and circling around her.
Bae Na-young glanced back and forth between me and Luna.
“She seems to be that kind of existence. For now, she appears harmless.”
“I can’t fly that fast.”
Even Bae Na-young’s tension eased at my words and Luna’s demeanor—like a friendly country dog.
“Jae-in, save the emotional reunion for later. First, let’s assess the situation here. You mentioned mana could surge if Luna’s space disappears.”
“Right. Bae Na-young, I want to install a mana-blocking barrier here. Could you prepare the magical formula?”
“Understood.”
“This… it’s not a mana stone, is it?”
While Bae Na-young worked on the magical formula, Jae-in picked up a lunar stone and began analyzing it.
“My goodness…”
Jae-in jumped to her feet and looked around.
“Chairman, is the entire lunar surface made of these lunar stones?”
“I explored quite far, and they’re scattered everywhere. There are more than I could count.”
“They contain only a fraction of mana stones’ potency, but with quantities like this, the possibilities are endless.”
Jae-in’s eyes gleamed with excitement.
“Chairman, I can’t even imagine how much profit this could generate.”
“I’ll leave the headache-inducing calculations to you, Jae-in. Just don’t forget the Lunar Base’s original purpose.”
“Developing technology to fight the Destruction God, right? I’ve already thought of a few ideas.”
As Jae-in and I spoke briefly, Bae Na-young finished calculating the magical circle, and she and Jae-in got to work.
After playing several rounds of lunar stone hunts with Luna, Jae-in carved the magical circle onto a flat stone and positioned it around the Gate.
“Luna, you can release it now.”
[Got it!]
At my word, Luna withdrew her white space. Despite maintaining it for so long, she showed no signs of fatigue.
“I’ll throw them from the other side.”
Jae-in crossed through the properly reopened Gate and threw boxes, which Bae Na-young caught and stacked with ease. She was already strong, and the reduced gravity made even large equipment simple to handle.
With supplies flowing in ceaselessly, it seemed the Lunar Base would be completed in a single day.
“Luna, how long have you been here?”
While the two worked, I approached Luna.
[Don’t know.]
“Is your sense of time different? Don’t you know how many times Earth has orbited the sun?”
[It’s been over several hundred years. I lost count. Didn’t really matter anyway.]
“You’ve been alone for so long…”
[Yeah. I played by myself and slept a lot. But honestly, it was so incredibly boring.]
It was no wonder Luna felt lonely—such a lively being spending all that time alone on this desolate land.
Grateful that Luna welcomed us and shared information about the Moon, I played with her whenever I had spare moments.
After several small boxes arrived, we enlarged the Gate and began transferring the modules we’d prepared on Earth. When I’d asked to come to the Moon, extensive preparations were already in place.
“… How much are you planning to move?”
“We need to reach a level where the Moon’s minerals can sustain most of our raw material needs, so we still have quite a ways to go.”
“That’s probably why humanity never managed to build a Lunar Base.”
“Exactly. If we had to transport everything by rocket, it would have taken dozens, hundreds of trips. And self-sufficiency would take far too long.”
Jae-in’s Lunar Base construction progressed smoothly.
Since we only needed to reassemble components pre-assembled on Earth, it wasn’t difficult. The base expanded noticeably with each passing day.
“Chairman, other nations are asking if they can come to the Moon. What should we do?”
“Hmm… It’s fine if they want to come to the Moon, but we can’t neglect Earth.”
Just as Tellus had seen nations fighting amongst themselves while ignoring the Gate, Earth had plenty of similar conflicts.
“Let only those nations that help resolve Gates within their own borders and assist neighboring countries with difficult Gates use the Lunar Gate on a paid basis.”
It would take time for other nations to meet my conditions and reach the Moon, but I suspect a great city will eventually be built there. They’ll be able to conduct countless experiments impossible on Earth, and people’s desires tend to be similar anyway.
[Who else is coming?!]
Luna approached, her ears fluttering like a tail.
“You like it when more people come, don’t you, Luna?”
[Yes! I do! More people to play with!]
Behind Luna, Bae Na-young collapsed in exhaustion from playing with her.
“Your turn, brother…”
“Good work.”
Bae Na-young and I took turns playing with Luna.
“Luna, would you like to go to Earth?”
[I can’t leave the Moon.]
“Is it because you’re the Moon’s incarnation?”
[Incarnation? Want to play hide-and-seek? Treasure hunt? Racing?]
Like the World Tree Spirit, I tried to tempt her with video games and showed her the dramas and movies that Eres enjoyed, but unfortunately she showed no interest. Luna preferred physical activity.
“Want to dig?”
[Dig?]
“Like in that picture—let’s see who can dig faster and more accurately.”
[I’m in!]
Perhaps because she was prone to loneliness, she agreed to anything I suggested.
* * *
Two weeks had passed since arriving on the Moon and beginning Lunar Base construction.
Looking up at the sky, I could see a massive Earth gradually darkening with shadow.
“From Earth, the Moon must be shining its brightest right now, right?”
“That’s right. On Earth, a full moon will be rising soon. Here on the Moon, Earth appears as a new moon.”
“Brother, let’s go for a walk.”
At Jae-in’s suggestion, Bae Na-young pulled my arm. Though she had initially crossed over wearing a spacesuit, with practice she learned to compress air with her shield, allowing her to remain active on the Moon for extended periods without one.
“Let’s go.”
