Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 166

166. A New Order (2)

Song Yeo-un almost bit her tongue.

Just hearing about a 4-star was shocking enough, but to be a similar type to ‘that’ Kang Hyun-moo?

“Wh-wh-what are you talking about?”

“Calm down. It’s just that thanks to Oppa, I mean, Kang Hyun-moo, this type started getting attention. It’s just that it hadn’t been noticed until now.”

To be honest, it wasn’t just ‘unnoticed’; there wasn’t even a single related paper.

Probably, Yumin was almost the only one who knew about it, or others were just starting to research it.

As Song Yeo-un seemed to calm down, Yumin began to explain.

“The fact that you became a 4-star is probably related to this type… Song Yeo-un, please calm down. I’ll continue. First, this type seems to have high scalability and is easily affected by the attributes or density of mana.”

Yumin became interested in this type solely because of Hyun-moo. If it weren’t for Hyun-moo, she might have just shrugged it off. It was that unremarkable.

“W-what does high scalability mean?”

“Um, it means that leveling up is fast, or it’s easy to accept other attributes….”

Yumin wondered how to explain it to Song Yeo-un without mentioning the stars [a ranking system for hunters, with higher stars indicating greater power].

In fact, Yumin knew very little about the stars herself. She had only heard about them from Hyun-moo.

Difficulty: Hell has stars, and those stars covet you.

She had also heard that Difficulty: Hell was the future, but it didn’t feel real yet.

“I’ll try to explain it in a way that’s easy for Song Yeo-un to understand.”

Yumin went behind Song Yeo-un and placed her hands on her head.

Her fingertips began to move as if caressing Song Yeo-un’s hair. Then, Yumin’s skill activated.

[Skill: Conversion (Rare)]

It was the first skill Yumin acquired after awakening as an ability user.

It had nothing to do with combat or support; if anything, it was in the category of crafting or dismantling.

It was such an unfamiliar skill that she struggled for a long time to get used to it because she didn’t know how to use it.

But the hunters of the Omnipotence Alliance team made good test subjects.

Before Yumin’s eyes, Song Yeo-un’s stats and skills appeared in a vague form.

The numbers in front of her were numbers and words that Yumin didn’t know at all, but she knew their meaning.

Yumin focused on Song Yeo-un’s skill, ‘Repulsion.’

‘This, twist it slightly like this….’

Each time she moved her finger, the letters in Song Yeo-un’s head began to rearrange themselves, changing their order and arrangement.

Before long, Yumin succeeded in converting Song Yeo-un’s skill.

“Hoo, it’s over.”

Sweat beaded on Yumin’s forehead after finishing the skill. It was a task that took less than a minute, but she felt like she was about to collapse.

Song Yeo-un looked at her with a puzzled expression.

“What did you do?”

Yumin chugged a mana potion and replied.

“I slightly adjusted Song Yeo-un’s skill ‘Repulsion.’ I reduced the range but made the power stronger. You won’t be using Repulsion on enemies farther away than your whip anyway.”

Song Yeo-un looked surprised. Adjusting the stats of a skill? She had never heard of such a skill.

Yumin didn’t explain further but pointed to one side of the lab. A huge troll corpse was hanging there. It was a suggestion to test it out.

Song Yeo-un approached the lab and carefully placed her hand on the troll corpse, then used her skill.

‘Repulsion.’

At that moment, the hanging troll corpse exploded with a bang.

Puff puff puff, pieces of meat splattered on the opposite side of the lab.

Song Yeo-un looked at her hand with a shocked expression.

Originally, it should have just pushed the troll corpse all the way to the opposite wall.

But this looked like she had fired a shotgun.

Song Yeo-un turned to Yumin with a happy expression.

But Yumin was also spilling the mana potion she was drinking from her mouth with a surprised look.

Yumin wiped the mana potion with her sleeve and said.

“Oh, I didn’t know it would be this strong.”

“Didn’t you know when you changed it?!”

“It seems to be because of Song Yeo-un’s type. As I said, it has high scalability and is easily affected by the attributes or density of mana. That means the probability of ranking up is also high, but it also means it’s easily affected by other skills.”

Yumin shook her head. This field was still in its early stages for her, so there were many unknown aspects.

Song Yeo-un seemed to have taken it in a positive way anyway.

The lack of a clear attack skill was a major concern for her.

Having a skill that could be used for attack, even if it was close-range, was a happy thing.

“How rare is my type?”

“Looking at the cases, it’s rare, but not super rare. About one in ten thousand ability users?”

The number of ability users worldwide is estimated to be over 70 million. If it’s one in ten thousand, that means about 7,000 people.

It wasn’t a lot, but it didn’t seem small either.

“Maybe the individual differences in the rate of ranking up are also due to this. Of course, it’s extremely rare for someone to suddenly jump to 4-star like Song Yeo-un.”

“Why hasn’t this been known until now?”

“Until now, there hasn’t been a space with mana density high enough or attributes strong enough for this trait to be clearly meaningful.”

Yumin said that while thinking of Difficulty: Hell.

Song Yeo-un jumped to 4-star just by experiencing a breakthrough in a 5-star dungeon.

Then, she couldn’t even guess how many stages Hyun-moo, who had a similar type, had risen in Difficulty: Hell.

Song Yeo-un seemed quite happy.

It was natural since the rank increase, the knowledge of a satisfactory type, and the skill enhancement all happened at the same time.

“I feel like I received a Christmas present! Dr. Yumin.”

“I’m not a doctor.”

“Ah, ah! Yes, yes! By the way, was it Yumin’s skill that changed my skill?”

“Yes.”

“A skill that changes other people’s skills, that’s amazing!”

At Song Yeo-un’s words, Yumin made an ambiguous expression. She gave a slightly embarrassed smile and shook her head.

