Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 92

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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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92
When I placed my hand against the Gate, I couldn’t pass through—it felt like touching a cold, unyielding wall. It was the same sensation as when a Gate’s capacity was full and entry was denied.
“So that’s why… no one ever came back?”
This Gate operated as a one-way passage depending on which faction controlled it. We could enter freely, but escape was impossible.
The horde of monsters surging toward us drew ever closer.
“Bae Na-young, I’m sorry.”
“I chose to follow you here. Why apologize? And regardless of where this is, let’s run as far as we can.”
“Alright.”
Giving up was something I’d done enough of in my previous life. Besides, having someone watching my back made this situation infinitely better than before.
“But what about this?”
Bae Na-young placed her hand against the Gate. The monsters would surely pass through even if we couldn’t.
“We can’t let them cross over.”
Boom!
I channeled aura into my fist and struck the Tower with devastating force. As it shattered, the light emanating from the Gate vanished.
“Oh my!”
Bae Na-young’s hand, which had been pressed against the Gate, suddenly slipped through.
Our eyes met. The Gate was shrinking by the second.
I rushed toward Bae Na-young and pushed her through the Gate.
“No! Oppa!”
Bae Na-young passed through, but the Gate had become too small for me to follow. I pulled my body back.
At least Bae Na-young had made it through. I could breathe easier now. All I had to do was destroy the remaining Towers and escape before the Gate closed completely.
I systematically destroyed every inactive Tower, collecting the critical components from the wreckage. A task for Jae-in… no, a gift.
Before leaving, I glanced back one final time and spotted the Blue Dragon lying dead in a grotesque state.
Franklin had once looked at the mana stone core in my chest and called it a Dragon Heart. His words had felt like a hint at the time. If I took this creature’s heart, it might help Jae-in complete her mana stone core.
And even if it didn’t help, the material was absurdly expensive to begin with.
The monsters had already closed to within several kilometers. At a Wyvern’s speed, they’d reach me in mere seconds.
I hesitated for a moment, but it was too wasteful to leave behind. I sprinted toward the Blue Dragon, drew a blade from the back of my hand, and sliced cleanly between its chest and neck.
I tore open the flesh and extracted a transparent, gem-like stone. Though most of its vitality and blood had been drained, leaving it nearly hollow, the residual essence still radiated considerable life force—unmistakably a Dragon Heart. I gripped both the Tower component and the Dragon Heart in my hands.
I turned to see the incoming monsters. They were now mere tens of meters away. A Wyvern flew toward me with its jaws gaping wide. Defeating that one alone wouldn’t be difficult, but behind it came hundreds—thousands—of monsters surging like a tidal wave.
I activated Boost to maximize my physical capabilities and rushed toward the last remaining Tower. I delivered a side kick that shattered it, then continued sprinting. I hurled the Dragon Heart and component from my hands, released my gigantification to slip through the shrinking Gate, and threw myself forward.
The Wyvern pursued me right on my heels, attempting to swallow me as it entered the Gate.
After passing through, I rolled across the ground. The Wyvern’s head, which had followed me through, was severed halfway, and the severed portion fell with a heavy thud.
Not the darkness of another world, but the sunlight of reality welcomed me.
And lightning as well.
Lightning suddenly fell from above. I raised my arm to shield myself.
The lightning split into multiple branches as if possessed by will, deliberately avoiding me and striking the ground around me instead.
“Oh my~ I thought it was a monster~ Sorry about that~”
A woman with oddly slow speech approached me leisurely. Blonde hair, blue eyes, Caucasian—her eyes drooped downward and were half-closed, giving her an extremely drowsy expression. If Hunter Jung Min-gi had looked tired before, this woman simply had that appearance naturally.
“Hunter Amy Gibbs, please confirm your target before attacking.”
“Oh my~ You know who I am~?”
“You must know Amy Gibbs, the S-Rank Hunter from the United States—the one called the world’s strongest.”
“I’m not sure if I’m the strongest~ Anyway, I’m sorry~ Everything that comes out of a Gate is a monster, right~ And that armor looked just like a monster to me~”
Amy pointed at my armor.
“Well… I understand.”
My armor was distinctly different from mass-produced versions. It looked more like dragon or drake scales.
“What was it like inside the Gate~?”
“It was crawling with monsters.”
“Could you tell me the details~?”
Since no one had returned from the Gate, she naturally wanted to hear about it. But I had more pressing matters.
“I’m a bit busy right now.”
I passed Amy and went to the Mexican soldier.
“My companions should have come out through another Gate. Could you check if they’re safe?”
The soldier radioed at my words, then gave me a thumbs up.
Now that I could relax, I looked around and saw ogre corpses stretching endlessly. With an S-Rank Hunter from the United States here, stopping ogres would have been easy.
“Brother, I was so worried you wouldn’t come back for a while!”
Yang Sang-heon came running over.
“I knew you would return safely, Chairman.”
Hyung-bin also greeted me.
“As expected. You’re amazing.”
Si-hwan gave me a thumbs up.
“Thank goodness.”
Ye-seul placed her hand over her heart. After crying once, something that had been blocked seemed to have opened up, and Ye-seul’s expression showed a bit more. Just a bit.
After Bae Na-young and I crossed over, the group must have fought a grueling battle—they all looked terrible.
“Let’s head back.”
As I left with my companions, Amy watched me from a distance until the very end.
