Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 156

156. Red Fruit (5)

“Butler.”

Before he knew it, Renian was sitting on top of Hyun-woo’s head.

“What is going on? Why are you bullying our poor little Mousey?”

“The fairy thought the butler needed to come to his senses a little.”

With a flick of Renian’s finger, Khazart groaned but still brandished his staff.

With a thud, the staff struck Hyun-woo’s forehead.

It didn’t hurt, but it seemed to be quite shocking for Khazart.

Khazart even dropped his staff and prostrated himself.

That’s right. Renian can also use the skills that Hyun-woo can use.

Controlling subordinates would be a piece of cake.

“Do you think I’m out of my mind?”

“Yes.”

“Because I keep trying to die? I haven’t even died 10 times yet. It’s nothing compared to when I was fighting Kirson. And I’m getting closer and closer to the destination.”

“Yes. That seems to be the problem.”

Renian lay on Hyun-woo’s head and lowered her head. Hyun-woo saw Renian’s face upside down.

“The butler is not in his right mind right now. He’s throwing himself like he’s addicted to something. It’s different from when he was being as careful and methodical as possible. Do you even know what the butler’s goal is right now?”

“Well, to crystallize…”

Hyun-woo shut his mouth. Only then did he realize what the problem was.

He was just trying to get as close to the Crystallization as possible.

Not to clear the quest.

Renian asked with a grin.

“You didn’t even try to find out where the Widow Queen Spider was, did you?”

“It’s certain that the Widow Queen Spider is there. The spiderwebs were there, and the traces are clear.”

“You didn’t even look anywhere else in the first place, did you?”

“…Circumstantially.”

“Okay. Let’s say it’s there. But the butler is just blindly pushing himself into the building. If the butler was normal, would he have thought he should fight the Widow Queen Spider in a narrow, confined space?”

No.

What Renian was saying was clear.

Hyun-woo was not normal right now.

Something… to be exact, he was being forcibly immersed in Crystallization.

The most chilling part was that Hyun-woo was justifying it himself and believed he was making rational judgments.

“It doesn’t seem like it would be meaningful to face the Widow Queen Spider in that state. And the butler is likely to be in very… big trouble even before he meets the Widow Queen Spider.”

Hyun-woo thought he knew what Renian was talking about.

Hyun-woo crossed his arms and pondered. But at the same time, he was torn between the urge to argue with Renian and the impulse to run to the Crystallization right away.

Renian said that Hyun-woo was unnecessarily obsessed with Crystallization, but that was what Hyun-woo had been aiming for from the start.

There are powerful monsters around Crystallization. More and more monsters are being lured in.

If it becomes more dangerous as you head towards the center, then the Widow Queen Spider must be closest to Crystallization.

If he’s going to get it anyway, wouldn’t it be killing two birds with one stone to get rid of the Widow Queen Spider and get Crystallization?

“Renian, but…”

At that moment, Khazart struck Hyun-woo’s head with his staff again. He didn’t even know when he picked it up.

Khazart looked like he was about to foam at the mouth and collapse.

“Saying ‘but’ in this situation means the butler hasn’t come to his senses yet.”

Hyun-woo decided to think it over a little more.

It was the first time Renian, who hates fighting and runs away, had been so deeply involved in the quest.

That meant Renian thought it was a situation where she had to step in. Hyun-woo suppressed his aversion and tried to think from Renian’s perspective.

There were definitely circumstances that suggested the Widow Queen Spider was there, but he had never seen it directly.

Hyun-woo risked his life several times on that uncertainty. This much was undeniable.

Hyun-woo had to consider the possibility that he had been forcibly obsessed with something.

That was even more disgusting than someone trying to kill him directly.

“Is the sweet smell coming from Crystallization the problem?”

Just like other bugs were gathering near Crystallization, Hyun-woo seemed to be fascinated by it as well.

But he couldn’t understand why the effect persisted even after he died and came back to life.

However, there was a suitable answer for that as well.

“Curse.”

The ‘Curse: Spiderweb’ he received when the quest first started.

[The inescapable spiderweb is tightening around you.]

At the time, he thought that the area where he could set foot would gradually decrease, or that he would suffer physical damage.

But that expression seemed to be much more conceptual than he thought.

The curse seemed to have planted the goal of Crystallization in Hyun-woo’s head, making it impossible to get it out of his head.

