Chapter 248
Jeong Nayeon's argunt that they absolutely had to step forward was not the slightest bit exaggerated.
If anything, it was, in one way or another, sowhat understated. Because right now, Jeong Nayeon and Baek Woohyun didn't just have to step forward unconditionally——they had to do so right this instant, unconditionally.
The standoff that had begun with the Villain Alliance's surprise bank robbery was spreading in every direction in an instant, like a wildfire.
To the point that, given just a little more ti, there was a real possibility it could burn all of 'Reverse City' to the ground.
"Patient reported in Sector A-281! Let's move out imdiately!"
"Everyone rembers the ergency first aid training, right? If you're unsure, radio !"
"Yes! On my way!"
"Yeehaw! A patient!"
—Why are there already patients
—Apparently the Villain side got into a proper fight with a Hero during the bank robbery ㅇㅇ
—Getting excited over a patient ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—No ti to kick back and chat ㅋㅋ
"Oh! There's a patient in Sector A-275 as well!"
"Half the deployed personnel, head that way too!"
"And in Sector A-189!"
"···This won't do! Everyone deploy! Those who arrived late will learn on the field!"
The first faction to get caught up in the Hero Association VS Villain Alliance was the hospital, made up of doctors.
The reason was simple——though they were doctors in na, they also perford the role of paradics who deployed to rescue patients whenever they appeared.
Naturally, when Heroes and Villains fell critically wounded mid-battle, they had to step in imdiately——so being dragged into the conflict was unavoidable.
With dispatch alerts ringing nonstop, there was hardly any other option available to them.
"I'm here to save you——gueaak!"
"Huh?!"
"You monster! How dare you kill a doctor!"
"No, that person jumped out of nowhere! This is genuinely so unfair!"
—ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ That's hilarious
—This one's actually unfair tbh
—Total victim ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—Should've thought twice before becoming a Villain ㅋㅋ
"Would it be alright if I took you as a hostage?!"
"A hostage?! Yes! Sounds great!"
"Oh, a hostage situation sounds fun too, let's do it."
'ㅇㅇ' donated '1,000 won'!
[A Villain asking if it's okay to take a hostage, a doctor who's happy to be taken hostage, a Hero who says it sounds fun and wants in··· Total chaos.]
—Oh god
—What
—I never said any of that;;
—Love conquers even the Hero-Villain divide ㄷㄷ
As a result, so were screaming as they got swept up in the fighting and killed, while the lucky (?) few beca hostages in a hostage drama and wrung out a solid clip for iTube.
The amusing thing was that the latter cases turned out to be perfectly fine.
The triangular dynamic of Villain-Hero-Doctor had been a common occurrence on other private servers too.
So much so that it wouldn't have been out of place as a donation prompt——Villains, Heroes, and Doctors had on occasion joined forces and pulled off a convincing hostage drama together.
The problem was with those who found themselves dead without warning, now saddled with debt——they each sided with the faction opposite whoever had killed them and began waging war.
Even doctors who lacked combat ability had plenty of ways to contribute. Treating injured allies on the spot and sending them straight back in, approaching enemies under the guise of being a doctor and kidnapping them, and so on.
It made you want to ask: whatever happened to the Hippocratic Oath? Though they were never real doctors and thus never swore it, regardless.
"A cooperation notice has co in from the Hero Association!"
"Should we cut in on the bank robbery and take a share?"
—Goodness, the situation is snowballing before you know it
—Fun fact) This is still Day 1
—So this is what's possible with this many people
—Large-scale events that normally need advance notice to gather people are just kinda spontaneously erupting ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
If the doctors of what should have been a neutral faction were acting this way, there was no chance factions with the express purpose of supporting Villains and Heroes would stay quiet.
Factions classified as justice-aligned——police and researchers——along with gangs and scientists all ca bursting out and joined the fray. Their participation only intensified the fighting further, naturally.
Firearms began to appear among the Heroes and Villains who had up until then only clashed with their supernatural abilities, and specialized equipnt made rare appearances.
