Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 274

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

274
Ji-seok returned from the Demon Realm to find Ellis waiting for him, tears streaming down her face.
“Ellis? What happened?”
Ellis didn’t answer. Ji-seok sensed something ominous.
He lifted his gaze and discovered people frozen behind Ellis—Research Facility staff rendered gray, separated from reality itself.
“How… many?”
“Changed? It would be faster to count those who haven’t changed.”
Jae-in rolled in on an electric wheelchair, her body mottled with gray patches.
“My souls merged, so I only transformed halfway.”
The soul of Jae-in that Ji-seok had brought from Heaven wasn’t just from this dimension—it was mixed with the soul of Jae-in from another dimension.
Because of that, Jae-in hadn’t completely petrified like the other Earthlings and had survived. However, her internal organs and muscles had solidified chaotically, and she was clinging to life with the aid of machinery.
With half her face petrified, Jae-in couldn’t express proper emotions, but Ji-seok read profound sorrow in her eyes.
The eyes of someone who had lost family.
“…Surely not everyone?”
Until Ji-seok departed for the Demon Realm, only the strong had been cursed, and civilians had been mostly spared.
“Those from Telus, other dimensions, and the Ark are fine. But all Earthlings have changed.”
“Then…”
Jae-in nodded with an expression of agony, and Ji-seok bolted from his seat and rushed outside.
The roads that had been filled with countless passing cars, the streets that had been crowded day and night—all lay desolate.
A handful of people who hadn’t made it home were frozen gray in the streets, making the city feel even more terrifying.
Ji-seok flew into the corridor made from World Tree branches and burst through the wooden door into his home.
His mother and Bae Na-young’s Mother stood frozen, tears streaming down their faces.
And where their gazes were fixed lay Ji-ho, sleeping in his crib.
The curse had spared no one, not even a child barely past his first birthday—Ji-ho was frozen gray without exception.
It felt as though Ji-seok’s head had been struck by a hammer. The world spun, his legs gave way, and he collapsed to the floor.
In his past life, he had lost countless comrades on the battlefield, but the pain of losing a child surpassed any mental or physical suffering he had ever endured.
Ji-seok sat beside the crib and took Ji-ho’s hand.
The soft, warm hand was gone, replaced only by the touch of something inorganic—a cruel reminder of the reality he now faced.
Someone placed a hand on Ji-seok’s shoulder as he sat there, vacant.
Ji-seok flinched in surprise—a mistake he wouldn’t normally make. But recognizing that the hand belonged to Violet, he turned his gaze back to Ji-ho.
Violet stood silently behind Ji-seok.
Time passed in silence before Ji-seok spoke.
“It’s my fault. I should have fled with only my family. This is the price for my greed, for trying to have everything.”
Violet, who had been listening quietly to his lament, opened her mouth.
“…Stop your whimpering and stand up.”
Violet grabbed Ji-seok by the collar and pulled him to his feet.
“They haven’t died, and the battle isn’t over.”
“How are you so strong?”
Even with his powerful mental fortitude skill, Ji-seok couldn’t overcome his current situation.
“If you don’t move, you die. If you die, it’s over. So what will you do? Are you giving up on these people?”
“…No.”
“Then get up. Pay that bastard back a hundredfold for what he’s done, and save your family.”
Violet was right. When had I ever given up so easily? I’d clawed my way here alone, fighting with everything I had. What was a curse compared to that? I’d gone all the way to Heaven itself to save Jae-in.
“Thank you.”
I brushed myself off and pulled Violet into an embrace.
“Hey… let go. You’re not Green.”
Violet gave me a halfhearted push, though there was no real force behind it.
“Green or me—we’re the same person. No wonder you’re related to Bae Na-young. You’re just as stubborn.”
“Your wife and I are completely different.”
With an indignant Violet at my side, I headed back to the Research Facility. It was time to borrow Gaff’s power and pay a visit to the Manager’s domain.
“Gaff. Let’s go. I’m ending this situation and getting my family back.”
“Well, I like the enthusiasm, but that’s not quite it.”
“Are you saying you won’t help now?”
I glared at Gaff fiercely. I had no room for his usual jokes, and no patience for them either.
“No, calm down. I’m not saying that. I’m saying that even if you kill the Manager now, your family won’t come back as they were.”
“What?”
“Say you somehow beat the odds and kill the Manager. Even then, they won’t be freed.”
Gaff tapped the rigid researcher’s head with a hollow thunk.
“This isn’t the Manager’s curse?”
“A curse? No. The World Tree—not Earth’s, but the Mother Tree. The Manager scattered parasites on the branch of your dimension. They’re eating away at it, severing the flow of the dimension itself. If left alone, this entire dimension will wither completely.”
“Damn it. One problem after another. How do we stop it?”
“I can’t. Demons can only exist within the World Tree. The parasites are outside the tree, in the Void.”
“Then I’ll go there first. If I exterminate the parasites, the tree will recover, right?”
“The Mother Tree is strong. Once the parasites are gone, it’ll heal quickly.”
“That won’t work. If we leave the Manager unchecked, he’ll make his next move. Letting ourselves be dragged around is a losing strategy.”
