Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 86

86. These Youngsters Don’t Even Go To Hell These Days (1)

“Do you know who I am?”

“Hunter Kang Hyun-moo. You underwent your ability assessment a month ago and demonstrated outstanding performance in the Hunter Ability Test. You participated in your first dungeon expedition in the Cheonggye Dungeon and received a perfect evaluation from the supervisor. Subsequently, you stopped the Flood in the Jeoldu Dungeon, revealing your exceptional skills, and achieved a record-breaking result by completing the Flood termination in the shortest time. That’s all I know.”

Hyun-moo’s accomplishments were so frequently summarized and broadcast on TV that anyone could easily know them.

However, few people remained unfazed by him, even with that knowledge.

Especially among ability users.

“I was concerned my attire might be inappropriate, so I dressed as presentably as possible. If you’re uncomfortable, I can call my superior immediately.”

Calling a superior as if they were a subordinate?

“No, it’s fine. It seems the internal situation is a mess. Let’s go for now.”

The training club’s exterior was appalling, but the interior was even worse.

The building’s framework was exposed, the paint was peeling, and rust was everywhere. Even discarded factory equipment littered the space.

It seemed designed solely to give the appearance of a training club.

“At least it’s clean.”

Whether they cleaned it after learning of his visit or not, it was spotless. Surprisingly, there wasn’t even dust on the railing joints.

Seo Ji-hoo smiled for the first time at Hyun-moo’s remark.

“Poor hygiene indicates deeper problems.”

“……Did you clean all this?”

“Yes.”

Hyun-moo felt his intuition about Seo Ji-hoo being in charge of the facility was correct.

That confident demeanor stemmed from the assurance that this was his territory. The intern title was irrelevant.

Hyun-moo found Seo Ji-hoo increasingly intriguing.

“Oh, Hunter Kang Hyun-moo, you’ve arrived!”

Then, the hunters who had been lounging around sprang to their feet and rushed toward Hyun-moo.

He didn’t feel inclined to fault them for their laziness.

Considering the meager earnings of hunters in this facility, they’d be better off using a private club at their own expense rather than training here.

‘Everyone here must be in a similar situation.’

An organization that offloads its responsibilities onto individuals is the worst. Even the executives’ health club at the All-Powerful Union headquarters was superior to this.

The 24 hunters lined up, their expressions a mix of nervousness and anticipation.

To them, Hyun-moo, who had single-handedly stopped the Flood in the Jeoldu Dungeon, was a hero. That’s why they were initially incredulous upon receiving the summons.

Kang Hyun-moo was joining the All-Powerful Union like them, and he was coming to see them in person?

“You guys…….”

Kang Hyun-moo finally spoke.

Everyone watched him intently, curious about what he would say.

“First, write out your wills.”

“……Pardon?”

Hyun-moo didn’t repeat himself. He instructed Seo Ji-hoo, who seemed taken aback, to provide pens and paper for everyone.

As if prepared, Seo Ji-hoo produced the necessary items instantly.

The hunters accepted the pens and paper but hesitated. Hyun-moo decided to offer some encouragement.

“You can’t write a will after you’re dead, you know.”

“Uh, why do we have to write that?”

“Because if you write as I instruct, you might survive. But if you don’t, you’ll definitely die by my hand.”

Faced with the threat, the hunters began writing their wills with grim faces. While they wrote, Hyun-moo surveyed them.

The proportion of women among the 24 was slightly higher, which wasn’t a coincidence.

Tae-sung and Howan Mama tended to have a higher proportion of male hunters, often hiring more men under the assumption that being a hunter was physically demanding.

It’s not that there were few female hunters. Considering the compensation provided by abilities, gender was largely irrelevant.

Even Tae-sung’s second-in-command was Han Hyun-hee, a female hunter from the Maparam Squad. And there were figures like Red Butterfly.

‘If they’re strong enough to stand out, they’ll hire them, but if they’re mediocre, they’ll hire men.’

