Chapter 127 : Annihilation Blossom
Chapter 127: Annihilation Blossom
“······.”
As can be seen from the fact that things were hidden to avoid being noticeable, the research facilities run by the Corporate Alliance are fundamentally illegal places.
This result stemmed from the horrific human experiments perpetrated within, regardless of the legal status of the facilities themselves.
Since extremely dangerous, unethical, human rights-trampling acts were being committed under the guise of research, they naturally had to remain in the shadows.
·····And the same was true for the research facility Baek Woohyun had raided.
Ah, aah…!
Aaaah…!
In the deepest underground laboratory, traces of gruesome human experiments remained intact.
From an operating table with a grotesquely mutated corpse left dissected, to animal cages filled with corpses, to specimens pickled in formalin.
The laboratory, left exactly as it was, likely because they couldn’t tidy up and fled at the intruder’s appearance, was truly like a hell on earth.
If the one who set foot here wasn’t Baek Woohyun, these would have been nothing but common in-game objects.
They would have only served as devices to show how terrible and fearsome the human experiments conducted by the research facility were.
But for Baek Woohyun, who had actually undergone such experiments, and for the vengeful spirits, this current sight wasn’t something that could be passed off as just virtual.
Aaaaaah—!
The vengeful spirits let out miserable screams and rampaged through the interior of the laboratory.
If they had the ability to exert physical force, by now the laboratory would have been completely shattered into a chaotic mess with no place to stand.
The anger and hatred of the vengeful spirits, who had wanted to die, had almost died, and had died under human experimentation, was that intense.
“······.”
Baek Woohyun was no different from the vengeful spirits.
After being suddenly sucked into ‘over there,’ he had endured years of torture under the name of experimentation.
He had survived countless near-death crises and even had to bear the pain of losing ‘Shin Sua,’ whom he had considered like a lover—what more needs to be said.
The agony he felt then left a wound on his heart that could never be erased.
A wound so intense, cruel, and deep that he couldn’t calmly dismiss the laboratory before him as just in-game objects.
That was why emotion disappeared from his face, replaced by a pale, mask-like expressionlessness.
‘All of it.’
Whoooosh—!
Transparent flames, manifesting supernatural ability power, blazed around Baek Woohyun, and then, upon crossing a certain threshold, bloomed brilliantly like a flower.
It was a phenomenon once feared by the research facility ‘over there,’ named the Annihilation Blossom—the flower that brings annihilation.
Although there was a somewhat unstable aspect due to not being a complete ability build, this was, after all, merely a phenomenon caused by ability manifestation.
‘Erase it all.’
KRAAAA—!
A pitch-black sphere of gravitational force formed between Baek Woohyun’s outstretched hands and began to suck in everything.
The containers holding test subject specimens, the pitifully abandoned corpses, even the tools that must have delivered intense pain to countless people—all of them.
It was as if the laboratory was infinitely converging into a single point. Or, as if space itself was being crushed and sucked into a void.
Then, as he thrust his hands forward, the gravity sphere moved forward at a fairly fast speed. Naturally, the flow of power remained maintained.
The gravity sphere, moving while cleanly erasing the interior of the laboratory as if it were an eraser, soon reached the opposite wall.
However, even the wall made of thick steel plates was utterly weak against withstanding the gravity sphere, the technique named [Black Hole].
CRREEAK!
“Urk?!” “Wai—!”
The wall, which had been like a frustration for test subjects, crumpled with a heavy metallic sound and disappeared into the [Black Hole].
Along with it, the security guards who had been holding their breath behind it, ready to counterattack, and the researchers who had fled met the same end.
Well, how could ordinary humans withstand the [Black Hole] that even shatters and sucks in sturdy iron walls?
They were merely sucked into a vacant death without any resistance.
“······.”
This was precisely the reason why [Distortion] was treated as a basic attack in the Annihilation build.
[Distortion], which grabs and twists space with telekinesis, was merely the most basic application, using the Annihilation build in its simplest manner.