“If that was all, it would have been enough. But there’s one more thing attached to it….”

One more thing? Did Yumin have another skill?

Just as Song Yeo-un was about to ask out of curiosity, Yumin’s phone suddenly started emitting a sharp signal with a red light. Yumin’s expression hardened.

“Intruders.”

Song Yeo-un frowned.

“Again?”

***

In the lush forest surrounding the haunted mansion, there were still places where snow remained due to the shade of the trees.

Suddenly, footprints were imprinted on the snow that had accumulated along the steep slope.

About ten black figures were running towards the haunted mansion with the wind.

Their figures were captured intact by the CCTV cameras installed around the haunted mansion, but only their entire bodies appeared black, and their faces were not visible at all.

At this speed, it would take less than three minutes for them to reach the haunted mansion.

But at some point, something popped out of the ground. The black figure threw himself as soon as he saw it, but it was already too late.

Puff puff puff puff puff!

The aerial jumping mine scattered fragments in all directions.

The aerial jumping mine, filled with steel balls and mana bullets, ‘tore’ apart two of the black figures around it.

There were also black figures who quickly dodged into the blind spots. But there were more traps installed around them, even considering such cover.

With a click, a Claymore [a type of directional anti-personnel mine] aimed at the blind spot exploded.

In an instant, another black figure disappeared without a trace.

Explosions continued one after another.

In an instant, the number of black figures was reduced by half.

With such heavy damage and even explosions, infiltration was out of the question.

Normal humans would have thought about retreating here, but the black figures had no intention of backing down.

The black figures split into two and started advancing again.

Another explosion rang out from the group of two. After that, there were no more explosions.

The remaining three figures steadily ran towards the haunted mansion, which was finally starting to come into view.

“Is it okay to install such explosives in the mountains? This isn’t a military area.”

The black figures hid themselves at the sudden voice from the front. Two Omnipotence Alliance hunters were chatting while looking at their smartphones.

“It is a military area. I heard it’s included in the Cheonggye Dungeon boundary area.”

“They must have included it.”

The black figures judged that the hunters had not yet noticed them and exchanged gestures and glances.

Soon, two figures secretly moved behind the hunters and prepared to ambush them.

“But Korean hikers just come in without distinguishing between paths or private land. What are they going to do if they get caught up in it?”

“Did you think they installed CCTV for nothing? There are hundreds of motion detection cameras. They’re set to explode only when they’re judged to be enemies. Trustworthy, right, uncles?”

The hunters turned towards the black figures approaching from behind and poured out their skills at the same time.

The black figure was flustered by the sudden response and barely blocked it, but fell from the attack from behind.

Other hunters were approaching behind the black figures.

The hunters raised the CCTV screen they were looking at on their smartphones towards one side of the forest.

“We can see everything. Uncles.”

The last remaining black figure quickly threw himself and dodged.

The attack narrowly missed the spot where he had been.

The hunters cursed and nagged the hunter who had given the unnecessary warning and hurriedly chased after the black figure.

“Why did you do such a useless thing!”

“No, I didn’t know he would be this fast! He’s much faster than the others?”

As the hunter said, the last remaining black figure was several times faster than the other black figures. It was hard for the hunters to catch up.

Several more hunters were waiting in front of the haunted mansion.

“Stop!”

About three.

They weren’t very high level, but the black figure judged that he couldn’t defeat all these hunters and pass through. Other hunters would arrive while he was fighting them.

The black figure rushed towards the hunters without hesitation.

The moment the hunters swung their weapons, the black figure instantly split into two.

While one of the figures that split in two was dealing with the hunters, the remaining one rushed straight inside the door.

But an unexpected formidable enemy was waiting inside the door.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

Bang! With Song Yeo-un’s ‘Repulsion’ skill, the black figure was thrown out of the door with twisted limbs.

Song Yeo-un bared her teeth and looked for the enemy that had been thrown out. It was impossible to pass through her, who was guarding the narrow doorway.

But her gaze soon became bewildered. The hunters guarding the door were the same.

The black figure they were fighting had disappeared as soon as they knocked him down.

A bad feeling flashed through Song Yeo-un’s mind.

The guy she saw on CCTV had the ability to divide his form. What if he divided his form again just before she used her skill?

“Dr. Yumin!”

Song Yeo-un hurriedly headed towards the lab. At that moment, a loud noise rang out from the lab.

Song Yeo-un ran with a pale face.

She didn’t think that Yumin, a slender and delicate scholar, would have the ability to fight against the enemy.

To make matters worse, her skill was just an ambiguous thing called Conversion.

Bang, crash!

At that moment, something flew out of the door.

It was a black figure whose face was being crushed.

Something was on top of it, beating and crushing it.

The black figure struggled to divide its form, but was eventually caught and crushed again.

“Stop it.”

Only after the black figure had completely stopped did Yumin, wearing a white coat, appear with her arms crossed. Song Yeo-un looked at Yumin and ‘it’ on top of the black figure with a dazed expression.

“Dr. Yumin, that….”

“I’m not a doctor.”

“Anyway, is that what I think it is?”

“That’s right. Exoskeleton.”

What was on top of the black figure was the exoskeleton that Hyun-moo used to wear.

Hyun-moo eventually abandoned it because it not only restricted his movements but also didn’t look cool, but Yumin hadn’t stopped researching the exoskeleton.

And that research had yielded some results thanks to Yumin’s skill.

“Oppa’s combat data is recorded intact inside. So I thought it would be useful in times like this. We already have enough crystal moss to use as batteries. Anyway.”

Yumin removed Hyun-moo’s exoskeleton, stepped on the black figure’s neck, and looked at it closely.

“Hey, it’s the same guy who came before.”