Chapter 22 : Zone 1
Chapter 22: Zone 1
“······.”
Baek Woohyun’s gaze, which had been examining the surroundings, soon became fixed as if nailed to the hologram map.
The island in the map was divided into a total of fourteen zones, with names displayed prominently in each zone.
Zone 1: Military Base, Zone 2: Harbor, Zone 3: School, and so on.
While he was looking at the map, Jeong Nayeon, who had familiarly pulled over a chair and plopped down, spoke.
“Right! And can I record today’s PVP?”
“Record? Why?”
“Why else. I’m going to upload it to iTube. Even if you won’t do broadcast guests, you’ll allow that much, right? Huh? Please allow it~”
“Get off.”
Baek Woohyun firmly detached Jeong Nayeon, who was clinging to him.
She occasionally acted cute by clinging like this when asking him for something, and if left alone, she’d keep repeating the same thing until he gave in.
Just look at right now. Despite being firmly detached, wasn’t she revealing her will to cling again and push through her demand at the slightest opportunity?
“I’ll allow it, so stop.”
“Yes!”
Watching the cheering Jeong Nayeon, Baek Woohyun shook his head.
Still, he had no intention of withdrawing his permission.
In a situation where he’d refused to appear as a guest on her broadcast, refusing even recording would prick his conscience.
“Then tell me when you finish composing your build! I’ll start matching right away.”
“Okay.”
Baek Woohyun, who nodded, opened the supernatural ability setting window.
Then, without hesitation, he began selecting various Core Elements and sub-elements with the given supernatural ability points.
Since the build he’d refined over ten-some years was already in his head, the speed was very fast.
So fast that the work of composing the build ended in barely a few minutes.
“I’m done.”
“···Already?”
“I’m just selecting what I remember.”
“Well, that’s true. Anyway, okay! I’ll start matching!”
Jeong Nayeon immediately started PVP matching.
The content selected was ‘Survival’ as discussed earlier.
As befitting the national god game that firmly held the number 1 concurrent users, matching didn’t take very long.
[Successfully matched to PVP ‘Survival’ mode game]
[Please select starting point]
“Where do you want the starting point? If you’re not sure, I’ll just decide.”
“You decide.”
As Baek Woohyun handed over the choice, Jeong Nayeon immediately pointed to one place on the hologram map.
Zone 1, Military Base.
[Starting point has been determined as Zone 1: Military Base]
Military Base.
This was a zone many people preferred as a starting point because various high-grade equipment appeared evenly.
And that also meant it was a place where people flocked and fought brutally from the beginning.
Even though it was a zone avoided by anyone not quite confident in combat, Jeong Nayeon chose it without a moment’s hesitation.
Pshiik—
Having decided even the starting point that way, soon the floor opened and two cylindrical capsules rose upward.
[Please enter the starting point transporter]
*[If you do not enter the transporter within the remaining time, game participation will be automatically cancelled]
[Time remaining until game start: 60 seconds]
“As expected, the first game’s rule is to just fight at the Military Base.”
“Was there such a rule?”
“Originally it was a ‘Ground Zero’ rule, but now it’s become a Reverse Planet Survival mode rule!”
Jeong Nayeon, who said it changed as Reverse Planet became tremendously popular and PVP content also gained tremendous popularity, shrugged her shoulders.
Tapping her hands, she slipped right into the cylindrical capsule, and Baek Woohyun also followed her and moved his steps to the transporter beside it.
“Let’s finish farming quickly then meet up. I’ll mark where to meet. If you encounter enemies midway, request support while gauging whether to fight.”
“Got it.”
“You can take them alone if you can. Seeing today’s broadcast, you’d probably chew through most of them anyway.”
The two who entered the transporters briefly discussed strategy for this game.
Mostly, only Jeong Nayeon was the one talking.
[Time remaining until game start: 0 seconds]
[—Starting game]
Wiiing—
The moment the countdown displayed by system message ended, the open cylindrical capsule door closed.
