Return of the Frozen Player

“Contractor, I’ll take care of this side, so take out the other one first!” The Frost Queen called out while she was fighting Heosu.

‘Faster. Faster…’

Clang! Clang! Clang!

With the Sword of Ambition in his hand, Seo Jun-Ho attacked Danyang like a tempest.

‘Overclocking maximum output.’

As Seo Jun-Ho attacked Danyang in succession, his figure disappeared like a ghost. He was so fast that even Danyang was surprised despite the fact that he had been right under his nose.

“...You are fast. But that is all you are,” said Danyang. Immediately afterward, his eyes and shoulders split open, revealing hundreds of cameras that scanned everything around him.

[Activating area scan.]

[Hostile detected.]

[Activating automatic counterattack.]

[Dragon-Piercing Death Strike form 2, Dragon-Killing Cut.]

Claaang!

The sound of metal clashing against metal rang out, and an explosion of fire easily blocked the attack closing in on Danyang’s neck.

‘Holy shit. He blocked that?’

Seo Jun-Ho gnashed his teeth and glared at Danyang. However, the latter simply smiled at Seo Jun-Ho snarkily.

At that, Seo Jun-Ho retreated, creating space.

Danyang dusted off his robes. “A Pureblood will never be able to defeat a seasoned cyborg martial artist.”

“...”

None of the cyborg martial artists whom Seo Jun-Ho had come across so far were as strong as this bastard. To be precise, they were actually sometimes easier to fight because of their machine parts.

‘But this guy’s different…’

With the help of an AI, he easily fended every attack coming his way. Moreover, the mechanical parts of his body allowed him to casually wield speed and strength that would otherwise be impossible for an old man to display.

‘I guess this is the power of technology.’

Seo Jun-Ho had already used half of the magic power he had absorbed through the Black Moon Heart Method. He had to recharge, but the only way he could do that was to kill these two.

“Hm, now that I think about it, you have lasted longer outside the city than I had expected, considering that you are a Pureblood.”

“Really? I could do it for days, though.”

He gave a short, confident answer, but Seo Jun-Ho could feel it. The interval between the attack of pain in his lungs was growing shorter, and the thought of it made him feel impatient.

‘Dammit. The longer this goes on, the more disadvantageous this will be for me.’

Neither of the two seasoned martial artists had many openings he could exploit.

‘If I want to break out of this stalemate, I need a new tactic.’

What kind of strategy could he use, then? An illusion? Or one of his Skills?

‘Think…’ The gears started turning in his head.

- Hey, Original! Can you hear me?!

A voice that sounded exactly like him echoed in his head.

It was Seo Jun-Sik.

- I’m busy.

- You think you’re the only one?

Seo Jun-Sik said, sounding like he was choking up. However, he quickly got to the point.

- Anyway, we’re on our way to you.

-What? Don’t come here.

There were tens of thousands of martial artists following that guy. In addition, they were under Namgung Jincheon’s control, so they couldn’t even kill them. He was already having a hard time recovering his magic, so if Seo Jun-Sik came here to stir things up, the situation could quickly get out of hand.

- Hey, don’t worry about it. I have a reliable backup force with me.

- Backup? What do you even…

Just as he was about to ask, Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes went wide.

Seo Jun-Sik’s thoughts were flowing into his head in real time.

- I see...

There it was. The new strategy.

It took him a great amount of effort to hold back his smile. He then pleaded with Seo Jun-Sik.

- Jun-Sik, hurry up.

- Geez, I know.

***

The elegant nebula spilled down across the sky. The Heavenly Demon quietly watched the battle taking place outside the window.

“What a beautiful fight.”

“It’s an incredible amount of magic power. To be frank, I would not want to face him as an opponent,” Isaac Dvor fussed with his body trembling.

The Heavenly Demon looked straight at him.

“...Is there something you’d like to say?” Isaac asked.

“How far along are they in breaking into the Beta Neigong Chip?”

“They have done basically nothing.”

It had already been a month, but they still hadn’t made even a single crack in the code.

“If I recall correctly, they said they could break it in half a year when they first started.”

“They certainly did. But in my opinion, they won’t be able to do so.” Isaac smiled amiably and continued. “Shall we throw them all to the dogs?”

“That would be a fitting price to pay for their sins. Do it.” The Heavenly Demon nodded.

He then looked outside the window, silently and ceaselessly, as if he were a child staring at a toy being displayed behind it.

‘Ah.’ Isaac realized what his master wanted as he said, “I will bring it to you.”

The Heavenly Demon nodded. “I am looking forward to it.

***

‘They’re getting closer.’

Seo Jun-Ho could sense their approach, and he started to lay out his plan.

‘Let’s start big.’

He mustered every single drop of magic he had like he had nothing to lose.

“Ah…!” Wariness clouded Danyang’s eyes. His opponent didn’t seem like the type to use neigong so recklessly. So much neigong had gathered that it looked like there was a storm in front of him.

