Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 233

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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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233
The clone grown from Jae-in’s genetic material lay upon a bed densely inscribed with magical circles to prevent any soul from taking root.
In the room, Jae-in’s soul flowed into the clone.
Everyone held their breath, watching intently.
When nothing happened, Ji-hae couldn’t bear the silence and approached Jae-in’s clone.
“Why isn’t he waking up?”
Ji-hae asked Jae-in B.
“Wait. The vitals are perfect. It might take time for the soul to settle into the new body.”
Since it was something neither of them had attempted before, Jae-in B lacked confidence himself, but he offered words of comfort for Ji-hae’s sake.
“Honey….”
Ji-hae caressed Jae-in’s cheek.
“Wait…. Don’t touch him. He’s not stable yet….”
“Wake up! You bastard!”
Ji-hae brought her fist down hard against Jae-in’s chest.
“How am I supposed to raise three children alone?!”
Jae-in showed no response, and Ji-hae struck his chest again with both hands.
“Cough!”
Jae-in’s body bounced up from the impact.
“Wh—?! What?! Is this humidity?!”
Jae-in clutched his chest and bolted upright.
Seeing Jae-in’s eyes open, Ji-hae burst into tears and embraced him.
“Huh?! Ji-hae? Why are you crying?! What—? Don’t tell me those are—?”
Reflexively holding Ji-hae and patting her back, Jae-in spotted the Triplets.
“Those are our children?! Are they?! Ji-hae! Explain what happened!”
“You died and came back to life, you idiot!”
Ji-hae explained everything through her tears, and Jae-in B watched the scene before leaving the laboratory with a bitter expression.
“Where are you going?”
Alice called out to Jae-in B as he departed.
“Isn’t my usefulness exhausted now?”
“There’s still mountains of research to do. Are you going to abandon it and run away like a child?”
Alice, who usually hated being treated like a child, made a flimsy excuse.
Having worked long with the kind and brilliant Jae-in, Alice had harbored resistance toward the rough and blunt Jae-in B, treating him curtly all this time. However, through conducting research together, she eventually realized that fundamentally, Jae-in and Jae-in B were the same person, and the distance between them had narrowed.
“Is it okay for me to stay?”
Jae-in B glanced sideways at Jae-in, who was embracing Ji-hae.
“Excellent scientists are always in short supply. Rest if you’re tired, then come back.”
“What are you saying? A researcher wouldn’t be tired after just this much.”
Jae-in B and Alice headed to another research laboratory, and I excused myself to give Jae-in and Ji-hae time together, returning home.
“Brother!”
Bae Na-young flew over and embraced me.
Though Bae Na-young was tall, I caught her effortlessly and held her close.
“I missed you.”
“I missed you too.”
“Uh…”
The World Tree stared at me with vacant eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“You shouldn’t be able to come like that, should you?”
“What do you mean?”
“What are we supposed to do about that?”
The World Tree Spirit pointed to the cocoon containing my spiritual and physical bodies.
“…It’s still there?”
“Of course it is. Where would a seal go? You’re not a fake, are you?”
“You’re really my brother, aren’t you?”
Bae Na-young, clinging to me, gently rubbed my head as she tried to read my thoughts.
“Since the soul is the center of existence, isn’t that just residue?”
When my body suffers damage, it’s absorbed into me when I’m nearby, but if I’m far away, the severed body remains as is. However, a severed body naturally has no regenerative power or spiritual form.
“For something to be called residue, it’s overflowing with power.”
As I set Bae Na-young down and approached the cocoon, it writhed.
“Huh?! It’s moving! Isn’t that dangerous?!”
The World Tree Spirit made a fuss.
My soul was sucked into the cocoon. If it had been the amount of soul from before ascending to Heaven, it would have been fatal, but thanks to being filled abundantly in Heaven, I had room to spare.
“Brother!”
“I’m fine.”
I stopped Bae Na-young from approaching. This was neither an attack nor dangerous.
The cocoon split open, and I walked out from within it.
“Is it a clone?”
“No, it’s me.”
The me standing before Bae Na-young spoke first.
“That’s right. It’s me.”
The me that emerged from the cocoon also spoke.
“B-brother?”
Even Bae Na-young, who was rarely surprised, flinched as two versions of me looked at her.
Thinking it would be confusing if we spoke simultaneously, I began speaking with my body that had been outside the cocoon.
“It’s less like a clone and more like… my left and right hands. I’m simply controlling one body with two forms. All my senses, including vision, are shared.”
“You feel two sets of sensations at once? Doesn’t that make you dizzy?”
“My intelligence increased so much that it seems fine.”
“So both are you, then?”
The seal was broken, so I came to check… Is this a split form? But why does the split form have the same power as the original?”
Gaff sensed the seal breaking and came over.
“This isn’t normally how it works, is it?”
“Of course not. Isn’t it common sense that dividing one by two gives you one-half? You’ve become two ones instead.”
“Really? I think I could increase it even more?”
“Don’t.”
“Why?”
“It was only possible because you absorbed so many souls in Heaven. If you proliferate here, you’ll drain the souls of everyone around you.”
Gaff slumped into a chair, exhaustion written across his face.
“That won’t do. But seeing you come back alive—have you taken over Heaven now?”
“Idiot. Heaven and the Demon Realm are pillars that sustain the world. If one collapses, the other cannot stand.”
“… Then why did you fight so hard?”
“The upper echelons were making a racket, and it was irritating. Besides, seeing Metatron’s face made it worthwhile.”
Gaff chuckled and leaned his head back against the sofa.
“Oppa.”
