Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 70

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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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70
“It seems the people of the Exbrian Empire have tarnished Tellus’s reputation.”
Sono Rim sighed as he watched our group take a defensive stance.
“We come from a different nation than those who arrived on Earth not long ago. Our continents, our countries, and our ideologies are all different.”
“Wait, step aside for a moment.”
Since the Azure Dragon Guild had arrived, I moved the orc and the silver-haired man to the side.
With the Azure Dragon Guild’s arrival, our team, the Azure Dragon Guild, and the two Tellus natives formed a triangular standoff.
“You there, Hunter! Don’t interfere and get out of here!”
The angular-faced man at the front shouted. It was amusing how humans could be so rude while orcs were unfailingly courteous.
He looked like a typical tank, wielding a sword and a large shield.
“Why are you chasing them?”
“Didn’t you hear?! We’re the Azure Dragon Guild! Get out of here now!”
The man tapped the guild mark on his shield with the flat of his blade.
“T… Team Leader!”
The hunter beside him whispered something into the team leader’s ear, and the man’s expression changed.
“…Ahem. So you were Lee Ji-seok and Bae Na-young. My apologies.”
He recognized my face. I wished he’d been this courteous from the start.
“Never mind that. What’s the situation here?”
“This is not your concern, Lee Ji-seok. It’s an internal matter of the Azure Dragon Guild, so please step back.”
“Do you know these people are from Tellus?”
“I don’t. I’m simply following orders from above. I don’t want a violent conflict, so please withdraw.”
His heart rate elevated, and his grip on his weapon tightened.
“Why must we fight?”
“If you won’t move aside, I have no choice. No matter how much of a hot topic you are these days, Lee Ji-seok, I’m also an A-rank Hunter.”
The Azure Dragon Guild members surrounded us in a wide circle.
“Yang Sang-heon, Ye-seul—protect Bae Na-young. Bae Na-young, use Blind.”
I issued my commands while donning my armor, and the three moved in perfect synchronization.
When Ye-seul cast Goddess’s Shield, a translucent spherical barrier enveloped Bae Na-young and Ye-seul. It was a skill I’d acquired after leveling up during the forced march through the A-rank Gate.
“Attack from the rear first!”
The team leader engaged me while his command sent the ranged hunters drawing their bowstrings and chanting spells. However, most of them were B-rank or C-rank Hunters. In other words, their reaction time was slow.
Bae Na-young’s Blind took effect first, and everyone’s eyes clouded over. Unable to see where to aim, they couldn’t attack at all.
The team leader and the B-rank Hunters, their Blind dispelled first by the Healer, rushed at me.
“Rumors aside, you’re still just an A-rank like me! Surround him!”
If I could just raise my rank faster, I wouldn’t have to deal with these misunderstandings.
I caught the team leader’s thrusting blade with my bare hand.
“What?”
I kicked his shield away, sending it flying. An arrow came from behind the team leader, which I caught and snapped in half with a single hand before condensing my aura and hurling it at the archer’s torso.
An ice spear from a mage flew at me and struck my body. It couldn’t pierce my armor—it merely froze the surface. The thin layer of ice that formed shattered and fell away as I moved.
As I approached to deal with the mage, another melee warrior blocked my path, swinging his blade at my neck. It wasn’t pure aura, but it was mana-infused—a skill with power comparable to aura.
I took the blow directly on my neck without defending. A blade of that caliber couldn’t even scratch my armor. I grabbed the warrior’s neck, lifted him upward, and slammed him into the ground.
“Do you really think you’ll get away with this?! We’re the Azure Dragon Guild!”
The last remaining A-rank mage who had hurled ice spears at me glared at us with malice.
“This is self-defense. You attacked us first.”
I said that and lightly struck the mage’s neck, knocking him unconscious.
Turning around, I saw Yang Sang-heon beating the Azure Dragon Guild’s B and C-rank hunters who were caught in the blinds, using the scabbard of his sword. He was venting all the stress he’d accumulated so far on the Azure Dragon Guild members.
“Why didn’t you fight them instead of running away?”
I asked Sono Rim and the Silver-haired Man.
“Though I haven’t been on Earth long, I’m well aware of the atrocities the Exbrian Empire’s people have committed. If I were to use my strength here, it’s obvious that Tellus’s notoriety would spread even further, so I couldn’t use it.”
“Hmm….”
“I have no intention of fighting. I merely wish to ask for your cooperation, Lee Ji-seok.”
“You know who I am?”
“With the help of a great being, I was able to come here. And that being instructed me to seek your assistance.”
Sono Rim spoke consistently and calmly. I wasn’t used to a belligerent orc behaving this way.
“Who is this great being?”
“Tellus itself—a being revered as a god. Though they do not intervene in human affairs, they have judged the current situation to deviate from the world’s natural flow.”
“Are you talking about the Destruction God?”
“No. I’m referring to how the situation in Tellus has worsened because of the Bridge Gate. While the weakening of the Exbrian Empire and the Eastern Continent nations allied with them is something to welcome, if left unchecked, innocent people will suffer as well. Would you not consider closing it?”
“How am I supposed to believe all of that?”
“We have not come to employ violent methods. We will cooperate fully. Let us resolve this through dialogue. However, if I fail, what comes next will not be a fragile being like us.”
“Aren’t you a master? Fragile?”
“Wait…. That orc is a master?!”
