Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 51

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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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51
Why am I enduring this bastard’s stress relief disguised as training? How much further will my misfortune extend?
I had a sturdy build and sharp features since childhood. I resembled my father, or so they said. He died in a Gate accident before I was even born, so I never saw him in person—only in photographs. To me, the resemblance seemed exaggerated. My mother passed away not long after giving birth to me.
Fortunately, I didn’t end up in an orphanage. My uncle and I lived together. He never forced anything on me, but watching him work desperately to care for me, I tried to live righteously.
“Hey, Nam Si-hwan, don’t back out, you bastard. Come here, will you?”
Classmates smoking and loitering behind the school called me to join them. Because I was big, because my face looked menacing. In that wretched neighborhood and wretched school, it was an everyday occurrence.
At first I avoided them, but eventually only these kinds of people remained around me. Simply being seen with those delinquents for a brief moment made other kids avoid me.
In the end, I didn’t fit deeply with anyone and remained alone.
If my face was like this, at least my intellect should have been sharp. Why was I so dull? I was terrible at studying too.
“Damn it.”
Only curses came out.
One day I sat on the street watching people pass by. They wore nice clothes, joked around, played, and lived without worrying about the future. Why couldn’t I live so easily?
One day, while I was drowning in jealousy and resentment toward society, I awakened.
“Yes! That’s it!”
Poor and stupid as I was, finally the chance to reverse my life had come. Yes, this was fair.
But when I checked my status window, I wondered what this was. Shouting? Was that the screaming in rock music? I did like rock music, but what did that have to do with anything?
When I registered as an Awakener, a civil servant looked at me with pitying eyes. What was that about?
I understood why when they confirmed my ability.
“Ugh… that’s really loud. Yes. Please take this.”
When I shouted, the measurement officer rubbed his ears and handed me a paper.
An F-rank Awakener with a Shouting skill. I could have gone to the Academy, but after reading the comments on my post online, I gave up.
[brbp4572: Shouting? Not even Lion’s Roar? If the sound is loud, it would be nice to solicit customers somewhere. lol]
[StrongChu: Tsk tsk. There are always idiots who come to the Academy with garbage skills like that. When I awaken and go to the Academy, I’ll crush every bastard like you.]
[pljk2033: Just a passing F-ranker here. I also tried to succeed somehow and entered the Academy, went through hellish training, and became a hunter. But all I am is a porter. I’ll be a porter for life. No insurance, no days off, no future. Just get a regular job.]
There were mockers, there were those picking fights, and there was even someone giving sincere advice, but not a single person said, “You can do it! Give it a try!”
‘Fuck, what’s the point of trying in my life? It’ll just fail again anyway.’
Nothing had ever gone well for me. I didn’t even bother applying, thinking why torture myself at an Academy notorious for being brutal.
I continued wasting my life doing part-time work in the neighborhood. Looking for easy jobs, I found work at a convenience store night shift.
“With a face as menacing as yours, no one will steal anything. Hahaha.”
That’s what the boss said when he hired me. Seriously, did he have to say that to my face?
The convenience store owner liked that I was strong and organized merchandise well, but he didn’t pay me more for it.
I didn’t want to try. What for? I could just keep working part-time and having fun like this.
Then my uncle collapsed. He wasn’t a particularly healthy person to begin with, but he pushed himself too hard and fell ill. My uncle—who had raised me out of a sense of responsibility for my dead sister’s child. I could have abandoned him and no one would have blamed me, but my uncle never abandoned me.
Even when I strayed and wandered, my uncle would pat my shoulder and say it was okay. Now he lay in a hospital bed. Cancer, they said.
I held my uncle’s hand as he slept in his hospital bed. Had it always been this thin? In my enlarged hand since awakening, my uncle’s hand was covered in scars.
I had to earn money. Hospital bills, rent, maintenance fees, food, utilities… Damn it, money was pouring out everywhere. My uncle had done all this alone until now. For nearly twenty years.
During the day I worked at the construction site, and at night I did my convenience store shift. Times like these made me grateful I had awakened. My stamina was above average, after all.
The money wasn’t enough. I couldn’t cover living expenses for two people and hospital bills. And the surgery date was approaching.
“If you can’t pay, we can’t perform the surgery.”
The receptionist spoke mechanically. Damn it. Don’t you have family? So what am I supposed to do? Take my uncle and leave? Let him die on the street?
Rage boils up inside me. I want to smash everything to pieces. I’m furious at myself for never trying before. I’m furious at my parents for dying and leaving me behind. I resent this goddamn world.
I return to my house, hurling and destroying the few appliances and junk I own while screaming.
My strength drains away, and I collapse onto the floor. Nothing has changed. No, things have only gotten worse—I’ve destroyed my own house.
My uncle needs to survive. I have to save him.
I pick myself up and head to the Bank. Unsurprisingly, neither my uncle nor I can borrow money there. Damn it.
I go to a local loan shark’s office to borrow money.
If I borrow from here, will it actually solve the problem? Won’t things just get more complicated later?
“Shit… what am I supposed to do….”
I give up and reach for the door to the loan shark’s office, but someone opens it from inside first. I’m above average in size myself, but this guy is a full head taller than me and built like a bear.
“Oh? A customer?”
Someone peeks their head out from inside the loan shark’s office.
