Chapter 57 : Sparring
Chapter 57: Sparring
“How good are you exactly? This place doubles as a training ground anyway… Wanna have a light spar?”
“Sure.”
Baek Woohyun gladly accepted the sparring proposal.
Ever since he came back from ‘over there’, he had only been facing opponents of rather low level in succession, so it felt like his swordsmanship was starting to rust.
Of course that wasn’t actually the case, but having a chance to reorganize his swordsmanship once through a spar with Kim Hana didn’t sound bad at all.
On top of that, a quest called 「Sparring with Kim Hana」 had just appeared, so there was even less reason to refuse.
“A spar out of nowhere here… Could this possibly be…?”
“What’s wrong?”
Jeong Nayeon asked Cha Seongcheol, who had a doubtful expression.
“The current development feels strange, that’s all.”
“You mean sparring with Kim Hana? Well— wouldn’t that be possible? She uses a sword, so she’s curious and wants to spar. I don’t see anything particularly weird about it…”
“That is possible, and it’s not strange. However—”
“However?”
“That only holds plausibility when the ‘protagonist’ is Hackphysical.”
It’s obvious, but not every player uses a sword.
In terms of ratio, those who rely purely on supernatural abilities far outnumber those who use weapons. Moreover, even among weapon users, they are further divided into people who use spears, axes, and other types besides swords.
Therefore, the development of ‘I’m curious how well you handle a sword, so let’s spar’ only gains plausibility when the story is specifically tailored around Baek Woohyun as the ‘protagonist’, not for the majority of players.
In other words, if another player were the protagonist, Kim Hana’s sparring request would become a completely out-of-the-blue development.
“It’s already been a long time since the story diverged greatly from other users, but I still thought it would somehow follow the predetermined plot—yet if it’s like this…”
Cha Seongcheol continued with a serious face.
“It also means there’s a possibility that future storylines will proceed in completely different directions depending on the player’s actions. Exactly like ‘reality’.”
-? No way
-That can’t be possible
-Even if it’s Planet Earth… hmm…
-If that actually happens it’s gonna be ㄹㅇ chaosㄷㄷ
Generally, the story of a virtual reality game follows a fixed line.
There may be some variations depending on the choices the game provides, but it is extremely rare for the player’s actions inside the game to affect the story itself.
The same was true for Reverse Planet. Dialogues changed slightly depending on mission completion grades, but the content never became completely different.
And for good reason—how could they prepare storylines tailored to every possible action a player might take?
This isn’t some old computer game limited to keyboard and mouse; in a virtual reality where you can move your body however you want, that was deemed impossible.
Yet right now, the Reverse Planet that Baek Woohyun is playing is quietly showing the possibility of that very impossibility.
“Actually, there have been this kind of foreshadowing since a while ago.”
“Foreshadowing… Ah, you mean things like the NPCs mentioning the battle during the research facility escape?”
“Exactly. Nayeon-ssi is quick to catch on. I’ve had a ‘could it be?’ feeling ever since then. Those were clearly references aimed not at an ordinary player, but specifically at ‘Hackphysical’, weren’t they?”
-Now that you mention it yeahㄷㄷ
-Goosebumps;;
-It really feels possible?
-Holy shit if the story changes depending on what I do
Thanks to Cha Seongcheol’s convincing opinion, not only Jeong Nayeon but even the viewers began to think ‘could it really…?’
There were simply too many pieces of evidence to dismiss it as mere delusion.
“Wow—.”
“Of course, this is still just a hypothesis. The probability of it actually being true is low. It could simply be minor variations triggered only under specific conditions.”
“Like how Kim Hana reacted to the keyword ‘sword’?”
“Yes. So it’s too early to conclude anything. We’ll have to watch a little longer.”
-This basically means we have to watch every live broadcast
-At this point it’s practically grabbing us by the collar and forcing us to watch
-Lol so you’re not gonna watch?
-Of course we’re watching, we have to watch
tak.
Baek Woohyun, who naturally had no way of knowing what was being discussed in the studio, caught the wooden sword Kim Hana lightly tossed to him.
Since this wasn’t a life-or-death battle but a spar to gauge skill, they used wooden swords that were placed in the training ground instead of their usual weapons.
Baek Woohyun and Kim Hana each took one wooden sword and positioned themselves at a moderate distance from each other.
“Let’s spar using only the sword, no supernatural abilities.”
“Ah. That’s impossible.”
“…? Why?”
“My supernatural ability is body enhancement, and it’s always active—even right now.”
Baek Woohyun wasn’t exactly wrong.
Even if [Perfect Being] made it impossible to use supernatural abilities in the usual sense, the enhanced physical stats themselves could still be considered part of the ability.
It could be described as a type of permanently active, body-enhancement-specialized supernatural ability that operates on a different principle from ordinary ones.
Since the same logic had worked ‘over there’—there were simply too many varieties of abilities—Kim Hana quickly accepted it.
“I see. Fine. Then I’ll use my ability moderately as well.”
The wooden sword Kim Hana gripped became enveloped in transparent wind. The same wind wrapped around her body.
As if responding, Baek Woohyun raised his own wooden sword into stance, and the moment he did, she instantly closed the distance and attempted a thrust.
shwaaaaeaeaeak!
An extremely fast and threatening charge!
This speed was only possible not just because of high raw physical ability, but because the wind coiling around her body was assisting her movements.
