Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 251

251. Utopia (6)

For a while, Yumin was lost in silence.

She rose abruptly as if to refute something, then hesitated and sat down; she leaned forward as if to ask something, then shook her head and retreated.

She even looked at Song Yeo-un with a bewildered smile, as if seeking her sympathy. But Song Yeo-un showed no surprise at all.

Even Hyun-woo was taken aback. He had never told Song Yeo-un about his level.

“Why? If you’re a branch manager, it wouldn’t be strange if your level was 100, not 71.”

“…No, wait. Song Yeo-un, have you ever heard of level limits or grades? No, wait a minute. You’re the one who broke through the limit! Then you should know!”

“Of course, I know.”

Song Yeo-un scratched her cheek and said,

“Branch Manager Kang Hyun-woo is the one who helped me break through the limit. And you don’t even know how many stars the branch manager has. So, level 71… I think it’s lower than I expected, which makes you seem more human and likable.”

“Human…”

Yumin seemed to have lost all her strength at that.

Still, no one said it was a lie or suggested checking.

They knew that what Hyun-woo was saying was true.

With a feeling of, ‘If it’s Kang Hyun-woo, it’s believable.’

Yumin asked in a voice drained of strength.

“Is this also the result of training in ‘Hell’?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow, Hell? As expected, Branch Manager, you even devour the underworld!”

Hyun-woo wished that Song Yeo-un would lower her faith in him just a little bit more.

This is burdensome in its own way.

However, Hyun-woo, wanting to skip unnecessary explanations, said nothing.

“Wow, the highest level reported in academia is 5-star level 60. With the increase in difficulty, the grade also goes up, so theoretically, 6-star level 70 might be possible, but Oppa [term of endearment for an older brother or male friend] has already surpassed that…”

Yumin muttered to herself before staring at Hyun-woo.

“It’s not just your level that’s increased, right? Tell me about your other skills too.”

“Um… First of all, Poisonous Blood. You probably already know about that. Blisters and Plague have been added to the existing traits. It’s the same in that it consumes blood, but you don’t necessarily have to shed blood, and it spreads in gaseous form. Plus, blisters cause explosions when they occur. It seems to thrive even more in corpses.”

By applying this, a chain reaction of death begetting death can be formed.

Yumin, who had been wary of Hyun-woo’s Poisonous Blood since almost their first meeting, easily understood and moved on.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that Hyun-woo was gradually becoming a biochemical weapon, but as long as the blood moved according to Hyun-woo’s will, there shouldn’t be any major danger.

“The new skill I got is Ego Weapon, which is a bit… It summons a weapon with a crazy ego. It’s powerful, but it has one drawback.”

“Drawback?”

“It wants to kill me more than the enemy, if possible.”

“Oh dear.”

Hyun-woo deliberately didn’t mention that the Ego Weapon had Hyun-woo’s own ego. It wasn’t information he particularly wanted to share.

Yumin nodded.

“Well, the stronger the restriction, the more powerful the skill. Can you show it to me, by any chance?”

“You want me to show you a weapon that wants to kill me as much as possible?”

“Oh, right, but I still want to see it… Weapon summoning skills aren’t that rare, but having an ego is intriguing. But Oppa can’t die, so, um…”

Yumin seemed to be torn between Hyun-woo being in danger and wanting to see the new skill.

In fact, he could show her if she asked, but he was worried that Yumin might get caught up in the Ego Weapon’s rampage.

“Oppa, you know I have a skill to modify skills, right?”

“[Skill: Conversion (Rare)]”

A skill to adjust other people’s skills was one of the skills Yumin possessed.

Of course, it wasn’t possible to unconditionally strengthen them; the main function was to adjust the balance by increasing some stats while decreasing others.

She said there was another one, but for some reason, Yumin was reluctant to talk about it.

“Could I possibly control the function that tries to attack Oppa with my skill?”

“Hmm.”

