Chapter 20 : Hackphysical
Chapter 20 Hackphysical
Hwaryeok—
Baek Woohyun’s two eyes began burning white.
Simultaneously, his mind, which had been half-floating somewhere, was sharpened to an infinite degree.
Just as it had been in that other world.
Thus he became more delicate, more precise.
It was a very slight change that was hard to readily notice, but because of it, Etinel had to face slightly heavier impacts.
If things continued this way, the one to ultimately grasp victory wouldn’t be Etinel—
“······?!”
—Just when he thought that, Etinel suddenly disappeared from before Baek Woohyun’s eyes.
He, who had just been about to extend his fist for a counterattack, frowned.
Wondering if it had hidden itself using some technique he didn’t know, he concentrated his senses, but there was nothing to be felt.
Etinel had truly evaporated from where it had been fighting. It was absolutely impossible without external intervention.
And there were only two externals here.
“······.”
After standing still for a moment, Baek Woohyun slowly turned around.
Shiver!
“Uh?!” “─!”
Kang Soyul and Park Geumhyeon approaching Baek Woohyun.
The moment the two made eye contact with him, they flinched at an inexplicable sense of pressure and stopped.
Their instincts were ringing alarm bells saying ‘don’t get close!’ As if trying to stop themselves from approaching a truly fearful existence.
Or like the body of prey freezing before a predator they absolutely couldn’t handle.
“······What’s the matter?”
Seeing the two’s appearance, Baek Woohyun, who had calmly steadied his breathing, asked.
“Since sufficient time for verification had passed, I removed the training bot, but···.”
Park Geumhyeon, who had barely escaped from the suffocating presence, answered with an awkward smile.
Only then did Baek Woohyun, reminded that this had been a battle necessary for verification, relax his body. He’d been so absorbed in fighting that he’d even forgotten the reason for fighting.
In the first place, victory or defeat in this fight wasn’t particularly important. It had been sufficient to just fight for a longer time.
“I see.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Park Geumhyeon nodded along while still wearing an awkward smile at Baek Woohyun, who was bobbing his head.
Then Kang Soyul interjected around the time they were smiling at each other soullessly.
“—So what’s the verification result?”
“Ah. I forgot to mention it. As a result of verification, we could clearly confirm that no external program was involved.”
“That means···.”
“Yes. The combat Baek Woohyun-nim showed was purely Baek Woohyun-nim’s ability, not aided by an external program. Simply put, it’s not a hack.”
—why isn’t this a hack?? why the hell??
—if you really don’t understand why it’s not, upvote lol
—ㄱㅊ
—ㄱㅊ
—ㄱㅊ
—by dev official statement, it’s proven not to be a hack after all
—breaking news) the ReTime post that first accused him of hacking was deleted
“As expected!”
Kang Soyul clapped her hands as if she’d known it.
Park Geumhyeon, who glanced at her excitedly teasing the viewers with “You saw that, right? Right?”, extended his hand toward Baek Woohyun.
“Thank you for readily accepting the verification request and cooperating.”
“It was nothing.”
“Haha, I’m even more grateful if you say so. I’ll post the related materials separately on the website. Just in case anyone has doubts.”
Park Geumhyeon stepped back with a bright smile.
Then, as he snapped his fingers, bright light swept the surroundings just as it had before.
The walls and ceiling of the personal training room disappeared as if collapsing, and what replaced them was the original forest scenery where they had been.
“Baek Woohyun-nim, Kang Soyul-nim, and the viewers currently watching the broadcast. I hope you’ll continue to love Reverse Planet, and with that, I’ll take my leave.”
“Yes! Thank you for your work!”
“Thank you for your work.”
“—Have an enjoyable Reverse Planet.”
Having finished his farewell, Park Geumhyeon walked into a faint cluster of light that appeared in midair.
It was an exit in the same manner as his initial appearance.
Kang Soyul, who had been watching with a smiling face, suddenly turned her head toward the broadcast screen.
“Now then···.”
Kang Soyul smiled brightly as if to show off.
With a cheok, she crossed her arms and asked.
“Now, is there anyone who still wants to claim Woohyun-nim is a hacker?”
—there’s no way lol
—if you still parrot about hacks after this, aren’t you just thick-headed
—how are you gonna beat dev official statement with brain speculation~
—even trolls skip this one for real
The chat window’s answer to Kang Soyul’s confident question was naturally ‘no.’
Who could continue parroting about hacks when even Planet Earth Korea’s Team 1 Operations Manager had come and publicly declared it wasn’t a hack?
Seeing the chats obediently acknowledging it wasn’t a hack, she raised her nose with a triumphant face.
“I clearly told you before starting, didn’t I? That malicious rumors filled with malice created only by brain speculation without proper evidence are called vicious rumors. Woohyun-nim just has physicality that doesn’t seem human!”
—acknowledge vicious rumor
—physicality that doesn’t seem human lol
—does anyone know why she’s getting more worked up?
—I’ve seen people talking about hackphysical or whatever before, this seems like real hackphysical
“Hackphysical? Wow, that’s a pretty good expression. Right. It’s just hackphysical. Not using hacks, but having physicality that looks like hacks. Everyone remember this well! Got it?”
Finding a word she liked among the passing chats, Kang Soyul said with a cackle.
Though she had no particular thought about it, this was the moment ‘hackphysical’ settled as the nickname representing Baek Woohyun going forward.
“I wanted to say exactly that when they were framing Woohyun-nim as a hacker on ReTime, you know? The calm before the storm. Whether you guys suck or I suck, the results will tell! And the results told us, right? You suck~”
“···Haha.”
—but why is she getting more excited?
