Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 61

Plude (3)

There was no time to figure out what was going on.

Another Ratman charged at Hyun-woo. The moment he kicked its head up, the Ratman, riddled with hundreds of bullets, fell away, its head breaking off like a Styrofoam doll and flying into the air.

‘No, I don’t think it was this easy even when catching real rats, was it?’

Too weak for a level 17. A level 15 monster I faced in Hell could probably take on ten of these Ratmen.

If he couldn’t control his strength this much, Hyun-woo wouldn’t have been able to hold Yoo-min.

But to Hyun-woo, the Ratmen were about the level of the goblins he caught in the Cheonggye Dungeon. But the hunters wouldn’t have been scared of goblins to the point of taking such losses.

Hyun-woo suddenly realized that this was the first time he had properly caught monsters in reality.

When he went to the Cheonggye Dungeon, he mostly just watched when catching goblins; Kirson caught them all.

Hyun-woo had never had the chance to realize how strong he was.

‘No, then what about when dealing with people?’

Hyun-woo already knew his strength accurately through several sparring sessions with Park Hwi-so. He was steadily closing the gap with Park Hwi-so, but he felt the level difference.

Of course, he was doing quite well compared to Hyun-woo’s level. Until now, he thought it was due to the buff effect from the ‘Hell’s Strongest’ title, but that wasn’t all. Hyun-woo could see two things.

There was a kind of vertical gap depending on the difficulty.

And as the difficulty increased, the monsters would become stronger relative to their level.

‘Difficulty: In Hell, you have to fight even monsters of the same level with your life…….’

Difficulty: At the time of Hell, I don’t even know what the highest grade and level are. Kawaro, whom I encountered, had an overwhelming level.

Anyway, one thing was certain. Hyun-woo grinned.

There wasn’t a single guy here who could be his match.

Meanwhile, the broadcasting station reporters were unable to even broadcast, looking on with dumbfounded expressions.

They had expected that the hunter who jumped into the center of the wave of Ratmen rushing in like a tide would soon be left without even a corpse. But with Hyun-woo simply flicking his hands and feet, the surrounding Ratmen burst and twisted, piling up corpses endlessly.

The broadcasting station helicopter began to fly at low altitude to capture Hyun-woo’s face.

“Oh, dear.”

Hyun-woo finally came to his senses at the sound of the helicopter that he heard belatedly. It wasn’t difficult to block the Ratmen while thinking complicated thoughts.

There was no need to use Battle Helper. Finely honed movements were helping him exert the best effect with minimal force.

He could kill all the Ratmen like this. To Hyun-woo now, these countless Ratmen were not much different from dealing with a flock of chicks.

But while Hyun-woo was spacing out, there were some who slipped past him.

“But first…… I need to gather them so they don’t scatter.”

Hyun-woo lightly drew strength from his body.

In Hell, Hyun-woo had become accustomed to suppressing his presence. He gathered even his scent with mana so it wouldn’t scatter, and he didn’t make a sound while running.

He could even subtly lower his presence while fighting.

Hyun-woo scattered the fighting spirit he had hidden to hold the Ratmen back.

Instantly, his presence captivated the area. The Ratmen, who were about to scatter like grains of sand in all directions, stopped at once. The Ratmen’s gazes all turned to Hyun-woo.

Even the gunfire and the hunters’ attacks stopped at that moment. Hyun-woo was exuding an overwhelming presence like an abnormally towering tower in the middle of the Ratmen’s wave.

Only after the veteran hunters, who belatedly came to their senses, screamed at them to wake up did a few start moving again.

But the Ratmen couldn’t move, even while being attacked by those guys.

An unknown survival instinct was binding their entire bodies.

It was a difficult situation to understand for monsters whose fighting spirit was stronger than fear.

Hyun-woo was satisfied with the better-than-expected effect. With this much energy, he could expect this skill to work well this time. This time, Hyun-woo loaded his killing intent into the skill, wide and weak, towards the many.

“Dominate.”

And at that moment, a sharp scream echoed throughout the area. It was the Ratmen’s simultaneous death throes.

The guys who let out their death throes in the same voice at the same moment rolled their eyes back, convulsed on the floor, and then slumped.

