Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 282

282. Whispering Star (4)

Fsssk.

As soon as the black rift closed, Ha-hyun’s right arm, having lost control, crumbled. Countless tiny spiders scattered onto Hyun-mu’s hand and the floor.

Hyun-mu clenched the empty air.

‘No, Ha-hyun is safe.’

She is an entity composed of countless spiders. She wouldn’t die from losing a limb, and if she were dead, she wouldn’t be able to respond to the summons in the first place.

Hyun-mu hesitated to summon other familiars.

If they were in danger, her summoning request might put them in even more trouble.

At that moment, someone smacked her back with a loud thwack.

“Oppa!”

Hyun-mu finally turned her head. Yu-min, with a stern expression, was scolding Hyun-mu.

“Something’s wrong, isn’t it? It’s over here, so let’s go!”

Hyun-mu nodded. It was time to move as quickly as possible rather than getting caught up in complicated thoughts.

However, if even Ha-hyun was defeated, there was a possibility that the intersection itself was dangerous.

If she used the return stone now, she had to consider the possibility of being dropped into the middle of countless monsters.

But Hyun-mu gripped the return stone tightly without hesitation.

Whether it’s a trap or a monster, the only ending left for those who touched what’s mine is destruction.

***

As soon as she entered the Hell difficulty, the scene of the intersection was completely devastated.

The intersection, which had once been recognizable as a city, was now almost a wasteland.

Mounds of sand and dust covered the sparse remains of buildings. It was now difficult to find any trace of an intersection.

“…What is this?”

Moreover, the density of the already thick dust was much higher than usual.

But it wasn’t toxic fine dust.

It was literally dust. All sorts of things were broken and crushed, and the thoroughly pulverized debris was floating in the air.

She could feel her lungs filling with heavy metal powder in an instant. It was all neutralized by the poison blood, though.

‘What on earth did this?’

As she had feared, there were no monsters ambushing her as soon as she appeared.

But in this world, if you’re relieved just because you can’t see them, you’ll be killed in an instant.

Hyun-mu hurriedly moved to find the entrance to the shelter.

She soon found the entrance to the shelter, but Hyun-mu couldn’t help but feel taken aback.

The entrance had collapsed and was buried in earth and sand. At this rate, it was like digging straight into the ground.

‘It would be good to call Kazat or Kirson and ask about the situation.’

Hyun-mu sent a message for them to come here instead of summoning them right away. It seemed better than summoning them suddenly.

Click.

It was then. Hyun-mu heard a sound that was somewhat familiar. Hyun-mu immediately realized what that sound was, but thought she had misheard.

Because it was a sound that shouldn’t be heard in Hell difficulty.

The moment she turned her head in the direction of the sound, Hyun-mu met a camera lens.

“Is that… a crab?”

Something the size of a palm, shaped like a crab, was holding a cell phone and filming Hyun-mu.

No, strictly speaking, it was wrong to say it was holding a cell phone.

The crab-like thing was a bizarre mass of cell phones and all sorts of junk.

[Surveillance-type Lower Golem (LV 21)]

Golem?

Hyun-mu recalled the chess piece-like monsters that had appeared in the Taebaek Dungeon. That was all Hyun-mu had seen of golems.

It was a monster she had never seen in this area. She didn’t even know which star’s familiar it was.

Even in the midst of all this, the lower golem was constantly clicking away, taking pictures of Hyun-mu with its camera. Hyun-mu felt an inexplicable sense of displeasure and threw a stone with force.

With a thud, the lower golem’s body disappeared.

Clickclickclickclickclickclickclick.

Flashes started going off everywhere. Only then did Hyun-mu see countless lower golems, hidden in the ground and dust, rising above the ground.

It was as if the ground was boiling.

It was difficult to notice because there was no murderous intent or even the unique signs of life.

“What is this…”

And it wasn’t just cameras that the lower golems were holding.

As Hyun-mu turned her head, a bullet whizzed past with a bang.

