Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 134

134. Enemy of Humanity (2)

He couldn’t attack Ryu Sua directly. But he had to prevent her from being elected mayor.

The boss was operating under this premise.

If the third-place candidate was killed, the approval ratings wouldn’t just merge; Ryu Sua’s approval rating might also fall due to sympathy for the deceased.

‘If I kill this guy, that bitch Ryu Sua will be out of the picture.’

The goblin was proud of himself for thinking that far ahead. He had already received tacit permission from Kirson.

Or perhaps Kirson had manipulated him into thinking that way.

Of course, the goblin was intelligent enough to understand the election system, but he didn’t seriously consider the social repercussions of political terrorism.

‘Then… shall we proceed?’

The goblin leaped toward the building across the street.

The gap was narrow, only about 6 meters. But it was no problem for the goblin.

The goblin climbed the wall slowly, a knife clenched in its mouth. Inside, a man was packing his things, seemingly about to leave work.

The goblin opened the window and jumped onto the window frame. The man turned his head at the sudden gust of wind.

And the man met the goblin’s eyes.

For a moment, the man didn’t understand what he was seeing. Unless he was a Hunter, it would be difficult to react immediately.

Just before the man could scream, the goblin grabbed the blade and swung his arm back with all his might. The dagger was poised to cut through the air faster than a scream.

Thud!

The sound wasn’t the gruesome tearing of flesh or the bubbling of boiling blood, but a dull thud.

A man wearing a deep hood had appeared out of nowhere.

The goblin realized that the dagger he had thrown had been deflected by the long staff the hooded man wielded. Even before the anger of being interrupted, the goblin recognized that the opponent’s skill was exceptional.

“Kyak!”

The goblin spat out a curse in its own language, one that couldn’t be written down, and immediately jumped down from the building.

By catching the ledges three or four times, the goblin reached the ground in an instant.

‘Where did that guy come from?’

Judging by his speed, he must have been watching me. The situation had taken a turn, but he had already planned an escape route.

But the opponent was faster.

Whoosh—with a light sound of cutting through the air, the hooded man landed on the ground without even a landing motion. He held a long staff in his hand. The goblin was sweating.

Until now, they hadn’t faced strong Hunters simply because they were ‘just goblins.’ The lack of serious casualties also played a part.

It was easy to shake off those mediocre Hunters. But this guy in front of him was on a different level.

“Are you alone?”

The opponent suddenly spoke. Instead of answering, the goblin was calculating his escape. Acid potions, smoke bombs, and tear gas were within reach. What should he do? The goblin decided to throw everything.

“Kireuk, surrender. I surrender.”

The goblin raised both hands, simultaneously untying the string holding the smoke bomb.

The plan was to throw tear gas and an acid potion at the opponent’s face the moment the smoke bomb hit the ground.

But just as the goblin was about to raise his hands, tap, tap—the sound of something colliding echoed.

And the smoke bomb that should have fallen to the ground was right in front of his eyes.

The man was still standing still. The moment the goblin sensed something was wrong, a strong impact struck the back of his head.

***

Baga-ga-ga-gak!

This time, Hyun-woo barely survived. One leg seemed to be charred black, but it seemed to recover quickly.

The reason he phrased everything conditionally was because the low-polygon graphics were terrible and the texture was a mess, so it was difficult to be sure.

But the pain was certain. The mind-blowing pain quickly disappeared, and his muscles were screaming for him to run again.

Fortunately, this was virtual reality, so he recovered quickly without needing potions.

Scorching heat assailed Hyun-woo again.

This time, the opponent was a figure emitting dazzling light from behind.

He was holding a burning sword, and Hyun-woo was no match for him in any way: speed, attack power, skill, and so on.

Besides, the combat style was completely different. Hyun-woo couldn’t recognize the opponent’s face, but it wasn’t hard to guess who it was.

‘Lee Ji-tae.’

