Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 183

‘A trial?’

Hyun-woo was taken aback by the sudden appearance of a trial.

The regularly scheduled quest was still far off. But regardless of the timing, not only had a quest appeared, but it had started immediately as a trial.

And with a curse on top of it.

“Butler!”

Renian tugged at Hyun-woo’s hair, pointing to one side.

A skeleton soldier was rising from the bottom of the hill.

Like sprouts emerging in a spring plain, countless undead began to stir and rise from the fields.

Death was spreading, impersonating birth.

The appearance of the undead was just the beginning. Beyond the horizon, grotesque monsters were revealing themselves.

Hyun-woo could now understand the purpose of the quest to become the ‘Last Victor.’

He had to fight those monsters.

Hyun-woo had a feeling that this might be the final step in completing Tum.

The process of sweeping weapons into Tum and ascending through the origins didn’t seem like a coincidence. And Berd as well.

Hyun-woo felt Renian clinging tightly to the back of his neck.

There was nowhere for Renian to escape here. The fact that she was clinging to the back of his neck, even though she sensed the battle, meant that there was no safer place other than there.

There was nowhere to hide on this hill.

“Renian……”

“Butler.”

Renian whispered resolutely from behind Hyun-woo.

“Wipe them all out.”

Hyun-woo inhaled sharply, stroking the head of Renian clinging to the back of his neck.

“Just hold on a little longer.”

Hyun-woo forcefully pulled out Tum, which was stuck in the hill.

***

Crack, thud.

The skeleton soldier’s head shattered with a dull sound.

A giant orc soldier swung his club wildly, crushing the skeleton soldiers.

The skeletons, made of nothing but fragile bones without armor, bit at the orc’s flesh but collapsed powerlessly.

As the orc tried to crush the skeletons again, something suddenly devoured his shoulder. The orc felt his shoulder lighten with a crunching sound.

A ghoul was tearing off his arm, holding it and chewing on it. The sound of bones and muscles breaking was horrifying.

The orc screamed and charged at the ghoul.

He thought he could reattach his arm if he took it back before the ghoul ate more. But other ghouls ravenously pounced on him. His limbs were cut off and scattered by the different ghouls.

The ghoul with the most succulent thigh hurried elsewhere.

It was to avoid having it stolen by the wrong ghoul. The thick smell of blood stimulated its appetite.

Then, with a thud, a wave of heat was felt from the front.

The moment the ghoul raised its head, a heavy hammer struck it.

The ghoul’s head instantly sank down to its groin.

The ghoul staggered grotesquely before collapsing, not letting go of the thigh until the end.

The Ironclad Soldier, who had finished off the ghoul with a single hammer blow, set out to find his next prey. Each time he stepped, scorched footprints appeared on the ground, and the monsters screamed and retreated from the heat rising from inside his armor.

The smell of fear and conflict pleased him.

The opponent didn’t matter. Endless conquest and fighting stoked his burning heart like a bellows [a device to blow air into a fire to make it burn more fiercely].

Somewhere, a sharp scream was heard.

It was a chilling scream that instantly cooled the flames within him.

A girl sitting on the ground, wrapped in a shroud, was sobbing. Around her, monsters were dying with dark complexions.

The Ironclad Soldier strode forward to finish off the girl. Just before the hammer crushed her, the girl let out another scream-like wail at the Ironclad Soldier.

At that moment, the Ironclad Soldier’s burning heart instantly went out. As his blackened heart turned into a simple lump of iron, the skeleton horde approached and dismantled the frozen Ironclad Soldier in an instant.

Crack, thud.

The skeleton soldier’s head shattered with a dull sound.

The giant orc soldier felt the heat of the hot midday sun as he knocked down the skeleton soldiers.

He was tired. The club was heavy.

Why am I doing this? A thought that one in a million might have in the middle of a battlefield flashed through the orc’s mind.

The orc unknowingly dropped his club. He couldn’t even remember when he had started doing this.

Hundred years? Thousand years? He wanted to give it all up, no matter what.

The orc’s existence in the middle of the battlefield was an anomaly that might occur once every few decades. Perhaps it was a seed that could bring about change.

At that moment, a pure white blade pierced the orc’s throat. Red blood stained the blade.

The blade was quickly pulled out and wandered off again, searching for another target.

The orc slowly collapsed. The minor anomaly disappeared as if it had never existed.

“Next, next!”

Hyun-woo moved Tum fiercely, cutting down enemies. There was no one on Hyun-woo’s side in this battlefield. It was even impossible to summon his subordinates.

Fortunately, the entire battlefield was nothing short of a pandemonium [a scene of chaos and noisy confusion].

They only hesitated to point swords at their own allies, but there were no formations or strategies. They just repeated the cycle of killing and being killed in the chaos. If things went wrong, they would even stab their own allies.

Within that, Hyun-woo was not a noticeable presence. He just looked like one of the monsters rampaging in a frenzy of slaughter.

“Aaaaaah!”

Hyun-woo screamed and charged at the skeleton soldier.

The skeleton soldier’s head was cut off, but his waist was pierced by a spear that stabbed in from behind.

The spear instantly pierced through his lungs and out the other side, but Hyun-woo let out a ferocious roar and cut off the arm of the orc who had stabbed his lungs.

The wound remained, but the bleeding stopped after a little while.

