Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 344

Extracurricular Story 6.

A Special Hell for You (2)

“That’s right.”

Lee Ji-tae muttered, his eyes gleaming intensely.

“I don’t know how he’s doing it, but the Priest seems to be trying to summon the stars. This isn’t a minor matter. And if the stars are definitely involved, you have to step in.”

“Hmm.”

This was definitely something Lee Ji-tae would come looking for.

The possibility of the stars returning meant the game could start again.

Hyun-woo hadn’t fully become a Star, nor had he become the victor of the game, but he was satisfied enough with his current state.

Difficulty: Hell, Hyun-woo had already witnessed what kind of beings the completed Stars were. They were monsters trapped by their own purposes and concepts.

They couldn’t have been like that from the start.

It must have been a form they shaped themselves into while being reborn as Stars and gnawing away at themselves to achieve their goals.

Hyun-woo didn’t want to become like that. And he didn’t want the world to be judged by such a version of himself.

He was satisfied enough with the current unfair and irrational world.

‘Well, for now, anyway.’

Hyun-woo slammed the documents on the table and said,

“Okay. Then go get permission from Yoo-min.”

“What?”

Lee Ji-tae seemed taken aback, and Hyun-woo looked at him as if he were asking a perfectly obvious question.

“Why? The Omnipotent Alliance Leader is Yoo-min. I’m a hunter affiliated with the Omnipotent Alliance. If you want to borrow a hunter affiliated with the Omnipotent Alliance, you need to get permission from the Leader, not me.”

“No, uh, but, the Omnipotent Alliance’s actual…….”

“Lee Ji-tae, Lee Ji-tae, Lee Ji-tae.”

Hyun-woo sighed and crossed his arms.

“I know you’re used to authority and always trying to take the easy way out, but if there’s a procedure, follow it. Don’t act like a young master. What are you doing, skipping the Omnipotent Alliance Leader and coming to a mere hunter?”

In fact, Hyun-woo was trying to get rid of Lee Ji-tae, who kept asking him about this and that, because it was annoying.

Since Lee Ji-tae seemed to find Yoo-min difficult to approach, Hyun-woo thought that if he had to report to Yoo-min instead of him, the number of times he contacted him would decrease significantly.

However, after hearing Hyun-woo’s words, Lee Ji-tae seemed to realize something. He nodded and agreed with Hyun-woo.

“You’re right. Kang Hyun-woo. I was being arrogant.”

Lee Ji-tae immediately got up and headed to Yoo-min’s room. And he had to explain everything he had explained to Kang Hyun-woo from beginning to end again.

Meanwhile, Hyun-woo thought about the Priest. And he thought about the existence of the Star that the Priest might be summoning.

If a Star that Conquers had already come here, it would be a great crisis.

Now, Hyun-woo had neither Difficulty: Hell, nor the Return Stone, nor Lenian.

But if the opponent coming was a Star that Conquers, and not an agent or apostle but the main body, it would be difficult to handle.

Suddenly, the question he hadn’t been able to ask Yoo-min earlier came back to his mind.

Yoo-min loved her father, but when he died, she mourned, but accepted it as a natural event.

Then what about Yoo-min now, and himself now?

Both Yoo-min and Hyun-woo had directly taken people’s lives. He didn’t know for sure, but Yoo-min had probably killed more people than her father.

So, did Yoo-min now think that they deserved to be punished by heaven?

***

A powerful beat pounded through the club.

Half of the people stomping their feet to the beat created by the black-masked DJ were drunk, and half were on drugs.

Or both.

It wouldn’t be strange if the police raided the place right now, but none of them were worried.

This was the territory of the ‘Demon King’ Kazat, a lawless zone where it was difficult to exert any international influence.

Of course, officially, the territory of the Demon King Kazat did not exist.

But Kazat’s influence was not a lie, and it sometimes overlapped with human living spaces. These gray areas became havens for criminals and outlaws.

The question of whether monsters and humans could coexist was paradoxically proven by Kazat’s annihilation of the Far Eastern Russian rebels.

That the ‘Demon King’ Kazat was someone who could be reasoned with and diplomatically negotiated with.

