Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 151

151. The Devil Calls (7)

John was taken aback by the completely unexpected answer.

He never thought he was the strongest, but he never considered himself weak either.

But Hyun-woo continued without hesitation.

“Not just you, but everyone here is too weak. They’re afraid of becoming evil, afraid of making mistakes, and fret about not wanting any sacrifices. That’s why they become weak, that’s why they fail. So, shouldn’t they have at least one person to lean on to survive? That’s their shallow thinking.”

Fail? Fail at what?

Difficulty: Hell. John, who didn’t know about Hell [a hypothetical, extremely challenging scenario], wondered what Hyun-woo was talking about. But he listened to Hyun-woo’s voice as he continued to speak cheerfully.

“But I’m different. I am strong. All you have to do, Priest, is to trust and follow me completely. Throw away your priestly robes, your cross, and your camaraderie. They won’t save you, and they’ll only wear you down.”

John pressed his lips tightly. Hyun-woo’s words were true. John couldn’t even remember the last time he prayed.

“Save yourself before you save others.”

When the path of good is no longer visible, only then does the path of evil appear.

As if that were the only path.

John was already in a state where he could no longer see a path. But Hyun-woo lifted the dark curtain and appeared.

He was whispering that it would be faster and easier to come over to this side of the curtain.

‘Ah, I am…….’

Lee Ji-tae believed that John would one day break free from his restraints and return as a devout priest.

But Lee Ji-tae was wrong.

Anna believed that he was a saint willing to bear the burdens of the whole world.

Anna was also wrong.

John thought he might be everyone’s savior.

That was also wrong.

As Hyun-woo said, he was a weak and insignificant being. Only after acknowledging that could he start all over again.

“……I will. I will be with you.”

John chose to side with the devil.

Hyun-woo smiled.

Before starting all this, the conversation he had with Park Hwi-so came to his mind.

***

“I’ve received a call from Chief Secretary Park Gyu. He wants you to come to the Taebaek Dungeon.”

“Kirson must have done well.”

“Well, tormenting humans is Kirson’s favorite thing to do.”

The anomaly that occurred in the Taebaek Dungeon was intentional by Hyun-woo. He couldn’t wait forever for John to enter the dungeon.

Therefore, choosing the Taebaek Dungeon was the obvious choice.

The country is always watching the changes in 5-star dungeons with keen eyes.

If a problem occurs in a 5-star dungeon, Taesung will naturally get involved, and if Taesung gets involved, John will try to intervene as well.

For John, who was suffering from suicidal impulses, the 5-star dungeon was the most ‘appropriate’ place.

“Ah, and please take this to John’s hotel room. You don’t have to hand it to him directly, just leave it somewhere noticeable.”

Park Hwi-so immediately recognized what Hyun-woo handed him. It was a patch to be applied to the skin.

Park Hwi-so examined the condition and immediately recognized that it had been opened and repackaged. It seemed like something had been added.

“What did you put on it?”

“My blood.”

Park Hwi-so almost dropped the drug patch.

“Don’t worry, it’s not poison, it has a healing effect. Just put it in a Ziploc bag and leave it in John’s room, and he’ll use it well. He’s such an innocent and unsuspecting friend.”

Park Hwi-so looked suspicious.

He knew that hunters often used this. But he didn’t know that he would apply poisonous blood to it and hand it over.

“Did you say it has a healing effect?”

“Yes. My poisonous blood is a bit special.”

It was the ability of the ‘Bleeding Dagger’ absorbed by ‘Greed’.

[Greed(Legendary/Genuine)]

[Special Ability: Devours sacrificed weapons and gains their abilities. Has the ability to release bodily fluids; when bodily fluids are sent to allies, they cause a healing effect, and when sent to enemies, they inflict damage. Consumes mana to draw heat from the sword. Mana consumption increases with temperature. The holder is immune to heat.]

“If it’s poisonous blood, it seems to have a healing effect on poison as well. So, I’ve become someone who simultaneously possesses both a potent poison and a potent antidote.”

“I see. But if that’s the case with poison, does it work with drugs too?”

“It does.”

Park Hwi-so was about to say something but soon realized the meaning and frowned.

“Don’t tell me you tested it yourself? No wonder the item was empty.”

“Well, to heal John…… is an excuse, and honestly, wouldn’t you be curious about the effects if there were mountains of drugs piled up? So, just a little.”

“A little? More than half of the items in the warehouse have disappeared?”

“Ah, I got a little competitive because it wasn’t working.”

“What are you talking about?”

Hyun-woo shrugged.

“I was hoping that getting my blood would create a high.”

“Do you think that if you take a lot of drugs, your blood will have a drug effect? Sometimes, Kang Hyun-woo, you do such absurd things without any hesitation.”

“Is it that absurd?”

Park Hwi-so was about to say something but closed his mouth after seeing Hyun-woo’s expression.

It’s too foolish to ask this person for common sense. He was even afraid to ask if it really had a drug effect.

Park Hwi-so sighed and opened his mouth.

“Is John worth putting in this much effort?”

At Park Hwi-so’s words, Hyun-woo paused for a moment.

Powerful healers are hard to find, and 4-star healers are even rarer. But there would be someone better than a drug addict suffering from suicidal impulses.

