Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 81

81. Aftermath (1)

Ratmen scattered in a frenzy.

They desperately tried to escape their kin, who, driven mad by the Rat King’s insane orders, were stabbing each other. They sought refuge in their rat holes.

But then, a pair of glaring yellow eyes materialized before one of them. Before the Ratman could even register his mistake, his neck was snapped.

“Squeak!”

The Werewolf seized the Ratman with all fours, tearing and butchering it.

The Werewolf remained unaffected by the Ratman King’s commands. However, the crazed Ratmen, unable to distinguish friend from foe, even attacked the Werewolf, a superior predator.

The Werewolf was already covered in wounds.

He had barely escaped the plaza, but the only escape route, the corridor, was in a similar state of chaos.

Ratmen, in their desperate flight, trampled each other to death. The Werewolf howled, not a battle cry, but a desperate plea for salvation. The situation was beyond abnormal. He had to escape immediately, but a strange, translucent barrier blocked his path.

“Now this is more like it!”

Thump! A dull thud echoed. A Ratman witnessed a crazed human behind him, grabbing a hapless Ratman by the tail and swinging him around.

The Ratman, unwillingly participating in a grotesque game of ‘mouse-fire’ [a play on ‘house-fire,’ implying chaotic destruction], became unrecognizable after being slammed against monsters and walls.

Hyeon-woo used the Ratman as a makeshift weapon, smashing him into the other monsters instead of using Tam [likely referring to a weapon or skill]. But soon, the Ratman’s tail, unable to endure the strain, snapped and flew towards the ceiling.

With a thud, the headless Ratman slumped powerlessly to the floor. Hyeon-woo looked up at the ceiling with regret, then his eyes suddenly locked with the Werewolf’s.

“Dog!”

The Werewolf instantly understood what he had to do. Seeing the Werewolf turn and flee, Hyeon-woo instinctively gave chase.

There was no particular reason. He simply followed because it was running away.

Thump, thump, thump!

The Werewolf, frothing at the mouth as he ran, heard the ‘sound of approaching violence’ closing in from behind.

But it was futile.

Hyeon-woo seized the Werewolf’s tail. The Werewolf, remembering the fate of the Ratman who had been spun around by his tail, screamed and desperately clung to a pile of Ratman corpses.

But it was of little use.

Oshet’s six-handed grip, enhanced with a triple strength option, effortlessly lifted the Werewolf’s considerable weight. The moment he grabbed the Werewolf’s tail and hurled him into the air, countless Ratman corpses were sent flying as well.

“Dogs are related to hamsters. Got it?”

Hyeon-woo himself was unsure of what he was saying.

The Werewolf was now a smear on the ceiling somewhere, unable to confirm or deny any familial connection to hamsters.

For the first time in a while, he felt a sense of release.

The stifling pressure he had felt in Hell difficulty seemed to dissipate here.

Just as he was about to attack his next target, Hyeon-woo barely regained his sanity. There were humans directly in front of him.

“…Kang Hyeon-woo?”

It was the expedition team, including Red Butterfly, Johann, and others.

They were all staring at Hyeon-woo with blank expressions. He must have been so engrossed in the slaughter that they hadn’t noticed him until now.

Then, thud, thud, thud, the sounds echoed in succession. The Ratman corpses that had been launched into the air with the Werewolf plummeted to the ground, scattering blood and gore everywhere.

The expedition members were utterly bewildered. Hyeon-woo offered an awkward smile.

“Let’s finish cleaning up and then we can talk.”

***

Swish, swish.

The sword that Hyeon-woo wielded was so sharp that he didn’t even feel it encounter bone. With each swing, the heads of two or three monsters flew off simultaneously.

The hunters witnessed a scene of utter carnage unfolding behind Hyeon-woo. Countless piles of monster corpses formed a layer that filled the corridor.

And they could also see what the monsters were fleeing from.

While they had been struggling to survive, Hyeon-woo was single-handedly slaughtering all the monsters.

There was nothing left for the hunters to do. The monsters either fled in terror, turned on each other, or froze in place and had their heads lopped off.

It was simply a one-sided act of violence, clearing the corridor.

“…Amazing.”

One of the hunters muttered blankly. Yoo Seong-yeon felt the same way.

As hunters, especially those who had volunteered for Taesung [presumably a powerful organization or guild], they naturally admired strength. Both men and women felt this admiration.

Until now, their role model had been Lee Ji-tae. Lee Ji-tae embodied restrained power and dignified strength.

But Kang Hyeon-woo was different.

His presence was the embodiment of eerie madness. It felt almost evil, yet there was a bizarre charm that drew them in.

