Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 166
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
166
Luna wielded the five-centimeter-wide white ribbon like a flexible blade, assailing me without mercy. The ribbon sliced through my skin and pierced my body.
I’d intended to subdue her with minimal injury, but there was no reason to hold back while being attacked like this.
I extended my hand and fired an aura beam at Luna.
Several layers of ribbon between us were torn by my aura beam, but the ribbon near Luna coalesced around her like a cocoon, shielding her.
The aura I released incinerated her cocoon, but other ribbons immediately filled the gap.
If I unleashed my full power with the aura beam, there would be nothing I couldn’t pierce—but I’d surely die in the process. Killing is a last resort.
I ceased the aura discharge and enlarged myself, inflating my body. Though my height exceeded ten meters and my body’s density and hardness diminished accordingly, since the ribbon couldn’t be blocked anyway, reducing damage from the attacks made movement easier. My spirit body expanded with my physical size and became more ethereal, but the damage I sustained decreased as well.
Ignoring the ribbon slicing through my body, I advanced. As my body was cut, it healed simultaneously, making it appear as though the ribbon passed straight through me.
When cutting and piercing proved ineffective, she attempted to restrain me, but I tore through the ribbons with raw strength and pressed forward.
As I approached like a phantom, passing through her attacks, anxiety flickered across Luna’s frenzied face.
Whether due to this space’s properties or the ribbon’s nature, my body’s weight increased with each strike, but it would need to increase several hundred times over to exceed my strength.
“Grow a bit more.”
I drove a fist as large as Luna’s body downward.
With a deafening boom, my fist collided with Luna’s cocoon.
The blade-like ribbon could be traversed by accepting the cuts, but such a seamless wall could not be penetrated.
I raised my hand, then concentrated my aura and spirit body into my palm before striking down.
Crash!
The cocoon shattered with the impact, and Luna lost consciousness, pinned beneath my hand.
The white space that had surrounded everything collapsed, and the Lunar Base came into view once more.
“Brother!”
“Chairman!”
Bae Na-young and Jae-in rushed over.
“Is everyone all right?”
“We’re fine. What about you? A white wall appeared and we couldn’t get inside.”
“It seems Luna created a barrier. But Jae-in, you were with Luna when she went berserk, weren’t you? Was there a reason for it?”
“No, not at all. We were just watching Earth become completely covered in shadow when she suddenly went berserk without warning.”
“I’m relieved you’re safe.”
“Rather than trying to kill me, she lost her reason and destroyed everything around her, which is how I managed to escape.”
“This is my oversight. When I first met her, I sensed nothing ominous, but perhaps I relied too much on my instincts.”
Instinct works well when judging people. But just as with Aither, and now with Luna, perhaps my instincts don’t work on incarnations of gods.
“It’s not just you. Before, I only saw innocence without malice in her surface consciousness, but just now she was a completely different being.”
“Let’s restrain her for now.”
Uncertain of its effectiveness, I nonetheless bound Luna tightly with special material rope to immobilize her and kept watch. While I, the only one capable of subduing Luna, maintained surveillance, Bae Na-young and Jae-in cleaned up the destroyed Lunar Base.
But one day passed, then two, and Luna still didn’t wake.
“Did I hit her too hard?”
On the third day, as Earth’s shadow disappeared and light began to shine on Earth, Luna regained consciousness and groggily rose to her feet. The rope binding her had snapped as if it were nothing.
I took a stance in front, with Bae Na-young and Jae-in assuming combat positions behind me.
[…Hehehehe…]
Luna’s eyes, which had been red, returned to their original state as if nothing had happened, and she sat down on the floor, looking up at us with an innocent smile, giggling sheepishly.
“Luna, would you mind explaining what happened?”
I’d never felt the saying about not being able to spit at a smiling face so acutely. Luna appeared to be a frail woman, and as she smiled, fury coursed through me to the tips of my hair—yet I couldn’t bring myself to strike her.
And the same went for Bae Na-young, and especially for Jae-in.
The Lunar Base we’d invested time and money to construct had been obliterated in an instant.
“That… well….”
“If you won’t explain, we have no choice but to leave. We can’t establish a base where there’s an unknown threat.”
“Ah…. No! Don’t go! I’ll tell you!”
Luna took a breath and began to speak.
“When Earth is completely covered in shadow, a different personality seems to emerge.”
“Seems to? You don’t even know for sure?”
“I don’t remember. When I’m bathed in Earth’s bright light, I feel good, but as the light gradually disappears, my mood worsens. Then I lose consciousness for a moment, and when I wake up, I’m somewhere else—this has happened a few times. But… I never knew I’d destroy everything like this. I’m serious!”
“Now that I think about it, while we were working, she kept chattering beside us, but once Earth entered the shadow, she stopped following along and went quiet.”
Jae-in recalled what had happened before Luna’s rampage.
“Huh? Am I loud?”
“Yeah, you’re loud. For now, Luna, just stay still. What should we do?”
I looked at Bae Na-young and Jae-in and asked.
“Hmm… maybe we could touch her head and….”
Bae Na-young, ever the extremist, suggested mental manipulation.
“Let’s hold off on that. We came to someone else’s home, didn’t we? We can’t become invaders like the Manager or the Destruction God.”
“Sorry….”
“No, I know you were trying to help.”
Bae Na-young had a tendency to disregard the means for the sake of her goals, so I needed to serve as her brake.
“If receiving Earth’s energy has a positive effect on her, what if we created an environment similar to Earth here?”
“What kind of environment?”