What followed briefly after was a faint floating sensation.
At the sensation like riding an elevator and sharply descending then ascending, Baek Woohyun twisted his lips.
“Oho.”
‘Interesting.’
Around five seconds passed.
The stopped transporter disassembled with a clattering sound and sank to the floor. Then a distinctly changed scenery entered Baek Woohyun’s eyes.
Old ceiling and walls, half-broken glass windows, military symbols proving this was a military base, followed by equipment scattered haphazardly on the floor.
Adding to that, another player who’d just noticed him and was looking this way.
“······.”
“······Huh?”
While the coincidence of perfectly overlapping starting points was rare, it wasn’t completely absent.
Especially when it was a popular zone in various ways like the Military Base, all the more so.
Since where you arrived through the transporter was random to the end, if many people selected that zone, they could be transported to the same place.
That fact was something both Baek Woohyun and the enemy player were aware of.
However, even being aware of it, not being flustered and acting when really faced with that situation wasn’t an easy thing.
Therefore, it wasn’t completely incomprehensible that the enemy player couldn’t respond immediately and was spacing out. It was naturally understandable.
Of course, whether Baek Woohyun would tolerate that was another matter—
Tat!
Baek Woohyun kicked off the ground and charged the moment he made eye contact with the enemy player.
His flashing eyes had already changed to inverted eyes. Unlike the dazed enemy player, he’d immediately drawn up his power.
Moreover, not just [Perfect Being] alone, but power composed of a perfect build at max level standards.
That’s why his speed was like a flash of light.
The moment he kicked off the floor, he’d already reached right before the enemy player’s nose.
“Ah!”
The enemy player belatedly let out a short scream.
However, that wasn’t a very wise action.
If he had the will to survive, he should have immediately used his supernatural ability. Not leisurely screaming.
Even if he had, it would have been impossible to respond in time, but it would have been at least better than now.
“Wai—”
Baek Woohyun had absolutely no intention of letting the enemy player who’d gathered their wits respond with their supernatural ability.
His hand, extending like a snake, snatched the enemy player’s throat, and in that moment with breath completely blocked, there was nothing the enemy could do.
They just flailed and made creaking metallic sounds.
Baek Woohyun, looking down at the enemy player with a gaze showing no emotion, soon applied strength to his hand.
Crack.
With a chilling sound, the enemy player whose neck was broken went limp.
It was a futile death without being able to put up any real resistance.
[◇ Baek Woohyun –[Kill]-> LuckyDay]
Simultaneously, a system message announced the first kill that occurred barely tens of seconds after the game started.
“······.”
Baek Woohyun looked down at the enemy player he was holding. White light powder scattered from the corpse with a broken neck.
After a brief time passed, only a human-shaped mannequin remained in his hand.
It was a phenomenon meaning the enemy player who’d experienced the misfortune of meeting a monster right as the game started had completely left this place.
Whether shocked or for some other reason, they’d even given up waiting for a teammate to revive them.
‘Well— is this the extent of it.’
Baek Woohyun, who threw down the mannequin, lightly brushed off his hands.
Even though the first encounter had led directly to the first kill, he didn’t feel any agitation.
Because this victory was utterly natural for him.
The battlefields he’d overcome were far too terrible for him to be happy about disposing of an enemy to the point he even thought the research facility guards were better.
—Jeong Nayeon: “What, why’s there already a kill?”
Did she see the kill log? A beat late, party-only voice chat from Jeong Nayeon flew in. It was a voice full of surprise.
Well, it was understandable since it was a kill that came out before even picking up a single piece of equipment yet.
No matter how much Zone 1: Military Base was a place where brutal fighting started from the beginning, cases of kills coming out within ten-some seconds of game start were rare.
Combat centered on supernatural abilities without any equipment was usually easy to escape alive from too.
—Baek Woohyun: “I ran into them right after leaving the transporter.”
Baek Woohyun answered in an indifferent tone.
