Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 287

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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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287
Bae Na-young drew a circle in the air with her wand, and the Gate opened effortlessly.
The researchers and mages inside the Research Facility stared with their mouths agape at the sight.
“Senior… is that the same Gate magic circle I’ve been working on?”
“Yes. You’ve been struggling with it for a week, and she just created it like that.”
Spatial transference magic could be activated by any competent mage if the magic circle already existed. But drawing the magic circle itself required even skilled mages to labor for days. Yet with a mere flourish of her arm, she opened a Gate to the nearest target location.
Bae Na-young and Violet used flight magic to soar through the Gate.
As they passed through the Gate, the Research Facility’s landscape transformed in an instant into azure sea and sky.
The two accelerated and flew toward the last location where the demon had been sighted.
“Where is it?”
Bae Na-young surveyed her surroundings. But in every direction lay only ocean—no demons, not even land in sight.
[Bae Na-young! The demons have already moved! Thirty kilometers northwest, and they’re still moving!]
Alice’s voice came from Bae Na-young’s earring, an item inscribed with a long-distance communication magic circle.
“Thank you, Alice!”
As Bae Na-young and Violet flew at full speed, the air tore apart behind them.
“Those demon bastards. I’ll crush them to dust.”
As Bae Na-young cut through the seawater, murderous intent radiated from her face.
Violet was grieving too, but she worried about Bae Na-young oscillating between rage and sorrow like this.
Violet recalled her own destroyed world. Having lost her mother and those she trusted, her youth had been unstable. Looking back now, she hadn’t been in her right mind.
After that, she fell into a trap, was exiled, and crashed into Cagron, where she lived like a madwoman for a long time.
She couldn’t even remember how many decades passed that way. But her madness didn’t last forever.
Loneliness became the catalyst for reflecting on her younger days. Of course, she didn’t regret killing those humans who had used her, deceived her, and trapped her. Even now, she believed they deserved death.
And while escaping Kagrun, she met her mother—someone she thought she’d never see again.
It took a long time, but just when she thought she might finally be happy, Ji-seok disappeared, and she was on the verge of losing her grip on sanity once more.
But Violet realized that if she too lost her composure now, there would be no one to control Bae Na-young. So she couldn’t afford to show her grief.
‘I need to stay centered.’
Violet steeled herself once more.
“Calm down. Are you planning to wage an all-out war against the demons?”
“…Understood.”
At Violet’s words, Bae Na-young closed her eyes and took several deep breaths.
“There!”
A black silhouette turned around mid-flight, firing crimson demonic energy to shoot down the pursuing demons one by one. The fugitive moved swiftly while striking with precision, using exactly the right amount of aura to take out only the demons’ heads.
The pursuing demons were no match for the fugitive, but their numbers were overwhelming. New demons poured in endlessly from all directions.
“You annoying things! Leave me alone!”
As Bae Na-young and Violet drew closer, the fugitive’s appearance became clearer, and his voice rang out distinctly.
“Wait… that appearance… that voice….”
Bae Na-young’s face flushed with excitement.
Black armor like dragon scales covered him from head to toe. Though irritation tinged his voice as he vented his anger at the demons, it was a voice she could never forget.
“…It’s Ji-seok, isn’t it?”
Violet recognized him too.
“I’m not sure what’s happening, but let’s deal with the demons first.”
Bae Na-young and Violet flew to support Ji-seok.
“Get out of here!”
Ji-seok mercilessly drained the life force so rapidly that the ocean’s color turned black in an instant, releasing dark crimson auras in all directions.
“Ugh!”
Bae Na-young and Violet, who were trying to approach, instinctively deployed defensive barriers in front of them.
Though Bae Na-young and Violet had distance and their barriers protected them, all those demons vanished in an instant.
“Tch. Cockroaches. I should escape before they come again. Hm? What are you two?”
Ji-seok noticed Bae Na-young and Violet approaching and deactivated the armor covering his face.
“Brother….”
Bae Na-young approached Ji-seok with tears welling up. This was the Ji-seok she thought she’d never see again.
“Brother? You come at me like that the moment you see me? Well, you’re pretty decent, so I’ll make you mine.”
“What?”
Not only did he not remember her, but his crude manner of speaking—like some neighborhood thug—made Bae Na-young’s eyes widen in shock.
Even after gaining great power, Ji-seok had always maintained courtesy, not just with those around him, but with his subordinates as well.
“Huh? Are you twins? That’s nice too. Though it’s less fun since you look so alike. But your chest is….”
“Brother! Don’t you recognize me?!”
Bae Na-young reached out her hand toward Ji-seok, and he grabbed it.
“I don’t know who you’re confusing me with, but forget about that guy and play with me instead.”
Ji-seok pulled the hand he’d grabbed and wrapped his arm around Bae Na-young’s waist. Though Bae Na-young wasn’t certain this was really Ji-seok, when his familiar voice and face drew close, she didn’t resist.
“Hey! Get your head straight?! That’s not Ji-seok!”
“But….”
“I don’t like your attitude. Either play along or get lost.”
Though Violet knew this wasn’t Ji-seok, hearing those words of disapproval from Ji-seok’s face felt like her heart was being torn to shreds.
“You. Come with us quietly. If you’re really Ji-seok, I’ll help you recover your memories.”
“Who are you to try forcing another man’s memories into my head? I am who I am.”