Yang Sang-heon, who had finished restraining all the small fry, heard our conversation and was shocked. Bae Na-young and Ye-seul also seemed quite surprised.
“Fragility and strength are relative concepts. Compared to that great being, I am infinitely insignificant.”
Watching the orc speak with such consistent humility, even my fighting spirit dissipated.
“Very well. Let us go together then.”
I took them to the Awakener Management Bureau. And I also handed over the Azure Dragon Guild’s attackers to the bureau.
“Why do you keep bringing problems with you? Hunter Lee Ji-seok….”
Director Baek Young-shin pressed his temples repeatedly.
“No, I stayed out of this one, I swear.”
“The Azure Dragon Guild seems intent on cutting off the tail to save the body. Since A-rank hunters are always in short supply, I’ve issued a fine and ordered them to conduct hunter activities under government supervision for the next several years.”
The punishment seemed light, but not receiving a salary and entering Gates at the government’s command was worse than serving a prison sentence. With the criminal extradition treaty in place, they couldn’t go to other countries either. Perhaps an S-rank hunter would be valuable enough for a nation to risk international conflict to recruit, but an A-rank didn’t have that kind of value.
“So those orcs…. Or rather, how much can we trust what those people say?”
“I can’t read orc expressions, but I don’t get a bad feeling. And while that man doesn’t show much emotion either, he wasn’t lying. Ah, but I could tell exactly what the Azure Dragon Guild was hiding.”
“We suspect they were trying to capture Tellus people and extract information about this other world for themselves.”
“But wouldn’t that be impossible with Paul around?”
“We do receive information from him, but he didn’t know much of the useful information that Helen seemed to have. For example, if you told a Korean person to make a smartphone from scratch in an empty field, could they do it?”
“They couldn’t. I understand.”
“And there was a prevailing opinion that relying on Paul’s information alone to understand Tellus was dangerous. In such circumstances, an ally is most welcome. Shall we go in together and have a conversation?”
“Me too?”
“Those people say they won’t talk unless Hunter Lee Ji-seok is present.”
“I was wondering why you called for me….”
I entered the interrogation room with the Director, its walls reinforced with steel.
“Lee Ji-seok.”
The orc greeted me while seated. Even if he wanted to stand, his hands and feet were restrained.
“What did you want to discuss with me?”
“As I mentioned before, I would appreciate it if you could close the Gate.”
“Otherwise, this great being will attack us, correct?”
“I apologize if it sounded like a threat. While the Western Continent isn’t pleased about cleaning up the Eastern Continent’s mess, we are prepared to cooperate fully for the future of the Tellus planet.”
“Cooperate in what way?”
“Earth’s mechanical civilization has developed overwhelmingly. As a result, magical technology appears underdeveloped. Since I possess considerable knowledge among mages, I believe I can contribute significantly to your advancement.”
In fact, Paul had proven rather useless before Director Baek Young-shin arrived, but a Master-class competent mage would be far more helpful than Paul. Moreover, since this orc came from a different faction, we could gather diverse information about international relations.
“We will also provide the items we brought. However, some were taken by people we met first.”
They were handed over when the Azure Dragon Guild made initial contact.
“If you provide detailed information about those items, we will recover them ourselves.”
Director Baek Young-shin took notes beside me.
“Then, you trust us?”
“That depends on how you both conduct yourselves going forward.”
Over the next hour, I received information about Tellus’s political situation and a general overview of what technologies could be transferred.
“What do you think, Director?”
I stepped out briefly for coffee and asked Director Baek Young-shin.
“Hunters capable of detecting lies were observing from the beginning, and they said they couldn’t sense any falsehood.”
“I didn’t sense any hostility either.”
“We’ll need internal discussions, but I think we can proceed positively.”
After several days of negotiations, we agreed to close the Bridge Gate on the condition that technology transfer would occur first.
As compensation for my contribution, I placed Jae-in on the technology transfer team. She had proven her capabilities during the previous Gate Bridge crisis, so it wasn’t difficult.
“B-boss! Did you see this?! I never would have thought of such an approach!”
Jae-in thrust the materials she had received today under my nose.
The paper Jae-in held was densely filled with symbols, tables, and characters—whether they were doodles or notes, I couldn’t tell.
“That’s impressive.”
I couldn’t understand any of it, but I let it slide.
“With this…. This could…!”
“Jae-in, Jae-in, breathe. Just breathe.”
I calmed the extremely excited Jae-in.
Jae-in, who had been peering so closely her eyes nearly touched the paper, suddenly lifted her head and stared blankly into empty space.
“Jae-in?”
“Brother…. Something seems broken?”
Yang Sang-heon waved his hand in front of Jae-in’s eyes, but her pupils showed no response.
“That’s it!”
Jae-in cried out and bolted from her seat, then stormed out of the room like a whirlwind.
“Is she alright? Brother?”
“I’m fine… I think.”
When I glanced toward the corner, Bae Na-young was also staring into empty space. It seemed she’d received magical knowledge from Sono Rim, and she’d praised it extensively, saying it differed both quantitatively and qualitatively from what she’d received from Paul.
For days now, she’d been scribbling something in a notebook or organizing thoughts in her mind, staring blankly into space. Occasionally, she’d wave her hands through the air as if conducting an invisible orchestra.
“Are you sure this is okay?”
Watching the two of them, I couldn’t bring myself to tell Yang Sang-heon that everything was fine.

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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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