Chapter 228: An Insurmountable Wall
Even the fact that this 'Duel's' battlefield was Zone 11: Cetery was equally unfortunate. The battlefield and build harmonized to double the fear.
Who wouldn't be terrified of grotesque creatures wriggling and spreading out from an already eerie cetery?
■■■■─!
While Jang Baekho stood frozen in place.
The despair nad Baek Woohyun spread its wings wide.
Suaaaaa─
Like overflowing from a full vessel, the grotesque creatures that had pooled in the massive darkness swept through the eerie cetery.
It was a horrifying sight of a powerful army of despair flooding forth, but the reality was slightly different. The 'Doltish Father' build wasn't a summoning type.
Surprisingly, it truly wasn't. This astonishingly faithful build was actually an illusion type, if one had to categorize it. Like the Phantom Swordsman build Baek Woohyun had used before.
Whether ghosts, demons, or monsters, the horrific fusion of nightmares mixed haphazardly was both fake and real.
"···!"
But Jang Baekho, who was actually facing the cosmic horror attack, seed not to care about such details.
***
"Hackphysical takes the initiative! The army created by the 'Doltish Father' build's [Chaos Overflow] endlessly rushes toward the opponent!"
"If you watch build usage videos, Woohyun's version looks so much more vicious you'd wonder if it's even the sa [Chaos Overflow]! But it's the sa build anyway!"
-ㅈㄴ scary as fuck lololol
-This is cosmic horror ㄷㄷ
-Demon Sultan Hackphysical
-Seeing Cthulhu here too;
"Will this opponent be able to find the real among the fakes in [Chaos Overflow]? No, before that, is all of that really fake?"
"Well! Probably only Hackphysical knows! But one thing's certain—the opponent's task is clear!"
"What's that?"
"To target Hackphysical with his eyes closed! By breaking through [Chaos Overflow]!"
'MustKillHackphysicalPunch' donated '1000 won'!
[As if that's possible lololol]
***
'I-I have to do sothing!'
No matter how PVP-obsessed a user was, no one had morized every build in 'Reverse Planet'. In fact, that was impossible from the start.
Regardless of completeness, anyone could create builds, so sowhere right now, new builds were being born.
Even excluding newly created builds, existing builds numbered in the thousands, tens of thousands.
Therefore, higher-tier users usually only morized builds with high usage rates that guaranteed strength. Roughly fifty on average, up to a hundred at most.
Occasionally getting wrecked by soone who brought sothing unusual could just be written off as bad luck and moved on from.
Jang Baekho was one of those people too. aning he didn't know the 'Doltish Father' build.
"Uwaaah! [Crushing Wave]!"
Kugugugugung!
The pressure of facing Hackphysical, plus the weight of ignorance, drove Jang Baekho to throw out his ultimate skill first.
Surely the desire to sweep away [Chaos Overflow] with its characteristically horrifying appearance also urged his choice.
But ultimately, his choice was the best he could make. It was far more effective than dealing with [Chaos Overflow]'s shifting between fake and real one by one.
Kwaaaaak─!
The violently surging tidal wave and the army of chaos clashed head-on, each trying to swallow the other. It looked like the sea and darkness had collided.
Originally [Chaos Overflow] was a deceptive attack with a hidden blade unlike [Crushing Wave], yet the reason for this result was simple.
Baek Woohyun, sensing his opponent's counterattack, imdiately poured power into [Chaos Overflow], manifesting the fake as real to respond.
Crossing between fake and real didn't just an catching the opponent off guard—it also ant flexible response was possible like this.
"···! [Wave Riding]!"
Shuaaak!
Here, Jang Baekho made an important decision.
He saw this mont, when [Chaos Overflow] and [Crushing Wave] were locked in evenly matched collision, as a golden opportunity.
What exactly he saw to think that was unknown. Perhaps his horror-weak mind had gone numb.
But either way, he glided forward on [Crushing Wave] using [Wave Riding], reaching right before the darkness that was the source of [Chaos Overflow].
To the final void still teeming with grotesque creatures, as if claiming the army just poured out was only a fraction.
Shaaaak!
"─[Water Spray]!"
A giant tentacle that shot up from the chaos!
Jang Baekho's response upon seeing it was swift. He tried to tear apart the tentacle by raising waves from the tide he was still riding.
It was a natural choice born from believing the writhing tentacle must also be real, since [Chaos Overflow] had taken definite form to clash with [Crushing Wave].
【······.】
The blind Demon King in the eerie void, Baek Woohyun, smiled faintly. From the gathering of energy, he had read one step ahead the opponent's response to the tentacle he created.
He had conceived this from the possibility the opponent might not know the build information, and noticed that the trap he set through [Chaos Overflow] had worked perfectly.
Then now, the opponent would learn with his body that fair fights of strength didn't exist for gods from outer space.
"Huh?"
The [Water Spray] Jang Baekho raised passed helplessly through the tentacle. It looked like passing through a hologram without substance, and indeed it was.
The mont his eyes widened at the unimaginable result, the tentacle that remained intact even after passing [Water Spray] struck him precisely.
