Return of the Frozen Player

Seo Jun-Sik stared vacantly up at the wrecked walls, pillars, and ceiling.

“Just so we’re clear, I didn’t do that. You’re the one who demolished everything,” he said.

“W-What? You were the one who came up with the plan!” the Frost Queen protested.

“I told you to hit him hard, not to destroy the building.”

“But…” The Frost Queen’s expression darkened at the thought of Contractor scolding her. She had trusted Seo Jun-Sik, but he stabbed her in the back.

“...You are a terrible person.” She choked up from the sorrow and the sense of betrayal.

She had never felt something like this throughout all her time as a monarch. Her tears threatened to spill over at any moment as she looked up at the ceiling with innocent eyes.

“Are you having fun?”

Slam!

Gilburt broke through the ceiling and landed with his clothes torn all over.

“...Huh. He’s alive.”

How did he survive?

Seo Jun-Sik was stupefied. The Frost Queen’s attack just now was so powerful that even he felt a chill down his spine when he saw it.

“Ahahaha!” Geum Hak-Do laughed triumphantly as if he hadn’t just hidden behind the giant ice pillar in fear. “Gilburt is actually at the Star Destruction Stage! There’s no way he would be defeated by the likes of you!”

“The Star Destruction Stage?”

Seo Jun-Sik’s face distorted and darkened. ‘That’s insane. Not even Original is at that Stage.’

At the Star Destruction Stage, the individual was capable of annihilating a planet if given enough time. Needless to say, even if Seo Jun-Ho were here with them, they would still be unable to defeat Gilburt.

“Just a sec. Time out.” Seo Jun-Sik held up his hands and turned to Geum Hak-Do. “Let’s go back to the Star’s Scream. What percentage did you want again?”

“You idiot. You’ve already crossed that bridge.”

“Hey, are you really going to give up without negotiating? I’ll get you a ship, too.”

“Heh. You sound like you’re panicking, but it’s too late...”

Geum Hak-Do only grew more confident once he knew that Seo Jun-Sik would be facing a warrior at the Star Destruction Stage.

‘We’ll just go ahead and kill him, and then I’ll take over the planet.’

He made up his mind—he would have his cake and eat it, too.

“Hey, Gilburt. Enough with the games. Just finish them.”

“Whatever you want.” Gilburt walked over to Seo Jun-Sik and the Frost Queen with a sword in each hand.

Seo Jun-Sik bit down on his lip as he watched. “...Shit. Why is everything going wrong today?”

To be blunt, it didn’t matter if he or the Frost Queen died.

He would feel like shit, but the two of them could simply be summoned back.

‘The problem is Seo Jun-Ho. The original body…’

At this rate, Seo Jun-Ho would die while sleeping comfortably in his bed.

They had to prevent that no matter what.

Seo Jun-Sik began to brainstorm ways to kill Gilburt. ‘I have two advantages over him.’

The first was that he had the Frost Queen.

He reckoned that her power was limitless because Original was asleep.

‘And the other advantage is that we’re in Neo City...’

Neo City belonged to the Emperor, so it was his territory.

‘But those aren’t enough...’

It wasn’t nearly enough. They all knew that.

“Looks like you’re working hard to find a way out. But it’s useless.” Gilburt lifted his hand and spoke, “There’s no way out. Come forth, Flame Drake.”

Fwoosh!

A ball of fire surged from the ruins and transformed into a bipedal dinosaur in the blink of an eye.

- Kraooooo!

It simply roared, but its roar melted the walls and pillars in the surroundings.

Boom! Boom!

The Flame Drake burned red, and it stood behind Gilburt.

“He’s a Spirit user?” Seo Jun-Sik gnashed his teeth.

No wonder he acted like he could see the Frost Queen.

“As a fellow Spirit user, allow me to introduce the Flame Drake to you. The Flame Drake produces hellfire that can never be extinguished until the target is reduced to ashes.”

The Flame Drake was the reason he was at the Star Destruction Stage. He wasn’t that great at combat, but his true power was immeasurable as a Spirit user.

“Finish them.”

- ...

However, something was wrong with the Flame Drake. It huffed and puffed to create fire, but it could only generate a tiny amount of fire. It kept trembling as if it looked troubled.

“Drake? What are you doing? Unleash your hellfire.”

The red dinosaur nervously bowed.

Gilburt couldn’t believe his eyes. ‘...It’s scared? The one and only Flame Drake?’

Impossible. Even among Spirits, the Flame Drake’s arrogance was unmatched. Though he was the Spirit’s master, even Gilburt would feel like the Flame Drake was too much to handle every now and then.

‘What in the world is it scared of…?’

He followed the Flame Drake’s surreptitious gaze.

‘...?’

His eyes landed on his opponent’s Spirit. The silver-haired girl was staring at the Flame Drake as if the Flame Drake was a zoo exhibit. Gilburt’s own haughty spirit was clearly scared of her.

“F-Frost, why aren’t you attacking?”

“I do not know. It is my first time seeing another Spirit, you see.”

It was true.

Every time Seo Jun-Ho released her into the Spirit World, she would find herself in a room that was made just for her rather than finding herself in a brand new world.

‘...The room has no doors either. The Spirit World is quite boring.’

The Spirit World was just a room for her to kill time.

“Jun-Sik, do all other Spirits look like that?” she asked.

“Yeah. According to Original’s memories, that’s what most Spirits look like.”

Meanwhile, Gilburt started scolding his own Spirit.

“What the hell is your problem?! Just attack them like you always do!”

- Groo.

The Flame Drake looked down at its feet and shook its head furiously. It looked pathetic compared to its usual, valiant demeanor.

Gilburt gritted his teeth. “Sigh. What are you so afraid of? Tell me.”