Moreover, it was a power they witnessed in a situation where they had almost given up on their lives, making them even more drawn to it.

‘If Chief Lee Ji-tae had appeared now, would I have felt the same way?’

Yoo Seong-yeon couldn’t help but wonder. They might have admired him, but it wouldn’t have been the same feeling as now.

Yoo Seong-yeon felt an urge to join Hyeon-woo and participate in the same one-sided slaughter.

Without strategy or restraint, they wanted to unleash vile violence on the target that had driven them to the brink of death.

And they couldn’t believe they were feeling such an impulse. It was the complete opposite of what they had been taught at Taesung.

At that moment, a Ratman escaped from Hyeon-woo and ran frantically.

‘Escaped? Did Hyeon-woo miss a Ratman?’

Before Yoo Seong-yeon could finish the thought, the hunters rushed out and attacked the Ratman.

The Ratman was instantly torn to shreds and killed. The hunters laughed and stomped on the corpse, crushing it.

Yoo Seong-yeon felt a chill the moment he saw that.

Excessive violence is a typical symptom of mental instability seen in hunters. But they could see that they were not the only ones drawn to the impulse to participate in violence alongside Hyeon-woo.

‘Just appearing in this place… he has captivated everyone.’

Yoo Seong-yeon unknowingly looked at Johann.

Johann had reverted to his stiff, expressionless demeanor, as if the madness he had displayed earlier when he threw himself into the fray had been a fabrication.

But his gaze, like everyone else’s, was fixed on Hyeon-woo.

***

After the slaughter, only the corpses of monsters remained.

Hyeon-woo smiled as he looked at the Ratman’s corpse that the hunters had crushed, then gestured with his chin. The hunters followed him.

Honestly, everyone there was worried about Hyeon-woo.

They were afraid that Hyeon-woo would lose control and attack them.

No, ‘worry’ was an understatement.

Most of the people there were afraid of Hyeon-woo, but at the same time, they respected and admired him.

Fortunately, Hyeon-woo no longer showed any signs of excitement. He wiped the blood off his clothes and looked quite normal.

He didn’t resemble the same person who had committed a great massacre while spouting nonsense about dogs being related to hamsters.

When they arrived at the plaza, people recognized a familiar object: the return stone.

“Return stone! Have we finally achieved the third objective?”

The hunters cheered and approached the return stone. But Johann frowned and shook his head.

Just as the atmosphere was about to turn sour again, Hyeon-woo subtly approached the return stone. Then, he casually kicked away the strangely arranged stones and scribbles around it.

It was a magic circle that Kirson had created before the Guillotine Dungeon Flood [a catastrophic event within the game].

He was able to recreate it because he had a picture of the magic circle in the White Bone Records [likely a source of knowledge or information within the game].

In the original timeline, Ratman shamans appeared and began to create this magic circle, triggering the Flood. But Hyeon-woo had Kirson complete it early.

‘Besides, this… it looks more elaborate than the picture.’

The original picture only showed a part of it, making it unstable, but Kirson seemed to have created a richer and more powerful magic circle by using his knowledge and imagination from Hell difficulty.

He wondered if this was the reason why the Flood was stronger than he had expected.

‘I need to say something to that guy when I get back.’

“Ah!”

Suddenly, an exclamation burst from Johann. A bright light began to emanate from the top of the dungeon.

While everyone was panicking at the sight of the brilliant light, only Johann knelt down and began to pray with a reverent expression. And a message echoed in everyone’s ears.

[Guillotine Dungeon completely cleared.]

[Clear score: ★★★★☆]

[The dungeon’s state enters a ‘stable’ state.]

Judging from the message and Johann’s appearance, it was a notification that the Guillotine Dungeon had been completely cleared.

The hunters cheered and hugged each other, rejoicing. They had cleared a dungeon that they thought was completely ruined. Some hunters were reminded of the dead hunters and began to sob belatedly.

Hyeon-woo stood awkwardly in the midst of this unfamiliar emotional frenzy.

Even in this excitement, no one approached Hyeon-woo.

‘Hmm, I did scare them on purpose.’

It was also awkward to be the only one calm in this excitement. Then, Red Butterfly approached him.

“Kang Hyeon-woo.”

She took a short breath and said with a smile.

“First, I apologize for leaving you alone. And thank you. Thanks to you, we were able to clear the dungeon safely like this.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“And…”

Red Butterfly hesitated as if she was about to say something uncomfortable. But soon, as if she couldn’t bear not to say it, she opened her mouth with a determined expression.

“As far as I know, hamsters belong to the Cricetinae subfamily.”

“…Ah, yeah.”

