Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 255

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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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255
The one wearing Vito’s face called himself the Manager.
“I won’t let you escape.”
As I intensified the density of my already-deployed domain, the surroundings transformed from translucent crimson into a molten red that burned like lava itself.
Any ordinary being would incinerate and vanish in an instant within such a domain, and even the strongest opponent should have shown some reaction. Yet this creature remained utterly unaffected by my assault, as though it were nothing more than a mirage.
“Considerable power indeed. So you came as nothing but a spiritual body.”
The Manager swept his gaze across my domain.
“Even as a spiritual body, you cannot escape the influence of aura.”
“With your shallow knowledge, that would be true. But a spiritual body using mental force in ethereal form is different from what you understand. Normally, one cannot maintain such a form with spirit alone, but recently, as I absorbed those useless souls that had become obsolete, I discovered a most fascinating technique.”
The creature began to ramble with explanations. It felt like a different personality entirely from the emotionless being I had encountered before.
“What could a mere spiritual body without flesh possibly accomplish?”
“Of course, at similar levels, harmony between spiritual essence, spirit, ethereal form, and flesh determines strength. But just as one with an elephant’s body would crush one with an ant’s spiritual essence, inferior humans would go mad merely by witnessing the spiritual body of a transcendent being like myself.”
“Transcendent? Your arrogance runs deep. I, the inferior human you speak of, stand here unharmed.”
“…I neglected things for far too long, so I came myself, only to find you’ve grown even stronger in the meantime. Certainly, my spiritual avatar alone finds you difficult to handle. But what of those on the ground?”
The creature’s gaze turned downward.
Below lay densely populated regions spreading outward from the World Tree.
“Thanks to your rampage, those damned insects have infested our world. Even if I cannot kill you, if I slaughter every human on Earth, the insects will return to this side.”
The Manager moved freely within my domain and began descending toward the ground.
“I will never let you reach the ground!”
I didn’t know how much truth lay in the creature’s words, but one thing was certain—if an opponent immune to my attacks descended to the surface, catastrophe would unfold.
“By what means?”
The creature moved freely within my domain as though swimming through water.
The Manager and I were like beings drawn on two separate panes of glass—no matter what I did, my attacks could never reach him.
“You have not even approached the threshold of truth. Your avatar may have taken one step toward it, but from such a distance, what good does that do you?”
“I’ll figure it out as I go!”
Whether it worked or not, I slashed at the creature’s body with my blade and kicked at it. Still, I felt only the sensation of cutting through empty air.
“You’ve lost your composure. You’ve realized that you cannot kill me either.”
“Shut your mouth!”
“What meaning is there in killing me? To live a mere few hundred years longer? Your universe will perish regardless—whether in a month or a thousand years. But I will exist eternally. Abandon your flesh and join us. Then you too shall live forever.”
“Stop your filthy words! I will live and die with my family!”
“Conversing with the ignorant grows tiresome.”
The creature abandoned the conversation and turned its body toward the ground.
“Stop!”
I swung my aura-infused blade, even attempted to create a tail to bind it, but it simply slipped away. Cutting water with a sword or severing smoke would have more substance than this.
I had to stop it. That single thought consumed my mind entirely.
“Stop!!!”
I screamed with desperate will compressed into my oppressive force, and in that instant, the Manager’s body seemed to slow as though caught in slow motion.
“That’s rather painful to the ears. But do you intend to continue?”
The creature merely slowed for a moment—it did not stop completely.
“Stop! Stop!”
I tried applying pressure again, but its effectiveness was gradually diminishing.
“Brother!”
“Chairman! I’ve arrived!”
From far away, Bae Na-young and Jae-in flew toward us using flight magic.
“Run! You can’t win against this!”
I had my mental barrier and even if the worst happened, my clone was alive somewhere, so it wasn’t over for me. These two didn’t have mental barriers on my level, and unlike a game, they couldn’t retry.
“What?!”
At my shout, Jae-in and Bae Na-young rapidly decelerated.
“Too late.”
A wave of energy emanated from the Manager’s astral form, shooting toward Bae Na-young and Jae-in.
“No!”
I threw myself in front of them, but the wave the Manager unleashed passed straight through my body and continued toward Bae Na-young and Jae-in.
“Bae Na-young! Here we go!”
“Yes!”
Dozens of ball-shaped drones poured out from the infinite pouch at Jae-in’s waist, and Bae Na-young grasped a staff longer than her usual one with both hands, extending it forward.
Mana radiated from Bae Na-young’s body, and with a deep humming sound that shook the air, a massive magical circle connecting the drones formed.
“An extra-large mental defense spell! You bastard!”
The wave emanating from the Manager shook the barrier the two had erected, but it held firm without shattering.
“We did it!”
The wave the Manager had unleashed dissipated into empty air.
“See that?! When you gave the Chairman nightmares, we prepared for this too!”
Jae-in’s cold sweat trickled down slightly. It was clear she hadn’t expected it to succeed.
My heart sank as well.
“But where is it?”
My attention had been on the two of them, but when I turned to look behind me, the Manager was no longer there.
“I must admit, I’m surprised humans would dare oppose divine power.”
The Manager had somehow moved behind Jae-in and placed a hand on her head.
“Jae-in!”
“Aaaahhhhh!!!”
“Get away!”
I attacked while applying pressure, but the pressure only made it flinch slightly, and my attack passed straight through its body.