Just look at the extreme gravitational force[Black Hole], created by endlessly converging the flow of power towards a point—the clear gap is felt, isn’t it?
***
Damn, what’s this now
Black Hole?
Sudden new technique appearance dang
So freaking cool lololol
“Honestly, I also thought the telekinesis build that Hackphysical newly revealed was relatively plain compared to the Hackphysical build…”
Cha Seongcheol marveled while watching the [Black Hole].
As he said, the Hackphysical—Superhuman—build, called the extreme of close-range builds based on [Perfect Being], had come as quite a shock to many.
It was a build that proved that physical abilities honed to the extreme, without any supernatural ability techniques, could themselves become overwhelming strength, absolute violence.
On the other hand, the second revealed telekinesis—Annihilation—build was different. It only received evaluations of being just a usable long-range ability technique build at best.
While twisting and grabbing space itself was quite interesting, there were also evaluations like, “Couldn’t you just use a space-controlling ability for that?”
But if they were shown the [Black Hole] Baek Woohyun used now, a completely different story would emerge.
“…Seeing it today, as expected, Hackphysical is Hackphysical. Concentrating telekinesis to its extreme at a single point to create an artificial black hole.”
“I think the telekinesis build hasn’t been fully revealed yet.”
“Why do you think that?”
“A black hole is made by converging to a point, right? Then conversely, there must also be a technique created by diverging in all directions.”
Sounds plausible?
Like Black Hole and White Hole dang
Info) White Holes have been concluded to not exist
Don’t shove scientific knowledge into RePla!
***
“······.”
Whether the security guards hiding behind the wall were the last enemies existing within the research facility, no one attacked Baek Woohyun after that.
For a while, he advanced, killing only the researchers he occasionally encountered as the vengeful spirits desired, and soon arrived at his intended location.
The very place housing the backup-dedicated computer that backed up all the research data of the facility.
Tap tap tap.
Just as when raiding the Geumsin Electronics headquarters building before, Baek Woohyun skillfully tapped the hologram keyboard and searched through the research data.
Naturally, the first thing he checked was the content regarding TL-02. More precisely, information about the TL series drug including it, but anyway.
However, his expression as he read the TL series drug information filling the hologram screen wasn’t very good.
TL-01 was exactly the same as the content seen in the Geumsin Electronics underground laboratory, and the information for TL-02 also differed massively from what he had directly witnessed.
‘It’s described as a fairly effective combat stimulant.’
A combat stimulant with a temporary physical ability enhancement effect even for ordinary people who haven’t awakened an ability.
That was the description of TL-02 in the research data.
‘There’s no mention of gaining physical strength on par with Etinels.’
Furthermore, the content about emitting a blue glow from the body and eyes turning completely purple couldn’t be found no matter how hard he looked.
Just like before, nothing related to the TL series was clearly explained by the research data stored in the facility.
To the point where one might think the things being investigated now were fake data disguised by the research facility to pass on false information to an intruder.
But Baek Woohyun speculated that the TL series actually developed by the research facility likely had the same effects as written in the data.
Until the time they distributed it, TL-01 was probably an Awakener-only doping drug with overall ability enhancement effects, and TL-02 was a combat stimulant for ordinary people.
It’s just that only in the presence of an entity called Baek Woohyun did the effects bizarrely mutate according to the intent of the one who ‘inserted’ the TL series.
‘Need to dig deeper.’
Tap tap tap, stop!
After briefly investigating all research data containing the word ‘TL’ beyond the TL series doping drug.
Baek Woohyun’s finger, having discovered interesting content in a report protected by security he could never have solved without his experience ‘over there,’ paused.
“…Need more Tempest-L samples?”
The report stated that all provided Tempest-L samples had been used up, so they requested additional supply.
Although it wasn’t written what it was or where it was used, Baek Woohyun guessed it was quite significantly related to the TL series.
First of all, putting everything else aside, the name itself is Tempest-L sample, right?
If abbreviated, that becomes TL, so if the doping drug derived from this is the TL series, it wouldn’t be incomprehensible.
‘Tempest-L sample. What meaning is in the L— no, wait, could it be?’