The more he struggled, the more tangled the spiderweb became, and eventually he was hoisted by his own petard [trapped by his own trick].

Hyun-woo was in that state now.

Hyun-woo shook his head.

“But even so…”

Thud. He was hit for the third time.

“Don’t think about anything else because the direction you’re thinking in right now is right. Butler.”

If you tell someone not to think about an elephant, they will end up thinking about an elephant. Trying to forget it by force was not a good idea.

It was a more difficult problem than he thought.

Even though Hyun-woo recognized that this was an abnormal situation, he kept trying to find excuses and rationalize it.

“Okay. I understand. This is a trap that Monstrill set up to mess with me.”

“The solution to a problem starts with recognizing that there is a problem. You’re doing well, Butler. The fairy will praise you.”

“But… Ah, wait, don’t hit me and listen! This curse said that it will tighten around me more and more as time goes by. So I can’t just stand still, can I?”

The terrible thing about this curse is that he can’t even tell whether what he’s saying right now is self-rationalization or a rational judgment.

But Renian quickly shut Hyun-woo up.

“What do you think will happen if the butler gets close to Crystallization?”

Hyun-woo flinched. The closest he got to Crystallization was when he crawled into the building.

His memory was hazy and faint, like a dream.

When he crawled into the narrow crystal moss cave, Hyun-woo’s whole body was being cut away by the crystal moss, and he was like a roly-poly doll with his limbs cut off.

Even so, he kept crawling, dragging his belly, and longing for the sweet scent of Crystallization.

If he hadn’t been killed by something at that time, there was a high probability that he would still be doing that.

‘Then what should I do?’

Poisond Blood is no longer meaningful. There is not enough fuel to set a fire.

Should I just blow it up? There are some explosives, but not enough to destroy the building.

More than anything, he wasn’t confident that he could overcome the temptation of Crystallization when he got close enough to set up the explosives.

This is just made to either die or not clear.

Hyun-woo thought that this ordeal itself was a huge trap.

“Then…”

Hyun-woo sighed deeply. There was only one method that came to mind right now.

“I guess I have to see that my mental strength is lacking.”

The method Hyun-woo chose was simple.

“I’ll just have to kill them all until I find a way.”

***

A dust storm blew in, turning the sky yellow.

The building containing Crystallization stood in the middle of the ruins like a tombstone with even the inscriptions erased.

Hyun-woo was watching from a distance from the building.

It was a distance where the scent didn’t reach. It was bearable as long as the scent didn’t reach, but as time went by, he felt the presence of Crystallization swelling in his head.

It was even more so as he thought more.

“Damn it…”

He couldn’t help but think that Monstrill had created it to tease him.

‘Is it possible that what Monstrill intends is for me to continue performing his quest forever?’

Of course, Hyun-woo wasn’t just playing around.

The policy of ‘kill them all first’ was clear, simple, and suitable for relieving stress.

He was also leveling up by killing monsters at a distance where the scent didn’t reach. If he continued to get stronger like this, he wondered if he could find a way to destroy the building.

His current level is 45.

If he raises just 5 more levels, Hyun-woo will also learn his ultimate skill.

But even leveling up was getting slower and slower.

He felt like he would either jump into Crystallization or be completely possessed by the curse before he learned his ultimate skill.

Even now, when he was fighting, he would suddenly get close to the building and be startled.

“Ugh, should I have gotten some pesticide or something?”

He was so desperate that he even had the idea of ‘If I add pesticide ingredients to Poisond Blood, wouldn’t it be easier to catch bugs?’

But even Gramoxone [a powerful herbicide] didn’t seem like it would be stronger than Poisond Blood.

“If I could only lure out the Widow Queen Spider…”

“You’re really alive.”

The moment he heard a voice whispering right next to him, Hyun-woo swung his hoe. But it didn’t reach the other person at all.

The other person quickly distanced himself before Hyun-woo could swing his hoe, and was watching calmly.

‘Fast.’

It was an unidentified woman.

Cold sweat broke out on Hyun-woo’s back.

He thought he had become quite sensitive, but he didn’t even feel the presence until she whispered.

[Upper Moon Human-faced Spider (LV 61)]

[The effect of the ‘Hell’s Strongest’ title increases stats compared to level.]

She had the appearance of an elegant human woman, but upon closer inspection, she was not human.

