Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 303

303. The Time of the Dog and Wolf (2)

“The best future?”

Adam asked again. Lee Ji-tae looked down at her and nodded.

Adam chuckled.

Lee Ji-tae was embarrassed by her smile, but he didn’t back down. Rather, thinking she couldn’t get up due to her injury, he knelt down on one knee.

Adam accepted the potion that Lee Ji-tae offered without refusing.

“I feel like there are a lot more guys talking about ‘the best’ these days. Did some kind of cult get started or something?”

Lee Ji-tae didn’t get angry at Adam’s sarcasm. Rather, he seemed to understand her reaction.

“We are facing a future that we could not have reached, could not have touched. We are pruning the branches of bad futures and creating the most beautiful form of tree. You can think it’s ridiculous. But…”

“Lee Ji-tae!!”

At that moment, Kang Hyun-mo suddenly appeared and attacked Lee Ji-tae.

Lee Ji-tae noticed Hyun-mo’s appearance right away, but he was immediately grabbed by the collar and punched in the face.

“You bastard! Who said you could cut in line!”

“What? What the hell are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“Adam is going to be my dog!”

Lee Ji-tae turned his head towards Adam with a dumbfounded expression. Adam Fault, who was watching the scene, had a simple impression.

“You’re both crazy.”

Lee Ji-tae distorted his face and elbowed Hyun-mo’s face.

Hyun-mo’s face turned sharply, but he headbutted Lee Ji-tae’s forehead.

In the meantime, Adam Fault was able to support herself to some extent as her wounds slowly healed.

Just breaking free from the chains, her natural healing power surpassed that of ordinary ability users.

“Are you crazy, Kang Hyun-mo! Do you think this is some kind of fight where you call dibs first!”

“I could have saved Adam first! If you hadn’t suddenly appeared!”

“This is preparation for a decisive battle for the future of humanity! It’s just the future that the Teacher has arranged!”

“I arrived just in time to check things out, but you…! Did you think you would look cool if you showed up like that! Now you show up and say what? The Teacher this and that?”

Lee Ji-tae’s expression turned strange at Hyun-mo’s words.

“Checking things out? You mean, you were watching Adam Fault getting beaten up, waiting for the right timing?”

Hyun-mo realized he had made a slip of the tongue and shut his mouth.

When he arrived here, Adam Fault was falling after being attacked by Chrome agents.

Just as he was about to catch her, she stopped because of the chains, and Hyun-mo also stopped. It was to aim for a more dramatic timing.

But at that moment, Lee Ji-tae appeared.

“What nonsense! You’re the crazy one. You’ve been thoroughly brainwashed by the Teacher, what? You foresaw this future? Then why didn’t you prevent it in the first place?”

“That’s all a stepping stone to the best future…”

At that moment, Lee Ji-tae shut his mouth.

He slapped Hyun-mo’s hand away and pushed him away. After straightening his clothes, Lee Ji-tae glared at Hyun-mo and opened his mouth again.

“Right. Maybe you appearing at this timing is also a future that the Teacher has arranged.”

“You’ve been brainwashed very thoroughly.”

“The Teacher didn’t tell me separately, but you are also one of those prepared for the best future. You aiming for Adam also means that you have the same purpose as the Teacher.”

Lee Ji-tae let out a long sigh and held out his hand to Hyun-mo.

“Let’s work together, Kang Hyun-mo. Adam Fault. Our goals are all the same.”

Hyun-mo slapped Lee Ji-tae’s hand away without hesitation.

“Crazy bastard.”

Lee Ji-tae shook his head and turned his gaze to Adam Fault.

He hoped that at least she would be able to sympathize.

Adam Fault looked exhausted, but she seemed to be able to stand up.

She met Lee Ji-tae’s eyes, but instead of a positive answer, she spat on the floor and said.

“Crazy bastards.”

Lee Ji-tae was frustrated.

He muttered as if complaining.

“No, is everyone crazy? Why can’t they understand that our goals are the same?”

In a rare sight where all three people thought each other was crazy, only silence grew longer.

***

“Anyway, we can’t maintain this state. If the shadow grows any larger, the damage will only continue to increase,” Lee Ji-tae said, as if urging.

“So what are you saying, let’s kill Adam?”

“What did you hear, Kang Hyun-mo? Or do you want to push it that way? If Adam Fault joins the alliance, there is a way to succeed in the mission without killing her. The Teacher has already foreseen this future and made arrangements.”

“You foresaw this future?”

Lee Ji-tae turned his head to Adam and said.

“Adam, the future where you are abandoned, murdered, and your remains bring even greater disaster, thus, the future where we head to hell. The Teacher wants to save you, prune such a future, and grope for the best future.”

Adam was beyond bewildered and doubted Lee Ji-tae’s mental state.

