Chapter 196 : Good at Anger Management
Chapter 196: Good at Anger Management
Gooooo!
“─You!”
As transparent flames erupted from Baek Woohyun’s entire body, Seo Dain reacted immediately. She whipped her head around and glared at him with blazing eyes.
She even threw a punch wreathed in flames at the same time. It was a strike so powerful it didn’t seem like something thrown on impulse.
While it wasn’t a blow that openly revealed killing intent with a declaration to kill, it gave off the strong feeling that she didn’t care whether he died from it or not.
If Baek Woohyun had only raised his momentum as a threat, he would have suffered quite a setback. It would have been like trying to test the waters only to have someone come at him in a life-or-death struggle.
But fortunately, he had already steeled his resolve to overpower Seo Dain with force and impose his will.
Thanks to that, his unhesitatingly unleashed telekinesis was able to perfectly capture Seo Dain as she launched a preemptive strike.
Kwadeuk!
“Kkeuk?!”
When they clashed while both ‘restraining’ themselves to some degree, it was impossible for Seo Dain to defeat Baek Woohyun. Even with similar strength, they were dimensions apart in their ability to wield it.
That was natural, since there was no way Seo Dain, who had died on the run from the research facility and Corporate Alliance, could be at a similar level to Baek Woohyun, who had instead been regarded as their terror.
Baek Woohyun shook Seo Dain’s center of gravity by exerting telekinesis from multiple directions, and far too easily forced her to her knees and pressed her down.
From an outside perspective, it looked as if she had staggered of her own accord before retreating backward and being crushed by his telekinesis.
“This, you, ssshiiik-!”
Paaaa!
However, even though he had subdued his opponent in one stroke, the situation didn’t end there.
Seo Dain began to prove beyond doubt that she had anger management issues by releasing her limits and going all out.
Beyond merely emitting flames from her body, she completely transformed her body itself into flames and threw off the shackles of telekinesis as she charged at him.
It was a scene like a spirit of rage, or a spirit of flames, targeting Baek Woohyun.
“Don’t kill her!”
“······.”
Leaving behind Kim Youngjun’s shout—unclear whether it was directed at Baek Woohyun or Seo Dain—Baek Woohyun gazed at Seo Dain rushing toward him with ash-gray eyes.
Since the distance wasn’t particularly far to begin with, with just one kick off the ground she was already throwing a punch at him from right in front of his nose.
As if to show she hadn’t been called to this job, which Kim Youngjun had called a big score, for nothing, an aura almost at Hellhound level could be felt from her going all out.
At most it was at the level of one head, or perhaps two, but so what? The very fact that a test subject possessed that much power was what mattered.
Because it meant that if Seo Dain’s anger management issues could just be fixed, she would become a combat power that could be put to reasonably good use.
For Baek Woohyun, who sought a better future for Avengers, it meant she could be treated as ‘talent worth keeping alive.’
Kwaaang!
“Geurk!”
Instead of tearing Seo Dain to shreds with [Distortion], Baek Woohyun slammed her into the ground again. This time with several times more force than before.
Seeing her eyes made of flames waver, it seemed quite surprising to her that she had been subdued so easily even when going all out.
The fact that even that was him showing considerable mercy was her limitation that she failed to realize.
Kwaaang! Kwang!
“Geuuuua-!”
“······.”
Unlike Seo Dain, who struggled desperately to stand up somehow, Baek Woohyun remained as calmly settled as when he first started.
He was someone who had worked for several years as a new recruit training instructor during the most savage period as an Avengers member ‘over there.’
Therefore, a mere collision like this was nothing to him. He was someone who would only think ‘Ah, they’re a bit dissatisfied’ when four or five people came at him, before slamming them all into the ground.
‘I should wrap this up soon.’
Kwaaaa─
As Baek Woohyun, still with an impassive expression, extended his hand, a pitch-black sphere of gravitational pull formed above Seo Dain’s head.
It was [Black Hole], but compared to the offensive one he had used before, it was incomparably smaller and weaker in power.
Of course, even so, befitting a [Black Hole] that was the extreme of absorbing force, it could easily swallow up the flames Seo Dain was emitting.
If Baek Woohyun had wished it, the [Black Hole] would have sucked in not just the flames that were supernatural ability power, but even Seo Dain’s life itself.
No, if one were to be precise, that would have been the natural result. There was no way a [Black Hole] that selectively devoured targets existed in this world.
He could truly be said to be treating her mercifully. Seo Dain should be grateful that she belonged to an organization of comrades called Avengers.
“Release this right now!”
“······.”
“Rele… this, you… sshiik···.”
Kwaaaa─
Was it because the [Black Hole] sucked in all the flames that were rage itself?
Strength gradually drained from Seo Dain, who had been rampaging with rolling eyes even while pinned to the ground. As if even her will to resist had vanished.
Finally, having returned from a flame spirit to human form, she even stopped struggling, then spoke in a voice that was cracked yet somehow calm.
“···I won’t act crazy, so can you release this?”
“······.”
Baek Woohyun willingly granted Seo Dain’s request. Not only the [Black Hole], but he also released the telekinesis that had been restraining her.
Having regained her freedom, she staggered to her feet, and as if quite embarrassed by her own rampaging behavior, an extremely awkward and mortified look oozed from her expression.
Sweeping back her disheveled red hair, she bowed toward Baek Woohyun.
“I’m really sorry.”
“Hmm.”
“This will sound like an excuse- no, it is an excuse. Hoo. Anyway, I sometimes lose my mental grip due to experiment side effects.”