Horror swept through the area.

The most surprised of all was Hyun-woo.

“…Did they die?”

***

Around Hyun-woo, dozens of them were clutching their chests, vomiting blood foam, and dying. A little further away, some were rampaging, biting the necks of their fellow Ratmen.

The guys who were frightened by Hyun-woo’s momentum had given up on life themselves.

Like weak animals fainting in front of a powerful predator.

‘Did Dominate have this kind of effect?’

When he used it on Park Hwi-so or Jeok Nabi, they just flinched for a moment. But when he thought about it, he remembered that when he used it on that big woman in Jeok Nabi’s team, she had gone to the point of near death.

‘Maybe this is also due to the difficulty gap.’

Without even launching a proper attack, the Ratmen’s front line was on the verge of collapse.

The guys within a radius of dozens of meters were dead, the ones outside were rampaging among themselves, and the ones inside the barrier were hesitating.

Hyun-woo felt absurd, but he managed his expression and walked on.

“Come on, you bastards. This is making the picture weird.”

His plan to build achievements by standing tall against the pouring monsters was going awry. He felt like grabbing them by the scruff of the neck and teaching them some mental fortitude.

‘When I scattered killing intent to the guys I encountered in Hell, they rushed at me like crazy people.’

He could take out Tam and scatter poison blood while cutting them down, or he could slaughter the guys whose ankles were blocked by spiderwebs.

He could have shown off his flashy moves with Battle Helper, but Hyun-woo missed even that opportunity.

Just revealing his fighting spirit made the goblins go crazy or die of heart attacks. All he could do was sigh.

Then something came into Hyun-woo’s sight.

A werewolf was trying to command the Ratmen near the collapsed barrier. But as Hyun-woo approached, the panic around him only spread more and more.

The terrifying appearance he had when he burst out while breaking the barrier was long gone. He even looked pathetic.

Hyun-woo tried to hide his killing intent from him and strode towards him.

“You can’t run away, too.”

It would be a problem if it looked too weak like this. At least he had to show a fight with the werewolf.

The werewolf roared at the Ratmen, but they only became more and more jumbled and messed up. Then his eyes met Hyun-woo’s.

[Werewolf (LV 28)]

[Stats increase relative to level due to the effect of the ‘Hell’s Strongest’ title.]

Hyun-woo deliberately smiled to look as friendly as possible.

Perhaps thanks to Hyun-woo’s efforts, fortunately, the werewolf didn’t go berserk or die of a heart attack.

Instead, he immediately turned his back and started running away.

Hyun-woo sighed as he watched the werewolf run away.

“I was going to be nice to you, you son of a bitch.”

***

The werewolf ran madly in the opposite direction, even sticking out his tongue. An unbearable pressure was driving him.

Hyun-woo trampled on the heads of the self-harming Ratmen and rushed towards the werewolf.

Before he could take a few steps, the werewolf was grabbed by his fur. As soon as Hyun-woo grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, he let out a yelp without any dignity! Hyun-woo looked at him with a dumbfounded expression.

“A monster has to be monster-like; why are you tucking your tail?”

It was surreal to see a werewolf nearly 2.5m tall trembling while being grabbed by the scruff of the neck by Hyun-woo.

Hyun-woo felt things were going wrong. Originally, he was going to stop Plude and appeal by subtly revealing his skills while fighting the werewolf. But the Ratmen gave up on life before even fighting, and the werewolf was only trying to run away.

“Don’t run away, you bastard.”

When Hyun-woo bared his teeth, the werewolf foamed at the mouth and lay flat on the floor.

Hyun-woo realized he had gone too far and tried to control his killing intent, but the werewolf even lay on his back and exposed his belly.

“No, even a rat bites a cat when cornered, but a werewolf is acting without shame.”

Hyun-woo looked at him as if he was dumbfounded. He wondered if he should just kill him, but it didn’t look good to kill an opponent who was even acting cute.

‘……Should I even stroke his belly like this?’

A hunter stroking a dungeon boss who came out with a terrifying momentum. That would be quite impressive, but it wouldn’t give him the picture he wanted.

Hyun-woo’s enemy must be cool, strong, and evil. And he had to have a picture of himself defeating such a great being; showing this sloppy appearance was meaningless.