It was a plausible story.

However, the skill Hyun-woo received was a Mythic-grade skill. One that the Star had personally gifted.

On the other hand, Yumin’s ‘Conversion’ skill was only Rare-grade. He doubted whether it could remove the most important penalty of a Mythic-grade skill. Yumin shrugged at Hyun-woo’s concerns.

“Let’s just give it a try. There’s nothing to lose, right?”

***

Hyun-woo lay on the bed, using Yumin’s lap as a pillow.

The movement of her fiddling fingers felt like a scalp massage.

Song Yeo-un watched the scene with great interest from the side.

“This reminds me of old times…”

“Shh.”

Yumin silenced Hyun-woo and activated her skill.

Soon, metaphysical characters began to appear before her eyes. It was an overwhelming feast of characters compared to other ability users.

Yumin felt dizzy just looking at it.

In the past, Yumin had tried to improve Hyun-woo’s skills.

But even then, she had been intimidated by the overwhelming array of characters and had given up.

However, this time it was different. Yumin was now accustomed to using her skills and had a clear purpose.

Yumin focused her consciousness and rummaged through the flowing strings of characters.

‘Ah.’

Fortunately, it wasn’t long before Yumin found the ‘Ego Weapon’ section.

Yumin carefully reached out to the string of characters. Slowly, the strings of characters began to break down and entangle around Yumin’s fingers.

It was the moment Yumin tried to spread them out to take a closer look.

“Who are you?”

Yumin suddenly raised her head at the voice she heard.

But neither Hyun-woo nor Song Yeo-un had opened their mouths, and they didn’t seem to have heard the strange voice.

That’s when Yumin realized that her body wasn’t moving.

A chill ran down her spine from her immobile body.

Something was taking over her body.

And it was speaking in Yumin’s mind.

“Why are you touching the butler’s body?”

Butler.

This word reminded Yumin of what Hyun-woo had said.

That he was raising a strange fellow in Hell. A self-proclaimed fairy who enjoyed cannibalism, called himself a butler, and was suspected of being incredibly strong.

After hearing the explanation, Yumin had even suspected that Hyun-woo had created an imaginary friend due to stress.

The imaginary friend’s name was Renian.

Then another voice was heard.

“Idiot! She’s the butler’s girlfriend!”

“What? The butler has a friend?”

They seemed surprised at a strange point.

Yumin tried to say something, but her tongue didn’t move at all.

“But even if she’s the butler’s friend, you can’t touch our butler as you please.”

Yumin felt her fingers moving on their own.

Her fingers, which had been touching the ‘Ego Weapon’ section, moved on their own and moved elsewhere.

She began to rummage through the countless strings of characters pouring out before her, as if digging into the ground with her own hands.

Deeply, even deeper.

The more she dug, the more Yumin gradually became frightened by the endless strings of characters.

It was an area she had never reached before.

But she couldn’t stop.

Yumin felt like she was digging her own grave with her own hands.

If she continued like this, she would reach an area she shouldn’t reach.

At some point, instead of strings of characters, countless ink-like darkness spread out from the spot where Yumin had poked her finger.

The darkness instantly covered Yumin’s entire vision.

Soon, Yumin could see nothing.

Hyun-woo and Song Yeo-un had disappeared, and there were no strings of characters either. She was just standing in an empty space. It was cold and empty there.

“But you… you seem to have an interesting talent.”

Suddenly, a voice was heard from the darkness.

The direction from which the voice came could not be guessed.

The voice came from all directions, seemed to whisper in her ear, seemed to be spoken by thousands of people, and seemed to be the voice of one person. She couldn’t tell if it was a woman or a man.

Something moved in the darkness.

She could only feel that ‘something moved,’ but she couldn’t tell what shape it was or what it looked like.

But Yumin instinctively sensed it.

That was ‘Renian.’

“Tell me what you were trying to do.”

In an instant, Yumin felt like she could finally breathe.

