Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 125

125. Inferno (4)

Moon Young-hoo felt a sense of unease the moment he stepped into the entrance.

Someone was in the house.

The lights were off, and the shoes were neatly arranged, but he was sure of it.

He could clearly feel a presence.

Moon Young-hoo retraced his steps to see what he had missed.

Before entering the house, he had checked all safety measures.

There was no tail, and there were no signs of anyone entering the house. But he could definitely feel someone was there.

‘Should I go out again?’

No.

He came to erase all the remaining data in the house.

If an unknown enemy was already inside, it was better for him if the guy was still staying.

Moon Young-hoo anxiously opened his phone and fiddled with a number.

Just making a call to this number would detonate the bombs installed throughout the house, blowing the interior away without a trace.

It was a way to blow away the evidence and the intruder at once. But he couldn’t rule out the possibility of being overly sensitive. Once it exploded, it would be difficult to clean up the aftermath.

Moon Young-hoo slowly walked in, cautiously surveying his surroundings.

There were no signs of intrusion anywhere in the house. The safe where he had hidden the data also showed no signs of being opened.

The only place he hadn’t checked was his workshop, which was filled with bombs. There was no important information there.

‘Maybe I’m just being paranoid.’

He had been on edge lately because of the top-ranked ability user he had been targeting.

Moon Young-hoo carefully took out his pistol and opened the door to take a look.

Someone was sitting in the middle of the dark room. The black silhouette stood out. Moon Young-hoo aimed his pistol at the figure.

At that moment, the light suddenly turned on.

The sudden brightness made him reflexively almost pull the trigger, but someone grabbed his gun from behind, turned it around, and aimed it at Moon Young-hoo’s own chin.

Moon Young-hoo barely managed to take his finger off the trigger.

“You’re calm.”

A man was standing behind him before he knew it.

Moon Young-hoo quickly dropped his pistol and rolled to grab his phone. The man didn’t even try to catch him.

Moon Young-hoo showed his phone to the man and shouted.

“Stop! If you touch me, this whole house will blow up!”

The man stopped.

He was a man wearing a strange mask.

A mask that distorted the vision bizarrely, making one feel nauseous just by looking at it.

The man tilted his head and opened his mouth.

“Well, it might be good to try, but I think it’s better to think more carefully.”

The man turned his gaze to Moon Young-hoo’s side.

Only then did Moon Young-hoo turn to the side.

The silhouette sitting in the workshop.

The source of the strange presence he felt in the house was none other than his wife, who shouldn’t be home at this time.

“Y-You, honey. Is that you?”

His wife was tied to a chair with a blindfold over her eyes. Before Moon Young-hoo could get angry, Hyun-woo spoke first.

“Moon Young-hoo. Age thirty-four. Graduated from Sogang University. Affiliated with the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit of the Republic of Korea’s Counter-Terrorism Forces. Is your side job terrorism?”

Moon Young-hoo flinched. He could immediately sense who the other party was.

“Kang……”

Then Hyun-woo quietly put his finger to his lips.

Moon Young-hoo could understand Hyun-woo’s intention. The reason for blindfolding his wife was to leave her a chance to return alive.

If she finds out that the other party is Kang Hyun-woo, his wife cannot return. And Moon Young-hoo sensed that he would die here.

Hyun-woo stared at him and slowly took off his mask.

“Let’s talk.”

***

Moon Young-hoo was sitting naked on the toilet in the bathroom.

His hands and feet were tightly wrapped in duct tape, and next to him, Hyun-woo was turning on the shower to check the water pressure.

He had no idea what he was trying to do. Hyun-woo seemed satisfied with the water pressure and took out a towel and approached Moon Young-hoo.

“How did you find me?”

“Easily.”

Hyun-woo replied insincerely. But Moon Young-hoo couldn’t understand at all.

The bomb was delivered through as many as six stages, and the perpetrator and Moon Young-hoo were people who had never met.

Operations that are carried out in such multiple stages have a high failure rate and are difficult to stop once started, but the advantage is that there is less concern about revealing who is behind them.

“It’s no use torturing me! I just made the bomb!”

Hyun-woo stopped.

“Why is everyone so full of loyalty?”