‘But this looks just like a dazed puppy.’

It can’t be helped.

Hyun-woo let go of the werewolf’s scruff. The werewolf hesitated and quickly slipped out of Hyun-woo’s hand. He was looking to see if he should run away, but he seemed to know that he would be caught even if he ran away.

When Hyun-woo crossed his arms and did nothing, the werewolf, who had been slowly retreating, bounced and quickly started running.

Eventually, he gave up standing on two feet and started running on all fours, rushing towards the opposite barrier. It was easy for the werewolf to jump over the high barrier. Just when it seemed like he was going to escape like this, Hyun-woo flicked something with his fingertips.

“Keng!”

‘Sorry, but you’re going to die at the hands of another hunter anyway if not me.’

As something stinging pierced his scruff, the werewolf screamed and twisted his body in the air. It felt like something unknown was biting his scruff.

The werewolf writhed in excruciating pain. A bizarre sound of joints cracking was heard from all over his body.

The pounding heartbeat was raging madly in his ears, and the werewolf’s eyes began to burn red.

What was embedded in the werewolf’s scruff was a Hell Dart. Hyun-woo’s poison blood on it was changing the werewolf.

Even though it was the first pain he had ever experienced, the werewolf felt like he knew what was being awakened inside him.

The blood of the hungry.

The blood of the hungry was forcibly awakening the genes of madness engraved in the werewolf’s blood.

Hyun-woo smiled as he watched the werewolf’s eyes begin to burn. Then he grabbed his Hell Mosquito that was circling around and squeezed it tightly, activating the Consort─ ‘Absorption’ trait.

[The Consort ‘Absorption’ trait has been activated.]

[Stats slightly increase.]

[Temporarily acquired skills: Bloodsucking, Blood Throwing.]

[Curse: Thirst is maintained for the duration.]

The mosquito’s body crumbled in an instant and seeped into Hyun-woo’s body. Hyun-woo felt his throat burning quickly. Blood vessels stood out in Hyun-woo’s eyes.

Soon, two madnesses began to clash.

***

[Ah…… what, what is that figure? The werewolf, presumed to be the boss monster, is being unilaterally…… beaten. It’s a sight that’s hard to understand.]

The reporter’s words were a very softened expression. To be exact, it was like a puppy caught by a dog butcher. It was amazing that he wasn’t peeing himself. The werewolf was lying flat, waiting only for Hyun-woo’s judgment.

“……Branch Manager Seo Tae-kyung? What the hell is that?”

One of the hunters who had rushed over after hearing the Plude declaration approached Seo Tae-kyung, who was standing blankly. Seo Tae-kyung wanted to explain, but he didn’t know what was going on either.

As soon as that man appeared, the Ratmen stuck out their tongues and died or harmed themselves, and the werewolf who broke through the barrier in an instant was like a dragged puppy. There was no way anyone could understand this situation.

As a result, most of the hunters were just watching blankly, unable to join the battle.

It was ambiguous to jump in and fight while the Ratmen were harming themselves and dying of heart attacks. Some of them tried to escape to the outside, and they were just catching those.

“Is he an acquaintance hunter? Why isn’t the werewolf fighting back against that hunter?”

“……I don’t know either.”

Monsters have an unconditional hostility towards humans. There have been countless attempts to tame monsters, but monsters try to kill humans even if their lives are about to end.

In academia, there was even a theory that everything in the dungeon was created to antagonize humans. But a monster that doesn’t antagonize but wags its tail and obediently gets hit?

“A skill…… maybe?”

“Maybe.”

It was no different from saying he didn’t know. But that was all Seo Tae-kyung could say.

There was a possibility. Seo Tae-kyung also had a skill to break the morale of the beastmen monsters.

Perhaps a rookie with a taming skill has newly appeared.

But Seo Tae-kyung doubted if that was really a skill.

It’s not that monsters aren’t afraid. Inside the dungeon, the dungeon’s own ecosystem is built, and their own system, natural enemies, and food chain are formed.

In other words, monsters unconditionally antagonize humans, but monsters don’t do that to each other.

‘Or maybe they think that man is a monster.’