Return of the Frozen Player

From Seo Jun-Sik’s memories, Seo Jun-Ho learned three things: the Heavenly Demon was here, the Heavenly Demon managed to absorb the two neigong chips, and the Heavenly Demon had reached a new level.

‘However, he’s in bad condition.’

That was why the Heavenly Demon was trying to leave quietly without dealing with the tired Players. He had gotten greedy in the process of absorbing the neigong chips, so his body was currently unstable.

‘Jun-Sik knew that the Heavenly Demon is in an unstable condition.’

However, Seo Jun-Sik did not say even a word to him until he was killed. There could only be one reason why he did that.

‘He thought about it in his own way and came to a conclusion.’

The conclusion Seo Jun-Sik had reached was that the current Seo Jun-Ho couldn’t beat the Heavenly Demon. With his eyes closed, Seo Jun-Ho calmly analyzed their current situation.

‘Currently, there are three of the Nine Heavens in the Heavenly Demon’s group. The Chef is with them as well, and if they gathered the subordinates they had made here, they would have hundreds of people to command.’

Then, what about the Players? The number of Players was in the thousands, but they had already gone past their limits. In other words, they had been fighting for so long that their stamina, magic, and mental strength had long hit rock bottom.

'So I can't ask for their help...’

Doing that would be no different from asking them to die. What if he went there on his own because he was in a relatively normal condition? Seo Jun-Ho shook his head after running a few simulations in his head.

‘Even if it’s me, it’ll be difficult.’

Isaac Dvor, Valencia Citrin, and the Heavenly Demon. They were strong foes and were a part of the Nine Heavens.

‘I don’t know what to do…’

There was no path in sight, and it made Seo Jun-Ho feel suffocated. He knew that he shouldn't just let them go like this, but he also knew that he had no choice but to let them go like this. The realization made his shoulders droop.

'...I'll have to let them go.’

He knew and understood it well in his head. He had considered many things, but he still couldn’t find a way to beat them in their current situation.

Gilberto saw Seo Jun-Ho’s dark face, and he couldn’t help but ask, "Jun-Ho, is there something bothering you?”

"Jun-Sik died.”

"What? What the hell happened?”

Seo Jun-Ho replied grimly, “It’s the Heavenly Demon.

“…!”

The air froze. The party turned pale as they stared blankly at Seo Jun-Ho.

The Heavenly Demon? If the Heavenly Demon were to come here with his subordinates, they would definitely get wiped out.

"Don't worry. They’re trying to avoid a fight because they’re also in bad condition."

"Phew, phew. We survived. My hands got sweaty hearing that."

"I’m sure they know our situation, but if they’re really stepping down despite that, then I guess they’re in a bad situation as well.”

Just in case Seo Jun-Ho felt differently, Rahmadat tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, I can see what you’re thinking, but you can't do it alone. You know that, right?"

"…I know."

There was a fine line between courage and recklessness. Unless one could properly distinguish between the two, one couldn’t survive long in the world of Players.

- Hmm.

The silent emperor finally spoke.

- That man, Heavenly Demon. He is taking his subordinates to the elevator.

"You can tell even things like that?"

- Of course, I've long become the system managing this city.

The emperor had a look of great displeasure.

- But I can't believe that he has monopolized the two neigong chips that belonged to this city. I don't like it.

"I feel the same, but there’s nothing I can do about it."

Seo Jun-Ho looked around. The Players were exhausted, so he couldn't stop that bastard.

- What if there's a way?

Seo Jun-Ho abruptly turned to look at the emperor.

"What did you just say?"

- I asked if you'd stop them if there’s a way.

The emperor's friendly expression became stern without Seo Jun-Ho realizing it. The latter knew that the emperor’s image was just a hologram without substance, but he still felt intimidated at the sight of the emperor’s serious look.

"Of course, I'll stop them."

- Why?

"Because that's the right thing to do."

The Alpha and Beta neigong chips weren’t made to be monopolized by one person. It was a token of hope the Aeon Empire gave to Neo City so that the destroyed central districts of Neo City could be restored.

- Well, that's not a perfect answer, but...

The stern emperor smiled.

- It’s a more or less nice answer.

"Anyway, what's the way?"

- Namgung Jincheon was an idiot, but there was one thing he knew for sure.

Something Namgung Jincheon knew for sure?

The emperor shrugged when he saw the confused Seo Jun-Ho.

- He kept on saying it, right? If you can completely control the System Chip, then you’ll become the god of this city.

"I thought he was just exaggerating?"

- Well, take a look at it yourself and see if he was just exaggerating.

The emperor smiled and tapped in the air, and a dense amount of commands appeared in front of Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes.

“…!”

They were system commands that could only be used by Neo City's Chief Administrator—the one who had received the emperor's authority.

Seo Jun-Ho's awestruck eyes became even more intrigued as he swept his gaze at the system commands.

’If I use them properly…’

The emperor met Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes and asked.

- What do you think?

"It’s great."

Of course, he couldn’t kill three of the Nine Heavens with just the system commands, but he could ruin their hard work to some extent, at the very least.

"Thank you very much, Your Majesty."

- You've been annoying me for a while now. You have become this city’s emperor, so I’m not the emperor anymore.

The emperor smiled softly.

- I was called Emperor Hyun-Yeon all my life, so feel free to call me Yeon.

***

"Wait, are you really going?"

"No, you must not!"