He thought it would be nice to have a chance to compete with Lee Ji-tae, but he hadn’t expected to run into him like this here.

Lee Ji-tae’s ultimate skill, known as Wings of Radiance, was an unmistakable feature.

There might be someone with overlapping ultimate skills, but that burning sword—that had to be ‘Hellburg’s Misguided Passion,’ which Hyun-woo had given to Tam as prey.

‘Is this a parallel world or something?’

Currently, in Difficulty: Easy, Lee Ji-tae is known to possess a lightning sword called ‘Pacheon…’ instead of ‘Hellburg’s Misguided Passion.’ This Lee Ji-tae seemed different.

Hyun-woo knew that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t change this hell, but he didn’t care at all. After all, Hyun-woo’s world wasn’t here, but there.

If he could exploit the world of Difficulty: Hell to save his original world, he would do it as much as possible.

Lee Ji-tae flew toward Hyun-woo again.

He didn’t know how long that ultimate skill would last, but it seemed like he had been fighting this guy for over two days already. During those two days, Hyun-woo had been fighting without rest, sleep, or food.

He had no idea what he would look like in reality, how many hours or days had passed.

After the acceleration of thought, the answers from Eve came very sparsely.

She said that she had accelerated beyond the stability value, so it was natural for there to be a time difference.

It was natural to worry that he might go crazy since he had been fighting all day during that time.

Kwang!

The sword of fire brushed past the ground again. Hyun-woo was barely holding on, using the buildings as cover.

It was impossible to beat Lee Ji-tae in his current state. But fortunately, Hyun-woo’s purpose wasn’t to win, but to accumulate enough coping methods.

That’s why Hyun-woo was using the bare minimum of weapons, skills, and items.

The fewer means he used to win, the faster the acquisition rate became. He didn’t know how fast, but Hyun-woo was sure it would be quite fast.

Before meeting Lee Ji-tae, less than half of his opponents lasted more than 10 minutes.

Until then, he had met various rare martial artists and those who used unique techniques. There were also people presumed to be Jeok Nabi or Park Hwi-so.

Hyun-woo moved his body, recalling their movements and Lee Ji-tae’s movement patterns.

The moment Hyun-woo turned the corner, Lee Ji-tae slightly slowed down to track him. From here, he had to move his body precisely in centimeter units.

Hyun-woo pushed a nearby mass—probably a civilian—into the trajectory he had been in, and at the same time, he smashed the window of the building and leaped.

The moment Lee Ji-tae flinched at the suddenly appearing civilian, Hyun-woo transformed the spider web entangled in his body into iron chains.

Of course, the iron chains were instantly cut off by the Wings of Radiance. But it gave Hyun-woo enough of a gap to leap directly towards Lee Ji-tae.

Lee Ji-tae swung his sword at Hyun-woo.

The word ‘swung’ might be a bit of a misnomer. Hyun-woo couldn’t even see it.

But even before the blade touched his body, Hyun-woo was taking evasive action in the air.

An attack that could have cut his body into several pieces in an instant passed by.

It’s not easy to change movements in the air.

But Hyun-woo had been able to learn that movement with great difficulty from a strange person before meeting Lee Ji-tae. It was still impossible without using Battle Helper, but it made centimeter-level precise evasion possible.

Finally, the Wings of Radiance.

The dozens of strands of light wings, which he had initially suspected were flame boosters, pierced towards Hyun-woo.

The Wings of Radiance are not just wings, but also shields and weapons. It’s a terrible skill from the opponent’s point of view.

Hyun-woo had already died once from that skill.

But there is no second time.

In a movement that moved in millimeters rather than centimeters, Hyun-woo had no choice but to give up part of his body.

No, not just give up a part, but give up most of it.

Leaving only his head and one fingertip.

In the shock of having his whole body torn apart, Hyun-woo finally pinched Lee Ji-tae’s cheek.

The stage changed in an instant.

“Huh.”

