Hoarding in Hell Novel

Chapter 16 Whispers of the Stars (2)

strong?

Hyunmoo was bewildered by the name he had only heard in martial arts.

‘As seen in the book, it is said that the body is loaded with qi.’

At the moment of the last attack, I felt a sensation as if something was coming out of my body. is that strong? Hyunmoo tried to relive that moment once again. But again, I didn’t feel the same way.

‘Should I use a battle helper?’

He was already so exhausted that he didn’t want to fight any more, but he couldn’t contain his curiosity.

Hyunmoo tapped the scarecrow again. Scared of the scarecrow’s pose, Hyunmoo launched a battle helper.

A blast sound like a bullet resounded. A fierce battle ensued with the Scarecrows. It was the same flow as before.

Hyunmoo couldn’t feel what had changed yet. But as my body that had cooled down warmed up again, I felt something wriggling in my body.

Before realizing what it felt like, the battle helper quickly drew that energy and used it.

“Suck!”

With a bang, Hyunmoo’s fist struck the Scarecrow. Hyunmoo’s fist pierced the scarecrow’s guard and hit it straight into his chest. The scarecrow’s forearms were shattered and scattered in all directions.

Hyunmoo looked at the scarecrow with a puzzled expression on his face. Lenian looked at him and admired it.

“Wow, butler. What did you do? That arm swinging. It looked cool.”

“Whistling…”

Martial arts are expressed like drinking a drink with a straw. Lenny Ahn was literally waving his hands as if curiously following Hyunmoo’s movements.

No, since I’m doing this in the air, the expression of floundering might be appropriate.

“I don’t even know what this is, but it’s not something I can easily follow…”

bang! The moment Lenian’s fist touched the scarecrow’s head, the scarecrow’s head was blown away in fragments. Contrary to what Hyunmoo did, only a narrow, long hole was left as if he had been hit by his bullet.

“Oh, I guess I was a bit similar. Butler!”

“……”

At the same time, Hyunmoo raised the boundaries of Rhenian and began to contemplate what human values ​​are in this world. Hyunmoo approached the scarecrow he had knocked down and looked at his condition.

It was this scarecrow that fought for several days, but the inside was never destroyed. Even for a talented person, it was too much to give a blow to steel at Hyunmoo’s level. It’s just that I’m a little stronger than the average person.

“Complete opponent recognition.”

Then the remaining scarecrows stopped moving, he said.

“Confirmed by Awakened. Unlocked.”

Hyunmoo panicked and repositioned himself, but the scarecrows did not move.

It just completely stopped moving and just stood there. One of them raised his arm and pointed in one direction.

What kind of trick is this again, Hyunmoo cautiously stepped away from him. The direction the scarecrow was pointing was blocked off with all kinds of furniture and materials.

The dust was so thick that Hyunmoo couldn’t even look at it properly.

Hyunmoo felt his heart pounding as he pulled away his materials.

He felt different from fear or curiosity. It was just like the flurry of his heart.

When he completely cleared his material, one of his doors was revealed. The door was open. As we went inside, the noise got even bigger.

Inside the door, a skeletal corpse was lying on the desk. I saw the skull for the first time, but the fear wasn’t as great as I thought. Because I’ve seen a lot of the more grotesque figure with my own body.Hyunmoo instinctively thought that this backbone was the creator of this facility.

“What is this? Dessert?”

Lenian picked up his shin bone that was rolling on the floor, licked it, and began to gnaw at it. It was really a cannibal fairy that couldn’t be pulled off or beaten.

Hyunmoo took the bone as if it were stolen.

“Hey, I was petty.”

“I told you not to eat people.”

“Isn’t it even dead?”

“no.”

Hyunmoo spoke firmly and looked at the desk. He found a piece of paper under the skull. It was one letter.

Hyunmoo began to read the letter carefully.

“There were a lot of mistakes.”

It was about expressing regrets from the beginning. The writing was straight and angled, and this backbone looked like a man. He continued to read the contents of the letter down.

“I couldn’t undo the mistake in any way. Things were getting worse, and hope was only a harbinger of tragedy. Difficulty: 3 years after turning into a nightmare, not a single child has been born. All the children who did not awaken as capable people died in this poisonous air, and even those who were capable died at the embryonic stage. Because children can’t level up. Hope kept dying. We, mankind, are perishing.”

