Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 69

69. Beheading Dungeon Expedition (1)

Hyun-woo immediately checked the ‘Parasitism’ trait as soon as he acquired it.

The target was a ratman living in a nearby sewer.

[Fallen Empire Ratman Conscript (LV 31)]

[The ‘Hell’s Strongest’ title increases stats relative to level.]

He was stronger than Hyun-woo. He even had decent equipment, albeit a bit dirty. He wore light metal armor and carried a crossbow as big as himself.

Hyun-woo had seen that crossbow pierce a wild dog the size of a bull in one shot.

If the goblins were wearing equipment handcrafted in the workshop, the ratmen’s equipment felt like military supplies provided by the state.

However, this could be overcome with the buff effect from the title.

Hyun-woo had already leveled up by catching ratmen in several ambushes. But this time, it was not hunting but an experiment.

Hyun-woo flicked his fingertip slightly, and a Hell Dart pierced the ratman’s neck with a loud noise.

The ratman grabbed his neck for a moment, but it was already too late.

He twitched, exhaled, and began to convulse.

‘It works.’

The ratman scout bit a fellow scout who was moving with him. A fight soon broke out. Hyun-woo was satisfied. Parasitism would be maintained until he died or the blood was neutralized.

The disadvantage was that detailed instructions were impossible for the parasitized target. He could only carry out one simple command inputted in advance, let alone Hyun-woo’s will.

‘It would be good for faking death, though.’

For example, deliberately making an assassination target walk over the railing of a tall building.

‘……I keep having sinister thoughts.’

But skills eventually find uses or become helpful in unexpected places.

Just as the acidic trait helped melt the ghast’s skin.

Hyun-woo decided to be satisfied with acquiring a new trait.

He decided to end the experiment around this point and snapped his fingers.

The command he had given in advance was to kill the host upon hearing the sound of his fingers snapping.

It was impossible if the amount of toxic blood was insufficient. But it was enough to kill the ratman. The ratman soon vomited black blood and died. The guy who was bitten by him and infected with blood suffered the same fate.

“Huh? Wait, this seems 괜찮은데 [kwaenchanh-eunde, Korean for ‘not bad’]?”

By utilizing parasitism, he could induce the toxicity to spread slowly on purpose. Then, when a specific condition was met, it could be used as a kill switch to spread toxic blood all at once.

It would be troublesome if it was neutralized along the way, but it was a good result for Hyun-woo, who had been troubled by the excessively strong toxicity.

“It seems to be getting more and more vicious, Butler.”

Lenian sat on Hyun-woo’s head and watched the scene all along.

“Are you dissatisfied, fairy?”

“If Butler is happy, the fairy is happy too.”

Lenian hugged Hyun-woo’s head tightly. Lenian would probably hug him and say, ‘Go ahead and do it,’ even if Hyun-woo declared that he would destroy the world.

Hyun-woo rummaged through the ratmen’s corpses, took what he needed, and began to drag the corpses away.

When he used Dismantle on the ratmen’s corpses, a grotesque sight unfolded, but it was a necessary process.

He wanted to know as much as possible about the ratmen since he would soon enter the Beheading Dungeon.

Lenian opened the inventory and checked the items. It was filled with items that Hyun-woo would use in the Beheading Dungeon.

“Will this be enough? You said you’re going to a pretty dangerous place this time.”

Frankly, no matter how difficult the Beheading Dungeon was, Hyun-woo wondered if it would be more difficult than the quest he had done in difficulty: Hell.

“Either way, if it’s not easy, I’ll have to come back halfway. Then I’ll have another chance to fill it up.”

Hyun-woo had already accepted it as a given that he would have to return to Hell during the Beheading Dungeon expedition.

No matter how he thought about it, there was no way the expedition would end in half a day.

“And I already know what the cause of the Flood is. So, if things seem to be going wrong, I can quickly run over there and clean it up. Don’t worry.”

The White Bone Records contained the cause and termination method of the Beheading Dungeon Flood. Thanks to that, he was able to have Kirson cause the Flood.

Hyun-woo was worried that the quest would take too long while he was in Hell, and the situation would get messed up.

‘Either way, as long as Lee Ji-tae is there, the expedition team won’t be annihilated.’

A more important issue than annihilation was that Johann Hessner was there. If Johann Hessner could be of great help in the future, he had to keep him by his side, or at least find out what skills he had.

Considering his level, he didn’t think he would be defeated, but looking at his skills, he seemed to be more proficient in support than combat.

‘This is also a crisis, if you think about it.’