Bae Na-young expanded her shield further to encompass me as well. While I could endure the Moon’s environment, moving about bare-bodied wasn’t particularly comfortable. Once inside Bae Na-young’s shield, my body felt at ease.
“It’s so quiet. I like it.”
On Earth and in Tellus, my surroundings were always noisy, but here on the Moon in its vacuum, the perfect silence brought my mind peace.
After walking a bit, I settled onto a large boulder some distance from the Lunar Base.
I gazed upward at the sky, watching Earth grow progressively darker. The blue planet was beautiful, but there was a certain charm in how the lights people had left on glowed yellow against the darkness.
“We’re the first to have a date on the Moon, aren’t we?”
“I guess so. It’s nice.”
Bae Na-young rested her head against my shoulder.
I was enjoying the quiet moment when Bae Na-young glanced around nervously.
“What’s wrong?”
“Luna’s been too quiet.”
“…Now that you mention it, she has been quiet.”
She hadn’t even slept, following us around all day, but today she was unusually silent.
As I looked around and turned my gaze toward the Research Facility, I saw it explode silently, its debris scattering across the lunar surface.
My eyes met Bae Na-young’s.
I scooped Bae Na-young up like a princess and took flight, while she maintained a shield around us to preserve the air.
As we approached the Lunar Base, I saw Luna swinging her ears, destroying the Research Facility.
Those ears, which she normally used only to move objects, had transformed into something as sharp as a long sword, slicing through the Lunar Base.
“Luna!”
At my presence, Luna turned to look at us.
Her innocent expression had vanished, replaced by an angry face with eyes burning red.
“Bae Na-young! Escape with Jae-in! Close the Gate right now!”
Jae-in had already evacuated outside the base to avoid Luna.
“What about you?!”
“Luna is only fast, not strong. She can’t even leave the Moon. Escaping won’t be difficult.”
“Be careful.”
Seeing Jae-in in her spacesuit, Bae Na-young didn’t insist on staying for once.
Luna lunged at Bae Na-young, who was trying to reach Jae-in, and I threw myself between them.
“Luna! Calm down! What’s wrong with you?”
Luna didn’t answer, just swung her ears.
I raised armor around my arm, thinking I could catch the ears fluttering toward me like a sword.
I had to abandon that idea immediately.
The power contained in those thin ears easily sliced through my arm. If I hadn’t ducked the moment they touched me, my neck would have been cleanly severed. Even my spiritual body was damaged. I had underestimated her at first, easily pushing her back with force, but she truly was the incarnation of the Moon.
So her defensive power was low, but that didn’t mean she lacked offensive capability. Luna, if you don’t calm down, I’ll have no choice but to attack you.”
Luna didn’t seem to hear my words at all, swinging her ears again.
If I couldn’t block, I could dodge and approach to subdue her.
I didn’t know why she was acting like this now, but since I hadn’t disliked playing with the innocent Luna these past two weeks, I refrained from firing lethal attacks like aura beams or poison.
“Stop!”
Just as I was about to drive my fist into her solar plexus.
Ribbons made of the same material as her two ears suddenly burst from her hands.
These ribbons had the same destructive power as her ears, easily piercing through my body.
My fist stopped before it could reach Luna, caught by the ribbons.
“KYAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”
“Kyaaaaaaah!!!”
The ribbon piercing through my body dissolved in my blood and snapped. As if the ribbon and my senses were connected, Luna let out a painful scream.
“Does it hurt you too?”
Luna’s attack dealt simultaneous damage to both spirit and flesh.
Fortunately, compared to the Aither I’d fought before, this level of damage was something I could repair immediately.
I closed in again and struck Luna’s solar plexus.
Luna rolled across the lunar surface several times from the impact.
“Kreeeegh! Kyaaaagh!”
Luna shrieked like a wounded animal. I thought she’d lose consciousness from that, but apparently it wasn’t enough.
“I’m sorry.”
I closed in again to subdue her.
As I approached, Luna’s red eyes flashed brilliantly and the surroundings turned white.
It was the same technique that had blocked mana when opening the Gate, but this time both sky and earth turned completely white. Within it, there was only me and Luna in a white space—no remnants of the base or Gate that had been visible moments before.
It felt like entering a different dimension. Like Eres’s or Aither’s Origin. However, unlike those origins that stretched infinitely, this space had an end I could sense.
“Luna, why are you suddenly doing this? Didn’t you say it was fine for us to come?”
Luna glared at me silently with a savage expression.
As I approached to subdue Luna, who showed no willingness to talk, my body felt slightly heavier. This space was affecting my body somehow. But it wasn’t enough to restrain me completely.
Just before I reached Luna, sharp white ribbons shot up from the ground. I spun my body and flew sideways to evade the ribbon grazing my cheek, but it stretched endlessly and flew toward me.
It wasn’t just one. Countless ribbons shot up from all over the ground, targeting me.
I flew upward to evade at first.
But the ribbons that came from the ground also poured down from the ceiling, and my body was scratched in several places.
I didn’t notice at first, but each time I was cut or scratched by these ribbons, my body grew slightly heavier.
After being slashed by countless ribbons, my body became hundreds of times heavier. It became difficult to fly up anymore, so I landed on the ground, and simultaneously dozens of ribbons pierced through my body.
I had tried to subdue her without causing major wounds, but as I was being treated like this, that was no longer possible.
“Luna, I’m sorry.”
I extended one hand and fired an Aura Beam at Luna.

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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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