Chapter 129 : Hellhound
Chapter 129: Hellhound
“Isn’t that right, you damned Test Subject.”
The Hellhound man looked at Baek Woohyun, pulling up one corner of his mouth. However, that expression was too filled with murderous intent to be called a smile.
It was closer to a beast baring its fangs upon discovering prey.
-Hellhound surprise appearance
-These guys who are rarely seen even in the late game are here already
-Still, not that surprising lol
-For real lol, it was about time lol
“It seems the viewers are thinking similarly to me. I also thought it was about time for the next tier of enemies to appear.”
Jeong Nayeon said, nodding her head.
Those who had been consistently watching the ‘Hack Tour’ content up to now would probably think similarly to her.
Given that the Hunting Dogs first appeared practically at the very beginning during the 「First Combat」 mission, it made sense for a new enemy to appear now that they were in the mid-game.
And since a newly appearing enemy would inevitably have to be stronger than the previous ones, the appearance of a Hellhound was somewhat inevitable.
Of course, this line of thought didn’t consider at all how they could defeat a Hellhound, an enemy usually encountered in the late game, with an incomplete build.
There was only the mindless belief that ‘He’s Hackphysical, so he’ll manage somehow!’
Because that’s how he had always been.
“That’s right. Around that level is what you could call Hell difficulty, or rather, Hackphysical difficulty, don’t you think?”
“Hmm~ A somewhat rough logic, but well—if it’s Mr. Cheater, he’ll probably be able to win even against a Hellhound. Just like he has until now.”
-Mr. Cheater? What’s that?
-That’s what they call Hackphysical on Reddit
-Calling him Mr. Cheater instead of Hackphysical is kinda funny lol
-He seems to be famous in the West too, damn
Cha Seongcheol and Chloe, having also been watching the ‘Hack Tour’ content, agreed with Jeong Nayeon’s opinion.
Amidst this, the nickname used for Baek Woohyun in Western communities briefly became a topic among the viewers.
You could say they felt Baek Woohyun’s recognition from the fact that he had a plausible nickname even abroad.
User ‘리플고수가될거야’ donated ‘1000 won’!
[But Manmulsang said these guys wouldn’t have backup troops]
“Right? They were so confident, saying they were operating elsewhere and wouldn’t have any support, but look, even Hunting Dogs and a Hellhound have shown up!”
-You believed that? Jet kick!
-It’s always the case that if they say there aren’t any, there definitely are
-It’s a rule lol
-It’s become a kind of cliché
***
‘At least it’s a face I don’t know.’
If the Hellhound who came here was someone Baek Woohyun had met ‘over there,’ it would have been quite problematic.
Those he remembered were all among the strongest even within the Hellhounds, and they were far too powerful to face with his current incomplete build.
Not only was there a massive difference in the total amount of absolute power, but he was also using the Annihilation build, which he was relatively less proficient with compared to the Superhuman build.
‘Compared to those guys, this one…’
“……”
“Why so quiet? Getting scared now?”
Ignoring the Hellhound man’s sneer, Baek Woohyun calmly gauged the opponent’s level.
Broadly speaking, Hellhounds were divided into grades from one head to three heads based on their level, and he was trying to figure out where this man in front of him belonged.
If by chance this guy was a three-head grade powerhouse unknown to Baek Woohyun, then survival and escape would have to take priority over fighting.
‘At most, a one-head grade.’
He didn’t judge that simply based on the attitude the opponent was showing. Strength was a realm completely unrelated to personality.
It was just that, in Baek Woohyun’s view, he didn’t sense the unique aura of a true powerhouse from the Hellhound man.
“Haa~ Right. What’s the point of talking between us. Just die.”
“…!”
Crack!
Baek Woohyun’s flinching retreat and the shadow surging up in the shape of a dog’s head to bite down occurred almost simultaneously.
It was a close dodge, with part of his clothes grazing the fangs torn off. If he had been even a little slower, he was sure he would have been cut in half from the waist.
Truly a masterful and precise application of supernatural ability technique worthy of the name Hellhound!
“Oho, you dodged that?”
“……”
As always, Baek Woohyun did not respond to the Hellhound man’s exclamation.
