Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 104

104. Welcome to Becoming a Monster (1)

‘I wish I could grill it a bit or at least add some salt.’

Hyeon-woo chewed on the heart before swallowing it.

It didn’t exactly taste like health food, but in Difficulty: Hell, healthy eating was a distant dream.

Seo Ji-hoo, his training manager, would hate to hear that, but he had long given up on hygiene anyway.

Hyeon-woo roughly wiped off the blood and stroked Yerden’s head.

After seeing only hideous, scarred goblins and black ratmen, finding a neat and handsome boy was a welcome sight.

He needed to get him some clothes, though.

Hyeon-woo checked the time. It took him a little over a day to complete the quest.

‘I cleared it faster than I thought, so it’s better to stay a bit longer and find something else to do.’

First of all, his level was lacking. Hyeon-woo decided to wander around a bit more and reach level 40.

***

What is the greatest idea that led to modern civilization? The steam engine? Communication?

Actually, there is no single right answer. But in Difficulty: Hell, where all infrastructure is destroyed, it’s a distant, almost irrelevant question.

The answer Hyeon-woo settled on was increased productivity through the division of labor. And that was being executed perfectly in Hyeon-woo’s shelter.

Because countless goblins no longer needed to focus on their own survival, they were able to concentrate on making the things Hyeon-woo needed.

Thanks to this, when Hyeon-woo reached level 40 and returned to the shelter, the warehouses were overflowing with mana moss, rare-grade items, and crafting materials.

As soon as Hyeon-woo appeared in the shelter, Renian peeked out.

“Caretaker!”

“It seems like you’re guarding the house more than I am, but okay.”

“Caretaker is just a higher-grade title. You don’t want to be called a slave, do you?”

“So you were actually thinking of me as a slave… Anyway, what’s the inventory situation?”

“683 rare-grade weapons, 409 pieces of armor, 1.3 tons of monster byproducts, 5.7 tons of mana moss, and 32kg of mana stones.”

It had piled up quite a bit.

Goblins and ratmen couldn’t create rare weapons as easily as Hyeon-woo, but they could still make them with time and effort. They could also find them while hunting or scavenging.

The fact that there were over 1000 weapons and armor combined meant they were accumulating at an incredible rate.

‘I guess even a single goblin carries a rare weapon here.’

Only legendary weapons were truly valuable.

In Difficulty: Hell, finding a drop of fresh water was more difficult than finding weapons and equipment. And mana moss was as common as pebbles on the street.

‘It wouldn’t be much different from scavenging for them.’

So far, Hyeon-woo had only sold a little over 1 ton of mana moss in Difficulty: Easy, but it was generating more revenue than most small and medium-sized enterprises.

It was a monopoly business with almost no overhead, so it was only natural.

If he diversified the sales routes beyond Park Hwi-so, he could earn more money, but now was not the time.

‘It shouldn’t be released too much into the market.’

He was selling it because he needed money right now, but Hyeon-woo had other plans. That’s why he was investing in many corporations and courting Dowonkyung.

“Are the goblins happy?”

“How could they be unhappy? They’re living much safer than ever before. The ratmen… Kazat seems to be keeping them in check.”

If Hyeon-woo referenced the division of labor from modern civilization, what could he reference from uncivilized pre-modern civilizations? The answer: no labor unions or labor laws.

“Haha, try working in a terrible environment without labor unions or labor laws. You monsters!”

Hyeon-woo muttered as if to himself so that no one could hear, but a sharp-eared goblin passing by looked at him with a strange expression and hurried on.

Renian whispered with a worried expression at Hyeon-woo’s words.

“Shh, it’ll be a problem if the goblin workers find out they’re being treated like pigs and dogs. They’ll definitely demand weekly allowances and minimum wage increases!”

“There’s no such thing in Hell.”

If he were to implement such a system, he would have to create currency first. But since Hyeon-woo controlled all food production, it didn’t seem like a big problem for now.

“Hmm, then I should organize some rare items for the first time in a while.”

***

Several hours later, Hyeon-woo got up, rubbing his stiff shoulders.

Dismantling rare weapons didn’t consume that much mana, but using it continuously could cause mild depletion if he didn’t rest occasionally.

Of course, mana was abundant in Difficulty: Hell, so it recovered quickly, but the real problem was a decrease in concentration. Dismantling was just simple, repetitive labor.

‘I’ve finished half of it.’

Only he could ‘dismantle’ rare items and turn them into mana moss and mana stones. It was a disappointing limitation, but in other words, he was the only one who could make legendary items.

‘Huh? No, wait. It doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.’

Hyeon-woo suddenly noticed Renian lazing around next to him and an idea sparked.

Renian also shared his inventory and used unique skills. He also seemed to know about magic.

He was an exceptional being in many ways, so why couldn’t he dismantle?

“Renian, can you do this?”

Hyeon-woo dismantled a rare weapon and returned it to mana moss and mana stone, asking the question. Renian didn’t even look at Hyeon-woo and answered.

“The fairy can do everything the caretaker can do.”

“Everything I can do?”

“The fairy can also use the caretaker’s skills.”

Hyeon-woo felt like he had been struck by lightning. When he thought about it, he should have realized the implications when he found out that the inventory was shared. But even skills were shared? Battle Helper, Domination, Poison Blood, and even Familiars…

“Ah, except for Familiars. That’s the unique authority of the person who possesses the fragment.”

Even excluding Familiars, it was a great advantage that Hyeon-woo’s burden was greatly reduced.

Not only that, but it also allowed Hell to run smoothly even when Hyeon-woo was away.

