Chapter 55
Chapter 55
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: Before Becoming the Heroine...
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Neat black hair, snow-white skin, a palpable sense of justice radiating from his face alone, backed by a disciplined yet overwhelmingly commanding presence.
That man's name, exuding an aura so extraordinary no one could ignore it, was Baek Woo-jin.
He was the protagonist of Reverse Hero Saga.
This should have been a moment of pure thrill for any gamer finally face-to-face with the hero of their life's game—a heart-stirring Kandou. But right now, Baek Woo-jin's arrival just pissed me off.
"You—Yang Woo-bin, right? Get the hell away from my friend Yaiba now!"
Hero of the game or whatever, he was nothing but an obstacle getting in the way of what I needed to do.
"...!"
I tore my gaze from Baek Woo-jin, whose sword tip glowed with white light aimed straight at me, and checked on Yasuri Yaiba. Her pupils were quivering at his sudden appearance.
"Haa."
It was an anxious reaction so extreme a sigh slipped out on its own.
Her shaking eyes screamed anxiety... but was it a little too late for that?
Yasuri Yaiba was one of the heroines in Reverse Hero Saga.
Not your typical heroine, though. She was a hidden one, unlocked only by fulfilling specific conditions to see her proper ending.
Those conditions? Enduring and forgiving every last bit of her unhinged bullshit throughout all of Dabcheon. Reverse Hero Saga players dubbed her the "malicious trap heroine" for good reason—she was a nightmare.
Thinking about it pisses me off all over again. I want to beat Yasuri Yaiba even more.
Yasuri Yaiba was a hitwoman who infiltrated Dabcheon on orders from a Japanese organization: eliminate the mutant superhuman male with two mana cores.
Her target, naturally, was the only such man—Baek Woo-jin.
She pulled every dirty trick in the book to kill him, but Baek Woo-jin endured them all, forgave her, and unlocked the Yasuri Yaiba route.
Even then, she kept seeing him as a target and freaking out. That's when Baek Woo-jin realized the real problem.
After graduating from Dabcheon, he smashed the organization controlling her, broke the chains she'd worn her whole life, and only then did she fall for him and become a heroine.
On paper, it sounds like a noble, heartwarming tale. But actually playing Reverse Hero Saga? You'd never say that shit out loud.
"Enduring her tricks" sounds easy, but as the player? "This fucking bitch!" just erupts from your mouth.
Silent poison darts from behind during fights was baseline. Taking your allies hostage? Routine. Poison in meals, sneaking into your room at night to slit your throat? Yeah.
Blocking a deranged murderess like that for four straight years at Dabcheon Academy, forgiving her every time, then dismantling her organization post-grad just to unlock her route? That's not a heroine.
That's a self-deluded psycho sociopath killer.
Sure, there were moments where Baek Woo-jin forgave or saved her—trembling pupils, blushing cheeks. But that was it.
Even with hints of feelings, her bullshit frequency and intensity never dropped.
How terrifying and horrific is that?
That's why I'd planned to thrash her before she could become a heroine—to force her into retirement. But somehow, she and Baek Woo-jin were already on "friends" terms.
"Did you mess with Yaiba just to snag a higher-grade card? I didn't see how you turned her into that... but don't do it to my friend Yaiba!"
See? Keeps yapping about "my friend."
Of course, Baek Woo-jin was the classic righteous shonen manga protagonist. So the odds were higher that he was the only one seeing her as a friend.
Her eyes just trembled—she wasn't welcoming him or anything. Pretty much confirms it.
But that meddlesome shonen-hero attitude of his could still touch Yasuri Yaiba's heart.
If that happened, it'd trigger her route—and I'd be stuck dealing with her insane-difficulty bullshit show.
Unlike a game where you could trial-and-error your way through restarts, this world was reality. Neither I nor clueless Baek Woo-jin could realistically block her no-holds-barred assassination spree.
Baek Woo-jin was Reverse Hero Saga's protagonist—the key piece needed to win the final war against the demon race in the late-game episodes.
If the most vital guy in this world got assassinated by Yasuri Yaiba? No greater catastrophe. That's why I had to sort this out right here.
For Baek Woo-jin's sake... and for mine, living in this world going forward.
"...Ya, Yasuri Yaiba."
"Hik?!"
So I gripped my sword low at hip level, knees bent, while Baek Woo-jin prepared to charge. I turned my head just enough to look at Yasuri Yaiba and spoke.
"I want to beat the shit out of you. Cripple your arms and legs so you can't pull any more crap."
"Hiiik..."
Terror-stricken by my words, Yasuri Yaiba forgot her back was against the tree and scraped the ground frantically with her one good left foot, trying to retreat.