Hyunmoo stared at the letter. Difficulty: Nightmare? Human extinction?

Hyunmoo remembered the message he heard whenever he came in here.

【Difficulty: Hell

Enter the star of the end.]

“…Really?”

It means that humanity has already perished and the world has reached the highest level of difficulty.

Judging from the contents of the letter, the difficulty: Hell was the future of the world Hyunmoo lived in.

No, actually, I already knew. He just didn’t want him to face the truth.

In the end, he knows that even if he trains and suffers like this, the future that mankind will face is only this worst.

There were already plenty of clues. Even the title Hyunmoo has.

Hell’s strongest.

Difficulty: This is the title you receive when you reach Rank 1 in Hell. At that time, Hyunmoo was only at level 1. That means no stomach.

the last one. There is nothing to add or subtract. Because Hyunmoo means the last human. A race with only one person was almost extinct.

This rotting skeleton showed the reality that he knew but was trying to ignore.

“haha…….”

Hyunmoo finished reading his letter with a disappointing laugh.

“No matter what I do, I can’t get it back, so all that was left was regret. What if you had done that then? What if you did that? The delusions did not leave my mind. Most of the survivors, including myself, feel the same way. Three days ago, Priest John, and yesterday, Professor Hyo-Seok Park took his own life. The enemy I fear the most is not the monster, the Crown of Thorns, nor the star-crazed fanatics.

that there is no hope.

There were too many mistakes. Difficulty: If it had been a more systematic training of talented people when it was a tutorial. If only I had helped more ordinary people to become capable people. If the attack on the tower had not turned into a national competition, the Chepeshu case would not have occurred. If only I had added a little more power to control the flood of Baekdu Dungeon. Had the Leviathan not been left to destroy China. If only I hadn’t driven Adam Fort to be a madman.

We were consistently jealous, afraid, and wary of each other.

that they couldn’t trust each other. All that history was a mistake.”

Hyunmoo found familiar words. They were words found in newspaper articles that were scraped to gather information about this place.

The full context is still unknown, but it has become clearer that a big mistake had been made. And it was also a warning about what would happen in the ‘now’.

“Is there any way to come back now? Chrome, the last stronghold, collapsed, and even Priest John, who had the purification skill, committed suicide, so everyone’s lives are now at an end. In addition, a rise in difficulty is predicted after some time. Is there a difficulty level that can be climbed even in a situation on the verge of extinction? It is as if time is laughing at us.

I made this facility for future generations who may have it, but I don’t even know if it will be useful. If there are still humans who have discovered this place after entering the Difficulty: Hell, please forgive me for my incompetent generation.”

In the end, the identity of this white bone was not written down. But he seemed to have survived almost to the end, so he must have been quite strong. Perhaps it is a character who remains in the present.

Hyunmoo put his hand on the backbone, wondering if he could identify who it was. At that moment, the balance that had been maintained for years was disturbed, and bones of rainwater poured down under his old clothes.

widely. There was the sound of something blunt falling between them.

“…heartstone?”

Hyunmoo looked at the stone that had fallen on the floor and said, in bewilderment. There was something similar to a hearthstone between the bones.

However, upon closer inspection, it was a little different from what Hyunmoo had. It was a perfectly balanced, sculptural form, emitting a faint bluish tint. No engraving marks were seen.

Hyunmoo carefully placed his hand on the stone. The moment his fingertips touched the stone, a strong blue light was emitted.

It was an intense light that seemed to blind the eyes. Hyunmoo, whose vision was paralyzed, was unable to move. But there was a clear voice in his ear.

[The fragment has been absorbed.]

‘Fragments?’

Hyunmoo thought something was going on and tried to grab the hearthstone. But the moment he touched the hearthstone, he screamed in blazing pain.

His palms were visible in the dim vision due to the light. It looked like it was worn out as if it had been branded,

‘The inscription on the hearthstone.’

Then, he suddenly began to shout as the narrator warns.

[The stars are watching you.]

And at the same time, I heard Lenian flapping its wings. Like a beast that felt an earthquake and ran away, Lenian disappeared in an instant. But Hyunmoo couldn’t move.

The space is infinitely expanded. Hyunmoo suddenly felt thrown into the middle of the universe.

He couldn’t breathe or move. He couldn’t feel anything. The panic passed by for a moment, but he felt a dull, albeit weak, pain.

