Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 239

239. Star of Hell (6)

It was human-centric to the point of arrogance, or rather, human egoism.

Hyeon-woo was bargaining with the survival of humanity. In fact, since he was the only human left alive, his will might as well be the will of humanity.

Ivanov felt that something was terribly wrong.

The confidence that he had placed in the Wailing Star as the only chance to sustain humanity’s will and civilization was wavering.

Perhaps humanity needed a dignified death rather than clinging to survival in such a petty way.

‘No, but isn’t this guy even refusing that?’

He was declaring that he would live, even if it meant being arrogant and selfish. Or, was he putting more weight on the former?

I don’t know.

Ivanov felt that he was wavering just by the fact that he was feeling flustered.

Wavering?

Absurd.

Ivanov pressed down harder with his foot on Hyeon-woo.

It wasn’t the stubbornness of an old man. He still believed that he was right.

The years and experience he had accumulated were too significant to turn back because of a few words from a youngster.

He had lived long enough to be certain that he was right.

However.

“…Even so, the winter shows no sign of ending.”

At Ivanov’s sudden mutter, Hyeon-woo looked at him without answering.

Ivanov was no longer looking at Hyeon-woo.

He was looking further away. Beyond the stars, to a place filled with nebulae.

All were stars burning lonely.

“Old man.”

Hyeon-woo suddenly opened his mouth. Ivanov returned to reality. It felt like being stuck in a mud pit.

“You may have succumbed to the stars because you didn’t know the answer, because you were scared and struggling, but I’m not. The path I’m walking may be a thorny, muddy one, but it’s the path I’ve chosen. I’m going to go all the way.”

“…”

Ivanov was able to regain his composure from Hyeon-woo’s words.

Hyeon-woo is young, immature, arrogant, and selfish.

It is foolish to entrust the future of humanity, the sacrifices and courage of countless people, to him. He will surely stumble and make mistakes, causing countless more damages.

But he could be certain of one thing.

At least, he would produce better results than himself.

“Youngster.”

“Now I’m not even a young man, but a brat?”

Ivanov grinned a skull-like smile and cocked the Thompson submachine gun.

His gun pointed at Hyeon-woo, then suddenly swiveled and aimed at No. 2.

No. 2 thrashed and cursed violently at Ivanov.

The gunshot rang out. No. 2’s blood flowed down onto Hyeon-woo’s face.

Hyeon-woo heard the level-up message.

‘Is this the end?’

Hyeon-woo wondered why the Cursed hadn’t been born from the blood that flowed down when he was pierced by Ivanov’s gun.

Looking around, the blood that had flowed down had solidified into the shape of a hand, perhaps to restrain Hyeon-woo.

If so, it was definitely over. There were no more Cursed left.

“It was nice to meet a spirited youngster after a long time.”

“…I don’t want to meet any more old geezers.”

“Don’t hate me too much.”

Ivanov slowly took his foot off Hyeon-woo’s chest.

Hyeon-woo couldn’t understand Ivanov’s intentions. Had he given up? Perhaps he would back down like this, he thought.

“I didn’t have many choices. Choosing itself was a luxury in this world. I still think I chose the best answer among the few choices I had. Yes. This was the best.”

Ivanov muttered, looking back at the path he had walked so frantically. He was still sure that his path was the best. But.

“I chose the best hell.”

Hyeon-woo carefully got up and looked at Ivanov. Ivanov’s gaze also remained fixed on Hyeon-woo.

“I wanted to be hope. I wanted to be salvation. I wanted to be a hidden sunny spot on a winter day. In reality, I was a coward, but at least I wanted to help make the promise come true.”

Ivanov’s sigh was long.

“If I had the same opportunity as you.”

“…”

“If I was the hope of humanity, and if I had as many choices as you, if that spirit and arrogance of yours were still left in my heart, I might have said the same thing as you.”

“It wouldn’t have been easy.”

“Let me correct that. I think I would have been better than you.”

Ivanov detached the magazine from the Thompson submachine gun. Then, he began to take out the bullets one by one.