“Frost!” Seo Jun-Ho shouted, and she hurriedly ran over as Seo Jun-Ho said, “Hey, you can use that thing before again, right?”

“The ‘thing’... Are you referring to the ice?”

“Yeah.” The Frost Queen considered it for a moment with an unconvinced look before saying, “If I use it one more time, your head will start hurting.”

“It doesn’t matter…”

“And as long as that man Danyang is here, the result will be the same.”

“No, it’ll be different this time,” he said confidently.

Danyang and Heosu approached them.”

“Hehe, I was looking forward to meeting you, girl, but is that all you have to show us?”

“You must be reaching your limits, seeing how you’re trying to end the fight as soon as possible.”

Well, they weren’t wrong. Whenever he breathed, his lungs would scream in unimaginable pain.

“Frost…”

“...You truly wish for me to do it?”

“Yeah. Do it.”

At the command, the Frost Queen crouched and buried her hand into the ground.

“Arise! Freezing Hill!”

Crackle!

A giant mountain of ice shot up from nowhere, but Danyang merely snorted at the sight.

“This again?”

“It seems like these children are not very intelligent.”

Danyang immediately kicked off of the ground as neigong ran through his artificial veins.

“Dragon-Percing Death Strike!”

7th Form: Dragon Hunter.

With an elegant swing of his sword, he cut through the ice with ease, even though it was harder than most rocks.

‘I wasn’t sure, but I was right.’ Danyang smiled viciously.

It was a pathetic last-ditch effort.

However, the moment he shattered the ice into thousands of pieces, he noticed something wrong.

‘...Hm?’

He was sure that he had cut through hard ice, but something else was falling from the sky.

“Water?”

It fell from the sky like a waterfall. He was already drenched, but it kept pouring down.

“H-How?!” Heosu exclaimed, looking up from the ground. His eyes went wide.

On the other side of the ice, there was a group of several Players.

‘Support troops! Was that not his final move?’

He thought that they had cornered the Player. He thought that the Player had gotten so intimidated by their skills that he had pointlessly released his neigong.

‘It was a smokescreen!’

It turned out to be a distraction to draw Danyang and Heosu’s eyes away from the trap.

As a result, a red-haired Player managed to sneak up and melt the ice.

“Nice assist, Captain Gong.”

“I-Is this all right? And why are there two of you? W-Who’s the real one?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll explain later.”

The magic-infused water droplets scattered were under Seo Jun-Ho’s control.

“Ah!” Flustered, Heosu quickly used Yon-Yang Blade, trying to redirect the trajectory of the water droplets falling down from the sky.

“That won’t work...”

No matter how fast a person could move, it was impossible for them to dodge the rain. The amount of water that drenched Heosu’s robes far exceeded the amount of water he managed to avoid.

Seo Jun-Ho gave a small pull with his finger.

“Freeze.”

Crackle!

The rain froze over, as well as the water covering Danyang and Heosu.

“Dammit! Unbelievable! This is sorcery!”

Danyang hopped through the air like a crane, but he instantly froze as well.

“These bastards always say that when they lose,” Seo Jun-Ho muttered with a snort, “And what was it called again? The High Principle of the Sky Dragon?”

As he jeered, dozens of elegant spears made of darkness appeared.

“You should use it again...”

If he could do it, sure...

Shwaaaa!

The spears went flying. This time, they struck their targets.

“Gah…!” Dozens of spears pierced Danyang, and he stopped breathing.

“N-No, no!” Heosu immediately panicked upon seeing the demise of his partner, and he mustered his neigong like mad as he tried to melt the prison of ice. Unfortunately, it wasn’t working.

A large shadow loomed over his head.

“Oh, stars above…” He despaired while looking up at the sky.

Crackle!

The frozen waterfall fell on him, crushing his body.

“Black Moon Heart Method.”

Seo Jun-Ho breathed in the way he had learned, and the martial artists’ neigong replenished his magic.

“Your plan was totally cool, Ho.”

“It’s all thanks to you, Sik.”

Seo Jun-Ho and Seo Jun-Sik bumped fists.

Gong Ju-Ha stared blankly at them. “There’s a Specter-nim next to Specter-nim… And a Mr. Jun-Ho next to a Mr. Jun-Ho…”

“Eh? It’s not Mr. Jun-Ho and Mr. Jun-Ho. It’s Mr. Jun-Sik,” Seo Jun-Sik corrected, eyes wide.

Gong Ju-Ha was bewildered. “M-Mr. Jun-Sik? Who’s that?”

“Who do you think? I’m Seo Jun-Ho’s clone—Seo Jun-Sik.”

“...Clone?”

“To put it simply, I made him with my skill,” Seo Jun-Ho explained while ruffling Seo Ju-Sik’s hair.[1]

“Oh… I see.” Gong Ju-Ha’s face went red upon realizing it. She almost kicked up a fuss earlier when Seo Jun-Sik had called her ‘Ju-Ha’ because it made her think that he thought of her as someone more than just a friend.

