Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 241

241. Hell’s Star (8)

When Hyun-woo stated his intention firmly, Monstreel fell silent. The general consensus seemed to be decided.

“Alright. Since everyone seems to be in favor, I have one question.”

Hyun-woo looked around at the representatives and asked,

“How does one become a Star?”

“……”

A heavy silence settled over the representatives.

The representative of the Wailing Star facepalmed, looking utterly dumbfounded.

The representative of the Starving Star approached Hyun-woo, lifting Hyun-woo’s right hand with Kawaro’s pale hand.

“I knew it. There aren’t enough fragments.”

The representative of the Wailing Star sighed at the words of the Starving Star’s representative.

“If there were enough, the option would have appeared. It would have been difficult to gather that many fragments without even choosing a Star. Yet, you bravely declared you would become a Star in that state.”

“What, is that not allowed? You’re quite incompetent for representatives.”

“Who do you think you are, entrusting us with the position of a Star?”

As the representative of the Wailing Star snapped back irritably, the representative of the Starving Star interjected.

“No. You just need to bring one leftover fragment.”

“Leftover?”

“It just so happens there’s one here.”

At that moment, Kawaro’s eyes widened, and he shook his head violently.

However, the representative of the Starving Star grinned and plunged his right hand into his own, or rather, Kawaro’s stomach.

Kawaro’s pupils rolled back. Having lost his mouth, Kawaro couldn’t even scream.

Soon, the Starving Star, having torn something from Kawaro’s stomach, held out a piece of bloody flesh to Hyun-woo.

Even within the bloody flesh, the red-glowing pattern emitted a clear color.

The moment Hyun-woo held it, the fragment seeped into Hyun-woo’s right hand.

[Number of Apostles Defeated: 5]

[Quest Successful!]

[You have succeeded in the ‘Darkest Place of the Star’ quest.]

[You have passed the trial.]

[One ‘Gaul’s Gift Box’ is provided as a reward.]

[The Return Stone is activated until the next quest.]

[Curse: Division has been lifted.]

Listening to the messages that popped up one after another, Hyun-woo knew that Kawaro was dead.

It wasn’t his hand, but he had finally done it.

He had killed five Apostles, who had felt like an insurmountable wall.

However, Hyun-woo couldn’t rejoice.

Because right in front of him was a bloody jaw, smiling while wearing Kawaro’s skin.

“Congratulations. You can now become a Star. Small, weak, and pale though you may be.”

He grinned, revealing his teeth in a gruesome smile.

“But you are now indebted to the Starving Star. The interest won’t be small.”

The Starving Star, a being more greedy than anything else, had made Hyun-woo indebted by sacrificing an Apostle.

The fact was by no means light. Hyun-woo looked perplexed.

“Ah… okay. Then, the ownership of Kawaro is mine, right? Be sure to leave the corpse behind. Oh, and leave behind the equipment and items Kawaro used too. I’ll see if there’s anything useful to scavenge. Oh, and since I’m already in debt, can’t you lend me some more? Don’t you have any fragments left over?”

“……”

And Hyun-woo was the type who thought that if he was going to be in debt, he should be in deep.

He knew that if he was in a small debt, he would be treated like a debtor by the creditor, but if he was in a huge debt, he would be treated like a valued customer.

The Starving Star’s representative stared at Hyun-woo in disbelief before reaching out and tapping his chest.

“Get lost.”

At that moment, Hyun-woo’s consciousness began to fade away.

***

Hyun-woo saw his own back.

The view was rapidly receding.

It was as if only his soul was being dragged somewhere, leaving his body behind.

The representative of the Conquering Star, who had been burning Curie’s body as firewood, disappeared, and Kawaro’s body crumbled.

The representative of the Wailing Star, who had possessed Ivanov’s body, headed somewhere to find an exit.

Even amidst all this, Hyun-woo’s body was getting further and further away.

Farther. Further away.

The intersection where Hyun-woo had been was now visible. The intersection was covered with countless hordes of the dead.

The view receded even further. The ruined Seoul cityscape, the dried-up Han River, could be seen. Swarms of mosquitoes densely covering the sky were visible.

Some places were burning, some were frozen, some were stormy, and some were cracking and seething.

It was hell itself, constantly undergoing upheaval.

Hyun-woo was moving further away. Just when he wondered how far he was going, a pitch-black land came into view.

There was nothing there.

Centered around the land where Hyun-woo had been, an ink-like darkness was swirling.

Even just looking at it, a gnawing emptiness seemed to be raging.

Difficulty: Hell seemed cozy compared to this pitch-black space.

Hyun-woo saw something in that darkness.

They were gigantic beings writhing and struggling.

They resembled snakes, wolves, leeches, or even mantises.

Their identities were impossible to guess, and they possessed indescribable forms.

They were shrouded in ink-like black smoke, so only their silhouettes could be guessed.

What was clear was that they were unspeakably huge.

Hyun-woo was now moving so far away that he could see the entire Earth at a glance.

Nevertheless, the shapes of the beings moving in the black smoke were still visible. Hyun-woo shuddered as he realized how enormous they were.

“Don’t stare for too long.”

Suddenly, someone spoke from behind. Hyun-woo turned around.

He was no longer moving away from the land.

“The abyss is sensitive to gazes. It knows there’s something for them to eat where there’s a gaze.”

A polite and courteous voice.

Standing behind Hyun-woo was a pale-faced man in a white suit.

A man with a bizarre impression, as if he had been made from head to toe with pure white clay. However, only the black crown of thorns on his head stood out.

“Nice to meet you, Kang Hyun-woo. The sole successor of humanity. We’ve been waiting longer than you think.”