It was a wound that should have killed him under normal circumstances. But Hyun-woo did not die.

Hyun-woo grinned wildly, pulled out the spear, and threw it at another ghoul that was running towards him.

Hyun-woo let out a rough roar. The monsters hesitated and backed away at the fierce roar.

Hyun-woo charged again.

***

Crack, thud.

The skeleton soldier’s head shattered with a dull sound. Hyun-woo swung Tum wildly, crushing the skeleton soldiers.

The skeletons, made of nothing but fragile bones without armor, bit at Hyun-woo’s flesh but soon collapsed powerlessly.

Hyun-woo, who was about to charge at another monster, ended up covered in the dusty bone powder of a pile of skeletons.

After coughing for a while, his head was throbbing. Only then did Hyun-woo feel his head spinning in the hot midday sun.

‘Wait, how long have I been doing this?’

The sun hadn’t set once while fighting.

He didn’t feel sleepy or hungry. Because of that, Hyun-woo thought that only a few hours had passed, but after thinking about it a little, that wasn’t the case.

Even just piecing together the moments he remembered, it had been at least several days.

Realizing that fact, Hyun-woo looked around the battlefield with unfocused eyes.

Nothing had changed.

The battlefield was still a chaotic mess, and all sorts of monsters were fiercely fighting.

Hyun-woo looked down at his body. If there was anything that had changed, it was Hyun-woo’s body.

It would be better to call his body a rag than a body.

Or maybe he was undead.

Flesh was torn off, and cumbersome internal organs were pulled out. Fingers with exposed bones moved with a rattling sound.

The blood inside his body seemed to have drained long ago, and his blood vessels had turned black. Nevertheless, Hyun-woo did not die.

Hyun-woo’s legs suddenly buckled, and he almost collapsed.

But he didn’t fall.

The ground pushed him up as if repelling him.

As if the earth was rejecting Hyun-woo.

Hyun-woo recalled the curse he had been given.

[Curse: Immortality]

[While the curse is maintained, the earth rejects you.]

The war does not end. There is no way to win. He can’t end it by dying either.

Hyun-woo realized that he was trapped in this eternal battlefield.

‘Become the last victor?’

Enemies that fill the horizon are constantly pouring in without rest.

How is he supposed to become the victor? Is it possible because he received the curse of immortality?

Hyun-woo remembered. He had cut down the same tired-looking orc nineteen times, the Ironclad Soldier with a black tree pattern on his left lower back nine times, and countless other identical faces.

This is an eternally repeating battlefield.

‘I have to find a way somehow.’

At that moment, Hyun-woo realized that he had already thought this. Hyun-woo had already tried dozens of times.

He released his poison blood to cause an epidemic, and he rampaged like crazy, running the Battle Helper at maximum.

He even tried to create his own forces through domination. But from some point on, he was wielding Tum alone.

Hyun-woo felt like he had been hit in the back of the head.

“Renian?”

Hyun-woo groped the back of his neck. In a situation where his whole body was in tatters, there was no way Renian would be safe. There was nothing on the back of his neck.

Hyun-woo felt a chill run down his spine. When did he get separated from Renian? Where did Renian go?

He was already on the verge of losing his mind. If even Renian disappeared here, Hyun-woo didn’t know if he could maintain his consciousness.

Hyun-woo tried to call out to Renian again.

“Re……”

“Butler!”

Hyun-woo stopped speaking, hiccuping. He could hear Renian’s voice, but it was coming from inside his own throat.

Hyun-woo wondered if he had eaten Renian without realizing it, but he found Renian peeking out from under his cracked ribs.

Judging by the way she was rubbing her eyes, it seemed like she had been taking a nap.

“What’s wrong?”

“……Nothing.”

Hyun-woo was dumbfounded and slightly amused to see Renian coming out of his stomach. Thanks to that, he was able to regain his senses a little.

He had to maintain this state somehow. He could feel that if he re-entered the battle, he would repeat these several days again.

‘How am I supposed to win?’

As his memories slowly returned, Hyun-woo felt that there was no way.

There was no way to win, and no way to lose had completely disappeared. He can’t give up and go back either. But his body was gradually wearing down.

At this rate, he would surely wander the battlefield as nothing but bones forever.

‘If only I could level up…….’

At that moment, he felt a sense of incongruity.

His level remained the same.

Even though he had caught so many monsters, the message that he had leveled up never appeared.

Hyun-woo also checked the status of other monsters.

Nothing came to mind.

Hyun-woo realized what situation he was in.

This isn’t reality. It’s a hallucination.

Perhaps he is bound in front of Tum with his neck cut.

It is questionable whether even one second has passed since that moment.

Hyun-woo was just trapped forever in that short moment.

In a hallucination of a certain moment in the past, when the three stars started betting.

Hyun-woo recalled that this bet was a thing of the past.

Then the winner must have already been decided. But Hyun-woo’s existence was hindering that victory.

Then what Hyun-woo had to do here was clear.

“Decide who won.”

Who was the last victor?

Who won this bet?

The starving star, Yogulem, was said to have never won.

Then who were the other two stars who participated in the bet?

Judging from the nicknames Aldimaha used, he could guess that the two stars were Ardan, the conquering star, and Berd, the wailing star.

It also goes well with the themes of monsters: war, famine, and death.

So, which one won, war or death?

The answer was simple.

Where war goes, death follows.