Evolution Theory of the Hunter

The first thing that came into view was the word ‘Copy’. It was attached to all things from name to skill and items. Considering how the manual isn’t ever wrong, it meant that this guy was a copy from top to bottom.

If that was possible wasn’t important right now. There was evidence in front of my eyes after all.

The van got to the top of the hill. Baek Gyeong’s eyes headed in that direction.

Damn it.

“Avoid it!”

I said so as I flung my body to the side.

At that moment, a tremendous amount of energy came out without any preparation. It look like a mere haze but had an amount of power that would be difficult to measure.

The van that got hit directly by it blew up with a massive sound. It wasn’t an explosion that caused a fire. It felt more like the power itself blew up and ripped space apart.

The only thing that was left was a hill that was half gone. The van was gone without a trace as well.

Edward had died.

I grinded my teeth and glared at the guy.

He was a guy that didn’t want to come here in the first place. His death was my fault. That’s why, the revenge had to be done by me as well.

I held the Bloody Sword and made the Dancing Sword fly. The destructive sword with Aura Blade flew towards Baek Gyeong.

A tremendous amount of power came from him once more.

It collided with the Dancing Sword with Aura Blade on it causing energy to flash and scatter.

The blazing energy scattered while creating spectrums. It was like a rainbow was fuming out.

Even during this the Dancing Sword penetrated the mass of energy and flew towards Baek Gyeong.

The moment the sword was about to penetrate his body.

He caught the blade with his hand.

“What kind of……!”

No matter how dull of a blade it was, it was in a state where Aura Blade was on it.

Catching that with bare hands was not possible even for a powerful hunter.

It was impossible.

I was thinking that when I could see the situation again. The Dancing Sword in his hand didn’t have Aura Blade on it. The Aura Blade had all been used up in the collision with the Hadron Cannon.

After confirming that I held the Bloody Sword and kicked off the ground running. If the Aura Blade wasn’t the problem I just had to do damage by melee attacks.

The distance between us decreased instantly.

A change happened for the first time on Baek Gyeong’s gloomy expression. I was going to swing the sword at the guy that was a fingertip away.

The ground below me collapsed. The guy had stomped down hard.

For the icy ground to collapse with just that.

How much power did he have?

“Kuk!”

I called the Dancing Sword by reflex to prevent myself from falling below.

Then I realized that the Dancing Sword was still in the guy’s hand.

“Kuk.”

At the thought that I would fall in at this rate I hurriedly stabbed the Bloody Sword into the cliff.

However, probably because of the cutting power of the Bloody Sword only the speed decreased a bit and my body continued to fall.

Damn.

As desperate as I was, I took out a level 1 longsword and stabbed it in.

My falling body finally stopped. It felt pretty long but the amount of time it took to get here was several seconds. Thankfully, I only fell dozens of meters. For now, since I stopped there wouldn’t be a problem going up riding the wall.

“Phew. Damn.”

It was pretty dark but thanks to the Optics Ruby Ring it wasn’t that difficult to see the surroundings.

I tried looking down to check how deep the ground was and found out that it was just a few meters below.

If I was only a bit later I would have fell on that ground.

What would have happened then?

Since I get almost no physical damage while wearing the armor I would have been fine.

For now, I took out the word and jumped down. The ground was hard dirt. With this it could be confirmed that New Alaska wasn’t a land made of ice.

At the same time, I realized that there might be more survivors from team Die Hard than I thought. Most hunters would be able to survive this kind of height after all.

There would be no point even if I went up if I couldn’t take care of that Baek Gyeong guy.

It wasn’t like I didn’t think about waiting here and leaving once he goes away.

But he had my Dancing Sword.

I couldn’t stay still while that is being taken.

I kicked off the ground with great strength. After jumping about 10 meters with a single jump I continuously kicked off the wall of ice on both sides and quickly got to the top of the crevice.

As I got up Baek Gyeong showed his back.

He turned his head to look at me.

A tremendous amount of power gathered in front of the guy again.

It was a Hadron Cannon.

However, I have already confirmed that it could be cancelled out with the Dancing Sword.

I pointed the Bloody Sword forward and ran towards him in a straight line.

Boom!

Stab!

The Bloody Sword that cancelled out the Hadron Cannon got stuck in the guy’s chest.

Then, as he looked at his chest that had been stabbed with his blank expression, he slowly opened his mouth.

“Data collection complete. Transferring.”

“What……?”

It was a human voice but I got goosebumps from the feeling that was like listening to a machine.

Something was weird about this guy.

He was a human but he couldn’t be called a human.

In the first place, the fact that he was a copy meant that there was something that was the original. In that case did that mean that this guy was a clone of some level 10 hunter?

