Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 249

249. Utopia (4)

Despite Hyun-woo’s positive response, Yoo Seong-yeon sensed a slight hesitation. However, he was quickly cheered by the fact that Hyun-woo had made the same choice as him.

Turning one’s back on one’s homeland was unsettling, but if someone like Kang Hyun-woo was moving with him, that alone would be justification.

“Ah, I knew you’d be interested! I just knew it. Well, now that we’re at this point, how about moving to the same place as me? The new South China government has promised me a huge annual salary. It’s a government-run clan there…”

“Oh, really? Tell me their names.”

“Of course. Ah, first, I need to contact the broker…”

“No, why would you contact them? Just tell me their name and contact information.”

“Um… well, the broker prefers to operate anonymously…”

“Never mind. I don’t need the contact information either. Give me your phone.”

Yoo Seong-yeon looked like he was about to cry.

“S-Sir Kang Hyun-woo? You, you really are thinking of immigrating, right?”

Hyun-woo, instead of answering, grinned and patted Yoo Seong-yeon’s shoulder.

“Hunter Yoo Seong-yeon.”

“P-Please, speak comfortably, Mr. Kang Hyun-woo.”

“If you have money and power, any country is a good place to live. I’ll make this a country where you won’t need to immigrate soon, so just stay here.”

“Oh, but…”

Hyun-woo snatched the phone from Yoo Seong-yeon’s hand. Yoo Seong-yeon belatedly realized it had been taken.

Hyun-woo winked at Song Yeo-un. She instantly stomped on Yoo Seong-yeon’s leg, breaking it. A scream erupted.

“Ugh!”

“It’s a clean break, so it’ll heal quickly. Or I’ll send you a potion.”

“Why, why, why…”

“It would be weird if you were the only one without any broken bones.”

Yoo Seong-yeon couldn’t tell if Hyun-woo was genuinely concerned for him or if he just wanted to break something.

This level of injury would heal quickly with just a low-grade potion. But Yoo Seong-yeon realized that Hyun-woo had sent him a warning.

“Take a good rest for a while. Don’t get involved in anything, no matter what.”

Hyun-woo intended to make the country feel his absence keenly.

***

Park Gyu, the Chief of Staff of the South Korean Presidential Office (the Blue House), was receiving a series of unbelievable reports.

The news was that hunters from Tae-sung, who should have been active in the field, were being attacked one by one by unidentified individuals.

“Team Leader Yoo Seong-yeon was attacked?”

“It’s not just the team leader. The entire Obsidian Team is a mess. The intensive care unit at Severance Hospital in Sinchon is full of hunters right now.”

Tae-sung’s hunters heal even minor scratches with potions.

For them to be hospitalized meant that their condition was far from normal.

Conversely, it meant that no one had died, but this was even more serious.

It meant that the attacker was capable of thoroughly crushing Tae-sung’s hunters while being careful not to kill them.

“What’s Tae-sung’s reaction?”

“They are still assessing the situation. Team Leader Han Hyun-hee of the Lapis Lazuli Team has just heard the news.”

Team Leader Han Hyun-hee was the hunter who had been effectively leading Tae-sung since Lee Ji-tae’s disappearance.

She was quiet and shy, preferring to go on overseas missions, but Lee Ji-tae’s sudden disappearance forced her to the forefront.

Because she still lacked practical skills, it was difficult to expect a quick response.

“Contact Vice President Lee Seo-yeon and keep reporting the situation. And…”

“Chief of Staff Park Gyu!”

One of the staff members of the secretariat rushed into the office in a hurry.

“Tae-sung hunters have been attacked! Most are in critical condition in the intensive care unit…”

“I’m already being informed. Why is the timing so off?”

“Yes? I ran here as soon as I received the call… Then, which team will replace the guards at the Guillotine Dungeon? The only remaining forces in the metropolitan area are from the Jeonungnyun [a hunter’s union].”

“Why are you asking me that… Wait a minute. Guillotine Dungeon? Are you saying the team guarding it was attacked?”

“Yes? Yes. The hunters of the Lapis Lazuli Team 4, who were guarding the Guillotine Dungeon, were attacked.”

At that moment, Park Gyu’s phone vibrated.

