Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 39

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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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39
Something flew from the direction of the Control Center, leaving a white line across the troll’s neck.
The troll with the gash on its neck didn’t realize what had happened until its head fell away.
The massive body of the headless troll gushed blood like a fountain, toppling backward like a felled giant tree.
Boom!
[Lee Ji-seok, fall back now! Jung Min-gi has arrived!]
I turned around at the voice coming through the earpiece.
A man in sleek silver armor stood there, wielding a longsword.
Jung Min-gi. Korea’s only S-rank Hunter at present. He appeared to be in his late twenties, but was actually far older. A first-generation Awakener who had awakened before the first Gate opened, he had accumulated countless achievements during the Gate crisis.
When the troll’s neck fell moments ago, I could see the direction of the attack, but my body couldn’t react at all—it was that fast. Moreover, the sheer power to cleanly sever a troll’s neck from such a distance.
That was the ability of an S-rank Hunter, a rarity even in the world.
[You did well fighting alone. Fall back now.]
Jung Min-gi’s voice came through the earpiece. I nodded to him in the distance and moved out of the line of sight between the troll and Jung Min-gi.
The troll paid no attention to my retreat, keeping its gaze fixed on Jung Min-gi.
He gripped his longsword lightly and thrust it forward.
As if that were a signal, the remaining four trolls charged at Jung Min-gi.
“Graaaah!”
Roars befitting their massive frames poured from the mouths of all four trolls. An ordinary person would suffer cardiac arrest just standing before them, but Jung Min-gi remained composed.
Then the blade swung. Watching intently from the side, I could barely follow his movements with my eyes.
Each time Jung Min-gi wielded his sword at high speed, crescent-shaped auras shot forth toward the trolls.
And without fail, the trolls’ heads fell away one after another. He was hunting B-rank monsters as easily as if they were goblins.
If one of those attacks came at me, could I actually evade it? If it were a surprise attack, I probably couldn’t. But head-on? In any case, it was certain that I couldn’t possibly defeat him at this stage.
With Jung Min-gi’s arrival, the tide of battle completely reversed.
He swiftly finished the trolls and turned his attention to other monsters. The crescent-shaped auras bisected hundreds of monsters vertically.
[Lee Ji-seok, thank you for your efforts. Please now exit the defensive line and participate in the mopping-up operation against the escaped monsters.]
Instructions came through the earpiece.
Following Jung Min-gi, an A-rank mage poured flames from the sky, turning the area before the Gate into a sea of fire. Subsequently, arriving B-rank and A-rank Hunters reinforced the defensive line.
“Ji-seok! Are you alright?!”
Bae Na-young came running over.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
Thinking about it, I had been reckless. Fighting a troll while surrounded by hundreds of monsters. It wouldn’t have been strange if I’d died.
I had no thoughts beyond the objective of stopping the breach.
“Let’s head to the rear now to help with rescue operations.”
Bae Na-young grabbed my arm and pulled me along. She seemed worried I might venture back into that monster den.
“Understood.”
After that, I focused on eliminating the escaped monsters. Dealing with small fry was far easier compared to what I’d been doing before.
Shortly after, I heard news that a Troll King, an A-rank monster, had appeared along with more trolls. Still, as long as no S-rank monster emerged, Jung Min-gi and the other renowned Hunters of Korea would hold the line.
As I expected, after the Troll King, no more monsters appeared, and the Gate shrank back to its original size.
The long Gate Break had finally come to an end.
Most of the escaped monsters had been dealt with, and soldiers and firefighters attended to treating the wounded and recovering the bodies of the dead.
I wished there had been no casualties, but many hunters, soldiers, and civilians had perished.
Monsters made no distinction between young and old, so children were among the dead.
When Bae Na-young saw dozens of corpses draped in white cloth, her complexion turned ashen.
“Are you alright? Let’s head back now.”
“What’s your name?”
As I was about to leave with Bae Na-young, a voice called from behind. I turned to see Jung Min-gi, a hunter drenched in blood.
He seemed to have struggled considerably while dealing with the Troll King. His complexion had always been dark with deep circles under his eyes, making him look perpetually exhausted, but now it was far worse.
“I’m Lee Ji-seok.”
“B-rank, huh? You did well. Thanks to you, it ended at this level. Without you, far more would have died.”
“I’m the one who survived because of you.”
“These days, young people won’t even risk their lives to stop a Breach, so it’s admirable. Ah, my younger siblings told me not to sound like an old fogey, but here I go again.”
Jung Min-gi scratched his head.
“Anyway, go rest now, and let’s meet again if the opportunity arises.”
It seemed that was all he wanted to say, and he departed leisurely.
“Ji-seok! Na-young!”
Yang Sang-heon came running from a distance.
“Are you both alright?”
“We’re fine. How about you?”
“I arrived late, so I only caught small fry. Just what matched my level. You fought trolls, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you insane?”
“What?”
“I mean, I know your abilities are strong, but how could you charge into a group of trolls alone?”
“Shut it. Let’s go home now.”
I was utterly exhausted. I wanted to go rest.
For a long time afterward, the news was dominated by coverage of the Breach incident.
All citizens expressed their condolences for the victims. However, there was little interest in the cause. The prevailing sentiment was that Gates were simply incomprehensible phenomena.
The media instead praised the Awakener Management Bureau and military for their response, calling it a Gate Breach contained with minimal casualties. My face appeared frequently in the news as a result.
However, I could not accept the official explanation of “unknown cause.” There had to be a reason. It could have been someone’s mistake, a mutated Gate, or perhaps someone had deliberately triggered it.
I resolved to uncover the truth behind this incident.
* * *
“It’s really piling up.”
I said this while gazing at the monitor in the Factory.
“What is?”
Yang Sang-heon asked in response to my murmur.
“Money.”
“Are you really complaining about having too much money?”
“When I founded Rigen, I invested so much that my savings nearly disappeared, but these days it’s selling incredibly well. Money’s just pouring in.”
“I heard you’re supplying to the Academy too?”
“The price difference from the previous protective suits isn’t huge, but the performance is far superior.”
“Oh, did you see your name got added to the Awakener Management Bureau’s recommended items list?”
“Yeah, I did. Director Baek Young-shin must have handled it. He seemed pleased that the survival rate of new hunters has improved.”
When fewer rookies died, the probability of them growing into veterans increased proportionally. It meant more combat power to fight monsters—something to welcome.
“I’m going to the bank to open an investment account. I should put some money into investments.”
“Yes, go ahead.”
Yang Sang-heon sighed and spoke with an expression of resigned understanding.
* * *
I went to a nearby bank, drew a number ticket, and waited.
I roughly knew which companies would make names for themselves in the future. Of course, since I couldn’t be certain how the future would change, I planned to diversify my investments.
“Customer number 39.”
It was my turn, so I approached the counter.
“Hello. How can I help you?”
“I’d like to open a stock trading account.”
“Ah, yes. May I see your ID? Are you an existing customer with our bank?”
“Yes.”
I handed over my ID and inserted my bank card into the terminal.
“Ah… Oh my! W… Wait a moment, please!”
The female employee saw my information and hurried over to the branch manager sitting in the back.
At first, the branch manager’s expression suggested confusion—why the fuss?—but when the employee whispered something to him, he shot up from his seat.
“Sir, hello. I’m Ye Hee-eun, the branch manager here. Please, let me escort you to our VIP room.”
A polished, experienced-looking female branch manager approached and greeted me. The fact that she called me “sir” meant she’d seen the founder information for Rigen.

