Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 313

313. Asura Field (5)

“Teacher?”

Hyun-woo froze for a moment at Song Yeo-un’s unexpected friendly attitude.

The thought that Song Yeo-un might be a member of the alliance crossed his mind. But he quickly realized that her attitude was different.

Hyun-woo asked to confirm.

“Do you know who that is?”

“Yes? Branch Manager, don’t you know? He’s helped the Jeonreungnyeon [a hunter organization] a lot until now! He said he knew the Branch Manager too?”

“Oh? Teacher is here?”

Seo Ji-hoo also stepped forward, asking as if surprised.

Other hunters also looked in that direction with expressions of surprise or welcome.

Hyun-woo felt that the situation was turning strange.

In their attitude, there was goodwill and welcome towards the teacher, but not a hint of wariness.

As if it was obvious that he had come to help them.

“Do you know who that is?”

Song Yeo-un looked at Hyun-woo’s words as if he was really strange.

Only then did Hyun-woo realize that he had misunderstood something.

Song Yeo-un was not using ‘teacher’ as a pronoun, but referring to a teacher as a noun.

As a word to elevate someone respectable.

“Yes? Don’t you really know? He’s the teacher. He appears and saves us when we’re in danger, and we owe him a lot. Don’t you really know? I thought you were very close with Branch Manager Kang Hyun-woo because he knows even trivial things about you?”

“That’s right. He said he’s known the Branch Manager since he was young. Since he was very young…….”

Hyun-woo felt his mood becoming strange.

He’s been meeting Jeonreungnyeon hunters without him knowing? Even pretending to be close?

But Hyun-woo had never received such a report.

Even Song Yeo-un and Seo Ji-hoo hunted and tortured Robert Lee, who was an alliance member, didn’t they?

He even heard about the existence of a teacher behind the scenes from Hyun-woo.

Something was wrong.

“What’s his name?”

“Yes?”

“What’s that person’s name? You keep calling him teacher. Teacher can’t be his name.”

“Oh, well… everyone around me just calls him teacher, so that’s how I remember him.”

Even in the midst of that, the teacher was steadily approaching.

The Jeonreungnyeon hunters seemed to sense something strange and were confused. But even in the midst of that, they seemed embarrassed by the very fact that they had to antagonize him.

As if unable to believe it, Song Yeo-un approached Hyun-woo and asked.

“Branch Manager, don’t you really know? It’s not that I don’t trust you, but the teacher has really helped us a lot. Just a few days ago…….”

“When?”

Hyun-woo asked Song Yeo-un.

“When did you meet that bastard?”

“Oh, well…….”

“The most recent was 7 days ago.”

Seo Ji-hoo interjected as Song Yeo-un stammered.

Seo Ji-hoo explained the date he met the teacher in detail. And even what he helped with at that time and what advice he left behind.

Hyun-woo thought about those irregular dates and discovered a very coincidental commonality.

Most of them were on days when he was in Difficulty: Hell [a dangerous training simulation].

“This son of a bitch…….”

Did he change the past without him knowing?

‘No…….’

Rather than changing the past, he chose the ‘present’ leading to now.

Kang Hyun-woo felt that the situation was becoming increasingly unpredictable.

He had guessed that the teacher had such an ability, but he couldn’t know how far he was aiming and what he chose now.

And if this moment is the path the teacher chose, it was clear that it was an overwhelmingly unfavorable situation for him.

‘What is it? Why did he choose now?’

“Kang Hyun-woo.”

Then someone called him.

Hyun-woo turned his head. Lee Ji-tae was looking at him closely.

Lee Ji-tae also said that Hyun-woo had already received the teacher’s help just before he first met him.

Was he also affected by that strange ability? Lee Ji-tae asked Hyun-woo with a strange expression.

“Don’t you really remember the teacher, Kang Hyun-woo?”

“I told you I don’t know.”

Hyun-woo’s teacher’s identity came up to his throat, but he couldn’t bring himself to spit it out. He couldn’t imagine how he would convince them.

“He helped you a lot. He’s your benefactor.”

“No, it’s your memories that are wrong. Something is twisted.”

Hyun-woo said as if he was sure. But Lee Ji-tae said as if he was certain.