“Why are you here, Miss Ju-Ha?” asked Seo Jun-Ho.

“Oh, I’ll explain.” Seo Jun-Sik simply shared his memories with Seo Jun-Ho.

“There are over eight thousand Players here?” Seo Jun-Ho’s face darkened. He was thankful, but the situation was worse than he had expected. “I don’t think we have time to chat like this, then.” In addition, his lungs had been screaming in pain for a while now.

“Yes, we should hurry back to the city…”

Gong Ju-Ha trailed off and tilted her head. There was a very pretty girl staring at her dryly with her arms crossed.

“Um, who is this little girl?”

“I am not a little girl. How rude.” The Frost Queen’s eye twitched slightly. She puffed out her chest and started. “I will only say this one, so listen closely. I am—”

“She’s just my spirit,” Seo Jun-Ho said firmly, cutting her off.

The Frost Queen stomped her feet. “Hey, I want to introduce myself, too!”

“We don’t have time for that.”

The Players were fighting Namgung Jincheon. They had to hurry.

***

“They are tenacious,” Namgung Jincheon muttered to himself as he looked down at the collapsed Players. Many of them sustained severe injuries and died, but what mattered was the fact that they were still standing their ground even after several hours.

‘So this is what Players are like...’

They were more persistent and disruptive than he thought.

Crack!

He broke Rahmadat’s neck in his hand.

“M-Mr. Rahmadat!” Golden light glowed on Cha Si-Eun’s fingers and under the combined power of Breath of Restoration (S) and Super Regeneration (S), his neck healed in the blink of an eye.

Rahmadat’s thick hands wrapped around Namgung Jincheon’s neck in response.

“Aren’t you tired?”

“Heh, tired? What’s that?”

The old man was growing weary. The immortal monster in front of him had already been taking all his attacks for hours. Even if he cut off Rahmadat’s arms and legs or even severed his body in half, Rahmadat managed to survive such injuries somehow.

Crack!

“Ack!”

Namgung Jincheon folded Rahmadat’s body in half and carelessly tossed him forward.

“Huff. Huff.”

He spat on the ground, taking in the Players. The useful little insects, the ones the others called the Nine Heavens and the Big 6, still hadn’t lost their fighting spirit.

‘Should I kill them all?’

No. Even though they were annoying, he couldn’t kill them. There were so many useful bodies here. He had to treat them with a little more care so he could make them a part of his Immortal Army.

- Sir, this is Kwak Won-San. The Immortal Army is ready to attack.

“Finally.”

He let out a deep sigh. If he wanted to, he could have killed them all long ago, but he ended up spending too much time toying with the ones he wanted.

- Send them over immediately. I shall return.

- Understood.

Soon enough, the Immortal Army would open their eyes and emerge from underground to defeat the Players. They would capture the useful Players and slaughter the useless ones.

“You should have killed me...”

“Ahh!”

“Hold your ground!”

Namgung Jincheon sent one last powerful wave of energy and left the battlefield without hesitation. When he returned to his quarters, Kwak Won-San had already prepared his tea. “You’ve worked hard.”

Namgung Jincheon drank the tea with one gulp and sat down.

“Ah, how refreshing. Turn on the video.”

“Yes…”

The Immortal Army. It was an invincible force he had fostered for hundreds of years. He was excited to see them on the battlefield for the first time.

- Bzzzt.

However, the video and the equipment suddenly turned off. Just as he was about to ask what was going on, he sensed something wrong.

‘My voice… It’s not coming out?’

What in the world? Had he fought for too long?

Perhaps Kwak Won-San put poison in his tea?

However, his suspicion dissipated when he saw Kwak Won-San’s head rolling on the floor.

“I love this place, you know?”

Isaac Dvor stepped forward with a friendly smile while wiping the blood off of his hands with a handkerchief.

“It’s full of idiots who have replaced their bodies with machinery. How could I not?”

“Guh, uhhhh…”

Namgung Jincheon glared at Isaac with a fury so intense it seemed like he would explode.

It didn’t really matter if Namgung Jincheon had thousands of gapja of neigong. After all, Namgung Jincheon’s heart, his brain, and everything else in his body were made of machinery, so there was nothing he could do in front of a gremlin’s ability.

“Hm. I sense something on this side.”

Smash!

Issac Dvor tore through Namgung Jincheon’s left arm, and he grinned upon discovering the two chips beneath it.

“There are two of them…” Isaac thought for a moment and only took one. “You see, the Heavenly Demon only ordered me to bring the Neigong Chip.”

At that, he tossed his handkerchief at Namgung Jincheon. Kwak Won-San’s blood drenched the handkerchief. By the time the handkerchief landed on Namgung Jincheon’s face, the Magician of Death had already disappeared without a trace.

1. Jun-Ho speaks formally, Jun-Sik speaks casually. ☜