Even if it’s a machine, it’s still a monster in the end. It couldn’t hide its unique murderous aura.

“A crab bastard with a gun.”

Hyun-mu took out Tam and swung it around.

The heat emanating from Tam instantly burned the lenses and damaged the circuits of the lower golems.

Explosions erupted here and there.

Hyun-mu relentlessly beat down the golems, but they didn’t show any significant movement other than occasionally shooting guns.

It was no different from swatting a swarm of bugs.

‘What are these things?’

But Hyun-mu soon realized their role.

She should have known from the moment she saw the camera. Their role was simply reconnaissance and surveillance.

Woo-oong.

A loud engine sound began to be heard.

Beyond the thick dust fog, something huge was approaching with a loud noise.

The crabs retreated like a tide, and Hyun-mu soon felt like she had entered the wrong genre.

Giant robots, three or four stories high, were looking down at Hyun-mu.

[Security-type Intermediate Golem (LV 52)]

[Striking-type Intermediate Golem (LV 56)]

Kwakwakwakwang.

The golems unleashed firepower at Hyun-mu without warning. Hyun-mu could easily evade, but she had a strange thought.

It was an attack that combined high-speed grenade launchers and anti-aircraft guns. A human wouldn’t be able to recover their bones, but it wasn’t for monsters.

‘Why is there something like this in Hell difficulty?’

Why would there be weapons aimed at humanity in a world where humanity has already been destroyed?

In any case, it was an effective attack on Hyun-mu, who had acquired the star’s status but still had a human body.

The intermediate golems constantly chased Hyun-mu and poured down artillery fire.

Hyun-mu evaded the shelling while weaving a spider web of shadows around her. And when they reloaded, she rode the web and reached the top of the golem’s head.

It was only when Hyun-mu climbed onto the golem’s head that she realized where the building debris at the intersection had gone.

The intermediate golems were made of buildings and steel frame debris from this area.

The weapons seemed to have been added later, but in the end, they were just a jumble of debris put together without any sense of unity. And that kind of monster usually has a ‘core’ that holds the debris together.

“If I cut off your head, it’s all over in one shot. Isn’t that right?”

Hyun-mu tore off the golem’s head in one swift motion.

But then, the golem that had finished reloading fired at Hyun-mu, who was riding on its shoulder.

With a bang, Hyun-mu was engulfed in flames. But the shells blocked by ‘Restrainer Yayul’ did not harm Hyun-mu at all. Only her clothes and hair were slightly singed.

The arm that had been consumed by Yayul was almost the only part of Hyun-mu’s body that could be called a monster.

Hyun-mu looked at the head she had cut off when she saw the golem moving perfectly fine. The golem’s head was an item.

[Decoy-type Weak Spot for Impact Dispersion (Normal)]

“…You son of a bitch.”

Hyun-mu’s hand moved strangely.

The intermediate golem that Hyun-mu was riding on was forced to turn its gun barrel by his domination skill.

The intermediate golem next to it hurriedly tried to knock the gun barrel away, but the flames shooting out of the gun barrel were faster.

At the same time as the shell hit directly, the shells stored inside the body exploded all at once, completely shattering one of the intermediate golems and scattering it in all directions.

The surrounding dust disappeared for a moment due to the intense heat and explosion.

Hyun-mu was able to see the appearance of the intermediate golem in detail.

‘As expected.’

Hyun-mu discovered an engine emitting light and heat in the spine of the exploded intermediate golem. The engine was unharmed even amidst the shelling.

Woong woong woong woong!

The engine made a fierce noise and began to gather the scattered debris again.

Hyun-mu threw the ‘Decoy-type Weak Spot for Impact Dispersion’ at the engine without hesitation. The engine shattered powerlessly and stopped moving.

Only then did the remains of the intermediate golem, which had been gathering the scattered debris, collapse.

These guys are monsters, but the only part that can actually be called a monster is the core part that gathers the body.

The rest was made up of debris gathered from the surrounding area. That’s why human weapons were also effective.

But it would be restored again if the core wasn’t destroyed.