He tried to ignore the disjointed reports, but he couldn’t help but check the fleeting words on the screen.

[Lapis Lazuli Team 2 attacked by an unidentified monster. Currently being transported to a nearby hospital.]

It was a completely different story from the attack on Team 4, the lowest level of the Lapis Lazuli Team, or the Obsidian Team, which mainly nurtured rookies.

The simultaneous attacks clearly meant one thing.

South Korea was under attack.

***

“Is the situation under control?”

At the middle-aged man’s words, Park Gyu bowed his head.

“You don’t have to worry. I expected this level of backlash.”

“Isn’t the Lapis Lazuli Team a combat organization that worked with Lee Ji-tae? How could they be defeated so easily?”

“They were just off guard. I heard they were all attacked while resting. Now that the news has spread and security has been tightened, this will not happen again.”

“Chief of Staff.”

The middle-aged man turned his head and looked at Park Gyu.

“You keep trying to downplay the situation, but I’m not blind or deaf. I don’t know how it looks in the Chief of Staff’s eyes, but…”

After a moment of silence, Park Gyu raised his head and stared at the middle-aged man.

The owner of the Blue House, the current President of South Korea, Kim Si-hoo.

He was the son of the president who overcame the national crisis when dungeons first appeared 30 years ago.

Thanks to the facade of being the son of a president who sacrificed himself heroically, he entered politics with Park Gyu’s support and rose to the presidency.

But that was it. Kim Si-hoo, who had neither power nor experience, was virtually Park Gyu’s puppet, which was an open secret.

“There’s nothing to worry about. There have been no more attacks since Team 2. Team Leader Han Hyun-hee has also personally stepped up emergency security. We haven’t identified the opponent yet, but it’s probably one of the Jeonungnyun’s people.”

Park Gyu thought of Song Yeo-un. Song Yeo-un was the only high-ranking hunter affiliated with Jeonungnyun who had not been captured. But Kim Si-hoo was thinking of someone else.

“Kang Hyun-woo, perhaps?”

Park Gyu flinched.

Park Gyu still remembered Hyun-woo, who had suddenly visited him at the sauna.

And he recalled his power and influence, and even the national power that had been transferred without him knowing.

“Isn’t Kang Hyun-woo the only one with the ability to appear and disappear like that and beat up Tae-sung hunters?”

“…That may be so.”

Park Gyu also knew that Kang Hyun-woo often went missing. Sometimes he disappeared for as long as three months.

This time it was about two weeks, which was still a short period. But Park Gyu thought this short time was an opportunity.

“But Kang Hyun-woo is someone who cannot be trusted, no, someone to be avoided. In the past year, Kang Hyun-woo has gained tremendous budget and power. A mere civilian has control over the military. If we don’t come to our senses, the country will be taken over.”

And Park Gyu swallowed what he didn’t tell President Kim Si-hoo.

Park Gyu had already finished talking with an important figure in a certain place.

According to him, Kang Hyun-woo was someone who could never be trusted. After that conversation, Park Gyu decided to exclude Kang Hyun-woo, even at the risk of danger.

To save South Korea, he had to handle the situation somehow while Hyun-woo was away.

“Is there a way to stop Kang Hyun-woo?”

Kim Si-hoo quietly opened his mouth.

“First, we need to isolate him.”

Park Gyu answered firmly.

“Our country is a democracy. A single individual can’t become a ruler just by beating everyone up with his fists. If we take away his affiliation and freeze his accounts, even the most outstanding individual can’t do anything.”

“You’re resolute.”

The punch had already been thrown. Hyun-woo was not someone who would just stand still after being hit.

Therefore, security at the Blue House was at a quasi-wartime level.

It was said to be in preparation for the resistance of the Jeonungnyun hunters, but it was actually a measure taken with Hyun-woo in mind.

“If it turns out that Kang Hyun-woo has appeared, you should consider declaring a state of emergency.”

“A state of emergency? Do we have to go that far? He’s just an outstanding individual, as you said, but he’s stirring up the whole country. The opposition party will make a fuss.”

“Unless we make him a public enemy that the whole country has to deal with, everything could fall apart. For now, I will do my best. I hope you, Mr. President, will also do your best with the heart of saving the country.”