* * *
After returning to the Dormitory and finishing personal maintenance, I finally had time to sit down peacefully.
I boosted my stats and opened my status window.
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Name: Lee Ji-seok
Occupation: Unemployed
Level: 53
Strength 143 (215), Stamina 147 (221), Agility 137 (206), Intelligence 60 (90), Vitality 2205, Mana 518
Skills: Regeneration A, Dragon’s Body S, Unyielding Spirit S, Poison Resistance A, Keen Senses S, Toxic Blood S
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I hadn’t made progress for a while since returning from Tellus, but after defeating the Blue Dragon, my level rose by 3. Or was it only 3?
In truth, when I rushed into the Gate, I had no certainty that Bae Na-young and I could defeat it.
Fortunately, the creature wasn’t at full strength, so we managed. If the Blue Dragon had fully recovered the power it had poured into freezing the ogres, the two of us would have stood no chance.
It was fortunate for Earth that the Ice Dragon didn’t emerge from the Gate first. The dragon probably intended to come out after melting all the ogres and reclaiming its power. With the monster army that followed, it wouldn’t have even considered wasting effort sending ogres as a vanguard.
In the end, everything was resolved well, and we gained much from it.
Considering that S-Rank Hunters typically have main stats ranging from 70 to 80, my boosted state was roughly three times their level. Of course, the absence of skills still held me back, but the techniques I’d acquired this time were comparable to actual skills.
I pulled a blade from the back of my hand.
The blades emerging from both hands were wrapped in a crimson aura, making me feel like an alien character from a video game.
And with the transformation into a dragon’s body came two cores nestled in my chest. One lung held heat, while the other accumulated cold.
Rather than simply energy gathering in my lungs, a new organ—something like a Dragon Heart—had formed.
When I channeled my body’s vitality through this core, the cold and heat intensified.
This incident had elevated my combat power by several tiers, and I’d obtained both a Dragon Heart and Tower components.
I clenched my fist, feeling the immense power coursing through my body.
* * *
“What am I supposed to do with all of this?”
Jae-in’s face had gone pale as she arrived via the high-speed private jet.
“We need to make armor. Ogre leather armor.”
“Uh….”
People often say “as much as a mountain” when describing something in abundance, but this wasn’t a metaphor. Ogre corpses were stacked dozens of meters high, and there were several such small mountains. Heavy machinery was still moving and stacking more ogre bodies.
Jae-in lowered her head and pressed her temples repeatedly.
“But you said before that you were short on ogre leather?”
“Chairman….”
Jae-in’s expression crumpled.
“Don’t be like that. Let’s give it a try. I’ll help you.”
Jae-in had turned her head sharply as if to scold me, but seeing me smile, she sighed in resignation.
“Fine. I’ll do it. This is my mistake for the contract terms.”
“If you finish this well, I’ll give you a gift.”
I’d decided to give her the Dragon Heart and components later—if I gave them now, she’d abandon this work and cling to those instead.
“What should we start with?”
I rolled up my sleeves.
“Preservation treatment first. We need to keep these from rotting, but building a cold storage facility large enough for this volume would take time….”
“Ah, that—I can help with that. You brought the core, right?”
“Yes, it hasn’t been mixed with the catalyst yet.”
Jae-in retrieved two metal suitcases from the car.
“You said it exploded last time, and you’re doing it again?”
“Jae-in, your words and expression don’t match at all.”
Her tone was worried, but her eyes sparkled with eagerness to proceed.
“Ahem. Last time, that madman prevented us from collecting data.”
“This time there’s no interference, so it won’t go haywire. Go ahead.”
Jae-in placed the two suitcases side by side on flat ground. Connecting clasps sprang from both cases, interlocking them into a single unit.
A core rose from one suitcase while a syringe containing the catalyst emerged from the other.
“Should I proceed?”
“Yes.”
The catalyst was injected into the core.
Watching the core glow red, Jae-in’s expression became enraptured.
“That’s it, right?”
I asked Jae-in, who hadn’t responded.
“Oh, yes.”
Jae-in picked up the completed Core and handed it to me. I took it and pressed it against my chest, then covered it with armor.
“Ah! You’re just going to destroy everything? Burn it with your aura? That sounds perfect.”
“That’s not it.”
I approached the Mountain of the Ogre at the very front.
“Whoooosh!!!”
Then I circled around the Ogre’s Mountain, exhaling the frigid air from my lungs.
“… So you captured an Ice Dragon, and now you’ve become one yourself?”
“Without the Core, I wouldn’t have been able to freeze everything completely. I’ll need to freeze it periodically, but if we build a proper Warehouse in the meantime, it should work, right?”
“Sigh… I understand. But it’s going to take quite a while. Be prepared for that.”
Jae-in was concerned about how long it would take, but I had confidence in my plan and wasn’t particularly worried.
“Taho, remember what I mentioned before?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Manpower.”
“Ah, the people who used to work at the drug Factory have been sitting on the streets causing trouble anyway. If you’re offering them work, we’d actually welcome it. How many do you need?”
“About 20,000 for now?”
“Huh? How many?”
“20,000.”
“Haha, I thought you spoke English well, Lee Ji-seok, but you seem weak with numbers. I thought you said 20,000.”
“That’s right. 20,000.”
“… Immediately?”
“Immediately.”
“… I’ll do my best.”
Taho fell into contemplation at the sudden request.

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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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