Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 254

254. Utopia (9)

Seo Ji-hoo swiftly hurled the key before the soldier could level his gun.

It was the key he had snatched when his wrist was struck earlier.

The soldier, the key piercing his eye, screamed and toppled down the stairs.

“The prisoners!”

One of the guards shot to his feet, shouting hysterically.

The unidentified soldier fired at the guard, but the bullet missed its mark.

The guard, as the gun was trained on him, dodged with uncanny speed, using the walls and ceiling for leverage.

“A Player, huh.”

The unidentified soldier muttered, betraying no surprise.

“Take care of him, Team Leader Seo Ji-hoo.”

Seo Ji-hoo recognized the guard as the same one who had broken his wrist earlier. His wrist throbbed from the memory of that blow.

The guard glared at Seo Ji-hoo.

Their levels were comparable, but Seo Ji-hoo was unarmed and injured.

His opponent, however, was heavily armed and in peak condition.

It seemed like an easy fight for the guard.

The guard drew his prized weapon, the ‘Correctional Evangelizer,’ and swung it in a swift arc.

Seo Ji-hoo couldn’t even react; he felt his head was about to be crushed. But his hand moved, a futile attempt to defend himself.

“Huh?”

All the guard saw was the twitch of Seo Ji-hoo’s finger.

Seo Ji-hoo seized the fleeting opportunity. He kicked the guard’s knee, disrupting his balance, and then stomped on the guard’s neck as he fell.

The guard, enhanced with Acceleration, died instantly.

To onlookers, it would have appeared as if the guard had simply stumbled, and Seo Ji-hoo had accidentally broken his neck by stepping on it.

The unidentified soldier was impressed by the efficient move.

“It seems your skills have sharpened in prison, Team Leader Seo Ji-hoo.”

“Team Leader Song Yeo-un, I never expected to see you as a public official. I heard the competition is fierce these days, even for correctional officers.”

Song Yeo-un removed the bulletproof helmet, revealing her face, and unlocked Oh Dae-sung’s handcuffs.

“I’m just lending a hand; it feels like I haven’t done much.”

Oh Dae-sung muttered awkwardly, but Song Yeo-un smiled and said,

“No. Team Leader Oh Dae-sung will play the most crucial role here.”

“The most crucial role?”

Song Yeo-un began to feel along the walls of the staircase.

The windowless walls felt remarkably thick even with a light touch.

Song Yeo-un counted her steps, gauging the distance, and stopped at a specific spot. She tapped the wall and said,

“Please deliver the strongest blow you can muster, Team Leader, right here.”

“The strongest? Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

Oh Dae-sung didn’t press further and shrugged. Normally, recklessly activating his skill would have alerted the guards monitoring through CCTV, resulting in a high-voltage shock or a barrage of grenade launchers.

Oh Dae-sung gathered his strength, feeling a sense of release after prolonged inactivity. After a brief preparation, he struck the wall with both hands simultaneously.

Song Yeo-un and Seo Ji-hoo flinched, bracing for the impact. But only a dull thud echoed, and nothing seemed to happen.

Just as he was wondering if his senses had dulled from disuse, Oh Dae-sung said,

“Get away from the wall.”

At that moment, a resounding crash erupted from beyond the wall.

A moment later, a wave-like ripple spread across the entire wall.

Soon, a massive, circular crack radiated from the point where Oh Dae-sung had struck.

Shortly after, a vibration that shook the entire building swept through the hospital.

Ultimate Skill: Reverse Heaven.

The thick hospital wall crumbled as if being sucked into a vortex.

“Wow.”

Even Song Yeo-un, who had requested the action, muttered in stunned disbelief.

Oh Dae-sung surveyed the destruction he had wrought with a proud expression and said,

“It’s not a skill meant to be used on people, after all.”

He was thinking of the time he had used it on Kang Hyun-mo, but no one understood the reference.

As the wall collapsed, chaos erupted outside. But Song Yeo-un’s group encountered no guards.

Instead, they were greeted by the sight of the serene blue Cheongpyeong Lake.

The most significant obstacle for numerous escape attempts wasn’t the high tower’s floodlights, the strict surveillance, or the state-of-the-art equipment.

It was the perimeter fence surrounding the prison.

Song Yeo-un said with a confident smile,

“The most important part of escaping is breaching the final fence.”

The spot Song Yeo-un indicated was the only point in the hospital that directly bordered the outer wall.

Instead, it had been reinforced to be 4 meters thick, which Oh Dae-sung had obliterated in a single blow.

The collapse wasn’t just a hole to squeeze through; it had demolished an entire section of the hospital.

“Let’s go. I have a boat waiting below.”

“What about the surveillance ship?”

