Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 260

260. Infinitely Light (3)

The handsome man couldn’t understand what Hyun-woo was saying.

A monster that eats stars?

Could he be saying he would devour ‘that’ star?

The moment he understood the meaning, the handsome man was dumbfounded by Hyun-woo’s arrogance.

But Hyun-woo’s power was undeniable. The handsome man realized his back was already soaked with sweat.

The handsome man took a shallow breath and raised the corner of his lips.

“…First of all, let me introduce myself. Kang Hyun-woo, right? I am Kylo Casden.”

“Kylo?”

Hyun-woo tilted his head and asked.

“Come to think of it, your name and appearance are similar to someone I know. Ah, hmm. Is that so.”

Hyun-woo recalled that the Kylo in front of him looked similar to Kawaro, whom he had seen in Difficulty: Hell.

The strange sense of déjà vu he felt when the child ran at him also reminded him of Itwaro.

Hyun-woo chuckled softly. It hadn’t been many days since he killed those guys, and he was meeting them again like this.

“Geez, there was a time when you were so fresh. It seems your extravagant habits are still the same, then and now.”

“…What are you talking about? You know me? Hmm, yes. I used to work as a model. But that was a long time ago. I was completely reborn when I met my master.”

“The Starving Star?”

Kylo’s expression hardened rapidly at Hyun-woo’s question.

“What, you… how do you know? Were you eavesdropping?”

“Ah, don’t worry about it. I have no intention of listening to your pathetic past. You’re going to die soon anyway.”

Hyun-woo wondered what kind of expression Kylo would make if he found out that he was eventually killed by the agent of that ‘new master’.

Especially if he was killed to put Hyun-woo in debt.

Kylo’s lips trembled. He had tried to persuade or win over Hyun-woo, but Hyun-woo was already radiating murderous intent.

But Kylo had no intention of being easily defeated. The current conversation was just a way to buy time.

“You’re being arrogant. We are apostles. Do you think we’ll die so easily?”

“Huh?”

Kylo’s gaze turned to the child.

Kylo quickly used a skill against Hyun-woo. His two hands instantly pressed down on Hyun-woo.

A magical binding force quickly wrapped around Hyun-woo.

“Now! Richard!”

Kylo pressed down with the force to crush Hyun-woo, but considering the power he had just shown, he thought he would resist.

But he believed it would be enough to buy Richard time to inflict a fatal wound on Hyun-woo.

But nothing happened.

“What, what are you doing?”

Hyun-woo shook his arm strongly for a moment. Due to the recoil of the skill being forcibly released, Kylo’s fingers were crushed.

Kylo screamed, looking at his fingers, which were distorted like dried squid.

“No, I’m really asking because I’m curious, what did you do? Richard? Is that the kid’s name? He looks Asian no matter how you look at it. Was he adopted?”

He couldn’t answer that it was because he was of Filipino descent.

Kylo’s thoughts were completely scattered and in disarray.

“Ri, Richard?”

Kylo called the child’s name one more time, as if embarrassed.

He was surprised but not greatly embarrassed when Richard’s lower body was blown away.

The child—Richard, treated his body like a toy and had tenacious vitality.

Even to him, an apostle, Richard’s ability to transform his body in a bizarre way was impressive. Even the appearance of a child was a form he had acquired through his body transformation ability.

He had achieved many things by using the appearance of a child, or by pretending to be dead and assassinating the opponent in an instant.

In particular, his pretense of being dead was so perfect that everyone was fooled. So, he thought this was another such case.

“Why do you keep calling the name of a corpse? Are you mourning a dead son?”

But Hyun-woo had really killed the apostle.

In one shot.

“Ah, did you believe he was still alive? Too bad, but that’s gone. The moment I slammed him on the floor, his fragments flowed into my body. I think the fragment was somewhere in my stomach?”

He also knows about the fragments. He really killed him.

Kylo realized that Hyun-woo had far surpassed him.

‘Could it be an agent-level that I’ve only heard about? Has an agent already appeared?’

Kylo made a quick decision.

There was no reason to fight anymore. Rather, it was important to quickly inform their group of this fact.

He told himself that this was not running away, but a retreat to deliver important information.

The moment Kylo quickly turned his body to escape, Hyun-woo was standing right in front of him.

“But you’re quite tall, aren’t you?”

