Echoes of the Reverse Planet

Chapter 99: Q&A

After Superstar N (meaning Nuclear) successfully concluded.

The people who had been chattering excitedly in various communities, as if posting reviews, came to a belated realization.

– So, what about the Q&A they said they’d do later? OTL

Even though Jeong Nayeon had clearly stated they would have a separate Q&A session, everyone had forgotten because the ending was too clean and satisfying.

Up until the audition started, they had immediately poured out all sorts of questions, and many had been eagerly waiting for after it ended.

You could say they were so focused on the content itself, which was extremely exciting, that they all lost their minds.

Of course, by the time they realized this, it was already too late. The broadcast had already ended.

As mentioned earlier, this was merely a belated realization.

It was only natural, as they remembered ‘Come to think of it, what about the Q&A?’ while chewing things over in the community after the broadcast ended.

– No, damn, I had things to ask.

– Who knows if it’ll happen if not now?

– Please accept some build questions…

The community began to overflow with people regretting having wasted the Q&A time they had barely secured.

Their frustration was only natural, as they didn’t know when Baek Woohyun would appear on a broadcast in a format other than ‘Hack Tour’ content again.

Even more so because, as soon as he started properly opening his mouth in Superstar N (meaning Nuclear~), excellent advice poured out.

‘Oh?’

One fortunate thing for them was that Jeong Nayeon, who called herself a community specter, didn’t miss their frustration.

She was someone who always checked reactions across various communities for a few hours after a broadcast.

Thanks to that, she clearly saw the lamentations of those who missed this Q&A time.

“Today, before we start, we’ll have a Q&A session with Hackphysical!”

She discussed this with Baek Woohyun and succeeded in securing a brief Q&A time before the ‘Hack Tour’ content officially began.

Although she basically got his agreement with just one question asking if it was okay to do the Q&A they missed last time this time, anyway.

“After the last audition ended, many people regretted not being able to have a Q&A, so I specially persuaded Hackphysical! You know what I mean? I’ll take a moment for you all to praise me.”

“Jeong Nayeon! Jeong Nayeon! Jeong Nayeon! Jeong Nayeon!”

‘DogThatCriesIfBadAtGames’ donated ‘10000 won’!

[Great Nayeon]

– Kya Iguoguoden Kya Iguoguoden

– Amazing. The persuasion we would have given up on long ago… I respect Jeong Nayeon-nim who overcame countless forced hate and persuaded… (Copy after deleting this part)

– Mom, I want to grow up to be Jeong Nayeon! Mom, I want to grow up to be Jeong Nayeon!

– As expected of a community specter, immediately catches what’s wanted.

“······.”

Baek Woohyun watched with a faint smile as Jeong Nayeon preened, Cha Seongcheol subtly responded to her, and the chat window started spamming excitedly.

He believed his current self lacked the ability to host a broadcast and thus refused to step forward as a broadcaster, but that didn’t mean he disliked broadcasting itself.

There was no reason to dislike an atmosphere where you could laugh and chatter like fools, like now.

In fact, back when he was an ordinary university student, he sometimes watched personal streams. Although his memory of who he watched back then is fuzzy now…

“Alright, alright, that’s enough! Hey, Soko made da! (That’s enough!)”

– “Soko made da” total nonsense

– Is this person Japanese?

– Otaku characteristic: Japanese speaking

– Probably picked that up from some community too.

“Uh-oh, if this continues, I might have to send Hackphysical back. Want to try that once?”

Baek Woohyun moved after seeing Jeong Nayeon, who was subtly gesturing at him, having watched her threat, the chat’s rebuttals, and the subsequent back-and-forth.

She, having calmed the somewhat overheated atmosphere, called for Baek Woohyun.

“Hello. I am Baek Woohyun.”

– Who made the build you use??

– What’s the reason for playing the game with no buffs?

– Aren’t you thinking of debuting as a pro player?

– Can’t you just open your own stream?

– So many questions;

Once Baek Woohyun’s face appeared, the chat speed became several times faster than before. As if unable to wait even a moment, all sorts of questions poured in.

