Chapter 64 : Pet Update
Chapter 64: Pet Update
-Official special) Won’t come out
-If you submit an inquiry, they don’t answer?
-The head office never responds ㅇㅇ
-Uh, looks like there’s a problem on Hackphysical’s side right now
Around the time the debate in the studio concluded.
“······Senior, this is—”
“······Yes. It’s clearly an abnormal phenomenon.”
Baek Woohyun and Kim Hana were looking around with hardened faces. Because they realized the Reverse World wasn’t collapsing despite the boss entity dying.
Originally, Reverse Worlds were created with the boss entity’s power as the core axis. Like a shackle placed by using the opponent’s power in reverse.
Therefore, after clearing all the common and elite entities, when the appearing boss entity died too, the Reverse World that lost its core axis should collapse immediately.
‘But right now it’s not collapsing.’
There were two possibilities worth considering.
Either the dead boss wolf monster wasn’t this place’s boss entity, or an abnormal phenomenon occurred where the Reverse World didn’t collapse even with the boss entity dead.
However, Baek Woohyun, who experienced ‘over there’, and Kim Hana, a veteran agent, thought the former possibility was almost nonexistent.
If a boss entity other than the boss wolf monster existed, this place’s danger assessment grade would be at minimum B or higher.
“We need to find out the cause.”
Kim Hana drew the sword at her waist.
Though she had declared before starting the clearing that she wouldn’t step in unless it was dangerous, she couldn’t just stand by with arms folded in a situation like this.
She, who seemed to have drawn up even her supernatural ability and was wrapped in a gentle breeze, started to move her mouth while looking at Baek Woohyun, then smiled bitterly instead.
It was a reaction as if she’d realized there was no point telling him, the probationary agent, to leave the Reverse World in this kind of situation.
Shrugging her shoulders, she said.
“···Follow me.”
“Understood.”
It was clear which direction they needed to go to find out the cause of the abnormal phenomenon.
The Reverse World was spread out centered on the hillside to begin with, and the direction the boss wolf monster came from was the hilltop, so if they were going to investigate, they had to start there.
Baek Woohyun and Kim Hana, having made their judgment, headed toward the hilltop at high speed and could reach their intended location without any particular interference.
The inside of the Reverse World was extremely quiet, making their thorough preparations in case something jumped out to block them seem futile.
“···!”
‘There’s something!’
Upon reaching the hilltop, both of them widened their eyes at discovering an object that appeared to be the source of the abnormal phenomenon.
There was a round sphere that looked like condensed gray light filling the inside of the Reverse World. From its appearance, it was an object that looked like some kind of egg.
When Baek Woohyun and Kim Hana raised their weapons and took a stance to attack at any time, the sphere cracked greatly with a jjeojjeok- sound.
‘Sign of hatching!’
“Be careful since we don’t know what will come out!”
The wind wrapping around Kim Hana swirled violently. Baek Woohyun also manifested [Perfect Being] and changed both eyes to inverted eyes.
Both displayed an aura clearly showing their will to tear apart whatever came out of the gray sphere if it was hostile.
Under their fierce gazes, the cracked sphere soon completely broke and crumbled, and finally the creature inside revealed itself.
However, strangely, neither of them attacked as they had prepared.
-Kking…
Because the creature that emerged from the sphere was a tiny puppy. Moreover, a very small and cute puppy that looked like it had just been born.
-Kking, kking
“A···puppy?”
Of course, it wasn’t completely ordinary.
Just looking at the horn on its head proved that. It wasn’t something that should be on an ordinary puppy’s head, even if it was adorable.
Seeing the horn attached, it would be right to think it was an offspring of the wolf monsters that were here, but—
‘It looks way too different though?’
The puppy not only looked so gentle that it was hard to think of it as the same species as the wolf monsters, but its eye color was completely different too.
Its eyes that sparkled not with blood-red but ocean-blue contained no killing intent whatsoever.
Instead, what filled that space was pure curiosity. A gaze wanting to know what these two people looking at it were.
-Kkyiiing
Cheoek!
“······.”
Kim Hana pointed her sword at the approaching puppy with a sharp expression.
However, even at her attitude clearly displaying hostile intent, the puppy just tilted its head cutely, looking puzzled.
It was behavior as if it didn’t understand the fact it was being treated with hostility. Moreover, it seemed not to know how dangerous the sword was either.
“This is definitely an abnormal phenomenon. An otherworldly creature not hostile to humans.”
Until now, among entities sent from the other world for dimensional invasion, no life form not hostile to humans had been discovered.
Whether insect-type, beast-type, or something else, they all commonly possessed killing intent toward local life forms.
Whether it was artificially implanted through some modification or their natural instinct was unknown, but anyway, it was the clear common trait of all otherworldly creatures.
But this puppy, far from not being hostile, even gave off a friendly feeling toward them.
So it was no wonder Kim Hana, who had only fought life-or-death battles with otherworldly creatures she always encountered, was flustered.
Even Baek Woohyun was inwardly flustered by this unusual situation he hadn’t seen ‘over there’.
“···Should we kill it?”
“······.”
Kim Hana didn’t answer immediately to Baek Woohyun’s question. Perhaps complex calculations were taking place in her head.
About whether the danger of bringing an otherworldly creature outside was worth accepting to investigate the abnormal phenomenon of the Reverse World not collapsing.
After brief contemplation, she opened her mouth.
“Strictly speaking, we should kill it, but—”
Kim Hana grabbed and lifted the puppy by the scruff of its neck.