There had to be a way to manage the situation even when he was absent.

***

Beheading Dungeon expedition day.

The Beheading Dungeon was quiet, as if anticipating the calm before the storm, with no monsters leaking out.

However, the hunters and soldiers on guard knew that the longer the quiet time lasted, the more monsters would leak out.

The powerful hunters participating in the expedition had already taken their places in front of the Beheading Dungeon.

Broadcasting station reporters were also reporting live, so millions of people were watching and discussing it on the internet.

「Why does Lee Ji-tae, who has even conquered a 5-star dungeon, need to go to a 3-star dungeon?」

「Tae-sung is going to do a northern expedition next year. He doesn’t have any Flood experience, so he needs to gain some experience.」

「Isn’t the number of people too small for that?」

「What do you mean too small? The Beheading Dungeon is a closed terrain, so having a large number of people won’t help. In the case of other dungeon Floods, it was said that it was more efficient to have fewer than twenty people.」

The hunters who participated in the Beheading Dungeon raid were selected from Tae-sung and the Omnipotent Alliance, but there were also people who participated independently, like Hyun-woo and Johann.

The members of the Omnipotent Alliance were generally considered elites, but Tae-sung also included the Obsidian Team and Red Butterfly, who were treated as young rookies.

But there were few who worried.

「With Lee Ji-tae and Kang Hyun-woo, what is there to worry about? In fact, it seems like just the two of them could participate.」

「I see that a person named Johann Hessner is also a 4-star? A super luxurious expedition team.」

「It would be stranger if they couldn’t clear this.」

As the internet evaluations said, it was the first domestic Flood entry, but it was hard to find anyone who was very nervous.

The average level of people visiting the Beheading Dungeon was in the early to mid-20s, but the average level of this expedition team was over 30.

But the real center of that confidence was Lee Ji-tae.

Hyun-woo was a suspicious irregular who suddenly appeared, but Lee Ji-tae was an elder among elders who had been with them for a long time. Although he was only in his early 30s, it was enough to call him an elder.

Lee Ji-tae was used to being respected by them, and he personally checked the hunters’ equipment one by one.

The leaders of each group were wearing body cams. It was partly for research purposes, so they wanted to leave accurate data.

When he ran into Hyun-woo, he simply smiled and greeted him instead of checking him. He didn’t seem to care about what had happened that day.

“Mr. Kang Hyun-woo.”

Instead, there was someone else who showed interest. A woman with red hair and red eyes. Hyun-woo quickly recognized her. It was Red Butterfly.

“It’s an honor to be working with you like this. It’s been a while since then.”

“Ah, yes.”

Kang Hyun-woo didn’t know why Red Butterfly was talking to him. Did she think they had a connection from when they met during the exam? But when he looked closely at the atmosphere, it seemed that Red Butterfly was not getting along well with the other team members.

The expedition team was roughly divided into four groups.

Tae-sung’s Obsidian Team, Johann Hessner’s bodyguards, the Omnipotent Alliance’s veteran hunters, and Kang Hyun-woo, who was neither one nor the other.

People tried to classify Kang Hyun-woo as Tae-sung because he was invited by Lee Ji-tae, but Hyun-woo was the one who stopped the Beheading Dungeon in the first place.

Among them, Red Butterfly seemed to have come to Hyun-woo because she couldn’t get along with the Obsidian Team. Hyun-woo suddenly realized that the other people who were teamed up with her were not visible.

“I wanted to meet you at least once during that time, but it seems you’ve been busy.”

“Yeah, well.”

He was busy going back and forth to Hell and worrying about how to manage the dungeon. He didn’t have time to make a fuss to improve teamwork.

“Your friends aren’t here?”

“Ah, their levels are not high enough for this expedition…… I was the only one who could come. Of course, the Obsidian Team members are also good people, but it’s a shame that there weren’t many opportunities to work together.”

Red Butterfly said that and glanced back.

Hyun-woo found the big woman staring at him from beyond the barrier that blocked ordinary people from entering.

‘It seems like she’s forgotten all about the nightmare back then.’

Hyun-woo recalled Hong-ryun having difficulty breathing during the exam. He usually didn’t remember useless names, but the fact that her name came to mind right away meant that she had made a deep impression.

Although she was hostile, she was quite shrewd for someone in a tank-like position. Frankly speaking, she seemed closer to being a leader than Red Butterfly.

‘The team’s center and main force is Red Butterfly, but it may be in the form of a woman named Hong-ryun taking care of things and leading them.’