It was a speed that made Jeong Nayeon and Cha Seongcheol, who were watching the chat, marvel. Similar to when Baek Woohyun achieved incredible feats during ‘Hack Tour’ content.

You could take it as meaning viewers held great interest in Baek Woohyun.

“There are so many questions, so I’ll choose appropriately. Who says I can do as I please? Of course, as I please. Now, shall we start with the first question: ‘Who made the build you use?’!”

“Hmm.”

– Abuse of authority lolololol

– Pick my questionㅓㅓㅓㅓㅓ

– Ah lol, if you’re jealous, become friends with Hackphysical lolololol

*- 100% made by a pro builder, or I’ll eat my shoe.*

Discussions about the creator of Baek Woohyun’s current build existed for various reasons.

Because looking at the crafted structure of the build, you clearly felt the touch of a pro builder, or at least someone with similar ability.

The conspiracy theory that once circulated in the community—’Baek Woohyun is a secret weapon being raised by a pro team’—was also due to this.

Because the disclosed build showed the meticulousness unique to a build refined over a long time for one person.

However, such conspiracy theories didn’t last long.

Because no plausible answer emerged to the question: why keep such a monster as Baek Woohyun as a secret weapon instead of debuting him and having him join the team immediately?

Regardless of team chemistry or whatever, with the physical prowess Baek Woohyun shows, he could easily play an ace role even in the starting lineup, so there’d be no reason not to debut him.

“The build I currently use is one I made myself.”

– For real??

– No lie?

– Where’s the person who said they’d eat their shoe?

– Let’s ban until they post proof on the cafe.

Baek Woohyun’s answer was the truth without a hint of exaggeration.

The ‘Superhuman’ build he currently uses was one he personally built piece by piece from scratch through extreme hardship ‘over there’.

However, as always, he couldn’t talk about ‘over there’, so he had to mix in a bit of a lie.

“I looked into the Core Elements and sub-elements before starting the game, and I conceived and made a build with a suitable combination for me.”

“Oh, then did you choose [Perfect Being] because of no buffs?”

“That’s correct.”

Baek Woohyun nodded.

Anyway, this wasn’t a completely wrong answer either.

Because ‘over there’, due to the lack of buffs, he chose [Perfect Being] as his first Core Element.

– I see, that’s why.

– No buffs indeed lean towards close-combat builds.

– ‘It’s more comfortable to just fight with your body than using supernatural ability skills’ this is for real.

– The person above probably never tried no buffs lol.

“Let’s do the second question: ‘Aren’t you thinking of debuting as a pro player?'”

“No.”

“A firm answer! Hackphysical has absolutely no intention of becoming a pro player!”

“This is very regrettable from my perspective as well.”

– Ah why

*- Day 1 of praying for Hackphysical’s pro debut.*

– Please debut and save our teamㅜㅜ

– Wanted to see him face off against Battler.

After that, various questions continued.

Perhaps because he said he made the build himself, there were quite a few questions about builds, and there were also questions about whether he had tried other builds.

Baek Woohyun answered that he hadn’t used others, but when conceiving his current build, he did examine other builds as well. Because that’s what he actually did in Reverse Planet.

“There’s a question: ‘Is your current account your main account?’. I think I can answer this one. Yes. It’s my main account!”

“How do you know that, Nayeon-ssi?”

“Well, I know because I was the one who suggested the ‘tasting’ in the first place. Woohyun doesn’t really play games and only occasionally did ‘Colosseum’.”

– You can tell from the way he plays it’s his first time, yep yep.

– If this is his main account, then he’s a real talent chaser.

– Curious about the Colosseum account too.

– He said he was a ranker, so maybe we can find it if we look.

“‘Any plans to try other games?’ is something I’m curious about too. Woohyun tends to only play one game and doesn’t really touch others much.”

“If the opportunity arises—”

Baek Woohyun gave an answer leaving some room, but he had absolutely no intention of doing so anytime soon.

He hadn’t even fully unraveled the secrets related to Reverse Planet yet, how could he touch other games?

