Return of the Frozen Player

Horizon saw two remarkable things after belatedly arriving at the scene. The city was engulfed in a pitch-black darkness, and a purple-skinned woman was staring at the scene with a jubilant look.

The woman asked, “Isn’t it pretty?”

Horizon directed a wary gaze at the woman’s tattoos before saying, “Stop the nonsense. What happened to Gorgon?”

“He’s dead. Can’t you see that?”

Horizon turned and stared blankly at the city. The pitch-black darkness seemed to be gnawing away at the city, and it seemed that it wouldn’t stop until it had devoured everything.

“Did he come down?”

“Are you out of your mind? Gorgon is dumb, but he’s not dumb enough to do something that would make him come down.”

Horizon nodded in agreement. He knew the answer, but he asked anyway, as the darkness that had enveloped the city looked familiar to him.

“Isn’t that Watchguard of Darkness?”

“Yes, it is Watchguard of Darkness.”

Watchguard of Darkness was a power that held a special meaning to the Counts of the Underworld. The question here was why an ally’s power had engulfed Gorgon. It was an ability that was a type of reassurance to the demons, but it had devoured Gorgon.

“Let me ask you one thing,” said Horizon with a completely different look. A stern look that one could see in a determined warrior had painted his face.

“Gorgon told me a few days ago that you and Orpheus are in an alliance. Is it true?”

“Ha.” The woman snorted coldly and turned to Horizon. “If that were true, either Orpheus or I would have already been beating the shit out of you.”

“...Hmm.”

“A Player did this,” added the woman.

“A Player defeated Gorgon? Can you even hear what you’re saying?”

“It’s not that far-fetched since Gorgon was still recovering from his injuries.”

They had discovered just a few days ago that Gorgon was indeed recovering from his injuries.

“So you knew?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you not do anything about it?”

“Why would I bother doing that when a dumbass like you would soon make a move once the news reached your ears?”

“...” Horizon frowned upon being called a dumbass.

However, he wordlessly looked behind him and changed the topic.

“Are there any traces?”

“None. The traces were gone by the time I arrived, and I couldn’t feel anything, either.”

“Tsk.”

In other words, the enemy was both smart and powerful.

“In that case, I’m sure he’s already on the lower Floors by now.”

“No, he can’t leave,” said Lavue with a smirk. She turned to Horizon and asked, “Have you forgotten what Gorgon said when we were talking about Floor 5.5?”

“I remember he said something about a Player bothering him…”

“That’s right. He was talking about Player Seo Jun-Ho.”

Gorgon had insisted on killing Seo Jun-Ho at the time, but no one agreed.

“Ah! Perhaps he was in such bad shape because…”

“Yes. He must have forcibly continued the plan by himself.”

‘The puzzle is complete, then.’ Horizon thought before saying, “Does that mean that Player Seo Jun-Ho has become a Star Destruction Stage Creature? Wait, the timing doesn’t check out.”

Seo Jun-Ho was barely at the Liberation Stage at the time. It hadn’t been that long since then, so it didn’t make sense for him to be at the Star Destruction Stage at the moment.

“Well, geniuses like him do exist.”

“No way. How can a mere human reach the Star Destruction Stage so quickly?”

Even if the culprit wasn’t Seo Jun-Ho, the culprit had to be one of the Players.

“Wait, what do you mean earlier when you said that he can’t leave?”

“I did something back then, but I did it in a clever way, unlike that dumbass Gorgon.”

Lavue chuckled with a mysterious smile on her lips.

***

Seo Jun-Ho stared in confusion in front of the Dimensional Elevator.

[You have killed a Count of the Underworld. You have to kill another Count to access the Dimensional Elevator.]

“What’s going on? What’s wrong with the elevator?”

This was Seo Jun-Ho’s first time seeing a Dimensional Elevator refusing to open.

- The demons did something to the Elevator.

“What do you mean they did something to the Elevator? Are you saying that they tampered with a Dimensional Elevator? Is that even possible?”

The Administrators and Sung-Jun said that the Floors have completely lost their functions and purpose from the 9th Floor onward. Have you already forgotten what they said?

“No, I still remember, but…”

Seo Jun-Ho didn’t expect that the demons could still stop him from leaving. Seo Jun-Ho stood rooted for quite a while after realizing that he had to rewrite his plans.

“I can’t use the Elevator until I get rid of another Count? They’ve locked me up here.”

- They made a much more thorough move than we thought. I bet they’re already looking for you, Partner.

Seo Jun-Ho nodded in agreement.

Unfortunately, Seo Jun-Ho wasn’t sure if he could even hide for an extended period of time from the demons.

- Partner. You need to get out of here before anything else.

“I know.”

‘But where should I go?’ Seo Jun-Ho’s head turned blank upon asking himself a question. He looked back at the path he walked past and sat on a nearby rock. “I should have enough time to look through Gorgon’s memories.”

Multiple memory projections appeared in the air in front of him.

“Multi-screen, zoom in, fast forward…”

Dozens of screens popped up, and the cacophony of noises that burst out of them made Seo Jun-Ho feel dizzy, but he managed to understand each and every word. Seo Jun-Ho looked nonchalant as he swept his gaze across the screens, but it was a job easier said than done.

‘I have to know how strong they are, their abilities, and their weaknesses.’

An hour later, Seo Jun-Ho finally dismissed the memory projections.

- Orpheus is the strongest among the Counts, while Lavue is the second strongest, and Horizon is the weakest among the three.

