Chapter 56
Chapter 56
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: Rumor (1)
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“Ugh... grk... Huh?!”
Along with a dizzying pain deep in his solar plexus, Baek Woo-jin came to his senses and opened his eyes.
“Wh-what... A-ahhh?!”
Baek Woo-jin, who had been caught in the tree, lost the precarious balance he’d barely maintained the moment he regained consciousness and tumbled down from the branches.
“Landing... Argh!”
In perfect condition, he could have regained his balance even from a sudden fall and landed cleanly, but his reaction slowed just a fraction as agony spread through his body the instant he moved.
Crash!
As a result, he ended up face-planting into the dirt in an utterly pathetic pose.
But only for a moment. Baek Woo-jin sprang to his feet, brushed the dirt off his face and clothes, and scanned his surroundings to check if anyone had seen.
Crunch.
“Hm?”
As he patted the dirt off his clothes with his hands, he felt something brittle crumbling near the solar plexus of his dirt-stained top.
Looking down, he saw that the area around the solar plexus on his top was charred in a perfect circle, as if hit by a fireball, completely burned through.
He tilted his head at the large fist-sized hole in both his Dabcheon uniform and the white shirt underneath, revealing his chest bruised a dark red.
“What the... Ah!”
Suddenly, the last memory before blacking out flashed through his mind.
“Yang Woo-bin! The moment I was about to slice his waist, that guy suddenly shone bright! Is that when it happened? What the hell did he do... Ah, aaah! Yaiba! Where’s Yaiba?!”
Thinking of Yang Woo-bin naturally brought to mind his friend and the person he wanted to help, Yasuri Yaiba. Baek Woo-jin whipped his head around, searching for her.
“There she is. Yaiba!”
Fortunately, Yasuri Yaiba was still there, leaning against a half-charred tree.
He couldn’t see her face, buried in her knees, but outwardly, she didn’t look any worse than the last time he’d seen her.
Baek Woo-jin called her name and started toward her, but winced again from the stabbing pain in his solar plexus. He walked carefully to avoid jarring his sternum and ribs.
“Yaiba, you okay?”
Reaching Yasuri Yaiba slowly and cautiously, Baek Woo-jin asked after her well-being, noting she still had her face buried in her knees even as he approached.
“Hnn... Hooo...”
But instead of an answer, all he got were trembling breaths.
Yasuri Yaiba, shaking with her broken arms dangling limply downward, didn’t look normal to anyone.
‘What the hell happened?’
Yasuri Yaiba was always expressionless, secretly aiming for his life from behind—like a well-honed hidden blade.
She was a thorough superhuman who’d use any means necessary to achieve her goals.
Yet here she was, trembling vulnerably right in front of him, the target she’d failed to kill.
‘No way... Yang Woo-bin?’
Sensing unease from Yasuri Yaiba’s unstable state, Baek Woo-jin asked her gravely.
“Did Yang Woo-bin... do something to you?”
The moment the question reached Yasuri Yaiba’s ears, she began muttering, her body shaking violently.
“I’m sorry, I won’t do it, I’ll live nicely, I won’t do anything, please spare me, I beg you, don’t hit me, not that big thick bronze terrifying thing, no, I’m scared, it hurts, I’m scared, no, I hate it, don’t do it...!”
“Wh-what...”
It looked serious to anyone watching.
The phrase “big thick bronze terrifying thing” clearly referred to Yang Woo-bin’s massive fist that had shattered her arms, but Baek Woo-jin imagined something else.
“Urk...”
Seeing Yasuri Yaiba completely terrified and in a panic, Baek Woo-jin took off his uniform—leaving only the holey shirt on—and draped it over her.
‘...Yang Woo-bin, you trash. What the hell did you do to Yaiba...!’
And he began grinding his teeth in rage toward Yang Woo-bin, who had done this to his friend Yaiba.
Tingle, tingle.
“Haa, haa, ugh, my ear itches. Someone... Hoo. Talking about me?”
Walking with every ounce of energy drained from my body, my ear suddenly started itching.
I’d walked far enough to be safely away, so I plopped down in the middle of the forest path and roughly scratched the itchy ear with my finger.
“Ugh, I’m sweating buckets. My shirt’s completely burned off, and I lost my handkerchief too.”
Missing my totally vaporized shirt, I wiped the sweat from my forehead roughly with my forearm.