He had too much to look into: Anonymous Viewer 62, the strangely connected story, the relationship between ‘over there’ and Reverse Planet, etc.

“Alright, that’s it for today’s Q&A!”

– Ah

– Why ignore my question?

– Not allowed!! Build questions left!!

– Q&A “Complete”

Jeong Nayeon decisively cut off the Q&A session which was starting to drag on.

She understood many questions had piled up, but they couldn’t just keep doing Q&A forever.

There were more people waiting for ‘Hack Tour’ content than those waiting for Q&A.

‘Starting to see questions asking when it will start, too.’

“Then, I’ll take my leave.”

After Baek Woohyun, who stood up from his seat, disappeared, he soon appeared in the familiar hologram video as always.

Revealing himself inside the Otherworld Management Bureau headquarters—the location where he had ended the previous ‘Hack Tour’ content—he leisurely moved towards his dormitory room.

Because the mission details he had seen earlier said ‘Go to the dormitory and rest’.

[Mission 「Response to Large-scale Rampage Incident」 Complete!]

[Level has increased!]

[Gained 1 Supernatural Ability Point!]

“······.”

As Baek Woohyun entered his room, messages announcing mission completion and level up appeared. He was only now settling the mission he had completed in the last broadcast.

Perhaps because there was no more reason to stay after receiving the rewards, his smartphone immediately started ringing from his pocket as he left the room.

Like other games often do, they probably judged his brief action of going in and out as ‘having rested sufficiently in the room and then coming outside’.

‘Kim Cheol?’

The caller was the current Team 1 leader and the future director of the Otherworld Management Bureau, Korea’s strongest Awakener, Kim Cheol.

The fact that he suddenly called Baek Woohyun like this surely meant progress for the next mission.

“I’ve answered the call.”

“Agent Baek Woohyun. Are you currently inside the headquarters?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Good. Then I have something to discuss regarding this large-scale rampage incident. Come to the Team 1 meeting room.”

“Understood.”

“Alright. Ah, wait! That document—”

Click.

Baek Woohyun shrugged while looking at the disconnected call.

Seems he was quite busy due to the large-scale rampage incident.

Well, all matters related to Reverse Worlds fell under the Otherworld Management Bureau’s responsibility, so in a situation where multiple Reverse Worlds ramped up at once like this, they would have no time to breathe.

Considering that civilian damage even occurred this time, it was only natural that Kim Cheol, as Team 1 leader, didn’t even have the spare moment for a long call.

‘I wonder if I’ll get cursed at here too for failing to stop the large-scale rampage, just like ‘over there’.’

While heading towards the Team 1 meeting room, memories of when a large-scale rampage incident occurred ‘over there’ surfaced in Baek Woohyun’s mind.

Even though large-scale rampages were accidents, not man-made disasters, and results of invasions from the other side, the Otherworld Management Bureau got cursed out a lot.

People said it happened because they didn’t manage properly before, or that they messed up the job, etc.

The funny thing was, it continued even after the fact was revealed that it was a phenomenon caused by excessive dimensional erosion attempts from the other side.

It seemed they chose the Otherworld Management Bureau as a target to blame for the damage they suffered—but they didn’t seem to know that wasn’t a very wise judgment.

Seeing as talk about how it shouldn’t be that way only started after many agents whose mental states broke down quit in droves.

“······.”

In the meeting room he arrived at, just like when he came before, Kim Cheol was reading documents with a serious expression.

From a quick glance, it seemed to be content summarizing civilian damage, and it appeared the damage was quite significant in places other than where Baek Woohyun had directly been dispatched.

Soon, letting out a sigh, he wrote something down on the document and spoke upon seeing Baek Woohyun enter the meeting room.

“Hmm. You’re here. Have a seat first.”

“Yes.”

As Baek Woohyun sat as instructed, Kim Cheol put down the pen and leaned back in his chair. He looked quite fatigued.

It was understandable, as the Team 1 leader, having personally gone out to fight and then handling paperwork afterward.

After briefly rubbing his eyelids and sighing, he opened his mouth.

“It’s nothing else. I called you because of the invader you caught.”