“No. He said he met you too. He said he watched you from the day you were born until your orphanage life. Do you really not know?”

Hyun-woo recalled a voice from Lee Ji-tae’s words.

The memory of when he was dying from inhaling toxic fine dust when he first went to Difficulty: Hell.

The voice that flashed through his mind as the dying moments flashed by.

The voice of a man who taught him a childish breathing method at the orphanage.

‘Hey kid, breathe with your stomach, not your chest, with your stomach.’

‘That’s right. Kid, you’re still the best learner.’

‘You seem to have potential, kid.’

From the first compliment he had ever heard in his life.

‘0 stars…… I expected it, but it can’t be helped.’

‘Looks like this is it for you.’

To the disappointment that made him unable to have any more expectations in life.

Hyun-woo found a way to endure with that breathing method in Difficulty: Hell, and was able to lay the foundation to stand up.

Not only that.

He taught him frustration for the first time and told him that he would live a life at the bottom from now on.

“Ah.”

Hyun-woo muttered as if groaning.

“So it was really the teacher.”

***

“Kang Hyun-woo, wake up.”

Hyun-woo woke up at Adam’s voice. She was glaring at Hyun-woo with a frown.

“Did your colleagues already know about that guy? What happened?”

“It’s a little difficult to explain…….”

Then Hyun-woo realized something was wrong.

“Adam, haven’t you ever met that bastard?”

“What are you talking about? Isn’t he the guy who knocked me out just a few hours ago?”

He didn’t know.

Hyun-woo’s head started spinning quickly.

Why doesn’t only Adam know about the teacher? If he changed the past, he should have gone to Adam too.

It would be much easier to seduce Adam before meeting Maria Keller.

But instead of doing that, the teacher waited until Maria Keller abandoned Adam.

A tamed monster.

“…….”

After thinking for a while, Hyun-woo was able to understand why the teacher did that.

It was simple.

He would have done the same.

“Haha…….”

Because the process of taming Adam Fault is painful.

So the teacher left the process to Maria Keller and then tried to pick it up at the right time.

No noble purpose, no unavoidable choice.

He just didn’t like the painful and annoying process.

“Adam, the teacher is choosing the future at will.”

Adam looked at Hyun-woo with an expression asking what he was talking about.

Hyun-woo fiddled with the return stone.

It was said that the return stone was made of stars themselves.

It was created from the desire of mankind facing Difficulty: Hell to correct past mistakes and past failures.

And the teacher also has that ability.

He doesn’t like the current situation he’s facing. Then he rewinds it.

And he starts again from the point he wants to start.

“The teacher can choose the best future at will. His ‘best future’ wasn’t sometime in the future. This very moment is the best future he chose.”

“Is this the best future?”

Adam turned her head and looked at the teacher approaching on a huge beast. A look of displeasure flashed across her face.

“If this is the best he can do, then I know what kind of person he is.”

Adam looked at Hyun-woo with a what-should-I-do expression. Hyun-woo was still confused, but he didn’t forget that he had to send greetings to the teacher.

“Crush him.”

Adam raised her hand. Her hand was directed at the huge monster the teacher was riding.

She grabbed the air as if squeezing it, then turned it sharply to the left. At that moment, a storm-like force erupted from Adam.

Hyun-woo felt the surroundings getting hot and the raindrops being cut into small pieces.

In an instant, the monster staggered and began to be pushed to the left. A huge force was pushing the monster.

The people on top of the monster could be seen staggering. Even in the pouring rain, the heat haze rising from Adam’s body could be seen, but she steadily pushed the monster.

‘Lee Ji-tae…….’

Hyun-woo glanced at Lee Ji-tae.

He thought Lee Ji-tae would interfere with him, but he wasn’t moving at all.

He was just watching the monster that Adam was pushing.

Then, at some point, the monster screamed and struggled. Then it lost its footing and collapsed to the side with a roar.

The alliance members who were flustered on top were crushed and disappeared under the monster’s huge bulk.

“……Huh?”

Hyun-woo, who was watching with a what-if feeling, made a hollow sound. Even Adam was the same.

Adam exerted more force than usual to bring down the monster, but it was nothing compared to when she pushed back Cheonru.

