Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 297

297. The Worst Person in the World (6)

Hyun-woo rushed towards a U.S. military transport plane that was preparing for takeoff.

Most of the U.S. troops were staying behind as hostages, but some personnel were being deported to prepare for a possible rebellion.

These mainly included Commander Banner of the U.S. Forces Korea and other high-ranking officers.

Commander Banner, about to board the transport plane, looked bewildered by Hyun-woo’s sudden appearance.

“What is it? Isn’t chasing us out enough? Do you still want something?”

“Yeah. This plane.”

“What, are you crazy…….”

Commander Banner realized Hyun-woo wasn’t joking.

In the end, Commander Banner, who had already loaded all his luggage, had no choice but to disembark.

He could prepare for the next transport plane, but being forcibly requisitioned like this was humiliating.

Song Yeo-un and several hunters from the Almighty Union boarded the transport plane.

Song Yeo-un, who had boarded in a daze, whispered while watching the American officers getting off with disgruntled expressions.

“Is this okay? Leaving them like that?”

“They were trying to kill me anyway, so it doesn’t matter. What good would a rebellion do them but get them killed?”

The problem was that this transport plane could be intercepted.

Hyun-woo had a countermeasure for this as well.

Before the transport plane took off, Hyun-woo contacted someone. A familiar Russian voice was heard over the phone.

[You owe us, Kang Hyun-woo.]

“Spasibo, Baldy. Thanks for rushing over like this.”

[……Stop with the terrible pronunciation. It sounds sarcastic.]

It was Ivan Cherenkoff, the one-armed bald man who Lee Ji-tae had helped save Hyun-woo’s life above Cheonru.

After President Petrovich died and Baba Yaga [a supernatural being in Slavic folklore] disappeared above Cheonru, he became the representative of the Russian ability users.

He had built a legendary reputation even before Petrovich appeared, and he was also respected by the military.

Of course, some people tried to hold him accountable, but no one could replace him.

Elite ability users had been almost wiped out, and the Almighty Union was outsourcing to fill the gap, so it was only natural.

[We saved your country from nuclear threats. So, you should be prepared to pay the price, right?]

“I’ll repay you as much as I love my country.”

At least he wouldn’t be ungrateful.

Sensing the subtle nuance in his answer, Cherenkoff was about to protest when Hyun-woo quickly gave another answer.

“But isn’t that too little to call it a debt? You guys didn’t even fire a single missile or bullet.”

[Are you serious…….]

“In that sense, if you’re going to put me in debt, you should do it properly. You’ve tasted a bit of capitalist hype, so you know about compound interest and loan sharking. If you’re going to lend money, you should lend a lot so there’s more to take.”

[What are you trying to say?]

“I’m saying, put in a little more effort while you’re at it. How about you join us in catching the worst person in the world right now?”

There was no answer from the other side of the phone for a while. After a moment, Ivan asked suspiciously.

[What benefit would we get from that? The Shadow is only staying in America right now. Only America is being ravaged by Adam Fault. It seems like it would be more beneficial for us to leave it alone.]

“You’re watching TV, aren’t you? Then you can roughly guess who ‘the worst person in the world’ means.”

[……Adam Fault?]

“Yeah, that’s right. We need to catch him early to stop the Shadow. You know what happens after 72 hours, right? Can Russia handle that then?”

In fact, at that point, the meaning of the nation disappears, and only the constellations and their vassals remain.

But Ivan, who had dedicated his life to the country, would find it hard to imagine such an era.

Ivan imagined his homeland, teeming with monsters, with its ability users virtually wiped out.

He gritted his teeth.

[I have no choice but to go.]

“Good thinking. And who knows? Maybe you’ll get some honey if you succeed in the mission?”

Hyun-woo coaxed Ivan like that and drew in Russia’s intervention. The more forces involved in this, the better.

If this was Maria Keller’s plan, he had to make the mess serious enough to bring out unpredictable variables.

Hyun-woo contacted Lee Seo-yeon to get the South China Union involved, and Park Hwi-so and his organization, who were already operating in the United States.

With a few phone calls, major countries and forces around the world began to move around Adam Fault in the southwestern United States.