Hyun-woo took out his phone and showed him a photo. As soon as Moon Young-hoo saw the photo, his face turned pale and he gagged.

Hyun-woo put his phone back in and said.

“I don’t think you’ll remember it for long? It’s a pity that the more loyal you are, the more you suffer like this. Actually, half of it was me letting off steam, but if I put in the effort, I wouldn’t need to torture you.”

Moon Young-hoo realized that Kang Hyun-woo would extract the information he wanted no matter what he did. No matter how long it took.

Hyun-woo tapped Moon Young-hoo’s chin with a rolled-up towel.

“You said you were in the production part. Then you’re quite close to the starting point. Tell me. Who’s order is it?”

“Damn it, damn it, damn it……!”

Moon Young-hoo hesitated to answer.

It wasn’t a positive sign. Hyun-woo stuffed the towel into Moon Young-hoo’s mouth.

Moon Young-hoo was flustered and tried to say anything, but Hyun-woo’s fingers were already in his mouth.

“Ugh, ugh!”

Hyun-woo first pulled out a tooth. The moment a scream was about to burst out, Hyun-woo shoved his finger into the spot where the tooth had been pulled out.

Moon Young-hoo’s eyes rolled back.

To pass out after just one. Hyun-woo left the towel in Moon Young-hoo’s mouth and turned on the shower.

As cold water poured over him, Moon Young-hoo shuddered and opened his eyes again. The insane pain was still vividly present in his body.

“The answer must come out within 3 seconds. Got it?”

Moon Young-hoo glared at Hyun-woo with bloodshot eyes. Before Hyun-woo put his finger back in his mouth, he decided to tell him one thing.

“According to your medical records, you have 29 teeth. Now it’s 28. Can you last 28 more times?”

“G-Get…… lost…….”

“I appreciate your will. But even if I pull out all your teeth, I’m not just going to go home while admiring your willpower. I’m going to get the answer from you no matter what, why do you think I brought the person waiting outside that door?”

Moon Young-hoo flinched.

My wife.

Hyun-woo looked down at Moon Young-hoo with cold eyes and said.

“So the total number of teeth I can pull out is 56. Got it?”

Moon Young-hoo’s pupils trembled. No matter how much he endured, he couldn’t let his wife become like that.

After hesitating, Moon Young-hoo nodded weakly. Hyun-woo pulled the towel out of Moon Young-hoo’s mouth.

“I…… I planned it all.”

“You? Did a public official of the Republic of Korea have a grudge against me?”

Moon Young-hoo glared at Hyun-woo with bloodshot eyes and spat out as if he was spitting.

“You are a being that will be harmful just by existing. A grudge? I was just trying to uproot the weeds. I am a gardener. A gardener who pulls out and throws away weeds before they take root. Originally, you should have died…….”

“Me?”

At Hyun-woo’s question, Moon Young-hoo spat out saliva mixed with blood.

“Yes. It was all an operation to kill you. But how could you change cars there?”

Hyun-woo was not surprised. Because it was something he had predicted.

Hyun-woo thought that the enemy who targeted him knew about the Crystal Moss like Endo, or was an unorganized remnant of the JeonNeung Association [a fictional organization].

Or it could be the work of an extremist among government officials who opposed Park Gyu. If neither of these were the case, he was also considering Lee Ji-tae.

There were too many, but a guy who was simply dissatisfied with the ability user was in the lowest rank.

Of course, Hyun-woo didn’t believe Moon Young-hoo’s words.

“Then what about Assemblywoman Ryu Soo-ah?”

Moon Young-hoo was startled, but barely managed to avoid showing any signs. But he couldn’t help but tremble.

“Wh-What are you talking about?”

“Do you think I only interrogated you? Did you think you were the closest to your backer? Torturing you is just a confirmation procedure. I’ve already finished interrogating everyone, including the person who gave you the orders. Right before you, I interrogated your wife.”

Hyun-woo opened the door and gestured.

Someone who had been waiting outside began to approach.

Moon Young-hoo smelled a strange smell from afar.

The smell of burning.

Clunk. The moment the door opened, Moon Young-hoo blankly stared at the man standing outside the door.

“Park Hwi-so……?”