“Of course.”
Truthfully, I didn’t care whether we used a teller window or not, but since I’d already drawn attention from the other customers, I quietly followed the branch manager up to the VIP room on the second floor. The bank was a single-story building with high ceilings, though a section of the interior was divided into two levels. Climbing the stairs along the wall, I found the VIP room overlooked the entire first floor below.
“Would you like some coffee? Or tea?”
“Coffee, please.”
The branch manager held up two fingers to the employee who had followed us.
“You mentioned opening a stock account?”
“I’ll be happy to assist. While I’m setting up your account, would it be alright if I explained some of our investment products?”
“Yes, please do.”
I wasn’t particularly interested, but there was a chance I might learn something new, so I listened quietly while waiting for the coffee to arrive.
The branch manager opened promotional materials and explained with great enthusiasm, showing past performance records.
I sipped my coffee for about ten minutes while listening, but nothing particularly caught my interest.
“I’ll think about it. The account is open now, correct?”
“Yes. You can now invest online as well. If you need anything at all, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Whether it’s bank-related or not, I’ll help with whatever I can.”
I wasn’t sure what a bank branch manager could help with outside of banking services, but I appreciated the enthusiasm.
I exchanged pleasantries and stood up from my seat.
“Everyone down!”
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Gunshots rang out, followed by screams from the people below.
Glancing out the window at the first floor, I saw three men threatening the customers.
One wielded a gun, another was a mage spewing flames from his hands, and the real problem was the man strapped with what appeared to be a mana stone bomb.
He held a dead man’s switch in his grip—the kind that detonates when released, not when pressed. In other words, if I sniped him and he lost his grip, it would explode. Even if he pressed the detonation button with his thumb, it would still detonate. I never thought I’d see something straight out of a Hollywood action film here.
“If this goes off, this entire building gets blown to pieces! Security! Drop your weapons!”
A mana stone bomb—red liquid with mana stones suspended within it. The mana stone’s energy had been deliberately triggered to release all at once. They were so difficult to control that misfires were common and the blast radius was unpredictable. But if we were unlucky and it detonated with full force, everyone in this building would be killed, just as he said.
The moment the robbers rushed in with their guns and flames, the security guard had no choice but to lower his gas gun and lie flat on the ground.
“You! You! You! Close all the window blinds! Move quickly!”
The mage pointed at hostages and ordered them to cover all the windows.
The gunman shot out the ceiling cameras one by one, and each time the hostages flinched in terror.
“Oh… no!”
The branch manager confirmed the situation through the window and pressed a button beneath his desk.
“S-sir, please h-hide under the desk.”
The branch manager trembled so badly he could barely speak, yet he still looked after me, pulling at my arm.
If I went down there, three robbers of that caliber would be nothing, but the hostages could get caught in the crossfire, so I couldn’t move recklessly. For now, I hid my body behind the desk as the branch manager suggested.
Just then, the gunman came up to the second floor to check it out.

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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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