Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 190
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
190
I quickly placed the frozen rooster into the compact Infinite Box that Jae-in had crafted for me.
The box automatically maintained a freezing enchantment within, so it wouldn’t be detected from the outside. Though frozen, this chicken was no ordinary bird, and it didn’t seem to be dead. I thought it would be perfect to bring back to Earth and use as a deterrent against demons.
“Ah… the demonic energy…”
Watching the land that had been saturated with demonic energy become purified and luminous, Razgas collapsed to the ground.
“The rooster is dead. That’s all, right?”
“Yes…”
With Razgas’s spirit completely broken, I returned to Gaff’s fortress.
“Did you handle it well?”
Upon returning to the fortress, Gaff was sprawled out on the ground exactly where I’d left him.
“This… couldn’t you have done this yourself? If you’d gone, it would’ve been finished in one go, wouldn’t it?”
“When did I ever say I’d give you work you couldn’t do? I’m assigning you tedious tasks. Or perhaps entertaining ones.”
Gaff rose from his position with a wicked smile.
“Heed my second command! Apprehend the criminal demons who disturb the Demon Realm!”
Gaff lowered his voice and threw me a notebook containing the faces and names of demon criminals.
“These are the fearless criminals running rampant in the Western Demon Realm District under my rule.”
“There are quite a few.”
The notebook was quite thick, packed with the faces and names of hundreds of demons.
“That’s why you need to move quickly, if you want to get home.”
The request seemed excessive, but Eres had made it clear that Gaff couldn’t demand anything beyond fair compensation. Now that I was already in the Demon Realm, Gaff could theoretically cheat me, but something told me he wouldn’t.
“Razgas, are you coming with me again this time?”
“Yes. While you might prefer to go alone, I must accompany you as your actions in the Demon Realm require caution.”
“No, I just don’t know much about this place, so it’s helpful to have someone to explain things… especially a demon.”
She smiled gently at my correction and guided me forward.
When I went to catch the rooster, I’d taken the outer route and hadn’t observed the streets carefully, but this time I walked slowly through the crowded streets, observing my surroundings.
I’d always thought demons and devils were inherently evil beings who only fought, but that wasn’t the case at all. Many demons were buying and selling goods in the marketplace, walking freely through the streets.
“Life is all the same, isn’t it.”
Different faces, different aesthetic sensibilities, and breathing demonic energy instead of air—that was all.
The demons who saw us parted to both sides, opening a path and bowing respectfully. Only after we passed did they straighten their backs.
“You seem to be quite strict with the Demon Realm residents normally?”
“It’s not because of me.”
Razgas looked at me with an expression of disbelief.
“
“Then… me?”
“Exactly. Horns are a symbol of a demon’s power. They cannot compare to Gaff’s horns, but such horns are not common.”
“Hmm….”
I couldn’t understand judging power by horns alone, but since I knew nothing about demons, I let it slide.
Following Razgas deeper into the remote corners of the village, I noticed that the further we went, the worse the security became—no different from the human world.
As I followed Razgas, I committed to memory the faces from the criminal notebook Gaff had given me.
“It has been reported that many criminals hide in this district.”
“This is… like finding a single grain of sand in a desert.”
There seemed to be tens of thousands of buildings lined up here alone. How was I supposed to search through all of them?
“There.”
One of them happened to pass right in front of me. With so many people around and so many criminals to catch, luck seemed to be on my side.
“You there.”
I called out to the criminal from behind.
He flinched and stopped.
Then he ran without even turning to look at me, but unfortunately, the small-time demon was slow on his feet.
I closed the distance and swept his legs out from under him as he sprinted, and he tumbled to the ground with his legs tangled.
“Ugh!”
I pinned the fallen criminal’s neck to the ground.
“What did this one do wrong?”
“A five-time fraud offender.”
“…I see.”
I’d expected something sinister and vicious from a demon, but it was no different from humans.
As I continued searching the village, I caught a few more criminals, and the security forces Razgas had summoned took them into custody and dragged them away.
The problem was that as I swept through the area, not just the criminals but all the demons went into hiding.
“At this rate… I can’t find anyone….”
I stared at the tightly closed doors.
“Why not open them and go inside?”
“…Can I do that?”
“Since you’re acting under Gaff’s orders, all your actions are exempt from liability.”
“Can I destroy them?”
“If necessary, yes.”
“Is that so?”
Finding the Demon Realm unexpectedly similar to Earth, I applied Earth’s standards. With that settled, the work became much easier.
The demon criminals I’d captured so far all shared one thing in common: they possessed formidable magical power.
Demons with strong magical power were powerful demons, and they typically lived in better places. A strong demon hiding in a slum like this had a high probability of being a criminal. Well, unless they had no choice.
I opened my senses to detect magical energy and ran across the rooftops toward the direction of the strongest aura. Then I burst through the roof of the house where I felt it.
A grotesquely ugly demon stared up at me with a dazed expression as I fell from the sky. It was a face from my notebook.
“Found you~”
“Kyaaaaaaah!
The demon let out an oddly high-pitched scream as I grinned with satisfaction.
I backhanded the screaming demon’s face, and he crashed through the wall.
“Razgas, restrain him.”
I called out to her as she caught up, then immediately burst through another wall toward the next location where I sensed magical energy.
