Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 337

337. Epilogue (1)

Before even reaching the bed, Hyun-woo picked up a shard of glass from the floor.

It was a suitably sized piece of glass, easy to grip and with an end as sharp as a knife.

Hyun-woo slowly walked, scratching the bedspread with the glass shard, and stood at the head of the bed where the Teacher lay.

“Hmm, seeing you lying here so powerless, pathetic, insignificant, and weak, I feel inclined to offer you respect and sympathy for the first time. Teacher.”

For Hyun-woo, the only ‘opponent worthy of respect, even as an enemy’ was one who had absolutely no chance of defeating him anymore.

“I imagined our final battle in my own way, but this is…”

Hyun-woo lowered his head as if slightly saddened, then grinned.

“This is the best final battle I could have imagined.”

Hyun-woo brought the tip of the glass shard to the Teacher’s arm. A slight scratch caused blood to slowly trickle along the red line.

Hyun-woo dabbed at the flowing blood and brought it to his tongue. After tilting his head for a moment, Hyun-woo took out Tam from his inventory.

Then, without hesitation, he plunged it into the Teacher’s abdomen.

The Teacher barely twitched when stabbed in the stomach, showing no other reaction. However, as Hyun-woo’s blood flowed along Tam’s blade, the situation changed.

The Teacher’s body jolted momentarily. His pupils dilated, and a mix of screams and groans of pain escaped him.

He stared at Hyun-woo with wide eyes.

Hyun-woo smiled, meeting his hateful gaze.

The Teacher gritted his teeth, trying to do something. But his face soon filled with bewilderment.

“Why… why can’t I regress?”

Hyun-woo chuckled and whispered.

The Teacher moved his lips, trying to say something. But his ruined throat couldn’t even produce a proper voice.

Hyun-woo pulled out Tam at what he thought was the right moment and stuffed something into the Teacher’s gaping stomach.

“Honestly, we’re not in a relationship where we exchange farewell gifts, but I’d feel bad sending you off empty-handed on Teacher’s Day.”

It was the very Return Stone Hyun-woo had received when escaping Difficulty: Hell.

The Teacher widened his eyes, trying to shout something. But even those unclear words couldn’t reach Hyun-woo in the end.

Without any sound, light, or effects like shimmering smoke or spatial distortion, the Teacher disappeared.

Hyun-woo thought that the plainness of it was a little disappointing.

But what was even more disappointing was not being able to see the Teacher falling into Difficulty: Hell without resurrection perks, promised tokens, regression abilities, intact limbs, or health—without anything proper.

Still, at least it wouldn’t be an unfamiliar place.

Besides, there would be many people who would want to meet him. He wouldn’t be lonely, at least.

***

【Difficulty: Hell

Entering the Star of the Apocalypse.】

“Keuhuk, uh, heoeook…!”

The Teacher writhed in agony, screaming.

The blood Hyun-woo had injected only healed him enough to regain consciousness. His limbs were still not intact, and his whole body was a mess.

The fake drugs that Doctor Park had been injecting for years had ravaged his insides, and the poorly formed membrane covering his wounds burst open again, oozing pus.

The Teacher realized why Hyun-woo had even bothered to shed his own blood to heal him.

It was to make him suffer even more. To prevent him from dying quietly in his sleep.

“Heoeuk, heoeuk…!”

The Teacher struggled to breathe and tried to open his eyes. But something red covered his corneas.

He couldn’t see anything at all.

Before long, pain spread throughout his body.

Not just his skin and affected areas, but his blood vessels, nerves, internal organs, and every single cell were screaming.

A beastly scream erupted.

Only after hearing his own scream did the Teacher realize it sounded familiar.

It was the death throes uttered by those he had given Return Stones to until now.

The very screams of his father, the homeless man on the street he didn’t like, and the ally who was destined to betray him in the future.

It was the death throes of those who had chosen to escape into death rather than face the fear of returning to that world.

Only then did the Teacher realize where he had come.

This was Difficulty: Hell.

The hell he had tried so hard to avoid.

“Heok, heoeuk, no, no way…”

The Teacher frantically tried to find the Return Stone that Kang Hyun-woo had shoved under his abdomen.

As far as he knew, using it before the quest started would allow him to return.

The Teacher tore and ripped open his own affected areas, trying to find the Return Stone.

He only had one proper arm, the left one, and even that was missing several fingers, but he fumbled around inside his stomach.

The good thing was that the other pain was so severe that he couldn’t even properly feel the pain of rummaging through his stomach.

But the Return Stone was nowhere to be seen.

“Wh-why…”

The Teacher trembled and collapsed.

His body was paralyzed by the pain.

The Teacher realized that he had no choice but to die like this. But on the one hand, he felt relieved.

If the pain could end like this.

‘No, that can’t be.’

The Teacher, who had momentarily weakened, gritted his teeth.

Even if this was Difficulty: Hell, he himself had endured up to Difficulty: Nightmare, witnessed the end of the world, and regressed.

From Difficulty: Nightmare, the toxicity of the fine dust had intensified.

He had seen all sorts of unspeakable things.

