Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 119

Expansion and Severance (1)

Difficulty: Hell. Shelter.

“Butler, were you guarding the house well today, too?”

No sooner had Hyun-woo set foot in Hell than Lenián appeared, rubbing her face against his neck.

It wasn’t so much a ‘pop’ as a *whaeng* sound as she materialized.

Hyun-woo already had a question for Lenián.

“Lenián, can you move my body?”

“Huh? If I could do that, I would have already…”

Lenián stopped there, then smiled bashfully and covered her mouth.

Hyun-woo felt a slight chill. If she *could* move his body, what on earth would she do?

Watching Lenián smack her lips, Hyun-woo hurried to continue the conversation.

“Something strange happened last time. When I was about to faint, I heard your voice, and my body moved on its own. Does that have something to do with you?”

“Huh? Ah, that. The fairy didn’t move it. Butler moved on his own.”

“I did? But I was fainting?”

“Hmm, well… I can’t say the fairy was completely unrelated… I just switched the mode a little because Butler didn’t seem happy. Something like a ‘happiness pursuit mode.’ You can’t use skills, and combat just repeats Butler’s usual behavior patterns. You can’t take out items; you can only use what you have.”

“What the heck is ‘happiness pursuit mode’?”

“Wouldn’t it be when Butler is happiest?”

“…Killing someone?”

Lenián giggled, “Hehe.”

Of course, Hyun-woo didn’t think of himself as the type to gain pleasure from murder or blood.

It’s satisfying to kill monsters, but it doesn’t make him *happy*. Gaining pleasure from combat, that’s like… a monster.

“I don’t really think so.”

At that moment, Hyun-woo had a serious concern.

“Wait, what if my happiness pursuit mode is, like, sexual relations or something?”

Lenián laughed “hehe” again.

Hyun-woo pushed the creepiness aside and decided to think of it as a good thing. He also resolved to set up countermeasures to ensure he could control the mode switch.

“Don’t worry, Butler. The reason Butler’s mode can be switched is because of the Battle Helper skill. Battle Helper has a complete record of Butler’s behavior patterns and combat methods. So when consciousness is turned off, it automatically enters defense mode. If someone shows even a little hostility towards you, it intercepts the enemy as it always has.”

“So you used Battle Helper when I lost consciousness?”

“Something like that?”

*Then explain it that way.*

Hyun-woo felt relieved that things were becoming clearer. He thought Battle Helper only had a combat correction function, but he didn’t know it could do this. Hyun-woo opened the skill window and checked the Battle Helper skill.

[Battle Helper (Legendary)]

[Special Ability: Records/controls the user’s movements to correct accuracy, and predicts the enemy’s movements to aid judgment. Can consume mana to create an aura that strengthens attack power and defense.]

[Characteristic: Strong Vigor, Reaction Defense]

[Note: One of humanity’s interesting attempts. Professor Keller succeeded in implementing a legendary skill by creating a pseudo-golem called Scarecrow from the remnants of Marph obtained from the Watchman’s Spire. The skill, which was designed to become constantly stronger according to the opponent, was powerful, but the technology was buried before it could create a body that could shine.]

‘Huh? Professor Keller?’

Hyun-woo skimmed through the notes and paused when he found a name. It felt familiar.

But just looking at the name, it was hard to know for sure whether it was Earth or not. Other notes also used terms that were used on Earth.

Rather, Hyun-woo was concerned about something else.

“A characteristic has appeared.”

The Reaction Defense characteristic was definitely not there before.

But it suddenly appeared, whether it was created while he was unconscious or not. The time he fought with Oh Dae-sung didn’t exactly feel like a life-threatening crisis, but it suddenly appeared.

Hyun-woo felt strange, but he accepted it as a positive development.

‘In reality, you might die completely even if you die only once, so the acceptance might be different.’

No matter what anyone said, he was the holder of SS/SS stats. Hyun-woo decided to clarify one more thing.

“So Lenián, you activated my skill… that means you’ve been watching me all along?”

“Of course. That’s why Butler is Butler.”

He didn’t know what that meant.

“But I can’t show myself. I can’t talk either.”

“Why?”

“The fairy shouldn’t be implemented at that point.”

“…Why?”

“Because I am the beast promised at the end!”

As always, the riddle-like conversation with Lenián never yielded any answers.

It’s easier to communicate with a ratman or a goblin. Lenián is literally a being from another world.

Then Hyun-woo suddenly remembered and opened his mouth.

“So is it the end of the world now?”

“Of course.”

Lenián said with a smile.

“This is Hell difficulty, the star of the apocalypse. It’s the final stage of everything!”

*It’s been a long time since the update ended, the content has reached the end, the difficulty has pierced the ceiling, the items have been released as much as they can be, inflation is unstoppable, and it seems like an online game that is about to shut down its servers due to a decrease in the number of users.*

Hyun-woo understood it that way. It seemed to fit roughly.

And on the other hand, he had other thoughts.

He seemed to have changed quite a bit in reality, but the world was still ruined, and nothing seemed to have changed. Was the change insufficient, or was it all useless?

‘……Or is this world already a world that has nothing to do with reality?’

***

Meanwhile, the shelter was now returning to a fairly comfortable state.

Of course, it was limited to the area where Hyun-woo lived, but it was developing into a fairly large underground space with the creation of new villages for goblins and ratmen and connecting passages.

And unknowingly, the number of goblins had increased. Hyun-woo didn’t really want to know, but a fierce curiosity sprang up.