Consequently, female hunters who couldn’t join Tae-sung and Howan Mama often gravitated toward the All-Powerful Union, where the compensation was lower.

That was also an appealing factor for Hyun-moo.

It meant a higher probability of finding female hunters with relatively strong abilities who were undervalued.

Even if he couldn’t find an S-class hunter, there was a greater chance of finding more A-class ability users in the All-Powerful Union than in Tae-sung.

“Um…… I’ve finished writing.”

After a while, the hunters raised their hands and began submitting their wills. Hyun-moo received them, took out a pair of glasses from his pocket, and put them on. The hunters glanced at him curiously.

While some hunters wore glasses, it was a rare sight for safety reasons.

However, Hyun-moo’s glasses had no prescription and were specially made to accommodate Ren’s monocle [a lens worn in one eye to improve vision].

The White Bone found in Hell had been crudely shoved into the inside of the skull, but Hyun-moo had no intention of doing that.

As Hyun-moo examined the hunters’ conditions while collecting their wills, he suddenly noticed something peculiar.

‘Huh?’

Hyun-moo narrowed his eyes and carefully observed the hunter standing directly in front of him.

It wasn’t because the hunter was special, but because an additional element had appeared in the status window list.

[Choi Chae-hyun (LV 20)]

[Skill: Ignition]

[Stats: B/A]

A stat he had never seen before was displayed. Wondering if he was mistaken, he checked the other hunters as well, but it was the same. There were slight variations for each person, but they were all displayed.

When the Ability Management Bureau assessed abilities, they divided them quite specifically, so this figure felt overly vague.

‘Is it indicating the average of each stat? If so, why is it displayed as N/N?’

After some consideration, Hyun-moo realized that the grade on the right was always the same or higher than the grade on the left.

In other words, the figure displayed on the right represented the highest potential the ability user could reach.

Therefore, the higher the grade on the right, the greater the growth potential.

‘Huh, this is an unexpected bonus…… Why now?’

It wasn’t entirely new. It was an extension of the unease he had felt while watching the news a few days ago when Oh Dae-sung made an emergency announcement after emerging from the Jeoldu Dungeon.

Overall, his ability to ‘see and understand something’ felt enhanced. Hyun-moo checked his own stats.

[Kang Hyun-moo (LV 30)]

[Skills: Poison Blood (Contagion, Acidity, Hungry One’s Blood, Parasitism), Battle Helper (Strong Qi), Domination, Kin (Absorption)]

[Stats: SS/SS]

He didn’t know how high that was. But he couldn’t assume he was at the peak of the stats, because he certainly had shortcomings compared to opponents with higher levels than him.

In other words, as the Sejong Institute had determined, it was better to interpret this stat notation as ‘the highest value that can be reached at that level’.

‘I’ll investigate this later.’

Now it was much easier to distinguish the promising from the mediocre.

The hunters who had submitted their wills wore complex or relieved expressions. One even had tears in their eyes.

The act of writing a will seemed to have stirred something within them.

“Do you know why I told you to write a will?”

At Hyun-moo’s question, the hunters exchanged glances. Then one person cautiously raised their hand and said.

“Uh, to give us time to reflect on our lives?”

“To remind us of the importance of the future?”

Hyun-moo didn’t even read the wills. He roughly folded them, placed them in an envelope, and sealed it.

“No. I’m going to select the useful ones among you, and I don’t know who will die in the process.”

***

Die.

It wasn’t merely a metaphor.

Based on Hyun-moo’s experience, skills are awakened or stat limits are increased in extreme, life-threatening situations, or under immense stress.

As the hunters here were doing, simply fighting mediocre monsters and earning a decent income would inevitably lead to stagnation for the rest of their lives.

They needed a more extreme situation. But throwing them into an overly difficult environment from the start could be fatal.

That’s why Hyun-moo chose the easiest and most manageable opponents.

It was the hunters themselves.