However, the fact that Lee Ji-tae, who was known to have been killed in the Pyongyang Recovery Operation, was alive in front of her, and at the same time, she felt a power that was incomparably stronger than before, meant that there were many things that she couldn’t just brush aside.

Adam stretched her back for a moment and looked up at the sky.

In the sky that had been shaking, clouds collided even more fiercely, pouring down raindrops.

The rain seemed to be getting heavier.

She opened her mouth.

“Did you tell Professor Keller that story too?”

“Of course.”

Lee Ji-tae answered without hesitation.

“Professor Keller has met the Teacher. I don’t know since when, but he also reacted to the vision and future that the Teacher showed him. So…”

“So this mess happened.”

At that moment, Lee Ji-tae flinched at the chilling aura that was emanating.

The moment he met Adam’s eyes, Lee Ji-tae froze as if he had become a frog in front of a snake.

As he felt a murderous intent that seemed to lacerate his flesh, Lee Ji-tae drew his sword and barely managed to step back.

Adam was staring at Lee Ji-tae without moving.

“Who asked for a future that is best for everyone?”

“What are you talking about… We’re just choosing the path that can prevent the coming disaster and groping our way up. Why is that wrong?”

“If that’s possible, it means Professor Keller was wrong.”

“…What?”

“It means I’m meaningless to Professor Keller.”

Lee Ji-tae was nervous about the ominous aura surrounding Adam.

Although he couldn’t see it, it felt like a crouching monster was waking up and rising.

One of the Chrome agents who had fallen next to Adam was caught up in her power.

“Kuh, uh, huh-uh!”

The agent’s arms and legs began to twist wildly without any time to react.

The moment Lee Ji-tae tried to step forward to save him, a splatter of blood scattered everywhere with a thud.

Pieces of blood, flesh, and internal organs poured down like rain.

The finely ground flesh and falling raindrops were indistinguishable.

Adam smiled eerily, covered in blood.

“‘Best’ means, it’s the best for humanity. So Professor started doing this. I’m sorry, but I don’t need that kind of best.”

Adam tilted her head and looked down at Hyun-mo and Lee Ji-tae.

“The best for me is that Professor is, with me, forever.”

Kang Hyun-mo frowned, hitting Lee Ji-tae’s back with a thud.

“You son of a bitch. You pissed her off. How are you going to take responsibility for this?”

However, Lee Ji-tae was rather indignant.

“You’re really crazy! I understand not agreeing with the Teacher’s vision. I was like that at first too. But even if you agree with that vision, can you reject the best future that humanity can face? I’ve thought you were a madman before, but really…”

As Hyun-mo watched Lee Ji-tae treat Adam Fault like a madman, he overlapped him with Baek-gol [White Bone].

As expected, that Baek-gol was definitely Lee Ji-tae.

Baek-gol’s actions, his tracks, everything was telling him that it was Lee Ji-tae.

‘But Lee Ji-tae also used the Return Stone? That doesn’t make sense?’

However, there was no time to think about such things for long.

Adam exploded with blatant hostility towards Lee Ji-tae and began to grind everything around her like a mixer.

Lee Ji-tae moved quickly and hurriedly threw the Chrome agents who had fallen around him out of Adam’s attack range.

It was clear that they would break here and there as they fell, but there was no time to worry about that.

Hyun-mo also quickly retreated and shouted.

“Hey, Lee Ji-tae! You said there’s a way to succeed in the mission without killing Adam? What is it? Does it have to be done with an alliance?”

“I don’t know well. But the Teacher said that he would bring Adam in as an ally, so if Adam just grabs my hand, the subtle gears of fate will make it flow that way. That’s the Teacher’s way.”

“Right. That each person just has to do their job in the right place.”

It was a very cult-like method, but it was creating quite plausible results.

Maybe the Teacher can really foresee the future.

“Every time I see you, you seem to be becoming more and more of a fanatic, Lee Ji-tae. You must believe in the Teacher so much? Did he even reveal his identity to you?”

Hyun-mo thought that maybe Lee Ji-tae had seen the face of the Teacher. If so, there would definitely be a reaction.

Whatever the Teacher’s identity is.

“Isn’t it obvious? I have received countless help from the Teacher until now. I was surprised when I found out that he was the Teacher, but I can trust him much more than when he was just the head of a vague secret organization.”

Lee Ji-tae stared at Hyun-mo and said.

“You have already met the Teacher and received a lot of help. The Teacher even saved your life. If you also face the Teacher, you will have no choice but to trust him.”

“What?”

Hyun-mo asked, puzzled. He already knows the Teacher?

Immediately, countless faces and names came to his mind. But there was no one among those names that he could pinpoint.

A person who had given him a lot of help and even saved his life.

Several names flashed through his mind, but there was no one who matched the Teacher.