It looked like the Counts stood on equal footing, but the reality was that the three Counts had been following Orpheus, the strongest among them.

‘Horizon of the West’s ability is broken...’

Horizon’s ability allowed him to dodge any attack he had seen for the first time, so ambushes and attacks containing a ton of burst damage were ineffective against Horizon.

“I have to fight Horizon head-on and defeat him with overwhelming force rather than fight him in the shadows.”

‘In other words, he can’t be my next target.’’

Gorgon’s severe injuries allowed Seo Jun-Ho to defeat the former. Seo Jun-Ho was still not confident enough to say that he was stronger than the Counts of the Underworld.

- Orpheus of the North. That guy is a monster…

“Yes. He can destroy and erase the existence of others just by looking at them.”

- I guess it’s been decided.

‘The East.’

Seo Jun-Ho stood the highest chance of defeating Lavue compared to the other Counts.

- Hmm, interesting. They’ve fought each other before.

Gorgon had a history of fighting Lavue, and it seemed that there was bad blood between the two, judging by how they kept on fighting each other despite that huge battle on that fateful day.

“She’s a tattooist.”

Every tattoo on Lavue’s body was a high-level magic spell.

- Skaya will be really impressed.

“I don’t know about that. I feel like she might freak out.”

Certain spells required magic circles to cast, and magic circles were drawn according to a specific formula. Once drawn, one could simply infuse the magic circle with their magic, and the spell would be cast.

“However, she skipped that lengthy process.”

Her tattoos were like magic circles. In other words, Lavue could cast spells by simply infusing magic into a specific tattoo on her body.

“Her way of casting magic is tremendously better compared to the current system.”

She didn’t have to chant, and her casting speed was incredibly fast.

- Unfortunately, there’s a disadvantage.

“She overheats.”

Lavue’s way of casting magic was so crazy that only a demon could do it. If a human being were to follow in her footsteps, it would only be a matter of time before their tattooed body parts exploded into pieces.

“And that is the fatal flaw of her method; she might explode out of exertion.”

- Yes. She won't be able to use a tattoo for a while after using it.

It was the only weakness that they had discovered from Gorgon’s memories. The problem was that the huge battle between the two happened more than a decade ago.

“I’m sure she has a few more tattoos since then.”

In other words, Seo Jun-Ho couldn’t say for sure that he had a complete grasp of Lavue’s true power. However, it was definitely worth fighting her first compared to fighting the other Counts.

- You should absorb her demonic energy rather than her memories.

“You’re right.”

Seo Jun-Ho had already received the confession of one of the Counts, so there was no need for him to read the memories of the other Counts. He reckoned that he wouldn’t obtain that much information from their memories.

- There were quite a few locked memories. I wonder why.

“Those memories probably had information about the Archduke.”

“Let’s set that aside for now and do what we can do right now.”

Seo Jun-Ho studied the battle between Gorgon and Lavue as he headed to the eastern region of the Underworld.

***

A man and a woman were standing in the red wilderness.

The man was Gorgon. He was already dead, but a nonchalant look was pasted on his face as he waved his hand casually.

- Flame Shower.

Five million fireballs made out of hellfire manifested in the proverbial blink of an eye, and they all flew toward Lavue.

Lavue unfolded her arms, and two of her tattoos shone in an eerie red light.

Crash!

A massive tsunami engulfed Gorgon’s flames.

“The dolphin tattoo on her left elbow allows her to use water.”

- That unique pattern on her right arm seems to be a reinforcement spell.

Seo Jun-Ho and Keen Intuition would watch the fight between Gorgon and Lavue whenever they were resting from their journey. It was boring to keep watching the same video over and over again, but they had to do this.

This would determine the outcome of the upcoming battle, after all.

“I think I discovered another weakness.”

- Me, too.

“Shall we say it at the same time?”

- Sure. Let’s count to three.

Keen Intuition counted, and the two spoke at the same time.

“First encounter.”

- Experience.

Seo Jun-Ho smiled. Both words meant the same thing.

“That’s right. She’s the most powerful against opponents she had no experience fighting before.”

It wasn’t really strange that it was the case. After all, how could her enemy know what kind of spells her tattoos contained if they had never fought her before?

Seo Jun-Ho smiled at the fact, as it meant that Lavue’s win rate against a certain opponent would drop sharply the next time she fought them.

- Exactly. We’ve already figured out at least forty of her spells.

“I guess that’s why Lavue didn’t dare to mess around with Gorgon anymore after their first battle.”

Gorgon was weaker than Lavue.

‘Lavue may have been afraid of fighting Gorgon again because Gorgon already knows what spells her tattoos contain.’

Seo Jun-Ho figured that the reason the two Counts hadn’t attacked Gorgon had to be because Gorgon had been keeping Lavue in check.

- That makes things much more interesting, but the problem is her army of demons.

“Right. How annoying.” They had managed to come up with strategies against Lavue, but they were still deliberating about how they would handle Lavue’s army of demons.

Her army of demons was filled with Disaster and Liberation Stage demons, after all.

“So I can’t just invade the East like I did with Gorgon.”

- What are you going to do?

“I’m going to make her come to me.”

Seo Jun-Ho stared at the city at the end of the red wilderness.

‘That’s the second largest city in the East aside from the city where Lavue resides.’

“Cologio—the city of fighters.”

Most of the humans in the Underworld also resided in Cologio…