At this rate, it seed even other neutral factions beyond the doctors would get sucked in entirely, splitting 'Reverse City' into two sides at war.
In fact, mbers of neutral factions who had drifted over with a 'Huh? What's going on?' were already picking sides——Hero or Villain——and joining the fight.
As the case of the doctors showed, even those lacking real combat ability like supernatural abilities had countless ways to fight in 'Reverse City'.
'Stepping out unconditionally is absolutely the right call.'
In a situation like this, it would have been far stranger if Baek Woohyun, the head of the Villain Alliance, and Jeong Nayeon, the leader of the Hero Association, failed to step forward.
No matter how valid the excuse of being injured might have been, they could not sit out a major incident of this scale——one capable of burning down all of 'Reverse City'.
—Baek Woohyun: Should we fight to match everyone else?
—Jeong Nayeon: Nah, we'll move to wrap things up
Had a little more ti passed since the start of 'Reverse City', they might have let it go by now, allowing everything to burn down once.
Or they might have joined as Villain 'The End' and Hero 'Star Rain', adding fuel to the growing inferno.
But this was Day 1——the very mont people were just arriving and learning their roles. You couldn't let everything burn down cleanly on the very first day.
Even if 'Reverse City' was a story driven by the choices of its participants, letting things run this unchecked would get the staff cursed out for doing nothing.
Besides, even other private servers had spread advance word and gathered participants before running a large-scale incident of this magnitude.
The fact that things escalated this far without any advance notice was a quirk unique to 'Reverse City', with its first-round participant count exceeding several hundred.
—Jeong Nayeon: Co to the scene for now!
—Jeong Nayeon: I'll head there right away too!
—Baek Woohyun: ㅇㅋ
"···Mm."
Ta-at!
Having finished his exchange with Jeong Nayeon, Baek Woohyun shot up into the sky without a mont's hesitation.
When doing prep work with Isaac, he had held back to avoid being spotted by others——but there was no need for that now.
In fact, he now needed to be clearly visible. The fastest way to conclude the incident was to make sure everyone recognized that he had appeared.
Hooooo──
"······."
Stopping at a considerable height, Baek Woohyun's energy perception spread out thin and wide. It was as though a sphere made of a transparent mbrane expanded at rapid speed.
After a feat that might have made the perceptive think, 'sothing feels strange?'——he pinpointed the location where the most intense clash of forces was taking place.
It wasn't particularly difficult. As if to prove just how fierce the standoff between the two factions was, the shockwaves radiating from the distance were impossible not to sense.
The mont he locked in the location, he began flying toward it like a loosed arrow.
The surge of energy born from his movent followed along accordingly, so a massive vortex ford in the air and traced his exact path for all to see.
Without question, for anyone watching from below, it would have looked just like a transparent dragon cutting through the sky. And as it happened, he was indeed sothing akin to a dragon.
'Nayeon said she'd co right away, so let's not drag this out.'
***
"Alright then! Let's get going quickly!"
—The Hero leader is in cahoots with the Villain boss ㄷㄷ
—Boo! Get out of here, Hero Association!
—Petition to oust the corrupt Hero Association President is underway. Please sign (0/10000000)
—You sign it first ㅅㅂ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
'ㅇㅇ' donated '1,000 won'!
[The Hero and Villain's forbidden love, or sothing like a 'Reverse City'-flavored Roo and Juliet——not that anyone said anything like that]
—Huh
—What
—I never said anything like that;;
—Love conquers even the Hero-Villain divide ㄷㄷ
No sooner had Jeong Nayeon wrapped up her exchange with Baek Woohyun than a barrage of sharp criticism——or rather, ribbing——ca pouring in from the viewers.
She was currently broadcasting through the 'Nuclear Tourism' channel, aning tens of thousands of viewers had seen every word of the exchange between her and Baek Woohyun.
The scene where the leader of the Hero Association and the head of the Villain Alliance had discussed working together to bring the fighting to an end.