He had finally cleared the Lee Ji-tae mission. Of course, all Hyun-woo had done was suffer a miserable defeat, but Eve seemed to think that was enough.

The reason why he pinched Lee Ji-tae’s face instead of hitting or stabbing it was nothing special.

Since hitting or stabbing wouldn’t do any damage anyway, he thought he would grab and hang on.

‘It’s a bit of a miserable result, but… I managed to land a blow anyway.’

It’s a bit disappointing that there’s no victory message or sound effect, just a stage transition.

But without a doubt, the Lee Ji-tae that Hyun-woo fought was different from the Lee Ji-tae of Difficulty: Easy.

He exuded a much stronger and more overwhelming aura.

Even though it was a crude low polygon, he felt that aura, so he was sure that he would have become incredibly strong afterward, or so he thought.

He wondered if it was just wishful thinking, but well, winning is winning anyway.

Hyun-woo hurriedly looked for the next opponent.

There was no proper rule for the opponents that Eve sent out. He guessed that it was probably the order in which the data was entered. In other words, the more he fought, the closer he got to the recent ones, and the stronger the opponents became on average.

He thought he had dealt with quite a few opponents, so he thought there wouldn’t be many left now.

Step. Someone appeared in front of him. The opponent was not holding anything.

‘Is he unarmed?’

Unarmed opponents were rare, but there were still a few. Hyun-woo put Tam away for now.

He was slowly getting used to handling Tam, but he still felt more comfortable unarmed. Hyun-woo was sure it wouldn’t take long.

Hyun-woo took a stance.

At that moment, the opponent took the same stance.

Hyun-woo frowned. It was too much of a coincidence.

Hyun-woo remembered fighting the scarecrow before entering here. If the opponents were in the order of data entry, it meant that he had already run out of opponents.

‘But I don’t think it’s been 9,000 times yet.’

Occasionally, he would ask Eve to estimate the number of opponents he had faced, and it was a little over the late 7,000s.

‘Well, the order must have been messed up due to some error.’

Hyun-woo rushed towards the opponent first. If he was fighting himself, he would understand quickly, so there was a high probability that it would end as soon as he exchanged punches. And the opponent also extended his fist.

At that moment, it was Hyun-woo who was hit.

Hyun-woo staggered back. His body lost its balance and almost fell. One side of his center of gravity felt light.

Hyun-woo’s fist didn’t even touch the opponent. Of course. Hyun-woo’s arm was being held by the opponent. The opponent shook his body from side to side, then lifted Hyun-woo’s arm that he had pulled out. Then he opened his mouth wide and swallowed it whole.

Hyun-woo felt a chill run down his spine at the sight.

‘It’s not me.’

He’s not even human.

The polygon’s appearance was no different from other humans, but the sight of him swallowing an arm he had pulled out in one bite was impossible to think of as human.

He had met inhuman opponents several times until now, but this was different. Even the Hungry One didn’t devour in that way. The guy’s mouth itself felt like a huge void.

“Eve, show me the opponent’s appearance.”

Hyun-woo said, clutching his arm that was beginning to recover. But there was no answer from Eve.

It must be because of the time difference. Maybe she’ll react a little slowly. But Hyun-woo was bothered by the fact that he had mistaken the opponent for himself.

If it’s not me, then it’s something that looks a lot like me.

“Eve!”

The guy smiled at Hyun-woo and slowly began to approach. It was a slow movement, but Hyun-woo was sure that he wouldn’t be able to escape even if he ran with all his might.

An absolute sense of oppression weighed down on Hyun-woo.

The moment he anticipated a one-sided massacre, the space in front of him suddenly distorted. The whole world became a mess, with the graphics breaking up in a dirty way.

Hyun-woo was flustered. The world, full of noise, was distorted grotesquely.

Hyun-woo felt his consciousness rising rapidly.

The acceleration of thought was being stopped.

Eve was starting to wake him up.