The guy that got his chest stabbed retreated step by step and then suddenly started releasing black aura from all over his body.

His body swayed this way and that way as if he was a balloon that started losing air and soon evaporated.

Is this what it meant by disintegration……?

After the guy had disappeared in moments a sense of futility filled my heart.

The sword and armor he was holding had cleanly disappeared as well. With nothing gained there was only things lost.

This kind of battle was the first.

I let out a sigh and held the Dancing Sword that he dropped as he disintegrated.

[Collected data of Baek Gyeong (Copy).]

“Hm?”

It was a message that came up in the manual. I hurriedly opened the tutorial column of the manual. There were all kind of things I didn’t know about in there after all.

I found out that there was a new information category called ‘Baek Gyeong (Copy)’ created there.

[Baek Gyeong (Copy)]

A copy of the powerful hunter Baek Gyeong.

It was created by the system’s error so the evidence of its existence is miniscule.

As something created in an experiment Area 88 of the Chinese government it can currently be maintained for about 1 month. Its main source of power is ‘Exotic Energy’ created by grinding items.

There are currently 99 units created and another 1,000 units are planned for creation.

1,000.

A forced laughter came out at the words that 1,000 as strong as this guy were planned to be created.

I had to risk my life to catch one Baek Gyeong. The level 8 raid team Die Hard couldn’t avoid their fate of being annihilated.

It would be stunning to even have 10 of those and yet 1,000 it says.

It was to the point that I wanted to question what the hell the Chinese government was planning on doing. I also wondered what Area 88 was in the first place. Of course, there were many things I didn’t know about in the world. There would be things that are more secretive and dangerous in the hunter world piled up in the last 50 years.

However, 1,000 units of level 10 hunters you say. Even if I was uneasy, that power itself was real.

“Kuuk.”

At that moment a thick hand came up from the cracked ice land.

As I turned around in surprise John McLain was looking at me while waving his hand.

“What happened to that guy?”

“I killed him for now.”

“I see. Hey you guys! He’s dead! Come up!”

John who shouted down into the crevice jumped up to the top of the crevice.

“Phew. As you said I thought I was going to die. I should have listened.”

“How many casualties do you have?”

As I said so John’s expression turned dark.

“About 20. The number injured are over 50.”

“I’m not sure if it will work as consolation but it’s good that the damage ended with that much.”

John sighed at my words.

“Yeah. To be honest, if it wasn’t for you we might have been annihilated. It didn’t seem like that guy was going to stop there you see.”

“That’s for certain.”

Baek Gyeong annihilated all the hunters he came across. There was no way he would leave them just because they fell into the crevice. He would have tried to kill each and every one of them no matter what.

“Are you okay?”

“I am okay.”

“Well, that guy seems to be okay as well.”

John said that as he pointed up.

As I turned my head I could see Edward coming down from above.

I never thought I would be so happy to see him.

“You didn’t die.”

“Did you wish for me to die?”

“No, that’s not it. I’m glad. Either way.”

I really thought he died. Baek Gyeong’s Hadron Cannon was that powerful after all. It had destructive power that could destroy the van that could endure a fair bit of attacks.

It wasn’t even physical damage so I thought he wouldn’t be able to endure even if he Etherized.

“I survived thanks to this item.”

He landed on the ground and pointed at the Necklace of Confinement.

At his story of escaping before getting hit by the Hadron Cannon I nodded my head.

Edward opened his mouth.

“Either way, what in the world was that guy?”

“I’m assuming that he’s a copy hunter made in China.”

“Copy?”

“Ah. I would have to gather more information but it shouldn’t be wrong.”

The manual’s information was never wrong until now.

John cut in.

“Do you have some kind of evidence?”

“I don’t. For now anyway.”

“So how were you able to arrive at that conclusion?”

“I could hear him talking in Chinese before he died.”

This was the truth. What he said was without a doubt traditional Chinese language.

John had slightly doubting eyes but it seems he’s at least believing that Baek Gyeong was of Chinese origin.

He’s probably thinking that I have no reason to lie for now.

On top of that the circumstantial evidence had quite a bit of persuasive power.

“For now, I should report this to the government. Can you come with me by any chance?”

“Me?”

“Yeah. If I say that you’re the Great Summoner it adds credibility to my words after all.”

America you say.

However, I had no particular reason to go right now. It would be a good thing if I didn’t get treated like a monkey in a zoo. It was obvious that I would suffer being called the Great Summoner and all, not to mention that it was possible that I would be taken in to for investigation to find out the secret.

The ability to summon a monster army was a powerful ability that others couldn’t have after all.

More than anything, I had something to do right now.