Of course, wiping with my forearm didn’t do much, so after a few swipes, I gave up and flopped onto the ground.
“Hooo... Ah, ugh. Ugh, I’m dying.”
I really felt like I was dying.
Exhaustion had piled up all over my body, and on top of being drenched in sweat, dehydration symptoms were setting in from the nonstop perspiration.
All of this was the aftermath of the Solar Body.
“To end up like this from just 3 seconds... It’s seriously an insanely dangerous trait.”
To be precise, it was the aftermath of the true usage of the Solar Body.
The way I’d been using it—infusing explosions into my attacks—was forcing the Solar Body’s side effect into something usable via Mana Fluidization.
It worked because my skill was top-notch, not because the Solar Body was a great trait.
Besides that contrived method of channeling the explosive side effect into attacks via Mana Fluidization, the Solar Body had two true uses.
One was, obviously, self-destruction. Use it, and I die, the enemy dies, everything within dozens of kilometers vanishes—like some asymmetric WMD.
Of course, I’d never use self-destruction, and that wasn’t what I’d done to crush Baek Woo-jin and instill terror in Yasuri Yaiba.
What I’d used was the other one.
“Solar True Body... Still, the effect is solid, so that’s good.”
Leave a tiny amount of mana in the mana core in my heart, ignite it, suppress the explosion by wrapping the heart with most of my mana circulated via Mana Fluidization, then burn ultra-efficient Solar Body mana as fuel to enhance physical abilities—the most powerful doping technique in Reverse Hero Tale.
‘Solar True Body.’
Even judging basic physical abilities generously, I was only slightly above mid-tier in Jincheon Class, yet it let me one-shot Baek Woo-jin, the current #5 in Jincheon Class rankings—the ultimate doping tool.
“Even 3 seconds does this, past 5 seconds and I’d really die.”
Of course, matching that insane power were monstrous costs and risks; with my current state, I could sustain it for exactly 5 seconds.
Beyond that, my body couldn’t withstand the mana backlash and would trigger a massive explosion.
Not just me—any kids or Fuyuno Tsubaki nearby would get caught too, so Solar True Body was strictly a last resort.
“My body’s totally wrecked too... Heat won’t go down, so sweat keeps pouring. Am I seriously gonna die of dehydration like this?”
I’d diligently taken care of all the real terrorists through hard work, overcome the protagonist’s sudden intervention, and successfully completed my goal—only to die here from exhaustion and dehydration?
That’d be a cause of death so ridiculous I’d laugh in my grave, but naturally, I had no intention of dying so stupidly here.
Not until I smash my fist into that bitch Yang Ga-jeong’s face and reclaim my sexual function.
I had things I had to live for.
As I reaffirmed my revenge against the Yang family and Yang Ga-jeong—the reason for my current life—the world hummed and flipped, my vision flooding with pure white light.
The signal that the long, grueling week-long culling survival was over.
First thing when I get back: water.
With the order for Fuyuno Tsubaki to fetch ice-cold water loaded on my tongue, I closed my eyes and surrendered to the spatial transfer’s white light.
Flash-!
“Huh? This is the training ground? Back to where we started?”
When the culling survival ended and her vision sharpened again, Jin Se-jeong looked around and realized she was in the training ground she’d last seen a week ago.
“Haaah...”
While Jin Se-jeong confirmed it was the training ground, Fuyuno Tsubaki finally sighed in relief, grateful to be freed from her.
Scanning around for Yang Woo-bin, she couldn’t ignore the murmurs buzzing nearby.
“Wow, wow... Look at her, her body.”
“Gasp. Those pecs are like... Drenched in sweat, her bronze skin glistening...!”
“W-whoa. Abs so defined they rival chocolate.”
“A week ago, when she confessed to her promiscuous private life, I lost all affection... but with a sexy body like that. Gulp. Maybe it’s inevitable...”
Bronze skin, pecs that drew involuntary awe, abs so defined they rivaled chocolate, a body so sexy it made her promiscuity momentarily understandable.
Hearing those words amid the murmurs, Fuyuno Tsubaki instantly knew who they meant.
“W-Woo-bin!”
Turning toward where Yang Woo-bin had been behind her, Fuyuno Tsubaki saw him.
“Tsubaki, get me water. With ice floating in it.”
Yang Woo-bin, sprawled on the ground, shirtless and fully exposing his upper body, ordering her to fetch water.