Violet, who had been listening quietly, disagreed with my assessment. I had a tendency to try solving everything alone, but the Manager wasn’t alone. He commanded vast forces.
“So I’ll go. You proceed with the plan against the Manager.”
“Violet, you may have survived Cargron, but the enemy’s true nature is unknown.”
“I never said I was going alone.”
Violet opened a Gate within the Research Facility, and Exos soldiers in thick black armor marched through. They were Violet’s warriors who had escaped Kagrun with her.
“Is it okay for Exos to enter Earth?”
Even though Earth’s condition was dire, the area near the World Tree still held traces of life force and mana in the atmosphere—deadly to them.
“Plastic-composite carapaces block life force and mana, and I’ve inscribed protective wards for them.”
“I, Samael, am prepared to stake my life for the Goddess.”
Samael, an Exos warrior, knelt, and the other Exos warriors followed suit in formation.
Violet had created a religion that didn’t exist in Cargron to unite the Exos. Moreover, unlike other arena lords, Violet knew how to share what she had with her subordinates, earning their genuine loyalty.
Learning that Cargron had vanished during their escape, the warriors’ faith and devotion to Violet had reached their peak.
“Goddess?”
I recalled that Bae Na-young had also founded the Goddess Religion in Tellus, and I asked.
“What? You have a problem with it?”
“I don’t have one.”
Bae Na-young’s face flushed slightly as she glared at Ji-seok, who simply turned his head away.
“I’ll take these people to the World Tree’s branches. You go to the Administrator.”
Ji-seok looked at Violet. The determination blazing in her eyes overwhelmed him.
Ji-seok closed his eyes and deliberated for a moment, then opened them as if his decision had been made.
“I’m counting on you.”
“You be careful too. Where you’re going is far more dangerous than where we’re headed.”
“I know.”
“Chairman, let’s prepare again. The situation has changed from before.”
Ji-seok nodded at Jae-in’s words and began preparing to assault the Administrator’s House.
“Aren’t you guys going?”
Gaff, resting his chin on his hand as he watched Jae-in, Ji-seok, and Violet busily preparing, grew impatient.
There was much to prepare for given the changed circumstances, and Ji-seok and Violet received the information Jae-in had gathered so far.
“That’s everything. Open the gate.”
“Phew. Finally.”
Gaff rose from his seat and opened two Gates crafted from demonic energy.
“Enter from the left, and you’ll find the Void where the parasites dwell. The right leads to the Void near the Administrator’s Dimension. As I said, demons cannot enter or exist in the Void outside the World Tree. From here on, I leave it to you. Fight hard for the Demon Realm.”
Violet glared at Gaff for his frivolous words, but Gaff brushed it off lightly.
Ellis, Smith, Jae-in, the surviving Research Institute staff, Baldri, and the Luna City Spirit Mages saluted Ji-seok and Bae Na-young.
Ji-seok and Violet entered their respective gates without hesitation, and the Exos Warriors followed behind Violet.
Jae-in, quietly observing their departure, turned her wheelchair around.
“Well then, let’s begin our preparations too.”
The survivors inside and outside the Research Institute moved busily.
* * *
Violet and hundreds of Exos Warriors passed through the black cloud Gate created by Gaff and were cast into the Void above the World Tree’s branches.
A space devoid of life force, air, or mana—a realm more desolate than the cosmos itself. For humans without the power to protect themselves like the Exos or Violet, it was a space of death where even in spacesuits, their mana and life force would be drained away in an instant, killing them the moment they emerged.
“It’s enormous.”
Samael, standing upon the branch, surveyed his surroundings. The World Tree’s branch stretched endlessly in length, and its thickness seemed to have no visible end.
“Considering there’s an entire dimension unfolding within this, it’s actually small. We’re running out of time. From now on, scatter and search for the parasites. Whether you find them or not, don’t engage in combat. Regroup in five minutes.”
“Goddess, that may not be necessary.”
Samael pointed with his finger to one location. There, upon the white World Tree branch, were black spots.
“Is that them? There are quite a lot. Let’s go.”
There wasn’t just one spot. Countless black spots spread across the massive World Tree branch.
“Yes!”
The Exos clad in plastic armor surged forward. The carapace they had chewed from plastic in their mouths was dozens of times stronger than their original armor, yet far lighter.
The group drew closer to the spots.
What had appeared as black spots from a distance were actually massive, hundreds of meters in diameter, and within them swarmed basketball-sized black insects.
The writhing mass of insects gnawed ceaselessly at the World Tree’s branch.
“Die!”
Violet, consumed by rage as she thought of her friends frozen on Earth, unleashed a Corruption that engulfed one entire spot.
Fortunately, Corruption proved effective, and most of the insects crumbled to dust in an instant.
As the insects perished, the gnawed and wounded branches of the World Tree became visible.
The insects, which had been rustling through their meal, froze at the unexpected assault and turned their gaze toward Violet and her companions.
The creature’s head—or what appeared to be one—was studded with perfectly symmetrical round eyes on both sides.
It was a nauseating sight, but Violet’s fury had no room for such concerns.
“This is the home I’ve only just reclaimed! I won’t surrender it to the likes of you!”
Violet raised her staff. The staff, crowned with a core that glowed blue at its center, had been specially crafted by Jae-in for Bae Na-young.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————