Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 285

285. Whispering Star (7)

A bleak wind swept across the wasteland.

Riding the wind, thick dust swirled, raising a massive cloud.

Hyeon-woo stood on a shallow sand dune piled against the ruins of a building, surveying the landscape.

A colossal wall, hundreds of meters high, encircled them.

It was formed by the skyscraper-sized, high-grade Golems that had tried to imprison Hyeon-woo.

They had even altered their forms to fit together tightly, leaving no gaps.

“Boss.”

Kirson popped his head out of an open sewer manhole.

“The underground waterways are all blocked too. It’s too thick; there’s no way to break through.”

“Figures.”

Gaul had come with a purpose.

Gaul’s sole target was Monstress.

All of this was a hastily constructed skyscraper barrier for just one person.

There was no way he would leave an escape route.

“So, we have to break down this wall.”

“……No offense, Boss, but you know our front line isn’t exactly wide [referring to the limited number of powerful fighters].”

Hyeon-woo knew what Kirson was getting at.

Instead of strengthening himself, Hyeon-woo had scattered the Star’s power among countless monsters.

Thanks to that, he could bring in more subordinates and give them greater power, but ultimately, Hyeon-woo’s own power didn’t become overwhelmingly strong.

“And we can’t summon subordinates either.”

Gaul could block summons. The forces present were all Hyeon-woo could muster. He couldn’t even use the Beast of the End.

“……Even if we gathered them all, I don’t know if we could handle those Golems.”

Even with simple physical force, the difference in size was despairing.

Simply being hit, kicked, and crushed, with the occasional ‘real’ attack mixed in, made the chances of victory slim.

Moreover, the number of mid-grade Golems was countless.

“But the high-grade Golems will have a hard time moving all at once. As big as they are, only one or two can approach at a time. The problem is the ones that aren’t Golems….”

Hyeon-woo didn’t yet know which of Gaul’s subordinates were present.

Doppelgangers couldn’t be distinguished even with the monocle, and there might be more stealthy and insidious ones.

If they focused on fighting the Golems, those others might infiltrate the shelter at any moment.

Frankly, it was a hopeless situation.

Kirson, as the reconnaissance leader, also made a cold assessment.

“Just like always.”

“Yeah. Just like always.”

It wasn’t the first time they’d faced a hopeless situation.

Even in the midst of it, Hyeon-woo had always found a way to survive and win.

Actually, it was less about ‘somehow winning’ and more about a stubborn determination to ‘somehow screw over the opponent.’

It was the same this time. Hyeon-woo didn’t like what the Shattered Star was doing and was simply trying to stop it.

If that pissed off the Shattered Star, Hyeon-woo would be very satisfied.

“Alright, then….”

It was war.

Just as Hyeon-woo was about to speak, a desperate cry erupted from below the shelter.

It was Ha-hyeon. She was calling out to Hyeon-woo in a bewildered voice.

“Hyeon-woo, it’s a rebellion!”

Before the war, a civil war was breaking out.

***

“Keeeeeek!”

The Goblins and Ratmen, who made up the largest number in Hyeon-woo’s shelter, were swarming in.

They were the ones who had benefited the most from Hyeon-woo scattering the Star’s power.

The immense power had not only increased their numbers but also dramatically enhanced their individual strength.

“You ungrateful bastards who don’t know the favor, die!”

Kazart roared, banging his staff against both walls of the corridor.

Instantly, crow beaks sprouted all over the walls, pecking at the necks and eyes of the Ratmen and Goblins.

Screams erupted, but the other side had sorcerers too.

Spells exploded, melting the crow beaks into tar, emitting a disgusting smell.

As the chaos subsided, the rebels charged again. Kazart cursed, casting curses on those nearby.

He couldn’t understand the situation at all. There had been no signs of a rebellion.

The secret police and spies had remained unshaken even during Gaul’s attack, expecting to successfully defend again and gain even greater power.

But then, out of nowhere, a rebellion had started.

“Do you remember this staff? Huh? Rebels, shout it out!”

“Traitors, traitors!”

“Die, die, die!”

The Ratmen skulls hanging from the end of the staff screamed madly.

The staff, made from the skulls of rebels who had failed to even start their rebellion, seemed to provide a slight awakening effect as it noisily chattered.

Seeing the rebels flinch slightly, Kazart wore a satisfied smile.

That’s when it happened.

Thwack.

Kazart felt a sharp pain in his back. One of the Ratmen he had as a guard had stabbed him in the back with a knife.