The puppy making kking sounds didn’t resist her touch.
It just looked up at her with eyes asking why she was doing this.
“—Let’s take it. If it seems dangerous, we can deal with it then.”
If the puppy had been a fully grown adult, Kim Hana’s judgment might have been different.
No matter how much one accepts risk for research, taking a wolf monster outside and heading to the Otherworld Management Bureau headquarters would truly be insane.
But the puppy she now held by the scruff was just an offspring. Unable to run properly and not looking dangerous at all.
Then it was worth accepting the risk of taking it out. Worst case, she could just slice it instantly.
“······.”
Baek Woohyun remained silent about Kim Hana’s judgment.
Honestly speaking, he was even thinking of stopping her if she tried to kill the puppy here.
Because the non-hostile otherworldly creature he’d never seen once ‘over there’ aroused considerable curiosity in him too.
‘Maybe it’s not an otherworldly creature selected as an invasion entity.’
According to the experience Baek Woohyun gained clearing numerous Reverse Worlds ‘over there’, invasion entities were fundamentally adults that had finished all growth.
It was natural since they were entities sent for invasion. There was no time to leisurely grow in enemy territory when they might have to fight immediately.
That’s why he came up with the hypothesis that the puppy might not have been sent as an invasion entity.
‘It got swept up and came along when they were sent here. ······Wait, then what was that sphere?’
Baek Woohyun, who had been making his own speculations about the puppy, soon shook his head.
It was difficult for him to establish a proper hypothesis. He was someone who fought, not a researcher.
Besides, if they took the puppy to the Otherworld Management Bureau anyway, they would research it thoroughly and tell him the answer, so there was no need to rack his brain now.
“It’s finally starting to collapse…”
“Hmm—”
“···Let’s leave.”
Baek Woohyun and Kim Hana, who exited the gradually collapsing Reverse World, immediately headed to the Otherworld Management Bureau.
And needless to say, the Otherworld Management Bureau turned upside down upon confirming the puppy the two brought.
The discovery of an otherworldly creature—or possibly such an existence—not hostile to humanity deserved to be called a tremendous discovery.
However, before long, the words from the mouth of an Otherworld Management Bureau researcher who came holding the cage containing the puppy held completely different content.
“That puppy isn’t an otherworldly creature to begin with.”
“···Yes? What do you mean?”
The question Kim Hana asked while blinking was the same as what Baek Woohyun wanted to ask.
It was clearly a creature brought from a Reverse World, yet it’s not an otherworldly creature. Then what, did a local creature enter the Reverse World and mutate?
The researcher receiving both their gazes pushed up the glasses he wore and answered.
“To classify it, you can think of it as close to a summon created by a supernatural ability.”
“A supernatural ability summon—”
“There are people who summon and control something like fire spirits with fire element supernatural abilities, right? That puppy is the same kind as those summoned spirits.”
“But neither of us has abilities related to summons.”
If it was a supernatural ability summon originating from supernatural abilities, there should be someone who summoned it.
However, Baek Woohyun couldn’t use supernatural ability techniques at all due to [Perfect Being], and Kim Hana also hadn’t learned that type of technique.
It’s not like there was anyone else in the Reverse World, so there was essentially no supernatural ability that could have produced the puppy.
“We’re speculating it originated from the Reverse World, not you two. That’s why I said it’s close to a supernatural ability summon, not defining it as one.”
“From the Reverse World…?”
“We’ll be able to tell you the details after more research progresses. For now, there are too many unproven hypotheses.”
“Well, if that’s the case— Ah, then what happens to this puppy?”
-Kking
The puppy in the cage made whimpering sounds, as if realizing it was being discussed.
The researcher looking down at the puppy shrugged his shoulders.
“It’s a novel case, but it’s not particularly dangerous, so you can do whatever you want with it. Moreover, someone who handles summons said they estimate the master imprinting is already complete.”
Baek Woohyun and Kim Hana looked at each other.
Since only the two of them were inside the Reverse World when they found the puppy, if there was a master imprinting, it must surely be one of them.
However, Kim Hana showed no reaction when she grabbed and lifted the puppy by the scruff inside the Reverse World before, so it couldn’t be her.
Thinking by process of elimination, only one person remained.
“Hmm.”
-Kkyang!
Baek Woohyun made eye contact with the puppy in the cage.
Then the puppy, its bright blue eyes filled with Baek Woohyun’s image, let out a pleased cry.
He shrugged his shoulders at the clearly different reaction, then opened the cage and lifted the puppy out, and the puppy stuck out its tongue and panted.
Just like dog breeds typically do when reunited with their master.
[‘Lightning Wolf‘ has been registered as a pet!]
And simultaneously, a system message appeared before Baek Woohyun’s eyes.
‘Lightning Wolf’—probably referring to the puppy. Though it didn’t look like that at all!—it was a system message containing content that it had become his pet.
‘Pet…?’
Baek Woohyun tilted his head.
Because a word unrelated to Reverse Planet suddenly popped up.
As far as he knew, Reverse Planet didn’t have a pet system. At most, there were supernatural ability summons like the researcher mentioned.
But now the system message was saying this puppy, ‘Lightning Wolf’, had been registered as his pet, so naturally he couldn’t help but be puzzled.
However, his doubt didn’t last very long.
[[An update server maintenance will begin in 5 minutes. We ask users currently enjoying Reverse Planet to log out in a safe location]]
Because, as if waiting for this moment, world messages delivered to everyone connected to Reverse Planet appeared in succession.