Hyunmoo felt he was down. He soon realized his own condition.

He wasn’t dragged somewhere, he was just robbed of his senses.

[The leading star, Barul, has recognized that the shards of the star have been absorbed by you.]

The narrator’s voice was audible. But now that I think about it, the narrator’s words were more about conveying meaning in his head than his voice.

[Barul is disappointed with your values.][Barul gives up the shards and leaves you.]

‘No, what’s wrong with being disappointed and upset?’

Hyunmoo grumbled. I don’t know what’s appeared now, but it was clear that it was something powerful enough to easily subdue Hyunmoo’s body.

In the state where he lost most of his senses, even a child could kill himself.

Lights flickering briefly in the darkened field of vision surrounded Hyunmoo. But there was no warmth to be found anywhere in the light.

[I’m curious about the achievements the stars have set for your level and difficulty.]

“Ow…”

Hyunmoo was taken aback as he tried to speak involuntarily. It was harder than I thought to move my body in a state where my senses were dulled. Hyunmoo barely stuttered and continued to speak properly.

“A star… what is it?”

Hyunmoo thought that there would be no answer. The narrator was handy, but he didn’t answer anything. This was especially true for vague questions.

[Unlocked.]But the narrator answered. in detail too.

[The masters of the stars are beings who occupy their own absolute territory somewhere in the universe. They lend the mighty power they can exert within their territory through ‘shards’, and expect him to become the ruler and expand the territory.]

Hyunmoo was puzzled by the narrator’s detailed answer, but was more curious than that.

‘Why are these guys interested in me?’

[The stars are astounded by the achievements you have made for your level of difficulty. There, user Kang Hyunmoo is carrying one of the shards of stars. That’s why he wants to bring you into his family.]

It was then that Hyunmoo noticed that some of the inscriptions on his hearthstone were glowing orange.

Previously, only words that had no meaning were written, but they did not shine. In other words, the ‘fragments’ the narrator refers to seemed to be pieces of stone that Hyunmoo had just absorbed from the white bone.

That is, because of this, all the stars were gathered.

Then, loud noises began to be heard.

[Wailing Star, Verde, prophesies that you will become the lord of all death.][The Broken Star, Ghaul, offers you to rule the world from behind the blackout.][The starving star, Yogulem, says they are looking for a snake to eat the whole world together.][The Whispering Star, Montstril finds in you a charm that will dazzle everyone.][I propose that Ardan, the conquering star, lead the army of steel and fire.]

***

Simultaneously with the stars’ suggestion, Hyunmoo felt his senses slowly recover.

But his vision was still dark, and only the stars around him were spinning slowly.

Hyunmoo realized that he had not been released from bondage, but that he had only released part of it for an answer.

“What is this again?”

[They see your chances of success and invest.]

“invest?”

Hyunmoo was puzzled. When did you say you saw the investment?

When someone you meet for the first time says they will do you a favor, it is one of them. A sleazy swindler or a ruthless swindler. People who are confident to peel off more than several dozen times the minimum investment.

[Choose a star to chase.]

The narrator whispered like a choreographer. Hyunmoo was in trouble. His own worth was well known to Hyunmoo himself. Yet he is nothing. Especially here, Difficulty: Hell.

Unable to catch a single goblin, he didn’t think he had attracted the attention of such grandiose beings.

‘If I know that no matter how many times I die, I will come back to life.’

“You have to know what these guys are doing before chasing them or not.”

[The Broken Star, Ghaul, is a conspiratorial ruler who smiles from behind. He rules the crowds from behind blackouts with daggers, poison and conspiracies, scheming through blind secret societies of shadows.][Weeping Star, Verde, is the father of all sorrow and melancholy. He commands the army of death, and he enjoys seeing the despair, vain hopes, and helpless struggles that come after ruin.][The starving star, Yogulem, is a snake of greed and desire. All the inhabitants of his estate are constantly hungry, and they want to devour everything in the world.][The Whispering Star, Montstril, is an instigator in the light and a dazzler in the dark. He shines the brightest in bright places, and he deceives any powerful and kneels at his feet.][The conquering star, Ardan, is a loser who advances with fire and slaughters enemies with iron. He desires to set the world on fire with unprovoked hatred and resentment, and is content to rule the ashes.]

“Why do you have all this stuff? Are all the stars a personality destroyer?”

[Stars are interested in beings similar to themselves.]

“……”