Meanwhile, Baek Woo-jin kicked off the earth and finished prepping his charge. His black eyes glowed white as he bellowed at me.
"If you wanna fight that bad—if you wanna stay in Jincheon Class for a higher-grade card... then quit bothering my friend Yaiba and fight me, Yang Woo-bin!!!"
Kwang—!!!
The instant he shouted, Baek Woo-jin mana-reinforced his legs and blasted off the ground toward me.
His cannon-like charge felt way faster and stronger than Yasuri Yaiba's.
As one of the elite cadets in the top 10 of our year with a black Celestial Card, of course he outclassed her.
In my current state, he was an opponent I couldn't possibly handle. Yasuri Yaiba clearly thought I'd lose too—her eyes filled with expectation as he flew in.
Normally, I'd grit my teeth and focus every nerve on Baek Woo-jin. But I didn't.
"Hey, don't look away. Eyes on me. No blinking—watch this clearly."
Even in this do-or-die moment where my head could fly any second, I kept staring straight at Yasuri Yaiba and continued.
"Take this! Yang Woo-bin!!!"
In a flash, Baek Woo-jin closed the gap. He swung his horizontally gripped blade—flowing with white light—from the waist.
And as he did, I finished my words to Yasuri Yaiba.
"What I—the guy who wants to crush you—can do."
Shweeeeeek—!!!
Right then, Baek Woo-jin's white sword arc sliced toward my waist.
At the same instant, I chanted the pre-set activation word toward the mana core in my heart.
"Ignite."
Fwoosh.
Kwaaaaaaaaang—!!!!!
My entire field of vision drowned in golden light, and a monstrous shock—like the sky tearing open and the earth quaking—swept the forest.
Yasuri Yaiba, right near the epicenter, blacked out instantly from the aftermath alone.
"Uh, uaa... ahu."
For her—a woman trained with ironclad mental fortitude to never lose consciousness—this brief blackout was utterly shocking.
"My... eyes..."
The intense golden flash had strained her corneas; even when she reopened them, her vision was blurry.
Luckily, as a trained superhuman, she recovered from mere visual haze quickly.
"Wha-what the..."
Regaining clear sight, she couldn't help but gape at the scene before her.
A crater roughly ten meters wide had formed, and the surrounding trees, grass, and earth burned hot.
From closing her eyes against the flash to blacking out and waking—it had been a split second. Yet in that instant, the landscape had totally changed.
Plunged into panic by the incomprehensible devastation, Yasuri Yaiba whipped her head around. She spotted a man dangling upside-down from a burning tree and widened her eyes in shock.
"A-ah, wha-what the hell... B-Baek Woo-jin?"
Her original target—the number five ranker out of all first-years—was knocked out, hanging inverted from the tree.
'He got taken down... in that split second...? And not by just anyone—Baek Woo-jin...?'
As the shocks kept piling on, a low groan came from outside her vision— the crater's direction.
"Uh..."
"Hik?!"
That voice alone sent chills down her spine, her heart pounding wildly, her whole body slick with cold sweat. Yasuri Yaiba whipped her head around like a meerkat toward the sound.
At the crater's center stood Yang Woo-bin, as expected.
"Puhaa!"
Fwoosh—!
Somehow shirtless, exhaling sparks with every breath, smoke curling from his body—Yang Woo-bin lumbered toward her with heavy, sweat-soaked steps.
"Hiiik..."
The closer he got, the more terror gripped Yasuri Yaiba's body, mind, and soul.
Just as her bladder signaled and her urethra—paralyzed by overwhelming fear—forgot its duty, Yang Woo-bin stopped right in front of her and spoke.
"Saw it? What I can do?"
"Y-yes! I s-saw!"
His question hit, and she answered on pure spinal reflex.
She desperately wanted to survive this terrifying man.
Yang Woo-bin bared his teeth in a growl at her.
"I—the guy who can do this—am gonna be watching you from now on. So no more bullshit. Quietly go about your academy life. If any word about you reaches my ears—no matter what kind—I'll hunt you down and thrash you."
"Hu, uhuu..."
"Got it?"
At his question, Yasuri Yaiba trembled violently, tears streaming, nodding as fast as humanly possible.
"Yes! Y-yes! Got it!!"
"Be good. Unless you wanna die."
With that, Yang Woo-bin turned and trudged away with those same heavy steps.
"Uh, uuut. Uhuuuu..."
She couldn't tear her eyes from his retreating back until he vanished from sight. Only then could she finally exhale the breath she'd been holding.
It was the moment an incomprehensible existence's unforgettable terror etched itself into Yasuri Yaiba's heart.