—anyway she’s cute so it’s fine······
—the person who was actually suspected of hacking is just standing there lol
—what’s with that oppa smile in the back lol
To the viewers, Kang Soyul’s appearance, acting all proud as if she herself had been cleared of false accusations, seemed both cute and comical.
What was even more amusing was that Baek Woohyun was watching such a Kang Soyul from behind like a young sister acting cute.
However, this strange dynamic didn’t last long.
Kang Soyul, who had been excitedly bragging, belatedly realized her disgraceful behavior and came to her senses.
Checking herself on the broadcast screen, she let out an “Ahem!” cough and tried to act nonchalant. Shamelessly, as if she’d never made a fuss.
Not that it meant much when her earlobes were dyed red.
—we all saw it, what’s the point now
—her getting excited alone was hilarious lol
—the way she went on about sucking was so mesugaki-like!
—mesugaki? get out, otaku!
—aren’t you the same otaku for knowing that? (genuinely don’t know)
“Anyway, today’s broadcast ends here! It’s a bit short, but since I turned it on for clarification purposes, it can’t be helped.”
—? no why end the broadcast already
—you haven’t even been on for an hour;;
—now that you’ve clarified, continue with the story ㄱㄱ
—you’re ending the broadcast here?? are you crazy??
—I just got here!
The viewers who heard the broadcast end declaration cried out. Saying that once the clarification content ended, shouldn’t they just continue with the story progression right away?
It was a natural reaction if it was natural. Where else could they see someone with insane physicality enough to be accused of hacking from a single broadcast appearance?
Unless they appeared regularly on future broadcasts, but there’d been no such talk, so wanting to watch as much as possible while they could wasn’t particularly strange.
‘I want to keep broadcasting too!’
Kang Soyul understood the viewers’ reaction too.
Did she only understand? Just as they said, she desperately wanted to continue on to story progression like this.
Any personal broadcaster probably would have.
If they saw the viewer count with the number of a whopping hundred thousand displayed.
‘A hundred thousand!’
No matter that she’d attracted attention by announcing a clarification broadcast and that the Planet Earth Korea Operations Manager had even appeared, it was truly an astonishing number.
It was no exaggeration to say her broadcast had essentially sucked in not only all the floating viewers currently existing, but even viewers from other broadcasts.
Though the numbers had been decreasing at a slow pace since Park Geumhyeon’s exit, at least tens of thousands would still continue watching the broadcast.
For a personal broadcaster where viewer count directly translated to income, this was truly a tremendous opportunity.
‘The problem is··· I only asked permission up to the clarification.’
This was Baek Woohyun who’d refused to appear on broadcasts in the first place. Asking him to appear on a broadcast for clarification purposes was all the courage Kang Soyul could muster with such a person.
Of course, she could vaguely continue the broadcast even now or ask for separate permission······ but how could she do that when they’d watched that chat window together when he was being framed as a hacker?
A person has a conscience—how could she ask him to do more broadcasting together after seeing those raw curses and criticisms?
‘—Hmm, giving up!’
Still, Kang Soyul, who had checked Baek Woohyun’s expression just in case, cleanly gave up.
She couldn’t see even room for persuasion in him as he scanned the chat window with a sunken face.
She judged that rather than dragging things out trying to persuade him here, it would be better to cut it off cleanly and end it.
So that she’d be remembered with a good image by him and could be favorably considered when she made another casting offer later.
“Woohyun-nim originally said he wouldn’t appear on broadcasts. He came out unavoidably because of the hack controversy. So there’s no broadcast extension! Today’s broadcast ends here!”
As Kang Soyul cut it off firmly, the chat window opinion also turned to resignation like ‘then it can’t be helped···.’
A few viewers clicked their tongues asking why she was kicking away such a good opportunity, but as they say, even the Pyeongan governor quits if he doesn’t want to.
Moreover, unless one was trying to become a personal broadcaster, appearing before a hundred thousand people wasn’t particularly a good opportunity either.
“Lastly, Woohyun-nim! Please say a word!”
“···Thank you for your work.”
“Yep! Thank you for your work! Then today’s broadcast ends here! Thank you for watching!”
—Kang-ba~
—at least do one PVP match before you go!!
—if you give up, it’s easy···
—bb
And so the broadcast finally ended.
As the camera light indicating live broadcasting turned off, Kang Soyul let out a long sigh. Even for her, who had been broadcasting for quite a while, this broadcast had been considerably nerve-wracking.
Well, who wouldn’t be? It was having to clarify the worst controversy of hacking before a whopping hundred thousand people.
No matter how invisible those people were, that level of number was pressure in itself.
‘Ah!’
Kang Soyul, who’d been calming her pounding heart, hurriedly turned her head. Now wasn’t the time for this. Relief could wait.
Right now she had to be concerned about Baek Woohyun, for whom this was only his second broadcast. Setting aside whether there was really need for that.
“You worked so hard! Were there any uncomfortable points during the broadcast?”
“There weren’t.”
“Really?”
“···? Yes. Really.”
Though Kang Soyul asked again while cautiously gauging his reaction, Baek Woohyun was sincere.
Contrary to her worry, the raw curses seen in the chat window weren’t left in his mind even a bit. Really, not even a little bit.
He was someone who’d scraped the bottom in that other world and even became a contract worker. Naturally he’d directly heard even more fierce and terrible curses than this many times.
There was no way such a person would be hung up on mere chats typed beyond a screen.
‘Phew—’
Kang Soyul, who didn’t know that, let out another sigh of relief inwardly.
Anyway, it was fortunate that Baek Woohyun hadn’t become completely sick of broadcasts due to dirty chats.
All the more so since she planned to definitely invite him to her broadcast again someday.