Chapter 231: The Power of the Wall
'Something is being prepared.'
Baek Woohyun clearly recognized that his opponent, Jicheon, was preparing some other means.
It was because his opponent prioritized buying time over anything else in his response after blocking Baek Woohyun's attack that was attempted at the start of the round.
The fact that he chose containment instead of counterattack made that part very obvious. If he wanted a quick match, he wouldn't have made such a choice.
The strange thing was that he blatantly provoked and drew him in at first for such a tactic.
He took risks to dig a trap, making it seem like he wanted a short decisive battle, but his next action after stopping Baek Woohyun—blocking his movements with Moon Soul—gave a different feeling.
So it was interesting enough to wonder what his opponent was aiming for.
'If it were 'that side,' whatever it was, I would have thoroughly smashed it before it could even be attempted.'
In 'Reverse Planet,' there was no need to do so. It would be fine to experience what he was aiming for by getting hit once to see it.
Since he had already taken a liking to using various builds, what couldn't he do? Baek Woohyun had become someone who enjoyed the PVP side.
Of course, that didn't mean he would wait quietly for his opponent's plan. It was closer to giving him one chance.
The story was that if he withstood his attacks to the end, he would be given a chance to reveal the hidden dagger. Though it was unknown whether it would work.
Crack-crackle!
Baek Woohyun, wrapped in blue-white lightning, surged toward Jicheon once again.
He continued to move even before the Moon Soul particles densely arranged between himself and Jicheon. He simply moved forward, swatting them all away with both hands.
If it were the 'Superhuman' build, he would have ignored a few and endured them with his body, but unfortunately, the 'Thunder God' build had weak supernatural ability resistance, so that was impossible.
Because his hands moved even more busily, the lightning flashed and flickered.
'This is quite annoying.'
The Moon Soul particles, which were nothing special when taken one at a time, were actually extremely troublesome to break through. Both their positions and the power they contained were so.
It felt as if someone had assumed an enemy with tremendous speed and then worked out a thorough countermeasure with maximum optimization.
Kwa-ang!
"···!"
Several Moon Soul particles even exploded in response the moment they were struck. Rather than being Jicheon's counterattack, they seemed to have been set up like landmines from the beginning.
Baek Woohyun had pulled back his hand before the explosion aftermath reached him, but if he had been hit, he would have suffered quite a setback in the 'Thunder God' build state.
It was a properly set trap that hid a sharp blade within the annoyance.
"······."
For several years, the pro scene had faced a major change. Abilities classified as physical had been greatly leveled up, and abilities to counter them had also grown.
There were rumors that a monster with the name of a god, boasting overwhelming physical abilities, was involved in this, but that wasn't important right now, so let's set it aside.
Anyway, after the great upheaval, pros had to make great efforts to survive. Both those with excellent physical abilities and those lacking them.
Especially in the latter case, they really worked out countermeasures to the extreme to remain as pros. That means they researched methods to face enemies faster than themselves.
Preventing free movement.
Making it impossible to approach closely.
Counterattacking by targeting when they rushed in, and so on.
Kwa-ang!
"Tsk."
The combat method Jicheon was currently demonstrating through the 'Moon Soul Domination' build also originated from there.
Since he belonged to the side with relatively lacking physical abilities—relatively, that is!—he had researched such methods in various ways and got used to using related builds.
It could be said that he struggled desperately to continue his life as a pro player that he had dreamed of since childhood.
Therefore, it was natural for Baek Woohyun, who was not using the 'Superhuman' build, to find the current situation troublesome.
He wasn't simply facing Jicheon alone, but was clashing with the hundreds and thousands of people who had worked hard to fight against monsters like him.
Rather, one could even consider it remarkable that he was evenly matching those who carried thousands of people alone.
'Not yet···? Just when will the effect appear?!'
However, the mind of Jicheon, who was effectively restraining Baek Woohyun, was full of anxiety.
As the Thunder God's presence slowly approached, breaking through the Moon Soul curtain, his back became damp with cold sweat.
While outwardly maintaining a relaxed attitude, his mind was busily working.
Above all, the problem now was that Moon Soul was not infinite.
This was a restriction chosen by the 'Moon Soul Domination' build to increase its power, and Moon Soul that had taken a certain amount of damage necessarily had to go through regeneration time.
The Moon Soul particles that Baek Woohyun struck and destroyed, or that had explosions embedded in them through the [Moon Soul-Command] technique, were all currently undergoing regeneration.
'The depletion rate is too fast!'
At this rate, let alone the Moon Soul forming the curtain, there wouldn't even be any Moon Soul left to detonate, and he would eventually allow approach and face defeat.
Before that, the hidden dagger had to pierce Baek Woohyun's heart. While there was still strength left to aim for an opportunity and launch a counterattack, that is.
Jicheon's expectations were finally rewarded after a little more time had passed, when the distance between the two had less than a few meters left.
Splash.
"···?!"
Baek Woohyun, who had suddenly stopped in place, vomited blood. Even from his two eyes, blood streamed down. It was literally the sight of shedding tears of blood.
This didn't just stop at a few drops flowing down, and bleeding poured out like a faucet opened wide.
A flash of realization came to him, who had noticed that he had been hit by something his opponent had prepared.
'Poison!'
Come to think of it, Moon Soul was a silver liquid with hardness like metal. Like mercury, the room-temperature liquid metal that exists in reality.
