Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 136

136. Enemy of Humanity (4)

Enemy of humanity, huh?

Hyeon-woo had never even considered such a concept, let alone imagined it would be used to describe him.

But there was no time for deep thought.

Bang! The scarecrows, having arrived in no time, were violently pounding on the door. Yerddan was desperately trying to keep the door of the disabled facility closed. However, considering the scarecrows’ strength and numbers, it would only be a matter of time before they broke through.

“Eve, just think for a second. If I were the Star of the Apocalypse or whatever, why would I come back here? I would be enjoying the scenery, reveling in the mess I made of the world.”

Hyeon-woo thought it made sense. If he were the one who had ruined this world, the difficulty: Hell world would be his trophy.

He would probably be quite proud. But Eve didn’t seem to think so.

[You were either trying to deceive me or searching for any remaining humans.]

“No, I’m just a namesake, or you’ve mistaken me for someone else.”

Hyeon-woo said, suppressing his rising irritation.

If Eve were a person standing before him, he would beat her up first and then try to persuade her, but unfortunately, the opponent was a machine, a legacy left by Yoo-min.

He never expected Yoo-min to leave behind such a paranoid machine.

[In countless simulations, I have only wished to kill you. Star of the Apocalypse!]

Eve’s voice echoed from several speakers, as if the scarecrows outside were shouting in unison.

[I will not miss this opportunity! Maria Keller, Ivanov, Johann, Haibane, Dowonkyung, Yoo-min… their wills have descended solely for this moment! If I cannot protect, then for revenge!]

Crack.

The door began to be forced open. Yerddan transformed into a bipedal form and gripped the door tightly.

The moment an arm forced its way through the gap, Yerddan savagely bit down on it and tore it off.

Through the opening, amidst countless scarecrows, five scarecrows with glowing red eyes could be seen.

This meant that Eve was directly controlling at least five scarecrows with level 50 stats, expending her processing power.

Hyeon-woo instantly began to smear spiderwebs all over the door. Then, he transformed them into iron chains, infusing them with strong energy.

The energy-enhanced iron chains contracted powerfully, completely closing the door again. It seemed that if Hyeon-woo could just hold out, there would be no way to open it.

[Resistance is fierce.]

Eve said in a whisper.

[But as long as you are a living being, you cannot defeat me.]

At that moment, the resistance felt on the door disappeared. The scarecrows had given up on opening it.

“What, are you going to spray some poison gas or something?”

[The analysis of your blood is complete. You should know it’s useless.]

Eve said calmly.

[So, I will simply make it impossible for you to breathe.]

The equipment in the disabled facility suddenly began to move. The sound of air flowing. The moment Hyeon-woo heard that sound, he cursed.

“Damn it, Yerddan! Open the door!”

[Too late.]

Crack, crackle. Hyeon-woo and Yerddan worked together to pull the door, but it wouldn’t open. Eve knew that Hyeon-woo wouldn’t die from poison, so she made a reverse judgment.

She was simply going to eliminate all breathable air.

Eve began to use the facility to suck all the gas out of the sealed laboratory where Hyeon-woo was trapped.

Hyeon-woo could withstand any ‘negative’ effects of toxins, but if there was no oxygen at all, his body would have to shut down. It might be different for monsters, but Hyeon-woo was human.

In an instant, he felt breathless and his head became dizzy.

Hyeon-woo, realizing he had no choice, grabbed the return stone.

But nothing happened.

Before panicking, Hyeon-woo realized that he had entered a ‘dungeon’ before coming here. In difficulty: Easy, his return stone had been used. But this was difficulty: Hell’s dungeon. It might follow the rules of that dungeon.

‘To get out, I have to find the return stone of this dungeon.’

Hyeon-woo suddenly felt the urgency of the situation. If the return stone didn’t work, he doubted whether the resurrection rules would work properly either.

Thud.

The facility trembled with vibrations. It was the sound of explosions. It meant that something was going wrong somewhere in the facility.

Hyeon-woo judged that it was the result of Eve attacking him with all her processing power, even giving up the operation of the facility.

To create an environment where humans could live in difficulty: Hell would have consumed considerable resources.

Yet, Eve spared no resources to build an environment where humans could live, even though there were no humans.

Giving up the operation of such a facility meant that she would kill Hyeon-woo by any means possible.

[I will make this place your grave. Kang Hyeon-woo.]

Thump. Thud.

Explosions and collapses were heard in succession. He didn’t know the scale, but if this continued, the facility would be completely ruined in no time. Hyeon-woo suddenly remembered something.

‘Destroy everything.’

Hyeon-woo sent his will to Yerddan. Fortunately, that was something Yerddan was very good at. Yerddan began to rampage, biting and destroying everything in sight as instructed.

Inside the walls where the outer skin had been peeled off, countless wires and pipes came into view. Yerddan mercilessly tore even those apart.

Yerddan seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit.

Gas leaked from the broken pipes. Hyeon-woo was barely able to take a few breaths, but this wouldn’t last long either.

Eve could soon cut off the oxygen supply to the entire facility.

But for Hyeon-woo, cutting off this pipe was enough for now.

“I’ll… give you… what you… want…”

Hyeon-woo inserted Tham [his sword] into the inside of the pipe.

Then, using the power of Helburg’s Twisted Passion that he had fed to Tham, he ignited the maximum amount of flames.

[Helburg’s Twisted Passion (Legendary)]

[Special Ability: Consumes mana to draw heat from the sword. Mana consumption increases with temperature. The wielder is immune to heat.]

The flames instantly ignited the dense oxygen that Eve had gathered in the facility.

