Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 45

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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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45
I entrusted Richard with the item he’d used to open the Gate, then returned to the Hotel.
Since morning had come, they must have started their schedule by now—I was curious how Helen had explained Richard’s disappearance.
“Yu President.”
I called out to Yu President, who was keeping watch from the rooftop of the building next to the Hotel.
“Ugh!”
Yu President jumped in fright and rolled across the ground.
“Why are you so startled?”
“… When you approach without a sound like that, it’s naturally alarming.”
“With nerves that frayed, how do you manage to work as a thug?”
“We’re not thugs, we’re private investigators….”
“Same difference.”
I didn’t have time now, but once this incident was over, I’d need to train Yu President’s crew properly. If they became more useful, I’d have more work to assign them.
“So what’s the atmosphere like over there?”
“The number of guards has doubled because that Richard person has gone missing.”
Yu President brushed off his pants and stood up as he spoke.
“The guards likely intend to protect them, but since the otherworlders wandering about freely is also a problem, they’re probably also there to monitor them.”
“Those bastards won’t be moving around easily for a while. That works out well.”
“But where did that person go? When will he return?”
“Who knows? I was chasing him but lost track.”
There was no benefit in Yu President knowing the details.
“Is that so?”
Given that I’d previously crushed Seo Kyung-hyun’s skull, he clearly didn’t believe me—not that it mattered. At minimum, he understood I wasn’t a mad killer, but rather someone who killed such people.
I turned my gaze toward the Hotel. As Yu President said, people moved about busily with a hectic atmosphere, but there was no major commotion. They couldn’t publicly announce the disappearance, after all.
While their unwanted protection restricted their movements, I needed to find all the internal Gates they’d created.
First, I went to the Gate where the Giant Stone Golem had appeared. It had already been reset after I cleared it recently.
No hunters besides me entered it, likely because of the fatal accident that had occurred not long ago.
As I defeated the Golem, I searched every corner of the Gate’s interior space.
And I discovered an internal Gate cunningly hidden behind the rocks. Even searching deliberately, it was difficult to find—it took me considerable time as well.
I memorized that location, cleared the Gate, and exited.
Then I visited every Gate where accidents had occurred and marked the locations of internal Gates on a map.
“Damn bastards made a lot of them.”
Jae-in spoke as she looked at the locations I’d marked on the map. So far, I’d found twenty locations.
“How is the development progressing?”
“I’m analyzing the items, but this is technology that doesn’t exist on Earth.”
“You think you can’t do it?”
“Who said I couldn’t? It’s just a bit difficult, that’s all.”
Her pride as a technician wouldn’t allow surrender. This was Jae-in, who would become Korea’s greatest craftsperson in the future. Though her experience might be slightly lacking compared to her prime in the previous life, her insight for research and development surpassed anyone’s. If Jae-in couldn’t do it in Korea, no one could.
“Time is running short. I’m preventing breaks by clearing Gates with internal bridges first, but if something goes wrong even once, hunters will die, and if it gets worse, it’s a Break. You know the casualties from the last Break?”
“I’ll hurry.”
Jae-in returned to her workbench, and I stepped out of the workshop.
“Brother.”
Bae Na-young called out as I headed toward the Gate.
“Is something going on lately? You’ve always visited the Gate frequently, but you seem incredibly busy these days. And your expression doesn’t look good either.”
Worry filled Bae Na-young’s face. No matter how hard I tried to hide it, it was difficult to conceal from someone close to me.
After a brief moment of deliberation, I resolved to tell everyone. Soon enough, I would need Yang Sang-heon and Bae Na-young’s strength anyway.
“Want to meet with Yang Sang-heon for a moment? I have something I need to tell you.”
I called Yang Sang-heon and Bae Na-young into the workshop and recounted the story I’d told Jae-in.
“Do we really have to go to the Awakener Management Bureau?”
Yang Sang-heon asked tentatively.
“They’re unlocking magical knowledge we don’t possess. There are things that would take decades or centuries to research independently on Earth. That’s why governments worldwide are extremely favorable toward them. Frankly, there are probably countries willing to take them in even knowing they’re opening internal Gates. But if I report them without evidence, I’ll be the one arrested instead. I need perfect evidence to take a hard stance.”
Bae Na-young and Yang Sang-heon seemed to understand the situation.
“Yang Sang-heon, I’ve prepared items for you as well. Take them.”
Jae-in handed over a newly crafted sword to Yang Sang-heon.
“For me?”
“You’ll need it going forward. The blade itself isn’t exceptionally hard, but I’ve imbued it with light properties. When you use a skill, it will become harder and sharper than any other sword.”
“Thank you so much!”
“This is armor inscribed with magic. It has considerable resistance to impact and magical damage.”
“Is today your birthday or something?”
He completely forgot about the bad news from moments ago and became absorbed in the new items.
“For Bae Na-young, this is a cloak. Since you’ll likely be in a support role, I designed it with emphasis on magical defense and projectile protection.”
Bae Na-young, who had an eye for fashion, draped the cloak over herself, and it looked striking.
“Jae-in, thank you.”
“If I had more time, I would have made even better things, but time is short right now.”
“I’m grateful you managed this much in such a short timeframe.”
With Yang Sang-heon and Bae Na-young joining in, the break prevention operations became considerably smoother. All the effort I’d invested in training them was paying off.
* * *
After over a month of preventing breaks, Yang Sang-heon and Bae Na-young’s exhaustion had reached its peak. I’d assigned them only easy Gates and instructed them to hide if things got dangerous and wait for me to handle it, but processing Gates several times more numerous than what ordinary hunters tackled was taxing both physically and mentally.
