Return of the Frozen Player

The giant reached out with both hands, but his hands couldn’t reach Cha Si-Eun.

“That’s enough.”

Slam!

Rahmadat appeared out of the blue and slammed the giant against the ground.

“Ah, ahhh…!”

“Mio, take care of Si-Eun,” Seo Jun-Ho muttered to Mio. He approached the giant, who was struggling beneath Rahmadat.

“Skaya, are you sure you can have a conversation with him?”

“I’m not sure. He doesn’t seem to be in the right condition to talk, but I guess I have no choice but to give it a try.”

Skaya squatted in front of the giant and waved her hand.

[Hello. My name is Skaya Killiland.]

Thump.

The giant abruptly stopped resisting. He looked up at Skaya and spoke.

[...How do you know our language?]

“Skaya. What did this guy say?”

“He asked about how I know his language.”

“What?”

‘Does that mean that we can actually have a conversation with them?’

Seo Jun-Ho urged. “Ask him what he is and why he attacked us.”

“Okay. Leave it to me,” replied Skaya. She proceeded to talk with the giant in the ancient language. Their conversation lasted for quite a while. In the end, Skaya gestured for the others to come with her behind a nearby tree.

“Our conversation is over for now.”

“Well? What is he?”

“He says he’s human.”

“...?”

Seo Jun-Ho and the rest of the team looked at Skaya with puzzled looks. They looked like they couldn’t understand what Skaya was talking about.

However, Skaya simply shrugged and said, “Yeah, I don’t know. But he said he’s human.”

“What nonsense is that? He’s definitely not human. Look at him.” Seo Jun-Ho glanced at the giant.

The giant looked extremely similar to humans that it was uncanny, but he was ridiculously tall with thick skin resembling tree bark.

“Perhaps we’re just prejudiced. What if the humans in this world are tall?”

“Well, let’s just say that he’s indeed human, but why did he attack us?”

“It sounds ridiculous, but he said it’s because we’re monsters who emerged from the Gate.”

Gilberto’s eyes narrowed. “Monsters? They think we’re monsters?”

“We’re monsters from the giants’ point of view.”

“...Mio is right.”

The Players had come across the gate after defeating Plutus. If the giants really were the humans in this world, then it was only natural for them to think of the Players as monsters.

“Then, we’ll have to clear up the misunderstanding before anything else.”

“Of course. I already told him that we’re Players from another world.”

“And? What did he say?”

“He didn’t believe me. He thinks we’re monsters imitating humans, but he wants to confirm whether I’m lying or not.”

“...”

The team members looked at Seo Jun-Ho. The decision he would make here would determine the future of the advance party.

Seo Jun-Ho thought about it for a while before saying, “How about we do this?”

***

[...Is it really that necessary to blindfold me?]

The giant grumbled in a low voice.

In addition to a blindfold, Skaya also covered his eyes using Blind.

“Huh? It’s Specter-nim.”

“Specter-nim’s team has returned!”

A commotion was heard up ahead of them.

Soon, a low rumble echoed as the stone wall opened.

Son Chae-Won approached Seo Jun-Ho’s team and asked, “How did it go?”

“The conversation plan worked.”

The sound of everyone’s gap echoed throughout the base camp.

“No way. Does that mean that there was no need for us to fight them?”

“Screw that. What did Houston die for, then?”

The Players were relieved and furious at the same time. In the face of the Players’ mixed feelings, Seo Jun-Ho remained calm as he slowly unwrapped the cloth that had been obscuring the giant’s eyes.

“Skaya. Deactivate your magic.”

“Okay.”

Skaya obliged.

The giant shook his head a couple of times and scanned the camp. The modern lanterns and instruments that were capable of driving out the darkness instantly caught his eye.

[What do you think? Do you have a different lifestyle than we do?]

[...It’s pretty similar, but there are a few things I have never seen before.]

The giant sat on the clearing while the Players stood around him.

Christin Lewis stepped forward with a smile.

“What did I tell you? I told you a conversation would work.”

“...”

Seo Jun-Ho nodded, albeit unwilling. He turned his attention to Skaya and asked, “Skaya. Please be the interpreter so the two of them can have a conversation.”