Of course, Hyun-woo, who had seen the future of Difficulty: Hell, didn’t need to think long. John is a loser, but a useful loser.

“Do you know about the Rapture, Elder?”

“Are you talking about the Christian eschatology [the study of end times]?”

“You know it. There’s a saying there, ‘When that day comes, the identities of the living and the dead will be clearly distinguished.’ Some will remain on Earth, which is hell, and some will go to heaven.”

“That’s not exactly what it says, but it seems to have a similar nuance. Is John someone who will deliver good words when that day comes?”

Hyun-woo chuckled.

“Of course not. John doesn’t have the ability to do that. He’s too weak.”

The higher the difficulty, the more John will suffer from choosing who to save and who to kill.

John can’t handle that. He’s been held back for years by the deaths of a few comrades, so there’s no way he can live with a sound mind.

That’s why John committed suicide. And that led directly to the destruction of humanity.

‘But if it were me.’

Hyun-woo crossed his arms leisurely and looked at John’s back.

‘I can do it.’

Who is a good child and who is a bad child.

Who will be helpful and who will not.

Who will die and who will live.

John can pass all the guilt and choices to Hyun-woo and hide.

“A great and devout priest? Inside, he’s so consumed by defeatism and drugs…… pretending to be devout, pretending to be noble. It’s all useless. I will put shackles on John and defile him in every way. That priest needs to be more corrupt. Through me, he will learn that life has weight and that value can be judged.”

Hyun-woo said with a smile.

“John will become more dependent on me than on drugs. Judgment and agony are quite difficult things. So, people easily outsource their judgment. That’s how dictators are born.”

Park Hwi-so smiled bitterly.

“Kang Hyun-woo. I’ve said this before…… please be careful with your choice of words.”

“Yes?”

“The listener might get a little creeped out.”

“Ah, is that so?”

***

The news that the Jeonneung Alliance had cleared the 5-star dungeon immediately swept the news that day. The whole of Korea was once again buzzing with the news.

Hyun-woo didn’t spread it, but the transmission was fast because there were so many witnesses.

As people re-evaluated Kang Hyun-woo and the Jeonneung Alliance, something was naturally mentioned.

It was the Korean clan ranking.

[What’s the point of Park Do-ryeong or whatever being a 4-star, but he doesn’t show his face or do anything?]

[Rather, the Jeonneung Alliance has our ★★★★★-class Kang Hyun-woo, who is constantly winning.]

[Don’t call him a 5-star. You should call him a God-star.]

[The average quality of the Jeonneung Alliance is low, but I heard it’s completely different since Kang Hyun-woo joined? Numbers are also power, so can’t you raise the ranking a bit?]

In fact, it was Kang Hyun-woo’s fans who were manipulating public opinion rather than the Jeonneung Alliance. Of course, there were voices of opposition.

[Even if Hyun-woo or Hyumoo is good, he couldn’t have broken through it without the strategy made by Taesung, right? Do you think you can do it alone?]

[The Howan Mama Clan is the official successor of Lunatic Tiger, which was once the No. 1 in Korea! It’s several times better than Taesung or Jeonneung Alliance, who have become dogs of the state!]

[I heard that Kang Hyumoo is a shady person? He’s involved in dirty things here and there, and his past is unclear…… isn’t it a bit suspicious?]

[Who are you to pretend to know about God Hyun-woo? Are you better than God Hyun-woo?]

[Do you have to be a better cook than a chef to criticize him? Everyone else knows about it, but you’re pretending not to know.]

“Branch Manager Kang Hyun-woo.”

Hyun-woo, who had written ‘Do you want to die? Where do you live?’, turned off his phone.

In the dark night, a person was walking up to Hyun-woo’s mansion.

It was Seo Ji-hoo, the team manager who had received a lot of attention for supporting the team during this Taebaek Dungeon expedition.

As the fact that Kang Hyun-woo was not actively involved in hunting became known, the team name was also called Seo Ji-hoo Team or Song Yeo-woon Team.

“Seo Ji-hoo, I heard your value has increased a lot these days.”

“Yes. If this trend continues, I think I can demand a rather large increase in the year-end salary negotiations.”

Seo Ji-hoo answered without any joking tone. But Hyun-woo smiled mischievously and said.

“If they don’t give you a salary increase? Are you going to move somewhere else?”

“I learned that you shouldn’t mess with salary negotiations.”

“You instantly made me a piece of trash. Okay. You’re right. And seeing you come all the way here today, you’re not thinking of moving somewhere else, right?”

Seo Ji-hoo nodded. He was like a stone, but today he was unusually nervous.

“Looking at it in the long term, I don’t think there’s a workplace with higher growth potential than this.”

“You don’t like adventure very much, do you?”

Seo Ji-hoo nodded.

“I can’t say it’s stable…… but I made up my mind after seeing Priest John. This is a game where you can win even if you bet boldly. If everyone is going crazy, the center of the storm is the safest place.”

Hyun-woo’s lips turned up long. He is a gamer after all.

He prefers stable strategies, but when a bold move is needed, he makes it without hesitation.

His judgment and ability are all good, but his only weakness is that his growth potential as a hunter is low.

But today, Seo Ji-hoo came to solve that weakness.

He looked at Hyun-woo with determined eyes.

“I will become your subordinate. Branch Manager Kang Hyun-woo.”