Chapter 7 : Party Matching
Chapter 7: Party Matching
Tadadadang!
Fierce gunfire echoing through the corridor!
Baek Woohyun felt several bullets he couldn’t dodge graze his cheek. And then bouncing off the particle barrier as well.
If not for the awakener-specific particle barrier that neutralized all firearms, by now he would be feeling blood flowing down torn skin.
Or he’d be sprawled on the floor with his head pierced through.
But even with such danger, he didn’t care in the slightest.
Because he knew that supposing ‘what ifs’ had no meaning whatsoever.
What mattered was only the fact that the hail of bullets the enemies poured out hadn’t stopped him, and they’d ultimately entered his range.
“Da, damn it!”
“Block him! Block him!”
The research facility’s security guards screamed like shrieks as they saw Baek Woohyun approach.
Fear was even momentarily visible in their expressions, because they’d clearly witnessed this crazy monster grinding up the security guards who had been ahead of them.
Since it was clear as day that once distance was allowed, they too would meet the same death as those before, they couldn’t help but be paralyzed with fear.
“……!”
Baek Woohyun didn’t care about the security guards’ fear either. No, rather, he welcomed it and smiled savagely.
Because this was exactly the appearance he’d desired.
The ‘Superhuman’ had to be pure terror, insurmountable despair, and inescapable death.
For the sake of those who died in the despair they created, absolutely—
Kwaaang!
A fist that shot straight out struck the head of the security guard at the front.
It was a blow loaded with power that could tear even steel, so there was no way an ordinary human could withstand a direct hit.
The head that took the direct hit shattered to pieces, creating a spray of blood. It was the miserable and terrible sight the specters had cried out for so much.
“Damn it, shoot! Keep shooting!”
Tadadadang!
When the security guard who seemed high-ranking screamed frantically, only then did the security guards still alive come to their senses and pull their triggers.
However, their faces were rigidly hardened. Because they knew that in a situation where they couldn’t even neutralize the particle barrier, shooting guns had no meaning at all.
Moreover, after killing two more enemies, Baek Woohyun had immediately kicked off the ground to avoid being intoxicated by victory.
The hail of bullets the security guards fired merely passed futilely through where he’d been, half a beat late.
This was a response impossible without predicting how the opponent would move at any moment.
The combat experience accumulated through countless harsh battlefields was shining again here.
—”More, more, more, more!”
—”Revenge! Revenge!”
—”Kill them! Tear them all to death!”
The specters circling around sang their resentment in unison. Several times more fiercely than before.
Baek Woohyun understood the reaction they showed.
After all, the security guards were as hateful to Test Subjects as Etinels, or perhaps even more so.
The reason was simple.
Because the security guards were human.
Not emotionless machines that acted according to orders like Etinels, but humans who acted with their own thoughts and emotions.
Anyone who knew how cruel human malice could become when dealing with the weak would have guessed what that meant.
The security guards were trash who couldn’t help but be more cursed to Test Subjects than Etinels…
“……!”
Baek Woohyun’s inverted eyes flashed with ferocious light.
The rage and resentment the specters held returned his mind to when he was in that world.
To that time when uncontrollable murderous intent writhed inside him.
The ‘Superhuman’ threw himself savagely at the enemy, leaving his body to his impulses.
“Don’t let him get close!”
“Bind his legs!”
The security guards aimed their gun muzzles at Baek Woohyun.
Baek Woohyun glared at the ends of the pitch-black gun muzzles with narrowed eyes. Concentration raised to the limit made even the world he saw slow down.
A rampage of senses created by synchronization rate exceeding limits, possible because this was virtual reality!
An ordinary person would have been flustered by this bizarre phenomenon.
But Baek Woohyun wasn’t. Because even this was a familiar experience to him from the start.
Over there too, when deeply immersed in combat, the ‘slowed world’ would occasionally visit like this.
‘Four enemies remain.’
In a world where even the speed of thought couldn’t reach.
Baek Woohyun judged and acted instinctively.
His sharpened senses clearly ‘felt’ the security guards’ fingers wriggling to pull the rifle triggers.
