Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 259

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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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259
The magical circle on the bracelet that Jae-in and Bae Na-young had prepared channeled the willpower of the world into my two fists, and I pummeled the Manager with unbridled fury.
“You should have brought a physical body! What?! A physical body! A sound mind in a healthy body! You bastard!”
I unleashed a barrage of punches, pouring all the accumulated rage into each blow, and with every strike, clusters of characters scattered from the Manager’s body instead of blood and flesh.
Each impact produced sounds of tearing and shattering, but since the power of willpower wasn’t truly mine, and the Manager’s body wasn’t a physical entity, my fists felt nothing when they connected.
The Manager, reduced to a dying state with half its body torn away, crackled like an old television screen.
“Tsk… how tedious. Jae-in.”
[Coming!]
The drone that had been drawing the magical circle on the ground released it and flew over.
Dozens of drones surrounded the Manager, and the mages at the Research Facility transmitted the magical circle, deploying a sealing spell in a spherical formation.
Within the sphere-shaped magical circle designed by Bae Na-young and Jae-in and deployed by the mages, the Manager froze solid.
[Chairman, you’ve worked hard.]
We could have simply enclosed the sealing spell in a larger perimeter from the start, but we had to conserve willpower as much as possible, and this seal couldn’t be used against a moving target.
“I’m not sure if we’ll be able to stop it next time either.”
We’d managed to contain it this time, but it had been far too close. If we’d been even a moment slower, tens of millions would have died just now.
[The willpower is gathering faster than expected, but I’ll try to hurry things along.]
* * *
“Director… are you really going to do that?”
Alice asked Jae-in after she ended the call.
“It’s far better than Earth being destroyed, isn’t it? Connect me.”
Jae-in initiated the communication with a solemn expression.
“What?! What did you say? Jae-in?! Why are you doing this to me?!”
Yang Sang-heon, who had received some kind of order from Jae-in, protested.
[Would you prefer Earth to be destroyed?]
Jae-in didn’t even blink.
“No! But if I do something like that, what happens to my reputation?!”
[Is your reputation important right now? I’ll clear up all the misunderstandings later.]
“My… image…”
[O hero. We shall remember your sacrifice.]
Jae-in unilaterally ended the connection.
“Damn it.”
Yang Sang-heon squeezed his eyes shut.
“Alex, go ahead first.”
Yang Sang-heon, riding behind Alex, spoke. To break through the Chinese team’s interference, both of them were funneling all the willpower they received directly to Alex.
“Huh? Why?”
“Something came up.”
“Do as you like.”
Alex exhaled a stream of cold air from his mouth with an indifferent tone.
“What would a young one like you know of my heart.”
“Hmph!”
Alex flicked Yang Sang-heon off his back, and Yang Sang-heon didn’t resist, simply leaping backward.
“My fate remains unchanged even as an S-rank. What a drag….”
Yang Sang-heon flew in the opposite direction, away from the next Checkpoint.
[Oh no! Yang Sang-heon?! Why are you going backward?!]
[Big brother must have a plan.]
[Jang Mi trusts Yang Sang-heon’s judgment.]
[Of course. He’s someone worthy of respect, always setting an example….]
As Jang Mi spoke, Yang Sang-heon bowed politely to a United States Hunter attempting to pass him.
Since Yang Sang-heon was famous for his good manners, the American Hunter relaxed his guard, and the moment he returned the bow in Korean fashion—
Yang Sang-heon unleashed a beam of luminous aura at the bowing Hunter.
“What the he—. Gack!”
The Hunter, unable to finish his curse, flew off in a direction completely different from the course.
[Ahhhhh!!! Combat is allowed, but that’s dirty!]
[No way! Big brother wouldn’t do something like that….]
This was someone who lived by the motto of fairness and integrity. Such behavior didn’t suit him at all.
[Oh! Yang Sang-heon has hidden behind a rock! It looks like he’s dealing with approaching Hunters from there to buy time for Alex!]
“Nice work! Drop them all!”
In Korea, they cheered him on. But in other nations, they did not.
“Have you ever seen such a cowardly bastard?! An S-rank Hunter resorting to ambushes?!”
Marbas, a battle fanatic, preferred direct assaults, and other nations hadn’t sent their players to conduct sabotage either. There was a reason why other countries either didn’t cross the line or maintained separate operations teams.
If a competing player engaged in dishonorable tactics, they would incur the enmity of other nations, potentially slowing their own country’s players.
Yang Sang-heon succeeded in backstabbing twelve times in succession, and not only the countries of the already-eliminated players but also those whose competitors would soon pass through his location cursed that their own athletes would suffer the same fate.
[Sang-heon! Excellent! Willpower is gathering rapidly!]
Jae-in cheered from the Control Center, watching willpower accumulate.
“Ugh…”
Though Jae-in rejoiced, Yang Sang-heon bore the crushing weight of debuffs mixed with jeers from hundreds of millions of people.
“Big brother! At this rate, I can’t even conduct sabotage!”
[Really? I already reduced the debuff to one-tenth because completely removing it would raise suspicion.]
“This is one-tenth?! I’m being crushed!”
Standing upright was already difficult under such immense pressure.
[I can’t reduce it further. It’s for Earth’s sake. Bear with it.]
“Ugh!”
Yang Sang-heon’s movements slowed, and other competitors who had already received the message formed a temporary alliance and approached the area to hunt him down.
“Damn! The ambush strategy is done for. Come at me, all of you!”
“Avenge our grudge!”
“We’ll settle the score from World Tree Academy!”
