Chapter 148 : The Management Bureau's Encirclement
Chapter 148: The Management Bureau’s Encirclement
“K-kill him!”
“This son of a bitch─!”
When roughly ten seconds had passed, the thugs finally grasped the situation and erupted in fury.
They grabbed weapons scattered throughout the break room─things like kitchen knives and steel pipes─and started shouting threats.
If they had possessed even a bit more composure, they wouldn’t have made that choice.
What kind of nerve does it take to threaten a monster who can burst a person’s head open with a wave of his hand using nothing but a kitchen knife?
“······.”
But thinking about it again, it was only natural.
There was no way ordinary thugs could calmly assess the situation after one of their comrades had been killed.
Especially when they didn’t even realize that Baek Woohyun had tacitly permitted them to pick up weapons in the first place.
“Get on your knees right now, you bastard!”
“I’ll rip your guts out!”
Baek Woohyun didn’t react to the thugs’ threats.
He had experienced too much on ‘that side’ to bother responding to corpses barking while holding weapons.
Therefore, instead of saying anything, he simply lowered his body slightly, then kicked off the floor hard and charged forward.
Swoosh!
A speed so fast he seemed to disappear from his spot in an instant!
When the rush that ordinary people couldn’t even perceive ended, Baek Woohyun had stopped in front of the thug who had been at the very front.
The man, who was nothing more than an ordinary person, couldn’t even properly recognize Baek Woohyun reaching him, and a fist slammed into his face.
Kwaduek!
“Urk?!” “Huk!”
The thugs screamed and retreated in horror at the blood spraying backward.
Having witnessed another comrade die miserably, their faces had turned deathly pale.
As if they had finally realized reality.
“······.”
Baek Woohyun looked down at the corpses of the dead thugs.
Perhaps because this was the game called ‘Reverse Planet’ rather than reality, their bodies had already been covered with the mannequin filter.
Even the blood flowing from the neck that had lost its head felt like nothing more than red liquid, somehow different from that of reality.
A cognitive limitation filter that seemed to convince him that a game is just a game.
What he had considered quite reasonable until now─because it was a game, it had to be that way─now struck him as rather unpleasant.
Because it felt as if it was belittling the revenge being carried out as nothing more than a crude fake.
‘I am─’
Kwaaak.
Baek Woohyun clenched his blood-soaked fist tightly, his gaze turning toward the cowering thugs.
His Inverted Eyes, with black and white reversed, blazed like white flames, causing deep fear to appear on the thugs’ faces.
They had finally realized that Baek Woohyun wasn’t an ordinary person, but rather a powerful individual they dared not approach─an Awakener.
Of course, whether they pissed themselves in fear or fled pathetically, Baek Woohyun wouldn’t spare them even the slightest interest.
When they stood boldly with knives making threats, he had ignored them─why would he suddenly react to their actions now?
He would simply make them pay for their crimes by killing them. In the most resolute and cruel way. Just as the dead who accompanied him desired.
“What do we do? Fuck! What do we do?!”
“What do you mean what do we do, you idiot! Kill him! Otherwise we die!”
“U-uaaaah!”
Had they sensed Baek Woohyun’s undiminishing killing intent?
The five surviving thugs screamed and charged at him. As non-Awakeners typically do, it was a reckless rush.
Two of them seemed to be running toward the exit behind Baek Woohyun rather than at him. It was a wise decision, if one could call it that. Whether it would work was another matter.
Kwaang!
Facing the thugs’ futile struggle that posed no threat whatsoever, Baek Woohyun kicked one of them in the thigh.
There was no way a mere civilian’s body could withstand a kick imbued with superhuman strength, and with an explosive sound, the leg was torn off.
However, the man who had suddenly lost an entire leg didn’t get the chance to scream.
Because the fist thrown immediately after blew his head off just like the other dead thugs.
“Uaaaah-!”
“Shibaaal!”
Flesh scattering into pieces.
Blood gushing up and staining the surroundings.
White flames flickering fiercely through it all─
Before this nightmare-like scene, the thugs screamed as if their minds were collapsing and charged at Baek Woohyun.
It was like moths entranced by light, diving into destruction even knowing their fate.
Kwaang!
The flame, Baek Woohyun, gladly burned the thugs.
The strike he unleashed destroyed the thugs’ bodies without the slightest restraint. Meaning he tore their limbs apart and smashed their heads.
Had it not been for the filter system unique to virtual reality games, it would have been a brutal massacre that could never have been broadcast on a personal stream.
“Move aside!”
Seogek!
Kim Hana, who had been standing one step back, didn’t remain still either.
While Baek Woohyun was killing the other thugs, she instantly cut down one thug who had somehow pushed his way through and escaped.
The Wind Cutter manifested through her supernatural ability nearly cut the thug’s torso in half, and the blood pouring from there newly stained the floor.
“S-spare me. Please···.”
Kwaduek!
Finally, when the head of the thug who had been begging desperately after even throwing away his weapon was crushed in Baek Woohyun’s grip, silence descended upon the noisy underground break room.
It was a silence that felt even more chilling and heavy for having swallowed seven deaths.
“······.”
“···Let’s go rescue the victims now.”
It was Kim Hana who broke the eerie silence.
Having waved her hand to push the corpses left and right with wind, she tapped Baek Woohyun’s shoulder.
It was a touch that seemed both encouraging and urging.
Exhaling a short sigh, Baek Woohyun moved deeper into the area beyond the underground break room with her─and there they could see it.
The victims trapped like beasts in steel cages, wearing expressions filled with despair.
“······.”
“······.”