‘I see.’
Having heard the apology and explanation, Baek Woohyun nodded.
Certainly, even from his perspective, Seo Dain’s anger felt excessively abnormal. Why else would he have thought she seemed to have anger management issues?
If she truly couldn’t control her emotions, especially anger, due to experiment side effects, it was really close to intermittent explosive disorder.
When Kim Youngjun first met Baek Woohyun, he had said to the dazed man, “Still, seeing that you’re not in your right mind, I guess you are a comrade after all.”
That statement, which he had often uttered ‘over there,’ was actually truth disguised as a joke. In Avengers, there were more people who weren’t in their right minds than those who were.
Baek Woohyun and Kim Youngjun both defined themselves as abnormal, so even more so.
“······.”
Right now, aside from Seo Dain with her anger management issues, the other person, Jang Eunsoo, was clearly not normal either.
Whether Seo Dain was raging crazily beside him or Baek Woohyun was suppressing and subduing her, he completely ignored it while only looking at his own shadow.
Look at that attitude of absolutely refusing to get involved unless it affected him. An ordinary person could never do that.
The interesting fact was that even this was an extremely familiar sight to Baek Woohyun.
Members would go crazy and rampage at the drop of a hat, those who got caught up trying to subdue them would go berserk, and in the end, he was the one who beat them all down to sort things out.
That’s why he curtly told Seo Dain, who was squirming in embarrassment, that he didn’t particularly care, then looked at Kim Youngjun.
“If we’re done sorting things out, let’s hear the plan.”
Kim Youngjun grinned and replied, “Shall we?”
It was truly an ordinary day in Avengers.
***
“Mmm, the personalities of the newly appearing NPCs are all kind of… weird···.”
-One has anger issues and one doesn’t care about anything
-Still, the latter is a bit better ㅇㅇ;
-Even though a fire human was rampaging next to him and a Black Hole appeared, he didn’t even glance at it??
-That’s a bit ㅷㅷ
“Certainly so.”
Cha Seongcheol agreed with Jeong Nayeon’s muttering.
Watching the newly appearing Avengers NPCs, Jang Eunsoo and Seo Dain, such talk was inevitable.
Despite their appearances being fairly close to good-looking, they were displaying personality flaws from their first meeting that made one not want to get close to them at all.
“I understand those two.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Think about Avengers’ setting once. It’s an organization created by gathering victims of Project: Transcendence, the test subjects, right?”
Though players don’t perceive it well because they consider it unrelated to themselves, the Project: Transcendence experiments were described as quite horrific.
Not only in the intro trailer, but also inside the research facility that serves as the tutorial location and is frequently used like a dungeon, such descriptions existed quite a bit.
Therefore, Chloe’s argument was that it was only natural for NPCs who were former test subjects to have strange personalities or mental illnesses.
“Certainly so.”
“Given the cause···.”
“And anyway, even the anger management disorder became ‘good at anger management’ in front of Mr. Cheater, so won’t it be fine?”
-‘Good at anger management’ is ㅅㅂㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-He sucked out all the anger with a Black Hole
-Hackphysical even treats anger disordersㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-But she did apologize~ Let’s have a drink~
***
“This time we caught signs of the research facility carefully trying to move an item.”
“Don’t you know what item it is?”
“No idea. They’re paying extreme attention to security. Which means it’s that important.”
Kim Youngjun shrugged.
He said the research facility wasn’t simply siphoning off and hiding the item, but was preparing thoroughly to move it to a larger research facility.
Whatever it was, it meant it was an item valuable enough for those bastards calling themselves researchers to swarm around it and research more.
“The plan for this operation is to either steal that item or, if necessary, immediately destroy it on the spot to at least stick it to them.”
The explanation of the ensuing raid operation content was simple.
The research facility planned to move the item from near Incheon Airport to Seoul, and all they had to do was ambush and either steal or destroy it along the way.
Another Avengers organization member spying on the research facility would let them know when those bastards would depart, so the four people here just needed to chase that procession and smash it to pieces.
And that was what the people here—though he wasn’t sure about Jang Eunsoo, but anyway—were most confident in.
Not to mention Seo Dain, who often smashed everything due to anger management issues, but Baek Woohyun and Kim Youngjun were second to none when it came to terrorism.
There would be no reason to call someone unhelpful to such an important operation, so Jang Eunsoo also had a high probability of being capable of something.
“They say those bastards are moving the item in a container truck. We’ll need transportation to follow them.”
“What if we use supernatural abilities?”
“That’s too conspicuous, so no. The other side will be on guard too, so we’ll definitely be spotted. In that sense.”
Kim Youngjun, who had been speaking, looked at Baek Woohyun.
“Do you know how to ride a bike?”
“I do.”
Baek Woohyun nodded without hesitation.
Though he didn’t have a license on this side, it was thanks to frequently riding bikes while performing similar missions ‘over there.’
Even that was abandoned after reaching a certain level because running or flying with his bare body became faster, but anyway, he knew how to ride.
The thought of whether it might be dangerous since he was riding for the first time in years was meaningless. He had the ability to reproduce things the same way no matter how much time had passed.
“Good. Then let’s ride the prepared bikes and when I signal, let’s all charge in at once for a raid.”
Having handed out bike keys and walkie-talkie earphones he’d prepared in advance to the others, Kim Youngjun grinned.
His eyes, curved in anticipation of the coming revenge, gleamed eerily.
That too was proof he was a member of Avengers.
“Let’s go stick it to those research facility bastards!”