Return of the Frozen Player

Kazakhstan was a county sandwiched between Europe, Asia, and Africa. The Semey Plains was usually a very quiet place, but not today.

“This is H. I have arrived on the scene.”

The Korean Player looked around, stunned.

‘There are at least several thousand Players gathered here.’

It was a rare sight. However, it didn’t make him feel safe.

He took off his sunglasses as he stared up at the so-called Semey Gate.

“God…”

Crackle. Crackle.

How should he describe it? It was a giant circle that was so huge it encompassed the skies. He was even hesitant to even call it a Gate.

‘I can’t believe that it only appeared an hour ago.’

It was a bad omen. A Gate this huge had never appeared on Earth before.

‘Something big is about to happen.’ He frowned. He was often told that he had a good instinct.

It felt like they were being swept by a sudden force of fate.

“Excuse me, can you tell me what’s going on?” H asked.

“It seems that they’re starting to settle down. That should mean that the Gate has stopped growing,” a member of the French Player Association replied. “At first, it seemed like it would infinitely grow, but it has already been twenty minutes since it settled on that size.”

“...That’s disturbing,” H muttered.

The Semey Gate hadn’t caused any sort of damage yet. However, its size alone sent a strange shiver down his spine.

“What do you make of it?” H asked.

“It’s not a Gate,” the French Player said firmly. “More accurately, it’s a Gate that we cannot categorize.”

“You’re talking about the three stages of a Gate.”

Decades ago, humans split Gates into three categories. Before someone entered, it was blue. Once they were inside, it turn would red. And as soon as they emerged, it would turn green and collapse an hour later. All Gates were supposed to be like that.

“You’re right. That’s no Gate,” H said with furrowed brows.

The Semey Gate didn’t give off any specific color. Instead, magic would make the surface ripple like water, shifting between landscapes.

“We think it’s connected to somewhere, we just don’t know where,” the French Player said.

“Has any Player gone inside yet?”

“What kind of crazy bastard would do that?”

Players could only live a long life if they knew when to advance and when to retreat.

And everyone’s instincts were screaming that they shouldn’t go inside that Gate.

Just then, a Westerner with a prominent hooked nose raised his hand and said, “Excuse me, can I have everyone’s attention for a second? My name is Cotton, and I’m a member of the American Player Association.”[1]

“Sure, Cotton. What did you want to say?”

“I have a skill that allows me to share sight, and I was thinking about using it to investigate what’s inside the Gate. Does anyone oppose?”

“Share sight? How does it work?”

“Something like this.” He blew his whistle, and a hawk that was flying through the air landed on his forearm. As soon as it did, Cotton’s eyes started to glow blue. “Even though I’m facing this way, I can see a man wearing a red bandana in the back.”

“Interesting. So you’re looking through the hawk’s eyes, using it like a drone.”

“Precisely.”

The Players nodded at the explanation. The skill would allow them to scout out what was inside without risking any human lives.

Of course, there were people who raised concerns.

“Wait. That means you’ll still be sending an organism through the Gate. That’s too dangerous.

“What if it acts as a trigger and something happens?”

“Are you saying that we should just leave it alone forever?”

“It hasn’t even been an hour since it appeared. We should wait it out for at least a few days.”

A tense debate started between the two sides with no end in sight.

“S-Specter!”

“It’s the 5 Heroes!”

Many people started moving toward the Semey Gate.

As soon as Seo Jun-Ho appeared, all the attention fell on him.

“What’s with this ruckus?” he asked.

“Oh, well…”

As soon as they received an explanation, Seo Jun-Ho turned to his friends and asked, “What do you think?”

“I agree that we should just leave it alone for now. There’s no need to rush in when we don’t even know what it is,”

“Hm. But thousands of Players came here just because of one Gate. Wouldn’t it be a waste to just keep them on standby?”

“Even if it is, it’s a sacrifice we should be willing to make.”

Even his friends were divided and started falling down into the rabbit hole of argument.

Clip clop. Clip clop.

“...!”

Something came out of the Gate. Everyone turned to look at it.

“Mooo?”

“What? Is that a cow?”

“Not quite,” Gilberto said, squinting. “It’s a cowa, to be exact. Look, it has two tails.”

“A cowa?”

“You’re right. Wait, aren’t they native to Frontier?”

The Players stared at the Gate once more.

As they did, Cotton nodded and said, “I assume that no one will have any complaints if I scouted the Gate.”

Even those who were against it earlier stayed silent. After all, nothing happened even when the cowa went back and forth through the portal. In fact, the cowa itself looked greatly confused about what was going on.

“I’m going in.” Cotton’s eyes turned blue, and the hawk immediately flew into the Gate and disappeared.

He started relaying his findings in real-time. “I think it’s a plain. It looks somewhat like a desert, too. There is no sign of civilization. I think I can see something in the distance, but—Wait, what?!”

Cotton’s face turned white as if he had seen a ghost. The skill was canceled, and he vomited blood.

“Bleghhh!”

“W-What happened?”

“Healer! We need a healer!”

“I’m here!”

Cha Si-Eun made her way over with the 5 Heroes and quickly treated him.

“Huff. Huff. Thank you. Goddammit.”

“What happened? Were you attacked?”

“No, that’s not it. It went too far, and the skill went out of range. That’s all.”

