Echoes of the Reverse Planet

Chapter 102: The Scheduled Ambush

-It’s so infuriating when they go ukkikki and mock you lol

-For ranged builds, it’s just annoying, right? For melee builds, it’s genuinely maddening.

-Who threatened you to go melee with a sword? lol

Whoosh-!

The battle began with the monkey monsters throwing stones.

While Baek Woohyun was smoking one, the creatures that had subtly surrounded him all picked up stones and threw them simultaneously.

Dozens of stones flew towards him with heavy sounds tearing through the air.

It was absolutely impossible to dismiss this as simple stone-throwing.

Because invading entities basically possess physical abilities several times stronger than ordinary beasts, the thrown stones also boasted tremendous speed.

Even the size of the thrown stones was generally about as big as a human head.

If he stood still and took those hits, it wouldn’t end with just bruises.

The force contained within them was enough to turn a person into mush.

“……”

Of course, that was only the story if he took them defenselessly.

Baek Woohyun, with his cool gaze, swung the 「Soul Eater」 consecutively. Slashes so fast that the over 2-meter blade seemed to bend momentarily followed one after another.

Amazingly, the trajectories of the blade created in this way cleaved through all the countless stones targeting him. Every single one, without missing.

Slash!

Having shattered the initial offensive, Baek Woohyun kicked off the ground and surged forward in an instant.

He reached the tree where the monkey monster was in a flash, but the creature, perhaps trusting its positional advantage, only laughed with ukkikki sounds and didn’t even run away.

Even though he should have been annoyed by that fact, he remained utterly impassive. An expression without even a twitch of an eyebrow, devoid of any emotional disturbance.

Probably because they were all creatures that would die by his hand anyway, so whatever they did didn’t matter.

He didn’t have a hobby of talking to corpses.

Perhaps because of that, even a faint smile hung on his lips. The creepy smile he often showed when dealing with enemies ‘over there’.

Slash!

Kicking off the ground again, Baek Woohyun faced the monkey monster staring at him with wide eyes on a thick tree branch.

It was a fairly high position, so when he leaped up at once and got right in front of it, it seemed astonished. He had shown it something impossible for it.

But the moment it regained its senses and tried to pounce with a shriek.

-Ugyaa-!

Swish!

The blade of the 「Soul Eater」, swung a beat faster, cleaved the monkey monster in two.

Split exactly in half from head to crotch, the creature fell from the branch it was on along with a gush of blood.

No trace of the previous mockery could be found on the severed creature’s face.

“……”

Baek Woohyun didn’t stop there.

Stepping on a branch and leaping, he moved to the next tree, and the monkey monster there was also split in half by the 「Soul Eater」 he swung.

After that, he freely traversed the treetops, severing the life threads of the monkey monsters that had been throwing stones at him from above.

In the blink of an eye, over a dozen monkey monsters died by his hand, their corpses falling to the ground along with blood.

-Ukkik!

-Ukkikki!

Some monkey monsters, judging that just throwing stones wasn’t enough, charged at him, but it was meaningless.

Because Baek Woohyun nonchalantly swung the 「Soul Eater」, cleaving them along with the trees.

It was a battle that thoroughly revealed that spatial constraints like being in the treetops were no hindrance to him.

“…Now that I think about it, Hackphysical freely moved across treetops while fighting during the 「Join Otherworld Management Bureau」 mission.”

“There was no need to worry from the start. Well, I wasn’t worried at all!”

“Same here.”

-Monkey slaughter!

-We weren’t supposed to worry about Hackphysical

-Just watch and think ‘no brain, insane’ lol

-To be a proper crisis, I guess three or four invaders need to appear at once lol

-Ugyaa!

Crunch!

-Kwooo!

As he kept cutting down monkey monsters wherever he saw them, a powerful roar came from a distance.

Sensing the power within it, Baek Woohyun stopped on a tree and turned his head towards the sound.

There, a giant black-furred gorilla, as large as a three-story building, was glaring at him with bloodshot eyes.

‘Boss entity.’

-Kwooo!

The gorilla monster, seemingly enraged at seeing the corpses of its subordinates, roared threateningly towards Baek Woohyun.

From the perspective of being invaded, it was an absurd reaction. It was like the one who farted getting angry.

If you think about it, the creature and its subordinates were the invaders, and Baek Woohyun was eliminating invaders trying to take over his world.

Even if it had intelligence, it’s doubtful the gorilla monster understood that.

“……”

Whoosh!

Baek Woohyun also had no intention of explaining his justification to it.

It was for the same reason as when the monkey monster mocked him.

Why bother talking to an enemy who would die by his hand anyway? Cutting off its breath would solve everything perfectly!

***

-Why is the boss a gorilla when monkeys appear? Wtf

-? They look alike

-Monkeys and gorillas are completely different species!!

-Yeah~ spiders also appear where insect monsters appear~

“Perhaps the species classification on Earth is different from in the otherworld!”

“Oh…”

-In the otherworld, monkeys and gorillas are the same race

-“Doesn’t sound travel in space? It does in my space.”

-Even so, monkeys and gorillas;;

-Did you know monkeys and gorillas are genetically more distant than humans and gorillas?

***

Thud thud thud!

-Kwooo!

The gorilla monster charged towards Baek Woohyun with heavy sounds.

