Infinite Evolution Hunter [NOVEL] - chapter 37
I entered a room on the top floor of the Bureau headquarters.
“Please wait here.”
The secretary led me to the inner door.
Knock knock.
“Hunter Lee Ji-seok has arrived.”
“Let him in.”
“Hello.”
I greeted him as I walked in.
“Hunter Lee Ji-seok, thank you for coming.”
Section Chief Baek Young-shin stood up to welcome me.
“It’s been a while, Section Chief Baek. Ah, I should say Director now, right?”
I pointed at the nameplate that said Director.
“Haha, after working in the field all this time, just sitting in an office feels really uncomfortable.”
The previous director had been dismissed after it was revealed he’d taken bribes from Shinwoo, and Baek Young-shin had taken the position as his successor.
Director Baek had produced unexpected results in several subjugation missions, and arresting the Shinwoo heir and the hired killer also counted as his achievements.
Since most of the big reasons he’d become director were connected to me, he was very favorably disposed toward me.
“So, what did you call me here for?”
“Please, have a seat first. Would you like some tea?”
“Yes.”
I sat down on the sofa, and Director Baek sat down across from me.
As soon as we sat, the secretary came in, set the tea down in front of us, and left.
“I hear you’ve been clearing gates at an incredible pace lately.”
“Yes, I need a lot of things, and I have energy to spare.”
“Most hunters don’t run that many gates.”
“Is that a problem?”
Given how often the Bureau had nitpicked me, I felt a bit uneasy.
“No, no. Not at all. Quite the opposite. I called you because I want to ask you a favor.”
“A favor?”
“Right now, as long as you meet the minimum requirements, anyone can enter a gate.
Since no one goes in planning to die, most of the time the gates get cleared somehow.
But every now and then we get gates that don’t get cleared even when the number of entrants is close to the limit.”
“You mean gates that are on the verge of a break?”
“Yes. When a break is imminent and there are only a few entry slots left, we have no choice but to pay A-rank hunters a huge sum and beg them to clear it.”
“That’s still better than letting a break happen.”
“Exactly.
So here’s what we’d like from you, Hunter Lee-Ji-seok.
Before we resort to A-rank hunters as the last line of defense, would you be willing to go into these near-break gates, clear them, and rescue any survivors?”
“So I’d be the first safety net, and the A-ranks would be the second?”
“Precisely.
Looking at your past records, you’ve soloed a lot of C-rank gates, and in very little time at that.
We believe you’re more than capable.”
Actually, I’d already been paying a lot of attention to future incidents since my life reset.
Preventing breaks was one of those tasks.
I was periodically clearing gates that looked dangerous, and gates I knew had caused breaks in my previous life.
But since the timeline had started to drift from my memories, I needed more information, and that was hard to do alone.
If the Bureau would feed me intel, my workload would drop considerably.
“Ah, of course, we’ll provide appropriate compensation.”
When I didn’t answer right away, Director Baek seemed to think I wasn’t thrilled and hurried to dangle a carrot.
No reason to refuse if they were paying.
“All right. If you send me the schedule and gate info, I’ll clear them.”
“In that case, this one’s a bit urgent. It needs to be cleared within three days at the latest.”
He must have already decided I’d accept, because he immediately handed me a sheet with the gate information.
It was a C-rank golem gate.
“I’ll go right now.”
I downed the rest of my tea in one gulp and stood.
“Now? Are you sure?”
“I was planning to go into a gate today anyway. I can just hit this one first.
And there may be survivors inside, right?”
“Yes. Thank you. I’ll have the necessary equipment loaded into your car.”
Director Baek called the secretary back in and gave instructions.
—
After about an hour’s drive, we arrived at the gate.
There were more Bureau staff than usual deployed on site.
Several hunters were there too, blocking unauthorized personnel from entering the gate.
“Halt!”
As I approached, the hunters stepped in front of me warily.
“I brought the order. I’m here for rescue.”
I handed over the document I’d received from Director Baek.
Only after checking it did the tension drain from their faces.
They needed to be careful—if some lunatic rushed in and killed the hunters inside and then died himself, that could trigger a gate break.
“Ah, our apologies.”
I passed the guards and walked up to the gate.
“Good luck in there.”
The hunters on guard were not low-rankers either—B or C-rank at least.
But even they wouldn’t go in alone to clear it.
That was how dangerous this was.
And failure meant one more step toward a break.
The moment I passed through the gate, a rocky mountain appeared.
Classic golem gate terrain.
No point wasting time, so I raised my voice.
“Is anyone alive!!!”
Thanks to my enhanced lungs, my voice rang across the mountain like it was coming out of a loudspeaker.
Survivors might come to that call—or golems might.
Within seconds, the ground began to tremble as rocks shook.
The boulders in front of me drew together into a three-meter-tall orangutan-shaped figure.
Rock golems didn’t have mouths, so they made no roar,
but they pounded their hands on the ground and lumbered toward me threateningly.
I charged it head-on.
With every step I took, I enlarged my body.
By the time I was nearly within arm’s reach, I stood four meters tall.
As I approached and grew larger, the golem actually slowed.
I did the opposite—I accelerated and brought my fist down on its head.