Ironically, Violet understood those words better than anyone. Just as she and Bae Na-young were different. Having the same genes didn’t mean having the same soul or being the same person. If the lives and experiences were different, they were completely different humans.
Because of this, Violet refused to acknowledge this man as Ji-seok. Even if their bodies were identical, she couldn’t acknowledge someone without memories and with different behavior as Ji-seok. Unless, perhaps, after he recovered his memories.
When Violet didn’t lower her guard, Ji-seok gathered aura in his hand.
“Brother! Stop it!”
“I was going to treat you nicely, but there’s no need for two identical things anyway.”
Ji-seok ignored Bae Na-young’s words and fired aura at Violet. Even with how much stronger Violet had become, defeating Ji-seok one-on-one wasn’t easy.
“Don’t! Brother! Don’t you remember us?!”
Bae Na-young cupped Ji-seok’s face with both hands and shouted.
“Who knows? Did I see you in the Demon Realm? If I’d played with someone as pretty as you, I would’ve remembered….”
“Ah…. Really….”
Hearing Ji-seok call her pretty for the first time in so long, she lost her composure.
“Bae Na-young! Get your head straight?!”
Violet shouted while dodging the aura Ji-seok was firing at her.
“Ah! Stop!”
Bae Na-young regained consciousness and pounded Ji-seok’s chest with her fist, infusing it with abundant mana.
Though she harbored no purely positive feelings toward Violet, she couldn’t allow Ji-seok to accidentally kill her.
Thud!
“Cough!”
Ji-seok’s body was driven backward, and he lost his grip on Bae Na-young.
“So this is how it is…”
Ji-seok now regarded both Violet and Bae Na-young as enemies. Since he viewed them merely as women to toy with, those who dared strike him had become his adversaries.
Ji-seok unfurled his domain in all directions. The domain that had felt warm until now emanated an ominous, blood-red aura.
Within Ji-seok’s domain, hostile targets either had their life force drained rapidly or burned with his aura. Yet both women wrapped themselves in violet light, resisting his domain.
“Hmm… better than demons, at least. But let’s see how long you can endure. Hmm?”
Ji-seok’s gaze shifted toward the distance behind them.
“Tch… they followed again. I’ll deal with you two later.”
Spotting a horde of demons in the distance, Ji-seok dissolved his domain and flew away rapidly.
“Oppa!”
The two women pursued, but they couldn’t possibly match his flight speed.
“Jae-in! Where is he now?!”
Jae-in used her soul tracker to locate Ji-seok’s soul. Shortly after, she found him alone on an uninhabited island, grilling fish.
“Strange. I erased my presence—how did you find me?”
“We have our own methods. Let’s talk.”
Bae Na-young and Violet raised both hands to signal they meant no harm.
“…No.”
Ji-seok took flight again, and Bae Na-young and Violet resumed their pursuit.
Using the soul tracker, they played tag repeatedly with Ji-seok. On the third capture, he glanced upward at the sky, accelerated, and vanished once more.
“Jae-in!”
“H-he’s gone. I can’t see his soul anymore. If that was really the Chairman, he must know how to conceal his soul.”
Jae-in’s deduction was correct. Sensing the existence of the satellite-based soul tracker, Ji-seok had hidden his soul.
“Argh!”
Bae Na-young cried out in frustration, kicking at the dirt ground.
“Calm down.”
“Does it look like I can calm down?! I thought he was alive, but he doesn’t even remember me, and he comes back as some kind of thug?!”
“That bastard holds the answers.”
“I won’t let this slide.”
The two returned to World Tree City.
“Is the summoning circle ready?”
Bae Na-young descended into the Research Facility’s underground level and asked Alice.
“I’ve already prepared it.”
The floor of the massive underground laboratory, built for large-scale experiments, was densely covered with intricate magical formations.
It was a device that could instantly generate complex magical formations simply by inputting the blueprints.
“Let’s go.”
At Bae Na-young’s words, Violet nodded, and the two stood at opposite ends of the magical formation, extending their wands.
The mana of the two flowed into the magic circle, and the central formation blazed with violet light, conjuring a mass of black clouds at its heart.
From within the clouds emerged Gaff, his form that of an adult demon, commanding the atmosphere as he materialized.
“Who dares summon the King of the Demon Realm…? Hmm? So it’s you two? Why all the formality? Between us~”
Upon spotting Bae Na-young and Violet, Gaff stepped lightly through the air toward Bae Na-young.
“You knew my brother was alive, didn’t you?”
“Brother? Who?”
“Don’t play games.”
“Your husband? Alive, you say?”
“For a demon, you’re terrible at lying. Then I suppose I can take that, can’t I?”
“Who gave you permission to lay hands on a demon’s possession?”
“Finders keepers, isn’t it? I don’t care unless it’s my brother. I’ll let him go even if I catch him.”
“…To be precise, he’s not your husband. He’s a duplicate. Naturally, he has no memory of you.”
“You created him when fulfilling the contract conditions.”
Violet moved to stand beside Bae Na-young. She recalled how Ji-seok had gone to the Demon Realm before they departed for the Administrator’s Planet to pay the price of the previous contract.
Gaff had erased Ji-seok’s memories through the contract and created a duplicate. Because of this, even Ji-seok, who followed The God, remained unaware of the existence of the duplicate Gaff had made until he became The God himself.
Before following The God, Ji-seok had sensed the duplicate’s existence and left a thought-form orb with Bae Na-young.
“That’s right.”
Gaff’s eyes twisted grotesquely as he smiled at Violet.

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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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