Of course, the viewers knew full well that they were the staff of 'Reverse City'. So the criticism——ribbing——was more playful than sincere.
But how could any seasoned personal broadcast viewer witness a scene like that and possibly hold back? The setup for a quip had co together so perfectly.
Moving past a corrupt Hero in league with Villains, all the way to an outright forbidden romance between a Hero and a Villain——their craft was genuinely artful.
"What on earth is everyone talking about? A Hero Association leader and a Villain Alliance boss cooperating is just plain. com. mon. sense."
—Ah ㅋㅋ fair point ㅋㅋ
—Exactly what kind of common sense is this
—In 'Reverse City' it's actually correct ㅇㅇ
—Justice-side leaders being corrupt is sub-culture cliché
'HeroGenreManiac' donated '1,000 won'!
[Bet soone from the other Heroes will try to expose the Association President's corruption and get eliminated soon]
Rather than making excuses, Jeong Nayeon put on a brazen face and pushed back shalessly. And that turned out to be remarkably effective.
Since the viewers hadn't been genuinely crying 'Corruption! Get her!'——the speed at which they swung back to 'Right, that's the cliché' was just as fast.
To them, driven purely by the pursuit of fun, that direction seed more entertaining——a thoroughly natural outco.
"Anyway, if it's Woohyun, he'll be there in no ti wherever he is. I'll get moving too."
—Let's go right now ㄱㄱ
—They're fighting in the A-200s area right now
—Cuckoos keep getting banned but they just keep coming back
—Why tell them, they can find it themselves? ㄷ
Shwoooosh!
Having wrapped up her banter with the viewers on a good note, Jeong Nayeon imdiately scattered a burst of light and launched herself into the sky. It was just a beat after Baek Woohyun had taken off in the distance.
Even so, she arrived at the scene before Baek Woohyun, who had taken off first——thanks to having departed from a relatively closer location.
Even Baek Woohyun, flying in quickly having launched off earlier, couldn't overco the limitation of sheer physical distance.
Shaaaa——!
"Everyone, stand down!"
"Ah!"
"Huh?!"
Jeong Nayeon, appearing in the sky in a dazzling burst of light!
It was such a conspicuous entrance that even the fierce clash between Heroes and Villains ca to a montary lull.
There was no one who could ignore her as she scattered an extraordinary starlight, worthy of her Hero na 'Star Rain'.
"Young-ja showed up!"
"Her na isn't Young-ja, it's Hero 'Star Rain'!"
—Young-ja ㅇㅈㄹ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
—Not exactly wrong though ㅋㅋ
—Still, calling her Star Rain is a bit;;
—ㄹㅇ ㅋㅋ How are you supposed to say that without cringing?
"Association President! Since you arrived first, let's sweep them all away?!"
"What!"
"···Shall we?"
Jeong Nayeon had no actual intention of siding with the Heroes and sweeping away the Villain Alliance. She had co solely to end the situation.
Even so, she showed a flicker of temptation——because at the end of the day, she was still playing the role of Hero 'Star Rain'.
Even if she was secretly coordinating with Baek Woohyun to manage things behind the scenes, she still had to play her part in front of everyone.
"Where on earth is our side, and what are they doing?!"
Kwaaaaaaa──!
Did so Villain broadcaster's cry serve as the signal?
An enormous force, a current that was a storm unto itself, arrived at the sky opposite Jeong Nayeon with trendous montum——accompanied by a roar that swallowed every other sound around it.
The mont the Villain broadcaster hurriedly clapped a hand over their own mouth, a translucent vortex spread in every direction and beca a gust of wind that swept through——and standing there alone was a boy in a suit with a fluttering coat draped over his shoulders.
It was the striking entrance of Baek Woohyun (Boy Ver.), head of the Villain Alliance.
"──My, it seems I'm a little late."
"No! Not at all!"
"You arrived right on ti!"
—Speak of the devil (literally)
—Asking where our side is, then the instant reversal ㅋㅋ
—Didn't matter, Hackphysical already spotted him ㅅㄱ
—Dood ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
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