Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 319

319. The Best Future (6)

The blood from Lee Ji-tae’s pierced chest splattered across Teacher’s face.

Hyeon-woo saw Lee Ji-tae get stabbed but didn’t stop.

Teacher narrowly avoided being stabbed in the heart. However, the Abyss was embedded in his right shoulder.

Teacher roared in anger. The Abyss, which had pierced him like a spear, burst out with a sickening thud.

“You bastard……!”

“Ah, Lee Ji-tae. You damn son of a bitch.”

Hyeon-woo grumbled irritably and released the Abyss that had been restraining him. Lee Ji-tae, pierced by the Abyss, collapsed onto the floor.

Lee Ji-tae tried to recover from the wound, but he couldn’t muster any strength in his limbs.

The hole was too big. He could see his heart beating.

‘I’m done for.’

Lee Ji-tae sensed his impending death.

It wasn’t something he could recover from with a potion. Soon, his body crumpled onto the muddy ground. His consciousness rapidly faded.

‘Teacher.’

He weakly raised his hand, trying to reach out to Teacher. But Teacher only glared at Lee Ji-tae with cold eyes.

If he could turn back time, saving Lee Ji-tae would be simple. But Teacher was already injured.

Thanks to Lee Ji-tae, he had saved his life, but if he turned back time here, Kang Hyeon-woo, who had noticed the ‘change,’ could worsen the situation.

Kang Hyeon-woo was already pushing him harder and harder with even the slightest changes.

Moreover, if Lee Ji-tae didn’t listen to him, there was no reason to save him in the first place.

For Teacher, it was just a waste of a few seconds. Even if he saved him, Lee Ji-tae wouldn’t even know that he had saved him.

“It seems this is the extent of your usefulness, Lee Ji-tae.”

Teacher coldly dismissed Lee Ji-tae.

The best future Teacher had envisioned was making Lee Ji-tae a star. But that was meaningless if he couldn’t deal with Kang Hyeon-woo.

There must be a better “best” somewhere.

Lee Ji-tae realized he had been abandoned. Yet, he didn’t feel anger or resentment.

He was just curious.

When was the shining moment that the star moving ahead had shown him?

Was he going to die without ever shining even once?

Lee Ji-tae suddenly noticed a coin rolling and falling in front of him. It seemed to have fallen out of his pocket as he collapsed.

Seeing the coin half-buried in the mud, Lee Ji-tae unknowingly let out a soft laugh.

The coin in front of him showed tails.

But what did it matter now which side it was?

It would have been enough if Teacher had just made everyone believe that it was heads.

The rain was cold. Lee Ji-tae’s eyes soon sank coldly and heavily.

Contrary to his expectations of one day being noticed by everyone and shining, his death went unnoticed by anyone.

***

“Cold-hearted.”

Hyeon-woo said, glaring at Teacher.

“You’re the one who stabbed Lee Ji-tae. Not me.”

“You could have saved him, couldn’t you?”

“Of course.”

Teacher tilted his head from side to side and said.

“But what’s the point? Whether I save him or kill him, he won’t even realize it.”

Teacher began to gather the Abyss around him. But the Abyss didn’t swell up as much as before.

Teacher frowned and glared at Hyeon-woo. Hyeon-woo was manipulating the Abyss in the same way.

Hyeon-woo grinned, revealing his teeth, and said.

“Is this how you do it?”

The Abyss began to thickly surround the outer skin of the Beast of the End that Hyeon-woo had summoned.

Perhaps because it was crude, it felt much more bizarre and grotesque.

But he was moving the Abyss at the same level as Teacher, with the same density and volume.

Teacher scoffed at the sight.

“It seems you’ve gotten a hint. Do you think you’re equal to me just because you know how to handle that a little?”

Thud.

The moment Teacher kicked off the ground, a spray of water shot up all at once.

Before Hyeon-woo could even register Teacher’s movement, he was already behind him.

Hyeon-woo, hit in the face with muddy water, reflexively swung his hand to counterattack Teacher.

However, the moment the beast’s arm, surrounded by the Abyss, touched Teacher’s hand, the Abyss was repelled with a loud bang.

“You can’t beat me no matter what you do.”

If Hyeon-woo was like a child just starting to knead clay, Teacher was closer to a sculptor.