“Since we have a Gate, we can transfer water, plants, and air indefinitely, right? We could build a dome and design the interior like a miniature Earth.”
“Luna, what do you think? Do you think it could work?”
“I don’t know. Hehe….”
“Chairman, let’s try it. It’s worth attempting for the sake of the Lunar Base.”
If the research conducted at the base succeeded, it would undoubtedly prove invaluable for future endeavors.
“Yes! Please! I’ll help too.”
Swayed by Jae-in and Luna’s words, I postponed the Lunar Base construction and instead created an Earth Garden.
I enlarged myself to move massive boulders and other obstacles, while Luna used her ears to level the ground and dig holes, all following Jae-in’s instructions.
The most time-consuming foundational work was completed in an instant, and Jae-in began transporting materials.
Modules perfectly designed for dome construction were brought over one by one.
“When did you prepare these?”
“These weren’t originally made for use on the Moon. I sourced them from a different regional project. Thanks to the funding you provided, we’re currently running projects in the triple digits simultaneously.”
“Do you ever sleep, Jae-in?”
“I’m not doing it alone—I’ve delegated it to the research team. Since I borrowed this, could you give me a bonus later?”
“Jae-in, you can handle that yourself.”
I lifted the transparent dome panel that Jae-in had brought, and she secured it in place with tools.
Once the dome was complete, Bae Na-young began carving gravity-control magic circles into the boundary stones along its edge. When the magic circles were finished, gravity inside the dome would match Earth’s. It consumed an enormous amount of mana stones, but since lunar stones similar to mana stones were scattered everywhere, the cost was manageable.
In the meantime, Jae-in prepared the items to be transferred from Earth, and Bae Na-young completed the magic circles without rest for dozens of hours.
“Ugh… I’m exhausted…”
It wasn’t simply carving—she had to infuse mana with precision while working continuously. Even for someone as superhuman as Bae Na-young, fatigue was inevitable.
“Go rest inside the dome.”
While Bae Na-young rested, I relocated the Gate that had been among the ruins of the destroyed Lunar Base into the Earth Garden.
I opened the Gate and transferred clean lake water, brought over tanks filled with compressed air to fill the interior, scattered soil to create an environment where plants could thrive, planted trees and vegetation, and released bees, birds, and insects.
“Phew! That’s refreshing.”
Jae-in removed her helmet.
Looking up through the transparent dome, Earth’s shadow was once again casting down.
“We barely made it in time.”
We had constructed a 100-meter diameter dome capable of withstanding the Moon’s harsh environment in less than a month. Fortunately, Luna hadn’t gone berserk during that time.
“Luna, stand here.”
Luna stood in the center of the Earth Garden, which I had designed with feng shui in mind. It was the spot where the garden’s energy converged.
“Luna, how do you feel?”
“I feel fine so far. Normally by now, I’d already be losing strength!”
The effect seemed to be working.
“Just to be safe, I’ll keep holding you. Is that okay?”
“Yes!”
I enlarged myself and held her shoulders and waist with both hands. Jae-in put her space suit helmet back on, and Bae Na-young surrounded herself with a shield.
In the tense atmosphere, Earth became completely obscured.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes! I’m losing some strength, but I’m okay.”
The dome was proving effective.
“I’ll keep watch, so you two don’t need to stay here.”
“It’s fine. I’ll stay with you.”
“I’ll go back to work.”
Jae-in, the workaholic, left to work, and we continued our conversation.
“Luna, how do you create that white space?”
“How? I’m not sure. It just appears when I release the power inside my body.”
She seemed to do it instinctively, so it wasn’t helpful.
I asked her several other things, but she didn’t know much.
Luna couldn’t move and was bored, so she tried to lie down and sleep, but I prevented her from sleeping so she could clearly perceive any changes. I spent the time talking to her continuously, bringing card games and animated films she somewhat enjoyed to watch.
Three days passed, and light was returning to Earth.
Jae-in returned to check the results.
“Everything was okay?”
“Yes. She didn’t go berserk.”
“Phew… I was so nervous, thinking this place would fly apart again.”
Jae-in wiped the cold sweat from her brow.
“Now let’s rebuild the Lunar Base!”
Jae-in flipped her mood like turning over her palm and began construction on the Lunar Base.
It would be natural to feel annoyed about rebuilding what had been destroyed, yet Jae-in seemed rather excited.
“Isn’t it exhausting? You’ve barely rested for a whole month.”
“It’s tiring, but it’s fun, you know? Especially since I learned so much from getting everything smashed last time. This time I need to reinforce those weak points too. The dome needs strengthening as well. We’re busy. Luna?”
“Huh? Me?”
“You have to work as much as you destroyed.”
“Just give me the orders!”
Luna, who had regained her vigor as light returned to Earth, answered energetically.
“Then, you two… well, one person and one incarnation? Anyway, you two handle it, and let me know if you need anything. I’m heading back to Earth.”
I left the two of them working diligently and returned to Earth with Bae Na-young.
“I had planned to just open a Gate and come back, but I ended up staying on the Moon much longer than expected.”
“Really… I only went to look around. How does every time I try to go on a date, something like this happens…?”
Bae Na-young sighed in disappointment.
“Now that we finally have time, let’s rest.”
“Okay.”
When we arrived home, Alice, buried in a large beanbag and reading a book on her tablet, nodded in greeting.
“Your Majesty, welcome back.”
Seeing Alice’s completely transformed appearance compared to before we left for the Moon, both Bae Na-young and I were left speechless.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————