“Sure thing.”

Christin and the giant started talking while Skaya interpreted from the side.

The giant’s eyes shone, seemingly interested.

[Wow. So you’re the one who suggested trying to have a conversation with us?]

“Yes. The Sun God is merciful to every living creature, after all.”

[First of all… I would like to apologize for what we did to your colleagues. We thought that you guys were monsters because you came out of the Gate.]

“What happened was very unfortunate. However, our late colleagues prevented further sacrifices. The merciful Sun God will bless their proud souls and keep them by his side.”

Gilberto and Rahmadat listening to their conversation couldn’t help but remark.

“Yikes, that’s too much”

“Yeah, it’s too much.”

Christin was truly a devout believer in the Sun God, and it was to the point that people would think that he was born and raised on Frontier rather than on Earth.

Christin and the giant continued their amicable conversation.

“Pardon me? You weren’t this huge before?”

[Yes. We are the so-called failure.]

“Failure?”

[Hm, how should I explain this? By any chance, have you seen a guy named Plutus from inside the Gate?]

“Yes, we saw him.”

[He’s a failure, just like us. However, he had become so powerful that he was exiled from this world and was assigned the task of being the gatekeeper of the Gate.]

“What exactly do you mean by failure?”

[...First of all, I’ll have to explain to you the history of this world.]

Every word that came out of the giant’s mouth was shocking.

[This world’s name is Frontier. Every human in this world used to look the same as you—in size and everything. However, everything changed when Gates started appearing all over the world.]

‘The Gates…’

Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes shone.

As far as he knew, the collapse of Frontier’s Age of Glory was all thanks to the Gates.

[...Our magic was highly advanced and sophisticated. Not only were we capable of changing the weather, but we could also flatten mountains. The monsters pouring out of the Gates weren’t a big deal to us.]

“Are you saying that you easily cleared the Gates?”

[Well, I didn’t say that it was easy. There were many people who had no idea how to wield magic, so lots of blood were spilled until every Gate was cleared.]

In the end, they succeeded in clearing every single Gate.

[We thought that there was no guarantee that the Gates won’t reappear.]

“So what did you do?”

[Before anything else, we decided to make sure that every Gate would appear in a single, fixed location. To do that, we cast an extremely powerful spell.]

Seo Jun-Ho turned slightly to look back. He figured that the maze that was under the protection of Plutus the Exiled was one of the Gates that the giant was talking about.

[Of course, that wasn’t enough. We would still have to go to war if monsters emerged from the Gates once more. However, the issue was that the humans who knew how to wield magic were extremely strong, but those who couldn’t wield magic were too weak.]

“So you started teaching them magic to make them stronger?”

[We conducted two major research. The subject of the first research was to convert magic into a type of alternative energy so that even those who didn’t have the innate talent to wield magic could wield it.]

“No way!” Skaya shouted. “There’s no way that’s possible.”

[I told you. Our magic was highly advanced and sophisticated.]

“Wait, are you saying that your ridiculous research bore fruit?”

[Have you seen me use magic?]

Skaya was rendered speechless.

Seo Jun-Ho fell into deep contemplation. When he emerged from his thoughts, he nodded and said, “I see. So that was why we couldn’t feel his presence…”

[We have moved away from magic. Now, we’re using Force, which we developed independently.]

“Force…” Skaya muttered. Then, she asked urgently. “What was the other research?”

[The mages of the world put their heads together for the research. The research was about transcendence. It was about transcending the limits of the human species.]

“Perhaps that research was….”

[Ah, yes.]

The giant looked down at his own body.

[The ultimate goal was to extract the dominant and desirable genes from the monsters of the Gates to transplant them into humans. For your information, Antman’s dominant genes were implanted into me.]

“And the research was…”

[As you can see. It wasn’t entirely successful.]

There were definitely a few people who managed to succeed rather than fail and become failures. Those people were humans in both size and appearance, and they could probably manifest the characteristics of many monsters as well as wielding Force.

[Those who succeeded gained tremendous strength, and they started referring to themselves as Overmind. The issue was with the failures like myself.]

The failures came in various sizes with hideous appearances. In short, they weren’t humans anymore. Therefore, it was only natural for them to be exiled.