Everything was in Teacher’s favor: the eye for seeing the potential in the stone, the skill in handling it, the composition, the plan, and the pacing.

“Keuk!”

Hyeon-woo felt the Abyss surrounding his body being snatched away in an instant.

Teacher peeled off the Abyss as if tearing it away, and at the same time, he dismantled the Beast of the End that surrounded Hyeon-woo’s body.

Hyeon-woo felt the sensation of his raw flesh being torn off.

“If I can’t kill you with my own hands, I’ll make it so you have no choice but to commit suicide.”

Teacher glared at Hyeon-woo, who had finally revealed his face from within the Beast of the End.

It was at that moment.

Hyeon-woo widened his eyes and shoved his hand inside the wound in his chest.

It was where his heart was located.

As if obeying Teacher’s command, Teacher’s eyes widened at the self-harm. Hyeon-woo’s pupils trembled, and he slowly opened his mouth.

“Master.”

A childish voice that didn’t suit Hyeon-woo.

Teacher felt a chill rising.

Soon, Hyeon-woo looked at Teacher and smiled brightly.

“Finally, the time of the end has come!”

With that voice, the Abyss that Teacher had taken away until now rose up all at once and began to rampage.

***

“You crazy bastard! Do you know what that is, and you’re forcibly awakening it?”

Teacher shouted and struggled to control the surging Abyss. He felt the same sense of déjà vu as when he had tried to kill Hyeon-woo until now.

But Hyeon-woo couldn’t hear Teacher’s words and trembled as he entrusted himself to the rising Abyss.

The Abyss swelled up to several times its previous volume. Now it was almost the size of a small mountain.

Teacher didn’t stand still either. He gathered the Abyss with all his might to at least achieve an equal level of form.

‘Should I turn back time?’

Teacher was lost in thought but soon gave up. Until now, the ‘beast’ inside only awakened and rampaged when Hyeon-woo experienced death.

But this time, it was something Hyeon-woo had done himself.

If he didn’t know when the guy had learned how to awaken the ‘beast,’ it would be meaningless to turn back time.

The wounds he had inflicted until now would also be healed.

“The time of the end has come!”

Hyeon-woo, or rather, the beast occupying his body, shouted in a voice filled with joy.

“Like a swarm of locusts, the fairy has come to devour the whole world!”

“Shut up, you crazy thing!”

“Why, Master?”

The beast smiled brightly as if unable to contain its laughter.

“Aren’t you happy? It’s the end you’ve been wanting so much! What is standing collapses, what is high is lowered, what is hot cools, what is hard softens, what is gathered scatters, the end has come!”

“No!”

Teacher trembled all over as if pulling on a tightly drawn string.

He couldn’t be pushed back here.

The appearance of the ‘beast’ was one of the great threats he had to stop.

Because the ‘beast’ was the past itself that he had turned his back on and fled from, and the despair he never wanted to face again.

“Not anymore. You beast! I don’t want the end anymore! Now I’m not the Star of the End anymore!”

Crack.

The tightly drawn Abyss trembled as if it would break.

Originally, Teacher, who was the Star of the End, should have had stronger control over the Abyss. In his prime, covering the continent would have been easy.

However, Teacher, as he himself declared, was now far from being the Star of the End.

The depth of despair and the earnestness are shallow.

It was only laughable to the beast, which held the size of the despair that Teacher had once harbored.

The beast already had the power to overwhelm its master.

“Master, Master, Master!”

The beast shouted in a voice that seemed to be cackling. Teacher felt the power of the Abyss, which had been in tight balance, gradually being pushed back.

He realized that the beast had just been biding its time until now. And now it was preparing to overwhelm its master by greatly inflating its size.

“The time of the end is not determined by the master; the fact that the master has appeared is enough to establish it! Now this star is over! The time when everything will disappear……!”

“No.”

At that moment, Hyeon-woo muttered, snapping his neck.

Hyeon-woo trembled and twisted his head from side to side. His face smiled, distorted, seemed to be angry, and then relaxed, twitching wildly.

But even in the midst of that, Hyeon-woo continued to speak.

“Not…… yet. Renian. You are my fairy. Not that bastard’s.”

***

Kwajijijik!

The tightly drawn Abyss snapped.

