Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 240

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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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240
While surveying my surroundings, I spotted a black sphere barreling toward me with fierce momentum.
It wasn’t rolling down the Hilltop. It navigated deftly around the massive boulders scattered about, making its way directly to me.
I crouched low and watched warily as the sphere accelerated with hostile intent.
The sphere rolled across the jagged stone ground faster than a car—too swift to evade lightly.
Timing my moment, I hurled myself sideways when it came within meters, executing a falling roll.
My shoulder and back were shredded against the sharp stones below, and a cry escaped my lips.
Even without my abilities, my body remains resilient. But the cursed stones in this place were wickedly jagged and unyielding, as though someone had scattered metal shards across the ground.
Before I could even recover, the sphere curved sharply and rolled toward me again.
Evading endlessly would lead nowhere.
This time, I didn’t dodge. I took the sphere creature’s body tackle head-on and seized it with both hands.
Its weight easily exceeded several hundred kilograms—the impact struck like a building demolition hammer, and several of my ribs shattered.
The creature’s rotational force stripped the flesh from my hands and chest raw, yet its spinning refused to cease.
Still gripping the rotating sphere creature, I twisted my hips backward and slammed it against the ground with all my might.
CRASH!
The stones beneath exploded with the deafening impact.
The sphere creature’s body unraveled, revealing skeletal limbs jutting outward.
It resembled a ball beetle, but its shell was hard as metallic armor. Even its seemingly soft belly was covered densely with tough, tightly-packed scales.
Aside from its limbs, I would have believed it was a machine rather than a living creature.
As I examined it, the ball beetle regained consciousness and crawled away from me feebly on its skeletal limbs.
Compared to its spherical form, it moved sluggishly, writhing as it attempted to reshape itself into a ball.
“Not so fast!”
I mounted its back, pressed down on its waist, and drove my fist downward—but its carapace was absurdly hard, and my hand bones nearly shattered.
Abandoning the punching approach, I seized what I believed to be its neck and wrenched it backward.
“AAAAAAHHHHH!!!”
It shrieked with a hoarse cry while I pulled its waist with every ounce of strength, and it thrashed and resisted with equal ferocity.
I held my ground atop it like a man breaking a wild horse.
“Just die already!”
Prolonging this in such an environment disadvantaged me. I summoned my remaining strength and pulled its waist with one final, decisive motion.
Something inside tore with a sickening crunch, and the creature went limp.
“Beaten this badly by a mere insect….”
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so thoroughly battered. With my original abilities, I could have simply fired a small aura from my fingertips and subdued it.
I shook off the idle thoughts, struggled to my feet, and attempted to absorb the creature’s life force by placing my hand on it—but like This World itself, there was nothing to absorb.
This World operated by entirely different principles than my own.
“Damn it….”
I brushed myself off and rose, considering my options in this situation.
First: stop struggling pointlessly and end my life. After all, my body still exists on Earth.
I considered it briefly, but dismissed the thought. With the connection severed, I don’t know what’s happening on Earth, and the information I’ve gathered here is invaluable. Most importantly, I don’t want to die.
Second: find a way to return.
To do that, I must uncover the nature of this place and reclaim my power.
Fortunately, my body grew stronger with each regeneration, making movement far easier. I had no skills, and my evolution diverged from my previous path, yet I had grown formidable. I wasn’t starting from zero as an F-rank Hunter.
Vito surely knew the way back.
“As I regain my strength, I’ll find Vito.”
With a plan in place, it was time to move.
I turned my steps in the direction Vito had gone.
I hadn’t walked far before the sphere-beetle appeared again. Despite the cute name I’d given it, its crushing weight remained undiminished.
With few options, I took its charge with my body again. But I didn’t hold it long.
“Hah!”
With a shout, I used the creature’s own momentum to hurl it upward.
Its brutally heavy mass put tremendous strain on my legs and waist, but I succeeded in throwing it.
The sphere-beetle flew lower than expected, but my aim was true.
Unable to change direction mid-air, it crashed onto a jagged rock below.
It shattered the stone completely, bounced several times, and returned to its beetle form.
“To destroy such a hard rock entirely….”
The impact knocked it unconscious, but it wasn’t dead. The creature was remarkably durable.
I approached and snapped its spine to finish it.
I continued walking, and encountered the sphere-beetles several more times after that. Vito hadn’t hurried to relocate without reason.
After multiple encounters, the height I could throw them by absorbing their charge with my body had doubled.
With growing confidence, I examined the interior of the sphere-beetle’s shell.
Inside was boneless flesh. Unlike a lobster with densely packed meat, its hollow carapace had tough sinew clinging to the inner walls. When it died, that flesh sagged, weakening the grip of the shell.
It appeared to be a body perfectly optimized for survival in this barren world.
“Damn it… this one won’t absorb either.”
It was clearly alive, yet absorption failed. I sensed none of the life force or mana I’d cultivated before.
As I attempted to absorb its life force, I felt a presence and sprang to my feet.
The source appeared human-like—as if a sphere-beetle made of metal had transformed into a person.
It had a mouth, but where eyes and nose should be were absent. Instead, holes of varying sizes riddled the space from above its mouth to below its forehead.
It was small in stature—either a juvenile of its kind or naturally diminutive like the Dwarf Forces.
“Grrrrgh. Grrgh.”