***

[Guillotine Dungeon successfully cleared! Flood completely terminated!]

As soon as the expedition team returned, the media outlets began to report the results in bold headlines.

The first complete termination of a Flood in the country. Considering that the country right above their heads had been destroyed by the Flood, it was an achievement that they couldn’t help but be enthusiastic about.

Moreover, Floods had occurred simultaneously in Chuncheon and other countries, causing confusion and concern. Korea was the first to terminate the Flood.

The fact that they had defeated the Flood in three days was also a world record.

Thanks to this, comments such as [As expected, the game-loving Korean people can’t be caught up in speedrunning lol] [referencing the stereotype of Koreans being good at video games and speedrunning] flooded the internet.

Even Lee Ji-tae, who had entered the Chuncheon Dungeon where the Flood had broken out on the same day, had not yet emerged, so the Guillotine Dungeon expedition team naturally received much more attention.

Photographers who had been waiting all night for the expedition team to return took pictures of them as they returned and put them on the front page of the newspaper the next day.

The tired and exhausted expedition members, especially Hyeon-woo, whose whole body was soaked in blood, were by far the best subjects.

[The emergence of a new hero]

Hyeon-woo had been excluded from the expedition team’s mainstream in the middle, but that was why he received even more attention.

While others had barely survived by cooperating for two days, where and how had Hyeon-woo survived? There were many questions. It was even more so because Hyeon-woo was not wearing a body cam.

But according to the expedition members’ testimonies, Hyeon-woo had not even ‘survived.’

“He didn’t endure alone and in solitude in the darkness.”

“He just left us and found the expedition’s goal on his own… to put it vulgarly, I have no choice but to say this: he was wrecking the monsters.”

[Discovery of the most important next-generation promising players… is a new era coming?]

Hyeon-woo received the most spotlight, but Red Butterfly and the Obsidian team also received great attention.

Red Butterfly’s team had not been pushed back in their records even though they had participated with hunters who were higher level than them, and the Obsidian team had lived up to their reputation as Taesung’s next-generation elite.

In particular, the five-hour battle in the boss room where they found the return stone became a major topic.

[Heroes who have not returned, what happened to them?]

But not everyone was enthusiastic. The number of victims was unexpectedly high. Since Lee Ji-tae had made the decision to go on the expedition, the responsibility for sending people with relatively insufficient skills could not be avoided.

But the hunters who had watched all the body cams came to the conclusion that this could not be helped.

It was not a problem of difficulty, but rather the isolation of the hunters due to the change in the dungeon structure.

When the hunters were all gathered in one place, especially when Johann was present, there was not a single casualty.

Lee Ji-tae’s responsibility theory subsided, but it was inevitable that his reputation was tarnished.

Instead, the target was the expedition leader, Seo Tae-kyung.

[Seo Tae-kyung, why couldn’t he return?]

When Hyeon-woo and the Obsidian team returned with the return stone, they assumed that the Jeonneungryeon team [another team within the expedition] would have returned as a matter of course. It was already past the promised two days.

But not a single member of the Jeonneungryeon team had returned.

Since the body cam contained all the circumstances of when the Jeonneungryeon team and the rest had separated, there were many questions about why they, who had return scrolls, had not returned.

There was much debate over whether Seo Tae-kyung’s judgment captured on the body cam was selfish or rational, and whether he was responsible for the deaths of the hunters.

There were also many questions about why they, who even had return scrolls, had not returned.

“I believe in Branch Manager Seo Tae-kyung.”

Those were the words left by Jeonneungryeon’s leader, Oh Dae-seong. Leader Oh Dae-seong took a few Jeonneungryeon hunters and entered the dungeon to find Seo Tae-kyung himself. It was the day after the dungeon was cleared.

Most of it was as Hyeon-woo had expected.

But one thing that he had not anticipated became a major topic on the internet.

[From today, hamsters are dogs. If God Hyeon-woo says so, then that’s what it is.]

[Hey, you impudent bastard, what do you mean God Hyeon-woo? Call him God God God with respect.]

[My hamster has been barking like a dog since this morning. I saw it.]

[Isn’t it that dogs are hamsters, not that hamsters are dogs?]

Kang Hyeon-woo’s unintentional nonsense became a major topic throughout the country.

Because of this remark, Hyeon-woo became a part of the internet trend for a while. Hyeon-woo’s rookie-like self-introduction when he stopped the Guillotine Dungeon Flood was also brought up again.

Some said that Hyeon-woo was creepy, but people are enthusiastic about stronger power anyway. And the combination of overwhelming power and eccentricity created an unexpected fan base.

But it seemed like he couldn’t shake off the image of being a madman.