Bae Na-young approached from behind the Manager and placed both hands near its head, attacking with mind control.
“To challenge me is like a moth flying into flame.”
The Manager turned slowly as if unbothered, extending a hand toward Bae Na-young.
Bae Na-young’s mental attack, which could strip any Hunter of consciousness in an instant, had no effect whatsoever on this being.
Before Bae Na-young could be caught by its hand, I grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
“What did you do to my colleague?!”
“I gave her knowledge. A fragment of the truth I have obtained.”
Though called a fragment, it was excessive information that a human brain could not process. Jae-in drooled uncontrollably, her eyes unfocused, appearing no different from an idiot. She was alive, but even her breathing had grown weak.
If the flight magic hadn’t been automatically active, she would have plummeted to the ground immediately.
“If I kill your wife, perhaps you’ll finally abandon your attachment to this small world.”
The Manager surged toward Bae Na-young with terrifying speed.
“Bae Na-young!”
I scooped her into my arms and fled. But the Manager, moving at a velocity my eyes couldn’t track, closed the distance in an instant.
Just before he reached us, I felt a torrential cascade of electromagnetic waves pouring from the sky like lightning.
“Hmm?”
The Manager glanced upward without particular concern.
“Grrgh! What are these wretches?!”
For the first time, the Manager writhed in agony.
“Since you shared information with me, I’ll return the favor. I’ve blended my random experimental data into a psychic attack spell. The volume is quite substantial, wouldn’t you say?”
“What?! How did you—?!”
The Manager’s face registered genuine shock for the first time.
“I rigged it so that if my brain malfunctions, it resets and the backup activates.”
“Jae-in, did you replace your brain with a computer?”
“When I returned from heaven, they injected memories directly into my brain, remember? I anticipated something like this might happen, so I implanted a backup chip in my brain. It worked better than expected.”
“You insolent—!”
“Damn it… Can’t I just copy the same data multiple times?!”
Beeeeeep.
Jae-in drew a rod from her pocket, aimed it at him, and fired. A high-pitched frequency screamed through the air, and the Manager’s body convulsed.
“Kyaaaah!”
The body that had shrugged off my attacks distorted like a pixelated video.
“Alice! Smith! Fire the research facility’s experimental data! No duplicates!”
At Jae-in’s command, the Radio Telescope Network on the ground, every transmission tower, and thousands of satellites all converged their focus on the Manager.
“No… This can’t be!”
Drowning in the deluge of information pouring from all directions, the Manager’s movements ceased entirely.
“Is he dead?”
“Sealed, more like. He’s processing data at an incredible rate right now.”
“And when the data runs out?”
“He’ll break free. At this pace, it’ll take several weeks.”
Jae-in examined the Manager from various angles.
“We’ll find a solution in the meantime. It was worth rescuing you, Jae-in.”
I patted her shoulder.
“Sigh… Looks like I’m condemned to work until my dying breath.”
“Both of you… Look up. It’s not over yet.”
At Bae Na-young’s words, I raised my gaze to see dozens of the Manager’s clones descending from the sky.
[Aaaaaaaah.]
The simultaneous mental assault of tens of thousands of voices shook my skull. Waves of information crashed against my mental barrier, battering my consciousness.
“Ugh…”
“Kyaaah!”
Thanks to my mental barrier, I endured merely a shaking sensation, but Jae-in and Bae Na-young lost consciousness from the impact.
Despite being a wide-area attack rather than a direct touch like what I had done to Jae-in earlier, even Jae-in, who was coated in S-rank mental defense items, and Bae Na-young, the strongest in mental magic on Earth, suffered tremendous shock.
If such an attack were unleashed on the ground, ordinary people wouldn’t be able to endure it for even a moment.
“No! Aaaahhhhh!!!”
Ji-ho was down there. I had to protect World Tree City at all costs.
Uncertain of how effective it would be, I expanded my domain with the single resolve to protect it.
“Aaaahhhhh!!!”
Perhaps because of my desperate will, my domain managed to blur the creature’s attack somewhat, but in overextending it, all the life force in my body was drained away.
Then someone gently wrapped around me from behind.
“It’s alright now.”
A clear, soothing female voice. And from behind me, a teal-colored barrier shot forth.
The teal barrier spread forward and transformed into a sphere that enveloped all the Managers, and they froze solid within it like ice.
“Gaia… you always come too late, don’t you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, thank you for coming now. I don’t have to worry anymore, right?”
“…I wish I could say that. But no. The situation is bad. I redirected the power I had deployed to block the Gate over here. The Gate will open wider now.”
“It’s not what I wanted to hear, but it’s actually easier to block from that side.”
“And I can’t hold it for long.”
“…How long?”
“I don’t know. At this rate, maybe a few weeks. But if it descends further, it will be much shorter.”
“Damn it…”
“Gaia, how are you blocking it right now?”
Bae Na-young, having regained her senses, flew over and asked.
“I am the incarnation of all life on Earth. The will of Earth’s creatures is also within me. I’m using the power of that will, which has grown stronger thanks to this child bringing so much life to Earth.”
“The will, you say…”
Jae-in also listened intently to Gaia’s words.
“I’ll find a way and come back.”
“You need to come quickly.”
Gaia’s expression, as she gazed up at the Manager trapped within the barrier she had created, was not bright.

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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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