“It’s no use guessing. I was really surprised when I first faced his face.”

Lee Ji-tae raised the corners of his mouth as if he was feeling lost and rushed towards Adam.

Adam unleashed a storm-like force towards Lee Ji-tae. However, Lee Ji-tae was a little faster than Adam’s attack.

Although he couldn’t see it, he could predict the attack through the air currents by looking at the state of the dust around him.

At this moment, Lee Ji-tae’s talent was pulsating.

Lee Ji-tae’s eyes turned golden, predicting the possibility of victory.

Even if he predicted Adam’s attack, there were attacks that he couldn’t avoid. So Lee Ji-tae quickly approached Adam, excluding only the futures where he could be injured or killed.

The raindrops hitting Lee Ji-tae shattered.

“Get out!”

Adam unleashed a storm-like force towards Lee Ji-tae. But Lee Ji-tae evaded even that.

Adam’s huge and oppressive power easily revealed its weaknesses in front of Lee Ji-tae’s delicate and sharp control ability.

Lee Ji-tae, who had grasped Adam’s blind spot, stabbed his hand towards her neck in an instant.

Lee Ji-tae’s hand accurately pierced the carotid artery, and the blood flowing to Adam’s brain was cut off.

The vision turned black, and Adam lost consciousness in an instant. Lee Ji-tae tried to hug the falling Adam.

But at that moment, something suddenly bent Adam’s neck back. Adam’s broken neck was dangling.

“What…?!”

The moment Lee Ji-tae was about to step back in shock, Adam’s body bounced off him like a broken doll.

Adam, who seemed to fall to the ground as it was, landed on all fours like an agile cat. Soon, she made a low cry.

Hyun-mo and Lee Ji-tae felt a tingling pain all over their bodies.

Crack, crack.

Adam Fault, whose neck was broken, began to put her bones back together, making bizarre noises.

The Agent does not die from a broken neck. In addition, the fact that the monster’s power becomes stronger as it loses its reason made this feat possible.

“Ooooooh…”

Adam made a bizarre noise, put her hands on the floor, and walked slowly. It was a figure that was not awkward at all, as if she had been a quadruped from the beginning.

Lee Ji-tae could not find any gap to penetrate through the ominous power surrounding her.

“Are you confident, Lee Ji-tae?”

“…”

Lee Ji-tae could not answer Kang Hyun-mo’s question. Soon, he let out a long sigh and said.

“I don’t have it.”

“‘I?’ Are you trying to pass it on to me?”

Lee Ji-tae glared at Hyun-mo with an unpleasant expression.

“No, when I am driven to the point where I can no longer do anything, the Teacher will appear.”

At the same time as that word, Hyun-mo felt a chilling sensation.

The sound of the rain pouring down roughly suddenly began to fade.

He thought the rain had stopped, but the sky was still twisting its body, and the raindrops were still pouring down.

So, at a very slow speed.

Hyun-mo tried to call Lee Ji-tae. But his lips were too slow, and his tongue would not move as he pleased.

At that moment, Hyun-mo saw something strange. Beyond Adam, someone was standing behind her. It was a presence he had never felt before.

It was a man wearing a mask.

He was standing in this space in a strange black and white figure, as if he was there and not there.

Hyun-mo instinctively knew that he was the Teacher, but he was wearing a different mask than the last time he saw him.

The slowly pouring raindrops also collided slowly with the ground. It was as if mud puddles were bubbling like lava everywhere.

In the strange silence, only the masked man was approaching Adam as if he was normal.

His appearance was like ink that had been dropped by mistake while drawing a picture, or like a doodle that someone had drawn as a joke.

His very existence was alien.

Just like when Hyun-mo first encountered the Teacher in Pyongyang, Adam could not stop him or attack him.

The Teacher slowly covered Adam’s eyes and whispered something in her ear.

Whooooo.

At that moment, the fierce sound of rain echoed.

It was as if the slowed raindrops were pouring down all at once, and water like a waterfall poured down.

Hyun-mo fell to the floor. Then, without realizing it, something rose from inside him and he vomited all the contents of his stomach onto the floor.

Lee Ji-tae was embarrassed to see such Hyun-mo. But Hyun-mo was also embarrassed.

‘Did I feel like time slowed down only for me?’

Besides that, the moment he saw the Teacher, Hyun-mo couldn’t stop throwing up.

It felt like his stomach was full of disgusting bugs.

An unknown instinctive disgust was filling his whole body.

‘Why? It wasn’t like this before.’

There was no such reaction during the Pyongyang Recovery Operation.

He didn’t know if something had changed in the meantime.

Only after pouring out even the stomach acid could Hyun-mo barely see the Teacher again.

Adam had completely lost consciousness and was lying down.

And the Teacher was looking at Hyun-mo.

“Hello, ‘the best future’.”