Because in the slowed world, the range of the five senses far exceeded the normal level.
Moreover, he was in a state where his physical abilities had increased very greatly with [Perfect Being], and senses were included in that.
The area was already practically his domain!
Therefore, he could stomp his feet hard just before the security guards pulled their triggers.
──!
Ta-da-da-dang!
This time too, as expected, the bullets the rifles poured out merely pierced empty air futilely.
However, perhaps having experienced the same situation several times already, the security guards no longer showed the disgrace of being flustered and not knowing what to do.
Instead, they chose to turn their gun muzzles following Baek Woohyun while pulling the triggers.
They’d truly fired guns recklessly.
Without caring about how many bullets were wasted.
“──!”
Baek Woohyun roared savagely and kicked off the ground again.
He vividly felt the bullets closely chasing his back.
If not for the physical abilities increased by [Perfect Being], he would have inevitably been swept up in the hail of bullets.
Then he might have suffered great damage to his particle barrier, or perhaps it would have been neutralized entirely.
His inverted eyes shone vividly as he became conscious again of the fact that he was running on the boundary between life and death.
The existence beyond human raised murderous intent even more fiercely.
‘I’ll kill them all!’
If the researcher Baek Woohyun had killed in the past were here, he would have said.
That that was the true Transcendent the research facility had tried to create even while literally grinding up hundreds of people.
That Project: Transcendence had begun solely for that one existence.
Cheolkeok! Cheolkeok!
“Reloading!”
“N-no!”
The price for firing guns frantically came quickly.
It was natural since the magazines of the rifles the security guards had weren’t infinite.
They spat out urgent cries while attempting to reload, but Baek Woohyun wasn’t one to leave that alone.
The distance was already close enough.
It was enough for his blow to reach.
Seogeok!
A dagger held in Baek Woohyun’s hand as if by magic at some point cut through one security guard’s neck.
Then the next, and the next security guards’ necks as well.
It took merely a few seconds for him to tear the necks of four security guards and drive them to death.
The enemies were too weak to face him, who had gained physical abilities that increased very greatly through [Perfect Being].
Standing over the corpses once called security guards, he exhaled lengthily. It was a face showing somewhat weary signs.
Well, maintaining extremely heightened concentration was absolutely not an easy thing, so it made sense.
Fighting enemies with guns head-on in that state even more so.
‘More—’
But if asked whether such fatigue could stop Baek Woohyun, it couldn’t.
The specters, still unsatisfied, were crying out.
As long as their wishes existed, the ‘Superhuman’ would absolutely never stop.
‘I’ll kill more.’
“……”
Baek Woohyun slowly raised his head.
His inverted eyes with black and white reversed stared at the collapsed corridor.
There were enemies to kill beyond there.
Then, there was only one thing for him to do.
The existence beyond human advanced scattering death.
***
—Let me give you one piece of advice. You’d better not do things beyond your means. Whatever that may be.
“Shut up! I know that too!”
—ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—’Things beyond your means’
—They’re saying you’re not qualified to do no assist, you knowㅋㅋ
—Still, seems like she held out pretty well though ㄲㅂ
Kang Soyul shouted with a face full of anger.
After stubbornly holding out against the Etinel and ultimately being defeated, then being beaten like a dog, those were the words the researcher had spouted, so it made sense to be angry.
Things beyond her means. Who did they think wanted to challenge clearing the tutorial mission with no assist?
Of course, she’d directly chosen it of her own will to receive 150,000 won, but anyway!
“They tell you to fight without any explanation in the first place! And they even ambush you cowardly!”
—Honestly this is a bit forced hate
—Etinel with just one Core Element is kinda tough;
—ㄹㅇ You need to be pro-level to win here
—Even pros lose a lotㅋㅋㅋㅋ
While Kang Soyul grumbled, the researcher spat out lines according to the predetermined storyline, and naturally the attack by government agents also proceeded.
As an aside, she sneered “Serves you right!” after hearing the researcher’s scream. The viewers watching her filled the chat window with ridicule.
—This message is for the wronged victims trapped in the research facility.