With each step, trees colliding with it went crunch! and broke, but it showed no sign of caring.

Given its size class, such trivial obstacles posed no hindrance to its charge.

At this moment, it was an unstoppable runaway locomotive.

A ferocious momentum emanated from it, making Baek Woohyun standing before it seem puny.

In reality, the size difference was so great he was puny, but anyway.

“……”

Baek Woohyun, having leaped down from the tree, looked at the gorilla monster.

Clearly, there was quite a distance when he first noticed its presence, but in that brief time, it had noticeably gotten closer.

However, that didn’t mean he needed to rush into a response. The time needed to swing a sword was but a moment.

Crack.

Baek Woohyun, strongly gripping the 「Soul Eater」’s handle with both hands, lowered his stance.

His eyes, now transformed into inverted eyes, burned snow-white. So vividly and intensely that they stood out distinctly even in this entirely ashen-grey world.

It was a phenomenon proving that the Core Elements, including

Perfect Being

PerfectBeing, were activating to their extremes.

‘Finish it in one go.’

This Reverse World was merely an appetizer anyway.

To enjoy the main course of the scheduled ambush by the hunting dogs, he just needed to lightly enjoy this.

Then there was no reason to drag it out.

Baek Woohyun’s abilities weren’t lacking enough to need to prolong it.

Whoom-!

-Kwaaaak!

The gorilla monster that had come right before Baek Woohyun raised both arms high.

The motion clearly conveyed the intention to smash him down flat in one go, making him unrecognizable.

When a giant gorilla the size of a three-story building raised even its arms high, it alone emitted an immense sense of pressure.

Slash!

“—!”

Baek Woohyun had no intention of just waiting for its attack.

Taking a single step, he burrowed to the gorilla monster’s feet and swung the 「Soul Eater」, which he had held obliquely, with all his might.

From left to right, the blade carving a clear trajectory in the air cleaved through more than half of the ankle wrapped in stiff fur.

-Kwaak!

Squelch!

When the gorilla monster, suddenly with one ankle half-gone, staggered with a scream, Baek Woohyun mercilessly continued his attack.

Instead of climbing the gorilla monster’s huge body to target vital points, he kept slashing and slashing within the range his blade could reach.

The 「Soul Eater」, whose cutting power had increased after devouring the wolf monsters’ souls, completely mutilated the gorilla monster’s leg as he wished.

It split the ankle, tore the calf, and even severed a couple of toes.

-Kuu, Kwaak!

Crunch!

However, the gorilla monster wasn’t just taking it.

Even if its lower body was in tatters, gorillas are originally creatures with upper bodies more developed than lower bodies.

Meaning, even in a half-crouched state, wildly swinging its arms could sufficiently exert power to smash and kill a person.

The creature, adding the power emanating from its steel-like muscles, the gorilla’s characteristically long arms, and its greatly lowered posture, swept across the ground itself.

…All without even suspecting that this, too, was what Baek Woohyun wanted.

“……”

-Guk?!

Baek Woohyun wouldn’t be hit by attacks made wildly after losing composure. He calmly avoided the gorilla monster’s arm and got even closer.

This was why he wanted the injured gorilla monster to crouch down and try to attack him.

If it lowered its body to attack, it would be easier to slit its throat.

Although the attack he attempted was a thrust, anyway.

Plunge-!

-Kwaak?!

The blade of the 「Soul Eater」, thrust with all his might, plunged deep into the gorilla monster’s blood-red eye, left defenseless.

So deeply that not only the over 2-meter blade, but even Baek Woohyun’s arm holding the handle went in almost up to the shoulder socket.

Behind the eye was, of course, the brain, and given the 「Soul Eater」’s length, it was impossible not to reach.

On top of that, Baek Woohyun even shoved his arm in, thrust, and then churned it wildly, so the wound was undoubtedly fatal.

-Kwa? Gurgle…

Letting out a bizarre groan from the sensation of its brain being churned, the gorilla monster soon went limp.

However, Baek Woohyun, not reassured, as if performing a confirmation kill, stabbed the 「Soul Eater」 several more times before pulling out the blade.

The reason was that large creatures boasted such tenacious vitality that simply going limp from loss of strength wasn’t enough to be sure.

‘Simple enough.’

Brushing off the vitreous humor of the gorilla monster from the 「Soul Eater」 and his arm, Baek Woohyun thought indifferently.

Aside from its huge size, it didn’t have any special abilities, so it wasn’t that difficult.

Of course, that was from his perspective. For an ordinary person, the gorilla monster’s huge size would feel like an insurmountable mountain.

‘So now… time for the main course?’

Having sufficiently enjoyed the appetizer that was the Reverse World, it was now time to deal with the scheduled ambush by the hunting dogs.

Baek Woohyun, having finished cleansing, exited through the remaining passageway. Soon after he emerged, the entrance shriveled and disappeared.

It was the general vanishing process of a Reverse World: after the interior collapses, the passage disappears.

“……”

After watching it briefly, Baek Woohyun suddenly turned his head and scanned his surroundings.

The security company employees were nowhere to be seen. Even though by regulations, they should have remained at their posts until he came out.

However, this place wasn’t empty. They just weren’t visible; those hiding and watching him certainly existed.

And who they were was obvious.

Since the ambush had already been forewarned.

‘The hunting dogs have come quite quickly.’