Words that made no sense came out, and at that moment, Kylo’s vision swayed.

He felt intense pain below his knees. Only after being thrown to the ground did he realize that his knees had been cut off.

“Aaaah! Aaaaaaaah!”

Hyun-woo kicked away the severed legs and approached Kylo.

Kylo tried to escape by crawling, but Hyun-woo stepped on his back and climbed on top of him.

“Now our eye level is a bit better.”

“Ugh, ugh, mo, monster…”

“Hey, honestly, a monster should be called someone who arbitrarily transforms their body and wears three watches. Ah, is the latter a bit too much?”

He had clearly introduced himself as a ‘star-eating monster’ until just now, but now he was saying something different.

Now there was no choice. He was an opponent who couldn’t be dealt with by normal means.

Kylo swallowed his tears and decided to use the ultimate skill he had been hiding until now.

It was an ultimate skill he couldn’t bear to use, but it wasn’t more precious than his life.

Ultimate Skill: Golden Time.

The surrounding space began to freeze in a yellow hue. Even Hyun-woo’s voice began to slow down.

Even Hyun-woo could not escape the effects of the ultimate skill.

As he watched time stop, Kylo felt a surge of murderous intent.

Killing is faster than running away. No matter how strong he is, he won’t be able to resist when time is stopped.

As time turned completely yellowish, Kylo quickly took out a dagger from his pocket and stabbed it at Hyun-woo’s neck.

It was the most deadly weapon Kylo had.

It seemed that he had never wielded a weapon so focused and desperately in his entire life.

But what Kylo saw the next moment was the dagger being snatched away by Hyun-woo’s hand.

“What, I thought I moved really fast just now?”

Kylo froze.

He definitely stopped time. But Hyun-woo was shamelessly moving.

No. Kylo revised his thinking.

It wasn’t that Hyun-woo could move in stopped time, but that his ultimate skill ended too quickly.

The Starving Star takes assets from his vault in exchange for stopping time by an equivalent amount.

The greater the benefit of stopping time, the greater the cost.

Kylo realized that his vault, which had been stocked with trillions of won [Korean currency, roughly equivalent to billions of US dollars] in assets, was completely empty.

Trillions of won in assets were blown away to stop Hyun-woo for a split second.

And it wasn’t just that that was empty.

“Ugh, what? Why are you suddenly naked?!”

Hyun-woo jumped off Kylo’s back in shock.

The luxury suits and watches worth tens of millions of won, wallets, everything he had plastered all over his body disappeared, and he was completely naked.

He had become a pauper.

But even so, the collection was not stopping.

The Starving Star was still demanding the price for the single second he had stopped Hyun-woo.

“Ah, ah, ah…”

Kylo felt his vision darkening.

He was gradually disappearing.

2 eyes ₩6 million, teeth ₩5 million, liver ₩220 million, heart ₩230 million, scalp and hair ₩1 million, gallbladder ₩1.5 million, kidney ₩350 million, 6 liters of blood ₩4.7 million…

Kylo’s body gradually shrank as it was collected.

Finally, a price tag of ₩2.32 trillion was placed on his face, and a message appeared that the collection was complete.

That’s how Kylo was completely ‘collected’.

All that remained in his place were useless remnants that were not worth pricing.

Hyun-woo frowned and stepped back, looking at Kylo’s disgusting traces.

“No, what… what did he do? Is this a novel way to commit suicide?”

Hyun-woo couldn’t figure it out until the end.

***

The hunters and Lee Seo-yeon watched the whole scene.

In the place where Kylo had been, there were only some feces, some bodily fluids, and a few pieces of worthless entrails scattered around.

The hunters looked at Hyun-woo with eyes filled with fear, disgust, and deep dread.

They all believed that Hyun-woo had made Kylo ‘like that’.

Then Hyun-woo’s head turned towards them.

The hunters were startled and stuck close to the wall, and some fainted while wetting themselves.

Hyun-woo looked wronged.

“No, I didn’t do anything this time…”

He did cut off his legs, but he didn’t know what happened after that. But it didn’t seem like they would listen even if he explained.

Hyun-woo sighed. Anyway, it didn’t seem like intimidation would be necessary for the interrogation.

Hyun-woo gestured to the hunters and said.

“Get lost.”