Hyeon-woo felt a sense of injustice as he looked at the pile of rare equipment that had only been reduced by half.

“Then why didn’t you help me with this?”

Then Renian stared at Hyeon-woo. Renian’s gaze, which had been blankly staring, changed slyly.

“Then what will you give me?”

Ah, this unnecessary cunning.

“For your information, fairies don’t do unpaid labor. In the fairy country full of dreams and hopes, a fairy labor attorney is always prepared to realize the fairy dream through healthy labor-management relations and equitable wealth distribution. That’s the same even in the land of mortals where destruction is promised!”

Hyeon-woo had no choice but to be disgusted by the unnecessarily healthy labor-management relations.

“Okay. Does that mean you can do it? Let’s start negotiating. What do you want? Except for brain fluid.”

“You’re coming on strong from the start.”

It was the minimum condition.

“But fairies themselves don’t work as laborers for mortals that often, so I don’t know what a suitable negotiation condition is. Usually, they are hired as dispatched workers for multinational military-industrial complexes, hire mortal mercenaries in this world to establish PMCs [Private Military Companies], and drive the world to its end. Or stop it.”

“What setting are you talking about?”

“Humans call it magical girls, but you don’t have to worry about it. I’m just trying to give an example of a case where they work as dispatched workers. In that case, the annual salary conditions are… um, it wasn’t that difficult… Ah!”

Renian clapped his hands and shouted.

“The soul of a pure girl!”

“That’s the most difficult thing to find for me right now.”

“I know. It’s hard to expect from the caretaker, so, well. Let’s just do 1L [Liter] of blood a day.”

Of course, even Hyeon-woo would die if he donated 1L of blood a day. He would be restored if he was resurrected, but no matter how he thought about it, this was not a reasonable request.

Fortunately, Renian was prepared to compromise for healthy labor-management relations.

“That’s too much.”

“Okay. Then 10ml [milliliters]. No more.”

He cut it by 1/100 in one negotiation. It was not much different from the amount of blood he had been drinking so far.

Renian just shrugged as Hyeon-woo looked at him in disbelief.

“The caretaker called out strongly from the beginning, so the fairy also called out strongly once. That’s what negotiation is, right?”

It seemed a little different from the negotiation Hyeon-woo knew, but only the result mattered.

Renian hummed and inserted a straw into Hyeon-woo’s wrist, and soon began dismantling.

Hyeon-woo was speechless at the sight of Renian skillfully dismantling the item.

‘He really doesn’t come forward unless it’s a really serious situation.’

Still, he had received a lot of help from Renian, so he had nothing to say.

‘But what is Renian’s identity?’

The fairy thing was always taken as a joke, but he really couldn’t figure out his true nature.

He couldn’t figure out his level, and seeing that he knew more information than he thought, he suspected that he was the same being as the angel he had encountered in the Taean Dungeon.

‘He has the same wings… I’m going too far.’

Even if he asked, he would only talk about the fairy country, so he couldn’t guess at all. But it was clear that Renian was an ally.

Because he was helping him generously with just a few drops of blood. Anyway, thanks to him, Hyeon-woo could see the mana stones piling up in an instant.

‘I can make 10 more legendary equipment.’

Making legendary-grade items was still a difficult task, but now it was just a matter of getting stiff. He felt like he could make two a day.

‘An army armed with legendary-grade items would be nice, but…’

The three goblins belonging to the management position already had legendary-grade weapons. They were the Familiars that Hyeon-woo summoned with Kirson.

But Hyeon-woo had no intention of giving legendary-grade weapons to goblins who were not Familiars. That was the same for anyone in reality.

Unless they had created a gap of more than one or two levels from himself, he would not leave any room for them to catch up.

In that sense, Hyeon-woo took out an item from his inventory that might raise him one step further.

[Heavenly Ashes (Legendary)]

Ashes taken by killing an angel.

The category of this powder is ‘material’.

Until now, the items he used to make items were all general-grade metals or monster byproducts, except for mana stones.

But this was a legendary-grade material.

He didn’t know what would come out, but Hyeon-woo had great expectations.

“Craft.”

***

“…To be honest, Mr. Park Hwi-so, the situation is very concerning.”

Park Hwi-so buried himself deep in his office chair.

The guest who came late at night after finishing work was a guest he could not refuse. It was none other than a member of another alliance that had brought him into the fold.

Park Hwi-so only knew two members of the alliance, including the woman in front of him.

The woman stood in a dark place where the light of the lamp did not reach and spoke to Park Hwi-so.

“The difficulty is increasing faster than expected, and the executives suspect that Kang Hyeon-woo is involved. But in this situation, you’re cutting off your relationship with Lee Ji-tae and cooperating with Kang Hyeon-woo.”

“I didn’t cut off my relationship with Lee Ji-tae because I wanted to.”

To be exact, he forcibly ended the relationship because of Kang Hyeon-woo.

It would have been much better if he had maintained a subtle honeymoon relationship between Kang Hyeon-woo and Lee Ji-tae. But Hyeon-woo did not allow it.

He only wanted him to be loyal to himself.

“Thanks to that, the funds for activities in Korea have been significantly reduced. At this rate, we have no choice but to borrow money from China.”

“You didn’t join hands with Lee Ji-tae because of money anyway. Didn’t you see the possibility in Lee Ji-tae? I saw it too. Kang Hyeon-woo has more than enough potential to surpass Lee Ji-tae.”

“What about his personality?”

Park Hwi-so closed his mouth at the sharp question thrown by the woman standing in the shadows.