I could have gone around, but with nothing restraining me, I felt a strange sense of liberation. I wanted to destroy everything.
Screams echoed from all directions.
I zigzagged through the area, apprehending demons as I went.
“Here, here! Please don’t destroy our house!”
Some demons even came forward to report criminals out of fear their homes would be destroyed.
“Oh. Much obliged.”
After that, I received more reports and arrested a considerable number of them.
“Have I caught them all?”
I flipped through my notebook, drawing X’s across the faces.
“I did say you could destroy things, but….”
Razgas bit her nails nervously, worried about the aftermath.
“If you want money, I’ll pay it. So what?”
“The currency of demons is human souls, though?”
“…I can’t give you that.”
“Sigh….”
“Gaff isn’t that petty anyway. It should be fine.”
* * *
“Have you lost your mind?”
Gaff, the demon king, was indeed petty.
“If you were going to destroy everything like that, I would have gone myself.”
“…Sorry?”
“I’m beginning to think calling you was a mistake. Well, you can make up for it in the next task. This is the third trial. Capture the escaped souls and bring them back.”
“Escaped souls? Human souls?”
“Yes. When corrupted souls who made contracts with demons reach the end of their lives, we recover them directly. You’ve witnessed it twice already. Those kinds.”
“Right.”
I recalled the final moments of the dark sorcerer Franklin and Emperor Douglas.
“One of the demon criminals you brought in stole several souls. After investigation, it turns out he’s already fled. I can’t have human souls wandering around the Demon Realm—it’s beneath my dignity. So go capture them.”
There were a total of five souls that had fled into the Demon Realm.
“Do you have any idea where they might be?”
“No idea. But they shouldn’t have left the Western Demon Realm District. The River of Souls that flows between regions isn’t a place human souls would want to go. Now get going.”
Gaff waved his hand dismissively.
“Do you know how to sense souls?”
Razgas asked.
“I can feel spiritual bodies, but not from a distance.”
“Souls are far more ethereal than spiritual bodies. Hmm… You’ll need to master that first, or this won’t work.”
“Why don’t you do this yourself? You have the Demon Security Forces.”
“Capturing souls without damaging them is difficult. I can only see them; I’m not skilled at handling them. However, you learn anything quickly, so I’m confident you’ll master soul capture in no time.”
Razgas led me to a grotesquely shaped tower. It had no straight lines, yet it wasn’t round either—it resembled the hideous coral of the Deep Sea.
I couldn’t comprehend the aesthetic sensibilities of demons.
Inside the building, the walls were studded with harpoons, each one piercing a soul.
“Unrighteous souls naturally flow into the Demon Realm, but these are fallen souls that Gaff specially collected.”
I surveyed the souls, examining one closely. Though the soul was difficult to see clearly and appeared hazy, the face seemed oddly familiar.
“Is this… Seo Kyung-hyun?”
Seo Kyung-hyun’s soul—the serial killer who had died by my hand at the crime scene—hung from the harpoon with his chest pierced through.
“How fortunate that you know this soul.”
Razgas pulled the harpoon holding Seo Kyung-hyun, and his dazed soul gradually regained consciousness.
“W-where… Why are you here?!”
Recognizing me, Seo Kyung-hyun’s soul thrashed wildly through the building, searching for an exit.
The door we’d entered through was open, but Seo Kyung-hyun’s soul couldn’t pass through the wall as if it were solid.
“Souls cannot leave this place.”
Razgas spoke, but he was too far gone to understand.
“Souls confined here typically lose their minds. Recapture it and pin it back on the harpoon. Note that this isn’t part of your task—I’m merely teaching you for the sake of the assignment.”
“Damn it…”
The moment I approached Seo Kyung-hyun’s soul and raised my hand to strike.
“Be careful—if you kill it, we’ll need to find a new soul.”
I released the tension in my hand, and Seo Kyung-hyun’s soul slipped through my grasp.
I’d never learned how to capture something so insubstantial without destroying it.
If grasping a spiritual body was like lifting water with bare hands, capturing a soul was like trying to hold gas in your palm.
I considered deploying my domain for a moment, but quickly abandoned the idea. Since I viewed him as an enemy, if I lost control of my domain, Seo Kyung-hyun’s soul inside could turn to ash in an instant.
I chased after him clumsily, reaching out, but Seo Kyung-hyun slipped away like a loach.
Razgas leaned against the wall, quietly observing.
Impatience began to creep in. No matter how slowly time flowed in the Demon Realm compared to Earth, I wanted to return soon. I had no desire to play tag with Seo Kyung-hyun here.
As my impatience grew, my hand dug into Seo Kyung-hyun’s soul.
“Ahhhhh!!!”
I hastily pulled my hand back from his screaming soul.
“Damn it!”
“If it’s damaged much more, it will decompose completely. Would you prefer to harvest the soul on Earth or on Telus?”
Razgas asked, assuming I would destroy the soul. I had no desire to harvest anyone’s soul.
Demonic energy was clearly clouding my judgment again. I calmed my impatience. Rushing wouldn’t help. I steadied my mind and continued pursuing Seo Kyung-hyun.
As I chased him further, Seo Kyung-hyun, who had appeared hazy at first, gradually became clearer.
And finally, Seo Kyung-hyun’s neck was within my grasp.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————