Some Hunters had endured harsh training under Yang Sang-heon at World Tree Academy.
“Alex, step over my corpse and go!”
Yang Sang-heon cried out solemnly and threw himself into the enemy ranks.
Even with their alliance, Yang Sang-heon was no easy opponent. He deftly dodged the coordinated attacks of the allied Hunters and struck each one as they came.
[Well done! But be even more vicious! Spit at them!]
I resented Jae-in’s encouragement over the radio, yet there was an undeniable thrill in shedding my usual good-natured image and striking down the Hunters.
However, numbers were an unstoppable force. Gradually, more attacks began reaching me.
“Ugh… Is this the end?”
I was just about to surrender.
“Watch out! The dragon’s back!”
A Hunter spotted Alex approaching from behind me.
“What?! Alex, why didn’t you leave?!”
“Grrrrr….”
Alex gathered breath without a word.
“Are you… coming to save me?”
“ROOOAARRR!!!”
As if in response, Alex unleashed an ice breath.
“Yes! Let’s do this! So what if I’m the villain?! We’ll knock them all down and take first place… Ugh?!”
I turned toward the competitors with renewed fighting spirit, and Alex’s ice breath struck my back.
“Why… would you….”
“I despise cowardly tactics.”
“Damn lizard….”
“Get him!”
“Kill him!”
While I was frozen, the enraged competitors unleashed a coordinated assault, and I drifted unconscious through space.
Alex turned away and flew toward the next Checkpoint, with the other competitors following in pursuit.
[Ah! Alex! A dragon is far superior to humans!]
Thanks to Alex’s actions, the jeers that had accumulated toward me didn’t transfer to Alex, Korea’s representative. Not that Alex had considered such consequences.
“We will remember your sacrifice.”
Jae-in, speaking those words, couldn’t tear her eyes from the willpower gauge that had accumulated substantially.
“Poor thing.”
Alice couldn’t look away from the screen showing me drifting unconscious in the air.
The competition continued to intensify. A mere long-distance run would lose interest and fail to gather willpower effectively.
Consequently, the Producing Team stationed beside the Research Facility’s Control Center was simultaneously operating hundreds of cameras, broadcasting the best scenes to the entire world.
[Camera 2! Fade out and transition to 57!]
“Is the next stage ready?!”
“Almost done!”
“Do you want to see this all fall apart?! Why aren’t you moving faster?!”
This Producing Team was assembled from only the finest talents of Korea’s top broadcasting networks. Creating programs that people loved was impossible for researchers like Jae-in.
“…. Do those people not know this is related to the battle with the Manager?”
Alice watched the Producing Team’s screens from the Research Facility and couldn’t comprehend their passion.
“They don’t. I just told them to make sure the ratings are good.”
“Their dedication is truly remarkable.”
Alice felt the terrifying power of Korean content spreading across the world.
“Next stage is ready!”
“Cameras 5, 8, 81, 34, and 20 standing by~~~~ Action!”
The screens simultaneously captured the next stage.
“…What is this?”
Baldri arrived at the next Checkpoint first, only to find dozens of firmly sealed Gates, each topped with a massive question mark.
[For our confused competitors, allow me, Benjamin, to explain!]
Benjamin’s face appeared on the screen before the Gates.
[This race doesn’t merely test speed or raw power! Without intellectual ability, empathy, and common sense, one cannot claim to be a true champion. You must solve the problem before each Gate to proceed!]
“Excellent! This should be fun!”
True to her gnomish nature, Baldri thrilled at the prospect of solving problems. She was curious what kind of questions would appear to test a mage’s knowledge.
[Here is your question!]
When Baldri selected one Gate and stepped forward, the question mark transformed into the actual problem.
-What is the product of all the members’ ages in the eight-member girl group Lilis?-
“…That has nothing to do with intelligence?!”
[Lilis is the hottest group across Earth, Tellus, Moon City, and Mars combined—surely this is common knowledge?]
To slow down the leading Baldri and keep the race competitive, they deliberately gave her the most difficult problem to solve.
“What is this?!”
Baldri was frustrated, but she squeezed her eyes shut and racked her memory. As an intelligent mage, she possessed the kind of memory that never forgot anything she’d seen once.
She didn’t know Lilis’s songs well, but she remembered their faces, and from faces alone, she could estimate the approximate age of each race.
“Damn it! There’s an Elf in the group!”
The problem was the Elf. Elves looked the same from their twenties until hundreds of years old. In multiplication, that age discrepancy could only create massive errors.
[Baldri! There’s no limit to your attempts! Just write your answer!]
As Baldri groaned and wrote down wrong answers, the next competitor came running.
“I know this one! My turn!”
Mei-ling, arriving in second place, selected a Gate to solve her problem.
[Destroy the magic circle below using the minimum amount of mana.]
“Huh? A magic circle? Mana? Destroy?”
What Mei-ling hadn’t anticipated was that each competitor received a different problem. The question given to her, a Warrior, was completely unfamiliar.
[This isn’t a frozen frame! Mei-ling has come to a complete standstill before this remarkably complex magic circle! Jang Mi, could you solve this?]
[W-Well, yes! My foundation is in magic, after all.]
[Then, would you share the answer?]
[… Well, since it could reach Mei-ling’s ears, I’ll tell her later. But yes, this is definitely a difficult problem for a Warrior.]
[Precisely! Hunters fundamentally possess excellent memory, but there have been many criticisms that they lack interest outside their own field and have poor adaptability. So we created this problem!]
“You devils!”
Mei-ling tore at her hair in frustration.

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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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