‘But where on earth did something like this come from…?’

Hyun-mu checked the condition of the engine in the wreckage of the destroyed golem.

Hyun-mu discovered something familiar inside the broken engine. It was a small, wriggling, fetus-like creature. Hyun-mu remembered seeing this before.

‘The artificial intelligence in the basement of the gym… Was it something Marph said was attached to that core?’

Her memory was hazy, but it was the artificial intelligence that controlled the underground research facility where Yu-min’s remains were found in this world.

The creature taken from the core of that artificial intelligence looked similar to this.

There was no time for long consideration. Suddenly, a gust of wind swept his body into the air.

Swish.

Hyun-mu saw one of the intermediate golems in front of her being crushed powerlessly. A golem three or four stories high was instantly crushed and disappeared like paper.

Hyun-mu looked up at the sky with a dumbfounded expression.

She couldn’t even see her opponent because of the dust. She could only barely see around her knees.

[Annihilation-type Superior Golem/Multi-unit Apartment Type (LV 71)]

“Are you crazy, really.”

She was speechless at the absurd name, not to mention the level.

But she realized it wasn’t a joke when she saw the signs for fitness clubs, marts [markets], convenience stores, etc. attached to her knees.

Although Chun-ru was bigger, it just felt like a floating piece of land, but this one felt even more dizzying in size because it was active.

‘How the hell am I supposed to catch this?’

She’d be lucky if she didn’t get crushed to death. Then the wind blew fiercely again. A flash of blue light flickered in the sky.

Hyun-mu thought that he seemed to be bending down and looking at her.

Beeeep.

A strange high-pitched sound, typical of a poor-quality speaker, briefly echoed.

[Kang Hyun-mu.]

Hyun-mu flinched. But soon the corners of her lips went up.

“…I never thought the day would come when my name would be called out in an apartment announcement.”

[This place is not a battlefield for you. Don’t mind and go back.]

Irregular and unstable timbre. It sounded like the voice had been synthesized from various sources throughout the broadcast.

Hyun-mu realized that the person speaking behind that speaker was not a monster, but someone equivalent to an apostle or agent.

“Go back, where am I supposed to go? You’ve ruined my shelter like this.”

[To your home.]

The superior golem said, emitting annoying speaker noise.

[To a world of lower difficulty.]

Hyun-mu’s body stiffened.

Although it didn’t mention a specific difficulty level, it was the first star to openly mention difficulty adjustment.

They didn’t care about worlds she couldn’t go to.

[I will clean up this place.]

The superior golem whispered quietly, but with sufficient pressure.

Then, as if revealing its existence, it displayed a system message.

[The Shattering Star, Gaul, is watching you.]

“…Gaul.”

Gaul, who had been consistently silent and mostly indifferent until now, was revealing himself to Hyun-mu for the first time.

If so, those words could be seen as Gaul’s message.

But Gaul neither helped nor hindered him even during the countless invasions of stars.

She didn’t know why he was now coming to devastate this area.

“Why are you attacking my familiars now?”

[I am on your side.]

Gaul did not answer Hyun-mu’s question properly. He was just still exerting pressure.

[Go back with that return stone.]

Hyun-mu gripped the return stone. The corners of his lips went up.

“What if I don’t want to?”

The golem did not answer. He was just silently looking at Hyun-mu.

He seemed to be contemplating what to say.

He didn’t seem to be in the mood to attack Hyun-mu. But Hyun-mu was still steadily scanning the appearance of the superior golem.

‘No matter how big it is, it must have a core in the end.’

The fact that he has no murderous intent means that he can only attack himself.

Hyun-mu had no intention of missing this good opportunity to beat up his opponent unilaterally.

However, there were various ways to attack.

[Then I’ll have to make you go.]

At that moment, the wind rushed in.

Seeing the shadow covering the surroundings, Hyun-mu realized that there was nowhere to escape, front, back, left, or right.

Without any time to escape, the entire 120-story giant building became a prison that confined Hyun-mu’s body.