Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 248

248. Utopia (3)

“Uh… is it okay?”

Song Yeo-un looked around the chaotic hallway again and asked.

“The inside must be similar, right?”

“Well, I left before the search and seizure started, so I don’t know for sure, but judging by the looks of it, it seems similar. But even so, I don’t think it was necessary to break the artwork like this.”

“It seems like they were in the way while moving the lab equipment. Anyway, if there’s nothing left downstairs, there’s no need to look around.”

“Is it okay? Like important data…”

“Yumin stores important data on overseas backup servers anyway. And he carries really important things on a USB drive. I just came to see the condition today. This place is…”

Hyun-woo paused for a moment, as if trying to compose himself, then continued, “This is also my home.”

“Um, right.”

“But I think I was being too narrow-minded. This is my mistake.”

“Narrow-minded…?”

Hyun-woo smiled. “South Korea is also a kind of home for us, isn’t it? It’s my fault for not cleaning the house properly.”

“…Oh, um? I… guess so?”

Song Yeo-un didn’t quite understand Hyun-woo’s words, but she agreed and moved on.

If Hyun-woo says so, then it must be so.

Thanks to that, she had no idea what Hyun-woo was thinking or planning to do.

“Anyway, if we announce that the branch manager has returned, Park Gyu’s justification will be shattered. He’s moving under the justification that ‘In a national emergency, the Almighty Union has lost control and the executives are acting for personal gain, so the state must take control now.'”

“You’re thinking too naively.”

Hyun-woo smiled at Song Yeo-un and said, “Even if that happens, Park Gyu will never hand over control completely. He’ll think that the state should take at least some control while things are like this.”

Besides, that only solves the surface problem, not the root cause.

Even if it’s not Park Gyu, anyone with a desire for power, or an ambitious person, will surely try to seize Hyun-woo’s assets at any time.

Difficulty: Hell. Hyun-woo, who goes there periodically and doesn’t know when he’ll return, had to solve this problem for sure.

Hyun-woo picked up a statue lying on the floor and muttered.

“And to get back ‘completely’ from the guy who touched my things? No way.”

***

“Hey, hey. Are you getting up already? It’s just starting!”

“Uh, I’m done. I’m a little tired.”

“You son of a… where are you going? Take a break and come back! It’s still early evening!”

Yoo Seong-yeon tried to refuse, but his colleagues didn’t seem willing to let him leave the drinking party so easily.

In the end, Yoo Seong-yeon promised to come back and went outside.

A lukewarm summer breeze drifted through the entertainment district. It was still early evening, but everyone was so drunk that he thought they wouldn’t be able to make it home until the next day.

In a situation where the Flood [a cataclysmic event], was happening, wandering around drunk from early evening was something that wouldn’t have happened when Lee Ji-tae was around.

After the life and death of Commander Lee Ji-tae became unclear, the discipline of the Taesung Clan became chaotic. Yoo Seong-yeon, the leader of the Obsidian Team, was feeling it too.

The leader of the Aquamarine Team, who had been abroad on a mission, had returned, but he wasn’t enough to fill Lee Ji-tae’s vacancy.

The Aquamarine Team leader was also a world-class ability user, but the problem was that his name wasn’t well-known in Korea.

‘No, in the first place, Commander Lee Ji-tae was such a young and healthy person, so of course no one would have thought about a successor…’

Above all, the connection with South Korea’s No. 1 company, Taesung Group, was irreplaceable.

That’s how Taesung was faltering under the shadow of a lack of leadership.

Yoo Seong-yeon entered the alley with a dark expression.

Yoo Seong-yeon, who took out a cigarette, stared at it for a while and then crumpled it and threw it away.

Smoking was one of the habits that developed after Lee Ji-tae disappeared.

‘I should quit from now on. If I live a new life, I’ll be able to return to active duty properly…’

Today, Yoo Seong-yeon and his fellow hunters signed a contract with an immigration broker.

Immigration—he had never thought about living outside of Korea.

However, as Lee Ji-tae disappeared, he lost his sense of responsibility for Taesung, and after Kang Hyun-woo disappeared, he completely lost affection as he watched the state try to swallow the Almighty Union.

The hesitation was long, but in the end, he signed, just like his colleagues.

“Hey, what are you doing still not coming in? Everyone’s waiting.”