“W-wait, wait a minute…” Skaya shook her head, seemingly baffled. “What year is this exactly?”

[You wouldn’t know even if I told you.]

“Just say it!”

[...The standard for counting the years was changed since the first Overmind Emperor’s reign. The current year is the transcendence year of 1037.]

“Goodness…” Skaya muttered with her mouth agape. “...I was completely mistaken.”

“What are you talking about?” Seo Jun-Ho asked.

“I’m talking about the two hypotheses we talked about earlier.”

“Didn’t we already come to a conclusion? He said this is Frontier.”

“That is only applicable if we came back in time to Frontier’s Age of Glory...” Skaya thought that they had time traveled. However, Skaya finally realized what was going on after listening to the giant’s story.

“A completely separate history has been unfolding without our intervention for more than a thousand years. Do you know what that means?” asked Skaya.

“...” Seo Jun-Ho wordlessly shook his head.

“We’re not just in Frontier of the distant past…” Skaya put her hand on her throbbing forehead This was a completely separate Frontier that coexisted with the Frontier on the 2nd Floor, and it only meant one thing.

“We’re in a parallel universe. We crossed dimensions as we climbed up the 7th Floor.”

***

The next morning, the giant slowly opened his eyes.

[Are you leaving?]

“Yes. We have to visit your village. You said I can take this necklace with me, right?”

[They won’t be hostile as long as you have that necklace.]

“Okay… but are you sure you don’t want to come with us?”

[Trust isn’t easy to obtain, so I’ll let you hold me hostage until the misunderstanding is cleared.]

“Wow. That’s so thoughtful of you.” Skaya smiled and nodded. “Then, we’ll be back around lunch at the latest. Feel free to sleep until we come back.”

[It’s okay. I got a lot of sleep last night.]

“Do as you wish~”

Skaya and the Players prepared to leave the base camp. Their plan today was to visit the village of failures and talk with them.

“Have a safe trip.”

“Tsk… I can’t believe that I have to be a watchdog after coming all the way here.”

“Isn’t that nice, though? You don’t have to do much.”

Forty-two Players were left in the base camp.

Some of them were glaring at the giant, looking like they really wanted to kill him.

Some Players leaving for the village warned the remaining Players at the base camp.

“Hey. I’m saying this just in case, but don’t cause any trouble.”

“I’m really sorry that your colleague died, but… there’s no reason to shed more blood.”

“...”

Those who had lost their subordinates and colleagues glared at the giant.

Then, they turned around to return to their accommodations.

[I’m sorry.]

“Don’t be. You’re not the one who killed them, anyway. It would have been nice if we managed to talk it out from the very beginning—”

The Player flinched and hurriedly turned around.

‘Did we just talk? How? I don’t know how to speak Frontier’s ancient language—’’

The Player’s thoughts abruptly stopped when his head was forcefully twisted.

[I’m so sorry. I’m not doing this because I want to do it.]

The giant tore the rope that had been restraining him and got up.

[I just don’t want to continue living life as a failure.]

The failures could undergo treatment if they were to bring ten corpses of the monsters from the Gate that suddenly reappeared. If they wanted to leave this wilderness and live in a city along with the Overminds, then this was their only way.

“K-kill him!”

“That bastard…! It doesn’t matter; he’s weak!”

[Sorry to break it to you, but I’m different from those ordinary failures.]

Crack!

There was a grotesque sound as the heads of the surrounding Players were forcefully twisted, which ended their lives in the blink of an eye.

[Ten bodies. I’ve finally collected them all.]

The giant only picked up ten corpses out of the dozens of corpses in the area. However, the moment he walked out of the camp, the scenery around him suddenly melted away as if it were a rain-soaked mural.

“I should be the one who should say sorry…”

The giant suddenly found himself in the forest where he met Seo Jun-Ho and his team last night.

[W-what is going on?!]

[N-no way…! Was everything just an illusion? That’s ridiculous…!]

“You deceived us as well, so...” Seo Jun-Ho sitting at the bottom of a tree muttered indifferently, “Let’s call it even.”

Bang!

A gunshot ripped through the dark forest as Gilberto’s gun spat fire.