And the Shadow, which had been heading towards the Pacific Ocean, quickly returned and covered the west coast of the United States.

It was 13 hours and 12 minutes since the start of the Leviathan Mission.

***

Inside a U.S. military transport plane heading to the west coast of the United States.

Outside, dozens of Russian and Korean fighter planes were mixed together, flying as if escorting a top-class VIP.

However, the transport plane that the VIP was actually on was owned by the U.S. military, so it was a strange situation in many ways.

“So, the ‘Shadow’ chases after ‘the worst person in the world’.”

“Yeah. The faster the criteria become clear.”

Hyun-woo and Yoo-min looked out the window and talked.

Honestly, Yoo-min, who was close to a non-combatant, didn’t need to participate this time, but she insisted on participating.

Hyun-woo didn’t bother to stop Yoo-min.

He believed that Yoo-min was capable of taking responsibility for herself.

“I thought it would be a bit of a word game because ‘bad’ is relative. But I didn’t know it would be like a real-time popularity vote.”

“It’s a simple and intuitive method. The Shadow moves depending on who people think is the ‘worst’, and the person at the center of that Shadow is the ‘worst person in the world’. It’s clean so there won’t be any complaints.”

Of course, the possibility that the Shadow’s movement could be manipulated and the fact that in order to kill the ‘worst person in the world’, you have to be exposed to the Shadow yourself was vicious.

And because the range of the Shadow is so vast, it can be difficult to know who the target is even if you go to the center.

Yoo-min would be aware of that. Maybe that’s why she insisted on following Hyun-woo.

Then she brought up a somewhat absurd story.

“Why did they call it Leviathan?”

Hyun-woo tilted his head. It was a question he had never thought about.

The first thing that came to mind when he thought of Leviathan was a huge monster, so he answered lightly.

“Isn’t it a metaphor for the huge Shadow? To defeat the Shadow, you have to kill one person, so they compared that person to a huge monster…….”

“Leviathan usually refers to Leviathan, a huge monster mentioned in Job 41 of the Old Testament, but…… the meaning that is mainly cited is different.”

“The meaning that is mainly cited?”

“For example, Thomas Hobbes described the state as a huge monster, Leviathan, in his book ‘Leviathan’. In that book, Hobbes talks about the state of humans fighting with everyone involved in their interests in order to preserve their interests, that is, the war of all against all. Hobbes saw the state as a huge monster with these human self-preservation desires, that is, Leviathan…….”

“In summary.”

At Hyun-woo’s request, Yoo-min nodded.

“This situation originated from a similar intention to that book, and if we interpret it a little distortedly…… Leviathan is, well, someone who can oppose the world for self-preservation and profit.”

Yoo-min muttered with a slightly dazed expression.

“The worst person in the world.”

Hyun-woo thought about the meaning of what Yoo-min said.

He couldn’t tell if she was just saying it because she thought of such a connection, or if she was saying it because she had something in mind.

“Are you sniping at me?”

Hyun-woo asked with a mischievous smile. Then Yoo-min stared at Hyun-woo.

“Oh, Elder. Do you have something to feel guilty about?”

It would be a lie to say that there was nothing to feel guilty about.

Hyun-woo had already shamelessly declared that he would sell the future of mankind in Difficulty: Hell and take his own glory.

But Yoo-min chuckled and said.

“You’re too self-conscious. You can’t be that bad. You already have too many people you care about around you. I was just wondering if there was someone like that.”

Hyun-woo was convinced by Yoo-min’s answer.

But a little later, Hyun-woo regretted not thinking more deeply about Yoo-min’s words at that time.

***

A white man was devouring a corpse ravenously.

His stomach was already so round that it was about to burst, and his skin was torn and bleeding.

Even so, he gnawed on the bones and sucked the marrow inside as if it was still not enough.

There was no one to stop him. The surroundings were ruins full of hazy dust and collapsed debris.

Then the white man heard something annoying. Someone was walking towards him.

There was a corpse he was eating, but better yet was fresh meat that was still alive and could scream. He approached the sound with greedy gray eyes.

A tall woman was looking at him.

She had a rather tired, expressionless face, but the more expressionless the face, the more delicious it would be when she screamed.