He was fundamentally different from the trash who had wallowed in a weak world at the level of Difficulty: Tutorial and then committed suicide upon facing Hell.

The Teacher widened his eyes and began to breathe deeply.

The pain was severe, but in the first place, the blood of a beast flowed in his veins. It was simply unfamiliar because he hadn’t tasted such pain in decades.

About five minutes passed, and the Teacher barely felt his vision returning.

“Heu, hehaha, hahaha…”

Kang Hyun-woo had thrown him into this world, expecting him to suffer and die.

But he had overcome it.

His maggot-like appearance hadn’t been restored, but this was a small victory.

A chance to rise again.

The Teacher vowed that he would make Kang Hyun-woo regret leaving him half-alive.

“If you can do it… I can do it too.”

The Teacher crawled along the floor, muttering.

Although his body was battered, his skills were intact.

Even if he didn’t have the regression ability, he could start from the bottom again, step by step. He would climb and climb, and once again grasp the stars.

The small, tiny best future that fits in my hand.

My own star.

“If you overcame it… I can do it too!”

The Teacher struggled to move his body and crawled up the hill. First, he needed to figure out where he was and what was there.

But what he faced when he reached the top of the hill was something he had never expected.

“You’ve become smaller, honey.”

The Teacher opened his eyes and looked at the person.

“Lee Seo-yeon?”

Lee Seo-yeon was standing right on top of the hill.

The Teacher was momentarily confused, but soon relieved. It was a hazy memory from decades ago, but Lee Seo-yeon was on his side. She was not just on the same side, but also belonged to a community of fate.

Of course, that had ended when he became the Star of the Apocalypse.

“That’s good. Lee Seo-yeon, help me. Right now, I’m…”

But Lee Seo-yeon didn’t even hold his hand and coldly scanned the Teacher with her cold eyes.

Her eyes were filled with pity and disappointment.

“What is this?”

“…Lee Seo-yeon?”

“Why did you come back in such a state… You said you couldn’t have any hope, that you would destroy the world, but you dug even deeper into the bottom.”

“It’s just temporary. I can fix my body soon.”

The Teacher said to Lee Seo-yeon, gritting his teeth.

“This time, it’s a chance to stand up. If it’s the path Kang Hyun-woo has taken, I can walk it too. No! I can be better. This time, I will definitely… the best future…”

But even as the Teacher spoke, he felt strange.

After being unable to speak for a while, the Teacher opened his mouth towards Lee Seo-yeon, panting.

“You’re not going to help me, are you?”

Lee Seo-yeon is not someone who takes care of those who are not helpful. It doesn’t matter what kind of relationship they had in the past.

Even if some emotions remain, in this desperate world, the Teacher’s existence was close to baggage.

“That’s right. But not for the reason you think.”

Lee Seo-yeon squatted down and reached out to the Teacher. She grabbed the Teacher’s hands and quietly pulled him.

“Hyun-woo, it feels awkward to call you that. I’ll be honest. You were more attractive when you couldn’t have any hope and were soaked in despair. No one in the world was as lonely as you, and no one in the world despaired as much as you.”

The Teacher had curses rising to his throat, but barely managed to suppress them.

The person who inflated the size of that despair was none other than Lee Seo-yeon, and the Whispering Star.

“But you, with hope and desperation for the future, are now just a useless, disappointing, vile, and unattractive being.”

“What… are you saying?”

Disappointing and useless because I have hope?

As if understanding that it didn’t make sense, Lee Seo-yeon raised the corners of her lips.

“Regardless of my greed, the Whispering Star has been continuing this unwinnable game because of you.”

“What?”

“Even if you’ve been tainted, it means you were Monstrill’s lover. Let’s go to the Whispering Star’s harem. Monstrill has been waiting for you. You’ll become the 109,843rd stuffed lover in her display case.”

Only then did the Teacher realize the situation.

The person in front of him is not Lee Seo-yeon.

It was ‘Monstrill’s proxy.’

Lee Seo-yeon’s ego was almost lost, and Monstrill had now come to get the collection to put in her display case.

As a figure with the tags ‘Earth, Star of the Apocalypse, Despair, Lonely Man.’

“You, you son of a bitch! Damn it! Get lost!”

The Teacher struggled and tried to escape from Lee Seo-yeon’s hands. But Lee Seo-yeon’s strength was better than the Teacher’s, who was no different from a seriously ill patient.

The Teacher couldn’t believe this situation.

Again? I’m going to suffer like that again?

To become one of many lovers, a decoration with no value, and live forever?

“No way!”

The moment the Teacher’s scream-like cry erupted, Lee Seo-yeon was thrown away with a bang.

The Teacher blankly watched Lee Seo-yeon being thrown away.

He couldn’t even tell if she was alive or dead. But he soon realized that she wasn’t thrown away because of him.

Kagagagagak.

Strange sounds were heard, like something hard being shaved off with a plane. The Teacher turned his head and looked back.

Stones, rocks, and rebars were being finely ground as if they were put into a pencil sharpener.

Something that split and broke everything in the world, twisting its shapeless body, was approaching.

It resembled nothing in the world, and it also resembled everything in the world.