As soon as he recovered enough to speak, Seo Jun-Ho went down on one knee to meet his eye level and asked, “What is it? Just what did you see in there?”

Cotton gulped and shivered. “...Outland.”

He looked just as confused as everyone else as he muttered, “the Gate leads to Frontier.”

A deafening silence fell over Semey Plain.

***

[Giant Gate Confirmed to Be Connected to Outland, Located at the West of Frontier.]

[Breaking News! A Similarly Large Gate Has Been Discovered in East Frontier, Confirmed to Be Connected to Balbortan.]

[World Player Association Sends Members on an Emergency Mission to Find a Similar Gate on the 3rd Floor.]

[Will the First Four Floors Become Connected into One? If So, Why?]

[World Player Association Calls for an Emergency Global Conference. Diplomats from Ruben Are Also Slated to Participate.]

…

This was unprecedented. Floors were thought to be located in different dimensions that could only be accessed through the Dimensional Elevators. But now, all you had to do was step through a giant portal.

“Skaya, what do you think?” asked Seo Jun-Ho.

Skaya didn’t answer right away. Whenever she fell deep into thought, no one could interrupt her, even if someone shouted into her ear.

“Geez. What’s gonna happen now?” Rahmadat asked, scratching his head. “Does that mean people won’t have to take a Dimensional Elevator anymore if they’re in a rush?”

“It’s not that simple,” Gilberto replied. “Before, you at least had to pass through a Dimensional Elevator to travel between Floors.”

At most, a Dimensional Elevator could only move ten people at a time. Even on the artificial islands in the Pacific, it would take time if they wanted to transport several hundred people between Floors.

“That’s why I managed to buy a lot of time when the Fiend Association started coming down to Earth,” he explained.

However, that wasn’t the case anymore.

If some tyrant wanted to transport tens of thousands of soldiers to Earth, they could do so through the giant portal.

“I have no doubt that this is the doing of either the fiends or the demons,” Mio said with narrowed brows.

The demons were the ones who stood to gain anything from this. It was unprecedented for Earth to be directly connected to other dimensions. Naturally, if the goal grew wider, the goalkeeper would have a harder time defending it.

“Tsk. We’re gonna have a lot of things to take care of,” Gilberto said, sucking his teeth.

Rahmadat scratched his cheek. “I don’t really get it. Can’t we just station permanent guards at the Gate?”

“It’s not that simple,” Skaya said at last, breaking her silence. “There are clear pros and cons to the portal.”

“Wait, there are pros, too?”

“Of course.”

With the Floors being connected to each other via the giant portal, they could now directly interact with each other. Therefore, Earth’s stagnant economy, culture, and technology could explode.

“Huh. It doesn’t seem that bad if you think about it that way.”

“The problem is that there are a lot more cons than pros.” Skaya started explaining the three main problems she found with this kind of arrangement. “First, we’ll be vulnerable to attacks, like Gilbe said.”

The only reason Players could go to the upper Floors without reservations was that Earth was safe. They were in the midst of a peaceful era, and they had safe zones. Gates weren’t popping up all over like before, and even when they appeared, they had an abundance of Players who could handle it.

“Then, what’s the second problem?”

“Chaos. Pure, unfettered chaos.” Skaya’s eyes darkened. “Rahmadat, what’s your opinion on Ruben?”

“They’re a good ally. We help each other out, don’t we?”

“Yup. However, the only reason we have been helping each other is that we were located extremely far from each other.” Skaya pointed out.

Neither posed a threat to the other—until now.

“If one of us decides to start a war, the peace we are enjoying right now will crumble like a cookie.”

“Hmm. There’s no reason either of us would do that, though,” Rahmadat said.

“No matter where you go, there will always be extremists.” Skaya pointed out.

Earth and the Ruben Empire would be much warier of each other from now on.

“On top of that, there will be an uproar about the different species.”

Unlike Earth, humans weren’t the only intelligent race on Frontier. There were a number of different species that lived among each other.

Elves, dwarves, orcs, lizardmen, birdmen, etc…

Among them, there were humanoid species that lived among the humans as well.

“What if some of the humanoid races want to live on Earth? What do you think would happen?” Skaya postulated.

“We’ll have to implement laws to stop them.”

“But the portal is already there. No matter how much we try to block them with legal justifications, things are different now than they had been yesterday. We can’t stop all of them.”

Now that there was a huge chance that people from Frontier would cross over to Earth, the people of Earth had to be on high alert.

“But the third and biggest problem…”

Skaya turned to look at the giant Gate. “The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Floors are now connected. At least three dimensions and planets have merged…”

”The 4th Floor could end up being connected to us as well. Nothing like this has ever happened all throughout human history.”

“You’re worried about the aftereffects?”

“Yeah. I think it’s possible that the dimension will collapse in the worst-case scenario.”

Everyone gulped. This could end up being much more serious than they expected.

“You’re… right.”

“There’s nothing more to say. We’ll guard the Gate.”

The Players created an impregnable blockade in front of the giant portal.

However, two days later, a shocking piece of news shook the earth.

[King of Corpses Nazad Hallow Begins Invasion of the Ruben Empire.]

1. The word for “hooked nose” is the same as “eagle’s beak”, so it’s supposed to be comical because he handles hawks. ☜