“You son of a….”

Kazart cursed and swung his staff, but at that moment, a club struck him directly on the head. Then, the rebels swarmed towards Kazart.

He was trampled in an instant.

It was at that moment.

“Oooooooo!”

A rough roar echoed through the corridor. The roar, which made his whole body tingle, shook his heart, and the rebels froze in place.

A pack of wolves, their purple eyes gleaming in the darkness beyond the corridor, came running.

It was the werewolves and Yerdan who had not participated in the rebellion.

Before the rebels could reorganize, Yerdan bit the neck of the Ratman who had stabbed Kazart in the back.

The Ratman’s neck was torn off like soft tofu, scattering blood everywhere.

Yerdan barely managed to drag out the wounded and bleeding Kazart.

Wolves, rats, and goblins.

The clear hierarchy between the monsters was evident, and an atmosphere of fear spread among the rebels.

But then, their eyes darkened even further. One of the Ratmen in the rebellion shouted roughly.

“You commie wolves! Die!”

There were five werewolves.

And there were far more rebels.

The clash began again.

***

“They’ve been taken over.”

“Taken over? Like a domination skill?”

“Yes. But it’s being used on a much larger scale, with much greater density. The opponent is far more skilled than the boss. They seem to specialize in mind control.”

Kirson said, looking into the eyes of a Goblin he had knocked to the ground.

The Goblin, who had become Hyeon-woo’s subordinate, should have had purple eyes. But now, a much murkier black energy swirled within them.

The Goblin thrashed and struggled to escape from Kirson.

“What if I use domination?”

“Well, it might work on one or two… but the truth is, the Ratmen and Goblins are much closer subordinates to the Shattered Star. You could say they feel more affinity to that Star than to the boss….”

Birds of a feather flock together.

No matter how much Hyeon-woo empowered them, if the other side’s influence was stronger, it was like cooking porridge only to feed it to a dog [a Korean idiom meaning a wasted effort].

In fact, the Stars had been giving Hyeon-woo various powers without any benefit to themselves, so there was no reason to feel wronged.

The problem was that an enemy who had infiltrated the inside was causing chaos.

Suppressing the rebellion wasn’t difficult.

Hyeon-woo could kill all the subordinates who had participated in the rebellion simply by spreading a plague. But that was what the opponent wanted.

They were hoping he would weaken himself.

‘Or maybe the chaos itself is the goal.’

Hyeon-woo thought of Monstress. If the goal was assassination, a chaotic situation like this would be necessary.

“Ha-hyeon is protecting Sang-hyeon right now, right?”

“Yes. You told her to kill anyone who enters the room until we defeat Gaul, no matter who they are. She’s good at following orders.”

She had already spun countless webs in the corridor around the room. Even Hyeon-woo couldn’t guarantee victory against Ha-hyeon in her fully prepared state.

But they couldn’t be optimistic.

Gaul would surely find a way to break through.

“Applying pressure from the outside and stirring things up from the inside….”

No matter how strong the shell, it would easily break in this state.

“This won’t do. We need to move more proactively….”

Hyeon-woo clicked his tongue at Kirson’s words.

“There is one way.”

But it was a method he didn’t really want to use.

To execute it, he needed one confirmation.

***

Crack, bang.

Hyeon-woo grabbed the head of a mid-grade Golem, tore it off, and threw it away.

Of course, tearing off the head didn’t do any damage to the Golem.

What Hyeon-woo tore off wasn’t the head, but an item called the ‘Intimidation Device.’

But Hyeon-woo mercilessly plunged his Ego Weapon into the spot where he had torn off the head.

The mid-grade Golem, pierced in a straight line from its head to its crotch, crumbled to the ground as its core was destroyed.

Hyeon-woo narrowly dodged the Ego Weapon flying at him again, trying to stab him, and at the same time, used its momentum to climb onto another Golem.

A mid-grade Golem, affected by the ‘Domination’ skill, stabbed its cannon into the belly of another Golem and detonated it.

Due to the difference in class, the number of mid-grade Golems that Hyeon-woo could control with the Domination skill was limited to two at most.

But this was enough to deal with the mid-grade Golems.

Already, the remains of mid-grade Golems formed a hill around him.

Hyeon-woo hadn’t even broken a sweat yet. The Ego Weapons flying at him to intercept him were more threatening than the mid-grade Golems.