It made grinding sounds from within its mouth. Unlike the previous creature, this one possessed intelligence capable of communication.
“I mean no hostility. I wish to leave this place—could you help me?”
I raised both hands to show I harbored no intent to attack.
“Grrgh. Grrgh.”
It continued its incomprehensible sounds as it approached.
Even without a keen perception skill, my instincts honed through all this time warned of danger, and I assumed a combat stance.
As expected, once it drew close enough, it kicked off the ground and charged straight at me.
Despite its small frame, my reach far exceeded Lich’s.
I front-kicked at its charging chest, but the resistance felt like striking a wall, and I bounced backward ungracefully.
It pressed forward, extending its hand toward my throat. It had four fingers arranged like overlapping pincers.
I arched my waist backward and drove my fist into its ribs.
Clang!
Its surface was as hard as a steel plate. If my body hadn’t evolved through countless battles with the void beetles, my fists would have shattered completely.
As my arm went numb and stiffened, the creature’s fist came crashing down on my head.
The impact, like a hammer blow, knocked me unconscious.
* * *
I regained consciousness despite the throbbing headache, only to find my limbs bound to stone.
“Grrrrk.”
“Tsk tsk tsk.”
The creature that had captured me lay flat against the ground, while another beast twice its size loomed over it with arrogant disdain.
I strained against the restraints, but whatever bound me refused to budge—this was no ordinary rope.
When they heard me struggling, both creatures turned their gaze toward me.
“Tsk tsk tsk tsk.”
The larger one growled something, and the smaller creature rose just enough, reaching into a leather pouch at its waist to produce a thin, elongated insect the length of a palm.
Like all the others I’d encountered, this creature’s exoskeleton appeared rough and impossibly hard.
“Hey, what are you doing with that? Get it away from me!”
A terrible premonition seized me.
The creature brought the insect toward my face.
“Get away!”
I twisted my neck to dodge, but the creature seized my forehead in a vice-like grip.
Its fingers dug into both sides of my temples with crushing force.
Despite its small frame, it possessed enormous hands and tremendous strength—like being clamped in a mechanical vise.
The creature forced the insect into my nostril.
The creature writhed as it burrowed deeper, crawling upward into my skull.
“Gack….”
As the insect settled within my head, it touched various parts of my brain.
The creatures released my restraints as I convulsed in agony.
“You damned bastards! What are you doing?!”
The pain gradually faded, and I staggered to my feet.
“Still conscious? Rockrel, was Almet defective?”
“Chon, I verified Almet’s condition beforehand. Perhaps the different reaction stems from it being a foreign species?”
The larger creature, Chon, posed the question, while the smaller one, Rockrel, had already prostrated himself again, answering from the ground.
“How… how can I understand what you’re saying?”
“Thanks to the insect planted in your head. It’s supposed to control your body, but it seems unable to do so. This is the first time I’ve seen such a case.”
“You tried to control me?”
“Yes. But it changes nothing. We’re putting you in the Arena.”
Since the insect hadn’t worked and my restraints were gone, I had no reason to listen to their nonsense.
“Is that so.”
I hurled myself toward the Corridor to escape.
“Rockrel.”
At Chon’s command, Rockrel sprang up and blocked my path.
I knew that creature was hard, but I hadn’t realized it was this fast.
The creature extended its arm toward me.
Knowing I’d lose in a test of raw strength, I immediately seized its arm and hurled it to the ground.
Rockrel seemed to brace for a counterattack, but he crashed down without resistance.
Crash!
“Ugh….”
In this high-gravity environment, combined with the creature’s considerable weight, the throw’s impact was devastating. While it reeled from the shock, I pushed myself up first.
“Is this a martial technique devised by the weak to survive? Fascinating. This could be quite profitable.”
Whether Chon voiced his admiration or not, I bolted toward the corridor, only to find dozens of insects blocking my path.
“Damn it….”
In an instant, I was buried under a swarm of creatures descending like a plague of cockroaches.
“It’s intriguing that you weren’t brainwashed, but as long as you understand language, that’s enough. And.”
As Chon extended his hand, Rockrel flattened himself and retrieved another insect from the leather pouch at his waist, placing it in Chon’s palm.
“Almet is not just one creature. What’s in your head is Ar. This is Met.”
“What the hell are you—Aaaahhhhh!!”
The moment I clenched Met, the insect in my head—Ar—thrashed violently.
“Gasp…. Gasp….”
When I released Met, Ar ceased its movements.
“From now until your death, you will fight in the Arena. For my profit.”
“The Arena?”
“The only entertainment available on this cursed land. Take him away.”
Chon issued the order to the guards.
They rushed toward me, and still reeling from the throbbing pain in my head, I was dragged helplessly and thrown into the Underground Prison.
“One mountain after another….”
Just as I’d adapted to this environment, a group of formidable enemies appeared.
I’d have to find Vito and settle this debt with him.
I surveyed the interior of my cell. A stone slab riddled with small holes served as the prison door—even the larger holes barely fit a hand.
The door looked sturdy, but given enough time, anything could be broken.
Confirming there were no guards, I sprinted forward and kicked the center of the door with all my strength.
Crash! Crash! Crash….
With each kick, the impact echoed through the cell like reverberations, and my leg tingled with the shock, so I shook it out.
“Stop before you crack the stone.”
A voice emerged from the darkness.
I spun around, assuming a defensive stance.

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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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