With a deafening roar, the explosion engulfed the inside of the facility.

***

“Cough, ha…”

Hyeon-woo barely gasped for breath. Someone licked his cheek. It was Yerddan, transformed into a wolf. Hyeon-woo realized that he was lying face down. He had been thrown out by the explosion and lost consciousness.

‘I’m immune to heat, but not to explosions.’

He struggled to get up.

The facility was on fire everywhere. The burned scarecrows were lying scattered or wandering around.

He had heard that the scarecrows’ shells were made by cultivating mycelium [a root-like structure of a fungus], which seemed to make them weak to fire. Hyeon-woo was charred all over, but he was still glad that he had succeeded.

Perhaps because of the aftermath of Eve’s suspension of facility control, the fire-fighting equipment was operating sporadically, very rarely.

‘I didn’t expect it to succeed this well.’

He had only tried it thinking that he had nothing to lose since he would die anyway.

In any case, if the facility was completely ruined, the air would be released from control to some extent. Although it was half smoke, he was still alive. Now he was in danger of dying from carbon monoxide poisoning.

‘Does it classify carbon monoxide as a poison too?’

Hyeon-woo gave up seriously contemplating poison blood.

Since the creation of the dungeon, the world’s system had been maintained in a very mysterious and easily understandable way.

Perhaps in this world, the reason why airplanes fly is not because of lift, but because ‘airplanes are meant to fly’ or ‘because they have flight attributes.’

Mana is truly mysterious.

‘Damn it, my head seems to be going crazy.’

The fact that he was having such useless thoughts meant that he wasn’t completely unharmed.

More importantly, he had to find a way to control Eve or destroy her before she could recover the facility and regain control of the scarecrows.

Whoosh.

Wind leaked through the exploded wall. It was the all-too-familiar, polluted air.

The scenery outside the facility was visible.

He had thought it was underground when he first entered, but it seemed that he had entered a completely different space from the point of the dungeon’s transformation.

The outside was a terribly desolate wilderness.

Sharp black thorns stood like countless forest trees, and red sandstorms were flying fiercely between them.

Even in the best light, it was not an environment where people could live.

‘This facility wasn’t originally here… it’s a building built in this kind of dungeon.’

It was obvious, but Hyeon-woo felt a sense of doubt. If the difficulty increased, the dungeon difficulty would also increase, but this place was not a better environment than where Hyeon-woo had been, even in the best light.

But why would they bother building a building and hiding in a place like this?

Hyeon-woo suddenly had a chilling thought.

There was something on Earth, in the world where Hyeon-woo lived, that made it even more terrible than a dungeon.

Enough to choose to hide in a dungeon like monsters.

[Kang… Hyeon… woo…]

It was then. Hyeon-woo looked at the scarecrow creakingly approaching.

The scarecrows were already approaching, whether they were on fire or not. But it seemed difficult for them to move properly because the mycelium had died.

Yerddan didn’t look so good either, and Hyeon-woo was also struggling to move due to the aftereffects of low oxygen, drugs, and accident acceleration, so it would be a fair fight.

Hyeon-woo gave a twisted smile.

“Still an expensive… toll.”

***

Thwack, crack!

The head of the scarecrow guarding the door was shattered.

There were many scarecrows that were not burned, but they were no match.

As the facility’s control ability deteriorated and collapses were repeated, the ability to move the scarecrows was also weakened due to the decrease in control caused by the collapses.

It was as if they were lagging, twitching while moving or being a beat slow, and they were much weaker when left in a reactive defense state.

On the other hand, Hyeon-woo was gradually recovering from the drug aftereffects and hypoxia, so he was able to endure it.

‘Where is the return stone?’

Hyeon-woo was breaking through every room in the facility indiscriminately.

If this facility was built to create a space where people could live, then there must be a way to get in and out inside.

He wouldn’t be able to find the return stone somewhere outside the facility one by one.

Hyeon-woo forced the door open and entered.

It was a dark room. Inside, a scarecrow with glowing red eyes was standing.

It wasn’t burned, but it seemed unfinished, with less covering and its skeleton exposed.

[Kang Hyeon-woo!]

It was a clean voice for once.

But instead of rushing towards Hyeon-woo, the scarecrow was connecting wires to something.

Something round and red was already covered with wires.

Hyeon-woo’s eyes lit up.

“Stop right now.”

The scarecrow ignored Hyeon-woo and continued to connect the wires to the round object. Hyeon-woo sighed and gestured.

Yerddan rushed from behind and instantly bit the scarecrow in half.

The round object fell to the floor with a thud. The round object flickered red light quickly and threateningly.

[You will be buried here with me. Kang Hyeon-woo! If I can’t kill you, I’ll trap you here forever!]

The facility began to tremble. A great vibration was felt from the floor. Eve was now artificially inducing explosions.

Eve would have tried to self-destruct at the point of failing to kill Hyeon-woo. But as control deteriorated, it seemed that she had no choice but to connect them manually.

Explosions were heard from all sides. Eve shouted like a desperate struggle.

[This is your grave. Enemy of humanity!]

“Hey, do it moderately!”

Hyeon-woo instantly plunged his hand into the red flickering lens of the round object.

With a crisp breaking sound, a viscous red liquid flowed out from the inside.

‘Blood?’

No. It didn’t smell like blood. Rather, it felt closer to the smell of gasoline. Then, something soft was caught inside.

Hyeon-woo grabbed it and pulled it out in one breath. The red liquid splattered and a strange red lump was pulled from Hyeon-woo’s fingertips.