Such teams are surprisingly common. When the practical leader is the second-in-command.

Red Butterfly had high growth potential, so she came here, but if Hong-ryun had a little more talent, she could have joined as well.

“By the way, why do your team names all sound like that? You could just make up normal names.”

“Ah…… it’s because everyone met on the internet. We were looking for people to do hunter activities with, and we met people who had similar ideas and called each other by nicknames.”

Even Lunatic Tiger, once the best clan in Korea, was named after a bar, so there was nothing strange about it. Hyun-woo nodded.

At that moment, the Obsidian Team shouted loudly near the entrance of the Beheading Dungeon.

“It seems like they’re leaving.”

There were no special speeches or send-off ceremonies. When the time came, the formation began to move as if they were leaving. Numerous relay cameras showed them going.

It was then.

From the support team, someone suddenly turned pale and ran towards Lee Ji-tae. As he whispered something to Lee Ji-tae, Lee Ji-tae’s face also hardened.

And from the press corps surrounding them, the sound of phone bells and text message notifications rang out here and there.

Hyun-woo felt an ominous premonition.

The expedition was suddenly halted just before departure. Other hunters tried to find out what was going on.

But then Lee Ji-tae jumped onto a box as if it were a stage. Then, in a serious voice, he delivered the bad news.

“Everyone.”

Hyun-woo felt that things were going wrong before they even started.

“We have received information that a Flood has broken out in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province.”

***

The reason North Korea was destroyed was not just because of the Baekdu Dungeon Flood.

The monsters that poured out after the Baekdu Dungeon Flood broke out collapsed the political system, and the collapsed government lost its function.

Numerous dungeons were left defenseless. And monsters from higher dungeons crawled into lower dungeons, disrupting the ecosystem. Floods broke out simultaneously in various places.

The news that a Flood had broken out in Chuncheon less than ten days after the Beheading Dungeon Flood could lead to panic.

Hyun-woo was especially in a complicated mood. As far as he knew, the Chuncheon Flood would happen next year.

‘No, if you think about it, that date is also ten days after the Beheading Dungeon Flood.’

Two seemingly unrelated dungeons may be connected by an unknown link. To allow a series of flows to operate in order.

Hyun-woo wondered if he had touched the first piece of an invisible domino.

“There’s no choice. We have to postpone the expedition for now and stop the Flood that is currently in progress…….”

“The dungeon in Chuncheon is a 2-star. What if the state of the Beheading Dungeon worsens in the meantime?”

“What about other mobile dungeons? If there is even one dungeon with a danger signal, shouldn’t we send more hunters?”

“That’s not the problem. We can’t let this turn into social panic. Even though there are no Flood signs in the Halla Dungeon, people are already evacuating inland. We need to show that the country can effectively prevent disasters.”

In the suddenly started meeting, Lee Ji-tae remained silent throughout. Even Johann Hessner, who had been quietly watching until then, urged Lee Ji-tae with a serious expression.

Suddenly, a hunter asked.

“By the way, what’s the name of that dungeon in Chuncheon? Why are you just saying Chuncheon Dungeon in general?”

“The official name is ‘Chuncheon Legoland Dungeon.’”

An uncomfortable silence passed among the hunters. It was the first time that the rule of naming dungeons after place names had made them feel so complicated.

Although it had a cute name, the monsters pouring out of the dungeon would not be cute.

It was Kang Hyun-woo who broke the silence.

“Are there Lego-type monsters too?”

“……”

“They sound cute.”

“Mr. Kang Hyun-woo, jokes are a bit much in this situation…….”

Red Butterfly whispered something in Hyun-woo’s ear. Only then did Hyun-woo realize that there was a place name called Legoland.

The hunters looked at Hyun-woo with unpleasant expressions, but Hyun-woo glared back with a ‘So what?’ expression.

‘No, I’ve fought against fine dust, mosquitoes, pigeons, and mannequins, so there’s no reason why there can’t be Lego monsters, right?’

In the uncomfortable silence, Seo Tae-kyung, who had been on the phone with someone for a long time, returned.

“Commander Oh Dae-sung has given up on the raid and returned. After hearing the situation, he said he would stay there to prevent panic in Jeju Island.”

“We have received a call from Howan Mama. Fortunately, the Hoyeonjigi Team is currently staying in Chuncheon. They are suppressing the monsters from getting out.”

With the two consecutive good news, voices grew louder that the raid should be resumed as is. But Lee Ji-tae stood up as if he had made up his mind.

“I think it would be better for me to go to Chuncheon.”