It was such an overwhelming situation that there was no need to call Yerdan or Ha-hyeon, but Hyeon-woo felt a slight sense of unease.

‘What’s with this?’

The low-grade Golems were constantly riding on the bodies of the mid-grade Golems, filming Hyeon-woo.

He felt annoyed by the unpleasant gaze, but he didn’t have time to pay attention to such trivial things.

The mid-grade Golems were attacking Hyeon-woo, but they didn’t feel truly threatening.

It wasn’t that Hyeon-woo himself was too strong.

The opponent understood modern weaponry and technology and knew strategy. If so, they should also know more effective suppression methods.

Above all, the high-grade Golems were surrounding the area without moving an inch.

This meant only one thing.

‘They’re holding back after all.’

It was the same feeling he had when he first encountered Gaul’s subordinates.

Normally, he would have been happy about the free experience points. But now, he only felt a sticky unpleasantness.

Hyeon-woo opened his mouth wide and bit the Ego Weapon that flew at his chin.

The moment his body leaped into the air, he grabbed it again with his hand and threw it at the nearest high-grade Golem.

The Ego Weapon struck the part of the high-grade Golem that corresponded to its crotch. But the Golem didn’t budge.

“Come out, Gaul!”

Hyeon-woo shouted at the Shattered Star, Gaul.

“Is your dick already broken so you can’t talk? Fight if you’re going to fight, and shut up if you’re not!”

Hyeon-woo’s method was to request a conversation only when he thought he was at a disadvantage.

Gaul didn’t answer.

Hyeon-woo felt displeased, but there was nothing he could do about it.

But it didn’t matter. He could roughly guess what the opponent was thinking now.

The Ego Weapon, which had been stuck in the high-grade Golem’s crotch, began to rattle and come loose.

Then, as it had when it was first fired, it rushed towards Hyeon-woo again. It was aiming for his heart.

Hyeon-woo tore off his tattered top and scattered it in the wind.

His bare chest was exposed. The Curselock Yahrul, which had deeply encroached into his shoulder, gleamed.

The Ego Weapon craved Hyeon-woo’s heart and rushed madly.

In that moment, it seemed as if flesh would tear and blood would splatter.

But with a clang, the Ego Weapon collided in mid-air and was thrown away.

The Ego Weapon rattled madly, as if enraged that it had failed to kill Hyeon-woo. But it no longer had the strength to move.

Watching the disappearing Ego Weapon, Hyeon-woo grinned.

“Come out, Gaul.”

Hyeon-woo muttered, touching the area where his heart should be.

“I’ve already caught on that you’re planning to protect me. Do you still have any cards left?”

The Golems that were approaching Hyeon-woo stopped at once.

A bleak wind blew.

As silence filled the hill, the only sound was the wind. And within that wind, a strange dissonance began to be heard.

It was the sound of shaking a can filled with gravel.

Hyeon-woo turned his head in the direction of the sound.

Someone was walking leisurely from a distance.

It was a distance that Hyeon-woo could reach in one leap, but the opponent was approaching frustratingly slowly.

As if the time in this world was all theirs.

Hyeon-woo leaped up and stood in front of the opponent.

“You are….”

Hyeon-woo didn’t know what to say when he saw the opponent’s appearance.

He had seen all sorts of bizarre beings so far, but he had never seen such a unique opponent.

He even wondered if they could speak.

The opponent was constantly shattering metal. The form of a human made of intact metal appeared like a fountain, then shattered, scattered on the ground again, and then seeped back into the body, repeating the process of creating a human form.

It was a statue that was constantly breaking and being rebuilt.

[Kang Hyeon-woo.]

Instead of opening their mouth, the opponent created sound with a strange noise like metal colliding.

“Are you Gaul?”

[Hand over the Whispering Star.]

Hyeon-woo understood the opponent’s one-sided disregard as affirmation.

Gaul demanded Monstress as if there was no need to listen to Hyeon-woo’s words.

Hyeon-woo shrugged.

“Why would I?”

[The Whispering Star is of no help to you.]

Hyeon-woo thought Gaul’s words were strange. Not an enemy or an ally, but of no help?

“I’ll decide who’s helpful and who’s not. And Monstress has helped me a lot so far. At least she’s better than someone who’s only just revealed themselves, whose intentions I can’t figure out, right?”

[You are being deceived.]

Hyeon-woo was about to ask what he was being deceived about. But before that, Gaul spoke first.

[The Whispering Star brought the end to this world. Not a second time.]