His attitude suggested it wasn’t particularly significant.
It wasn’t forcing nonchalance—for him, this incident was just that level of thing.
Like not being concerned about weeds you step on while walking.
—Jeong Nayeon: “Right after leaving the transporter?”
—Baek Woohyun: “Yeah. They were right in front.”
—Jeong Nayeon: “Geez, poor thing. No luck either. How do they meet you right after coming out?”
Jeong Nayeon also pitied the enemy player’s misfortune rather than worrying about Baek Woohyun.
It was a reaction that could come out because she’d already seen some of his skill through the broadcast and knew he’d rarely be defeated.
The kill log content from the start was also about Baek Woohyun killing another player.
—Jeong Nayeon: “Anyway, got it! Contact me right away if anything happens!”
—Baek Woohyun: “Okay. See you after farming.”
Having finished his conversation with Jeong Nayeon, Baek Woohyun looked around.
Since there was no reason to keep fighting enemies barehanded, he also planned to farm equipment.
In the first place, he was stronger when holding weapons!
‘There’s nothing particular here.’
Confirming there was no notable equipment in the hallway, Baek Woohyun opened the door on the left and entered the room.
He was confident as if not thinking anyone would be inside at all, because he was detecting presences with his still-activated supernatural ability.
Unless someone had very deeply mastered techniques for hiding their presence, there was no one who could escape his sharpened senses.
“······.”
Inside the narrow room.
Baek Woohyun, who swept his eyes once over the equipment lying on the floor, narrowed his brow.
Because unlike the Military Base where various high-grade equipment supposedly appeared, it was entirely full of only white colors.
In ‘Survival’ mode, equipment was classified into ‘Common’-‘Rare’-‘Epic’-‘Legendary’ grades, and glowed white-blue-purple-orange according to grade.
Therefore, seeing only white light everywhere meant all the equipment here was entirely ‘Common’ grade.
According to the information he’d looked up in advance, ‘Common’ grade equipment was something people didn’t even touch unless things went quite wrong, yet picking that up at the Military Base?
‘There’d be no reason to do that.’
Baek Woohyun, who shook his head, immediately moved his steps.
Fortunately, places other than the first room he entered had many equipment befitting the Military Base.
Meaning ‘Epic’ grade equipment was abundant.
Various weapons of all shapes and sizes, as well as multiple armor pieces and even recovery items.
Though not enough to plaster purple from head to toe, it was enough to outfit about a third!
Considering that normally when farming ends in other zones there are about three or four ‘Epic’ grade equipment pieces, it was an achievement worthy of saying ‘As expected of the Military Base!’
Though Baek Woohyun, playing Reverse Planet’s Survival mode for the first time today, wouldn’t really know, anyway.
Hwirik.
“······.”
Baek Woohyun spun a dagger in his hand while narrowing his eyes.
The jet-black military dagger with a heavy feel was quite similar to what he’d used when he was in that place in the past. At least far more so than the dagger he’d used during the tutorial mission.
It would have been even better if there was a longsword of appropriate length, but it seemed there wasn’t one nearby. He hadn’t even expected a chain scythe since there obviously wouldn’t be one.
Around the time his primary farming was wrapping up that way.
Kwang!
Koong! Pyeoeong!
Noisy sounds began ringing from all directions.
Explosion sounds bursting out ceaselessly and even occasional cursing-mixed shouts.
Befitting those full of fighting spirit enough to set Zone 1: Military Base as their starting point, they’d begun fighting as soon as farming was somewhat complete.
Even above and below the building where Baek Woohyun was, clattering noises could be heard as if fights were breaking out.
And such fighting seemed to have swept up even Jeong Nayeon, who’d been farming separately.
Judging by her urgent voice transmitted through party-only voice chat.
—Jeong Nayeon: “Hey hey hey! Baek Woohyun! Save me! There are too many people here!”
—Jeong Nayeon: “I’m cornered and holding out right now! If you don’t come quickly, I’ll die!”