Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 284

284. Whispering Star (6)

Hyun-woo showed no reaction to Monstress’s words.

Hyun-woo had already considered that possibility.

Through the apostles’ mentions, he had heard that the agent of the Whispering Star, Monstress, was already dead, and Yumin was found as a skeleton in the dungeon under the gym.

Besides that, he had kept the possibility in mind due to her behavior and subtle remarks.

However, even then, Hyun-woo didn’t feel anything beyond a sense of melancholy.

This world’s Yumin and the Yumin Hyun-woo knew were clearly different beings.

“Hyun-woo.”

Monstress gripped Hyun-woo’s finger.

It was a small, slender hand.

“I know what you’re thinking. The star and the agent are separate entities, and considering the gap between your world and this world, Yumin and I are as different as apples and pears.”

Hyun-woo looked at Monstress, who resembled a young Sang-hyun, and recalled his world, which had just entered Difficulty: Normal.

Sang-hyun was created based on Song Yeo-un’s sister, Song Ji-min. However, Song Ji-min is currently living as an artist, far from being a hunter.

She will never set foot in the hunter industry, and he won’t let her.

Sang-hyun’s existence itself proved that Monstress and Yumin were completely different.

Monstress was merely using Yumin’s name to manipulate Hyun-woo. Hyun-woo rationally thought so.

“But the star chooses an agent who feels the most similar to itself in that world. The agent is the very manifestation of the star that appeared in this world. The time I’ve maintained both the ‘Whispering Star’ and my identity as Yumin is not short.”

Hyun-woo’s lips twisted upward.

A tense silence passed for Monstress.

Hyun-woo showed no reaction other than raising the corner of his lips.

Of course, Monstress wasn’t expecting a touching reunion or tearful reconciliation.

Rather, she thought she might be killed by an enraged Hyun-woo in the worst-case scenario.

That’s why she was trying to buy some time and aim for the best timing.

But she never expected him to show such a lack of reaction.

“Okay.”

Finally, Hyun-woo spoke.

He dragged a chair over and sat in front of Monstress.

“Tell me what kind of person this world’s Yumin was.”

***

Monstress’s story was neither short nor long.

Her life before Difficulty: Normal was briefly summarized. At that time, Yumin was just a graduate student.

But after entering Difficulty: Normal, many things changed.

“After the Heavenly Leak [an event where monsters and mana were released into the world], a large number of monsters were released into the world, and the mana concentration also increased rapidly. Many people awakened as ability users at that time. Almost 2/3 of the people became ability users. Yumin also became an ability user at that time.”

But what changed her life was not her awakening as an ability user, but the tremendous cold wave that started from the Northern Hemisphere.

While some blamed and others started wars, some gathered people and tried to find a way out.

“In Europe, Chrome was the center… and in Asia, the Pan-Continental Front, led by the South China Federation, did so. It was much later that it was revealed that the South China Federation had been infiltrated by the apostles of the Starving Star. Anyway, Korea also joined the Pan-Continental Front.”

Yumin worked there as a young scientist.

There were many activities and many stories. Monstress didn’t explain each of those stories in detail.

Because most of them ended in meaningless failures.

Later, as the problems within the Pan-Continental Front were revealed and they realized they were being used, Yumin, Dowonkyung, Lee Ji-tae, and many others left for Chrome.

“Chrome was…”

Monstress smiled bitterly and continued.

“It was almost the only hope at the time. When we realized we had been deceived by the Pan-Continental Front, everyone was completely desperate. As we entered Difficulty: Hard, the birth rate plummeted, and there were more areas where humans couldn’t live than where they could. Even in the midst of that, humans fought among themselves, insisting on protecting humanity in their own way.”

For humanity.

To protect humanity.

To lead humanity on the right path.

The road to hell was paved with good intentions.

Yumin entrusted herself there, with the despair that Chrome might not be much different either.

But Chrome, although somewhat exclusive and obsessive, was doing well enough.

“I don’t know which of Maria Keller and Adam Fault was more of a monster. A monster with an unbreakable belief tamed a monster with the power to crush the world, turning it into the world’s only lighthouse and breakwater. But there weren’t only monsters. Father Johann Hessner became everyone’s will.”

But that was it.

The responsibility for the winter triggered by the ‘Tepes Case’ caused by Adam Fault, the suspicion of the obsessive and overbearing Maria Keller, and above all, the skepticism about the hopeless future were collapsing Chrome from within.

As the difficulty increased, the despair grew even greater.

But among them, the most desperate was Maria Keller.

“Maria Keller betrayed Chrome. She disappeared one day. Leaving behind Adam Fault and Johann, and the countless people who believed in and relied on her.”

“A person with an unbreakable belief, you said?”

Monstress gave a bitter smile.

“That’s right. It didn’t break. Instead, she decided to find another way. Continuing to maintain a method that doesn’t work is not faith but stubbornness. She abandoned the countless people who believed in and relied on her, and Adam Fault… and set out to find another way.”

Monstress didn’t talk about where Maria went or what she did.

As if it was no longer important, or as if she didn’t know well either.

Rather, the whereabouts of Chrome after Yumin remained were important.

“If Adam Fault and Father Johann were the breakwater of humanity in a physical sense, Maria Keller was the dam of humanity in a spiritual sense. A dam full of despair and depression. So when that dam disappeared… Father Johann committed suicide in less than a month.”

Johann Hessner.

A gaunt priest with a gloomy impression.

In the Almighty Union, he was just a healer and a shield, but in this world, his importance seemed different.

Well, I already knew it through the Skeleton Records.

Monstress’s story was being told from a slightly different perspective than the Skeleton Records, with a sense of realism.

The Whispering Star might have a special talent for speaking. The slight difference in perspective could be understood as a difference in position from Lee Ji-tae.