The boulder that made up the orangutan golem’s head exploded, and the crash echoed across the mountainside.
Headless, the golem collapsed face-down.
If only that were enough to kill it.
Rock golems wouldn’t die unless you destroyed the core.
As expected, other stones rolled over to replace the shattered head.
But while it was forming a new head, its body stopped moving.
I slammed my fist down on the largest rock at the center of its torso.
If you didn’t know where the core was, the best method was to smash the biggest rocks in order.
Brute force, but reliable.
Every time I shattered one of the larger rocks, smaller stones rolled in to fill the gap.
Boom!
When I destroyed a rock in the torso, the stones making up the golem’s body collapsed in a heap.
Between the fragments of the last rock I’d smashed, I saw the golem’s core.
It was worth more than an ordinary mana stone.
I’d heard many companies had tried to use them to manufacture golems, but none had succeeded so far in this era.
“Phew.”
I straightened my back and caught my breath.
While I did, three more golems came thundering toward me.
“They really won’t give me a break.”
I rushed the lead one and drop-kicked its chest, scattering it,
then leapt again and smashed the second one’s head with a hook.
The last golem ground to a halt right in front of me.
The other two weren’t dead yet either.
They were pulling in nearby rocks to reconstruct themselves.
But seeing two of their vanguard collapse so easily, the last one froze.
Behavior like that made people wonder if golems had emotions.
Whether they did or not, I had no intention of sparing them.
—
I pulverized the rocks and finished off all three, then continued exploring the gate.
The scent of hunters was scattered everywhere, so it would take some time,
but I had to clear the gate anyway, so I simply turned every golem I saw into gravel.
Thanks to that, I collected a nice pile of golem cores.
I caught a faint moan in the distance—so faint that another hunter likely wouldn’t have heard it at all.
Following the sound, I found three hunters huddled in a hollow in the ground.
“A g… golem!”
The male mage shouted when he saw me.
“I’m human.”
He must have taken my enlarged silhouette for a golem.
“Uh… oh?! A p-person. W… we’re saved!”
“I was sent by the Awakener Bureau. I’ll treat this guy first. Use whatever you need from the bag.”
I shrank back to normal size and stepped into the hollow where they hid.
One male warrior’s legs were completely shattered, and the male and female mages were in bad shape too.
They were incredibly lucky to have survived and managed to hide in that state.
I poured potion into the unconscious warrior’s mouth a little at a time.
“Where are the other hunters?”
The male mage asked as he rummaged through my bag.
“I came alone.”
“A… alone? What rank are you?”
“C-rank.”
“…Great, so we’re just going to add another corpse.”
The man slumped to the ground.
“Why?”
“There’s a Giant Golem.”
“A Giant Golem, huh. Wow, that’s some rotten luck.”
They were so rare that you almost never saw one.
So that was why they’d had such a hard time clearing this gate—the party that went in first must have been wiped out by the giant.
In my previous life, this gate did not break at this point.
So an A-rank hunter must have cleared it later.
“No backup coming?”
The female mage asked.
“If we don’t come out within a day, they’ll probably send a team in?”
“A day… can we last that long…”
“Why bother? Where is it? I’ll go take care of it.”
I poured the rest of my potion onto the warrior’s ruined legs as I spoke.
“What?”
“The Giant.”
“Are you insane? Even a bunch of C-ranks together can’t beat it, and you’re going alone?”
She looked at me like I was crazy.
“I’m not asking you to come with me. Just tell me where it is.”
“Let’s just wait for rescue here. As long as they don’t find us, we have a chance.”
“I’ll look for it myself then.”
I stood up, having finished the first aid.
“It’s on the hill to the right when you go out. If you’re that eager to die, suit yourself.
But if you run, go the other way. Don’t drag us down with you.”
I left without answering.
—
“G… golem! Get up!”
The male mage once again shook his companions awake at the sight of my shadow.
“Are you going to do that every time?”
“Oh! You’re back.”
He peeked his head out to check if the Giant was around.
“Phew… good job. No point throwing your life away.”
He thought I’d chickened out and come back without fighting.
“Didn’t you see the sky? The gate’s cleared. Let’s go.”
I hoisted the still-unconscious warrior onto my shoulders.
“Seriously?”
Not trusting me, the female mage cautiously poked her head out to look around.
Outside, there were only rock fragments scattered everywhere, and no monsters in sight.
“Not coming?”
I asked as I stepped out.
“W… we’re coming!”
The two scrambled to follow.
—
After that, I went through several more gates, rescuing survivors and clearing them.
The gates they sent me into were limited to C-rank and below,
but anyway, accidents were surprisingly rare in B-rank and above.
High-rank hunters went in well-prepared.
Sometimes, like in the golem gate, the hunters who went in first could be saved,
but most of the time, by the time I got there, they were already dead.
More often than not, I could only bring their belongings back.
What surprised me a bit was how many gates were cutting it close.
There were far more cases than a year ago where the number of monsters suddenly spiked after a reset,
or rare monsters appeared, and so on.
Because of that, I kept clearing gates without rest and gained two levels.
Recognizing my contributions and track record, my hunter rank was raised to B.
I was peacefully leveling up and rescuing people, when a break happened—
in a place I never expected.