It was a blow with intense power enough to send him flying far off the wave.
Kwaaang!
"Kuhek!"
***
"The opponent was completely fooled! Seems he doesn't know the 'Doltish Father' build!"
"He fell completely into Mr. Cheater's trap."
"Seeing [Chaos Overflow] clash with [Crushing Wave], he must've assud this ti would be the sa too. He looks like he never imagined it was fake."
-The "huh?" expression is genuinely hilarious lololol
-This is why builds matter
-If you don't know, you get wrecked ㄹㅇ
-But honestly, super niche builds like Doltish Father don't need to be morized;;
"That's right. They don't need to be morized. In fact, the 'Doltish Father' build has rock-bottom usage rates."
"That's true."
"But! If you want to face Hackphysical, that's a different story! To avoid getting helplessly wrecked like now, you'll need to study a whole lot!"
***
Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!
"Uwaaah!"
Jang Baekho desperately rolled across the ground, dodging tentacles stabbing down from above. He knew very well that stopping even briefly would turn him into jerky.
Naturally, he had no ti to realize his rolling appearance was becoming a laughingstock in the studio.
How could he have leisure to think about how he looked when he was desperate just to survive?
But this reckless evasion didn't continue long.
The 'Wave Tar' build he used had no physical ability enhancent effects, so he reached his limit after just a few dodges.
With the cooldowns on previously used skills still not finished, Jang Baekho finally pulled out the defensive skill he'd been saving.
"[Ocean's Blessing]!"
Swoaaak!
The water pooled on the ground from [Crushing Wave] collapsing along with [Chaos Overflow] shot upward and completely wrapped Jang Baekho's front.
Behind the beautiful blue barrier that seed like it would perfectly block writhing darkness-wrapped tentacles, the mont he barely caught his breath.
"Ah."
The tentacle that had been stabbing down from above passed helplessly through [Ocean's Blessing]. It was the sa sight as when facing [Water Spray].
Seeing that, Jang Baekho knew with a brief sigh that defeat had arrived. No need for lengthy explanation—the writhing behind his back made the future obvious.
Kwadeuk!
[First Round Complete]
[Winner: Baek Woohyun]
[Loser: (Anonymous)]
[Current Record -- Baek Woohyun 1:0 (Anonymous)]
[Proceeding to next round imdiately]
"Ha, haha···."
'Not a signature build so it's doable? What was I thinking?'
Returned to where he was before the first round started, Jang Baekho let out a hollow laugh. His expression showed he realized how arrogant his thinking had been.
Weaker compared to signature builds? Strong but dropped to a non-absolute level? Not quite desperate enough to give up and play for fun?
Even if that were true, between Baek Woohyun and him existed a so-called 'insurmountable wall'—a four-dinsional barrier impossible to cross.
When attempting Challenger ranking preservation in the past, he'd actually t so pro players. First string, not second—the real deal among real deals.
But even facing them, he'd never felt this kind of despair. There were gaps to exploit, and diving into them gave confidence that soday he'd win.
Unlike Baek Woohyun, who gave the conviction of never being able to win after defeat without touching a single hair.
'If it's this much with just a borrowed build, then with a signature build─'
Shiver.
Goosebumps rose on Jang Baekho's spine as he shook his head.
He felt the wall even with a regular build, so thinking a signature build would be worse made him think giving up was better.
For soone barely clinging to lower Challenger rankings, desperately struggling to preserve ranking sohow, it was beyond imagination.
······Honestly, he even felt sorry for the Challenger-ranked pro players who would face Baek Woohyun going forward.
Sure, as a re amateur, realizing the insurmountable wall with Baek Woohyun ant he could just give up with a curse, but they were different, weren't they?
With a real monster before them, surely so of them would break.
'A natural disaster, truly.'
"I surrender."
[(Anonymous) has surrendered, ending the 'Duel']
[Final Record -- Baek Woohyun 2:0 (Anonymous)]
[Final Winner: Baek Woohyun]
[Final Loser: (Anonymous)]
After perfectly winning the first ga of the Challenger Road by making his opponent feel the wall.
Baek Woohyun continued winning triumphantly. Even while using unique builds never heard or seen before, like the 'Doltish Father' build.
It was a winning streak that seed to declare those lingering in lower Challenger rankings didn't even require pulling out signature builds.
Amateur masters like Jang Baekho, second-division league pro players, trainees receiving promising treatnt—none could dare block his path.
Starting at 1000th place, tail-end of Challenger ranking, after about ten matches he proudly passed 200 people to reach 900th.
After another ten matches, he left only 800 above him. Truly an insane climbing speed.
***
"This is a climbing speed only Hackphysical can show! He keeps winning so much, one win makes his ranking jump!"
"They say consecutive wins set MMR high, so with Woohyun currently at 154 consecutive wins, then just how much···."
-Is 154 consecutive wins really a human record
-Keep going lolol Go all the way to 1st with a perfect record lolol
-Breaking news) Challenger rank players going missing one after another
-Look at them fleeing when they think it's absolutely impossible lololol
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