Hyeon-woo couldn’t figure out what Ivanov was doing. Ivanov simply continued to speak without explanation.

“You seem to be in the top ranks of the worst guys I’ve ever seen. Bargaining with the safety of humanity, I never thought I’d see that. If I were you, if I had your youth, if I had your opportunity, it would have been better.”

“Pathetic. Old man.”

“I know. It’s called jealousy.”

Ivanov grabbed a handful of bullets. The bullets protruding between his thin, bony fingers looked like chestnuts.

“It would be right for a failed old man to disappear into his room and give his place to a young man.”

“Why, are you going to get lost?”

“I’ll give you something better than that. I’ll give you a chance.”

“A chance?”

“If you get through this moment, you can really become an opportunity for humanity, instead of spouting arrogant nonsense.”

Ivanov looked down at his hand. After a moment of silence, he spoke again, as if showing regret.

“However, allow me one last piece of advice before that.”

“Advice?”

“Youngster, you are not the type to rush to the end. You are too selfish and *dokseonjeok* [self-righteous/opinionated] to dream of self-destruction. But something is wrong that you, of all people, are involved with the beasts of the apocalypse.”

“…What are you talking about?”

“I’m saying that someone is dragging you down that path.”

Hyeon-woo tried to ask for more details.

But Ivanov seemed to think it was enough, and he flicked his hand.

His hand, clutching the bullets, instantly pierced his own skull.

The sound of a dull crack echoed, and at the same moment, a series of gunshots like screams were heard.

The wandering spirits and fragments of bullets that shot out in all directions instantly blew Ivanov’s head off.

Hyeon-woo was speechless as he watched Ivanov’s head scatter spectacularly in the explosion.

He never expected him to commit suicide. He wondered if it was a skill or a trick, but one thing came to Hyeon-woo’s mind.

[Number of apostles killed: 4]

One left.

Hyeon-woo’s gaze turned to Kawaro and Curie. And the apostles were thinking the same thing.

Hyeon-woo was injured and exhausted.

Themselves as well, but it was an undeniably fair opportunity.

A strange tension began to creep out again between them.

At that moment, a deep blue light suddenly burst out from Ivanov’s vanished head.

[The Wailing Star, Verde, is watching you.]

***

The reservoir was palely stained with the intensely emitted blue light.

Ivanov’s vanished head itself seemed to be made of light.

The moment the blue light appeared, Hyeon-woo felt his body stiffen. It was similar to the light that had appeared when he first absorbed the fragment.

But at that time, his senses were dulled, so he didn’t think it would be such a strong light that it would sting like this.

‘Was that what he did to protect me?’

At the time, Hyeon-woo was weak. If he had been directly exposed to this light, it wouldn’t have been strange if he had a heart attack.

It was like a rabbit seeing the headlights of a car rushing at it in the middle of the night.

He barely managed to roll his eyes and look around, and the others were the same.

Kirson was stuck to the wall, frozen, and Ha-hyeon was lying on the floor, struggling.

Only Curie and Kawaro, who at least had the dignity of apostles, were emitting faint light and holding on.

But in front of this tremendous light, everything was just a lonely and empty starlight.

‘Could it be… is this a star?’

[What is it.]

The blue light flickered and suddenly began to speak.

[Why did this kid kill himself again? Did he get depressed again?]

Again?

Before Hyeon-woo could even grasp the context, he was flustered by the fact that the blue light was speaking.

Until now, no star had spoken directly, except for the Whispering Star.

Hyeon-woo soon grasped the situation.

It’s not a star.

The Agent had manifested in Ivanov’s body.

The Agent opened his coat and took out one of the heads from inside.

It was the head of an old woman with white hair. When he roughly fitted the head onto the neck where the light was coming from, light leaked from her eyes and mouth.

The sight of only the head being intact on top of a skeletal torso was grotesque.

“So… who made our Ivanov depressed?”

The Agent turned his shining eyes and looked around. This time, it was not the voice of an old man, but of a cheerful elderly woman.