Inside the cages divided left and right, women and men were separated, but the common point was that no vitality could be found in any of them.
They simply sat powerlessly in place. Without even glancing toward the newly appeared Baek Woohyun and Kim Hana.
It was an appearance that clearly revealed how the thugs guarding this place had treated them. Though they hadn’t been explicitly shown due to it being a game.
The fact that the two wore face-covering masks probably also played a part in their reaction.
Of course, removing the masks was impossible even so.
If they did, they would have to take responsibility for the murders that occurred here too.
“Mm.”
Baek Woohyun’s expression hardened as the victims’ appearance reminded him of people he had seen on ‘that side’.
Striding forward, he reached out and grabbed the steel bars, gripping them firmly.
Exerting force in that state, the bars twisted with a kigigik sound, opening a space large enough for a person to pass through.
“Please come out. We’ve come to rescue you.”
“···! Is, is that really true?”
“You came to··· rescue us?”
“Yes. That’s right. We’ve dealt with the thugs outside, so you can come out safely.”
However, even at Baek Woohyun’s declaration, the women didn’t move easily. Some even hid deeper inside the cage with more fearful faces.
It seemed they thought the current situation was a trap set by the thugs. The thought that something terrible might happen if they followed was obvious.
Baek Woohyun didn’t bother persuading them. He simply approached the cage where the men were imprisoned and opened a path by bending it through the same process.
It was right then that one of the male victims jumped up and rushed toward him.
“Uaaaah─!”
Pueok!
The man charged at Baek Woohyun with a cracked voice, screaming.
He seemed to be attempting a tackle, but it wasn’t very effective. Both because he was too exhausted and because the difference between an ordinary person and an Awakener was too great to begin with.
As a result, the man’s tackle merely ended up clinging to Baek Woohyun, failing to produce any effect.
“Heu, heu- heuuu.”
“······.”
Baek Woohyun didn’t say anything to the man, calmly waiting until he calmed down. This too was something he was accustomed to from his experiences on ‘that side’.
Perhaps sensing something in his attitude, the man who had hesitantly stepped back stared at him intently. As if trying to see through the face beneath the mask.
Raising both hands to show he had no intention of attacking, Baek Woohyun finally spoke.
“You’ve come out. You just need to go up those stairs over there. You’re all free now.”
“Is, is that really true? Really, we’re free?”
“Yes. It’s really true.”
Before the twice-repeated exchange, the other victims who had glimpsed hope also hesitantly stood up.
It was Kim Hana who drove the point home.
“We’ve dealt with the people who were tormenting you all. If you go outside and wait a moment, we’ll call the police separately.”
“It, it really is real?”
“Let’s get out quickly! Quickly!”
It seemed a woman’s voice rather than a man’s reached the victims more safely.
Finally moving their bodies, they began crowding out through the space in the bars that Baek Woohyun had created.
At first it was slow, as if they feared Baek Woohyun and Kim Hana, but it didn’t take long for it to change to almost a rush.
“I, I’m getting out! I’m getting out of here!”
“Wait! Don’t push from behind!”
“Please calm down and exit slowly! This place is safe now!”
In the process of escaping, there were incidents of people bumping into each other, and after hurrying up the stairs only to witness the corpses and scream.
But in any case, every single hostage held by the human trafficking organization was able to leave the underground.
It was a perfect rescue success.
*
-This is a breather part right lolㅅㅂ
-Where did all the kids who said they don’t know RePla go
-What is this, this can’t be right??
-??? : Fact is there’s no such thing as a breather mission in RePla
‘RePla Noob’ donated ‘1000 won’!
[Just seems like a decent reputation mission ㅇㅇ It was the special agent opening mission from the start]
“We’ve also destroyed the human trafficking organization and rescued all the trapped victims, so I think that’s right.”
“I agree. It’s a clean result, isn’t it.”
“······.”
-But no, that can’t be right
-Too easy for hell difficulty, it’s strange
-ㄹㅇ; Just catching ordinary people and it’s over?
-The special agent side must be less developed or something
“Hmm─”
“Chloe? Do you have something to say?”
“Thinking about it carefully, I’d have to raise my hand for the side that says there’s something more.”
“Ooh. What’s the reason?”
“Because this is Mr. Cheater’s story. From the first practical training, Hunting Dogs appear and attack.”
-Now that I think about it, that’s really true kon
-Hackphysical’s story trait) Something just keeps happening
-Hearing Chloe say it suddenly makes me go Hoxy···? lololol
-Since someone who knows the story better than me says soㅇㅇ
***
“······!”
Baek Woohyun, who had exited the underground behind the last victim, suddenly widened his eyes.
His senses, which were still maintaining [Perfect Being] in preparation for any possible situation like enemy reinforcements, had caught something that felt off.
Though not certain, an aura close to killing intent was surrounding the warehouse. And very thoroughly at that.
It seemed they had blocked escape so perfectly that he couldn’t notice their approach while he was underground.
‘Moreover, these auras feel somehow familiar?’
Furrowing his brow, Baek Woohyun immediately approached Kim Hana and tapped her shoulder.
When Kim Hana, who had been comforting the victims crying after barely escaping from hell, turned around, he spoke directly to the point.
“We’re surrounded.”
“Surrounded? What do you suddenly mean by··· it really is true.”
Kim Hana’s face hardened after quickly sending the wind she controlled with her supernatural ability outside the warehouse.
Because she confirmed that not only was the sole door thoroughly surrounded, but they had also formed an encirclement thinking they might flee in another direction.
While checking how many people there were, she soon muttered in dismay.
“Wait, it’s the Otherworld Management Bureau?”