"Jun-Ho, what's wrong? You’re acting strange."

Naturally, his comrades dissuaded him with serious expressions.

"It's okay. I'm not going to go ham on them."

"No, just going over to them will be too much. There are even three of the Nine Heavens there, three!” Skaya made sure to lower her voice so that the Players around them wouldn’t hear her.

"I know. I know that I’ll certainly be defeated if I were to confront them directly.”

"You idiot! Even if you flank or ambush them from behind, you will still be defeated. Anyway, we told you not to go, so don't go!"

Seo Jun-Ho could completely understand his comrades’ feelings. To be honest, he thought it was absolutely impossible to confront the Heavenly Demon’s group, but his mind changed when he saw the system commands of the System Chip.

- This is the emperor, they're still moving.

Seo Jun-Ho nodded at the urging of the founding emperor’s A.I., that had just asked him to comfortably call him Yeon.

"In that case, let’s start right away."

At that, Seo Jun-Ho finally gave his first decree as the Emperor of Neo City.

"Yeon, I want you to send all friendly Players down to Earth.”

His first decree was to send all the friendly Players on the 5th Floor back to Earth. In general, it was something that couldn’t happen.

- I’ll take your orders.

However, the so-called impossible became true. Seo Jun-Ho passed down the order as the Emperor of Neo City rather than as a Player.

[The command ‘Forced return of the Players’ has been confirmed. Executing system command.]

"What?!"

"What's this?"

The Players exclaimed and started muttering to themselves in confusion.

"Hey! Do you really have to—”

"Sorry, but don't worry too much about me." Seo Jun-Ho waved at his friends' angry faces. "I'll be following you soon."

With that, the noisy streets quickly became quiet.

On the silent and desolate street, the Frost Queen asked, "Contractor, are you doing this because you are sure that you can handle it?"

"I have always been someone who never bites off more than I can chew," Seo Jun-Ho confidently replied.

Afterward, Seo Jun-Ho issued his second decree.

"Yeon, teleport me to where the Heavenly Demon is."

- As you wish.

***

The Heavenly Demon smacked his lips.

‘It's too bad. It's too bad no matter how many times I think about it.’

He was just a clone, but the Heavenly Demon felt as if he had killed Seo Jun-Sik too easily.

His throbbing left arm seemed to be screaming at him—saying that he should have made Seo Jun-Sik suffer a more painful death.

"I worked hard collecting them, but now, they have become useless,” Isaac muttered as he looked at the fiends behind him.

Isaac was planning on using them as meatshields in case of an ambush, but there wasn’t any ambush as they had expected.

“…”

All of a sudden, the Heavenly Demon sensed something, and he slowly turned around.

"Well, there are no ambushes, but someone seemed to have come here to see us off."

The Heavenly Demon smiled, overjoyed. There was a man looking down at the fiends from the roof of a four-story building across the road, and he looked incredibly similar to the man he had just killed.

"Issac, what do you think?"

"…I do not think that he is a clone. I can’t feel anything from him."

Isaac could clearly decipher the level of the clone, but he couldn’t feel even a trace of magic from the Specter who had just appeared.

"Well, he must be the main body."

The Heavenly Demon stepped forward. It seemed like he wasn’t going to fight, but he was willing to talk at the very least.

"Long time no see."

"…Yes, it has been a while.”

Seo Jun-Ho struggled to calm his boiling emotions. He would always be reminded of the Heavenly Demon’s face every time he recalled the Thunder God’s death.

‘The guy I have always wanted to tear into pieces is now standing right in front of me.’

Seo Jun-Ho closed his eyes. He thought that if he looked at Heavenly Demon even more, his furiously trembling heart would lead his plans to ruin.

‘I still have to let him go anyway.’

He came here to send the Heavenly Demon off in a not-so-nice way.

The Heavenly Demon said, "Just a while ago, I killed a man with the same face as you."

"…Yes, I know."

An arm and a leg. The Heavenly Demon killed Seo Jun-Sik in a similar manner to how he killed the Thunder God.

"As expected, you share memories with him. Anyway, have you perhaps forgotten about it?"

"No." Seo Jun-Ho opened his eyes and growled. "There’s no way I’ll forget it."

“Ku, keuk.” The Heavenly Demon started laughing at that, and his shoulders trembled as he laughed.

‘I haven’t forgotten as well.’

"Likewise."

The same was true for the Heavenly Demon. There was no way he would forget the Specter who had severed his left arm. They hated each other, but they couldn’t move on because they couldn’t forget each other.

"So, what brings you here today?"

"Why? Are you worried that I came here just to say goodbye? That’s boring."

"Then, why did you come here? Do you want to fight?"

The Heavenly Demon looked behind him with bored eyes. Valencia Citrin and Isaac Dvor were ready to fight at any time. There were more than eight hundred fiends with them as well.

"I have heard about how you fought a long battle that lasted an entire day. Are you confident about your chances of beating us?"

"Why would I do that?" Seo Jun-Ho's cold eyes pierced the Heavenly Demon. "You’re the only one who’s going to fight."

Afterward, Emperor Seo Jun-Ho ordered. “Yeon, today's weather..."

- The current weather is cloudy, and the temperature is cool. But...

Rumble!

The clear skies instantly darkened as dark clouds started to gather.

- It looks like heavy rain is going to fall nonstop from now on, Your Majesty.

The eyes of the fiends looking at the sky trembled ever so silently.