“Oh, so, then, you don’t have to do that…”

“You mean sex, Boss? Of course, we do. What fun would we have living in this crappy world if we didn’t? But even if we don’t, young individuals suddenly wander around among us, we raise them naturally, and they grow quickly.”

“The child is just ‘born’?”

“That’s the truth, what can we do? Boss. Do you think we’ve lived in this land for a long time? You don’t believe that a wolf will bring you a child even at your age, do you?”

*On this side, a crane brings them, but the goblins’ traditions are a little different.*

“Is this also because of mana?”

“Well, I guess so. Just say everything you don’t understand is because of mana.”

Hyun-woo thought there was a more complicated situation, but it was no use worrying about it.

Hyun-woo only needed to know the results and think about how to use them in which direction.

In any case, the fact that the number of goblins and ratmen would continue to increase was good news and also increased his worries.

Someday, food consumption might occur to the point where Hyun-woo couldn’t handle it.

‘I can live without eating, but…’

Mana only allows for the maintenance of life, but monsters became continuously stronger through meals. Food supply is essential to maintain condition and morale.

‘I heard there’s a food wholesaler in JeonNeungRyeon [a powerful player association]. I should look into that.’

In addition, the overall situation of the shelter was also flowing positively. In the warehouse where the crystal moss was stored, mana was full, and another crystal moss was growing.

The crystal stones created through Lenián were piled up to nearly 100kg.

“That’s enough to make about 30 legendary items…”

It was so much that he was embarrassed. Hyun-woo’s calculations became complicated.

Even now, each country is monitoring and controlling how many legendary items they have.

If he threw nearly thirty of them into the market, there would be a riot. He had to find a more secretive way to use them.

‘I need to make at least one piece of armor.’

Until now, he had never dreamed of defense in Hell because he thought he would die if he got hit even once. It’s better to avoid it than to make your body heavy.

And currently, there was nothing that could be called an enemy, so he didn’t feel the need for armor.

But he felt it desperately while fighting people, especially Oh Dae-sung. *Let’s cherish our lives because we only have one.*

‘Besides that, I need to use this somehow.’

Just piling things up in the warehouse doesn’t do anything.

He couldn’t leak the crystal stone to the outside, so even if he stockpiled it, he still had to dispose of the crystal moss that had accumulated too much.

It was difficult to consume it all by selling it to Park Hwi-so.

‘But I can’t just spread it around. It was said that the grade could rise through this as a medium…’

The conclusion is one.

It is to find a way to consume this crystal moss in large quantities directly.

What Hyun-woo thought of was the huge factory in the Fallen Empire, the Black Beak Fortress.

***

“Grimoire and D&W. What’s the difference between the two?”

Yu-min’s lab. Yu-min was embarrassed to see Hyun-woo suddenly barge in and ask questions.

D&W Industries and Grimoire Lab were both promising high-tech companies in the mana industry. And they were also companies whose stock prices were soaring due to the recent increase in difficulty.

Yu-min answered without much thought.

“D&W approaches the item industry focusing on mechanical engineering, and Grimoire Lab is on the biotechnology side. Looking at financial soundness alone, D&W is better, and its performance is more promising. But Grimoire Lab is a field with high future value. Rich people want to become strong ability users without having to work hard. Why?”

“If I were to buy, which one should I buy?”

“If you want to see immediate short-term profits, D&W is better, but Grimoire is promising in the long term. But since you don’t know when that performance will come out, I would buy D&W, which has the technology right now. But why? There are better places to buy stocks, right?”

“I was thinking of buying one.”

Yu-min smiled, but something Hyun-woo said bothered her. Was he talking about stocks now? Surely ‘buying’ doesn’t mean buying a company, does it?

No matter how much money Hyun-woo is making, he can’t afford to buy the most successful small and medium-sized companies right now.

But Yu-min had already seen many cases where what she ‘thought’ was possible was realized.

“You’re not buying a company, are you?”

“What? Hey, no way.”

Hyun-woo smiled, and Yu-min felt relieved. Soon that smile became subtle, though.

“I’m going to steal it.”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to steal the technology and run it in our factory. With something of much better quality and cheaper. So when that side’s value plummets, I’ll buy it then. I can’t buy it now. How expensive is it? It’s too much of a burden to buy it at face value.”

“…Uh, you’re going to steal technology?”

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“First, I’m going to request technical cooperation with the stock shares I have. It’s not that much, but it’s not enough to ignore. Once that side is interested, I’ll introduce one of the factories JeonNeungRyeon has and show them materials and items that they can’t ignore. Then, after signing a technical agreement with various confidentiality conditions, when we start running the factory…”

Hyun-woo winked and pointed at Yu-min with two fingers.

“You’re going to steal all the core technology, drawings, and designs from there!”

Yu-min couldn’t close her mouth.

“So, we’re going to do industrial espionage?”

“Yeah.”

“After stealing the achievements made by numerous researchers at multinational research companies with blood, sweat, and tears, throwing away research ethics and selling replicas at low prices in small factories in developing countries without any patent fees, and then taking away shares after ruining the company?”

“Exactly.”

There was no need to say more. There was no need to even think about it. Yu-min raised both arms and cheered.

“That’s a really cool plan! Oppa [term of endearment for an older brother or male friend]!”

“Right? It’s really cool, right?”

“Industrial espionage, that’s the same as my dream when I was in the second year of middle school! I can’t believe I’m actually going to do it! What are research ethics! I didn’t even get a doctorate, so give it to the dogs!”

“I knew you’d like it! Good, I have to contact them right away.”