At that moment, Hyeon-woo realized Ivanov’s intention.

He didn’t commit suicide because of depression, nor did he die to deceive Hyeon-woo.

“It’s me, Wailing Star!”

Hyeon-woo shouted, struggling to stand up.

“It’s not just the Wailing Star. I have a proposal for the Conquering Star, the Starving Star, no, all the stars that are interested in me!”

Ivanov was trying to create a place for Hyeon-woo to face the stars.

Behind him, Kawaro muttered in disbelief.

“No way, you’re going to trade directly with the stars, what kind of *migaaaak* [Korean slang for ‘crazy’] is this.”

Kawaro suddenly screamed strangely and grabbed his jaw.

His jaw was tearing apart, and a new jaw and lips were emerging from inside.

It was like another mouth had formed inside his mouth.

Kawaro’s eyes were filled with horror.

“T r a d e, h o w a m u s i n g.”

The newly appeared mouth slowly opened in the midst of crimson light and blood.

“A m o n g t h o s e g a t h e r e d h e r e, n o o n e h a s e v e r t r a d e d f a i r l y.”

[The Starving Star, Yogulem, is watching you.]

And a painful scream erupted from Curie.

Enormous flames were erupting from her entire body.

Her body was already burning, but it looked like a small match compared to the flames that reached the ceiling.

A burning human figure was revealed in the midst of the huge crimson flames.

Curie was trembling, merely providing flames to the figure.

The burning human emitted an intense glow and looked at Hyeon-woo.

[The Conquering Star, Ardan, is watching you.]

The Agent of the Conquering Star did not say anything else. Instead, he moved first.

Suddenly, a huge fire sword appeared from inside his body. The Agent of the Conquering Star instantly struck Hyeon-woo with the fire sword.

The moment the scorching heat hit his body, a cracking sound was heard and cold air spread out.

“You still have a terrible personality. A cute baby wants to talk, but you don’t even think about listening.”

Ivanov, or rather, the Agent of the Wailing Star, was standing in front of Hyeon-woo.

She glanced back at Hyeon-woo and continued to speak.

“It doesn’t look like I need to step in anyway.”

It wasn’t just Ivanov who was protecting Hyeon-woo. Ha-hyeon was also pressing down hard on Hyeon-woo’s shoulder.

Her eyes looked hazy and confused, but they were emitting a faint yellow light.

Hyeon-woo remembered that yellow light.

It was the light of Monstrill.

Ha-hyeon was not a kin of Monstrill, but a kin of Hyeon-woo, so she didn’t seem to be properly affected.

Perhaps, to be exact, Sang-hyeon in Ha-hyeon’s cocoon was being affected by Monstrill.

“W i t h s o m a n y c o m p e t i t o r s, w e s h o u l d h a v e a n a u c t i o n.”

The Agent of the Starving Star chuckled and muttered.

Kawaro was in pain because of his mouth that was opened as if it would fall off.

The Agent of the Conquering Star did not attack any further, knowing that there was no point in fighting any more.

The Agent of the Wailing Star fluttered her coat and stepped forward.

“There are four people here who will replace the will of the stars. This is the first time since the Great War. No, I don’t think there have ever been four people gathered before.”

“I t ‘ s n o t r e a l l y g a t h e r e d, i s i t.”

She smiled and looked down at Hyeon-woo.

“That’s right. This is just *gangtal* [Korean for ‘robbing’ or ‘seizing’] the ‘mouths’ of the apostles by borrowing the authority of the stars. Time is short. The apostles won’t be able to hold out for long either. Ivanov has prepared this place by even committing suicide. Please propose a pleasant trade.”

The Agents literally replace the will of the stars.

It is said that the Agents speak by borrowing the apostles, but in fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the stars borrow the mouths of the Agents.

The stars were watching Hyeon-woo.

They were watching an ordinary human being who was neither an Agent, an apostle, nor a kin of anyone.

“Stars.”

In the pouring starlight, Hyeon-woo opened his mouth.

“I will become a star.”