Since vaporized mercury was fatal to the human body, it was quite natural for Moon Soul, which resembled it, to have the same characteristic.
Furthermore, this made his opponent's action of drawing him in with provocation at first and then choosing to buy time instead of immediately counterattacking understandable.
He would have drawn him into the place easiest to poison and then waited for the poison's effect to take hold.
"It worked! [Silver Soul-Command]!"
Jicheon, who realized Baek Woohyun's abnormality, let out a cheer and used his supernatural ability technique.
The Moon Soul that still had about two-thirds remaining willingly responded to his will, and hundreds of bullets were fired at Baek Woohyun from all directions.
For Baek Woohyun, whose body was being destroyed in real-time by poisoning, it was an attack he absolutely couldn't block.
***
"Huh?!"
"What's happening all of a sudden?"
"Mister Cheater, who was pushing hard, suddenly took critical damage!"
-What? What happened?
-Why did he suddenly vomit blood in the middle of attacking?
-Did the Moon Soul Domination build have such an ability?
-Was watching with a smile but got startled ㄷㄷ
When the hidden dagger Jicheon had concealed shone, naturally the studio became chaotic. The panelists were shocked, and the viewers were stirred.
It was natural since it was a sight that seemed to rebuke their confidence, which had guaranteed Baek Woohyun's victory one hundred percent, as arrogant.
Because Jicheon, whom they had discussed how many minutes he could endure, was fine, while Baek Woohyun was actually streaming blood from his mouth and eyes.
The fact that this was Baek Woohyun's biggest injury—at least it looked that way—throughout all the PVP conducted in the 'Nuclear Tourism' content also contributed to the confusion.
Who would have thought that Baek Woohyun, who at most left only scratches even when opponents fought hard, would see this much blood?
"I checked again, and the existing 'Moon Soul Domination' build doesn't have such an effect. It seems to be an effect obtained through some customization."
"It's a typical 'if you don't know, you get hit' custom. Wow, I really didn't expect it."
"Hmm, it seems like a mercury poisoning effect. Well, Moon Soul and mercury have the similar characteristic of being a silver liquid metal."
-A pro player even came with customization
-They seriously planned to catch Hackphysical ㄷㄷ
-Is this a build they were planning to use in the league??
-But if you think Hackphysical will still win, upvote ㅋㅋ
***
Tap.
Of course, just because defense was impossible didn't mean evasion was impossible too. Baek Woohyun instantly retreated backward, escaping the range of the Moon Soul bullets.
Even while dying from mercury, no, Moon Soul poisoning, his supernatural ability output remained the same, as his blue-white lightning still emitted intense light.
The problem was that even if the physical ability enhancement effect represented by [Thunder God Descent] was fine, it was meaningless if the body that was to receive that effect was destroyed.
Anyone would think so seeing him swaying, unable to maintain his balance after escaping the Moon Soul bullet range.
"Hoo."
'Is the poison's effect neural system destruction?'
Baek Woohyun, confirming his trembling arms and legs and the sensation gradually disappearing from his extremities, realized the effect of Moon Soul poisoning.
This was also similar to damage from mercury. Vaporized mercury destroys the human nervous system, and the Moon Soul poisoning effect did the same.
It was an effect that targeted the ability to move the body rather than the physical ability itself.
'···Not a very pleasant feeling.'
Baek Woohyun's expression darkened as he looked down at his fingers twitching beyond his control.
It was because watching the pain felt as his nervous system was destroyed and his body moving on its own reminded him of the experiments he received at 'that side.'
That was because the most common experiment conducted by the mad researchers at the laboratory was physical stimulation using electricity.
The researchers flowed electricity not only into hands and feet but even into the head. Whether the test subjects died or not, they had no concern at all.
Even he, before awakening his supernatural ability, had been dragged away by those bastards and subjected to electric torture disguised as experiments dozens of times.
The pain from Moon Soul poisoning reminded him of that time. Most unpleasantly, too.
"······."
Baek Woohyun had no intention of spewing unreasonable anger at Jicheon, since he had invited this himself by saying 'go ahead and try.'
Not only was he aware that people were still watching from the studio, but it was also too ugly an action in his view.
Therefore, he simply made up his mind to end this battle doing his best.
"[Moon Soul-Command]!"
Crack-crackle-crackle-!
Baek Woohyun looked straight at Jicheon, who was attempting to attack him again, and drew out the supernatural ability power of the 'Thunder God' build to the maximum.
The blue-white lightning emitted an amount of light far greater than ever before. Beyond simply wrapping around his body, to the point where his surroundings were completely dyed blue-white.
So intense that crackling lightning overflowed along his lightly exhaled breath.
The nervous system destroyed by Moon Soul poisoning was no problem at all. The supernatural ability's lightning had replaced the electrical signals flowing through the nerves.
Even Baek Woohyun couldn't maintain this for very long, but that too was of no concern.
Anyway, all that was needed was a single attack, just an instant of one breath.
'Let's end this.'
Tap.
──!
Just before the Moon Soul bullets Jicheon had thrown reached him.
Blue-white lightning brilliantly crossed the battlefield.
And.
That was the end.
[First Round Complete]
[Winner: Baek Woohyun]
[Loser: (Anonymous)]
***
'Hackits' donated '1000 won'!
[Breath of Thunder, First Form: 'Thunderclap Flash']