“That *is* the surveillance ship.”

Oh Dae-sung and Seo Ji-hoo silently followed Song Yeo-un.

As she had said, a boat awaited them at the lakeside. No one was visible. Oh Dae-sung paused as he descended the slope and glanced back at Cheongpyeong Hospital.

The siren continued to blare loudly at the hospital. He could see some Players emerging from the hole he had created.

“Hurry! Military personnel from the nearby unit will be here soon.”

At Song Yeo-un’s urging, Oh Dae-sung reluctantly boarded the boat. Seo Ji-hoo was already at the helm, ready to depart.

As the boat pulled away from the shore, Oh Dae-sung asked Song Yeo-un,

“Wait a minute. What are you planning to do now? Even if the Flood warning is a hoax, what happens after the escape? We’ll be wanted criminals.”

“Being wanted is only temporary. It won’t be a problem for long. And the Flood warning isn’t fake.”

“Huh?”

“The Flood warning is real. Soon, the monsters in the prison’s basement will surge to the surface. With the fence breached, this area will descend into chaos. It’s the perfect opportunity to escape.”

Song Yeo-un grinned and added,

“And if the capital area is paralyzed within two days and becomes unmanageable, they’ll realize the gravity of messing with the wrong people.”

Oh Dae-sung understood Song Yeo-un’s intentions.

Song Yeo-un was aiming to disrupt Seoul’s water supply, starting with Cheongpyeong Lake.

The issue wasn’t merely the inconvenience of being unable to wash or drink. The facilities that rely on water and electricity would collapse like dominoes.

It was a strategy rooted in the fundamentals of terrorism: attacking social infrastructure to sow shock and fear.

And this strategy wasn’t Song Yeo-un’s original idea. Oh Dae-sung sensed someone else pulling the strings.

“You knew the Flood would happen in advance?”

“Ah, that’s…”

Song Yeo-un realized that Oh Dae-sung was unaware of their ability to artificially trigger the Flood.

Before she could respond awkwardly, Seo Ji-hoo interjected.

“Yoo-min was developing a program to predict the Flood’s timing. It seems she’s perfected it.”

“Yes, that’s right! Team Leader Seo Ji-hoo knows exactly what’s going on.”

Oh Dae-sung sensed something amiss, but he accepted the explanation. The research conducted by Doctor Do Won-kyung and Yoo-min was beyond his comprehension.

“If you could predict the Flood in advance, shouldn’t you have warned the people first…?”

“Well, we missed the window. It happened just as they were about to execute our people.”

Song Yeo-un said it as if they deserved it. But Oh Dae-sung felt uneasy.

With the wall so severely damaged, the hospital guards would be unable to defend against the Flood effectively.

Oh Dae-sung glanced back at the hospital, where the siren continued to wail. His 고민 [agonizing thoughts] didn’t last long.

“I’ll stay here.”

Oh Dae-sung jumped off the boat without hesitation, giving them no chance to dissuade him.

Song Yeo-un looked at Seo Ji-hoo in dismay, but he shrugged, as if to say, what can we do?

“You expected this, didn’t you?”

Song Yeo-un muttered with a sigh.

“Then we’ll have to proceed with Plan B, as Branch Manager 예상대로 [as expected].”

***

The ear-splitting siren blared incessantly.

The siren’s sound unsettles people’s minds.

The roar shatters spirits and steals souls.

The tactic of suppressing the enemy’s momentum with explosions and vibrations in war has been historically common.

Especially against Players with heightened senses, the siren was a particularly effective weapon.

The numerous sirens surrounding Cheongpyeong Hospital, a Player detention facility, were more than enough to subdue the Players.

“This is Cheongpyeong, Cheongpyeong Hospital! Support! Requesting support!”

The problem was that it had little effect on monsters.

The man in charge of Cheongpyeong Hospital, the hospital director, clutched the radio in his trembling hands.

As soon as the Flood erupted, the Players imprisoned underground were the first to be attacked.

The hospital director immediately requested support from a nearby unit, but he wasn’t overly concerned.

Cheongpyeong Hospital was prepared for this situation.

‘It should have been, but why now!’

It shouldn’t have happened like this.

The monsters in the 3-star dungeon beneath Cheongpyeong Hospital were fast and powerful, but they lacked the ability to climb or breach walls.

In other words, even if a situation arose, all they had to do was stand on the wall and wait for the Player prisoners to subdue the monsters.

That was the theory, but an unexpected variable had occurred during the initial Flood.

Some of the prisoners had escaped and created a massive hole in the hospital wall.

Monsters were leaking out earlier than anticipated through the cracks and gaps created by the damaged wall.