At that time, two fellow hunters followed him in. Immediately, one of the hunters who took out a cigarette began to loosen his pants.

Yoo Seong-yeon frowned and was about to kick his butt when it happened.

“There.”

Then a man approached from across the alley.

It was a man wearing a hood pulled low. Yoo Seong-yeon wondered if he was asking to borrow a cigarette, but his colleague’s reaction was different.

“Hey, you little… who do you think we are? Are we your lackeys?”

“This bastard, you’re drunk. Go in.”

Yoo Seong-yeon tried to stop his colleagues. But it wasn’t easy to stop his colleagues who were already drunk.

Yoo Seong-yeon had no choice but to try to send the man who spoke back. Even if they’re drunk, they’re ability users. People can get seriously hurt if they do something wrong.

“Hey, Yoo Seong-yeon. Don’t stop me. You little… do you think Taesung is a joke?”

“Hey, mister. Go back. It’s dangerous here right now.”

But instead of backing down, the man looked at the men one by one and said.

“Yoo Seong-yeon, Hwang Tae-kyung, Lee Min-gu, right? In order, Obsidian Team Leader, Team 3 Leader, Team 3 Senior Hunter.”

The atmosphere froze slightly. The drunken hunters still didn’t know what was going on, but Yoo Seong-yeon immediately felt that the atmosphere was unusual.

“What, you. How do you know who I am…?”

“I guess that’s right.”

The other person answered briefly and then moved his arm. Hwang Tae-kyung’s finger, which was pointing at the unidentified man, was the first to break.

No, it felt like he had shoved his finger into his own fist.

Before he could scream, there was a thud and his jaw dropped.

Hwang Tae-kyung shook his broken jaw and fainted while standing.

Just as he was about to fall, Lee Min-gu was attacked.

His body floated up with a drumming sound. The place where his ribs were was strangely dented.

He was about to regurgitate the alcohol and snacks he had eaten for dinner from outside his stomach.

But the man slapped his jaw with his palm as if to stop even that.

The sound of teeth shattering echoed.

Lee Min-gu also gritted his teeth and fainted.

Yoo Seong-yeon reacted the moment Hwang Tae-kyung’s body began to fall. But even that was only when he finally took his hand out of his pocket.

Even Yoo Seong-yeon didn’t see how the two were attacked. But his instincts were moving to block the attack right away.

However, Yoo Seong-yeon’s consciousness turned off with a thud a little faster than his instincts.

***

Slap.

Yoo Seong-yeon opened his eyes to the feeling of someone slapping him on the cheek. It was strangely quiet.

He belatedly saw the mirror ball flickering and spinning on the ceiling and realized that he was in the entertainment bar where he had been drinking.

The smell of alcohol, stench, and blood was wafting.

Yoo Seong-yeon recalled the memory just before he fainted at that moment.

“Still not awake?”

And even the man who was slapping his cheek. Yoo Seong-yeon felt the molars rolling around in his mouth.

And soon he found the second palm flying.

“Wait, I woke up…”

Slap.

Yoo Seong-yeon’s head turned.

He felt the second molar that was pulled out rolling around.

Of course, he wasn’t just crying out. He quickly rolled his body to get out of the seat, but before that, someone stepped on his chest hard.

“He’s definitely awake.”

It was a woman’s voice.

“No, I don’t think he’s fully conscious yet?”

And the third palm was about to fly.

Yoo Seong-yeon quickly shouted.

“I’m awake! I’m awake! W-wait, a-are you Kang Hyun-woo?!”

He could tell just by the voice.

If he was a hunter of the same era, he couldn’t not know the strongest hunter in Korea, and he had even entered the dungeon with him.

Then the woman pulled the whip with both hands.

“Ah- he recognized me. What should I do? If you recognize my face, I have no choice but to kill you.”

Yoo Seong-yeon felt his face turn pale.

“W-wait a minute! D-don’t you remember me? It’s Yoo Seong-yeon! We went to the Guillotine Dungeon and Taean Dungeon together! A-and aren’t you Team Leader Song Yeo-un?”

“I don’t remember. Actually, it doesn’t seem very important.”

Hyun-woo smiled, casting a shadow under his hood.

“W-wait a minute! Why, why are you doing this? You can just talk to me! A-are you doing this because of the government?”