Of course, no country still officially recognized Kazat’s territory.

Kazat was, after all, a mass murderer and a cruel monster whose actions were unpredictable.

However, those who enjoyed adventure and wanted to avoid social scrutiny would secretly visit these gray areas.

“Hey, you son of a bitch! Let go!”

Of course, just because it was a lawless zone didn’t mean there were no rules.

It’s just that ordinary continental law and international law didn’t apply, but there were rules within it.

A long corridor for staff only, next to the dance hall.

Ha-hyun watched a man dangling in the air, a long pipe in her mouth.

The man struggled, but the bodyguard holding him didn’t budge.

The man’s pants were down to his knees. He had just been dragged out of the women’s restroom.

“What are you? Do you know who I am…….”

Instead of bothering to argue, Ha-hyun shook the ashes from her pipe into the man’s underwear.

The scream was drowned out by the cheers and music of the club.

Ha-hyun rummaged through the man’s wallet and ID to see how he had ended up here.

He was from a fairly wealthy family, but it seemed he had sneaked in out of curiosity.

He also had a considerable criminal record. Judging from the fact that they were mostly sex crimes, he was just a typical rich brat.

After checking the records, Ha-hyun sighed.

“I’m not hungry enough to eat a guy like this, no matter how hungry I am. You guys take care of it.”

Ha-hyun gestured to the bodyguard without expression. The bodyguard grinned, revealing teeth full of fangs.

The bodyguard dragged the man to the basement. The screams stopped as soon as the basement door closed.

Ha-hyun couldn’t understand those rich brats. No army could approach Kazat’s territory.

But did they believe that external influence would work here?

‘That’s what makes it look like a honey pot to criminals, though.’

Thanks to that, all kinds of black money and secret goods could be gathered in this city.

Drugs and other items that couldn’t be found in foreign countries could be easily obtained here.

In addition, Kazat’s territory was more secure than the world recognized.

As long as they didn’t break the rules, the monsters didn’t attack humans indiscriminately, and rather, all the monsters were like watchdogs in charge of security.

But since they didn’t care whether they were doing drugs, black market trading, or organ trafficking, it was like paradise for criminals.

‘Well, that’s why I bothered to create a place like this…….’

Ha-hyun was one of the most active in taking advantage of that situation.

Her house was full of works of art from all over the world, albeit stolen.

In some cases, fakes were hung in museums and originals were hung in her house.

“Ha-hyun.”

Then Ha-hyun heard someone calling her.

A goblin covered in gold and jewels…… Kirson.

“Looking bored?”

“Bored…… well, I guess so. Running a club isn’t as fun as I thought it would be.”

“Ah, well. It was Kazat’s idea to build a club here anyway. It’s easy to get tired of it.”

Originally, what Ha-hyun wanted to create was an opera hall combined with an art museum.

But Kirson argued, ‘Instead of that, let’s build a super-luxury club that can meet the demand of the criminal bastards who come here and sweep up that money,’ and it was changed to a club.

Ha-hyun couldn’t help but distort her face when she recalled that time.

“That bastard probably can’t even tell the difference between psychedelic and classical. He thinks all music is the same, just banging away? Damn bastard.”

“Ha-hyun, you thought it sounded plausible and went along with it. If you sweep up money at the club, you can send it to the boss, and the kids can learn how to interact with humans.”

Kirson, Ha-hyun, and Kazat had already found their own ways to interact with humans in their respective fields.

Even Yerdan had been following Park Hwi-soo for a long time and taking care of him, so he was familiar with all kinds of interactions, including threats and torture.

But other monsters were different.

They were mostly only familiar with the relationship between predator and prey.

The guys who could come into the city had been educated to some extent, but there was no guarantee what would happen when they actually faced humans.

“Yeah. In the long run, humans should naturally accept this side too…….”

“That’s right. That’s the way to create an eternal empire for the boss.”

All of this was a policy for Kang Hyun-woo personally, rather than for the monsters.

Maintaining a sweet and bloody relationship with Kazat’s territory, feeling threatened by it but also able to negotiate.