Just as the Hellhound man who had said, “What’s the point of talking between us,” he believed conversation between those trying to kill each other was meaningless.
Baek Woohyun himself also didn’t have a hobby of talking to corpses.
So instead of chattering this and that, he simply stared quietly at the Hellhound man with eyes burning ash-gray.
The power of his supernatural ability faithfully followed the will revealed in that action, warping and twisting the space around the Hellhound man.
Crunch!
“Not bad for a Test Subject!”
The Hellhound man, who had quickly wrapped his own shadow around himself to block Baek Woohyun’s [Distortion], shouted.
It wasn’t just because he was talkative and couldn’t keep his mouth shut—though that was also part of the reason—it was a ploy to slightly disrupt his opponent’s concentration.
Originally, the manifestation of supernatural ability techniques began from concentration.
In fact, that was also why NPCs or humanoid enemies without a combat correction system shouted technique names or made specific motions.
It meant enhancing concentration through a kind of trigger to make manifesting supernatural abilities easier and pursue stronger power.
Baek Woohyun’s actions like clenching his fist when using [Distortion] were in the same context.
“Shall we get a bit serious now?”
Groooooan—!
The Hellhound man’s shadow surged up like a geyser, completely staining his surroundings black.
Up to that point, it was similar to a typical shadow-attribute supernatural ability, but when the man grinned and flicked his hand, an extremely bizarre change occurred.
Purple pupils sprouted like mushrooms all over the shadow covering the surroundings. They were the same color as the pupils of those who had taken the TL-series doping drug before.
Hundreds of pupils even stared at Baek Woohyun in unison as if they had a will of their own.
Blink-blink
“……!”
Naturally, Baek Woohyun’s expression could only harden.
Hadn’t he already found out that the TL-series doping drug was created using a sample from ‘Tempest Lord,’ one of the Otherworld Lords?
The fact that a similar phenomenon was now mixed into this Hellhound man’s ability meant the situation was more serious than imagined.
‘It wasn’t just the doping drug made from the sample.’
The Hellhound man hadn’t taken the TL-series doping drug to draw out the Otherworld Lord’s power. He had merely flicked his hand lightly.
That meant there existed a means different from the doping drug. For example, something like the bracelet wrapped around the Hellhound man’s wrist.
Presumably, since there were multiple research facilities, the results of using the Tempest-L sample had also become diverse.
“Try blocking this too! [Shadow Hunting Dog]!”
Kuh-heuk!
A supernatural ability manifestation accompanied by a fierce shout!
The shadow full of purple eyes changed into the shape of a dog’s head and charged at Baek Woohyun with a rough roar.
Even though its form had changed, the purple eyes symbolizing the Otherworld Lord’s power remained, creating a rather grotesque sight.
“—!”
Baek Woohyun didn’t stay still either.
He actively stretched out both hands, attempting to shatter the dog-head shadow.
[Distortion] was a technique that seized space itself with telekinesis. Therefore, he judged that even if he couldn’t completely neutralize it, he could at least defend against it with that alone.
And so, [Shadow Hunting Dog] and [Distortion] clashed violently between the two.
The telekinetic force trying to twist away even the space and the dog-head shadow trying to pierce through even that faced each other tensely without yielding an inch.
It was at that very moment that the purple eyes, which had been staring only at Baek Woohyun, emitted a eerie light.
Keeeeeng!
“Kugh?!”
An extremely alien, and therefore even more chilling, [Ear-piercing Screech] assailed Baek Woohyun.
If he hadn’t experienced bloodier battles than this ‘over there,’ it would have been a surprise attack that could have disrupted his concentration, making him unable to endure.
He barely managed to hold on, but the [Shadow Hunting Dog] he had blocked with [Distortion] had come right up to the tip of his nose.
Keeeeeeeng—!
Moreover, the terrifying fact was that such an [Ear-piercing Screech] wasn’t a one-time occurrence.
As if testing how long he could endure, the [Ear-piercing Screech] ringing in Baek Woohyun’s head grew more intense the longer [Distortion] and [Shadow Hunting Dog] remained in a stalemate.
Even he thought that if things continued like this, his brain would eventually turn to mush from the [Ear-piercing Screech].