Of course, I’d cleared several times the number of Gates that Yang Sang-heon and Bae Na-young had.
Thanks to clearing all those Gates, our levels had risen as well.
After finishing the day’s schedule, I began nighttime surveillance operations.
Helen’s group must be getting anxious right now. They’re losing information, yet not a single break is occurring.
And coincidentally, today the security returned to its normal numbers. Maintaining that many guards continuously was impossible. And Paul made his move. The fact that he moved the moment the security was reduced suggested he was quite desperate.
As I watched the hotel window, light flashed and then vanished. I thought he might be wearing an invisibility cloak again, so I focused my mind and senses to examine my surroundings, but I saw nothing.
Then the scent of that bastard came on the wind.
“Yu President, keep watching the other two.”
I left the instruction with Yu President and, without waiting for a response, leaped from the building and rushed toward the direction of the scent.
At the end of the scent trail stood a man wearing a pulled-down hat. Though obscured by the hat, blonde hair was visible. He must have found clothes somewhere.
The destination was obvious without even looking.
There was no need to wait until he entered the Gate—I could intercept him at an appropriate location.
I finally entered the deserted Rear Mountain.
There was no sign that he had noticed me.
I tensed my legs and lunged forward in an instant, reaching for his neck with my hand.
Or rather, I thought I had. I definitely swung my hand and felt it brush against something. Then I clenched my fist, but he vanished.
My keen senses detected something hurtling toward me from behind, so I quickly lowered my stance.
The space at my neck height warped. The tree beside me twisted as if compressed at exactly my neck height and toppled over.
Space-transfer skills were already uncommon among Earth’s Hunters, but I’d never even heard of warping space itself to attack.
“Who are you to attack me?”
Paul asked, pointing the tip of his dagger at me.
“You don’t know? You should solve your own world’s problems yourself.”
“…I don’t know how you found out, but being alone here means no one else knows about this place.”
“Why try to kill me and silence me? Richard was nothing special.”
“So it was you… I’ll twist your limbs off.”
As he drew his dagger through the air, I felt the formless attack again. I zigzagged forward to close the distance, swinging my hand, but he teleported away as expected.
This time I didn’t relax my guard and expanded my senses in all directions, detecting where he reappeared. I spun my body toward him and attacked.
Before my hand could reach his neck, an invisible barrier grabbed my hand and squeezed it like laundry. My fingers and wrist bones—which hadn’t broken even when trampled by a Troll—snapped and twisted.
While he was convinced he’d won, I struck his ribs with my left fist.
“Kack!”
I heard his ribs crack with a sickening sound, and he clutched his side, staggering before dropping to one knee. The space distortion squeezing my hand released.
“Impressive. Do you warp space to ignore defense and attack?”
I spoke while looking at my twisted hand.
“How… it shouldn’t have been cut…”
“Huh? You were trying to cut it?”
I realigned my twisted fingers and wrist. Then, through my regeneration skill, they returned to normal without a single wound.
“Are you a monster…?”
“The real monster is you, who killed innocent people. Dozens died in the Break Incident, and through your Gate manipulation, at least dozens of Hunters were killed. If I hadn’t stopped you, far more would have died.”
Being called a monster by an actual monster infuriated me.
“Long words aren’t necessary. You have your mission, and I have mine.”
He raised his dagger toward me and stood up. Richard seemed to struggle even breathing from his rib injury, but with desperate resolve, he drew his dagger through the empty air.
Each swing of the dagger sent space distortions hurtling from all directions.
I concentrated my senses to feel the incoming attacks and threw my body into the gaps. When I dodged and approached him, he teleported away.
An irritating technique. But his teleportation distance wasn’t long to begin with, and I could see it growing shorter—he was reaching his limit.
I threw another punch at the spot where he reappeared.
He unfurled a massive curtain of space before him and smiled. If I hit that, my entire body might be sucked in and twisted.
In that moment, I channeled my aura into my fist and thrust it forward, releasing it like a projectile before pulling my fist back.
My released life force collided with his space barrier, and the air tore with a deafening roar as shockwaves swept in all directions.
I shielded my face with my arm and lowered my body to withstand the impact.
The impact was so tremendous that my body was pushed back, and Paul was sent flying backward, crashing into a tree.
“Damn it… I can’t die again…”
When I approached, fortunately he wasn’t dead, but he was a complete wreck. I pried open his mouth and pulled out one molar that was a different color.
I pulled a potion from my pocket and forced it down his throat.
If he dies, there’s nothing I can do about it, but I desperately hope he survives.
After stripping him of every item, I hoisted Paul onto my shoulder and made my way back to the Workshop.
* * *
I carried him down into the Workshop’s basement. The tenacious bastard’s face was a wreck and his limbs were broken, but he clung to life.
“No one enters here from now on. If anything goes wrong later, I’ll take full responsibility alone.”
From this point forward, I would extract information from him through interrogation if necessary. If things went south, we could all be dragged down together.
“Boss, we’ve come this far—there’s no backing out now.”
“I’ll just say you threatened me.”
“Yang Sang-heon….”
Bae Na-young glared at him.
“I’m joking, joking. Hahaha.”
“Why doesn’t it sound like a joke? Oppa, don’t leave us out. We’re all in this together now.”
Seeing their resolve, my heart swelled. In my past life, I had comrades, but survival was such a daily struggle that we never formed bonds this strong.
“Thank you. But it’s fine for now. I’ll go in first and come back out.”
There was no need to expose them to what was about to happen.
I ushered everyone out and closed the basement door.

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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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