-...

The red dinosaur was silent for a long time before it hesitantly lifted its head.

- I do not wish to die just yet. That is the reason I do not want to fight.

Gilburt was shocked by the simple answer. He stared at Frost in disbelief and asked the Flame Drake, “You’re going to die if you fight…? Is it because of that little kid over there?”

- I do not know why she is parading around in such a form, but she is the Frostbringer of Worlds, and I do not wish to fight her.

With that being said, the Flame Drake unceremoniously returned to the Spirit World.

Seo Jun-Sik repeatedly blinked. “Hm. So his Spirit was scared of our little Frost?”

“H-hehe. He must have a good eye,” she said. However, her trembling voice and eyes made it obvious that she had no idea why the Flame Drake was scared of her. In fact, she looked confused. Was she really that powerful?

‘I don’t really know what just happened, but all that matters is that it’s gone.’

Seo Jun-Sik whipped his head around and grinned at Geum Hak-Do.

Geum Hak-Do laughed awkwardly. “...By any chance, may I take the ship you promised me, Your Majesty?”

“Oh, that?”

Shadows slithered out until the entire room became enveloped in darkness.

Seo Jun-Sik revealed a sinister smile and shook his head. “Oh no, what can I do? The ship has just capsized[1].”

***

The cleaning robots started scrubbing away the bloodstains.

Yeon sighed as he approached.

- Clone Majesty, was it really necessary to kill him?

“Of course it was.” Seo Jun-Sik didn’t even blink. “If I spared Hak-Do, do you really think that he would feel indebted to me?”

- I suppose not...

If he had let Geum Hak-Do go home safe and sound, the merchant would have hired a mercenary that was even stronger than Gilburt before returning to Neo City.

Seo Jun-Sik was familiar with cunning people like Geum Hak-Do.

- Goodness, to think that the owner of the Flower Willow Merchants would die at a place like this… Truly, life is unpredictable.

“I didn’t expect this to happen, but this is actually a good opportunity.”

The owner of the Flower Willow Merchants had been lying in wait to take over Overflow, but he was already dead. Unfortunately, the Flower Willow Merchants weren’t part of the Five Galaxy Merchants in vain.

Seo Jun-Sik was convinced that the death of their owner wouldn’t be enough to bring them down.

“However, it’ll take some time for them to sort things out internally and pick a successor.” After digging through Geum Hak-Do’s memories using Confession of the Dead, Seo Jun-Sik found that Geum Hak-Do didn’t have any family. He was so greedy that he didn’t want to share his wealth with a wife and children. It was ridiculous.

“Thank goodness. In other words, no one will come after us to get revenge.”

Seo Jun-Sik had also seen how Geum Hak-Do treated people in general, so Seo Jun-Sik was convinced that no third party would come and avenge Geum Hak-Do.

“Send a message to Overflow. The Flower Willow Merchants are unstable right now, so they should take advantage of that and go on the offensive for the sake of expansion.”

- Understood. If we build more connections through them, we’ll have more options once we start selling Star’s Voice.

Yeon then left to take care of business.

Seo Jun-Sik retrieved a crimson crystal.

He had found it while looting Geum Hak-Do’s corpse.

“Item data.”

[Fire’s Whisper]

Grade: Unique

Description: A rare item that can be found in between this dimension and the Spirit World. It is liked by Fire Spirits.

Effect: Boosts a Spirit’s power by a large amount.

‘It’s pretty obvious what this is...’

A better version of a Spirit Crystal.

And lo and behold, the Frost Queen was staring at it from the sidelines, drooling...

‘Hak-Do probably carried this around so he could give it to Gilburt in case he needed to him to do more than what was agreed…’

Whenever Seo Jun-Sik moved the crystal around, The Frost Queen’s eyes would follow it as if she were a cat staring at a laser dot.

Seo Jun-Sik played around with it a bit more before holding it out to the Frost Queen.

“Here,” he said.

“Y-You are giving this to me?”

“Yeah.”

“With no conditions?”

“Well, I would’ve died back there if it hadn’t been for you.”

“Jun-Sik, you are not like the Contractor at all…”

Her contractor always made her do certain things before giving her a reward. He would tell her to fold laundry, do the dishes—without using the dishwasher—as well as many other tasks.

Seo Jun-Sik grinned and said, “Well, you looked cute while you were staring at it earlier. It was fun watching you stare at it. But to be honest, it’s only because I almost made you cry when I made fun of you for breaking the building. Otherwise, I would have played around more with this thing.”

“Yes, yes. Now give it to me. I’m hungry.”

The Frost Queen snatched it away and stared at the crystal with sparkling eyes.

“Isn’t it pretty?”

“Yes. It does look quite delicious.”

“...”

Was she even paying attention?

Seo Jun-Sik was finally starting to understand why Original would always give her Spirit Crystals in shavings rather than give her the entire crystal.

“Hey, Frost, the crystal looks pretty hard. How are you gonna eat it?”

In response, the Frost Queen stuffed the entire thing in her mouth.

“Wike dis. I can simpwy suck on it like candy.”

“...What does it taste like? I’m curious.”

“It tastes hot and spicy, like fire. It’s delicious,” she replied. The description said that fire Spirits apparently liked the crystal, so it was clear that the Frost Queen wasn’t a picky eater. “Jun-Sik, my mouth is starting to burn. And my jaw is aching...”

“Duh. Look at the size of that. I gotta clean things up, so let’s go.”

The Frost Queen followed Seo Jun-Sik out of the throne room.

However, she abruptly came to a halt.

“Huh? Huuuh?”

The Frost Queen’s eyes grew wide.

1. The word used is a synonym for overthrow, presumably referring to how Hak-Do was trying to take over Neo City. ☜