Regardless of Kang Hyun-woo’s intentions, they were already laying the foundation for paying allegiance to Kang Hyun-woo personally for hundreds of years to come.

“You seem to be enjoying it quite a bit, though.”

Ha-hyun said, scanning Kirson up and down.

Kirson was decked out in luxury goods worth tens of millions of won, from his shoes to his watch to his earrings. Moreover, they were all luxurious designs made of gold and jewels.

“Isn’t it beautiful?”

“Looks like a nouveau riche [new money].”

“Well, fashion is all about being satisfied. As you know, my blood constellation index is 20% Star that Conquers, 40% Star that Shatters, 30% Star that Hungers, and 10% other, so the share of Star that Hungers is not small.”

“……’Blood constellation index’?”

“I’ve estimated how much of the stars’ power went into forming my body. So I’m naturally drawn to luxurious treasures and luxury goods, and this era is so abundant, so it’s natural…….”

Then their eyes turned to one side. A black crack began to appear in the air in the direction where a strong attraction was felt.

It was the call of the ‘Master.’

No matter what they were doing, they had to respond to this call unconditionally unless their lives were at stake.

Kirson and Ha-hyun stopped talking and jumped into the crack without hesitation.

***

A slight dizziness and a quick recovery of vision. Then they were both embarrassed.

The summoning place was the master room of the club they were in.

Below the window that took up the entire wall, they could see the huge dance hall and the dancing people.

“It’s been a while. Kirson, Ha-hyun.”

And Kang Hyun-woo was in front of them. Kirson immediately prostrated himself, but Ha-hyun simply nodded lightly.

“When did you come? If you had called, we would have gone anytime…….”

“If I call you guys, there’s no way to get back. It’s unnecessarily conspicuous. It’s better for me to come.”

After the Return Stone disappeared and ‘summoning’ became possible but ‘reverse summoning’ became impossible, many inconveniences increased.

It was easy to call them, but they had to return on their own, so even if Ha-hyun or Yerdan, who could transform into humans, were okay, Kazat or Kirson were a problem.

Then another crack opened and a boy appeared. A silver-haired boy in a neat suit and blood-stained white gloves, Yerdan.

“Why do you always look like you’ve been torturing someone?”

“Don’t you get tired of saying that every time?”

Yerdan said sullenly.

“And these days, Park Hwi-soo is resting and staying in this city all the time. But this corrupt city doesn’t give me a moment to rest. All I can do here is mainly eat to support it.”

Yerdan’s ‘eat to support it’ had a different nuance from the original.

Yerdan’s role in this city was like a combination of Hannibal Lecter and Batman.

Still, judging from the fact that he was wearing gloves and wasn’t covered in blood, it seemed that Park Hwi-soo had taught him good table manners.

Hyun-woo scanned Kirson, Ha-hyun, and Yerdan. But in the end, Kazat was particularly late.

“What, this bastard. Why isn’t he coming?”

Hyun-woo felt impatience, tension, and anxiety from Kazat.

Hyun-woo hadn’t instilled a strong will in his vassals, but even so, there had been almost no situations where they disobeyed orders until now.

Wondering if he was in danger, Hyun-woo suddenly turned his gaze to the window overlooking the dance hall.

There, Hyun-woo stopped his gaze at one place.

“This bastard, though.”

Hyun-woo sent a strong will toward Kazat. At that moment, a crash and a tearing noise echoed throughout the club.

The beat that had been shaking the club suddenly stopped, causing a commotion in the dance hall.

People, startled by the sudden interruption of the music, turned their heads this way and that.

Soon someone started playing recorded music, and the situation was brought under control, but the chaotic atmosphere did not easily go away.

“G-Great one.”

Hyun-woo looked at Kazat, who was prostrating himself on the floor, with an absurd gaze.

Kazat was wearing a black mask and a funky style of clothing.

His attire was so frivolous that it was hard to find the image of the ‘Demon King’ that usually appeared in the media.

Ha-hyun was also embarrassed.

“What, Kazat. You son of a bitch. You were the DJ? No way, the reason you forced me to build a club was……?”