She could finally speak.

She didn’t know if she was in an imaginary world or if she had really been dragged somewhere.

But Renian was patiently waiting for her answer.

Yumin carefully opened her mouth.

“I was trying to fix Kang Hyun-woo’s skill.”

“Fix the skill? In what way?”

“She’s probably going to fix it to be more destructive so that it can be completely smashed.”

“Ah, I’m against that. Wouldn’t it be possible to make it so that they can writhe and sob and die in agony just right?”

“The butler will die before that. The butler is too fragile in both body and mind…”

Multiple voices flowed out at once. Yumin felt like she was going crazy and quickly spoke up.

“I was trying to remove the penalty of the Ego Weapon skill. I heard it was going to attack itself, so I thought it would be better to remove the risk factor.”

At that moment, all the voices fell silent.

Yumin felt gazes.

It felt like countless eyes piercing from all directions were staring at her from beyond the darkness.

After a moment of silence, the voice was heard again.

“That won’t do.”

“Pardon?”

“Um, she’s the butler’s friend. You seem like a very kind child. I don’t know how you got involved with the butler, who doesn’t suit you at all. But you can’t touch the Ego Weapon. It’s not a matter of ability, but because the part you’re trying to touch is the essence of the skill.”

“And we like the Ego Weapon too. We can’t let it break down.”

“That’s right. Someday it will be of great help in driving the world to complete destruction.”

“Or shove everything under our feet.”

Yumin couldn’t understand what the Renians were saying.

But she could feel that the existence of Renian was far from the ‘strange cannibalistic fairy’ that Hyun-woo had mentioned.

Renian was an inseparable existence from Hyun-woo.

Like two sides of a coin.

“But… she’s the butler’s friend. Since you’ve come all the way here, and you seem to have a unique talent, you might be able to help us in other ways.”

“Other ways?”

“Yeah. Actually, we’re feeling a bit heavy and tired these days. I was wondering if you could do something about that.”

Yumin tilted her head, not understanding what they meant.

Then she discovered that the darkness was tearing open from beyond the darkness.

It was a large, ominous trajectory like a crescent moon lying down.

Yumin belatedly realized that it was a ‘smile.’

“You seem to be the most suitable.”

The moment Yumin flinched, her fingers began to move on their own.

Her jaw was as stiff as before. Renian was taking control of her body again.

Without any chance to do anything, Yumin had no choice but to entrust her hands to Renian’s movements.

Watching the black strings of characters entangling around her fingers, Yumin screamed.

***

“Yumin!”

Yumin opened her eyes wide at the strong shaking.

The darkness disappeared, and Hyun-woo was in front of her.

Song Yeo-un was standing with a surprised expression, holding a large pot dripping with water.

Yumin belatedly realized that her whole body was wet.

“Are you awake?”

“Uh, what’s going on…”

Yumin felt herself trembling and shivering without realizing it.

But she didn’t know if it was because of the scenes she had just seen or because of the cold water that had been poured on her.

Hyun-woo examined Yumin’s condition and said.

“You suddenly stopped completely while modifying the skill. Then you started muttering to yourself. Your pronunciation was inaccurate and ambiguous because you were whispering, so I couldn’t tell what you were saying, but you didn’t look good, so I told Song Yeo-un to pour water on you.”

“I thought it wouldn’t be good if the person suddenly fell while modifying the skill.”

It was a wise decision, as the balance of the skill could end up in a mess if something went wrong.

“But that didn’t wake you up. So I thought it would be better to wake you up even if it went a little wrong. What on earth happened?”

“Uh, that’s…”

Yumin made a complicated expression.

Would they understand even if she explained it?

But it seemed like she had to share this information.

“I met Renian.”

“You met Renian? No, how? More importantly, why Renian? So what did they do to you?”

“Uh, they didn’t do much. Just…”

Yumin answered with a complex expression.

“They gave me a massage…”