At first glance, she was a woman wearing a slightly antique gothic dress. But below the frilly, puffy skirt, six spider legs were moving silently.

Hyun-woo felt a throbbing headache from the sweet smell that wafted in for a moment.

The scent of Crystallization was deeply embedded in the human-faced spider’s body.

He quickly blocked his nose, but it was already after he had inhaled the smell. Mistakes are more frequent after smelling it. But the opponent was faster and stronger than Hyun-woo.

Hyun-woo was prepared to die.

But the human-faced spider didn’t move any further.

“You remember the smell of Crystallization, but you don’t come right in. You’re a smart human.”

“What?”

Hyun-woo was relieved that the monster wasn’t attacking him right away and began to prepare for a surprise attack.

He was planning to immediately bind it with spiderwebs if it attacked at any time, and then stab Poisond Blood into it with his hoe. It was a cliché, but it was the most effective method.

But at that moment, long spider legs slipped out from under the hem of her skirt and quickly swept away the spiderwebs that Hyun-woo was secretly scattering.

“I didn’t come to fight.”

It seemed impossible to play with spiderwebs in front of a spider from the start.

Hyun-woo didn’t like the fact that the opponent was unilaterally in an advantageous situation, but he decided to listen since she said she was willing to talk.

The human-faced spider got straight to the point.

“What is your purpose? Did you come to get Crystallization?”

Hyun-woo thought for a moment.

‘She must be related to the Widow Queen Spider.’

But he couldn’t understand why she was trying to talk instead of attacking him right away.

If this monster was a subordinate of Monstrill, she should be attacking him, of course.

Hyun-woo slowly opened his mouth.

“Yes.”

“That’s good.”

The human-faced spider continued right away.

“We are also trying to go to the place where Crystallization is… but it’s not easy. If you are heading there, I think you can do us a favor. In return, we will help you too.”

“Help?”

The human-faced spider nodded.

“You know what Crystallization is, right?”

Hyun-woo tilted his head. Hyun-woo knew almost nothing about Crystallization except that it was a honeypot that attracted huge bugs.

When Hyun-woo seemed to not know much, the human-faced spider quietly began to tell the story.

“The Crystallization that has not yet been broken is a tomb and cradle for all kinds of living things.”

Life and cradle.

Hyun-woo listened to the unexpected words.

“Crystallization emits a sweet scent to fascinate the surrounding creatures. The mana emitted from Crystallization itself is not dangerous, but the fascination effect alone is very fatal.”

“I know that too. It makes people very stupid.”

“The effect of Crystallization is more than you think. The structure where Crystallization has bloomed is itself a world for Crystallization.”

The human-faced spider continued sharply.

“The creatures fascinated by Crystallization do not care about their bodies being damaged and only focus on approaching Crystallization. Wings and skin are torn off by the hard quartz and crystal moss, and even limbs fall off, but they still cut their bodies into the increasingly narrow interior.”

It was a familiar description. Hyun-woo had just experienced that himself.

“When a creature enters the ‘womb’ where Crystallization exists, it finally sees Crystallization. But at that time, it is already… difficult to see it as an independent creature.”

The human-faced spider sighed and stared at the empty structure where Crystallization was blooming.

“Once you get in there, the creature, with only basic reproductive functions left, settles there completely. Then, it forms interspecies relationships with the creatures that are already there, which would normally be impossible, and conceives, gives birth, dies and becomes nutrients, and then its offspring mate with each other again and repeat childbirth and death. That huge crystal moss structure is a small world created in that way.”

“Hmm…”

Hyun-woo recalled the chimera-like bugs that were wandering around the structure where Crystallization had bloomed. Those were the creatures that Crystallization had created.

‘It’s like a story in mythology.’

It was fascinating and creepy enough to inspire awe.

Hyun-woo felt like he knew why Monstrill had given him this quest. Crystallization, and this quest itself, was like Monstrill.

A fascinating being that wants to be noticed, loved, and shine most brilliantly.

‘So that’s why the quest name is Red Fruit.’

“So I want to make you an offer.”

The human-faced spider said to Hyun-woo with a gloomy expression.

“I want to ask you to rescue our queen who went into the womb. I think it’s possible for you, who keeps coming back to life no matter how many times.”

The corners of Hyun-woo’s mouth went up at the human-faced spider’s suggestion. He seemed to have finally found a clue to clear the quest.