The white man bared his fangs and rushed towards the woman.

“……Are there still things alive.”

Adam Fault pointed at the white man with his finger as if stabbing him.

At that moment, the man’s body stopped.

The white man wondered why his legs wouldn’t move, and then he realized that his legs were gone.

But he didn’t fall. He was held in the air.

The white man struggled to escape, but he couldn’t move.

All he could move were his eyes and the tongue in his mouth.

And in an instant, the white man was disassembled piece by piece.

From muscle tissue to skin, internal organs, nails, bones, joints, body fluids, body hair, fat, and even the contents that filled the internal organs.

The man, scattered and floating in the air, looked like a bizarre exhibit in a human body museum.

Adam slowly looked back at the man’s condition. And he could see why he had survived.

“He’s been monsterized.”

The higher the level of the monster, the stronger it becomes against normal physical force.

The Cepesh Case [likely referring to a weapon or event that caused widespread destruction] was created to threaten humans, not to eliminate monsters.

Of course, if you are directly hit by the Cepesh Case, it would be difficult for any monster or agent to survive, but if you are simply caught in the aftermath, there is a high possibility of survival.

Then there was a high possibility that there were quite a few monsters alive in the place that Adam had already turned upside down.

Adam was worried that he was doing his job properly.

He couldn’t doubt Maria’s orders, but it was Adam’s fault for not meeting expectations.

‘I have to do it.’

Adam raised the Staff of God horizontally.

He was now using the Staff of God in a different way than repeatedly slamming it down like a mortar.

She swung the Staff of God and began to cut and smash the surroundings.

Hitting it down like a bombardment is flashy on the outside, but this is much more effective for a large number of monsters.

Simply beat and tear it apart with a staff. Because it’s based on such a simple principle.

And it was good for saving power.

Soon her surroundings became a complete gray desert.

The sky was dark. The Shadow was covering her.

Adam suddenly felt a surge of fatigue.

She felt strange. She had used a lot of mana, but she had plenty of reserves.

‘It’s not because of a lack of mana.’

Since being covered in the Shadow, mana was filling up quickly as if she had entered a dungeon.

It was also far from physical fatigue. She had often moved for more than 100 hours without sleeping or eating, not just 72 hours.

It wasn’t the Shadow’s fault either. The Shadow only affected those who had not yet become vassals.

It had no effect on her, who was already an agent of the Star of Monsters.

She thought about various reasons, but she couldn’t guess the cause at all. Adam repeatedly recalled the words that Professor Keller had taught.

‘Love humans, protect humans, move for humans.’

72 hours. Until then, she just had to kill the vassals.

Then, when the time was right, Professor Keller would find and kill ‘the worst person in the world’.

Then her sacrifice would be rewarded.

‘Is that really so?’

Adam felt a strange whisper.

‘Do you really want Professor Keller to do that?’

Adam felt his head instantly tangled.

But at the same time, she felt a presence. She cut off her thoughts and quickly swung the Staff of God and struck it down.

The moment a roar was about to echo, Adam barely stopped the Staff of God.

A child was sobbing in the ruins.

Adam Fault rationally recalled that there could be no ordinary people inside the Shadow, and even if there were, a child could not have survived in the Cepesh Case.

But at the same time, she felt strange that she had stopped the Staff of God.

She should have killed him no matter who he was.

She had already applied the Cepesh Case to more than ten cities, thinking that it couldn’t be helped even if there were ordinary people. But

She took a deep breath and moved her fingers.

Ten Staffs of God were aiming at the child.

The diameter of the Staff of God alone was as tall as the child.

If this hit, not even dust would be left of the child. Adam opened his mouth.

“Who…….”

At that moment, her staff was fired. A heavy shockwave spread in all directions.

But the end of the staff was aimed not at the child but at the top of his head.

A man who hugged the child as if protecting him appeared wearing huge armor.

The man, who blocked the Staff of God with one hand, threw it aside as if throwing it away.

“Still a ruthless beast.”

The man said with a growl.

“I should have killed you in the desert back then.”

“……Victor.”

Adam searched his old memories and found his name.

He was one of the first people she met in the highlands of Afghanistan, where Adam was first discovered.