Baek Woohyun’s gaze looking at the hologram screen sank heavily. Having been ‘over there,’ he could guess what it was.
Quickly searching about the Tempest-L sample, he confirmed that except for the barely found report, the term wasn’t used anywhere else.
With that, he gained conviction. The conviction that the Tempest-L sample was indeed what he thought.
‘These research facility bastards, they’re insane.’
Tempest-L. Or rather, Tempest Lord.
Translated, that would be something like ‘Lord of the Tempest.’
And after the Dimensional War occurred in ‘Reverse Planet,’ there was only one group that dared to use the title ‘Lord.’
‘Are they using the sample of an Otherworld Lord?’
Otherworld Lords.
The rulers of the dimensional invaders, those who opened the dimensional gates to Earth and caused the Dimensional War.
Moreover, they were also the impetus for the Corporate Alliance’s attempt to birth even a single Transcendent through the mad research of Project: Transcendence.
If the Tempest-L sample was an object related to one of them, the ‘Lord of the Tempest,’ then many of the questions so far would be explained.
Why the TL series doping drug had a color similar to the invaders, and even why it gave off a similar vibe to the copycat invaders.
‘But how on earth…?’
‘Over there,’ Baek Woohyun had actually fought against Otherworld Lords, and he had even personally ended the life of one of them with his own hands.
However, that was only after he reached the state of ‘Transcendence’ and was called a ‘Transcendent.’ Even he almost died in the process.
In other words, with the research facility’s current combat power, even if they died and came back to life, they couldn’t defeat an Otherworld Lord, and naturally, obtaining samples would also be impossible.
Nor could they have obtained it through trade.
Why would an Otherworld Lord, in the midst of invading Earth, trade with a human force?
Especially while supplying their own flesh in such large quantities that it could be used as research samples even in a place like this research facility.
“······Hah.”
Baek Woohyun let out a short sigh at the deepening mysteries the more he investigated.
The mysteries related to ‘over there’ and ‘Reverse Planet,’ and Anonymous Viewer 62 were already complicated, and now, of all things, even an Otherworld Lord was involved.
Of course, since he thought from the start that unraveling the secrets wouldn’t be easy, his will wasn’t broken. If you do what needs to be done, you eventually reach the end.
“First, I need to obtain a Tempest-L sample and confirm it.”
Baek Woohyun muttered as if for someone to hear.
It was indeed words spoken for someone to hear.
To the studio personnel and Anonymous Viewer 62 watching him now, and furthermore, to the system monitoring his every move.
“Even if it means raiding another research facility if necessary.”
[Mission 「Raid Research Facility」 Completed!]
[Level has increased!]
[Gained 1 Ability Point!]
[Mission 「Obtain Tempest-L Sample」 Started!]
‘It worked.’
The intention behind Baek Woohyun’s deliberate choice of muttering succeeded.
The system, judging that the 「Raid Research Facility」 mission had successfully ended, created the subsequent 「Obtain Tempest-L Sample」 mission.
Whether it was also relayed to the other party, Anonymous Viewer 62, would need to be checked again later, but for now, this alone should be enough.
‘Good.’
With his wish fulfilled, Baek Woohyun immediately turned and moved his steps. His business here was all done, so it was to perform the next mission.
Although the system didn’t provide even a hint of where to perform the 「Obtain Tempest-L Sample」 mission, he didn’t mind at all.
He had already obtained more than enough necessary information from the Geumsin Electronics underground laboratory and this research facility.
Moreover.
‘If I smash them all… something will come out.’
Surely, among the research facilities, there must be at least one that has a Tempest-L sample.
If I shatter all the locations I know, I should be able to obtain at least one sample somehow.
Then, by proving through it that the TL series doping drug is an object born from the intervention of an Otherworld Lord, I can also clear Anonymous Viewer 62’s mission.
‘Ah, right. Before that, a moment.’
Baek Woohyun glanced back.
The structure of the research facility came to his mind.
There were only two entrances, and one of them had a structure used only in emergencies.