—We ask that you come outside with all your might right now.
—Please somehow join up with us.
Kwagwang—!
—If you wish to regain your freedom, you must not wait idly.
—Move, quickly!
Kwagwagwagwang—!
A massive explosion that occurred simultaneously with the end of the words of the woman who attacked the research facility.
Kang Soyul calmly accepted the blackout effect that occurred simultaneously with the feeling of the ground sinking.
Because as a virtual reality game specialist broadcaster who had played numerous virtual reality games, she was very accustomed to such situations.
Soon when the status effect ended and she moved searching for a path, when she received a radio from the man in front of the armory, it was the same.
She skillfully proceeded with the game while chattering throughout. When someone asked about this through a donation, her answer was this.
“Compared to hipster pick games where you don’t know where they’ll bounce, is it easy to predict?”
—Experience trained through hipster pick gamesㄷㄷ
—It is easier compared to the games she played before
—There, things are so inconsistent…
—I understand now. Your levels… I want to die because they’re so trivial
Kang Soyul, who had been proceeding through the tutorial like breaking bamboo, stopped when she came out after thoroughly gathering weapons from the armory.
It was because a system message suddenly appeared before her.
[Starting automatic party matching for tutorial mission, 「Research Facility Escape」]
[Party matching in progress—]
Basically, all missions in Reverse Planet recommended party units composed of 4 people, and this applied to tutorial missions as well.
For that reason, before she formally started the 「Research Facility Escape」 mission, matching to gather other members began.
Of course, she could ignore this and proceed.
Just because it said matching didn’t mean she couldn’t proceed with the game.
However, as soon as the system message announcing party matching appeared, Kang Soyul immediately stopped in place with gleaming eyes. Because a flash of ‘maybe?’ passed through her mind.
“Even if I clear it together with party members through matching, it still counts as a clear, right?”
—Ey that’s too easy
—Lolㅋㅋ Acknowledge the busㅋㅋ
—If you knew how tutorial matching works, you couldn’t say thatㅎ
—It won’t match anyway ㅅㄱ
“What do you mean it won’t match? Why?”
Kang Soyul tilted her head.
Because she didn’t understand some viewers’ chats saying it wouldn’t even match.
Reverse Planet was a nation’s god game boasting hundreds of thousands of concurrent users on the Korean server alone. Including all world servers, it was far more.
When even the most unpopular missions were overflowing with people, how could just a tutorial mission fail to match?
She thought the viewers were lying to tease her.
Until the very next moment.
[—Party matching failed]
[Starting party matching (expanded search)]
*[Party matching (expanded search) includes missions already in progress]
“Huh.”
—See? Told you it wouldn’t work
—? But really why doesn’t it work?
—It’s because it’s tutorial matchingㅇㅇ
—It matches according to assist, so who does tutorial with no assistㅋㅋ
The culprit of the matching failure was the combat assistance percentage Kang Soyul had set.
Basically, Reverse Planet’s matching system aimed to create parties with users of similar skill levels as much as possible.
Not only PVE but also PVP—it analyzed various skill proof elements by referring to all indicators, then let similar people enjoy the game together!
But newly started users couldn’t have such elements.
Then what would the matching system use as the standard to match party members for the tutorial mission?
The answer was very simple.
Combat assistance percentage.
Because the only element that could be called a current skill standard was that.
Therefore, since no assist players only matched with no assist players, the matching she’d run couldn’t help but fail from the start.
“Wait… hold on. Then even if it matches, isn’t that a problem? If only no assists match, that means the person meeting me is also a no assist!”
—Lolㅋㅋ That’s rightㅋㅋㅋㅋ No assist partyㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—Total chaos party angleㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—It wasn’t about easy riding but having to carry themㅋㅋ
—If you clear with no assist party, I’ll acknowledge it~
Kang Soyul shouted in surprise.
Clearing the tutorial mission with a no assist party.
Wasn’t it a situation that made her mind dizzy just thinking about it?
Just as she frantically tried to end the expanded matching.
[Party matching successful]
[Joining the tutorial mission 「Research Facility Escape」 already in progress]
“Ah.”