Hyun-woo was speechless at the terrifyingly futile appearance.

“What is this? Is this the end?”

If this is the end, what about all the processes he had prepared?

Hyun-woo looked back at Lee Ji-tae with a puzzled expression. But Lee Ji-tae was standing still, watching the scene where the dust cloud was rising, without shaking.

As if the obvious thing had happened naturally.

“The preparation is complete.”

Lee Ji-tae slowly opened his mouth.

“Now, as you wished, Kang Hyun-woo. You are the worst person in the world.”

***

“What?”

Hyun-woo felt the sky shaking slightly. He didn’t feel any other changes.

The rain continued to pour, and the sky was still dark. Lightning struck in the distance. The thunder, which was heard a beat later, pounded his chest.

The scar that Lee Ji-tae had torn in the sky was now healed and covered in clouds.

Hyun-woo thought he was missing something.

Lightning struck again.

The moment the flash passed before his eyes, Hyun-woo realized that Lee Ji-tae had disappeared.

At the same time, he found a man with a broken mask right in front of him.

Before Hyun-woo could reflexively swing his fist, the teacher grabbed his arm, broke it, and broke his joints.

There was no time to groan. Hyun-woo tried to kick the teacher with his foot, but he was grabbed by the scruff of his neck and thrown away.

Hyun-woo rolled and fell into the mud.

“Branch Manager!”

The Jeonreungnyeon hunters flocked around Hyun-woo and hurriedly protected him.

While protecting Hyun-woo, they looked back and forth between the teacher and Hyun-woo as if they couldn’t understand the situation.

It was as if they couldn’t understand why the two were hostile.

This won’t help. In a situation where even unilateral hostility is not enough.

The teacher spread out his hands and said to Hyun-woo.

“Thank you. Kang Hyun-woo. Thanks to you, I was able to tie the best futures together.”

“What does that…….”

“The worst person in the world. You thought that was decided like a popularity vote, right?”

The concepts of bad and good are determined relatively.

That’s why he thought it was just a popularity vote.

But the teacher was saying that there was another context there.

“It’s a popularity vote.”

“……What are you trying to say?”

“Haha, my explanation was lacking. The people you just had Adam kill were the hope of mankind. They were people who gathered from all over the world with desperate wishes to somehow succeed in the ‘Leviathan Mission’.”

In addition to those gathered by Hyun-woo, there would have been many who felt the urgency of the situation and came over time.

People who came not because of some interest relationship, but with a desperate and urgent desire that the situation should not get worse.

“Not only that. If Difficulty: Hard and Nightmare had progressed as they are…… they would have been heroes who would have willingly sacrificed their lives to create opportunities for mankind.”

The teacher continued to speak in a wistful tone as if he had remembered something.

“Everyone dreamed of a different future, but everyone worked towards the best future. But they were sacrificed by a vile master who tamed monsters.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that scene was being broadcast.”

The teacher said, pointing to the sky.

“Did you think it was a childish production that I had Lee Ji-tae tear the sky apart? Of course, it’s a production I like, but there was a more important reason than that. The radio waves had to pass through this magnetic field storm and ride the satellite.”

“……That scene was being broadcast?”

“Things you don’t know are happening outside the shadows. Chrome announced that Adam Fault betrayed and sided with you. Evidence and proof that you are acting with Adam are coming out one after another, and the governments of each country are issuing criticisms and statements. There’s even talk that Adam committed this act because of your orders.”

The teacher shrugged and said.

“Will people blame the knife or the knifeman? In the meantime, you used your own mouth to direct Adam to crush the ‘heroes of mankind’. Now you can’t take it back, and everything is your fault.”

“So…….”

Hyun-woo stroked his chin and glared at the teacher.

“You made this just to aim for that much effect?”

“Just that much? It’s the most hated position in the world, I’d be so scared and sad that my heart would break if I were you.”

The teacher said with a sarcastic smile.

“You probably promised Adam that you would sacrifice yourself by becoming the worst person in the world, right? That’s why Adam is following your words.”

His gaze turned from Hyun-woo to Adam.

“Adam, Kang Hyun-woo kept his promise. Now it’s your turn to finish it. End the Leviathan Mission and return to your real master.”