It was reminiscent of the Thunder God build used by the hacker sniper who had once been thoroughly crushed by Baek Woohyun.
In fact, there was a reason for the similarity: the creator of the Thunder God build had heavily referenced Kim Hana’s ability.
The concept was taken from Blue Lightning in Psychic Wars, but the build composition was borrowed from Kim Hana.
That’s why even a Wind God build that imitated Kim Hana’s ability existed.
saaaaak—
Yet Baek Woohyun easily parried Kim Hana’s wooden sword. And he did so by precisely guiding the tip of her blade away with his own upright sword.
At this extremely smooth and clean defense, Kim Hana gave a faint smile. A smile that seemed to say, ‘Yeah, you’d block something like this, right?’
She immediately withdrew her sword, spun her body gracefully as if dancing, and thrust again.
This thrust was half a beat faster than the previous one.
‘Something like this is—.’
This time Baek Woohyun didn’t stay still either.
He stepped forward boldly and thrust his own wooden sword to meet hers.
tak! The colliding wooden swords naturally became entangled, and using the strength in his wrist, he maintained the blade-on-blade contact while advancing.
It was an action that clearly showed his intent to overpower her with raw force if the opportunity arose.
Kim Hana’s response was simple.
She smoothly retreated exactly the same distance he advanced, maintaining the gap. A declaration that she had no intention of engaging in the strength contest he wanted.
Soon their locked swords separated, and Kim Hana kicked off the ground, closed the distance once more, and swung her wooden sword.
“…!”
The wooden sword wrapped in transparent wind aimed silently for Baek Woohyun’s head.
The trajectory was so vivid and clean that it could only be described as beautiful, and Baek Woohyun recalled the strike she had once aimed at him ‘over there’.
That strike had been several times faster and sharper. It had captivated him in a single moment—he could not rest until he could imitate it.
‘Yeah, that’s how it was.’
To an ordinary person, being captivated by a sword strike aimed to kill them might sound absurd.
But to someone who handles the sword, it wasn’t a particularly strange story. A sword drawing a beautiful arc through the air held that much value.
The fact that two of the top three weapons Baek Woohyun preferred were swords was also largely thanks to Kim Hana’s swordsmanship—what more needed to be said?
“fwooo—”
Was this how it felt to submit an answer to a teacher during an exam?
Baek Woohyun calmly exhaled and deflected the wooden sword aiming for his head, slowly beginning to reveal the swordsmanship he had trained in his own style.
With a slight curiosity whether she would recognize the traces of her own sword contained within it.
“hyaat!”
“ssss—”
After several exchanges of strikes, the two people fully focused on the spar gradually increased their speed.
tak! tak! tatatataka!
The sound of wooden swords clashing rang out fiercely throughout the training ground.
The spar between Baek Woohyun and Kim Hana was so eye-catching that even the others who had been training there stopped their own practice and watched as if possessed.
Of course—who wouldn’t? It was a rare sight you couldn’t see just anywhere.
Even those watching from afar, though not inside the training ground, were just as engrossed in the duel.
““······””
-wtf is that
-insane; no joke
-I thought it was just some sub-quest lol why is it so fucking awesomeㅋㅋ
-watching this makes me wanna learn swordsmanship
At first the exchanges were fierce and intense as if fiercely rejecting each other, but as time passed, the nature of the spar began to change in a strange way.
The movements of the two people exchanging blows started to resemble each other more and more. To be precise, Baek Woohyun’s sword was following Kim Hana’s sword.
As Baek Woohyun’s movements became as fluid as Kim Hana’s dance-like swordplay, the sight of the two sparring began to look exactly like a dance.
Both of them seemed aware of it, wearing somewhat similar smiles.
taat—!
“······.”
“······.”
However, a spar cannot go on forever.
As Baek Woohyun, who had not yet fully awakened his supernatural abilities, gradually began to be pushed back, Kim Hana lightly pushed his sword aside and stepped back.
Just like when they first started, they faced each other at a distance, and a satisfied air could be felt from both.
“You’re far better than I expected.”
“…Thank you.”
Baek Woohyun answered Kim Hana’s praise with a bitter smile.
Because he knew exactly how much she had been holding back in the current situation, where he had only unlocked two core elements—unlike PVP.
If she had wanted to, she could have disarmed him in an instant not long after the spar began.
The reason the spar lasted until the very end was solely because she had been teaching him, guiding him like an instructor.
‘In my current state, even if I’m generous, my win rate would be 30%— no, less than 20%.’
Baek Woohyun unconsciously calculated his odds in a real life-or-death fight and shook his head.
This wasn’t ‘over there’, and there was no reason to fight a colleague from the same Otherworld Management Bureau to the death, so it was a pointless thought.
Besides, once more time passed and he completed his build, victory would eventually be certain for him.
Judging win or loss right now held no meaning.
[Mission 「Sparring with Kim Hana」 completed!]
[Level increased!]
[Supernatural ability point 1 acquired!]
“Who did you learn your swordsmanship from?”
“My own style.”
“Your own style? Ah, of course. That would make sense.”
Kim Hana nodded awkwardly, belatedly remembering that Baek Woohyun was from the research facility.
There was no way a research facility that performed human experiments would have taught swordsmanship, so Baek Woohyun’s swordsmanship could only be self-taught.
What she found strange, however, was that this self-taught swordsmanship somehow felt similar to her own school.
It definitely wasn’t properly learned—it felt like something glimpsed and stolen from the corner of her eye.