Teacher was thrown back as if repelled. But he quickly regained his balance and was able to stand up.

The share of the Abyss he had was already considerable. The size of the Abyss itself had swelled as the beast appeared.

But now Hyeon-woo also had an Abyss the size of which was no less than Teacher’s.

The size of the Abyss does not represent the level of power, but it could be said to be the difference in resources that can be used.

Teacher carefully examined Hyeon-woo’s condition.

“Stay…… still…… wait.”

Hyeon-woo stood still and muttered, still caressing his heart.

When Teacher first captured him, part of his heart was already cracked.

But Hyeon-woo didn’t stop there and touched the crack, widening it even further.

Teacher realized what Hyeon-woo had done. Hyeon-woo was keeping his body alive by relying on the beast’s power, having put himself close to death.

He meant to fight Teacher while standing on the precarious boundary between life and death.

However, thanks to maintaining that precarious balance, Hyeon-woo was able to secure a level of power and control equal to Teacher’s.

“Is he crazy…….”

At Teacher’s muttered words, Hyeon-woo raised his head with a pale complexion.

“If you mess up, the whole world will plunge into hell. And you’re still going to do that?”

“There’s no reason not to.”

Hyeon-woo answered, raising the corners of his mouth.

“What does it matter to that world or anything if I die here anyway?”

Even at this moment, the Abyss under Hyeon-woo’s control was raging madly. Various beasts and shapes appeared and disappeared like bubbles.

If Renian went on a rampage, he would devour Teacher, and a complete Star of the End would be born again.

It’s a repeat of hell.

But Hyeon-woo naturally had no intention of doing that.

He had no intention of dying to Teacher either.

He was going to suppress Renian, sincerely win, and continue to live in this world.

Hyeon-woo had no intention of yielding in the slightest. He was going to live and have everything.

“So please just die here quietly. You disgusting bastard.”

***

Kururururung.

The sky raged madly.

The power of the one who once dreamed of the end of the world and the one who fights to survive even if he has to endure that end was clashing.

Adam continued to watch the scene.

The stage was set by her, but what was rampaging on that stage were two giant monsters.

She, who had been branded as the worst person in the world until just a few hours ago, was now just a bystander watching from afar.

The two monsters were intertwined, biting each other with their teeth, and immediately turning that flesh into their own muscles.

The places where they scratched and scattered blood were stained with venom that would never allow life to grow again.

The sky was torn, and the clouds were pulled down and poured onto the ground.

The surface of the earth heaved, and the history of the strata was rewritten. The roar that shattered the air and the laughter of a cackling child echoed simultaneously.

Voices mocking, threatening, raging, and ridiculing did not stop.

It was a scene of the end.

It was the sight of the world ending.

“……Branch Manager.”

Adam turned his head. He saw Song Yeo-un staggering towards him, supporting Seo Ji-hoo.

Her appearance had changed a lot, but perhaps because she had escaped from the black smoke, she had regained quite a bit of her human form.

“Don’t come any closer.”

Adam stopped her. Adam was preventing the fight between those monsters from spreading to the surroundings.

Of course, if the battlefield expanded, it couldn’t be helped, but if Song Yeo-un got any closer than she was now, he couldn’t protect her.

Song Yeo-un distorted her face with anger and glared at Adam.

“You! How hard do you think Branch Manager worked to protect you!”

“I know.”

“What?”

“I know. But now is not the time for me to step in.”

“Step in?”

Adam turned his head towards the monster with an anxious expression.

“I am still his dog.”

Song Yeo-un had an expression that she didn’t know what Adam was talking about. But Adam had not forgotten his promise with Hyeon-woo.

Even until the moment when Teacher tempted her to kill Kang Hyeon-woo, Adam had not forgotten Hyeon-woo’s promise.

But Hyeon-woo had ordered Adam to stand by in any situation.

She is a tamed beast.

Unless it goes against her own purpose, she sits when told to sit, and bites when told to bite.

“There’s still time left. Kang Hyeon-woo.”

Because of that, Adam was anxiously watching the situation.

Hyeon-woo said he would signal when it was time to move, but Adam had no idea when that would be.

And whether that promise was still valid.

The dog was single-mindedly waiting for its master’s command, never taking its eyes off its master.