Wearing a coat, a fedora, and gloves, and almost all of his body except for his eyes was wrapped in bandages, so there was no exposed skin, but he could recognize the cane he was holding. And even the unique way he walked, tapping the cane.

“H-How are you alive?”

“That’s a question you should ask yourself. At the point when Park Hwi-so is alive, how can you still be alive?”

Hyun-woo said with a smile.

“Park Hwi-so also knew that you were a close aide to Assemblywoman Ryu Soo-ah.”

Ryu Soo-ah.

That was the name of the mastermind behind this incident.

A woman from the Alliance who had visited Park Hwi-so. It was the very woman Hyun-woo had seen in Park Hwi-so’s office.

It was easy to find that name from the point of discovering Moon Young-hoo. Because Park Hwi-so knew that Moon Young-hoo worked under Ryu Soo-ah.

“As I said before, I already know enough. This is just a confirmation procedure. You better answer correctly.”

Moon Young-hoo gave up. It was not a matter of line that he could do anything about.

If Park Hwi-so was alive and he knew that the Alliance had tried to kill him, he was already at a point of no return.

Moon Young-hoo was not a member of the Alliance, but one of the low-level employees working for the Alliance. Moon Young-hoo lowered his head and began to confess everything.

After hearing the whole story, Hyun-woo lightly clicked his tongue.

“There’s nothing of much value.”

Everything has already been confirmed.

Ryu Soo-ah had already been planning to kill Hyun-woo for a long time. But Park Hwi-so was caught up in the operation to kill Hyun-woo.

And as things have turned out, they were trying to involve Hyun-woo by using Park Hwi-so’s death.

It was clear that the Alliance, or at least Ryu Soo-ah, one of the Alliance members, was hostile to Hyun-woo.

And she was the very ability user who summoned the Red Serpent to the Gangbyeon Expressway.

Hyun-woo judged that there was nothing more to find out from Moon Young-hoo. Moon Young-hoo also knew this and desperately appealed.

“I’m done! Just let my wife go. She doesn’t know anything!”

“Why doesn’t she know anything? Your wife is Assemblywoman Ryu Soo-ah’s secretary.”

Hyun-woo continued coldly.

“And that’s what the old man will decide, not me.”

“Mr. Park Hwi-so! Mr. Park Hwi-so, please take care of my wife. Haven’t you worked with her before? It was never intentional to get you involved!”

“It’s noisy over there. Old man, let’s make a decision quickly?”

Park Hwi-so quietly looked down at Moon Young-hoo, then turned around and left. Moon Young-hoo couldn’t tell what that signal meant.

Hyun-woo lightly clicked his tongue.

“I decided to leave it all up to the old man to decide who to kill and who to save in this case. The old man seems to be being too lenient because he’s an old colleague.”

Hyun-woo looked down at Moon Young-hoo and continued.

“If you want to live, don’t contact Ryu Soo-ah or whatever, and get out of here and flee abroad. And never come back.”

Moon Young-hoo nodded like crazy. He never thought he would save his own life, let alone his wife’s.

Young-hoo deeply thanked Park Hwi-so, and at the same time, gritted his teeth at Hyun-woo. Soon, Hyun-woo followed Park Hwi-so out.

Moon Young-hoo hurriedly tried to find his wife when he suddenly found something on the floor. It was the cell phone he had dropped while being dragged.

When he opened the phone, he saw that the number that could blow up the entire house was still dialed.

Should he blow Hyun-woo away now, but he couldn’t because his wife was there.

‘Ryu Soo-ah…… I have to let Assemblywoman Ryu Soo-ah know.’

He was bothered by the fact that Hyun-woo had told him never to contact him, but he couldn’t cut off contact with the person he had served without even contacting her once.

Moon Young-hoo hurriedly searched for the number and made a call. At that time, Moon Young-hoo thought that something was strange about this situation.

Kang Hyun-woo, who had triple-checked all the information before interrogating him, would he leave his cell phone unattended so carelessly?

The moment he felt a sense of unease, a ringtone echoed from somewhere in the house.

It was Assemblywoman Ryu Soo-ah’s cell phone ringtone.

With a roar, fierce flames engulfed him.