“No, he’s my younger brother. I told him to wait downstairs, but he came up anyway.”
What the hell is he talking about?
“No, I came to borrow money…. Mmph!!”
I try to say I came to borrow money, but the bear-like man’s hand covers not just my mouth but my entire face.
“Boss, if you need anything else done, just call me again.”
Then he forcibly drags me out. I’m strong enough to put up a fight, but I can’t move an inch.
He doesn’t let me go until we’re out on the street.
“Who the hell are you?!”
“What were you trying to do in there?”
“Borrow money from a loan shark. What else would I be doing?”
“How old are you? Are you even twenty?”
“Why does it bother you that a younger guy is speaking informally?”
“Of course it bothers me, you bastard. You’re just a kid. But that’s not why I’m asking. Do you know what happens if you borrow from those guys?”
“I need money right now! What am I supposed to do?!”
“I’ll lend it to you. Work under me and pay it back.”
That was Yoon Hyung-bin. He couldn’t abandon me when I was about to ruin my life by borrowing from loan sharks, unable to even take care of myself.
At the Detective Agency, we did background checks on people, surveillance, finding missing persons, and such. Sometimes we took jobs intimidating people. We never quite crossed the line, but it was never about making others happy.
“Hyung, is it okay to do this kind of work?”
“Are you stupid? I’m the same way. You need money? So do I. But here’s the thing—guys like us can’t expect our own lives to be happy while we’re taking care of other people’s lives too. We have to do whatever we can, whether it’s shady or not.”
The pay wasn’t bad, but everyone had their own circumstances and debts, so money was always tight. Still, we never went hungry, and we had our share of good times.
While working at the Detective Agency, I borrowed money for several surgeries, but my uncle eventually passed away.
The Detective Agency family filled the sparse funeral hall—only a few coworkers from the Construction Site where my uncle worked were there.
I wept bitterly. Not because I was sad, but because I pitied my uncle. He shouldn’t have ended like this. He deserved a better life. I held him back, and I led him to this unremarkable end.
Hyung and the others simply stayed by my side, waiting until I had cried everything out.
The man was dead, but the debt remained. I decided to pay it off while working at the Detective Agency. There was nowhere else for me to go anyway.
Then a big job came in. It wasn’t something we’d normally take, but the guy who showed up in a neat suit and expensive car casually handed over a contract fee larger than anything we’d ever received before.
Intimidating an F-rank hunter. We’re all F-rank Awakeners ourselves, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. We just had to go to where the hunter’s family works, act like troublemakers, and scare them into making the hunter quit.
I went to the Cafeteria where the hunter’s mother works and acted like a difficult customer, shouting. It came naturally—being a nuisance was easy. But when the other customers in the Cafeteria pointed at me and whispered, I felt ashamed. I felt angry.
What was I doing? This woman hadn’t done anything wrong.
I raised my voice louder than necessary and grew more heated. Then, without thinking, I grabbed a cup and hurled it to the floor. It wasn’t a calculated action—my rage moved me.
A sharp fragment from the shattered cup flew high and grazed the woman’s face.
Blood seeped from the wound, and my mind went blank.
Snapping back to reality at the sound of people screaming, I spoke the words my client had instructed me to say.
“Raise your child properly!”
Then I threw down several ten-thousand-won bills and fled.
“We’re screwed….”
When I returned, Yoon Hyung-bin was holding his head in his hands.
“Why?”
“We were deceived. It’s not F-rank. It’s C-rank.”
“What do we do now, hyung?”
“Just stay quiet. They don’t even know who we are. Let’s drop this and keep our heads down. Don’t go anywhere near that hunter or his mother.”
It was naive wishful thinking. That damned hunter had plenty of time on his hands and found us immediately.
After that, we did everything he ordered. The fact that he found us so quickly killed any thought of running. Besides, he kept giving us money—our income was better than before. Sometimes all we had to do was bow our heads and we’d earn more while doing less dirty work. There was no reason to run.
Not until this cursed training began.
Ant legs scratched us until we bled, and the acidic secretions they sprayed burned our skin. We’d use potions to heal, and then he’d shove us back into the swarm. The bastard was like a demon.
Damn it. If I’d just not thrown that cup back then, I wouldn’t be in this mess.
But as miserable as my own suffering is, watching my hyung and brothers suffer because of me is even worse.
Hyung and the others never uttered a single word of resentment. That squeezed my chest even tighter.
I couldn’t take it anymore.
* * *
“Hunter Lee Ji-seok! Since I’m the one who made the mistake, please just torment me and let the others go.”
After rolling around like dogs with his brothers for a couple of hours, Nam Si-hwan seemed to have made some kind of resolve. He dropped to his knees in front of me and spoke with grim determination.
“Hyung, we can do this. Hunter, we can handle it.”
Jin-woo and Min-woo pulled at Si-hwan, trying to stop him.
Anyone watching this scene would think they were filming a Hollywood war movie. We had a long way to go. Unable to bear the sight of the three of them clinging to each other and wailing, I let out a comment.
“What melodrama are you staging here? Anyone watching would think you were being sent to slay a dragon. You’re fighting ants. I’d give farm tools to ordinary civilians and they’d do better than you lot.”
The ones who had been clinging and crying stopped their wailing and looked up at me with blank expressions.

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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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