The guards were overwhelmed by the wave of monsters before they could even reach their posts.

Moreover, some of the monsters were managing to scale the walls.

The result was a one-sided massacre.

There were Player guards, but their numbers were limited.

From the outset, this facility was designed to detain uncontrollable Players.

In the end, the guards were scattered, hiding in their rooms and awaiting rescue.

“Ugh, damn it. When is support arriving!”

The radio was unresponsive, as if a monster had severed the line.

Only the siren’s wail rose and fell sporadically, punctuated by screams and gunfire.

It was the sound of guards or imprisoned Players being attacked.

The screams erupted as if tearing flesh, then faded away.

The hospital director wished the siren would drown out the screams.

Because the sounds that followed the screams were the sounds of flesh tearing and bones being chewed.

“Gyaaaa!”

“Ugh!”

Suddenly, something slammed against the door with a thud.

It was a stainless steel door, but there was a noticeable dent where it had been struck.

A murky red stain spread across the reinforced glass window.

The hospital director checked the monitors.

Zombies that resembled those from movies were roaming the hallways, scaling the walls, and milling about in the courtyard.

But these creatures were neither dead nor alive. They were driven by an insatiable hunger.

If they saw movement, they would swarm and crave fresh flesh and blood.

The Cheongpyeong Dungeon was a place that even seasoned Hunters found horrifying due to its madness and cruelty.

Bang! Another impact reverberated against the door. The hospital director’s heart pounded, but he was relieved that the door was holding.

‘Damn Player bastards, you should come out and fight at times like this!’

Even though all the rooms had been unlocked so that the Player prisoners could emerge and hunt, there was no sign of them engaging the monsters on the monitors.

It seemed they were either holed up somewhere like him or had already been wiped out.

That was strange, too.

Although more than half of them were mentally unstable, they were strong enough to be deemed a threat to society.

‘But they were being unilaterally slaughtered like this?’

As if to interrupt his thoughts, another thud echoed.

“Get out, you bastard! There’s no dog bowl for you here!”

The hospital director couldn’t contain himself any longer and shouted desperately.

Then the thumping intensified, becoming frantic.

The hospital director clutched his head and waited for the nightmare to end.

But the nightmare had no intention of waiting.

Thud, crack, crackle.

The sound of steel and cement walls being torn apart simultaneously filled the air.

The hospital director watched in disbelief as even the steel frame securing the stainless steel door was ripped from the wall.

The one who had torn down the door was a monstrous hand.

A sharp hand, nearly the size of an average man’s torso, tore the door apart and poked its head inside.

Its size, nearly 4 or 5 meters, suggested it could scale even the tallest walls.

Hundreds of fangs filled its enormous mouth, which stretched so wide it nearly reached its ears. The hospital director was dumbfounded.

If there’s a guy like this, what’s the point of having a wall?

The hospital director, confronted by the monster’s grin, tried to scream but burst out laughing.

He didn’t even know why he was laughing. Laughter erupted as if his stomach was convulsing.

As if he would be spared if he laughed along with it.

Gast came closer, mirroring his smile.

Its massive mouth opened wide and licked the hospital director’s cheek with its tongue.

The hospital director laughed even louder to protect his sanity.

It was then.

“Step back.”

With a curt command, someone crashed through the roof and stomped on Gast’s head.

Gast, who had been extending its tongue, bit down on it and spat out blood.

Gast struggled desperately, but the soaking wet bald man on top of Gast seemed determined to hold on.

The hospital director immediately recognized the bald man.

It was Oh Dae-sung, the former leader of the All-Powerful Union, a key figure.

Oh Dae-sung grabbed Gast’s head, positioned it near his ear, and immediately activated his ‘Roar’ skill.

Gast, who was directly exposed to the roar at point-blank range, trembled violently, then slumped, bleeding profusely from its eyes and ears.

There are monsters like Kang Hyun-mo right above him, and the rising rookies are powerful, so he feels buried, but he was one of the top 3 strongest people in Korea.

The boss monster class of a 3-star dungeon was no match for him.

“Are you okay?”

Oh Dae-sung turned and asked the hospital director.

“Hehehe, haha, hehe….”

Oh Dae-sung was taken aback by the hospital director’s hysterical laughter. But he thought it was good to try to have a positive attitude in any situation.

“Don’t worry. We will save the people.”

Oh Dae-sung patted the hospital director on the shoulder and smiled.

Oh Dae-sung had encountered Song Yeo-un and Seo Ji-hoo, who were returning the boat to the lakeside, upon reaching the shore. It was evident that they had recognized his sincerity.

However, contrary to his expectations, on the other side, a massacre was unfolding, not at the hands of monsters, but by other ‘humans.’