“Uaaaaaagh!”

“Aaaargh!”

Thud. One hunter punched another in the stomach. But the hunter who was struck didn’t remain passive. They bit and tore at the opponent’s ear, spraying blood.

The shockwave rattled internal organs and sent the opponent flying. The sound of bones breaking echoed chillingly.

A brutal fight was unfolding in the middle of the factory. It was so gruesome that even the hunters watching the fight turned pale.

They had witnessed even more horrific scenes while killing countless monsters in dungeons, but those were monsters. No matter how many targets you kill that you can’t empathize with, you don’t feel much emotion.

But these were humans, even hunters, colleagues, and friends who had raided dungeons together.

They couldn’t comprehend why they were fighting as if they were avenging their parents’ deaths.

“Don’t look away. Watch.”

When one of the hunters turned away to vomit, Hyun-moo warned them. Some watched the fight with tears streaming down their faces.

It was the effect of Hyun-moo’s Domination.

Everyone was of a lower level than Hyun-moo and obeyed his authority, so the effect of Domination was strong.

He had also mixed in a few drops of extremely diluted Hungry One’s Blood. People become negative and violent when they are hungry. The other hunters were also dominated and couldn’t even think of running away, so they watched the fight.

Crack, crunch.

Finally, one hunter broke the other’s arm and completely subdued them. But without stopping there, they raised their foot as if to deliver the final blow.

“Stop.”

The moment Hyun-moo spoke, the hunter who was about to deliver the final blow collapsed as if they had fallen. The opponent was already unconscious.

Hyun-moo had Seo Ji-hoo bring the potions.

Everyone was horrified to see Hyun-moo handing out intermediate recovery potions worth millions of won as if they were just water bottles, but now they were as numerous as water bottles to Hyun-moo.

Hyun-moo was disappointed. This was the third fight. Both had fought to the brink of death, but neither had awakened any new skills.

‘Do the conditions need to be more extreme?’

“Send those two out. Next.”

The next hunters approached hesitantly. Hyun-moo ordered immediately, wasting no time.

“Fight until the other person dies.”

The fight resumed.

***

By the time everyone had finished their bloody battles, the sun was beginning to set.

Hyun-moo released the Domination he had placed on everyone. But they couldn’t recover their senses quickly and suffered from the aftereffects while drooping.

Because they had fought with their consciousness partially dominated by Hyun-moo, their memories of the fight were hazy.

But the memories gradually returned, triggered by the torn clothes, the splattered blood, and the lingering pain.

“Ugh, uweeck!”

One person leaned against the wall and began vomiting.

Hyun-moo ignored the sound and muttered while reviewing the chart recording the results.

“Well, it’s not the worst result.”

Two people had gained new skills, and three had awakened their traits.

The awakening rate increased as they went on, likely because the stress intensified as they witnessed the hunters ahead of them become half-dead.

‘I need to push them into a harsher environment.’

But Hyun-moo felt conflicted as he looked at the exhausted hunters who were passed out or vomiting. It was effective, but could these guys really endure until the end?

‘It’s going to be a problem if they get this tired with just this.’

Difficulty: It’s hard to apply his experiences in Hell, but honestly, he didn’t expect them to have such a hard time.

Hyun-moo had no experience with murder in reality, but in Hell, he had already killed dozens of Hungry Ones.

It wasn’t just killing them. He had chewed and swallowed their raw flesh and crushed their bones with his teeth.

All the guys here did was punch each other until they were covered in blood.

‘If I were one of those guys, I would have wanted to kill me.’

But none of them displayed such anger.

Only fear and fatigue were present.

‘I don’t like mentalism, but this needs to be trained a bit.’

Of course, Hyun-moo had no intention of getting angry like, ‘I did it, why can’t you do it?’ But in this state, they can’t help Hyun-moo.

Considering the enemies they will face as the difficulty increases in the future, it was better to correct their complacent attitude.

That would increase their survival rate even a little bit.