“What about Yumin?”

“She tried to control Chrome after Maria Keller disappeared. Well, okay. I’ll be honest about this part. At that time, Yumin and I were trying to devour Chrome from within. Chrome was the only organization that hadn’t been contaminated by other stars and was strong enough to maintain its own axis. I also have a knack for hiding my power. So my faction was not small within Chrome.”

The Whispering Star, Monstress.

The one who seduces and commands.

For her, infiltrating an organization and transforming it into something only for herself would be easy.

“But Maria Keller was not an easy opponent. I even tried to bring in Adam Fault, but no one could control her except Professor Keller.”

At the time, it felt like watching a mad dog unleashed from its leash, Monstress explained.

“Adam had crushed more than one apostle or agent of the stars. So fear spread that Adam might go berserk… but Adam was always the same. Knowing that the sheep he protected despised and feared him, he mechanically carried out the orders left by Professor Keller.”

Protect humanity.

That was the order Professor Keller left behind.

Monstress shrugged.

“You can’t seduce or tame a machine, can you? So Adam helped Chrome maintain its form for a while. In the meantime, we had to find a way somehow. And then… well.”

Monstress closed her mouth.

It seemed she judged that it was not worth describing any further, or she didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

Rather, the whereabouts of Chrome after Yumin remained were important.

“Yumin didn’t see Difficulty: Hell. She might not have even imagined that there was a difficulty higher than Difficulty: Nightmare. Humanity was already as good as extinct at that time. I couldn’t even imagine that we wouldn’t be able to reach a conclusion even in this state.”

Monstress’s gaze turned back to Hyun-woo. Hyun-woo was just listening to the story calmly.

“So, is that the end?”

“Yeah. Why?”

The most important part was missing from Monstress’s story right now.

That was himself.

“What kind of person was I?”

Monstress’s lips twitched. The story of Yumin didn’t mention Kang Hyun-woo at all.

Even Lee Ji-tae and Dowonkyung were mentioned, but there was no story about Hyun-woo.

“Ah, right. You.”

Monstress scratched her head. It was impossible to tell whether she was embarrassed or pretending to be embarrassed.

After a moment of silence, she slowly opened her mouth.

“You were my lover.”

“Even in this world?”

“Yeah. Ah, damn it. Yeah. You might think it’s a lie, but it’s not. It’s just that I didn’t think you’d want to know much. In fact, compared to Yumin, your actions are… quite modest.”

“Modest?”

“You became an ability user after Difficulty: Normal. Later than Yumin, and you were quite a latecomer as a hunter. You didn’t have any special abilities, and your grade and level weren’t high either. Then, you happened to go to the South China Federation with Yumin, and you moved to Chrome together.”

“Didn’t you seduce me back then?”

“I told you. ‘My’ lover. I was a member of the Whispering Star. But it was quite common at the time to be a member of other stars as well, in a overlapping state. So it’s hard to say.”

In this world, the existence of Kang Hyun-woo seemed to be not much different from when he was dipping his hands in the mud and looking for crystal moss scraps.

Monstress said he was her lover, but considering her nature, it was hard to believe that she only had one lover.

Hyun-woo was about to ask a few more important questions. Then someone rushed into the room in a hurry.

It was Kirson.

“Boss, you need to come out for a moment. Golems are swarming outside.”

It seemed that the Shattering Star had begun to move again.

Hyun-woo thought he roughly knew why the Shattering Star was trying to eliminate Monstress.

It must have been worried that the Whispering Star would use Yumin’s name to draw him to its side.

His concerns were not far off.

Hyun-woo couldn’t turn away from her, even though he knew that Monstress and Yumin were separate beings.

But it wasn’t because she was Yumin. It was for a completely different reason.

Hyun-woo stood up and asked the last question. It was enough to hear the rest later.

“Did I become the Star of the Apocalypse after or before Yumin died?”

Monstress’s complexion changed at those words.

At that moment, Hyun-woo quickly turned around and swung Tham. The tip of Tham’s blade sharply cut Kirson’s neck.

But Kirson succeeded in throwing a fragmented piece even with his neck cut.

The dagger struck Monstress’s chest.

Monstress’s eyes became opaque, and her mouth gaped open. Black ink poured out of her mouth.

“That ink is as weak as the lies you’ve been able to pull off, Monstress.”

Kirson gurgled, making a sound like air escaping from his neck.

“You won’t be able to whisper lies a second time.”

Hyun-woo grabbed Kirson’s head in an instant.

But at that moment, what he held in his hand was not a solid skull but black ink that slipped through his fingers.

Only then could Hyun-woo recognize the identity of what he thought was Kirson.

[Doppelganger Guarding Arrogance (LV 55)]

The direct subordinates guarding the Shattering Star’s plot were moving.

Hyun-woo checked Monstress’s condition.

Monstress was still vomiting black ink, but her condition didn’t seem to be seriously bad.

“Hyun-woo!”

Only then did Ha-hyun and Yerdan rush in. Kirson, looking flustered, was also there. But Hyun-woo stopped them for now.

“Stop!”

Hyun-woo checked each of them to see if they were doppelgangers. But with Admiral Ren’s monocle, they looked the same as usual. It was hard to be sure with this.

Ha-hyun was anxious and tried to check Sang-hyun’s condition.

At that time, Monstress pulled on Hyun-woo’s sleeve. She gestured while vomiting ink.

It was a sign that she was okay.

Rather than trying to kill her, it seemed like she was under some kind of abnormal status curse.

Even for a star, it would be impossible to kill another star so easily.

Instead, the Shattering Star seemed to be trying to silence Monstress at all costs.

Monstress gestured to Hyun-woo.

‘Go.’

Thump, thump.

And with a sound that shook the earth, the Shattering Star, Gaul, was approaching.