The hunters rushed out of the hangar. But outside, Song Yeo-un and the Omnipotent League hunters were already waiting.

They would capture the hunters, conduct appropriate interrogations, and then dispose of them.

Now, the only people left in the hangar were Lee Seo-yeon and Hyun-woo.

Lee Seo-yeon knew that it was useless to get out of here. Her mouth slowly opened.

“That’s amazing.”

Fear and dread were also in Lee Seo-yeon’s face, but she still stood firm.

Even among the collapsing hunters, it was commendable that she had such strength.

And considering that she had often collaborated with Yoo-min, he postponed killing her for now.

That is, only postponing killing her.

“Lee Seo-yeon, you betrayed me and tried to stab me in the back, didn’t you?”

“Yes. But…”

Hyun-woo grabbed Lee Seo-yeon’s hand and lifted it up.

It wasn’t to shake hands.

The moment Hyun-woo gripped her hand tightly, the entire bone of Lee Seo-yeon’s right hand shattered with a cracking sound.

A scream erupted.

Hyun-woo crushed her hand by gripping and releasing it several more times.

After a series of processes, Lee Seo-yeon’s right hand became impossible to restore even with potions.

Lee Seo-yeon’s body collapsed. Hyun-woo gave her another point for still not fainting.

Because there was no need to wait until she came to her senses.

Hyun-woo squatted down and met Lee Seo-yeon’s eyes. Then, he looked at Lee Seo-yeon through Admiral Ren’s monocle.

She, who was clearly an ordinary person when he last saw her, had become a *neungnyeokja* [ability user].

“The level is still low, but you’re a *neungnyeokja*.”

“…Yes. I joined the Starving Star’s faction and became a *neungnyeokja* in return.”

“You don’t have to use honorifics if you think it’s shitty. I don’t really care about that.”

Lee Seo-yeon glared at Hyun-woo as if she wanted to kill him, but she was still restraining herself. Hyun-woo raised the corner of his lips as he looked at her.

“But let’s be honest. Shall we start by figuring out how many people you secretly killed while trying to stab me in the back this time?”

Lee Seo-yeon turned her gaze away with a bewildered expression. But Hyun-woo continued to talk about what he had found out.

“Do you know what I found at Cheongpyeong Hospital? At first, I thought that so many Taesung-affiliated *neungnyeokja* were attacked because the state was checking them. But it wasn’t.”

Hyun-woo said, pressing down on Lee Seo-yeon’s crushed right hand.

“You were trying to firmly grasp the command of the Taesung Clan, which Lee Ji-tae was absent from. Even that had the limitations of a non-*neungnyeokja*, so you were trying to create a new one by taking domestic assets overseas.”

It wasn’t just hunters that were being smuggled out of Korea.

Assets of the Taesung Clan and national treasure-level items, etc., were being smuggled overseas without distinction if they were related to hunters.

All these assets seemed to be scattered in Mongolia, China, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, etc., but in the end, they gathered in one place.

The newly formed South China government.

One of the aftereffects of the shock caused by Hyun-woo’s Northern Expedition.

“But looking at the state of things here today, even that is not the ‘real’ South China government?”

“Yes.”

Lee Seo-yeon said, clenching her teeth.

“It is a government established by the Starving Star’s apostles, who were forming *seryeok* [factions/power bases] in the Asian region, taking advantage of the chaos in China. They are trying to gather their assets in one place and form a solid *seryeok* faster than other stars.”

Lee Seo-yeon seemed to think that there was no need to hide anything anymore since Hyun-woo already knew everything.

Hyun-woo thought, as he listened to Lee Seo-yeon’s answer, that was indeed the case.

The movements of the stars had already begun. Just as Korea had fallen into Hyun-woo’s hands, there must be more than one country that had fallen into the hands of the apostles.

“And you think I surrendered to get my hands on the Taesung Clan or something? What a joke. With the assets of the Taesung Group, you can create three or four Taesung Clans.”

Lee Seo-yeon strongly retorted at Hyun-woo.

“The reason I was trying to get out of Korea and form *seryeok* was because of you, Kang Hyun-woo.”

“Ah, yeah, that.”

Hyun-woo shrugged.

“It’s because you knew that Lee Ji-tae was actually alive, and that my fault was the reason why Lee Ji-tae went missing. Yeah. I knew it.”