Kim Si-hoo nodded.

Save the country. His father faced the national crisis with that same heart.

The situation where dungeons were opening all over the country and the situation where a single hunter was threatening the country seemed somewhat trivial in comparison, but it was still a crisis.

Kim Si-hoo asked the last question.

“What if we lose Kang Hyun-woo to another country?”

“Then it would be a welcome thing.”

Park Gyu said firmly to Kim Si-hoo’s question.

“Kang Hyun-woo is poison. Embracing Kang Hyun-woo is like swallowing poison. No matter how sweet it is, poison is still poison.”

***

“Okay, tell me everything you know by the time I count to three. One, two, three.”

Hyun-woo twisted the fingers of the broker who was hanging upside down in the basement.

The broker couldn’t scream.

From the beginning, Hyun-woo had stuffed his tie into his mouth.

Hyun-woo repeated the same words three more times before taking the tie out of his mouth.

“Ugh! Ah! W-Why! Why are you doing this! Instead of blocking my mouth, interrogate me…”

“That’s not the answer I wanted. I guess we have to start over.”

Hyun-woo tried to stuff the tie back into the broker’s mouth.

The broker, who was hanging upside down, struggled violently and hurriedly spat out all sorts of names.

Song Yeo-un searched for those names on the broker’s phone.

“These are hunters who have applied for immigration. Oh, there are some from Jeonungnyun too.”

“Hey, do you have more than ten fingers? You still seem to have some leeway?”

“A-Are you here to steal the hunters who applied for immigration? W-Which country? Japan? Russia? Philippines? J-Just tell me. I’ll give you all the lists I have!”

The broker desperately tried to figure out the other party’s identity.

But the woman was wearing a mask, and the man was wearing a bizarre mask, so he couldn’t recognize them.

Hyun-woo tilted his head and answered.

“If you know who we are, you have to die.”

“Yes. I won’t ask.”

“Then tell me what you were doing here.”

“I, I was commissioned by the new South China government to poach talented people from Korea. Recently, the situation in Korea has become extremely chaotic, and the hunters are very dissatisfied. Thanks to that, brokers are running rampant everywhere.”

“I know that.”

It was information that could be obtained just by interrogating Yoo Seong-yeon. In the first place, it was already an open secret among the hunters.

“What I’m curious about is how those foreigners responded so quickly. It hasn’t even been a week since the government attacked Jeonungnyun, but brokers immediately rushed in and stirred things up as a group?”

A national organization is too large to move this quickly in such a sudden situation.

The fact that they rushed in all at once and bit like a military operation as soon as the chaos broke out clearly meant that some kind of conspiracy had permeated it.

But the broker desperately shook his head.

“I just received a request from the South China Intelligence Agency! As floods are breaking out here and there and signs of rising difficulty are appearing, they are paying attention to the whereabouts of the hunters. That’s natural…”

Hyun-woo folded two of the broker’s fingers at the same time.

After folding nine fingers and leaving only one left, Hyun-woo sighed and opened his mouth.

“You know you only have ten fingers, right? After you fold all ten, what do you think will be folded next? There won’t be that many.”

The broker gasped, screaming and cursing. He seemed to really not know anything. Song Yeo-un frowned and said.

“I don’t think he really knows. Should we find another broker and mess with him?”

Then Hyun-woo turned to Song Yeo-un with a kind smile.

“Song Yeo-un, how many phones does he have?”

“Four.”

“Find the phone with his family’s numbers on it.”

“Ah, indeed.”

The broker’s face turned pale.

The broker struggled and resisted, but Hyun-woo, as he had done from the beginning, used Dominate [a mind control skill] to unlock it.

The last remaining finger was left to be used here.

The problem with the Dominate skill was that it could suggest or move the body, but it could not make them reveal what they knew or lie.

While Song Yeo-un was searching the phone, Hyun-woo said.

“Are you going to tell me honestly, or should I add a few more sets of fingers here?”

The broker gasped.

This guy will definitely do it. He was convinced that there would be no hesitation.

In the end, he had no choice but to reveal the information he had been desperately hiding.

“Korea!”

“What?”

“The South Korean government commissioned me. To poach hunters to other countries!”