Bae Na-young called me, and both of me turned around simultaneously.
“Looking at me at the same time like that… don’t. It’s creepy. Just one of you come with me.”
“Huh? Where?”
Bae Na-young dragged one of me into the room.
“The second one will be back soon, huh?”
Gaff remarked with a sly grin.
“Gaff, leave now. You too.”
I drove out Gaff and the World Tree Spirit, who were spouting nonsense.
“Phew… So at least half of me can rest like this?”
The me outside the room sat on the sofa, closed my eyes, and savored the silence alone.
“Waaahhhhh!!!”
Seconds later, Ji-ho started crying.
* * *
There’s probably no one who hasn’t imagined having two bodies.
Not only would combat power increase, but I could defend multiple positions simultaneously.
I thought I’d accomplish greater things, but one of my bodies was being held by Bae Na-young, while the other handled looking after Ji-ho or dealing with miscellaneous tasks.
“What is this?”
It wasn’t bad, but it was different from what I’d imagined.
“What is your clone doing right now?”
Yang Sang-heon asked.
“Bae Na-young is giving me a lap pillow.”
While I was busy running around outside, Bae Na-young had been quietly enduring her loneliness, but once I became two, she no longer held back.
“… Is it really okay to waste Earth’s strongest like that?”
“Would you like to tell Bae Na-young that?”
“Since there are two of you, you can just work harder. Think about how lonely she must have been.”
In truth, there was a mountain of work to do, and I headed to the Research Institute for the next task.
“Park Jae-in, did you find out anything about that guy?”
“It looks like this.”
Jae-in, now fully recovered, displayed the Commander’s face as a hologram.
“Doesn’t this person resemble King Ban?”
“Does he? I just thought he looked plain.”
Jae-in answered Alice’s remark dismissively.
“Jae-in, would you like to die once more?”
“Hahahahahaha.”
Jae-in laughed off my words.
“He’s never appeared in our world.”
Jae-in B spoke while examining the composite sketch beside me.
“Never existed in Jae-in B’s universe?”
“Could you stop attaching alphabets to Korean names? I’m not a machine… From now on, call me Smith.”
“Fine, Smith. You’ve never seen him?”
“That’s right. Our world was already doomed with just the Commander. That damned Lich was the killing blow.”
“Ah, that one.”
“…You know about Lich? He came here too?”
Smith shot up from his seat.
“Yeah, I killed him.”
“Y-you killed him?! How did you kill the immortal Lich?!”
“I hit him and he died?”
Eres delivered the final blow, but I could have captured him alone.
“That’s absurd… Never mind…”
“So you can find where this creature came from?”
“What are you planning to do?”
“Revenge.”
I had miraculously saved Jae-in, but thousands of victims’ names were carved into the monument erected at the World Tree.
I announced that Jae-in had been captured by enemies, not resurrected, and that I had rescued him.
The matter of resurrection could not yet be revealed to the public.
“There should still be remnants of the Gate he opened. Let’s head to Mars.”
Since I had another version of myself on Earth, I could now leave the planet without worry.
* * *
“My God.”
Ridi knelt before me as I emerged from the Gate.
“Ridi… I told you not to do that.”
Metatron, closest to divinity, didn’t sit well with me, and all the so-called great beings were equally a mess, so being called a god didn’t sit right with me.
“Haha, but you’re certainly as close to a god as one can be, aren’t you? Is this body an avatar?”
“Well, it is, but rather than an avatar… Never mind. Let’s head to the site first.”
In a sense, it was indeed an avatar. I waved my hand dismissively since explaining was tedious.
“Yes. I shall guide you.”
“This place has been spared.”
“Under Director Park Jae-in’s orders, we distanced ourselves from Mars early. Thanks to that, the first base deep underground remained safe.”
“Safe is an understatement. The population has grown tremendously.”
“Ah, thanks to the fire stones and minerals, our numbers have grown considerably.”
“Ridi too?”
“I’m embarrassed to say, but King Ban and I have had a child as well.”
Looking at where Ridi pointed, I saw a female Metalim who appeared to be a nursemaid cradling a baby Metalim in the form of a golden slime.
“…”
How long has it been since I was last here?
* * *
“King Ban, the next agenda item.”
“What is this…?”
Ridi displayed a screen and handed Ban a thick stack of documents.
“This is the revised construction plan for Mars Second Base City, updated after our site survey.”
Ban had only heard the title, yet his head already throbbed with a dull ache.
“Ridi, can’t we just… dig it out?”
“We cannot.”
“Your Majesty, only by establishing thorough urban planning from the outset can we create a magnificent city to leave for future generations.”
Director Baek Young-shin, who had come to offer assistance, supported Ridi’s position.
“Yes…”
“King Ban, Ridi, have you still not recruited bureaucrats?”
Besides Ban and Ridi, other Metalim participated in the meeting, but there were only ten of them. This wasn’t just senior officials attending—it was the entire Metalim bureaucracy, which made the pace of work extremely slow.
“My apologies. They’re all accustomed to living as laborers, and since their lives proceed without disruption, they have no desire to undertake such troublesome work.”
Even Ridi, who spoke these words, honestly preferred to go out and wield a sword rather than sit and read documents.
Earthlings eagerly seize positions of power when given titles and money. But most Metalim lacked such ambition to the degree humans possessed.
“Hmm… that is indeed a problem. There are limits to how much work King Ban can handle alone.”
“Would it be possible to dispatch someone from Earth to oversee Metalim administration?”
In essence, this was proposing to surrender sovereignty over an entire race, transcending national boundaries.

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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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