***

Hyun-woo stared at the man in silence.

The white man strode towards Hyun-woo.

The empty space seemed familiar to him.

The white man took out a handkerchief from the breast pocket of his jacket. No, what came out wasn’t a handkerchief, but a tablecloth.

The man waved the tablecloth, which was unbelievable to have come out of his breast pocket, greatly in the air.

The tablecloth naturally draped over something, taking the form of a round table.

The white man approached Hyun-woo and pulled out a part of the table. As if it were natural, a white chair was pulled out from under the tablecloth.

“Sit….”

Hyun-woo sat in the chair before the white man could even tell him to sit.

The white man looked embarrassed when Hyun-woo clasped his hands together and put his feet on the table.

The white man soon sat down in the opposite seat. Hyun-woo opened his mouth first.

“Are you an angel?”

“I thought you’d know.”

The white man smiled and replied.

As soon as Hyun-woo saw the white man, he tried to raise his hostility and check the man’s level.

But no message popped up.

There was a similar case. Renian, and ‘Angel’.

The pure white guy who suddenly dragged him into a strange space just as he was about to clear the Taean Dungeon and leave.

Looking at his pure white appearance and the unknown abilities, he was closer to that angelic guy.

“But to be precise, you could say you’re wrong. There was a time when I was called an angel among you, but it’s far from the meaning commonly used in your cultural sphere. To be precise, you could call me a manager or a seeker. But we prefer the name ‘Priest’. That title is the closest to the original meaning.”

Manager.

Hyun-woo wasn’t surprised. Anyone would be.

The fact that items suddenly appear nicely according to people’s tastes and even the difficulty is adjusted obviously implies the existence of a manager.

Rather, it felt like, ‘Only now?’

“Manager is one thing, but what is a seeker?”

The white man smiled.

“That’s not something Kang Hyun-woo needs to know.”

“You’re cutting me off. I’m hurt.”

“I’m sorry. In fact, you wouldn’t understand even if I told you. The information isn’t allowed at your current level of consciousness. Our [noise] is looking for [noise]. This game is part of that work.”

The words the white man took out were noise-processed as if they had been erased by something.

It was either a sound in a frequency range that Hyun-woo couldn’t understand, or a sound that was difficult to accurately recall the meaning of in his head.

Just like no one can accurately transcribe the sound of the wind into letters.

“But Kang Hyun-woo didn’t come here to question us, did he? Then it’s not very important information.”

“Can you say it’s not important information when you’ve ruined another world to this extent?”

“Instead, we gave many people opportunities.”

The white man said with a strange smile.

“Humanity has enjoyed benefits for a full 30 years, receiving enormous amounts of mana and crystal moss. There was enough time to prepare. Some were destined to be day laborers, some were winter beggars, and some… were destined to put their hands in the gutter and wander around before dying of mana addiction.”

“……”

“If we hadn’t provided the opportunity of the ‘game’, would those people have been better off than they are now?”

Hyun-woo gave a cold smile.

It was quite intentional to ask him this question, of all people.

If Hyun-woo had to choose between humanity returning to a state where the game had never started, with Hyun-woo also returning to being a regular worker, Hyun-woo would unhesitatingly choose the world where the game had started.

Even if the ending was Difficulty: Hell.

The white man was saying, ‘Don’t complain when you’ve received such benefits.’

“I don’t like it.”

“Good things are good, right?”

Hyun-woo took his feet off the table and leaned forward. He had to deal with someone he had to take the conversation seriously.

“Okay. Then let’s get to the point. Are you going to make me a Star?”

“You are already a Star.”

The white man said calmly.

“From the moment enough fragments are gathered, you already have the qualifications of a Star. It means you will be at a level where you can emit light yourself, rather than reflecting someone else’s light.”

The white man continued to speak.

“You are still a nameless Star. You are a Star that is worse than the average Apostle, but still, a Star is a Star, and light is light. It’s great enough. In my experience, new Stars are very difficult to be born.”

“Were there any other humans besides me who became Stars?”

“There were.”

There, the white man gave a strange smile.

“But everyone disappeared, and you are the only human who became the successor of the promise. The promise has already fulfilled its role when you became a Star. The last will of humanity has now been passed on to you. I don’t know if you will survive to the end, though.”

“You don’t think there’s much of a chance?”

“To be honest… I think it’s quite high.”

The white man gave an unexpected answer.

Hyun-woo also found it difficult to be honest with himself. The representatives of the Stars were strong, and his foundation was weak.

“Unlike other Stars, you have a special training place, don’t you?”

The white man tapped his own chest as he said that. He was pointing out the Return Stone hidden in Hyun-woo’s chest.

“That Return Stone is the symbol of the promise. A symbol of struggle, hope, desire, and regret, I suppose.”

“……Hmm, indeed.”

What Hyun-woo believed in was Difficulty: Easy.

He could just escape and live there, but looking at the patterns so far, he would soon be dragged back to Difficulty: Hell.

And if he didn’t prepare for that time, he would clearly be brutally defeated when he was dragged back.

Until now, Difficulty: Hell was Hyun-woo’s training place, but now, on the contrary, he had to find the answer in Difficulty: Easy.

He wondered if this exceptional item would affect the balance, but the white man was passing it off as if it were natural. Rather, he was encouraging him to use it.

‘No, maybe this guy knows more than just about the promise, he may have even intervened directly.’

The Return Stone seemed like something that went beyond the discretion of Apostles or representatives.

It was natural to see that a manager-level person had intervened.

“I have one more question.”

“Please tell me.”

“Will the apocalypse continue to be stopped in Difficulty: Hell in the future?”