Hyun-woo didn’t answer and left him alone. He seemed to be listening to what he was saying.

Yoo Seong-yeon thought this was a kind of interrogation and desperately said anything.

“We’re not doing this because we like it! If Kang Hyun-woo was alive and well, this wouldn’t have happened in the first place! The government’s crazy policies lose their justification too!”

Of course, the hunters on Taesung’s side were also dissatisfied with the current government’s policies.

No matter what, Kang Hyun-woo is the most admired hunter after Lee Ji-tae.

However, since Taesung, the most powerful group after the Almighty Union, was pushing to cooperate with the government, they had no choice but to accept it.

There was still not enough justification to take collective action.

However, the anxiety that they might be subjected to what the Almighty Union was going through was still there.

“That story is over anyway. What I’m interested in is something else.”

But Hyun-woo cut off Yoo Seong-yeon’s words and brought up the main point.

“Who’s in charge of Taesung right now? Tell me everyone from the team leader level, the executives, and the people in key positions that you know.”

“Why that… No, it’s not! I’ll tell you. If you give me a pen and paper, I’ll write down their contact information.”

Song Yeo-un made an absurd expression, but still took out a pen and paper.

Yoo Seong-yeon quickly began to write down the list.

He felt guilty, but if the other person was Kang Hyun-woo, there was no use in resisting.

It was only a matter of time.

While writing the list, Yoo Seong-yeon was finally able to see his surroundings. The entire entertainment bar that Taesung had almost chartered was as quiet as a mouse.

On the floor, the mid-level hunters of the Obsidian Team were all lying as if dead. There was no one who looked dead, but he couldn’t be sure.

There were definitely many people who made him wonder if people’s arms and legs could be bent to that extent.

Yoo Seong-yeon felt a chill.

Even though they were drunk, did only two people take care of all the executive-level members of the Obsidian Team?

“W-why are you going this far…?”

“Why is why.”

Hyun-woo said calmly.

“I’m going to teach them a lesson because the country doesn’t seem to know the importance of ability users.”

“No, then just go on a group strike or…”

“That’s why I’m letting you do it. A group strike.”

Yoo Seong-yeon closed his mouth. He didn’t know if Hyun-woo was crazy, or if he had chosen a method that was so efficient that it was crazy.

But he didn’t think that the reason Hyun-woo stated was the whole reason.

He is exacting a kind of retribution. Retribution for the crime of daring to touch him.

If the opponent is the state, the hunters who have come forward as its henchmen are only arms and legs.

Yoo Seong-yeon carefully examined the atmosphere.

Song Yeo-un and Kang Hyun-woo didn’t seem to have any intention of harming him, but it seemed true that he was being chased by the state.

The fact that he was living secretly even though he was alive meant that the government was targeting him, right?

If so, Yoo Seong-yeon thought that Hyun-woo would be thinking similarly to him.

“T-t-actually, I’m also planning to make a fortune and immigrate soon.”

“Immigration? What are you talking about all of a sudden.”

“I-if Kang Hyun-woo is interested, just tell me. Honestly, is this a country? They push hunters into dangerous areas at will, and if they don’t listen, they confiscate their assets and imprison them?”

Hyun-woo tilted his head.

It was absurd, but Yoo Seong-yeon’s words were unexpected.

“Love calls are already coming in for Korean hunters from all over the world. If Kang Hyun-woo is okay with it, I’ll introduce you to a broker I know.”

“Broker?”

“Yes! A broker who directly connects you with hunter clans or companies overseas. They take care of everything from immigration procedures to nationality and salary negotiations.”

Yoo Seong-yeon was dry-mouthed as he encouraged Hyun-woo.

“Everyone on our Taesung side is already rushing to put their names on the list. Lee Ji-tae is gone anyway, so there’s no need to live any longer in a country that treats hunters like slaves!”

Most of the hunters in the Taesung Clan were tied to Lee Ji-tae, an outstanding figure.

But now that even the connection with the Taesung Group has become faint, the restraint has been completely released.

“An immigration broker, huh? All the ability users on the Taesung side are gathered there?”

“Yes, he’s a very capable person.”

Hyun-woo smiled slyly.

Seeing that smile, Yoo Seong-yeon was convinced that Hyun-woo was attracted to his offer.

“Tell me his name.”