Of course, since ‘Reverse Planet’ was, after all, a virtual reality game, such a thing wouldn’t happen.
…Probably.
“Hah! Looks painful?”
‘—An opening!’
Baek Woohyun didn’t miss the thread-like opening revealed in the triumphant expression of the Hellhound man.
Through that momentary leeway, he converged the telekinetic force that had been holding both the space and the [Shadow Hunting Dog] into a single point.
Thus, the power that had merely moved according to his will sublimated into a massive gravitational force, and the extremely concentrated gravitational force became a pitch-black hole.
Swoooosh—!
Kuh… heuk!
“What?!”
The [Black Hole] manifested from [Distortion] swallowed the [Shadow Hunting Dog] whole. Even the purple pupils that had appeared on it.
Thanks to that, Baek Woohyun’s eyes, momentarily freed from the [Ear-piercing Screech], burned ash-gray. It looked as if two ash-gray flames were inside his eye sockets.
Having pushed his supernatural ability power to the limit, he stared directly at the Hellhound man who was hastily trying to wrap himself in shadow again.
It was a gaze filled with clear intent, and the [Black Hole], unsatisfied even after devouring the [Shadow Hunting Dog], mercilessly answered that call.
Swoooosh—!
A sphere of gravitational force advancing, erasing everything it touched cleanly!
Neither the new [Shadow Hunting Dog] the Hellhound man shot out in resistance, nor the [Shadow Curtain] that had settled thickly like fog around him, were of any use before it.
From the start, due to the nature of the [Black Hole] technique, no defensive supernatural ability worked against it; it would have been better to choose evasion.
“Guaaak-!”
Crunch!
However, to evade, one had to move their body before the [Black Hole] got close. Once the distance had narrowed and one was caught in its gravitational pull, it was too late.
It’s a lesson that one shouldn’t be like this Hellhound man, who, confident he could block it, pointlessly resisted repeatedly, missed the right timing, and only then tried to dodge.
If you do that, you’ll never escape the [Black Hole] and will just be devoured.
“……”
Baek Woohyun quietly watched as half of the Hellhound man was sucked into the [Black Hole], then waved his hand to dispel the technique.
Of course, it wasn’t to spare the Hellhound man’s life. By the point he had already lost half his body, the Hellhound man was already dead.
He dispelled the technique only because there was something on the remaining half that shouldn’t be sucked into the [Black Hole].
[「Bracelet Containing Otherworld Power – Type A」]
[First Effect: Supernatural ability technique power increases somewhat.]
[Second Effect: Supernatural ability technique cooldown decreases somewhat.]
[Third Effect: Can use [Ear-piercing Screech].]
[*These effects apply only in PVE content.]
‘Bracelet containing Otherworld power…’
“Hmm.”
Baek Woohyun examined the information of the bracelet retrieved from the Hellhound man’s arm and let out a thoughtful hum.
He had won easily, it was true—the opponent was merely a one-head grade, he had let his guard down momentarily, and the unique property of [Black Hole], which couldn’t be defended against, had overlapped.
But the thought of what would happen if a three-head grade Hellhound confronted him while equipped with this gear made his head ache.
‘It would be most terrifying if they used the effect of [Ear-piercing Screech] to drag the fight into a prolonged battle.’
Furthermore, while the effects themselves were as expected, the expression “Type A” used in the name also felt strangely unsettling.
If there was a Type A, it meant there could also be Type B and Type C. Otherwise, there would have been no reason to distinguish them in the first place.
‘First multiple doping drugs, now multiple pieces of equipment.’
As far as Baek Woohyun knew, it was impossible for the research facility’s power alone to create all these.
Even if they had created something, it would have been limited to one type of doping drug or one type of equipment, not utilized in such diverse ways as now.
Yet the reason the research facilities and corporations could showcase such a variety of items utilizing Otherworld power had to be one.
‘Regardless of how it got tangled up, the probability is high that the research facilities and the Otherworld are cooperating.’
If Baek Woohyun’s speculation was correct, it was a terrible situation in many ways.
A research facility committing horrific human experiments and corporations obsessed only with profit were terrifying enough, but on top of that, the Otherworld, hostile to humanity, had joined forces with them.