The Frozen Player Returns

A hundred and eighty-two days into the experience…

Skaya used the rooftops to travel around downtown. The landscape blurred behind her.

‘There’s still a lot…’

There was still a lot of scum to clean up in the city. She stopped and looked down, tired.

“Shit, it’s the Archmage!”

“She saw us! Attack!”

The fiends hiding beneath the building started to attack. Spikes shot toward the roof, and explosions filled the air.

“I think we—” one of the fiends started.

“Finish that sentence, and I’ll rip you apart.” At their comrade’s words, they shut up.

Through the thick smoke from the explosions, they could still clearly see the figure of a robed mage.

“Dammit! She’s still alive!”

“W-We didn’t kill her, but we must’ve done substantial damage! So…!”

“Sorry to disappoint, but I’m perfectly fine.”

Woosh!

Skaya waved her hand, and the smoke was instantly blown away. The wind was then directed toward the fiends.

“Curse you…Old woman…!”[1]

“O-Old woman? That stings.”[2]

“...?” The fiends squinted, unable to understand what she had just said.

“...Do people not say that these days?” she mumbled dryly. Her magic grew fiercer as her mood soured. The wind had merely been pushing the fiends back a bit, but its temperament quickly changed.

‘...!’

‘I-it’s so strong.’

The wind started to cut through their clothes and skin. The cuts started to multiply, starting with one, two, three…fourfivesixseveneightnineteneleven… Their blood also started to get swept into the air, and it seemed more lustrous than usual.

“I’ll make you regret calling me an old woman.”

“I-if we apologize, will you spare…?”

“Nonsense. Obviously, you’ll be paying with your life.”

Then, there was an explosion…

Booooom!

Skaya blew up the building and the street they were on. She watched as shards of bones fell from the sky.

“They’re both dead.” After confirming that, she skipped back over to the roof and leaped away. Her magic sensor picked up the traces of more fiends.

“Just how many of them are there?” she wondered out loud.

[There are ten of them left. We’ll be done with the downtown area soon.]

“So annoying. I wanted to finish cleaning up everything at the beach before Jun-Ho returned.”

[We still have thirty minutes left, so do your best.]

“Why do you sound so condescending? How many have you killed so far?”

[Twenty-seven.]

“...Just you wait.” Skaya had only killed twenty-five so far. She picked up her pace.

***

Two hundred and fifty days into the experience…

“I brought him in.”

“Hm, this is the guy?” A trembling man was forced down in front of Gu Shi-On. He was the one who hadn’t been able to carry out the Fiend Association’s orders. “Tsk, you should’ve listened from the start. You’re making more work for the both of us.” He slapped the man’s cheek and summoned his magic.

“Spend the next two weeks reflecting on your actions, okay?” Gu Shi-On started looking for an empty room for his new tenant. “Hm?”

His eyes narrowed when he saw a certain room in the goshiwon window. “...Hey.”

“Yes, Gu Shi-On-nim.” The Despair Squadron member bowed politely.

“What time is it?”

“5:40 PM, sir.”

“...”

Gu Shi-On's face fell.

‘I’m pretty sure I put Seo Jun-Ho in there exactly at 5.’

In twenty minutes, a year would have passed inside the room.

But somehow, Seo Jun-Ho seemed perfectly fine.

‘Or maybe he isn’t?’

He was talking to himself. Some people could endure for this long every once in a while, and they would go half-crazy and create imaginary people in their heads, as they couldn’t cope with the loneliness.

‘But other than that…’

Seo Jun-Ho seemed much better than he had expected.

Gu Shi-On didn’t understand why.

‘Even though he’s the Player who killed Pride, he should still be a novice.’

Not even veteran Players could last a year in the goshiwon. Actually, they rarely even survived half a year. They would either go crazy before then, or they would take their own lives.

‘So why does he look perfectly fine?’

Other than the fact that he was talking to an imaginary friend, Seo Jun-Ho looked perfectly normal. Though the goshiwon stopped any physical changes in the body, the one thing that could change was the look in their eyes.

‘People can usually push through for a month…’

But once they realized they would be trapped inside for a year, not a month, the light in their eyes would disappear. After barely being able to survive a month, they couldn’t cope with the fact that they would have to do it over again eleven more times.

‘...He makes me nervous. I should order an ambush for him once he comes out of the goshiwon.’

Gu Shi-On couldn’t get rid of the lingering feeling of unease in his heart. “Connect me to Port Lane.”

“Yes, sir.” The fiend frowned once they connected to the telepathic line with the others. “...Captain, something’s wrong.”

“What is?”

“I’ve lost all contact with the fiends dispatched to the downtown area. That means…”

It could only mean one of these three things: a high-level mage had destroyed their communication line, the fiends themselves had disconnected from the line, or…

‘If it’s not one of those two, the only possibility is that the ones connected to the line are already dead…’

A total of ninety-eight fiends had been dispatched to Port Lane. Aside from Pride and his Squadron members, the remaining eighty had been dispatched to the downtown area to kill off all the residents.

‘But all eighty of them were killed?’

The Squadron member pursed their lips, unable to say anything. No matter what had actually happened, the Fiend Association wouldn’t be pleased.

Gu Shi-On glared down at the fiend at his feet. “...You get a year.”

“H-huh? Please…Gu Shi-On-nim, please spare me…I didn’t do this!” The fiend wailed as he was teleported away from this world. However, Gu Shi-On didn’t feel any better. He turned his attention to Seo Jun-Ho’s room.

“What is this bastard?”

It bothered him. He had expected Seo Jun-Ho to kill himself, but he was coping with it just fine.

‘And…’

His skill was strong, but it came with several restrictions. One of them was that he couldn’t trap the same person in a room twice. Though, there was an exception.

‘I can do it if someone consents, but no sane person would do that.’

In other words, this would be the first, and the last time Seo Jun-Ho would be locked up in this room.

Gu Shi-On gnashed his teeth. “Call up the Squadron. Tell them to hurry up with the Leviathan.”

It was already 5:43. There were only seventeen minutes left until Seo Jun-Ho returned.

***

Three hundred and sixty-four days into the experience…

“...”

There was nothing in the room. It was free of all noise and disruptions. Seo Jun-Ho was sitting in the lotus position with his eyes closed, locked in a deep meditative state.

[You…How could you do this to me?!]

[Because I love you! I did it for love!]

Meanwhile, the Frost Queen was lying on the bed, watching a drama with earphones.

“Phew.” Just then, Seo Jun-Ho ended his long meditation and slowly opened his eyes. They seemed to glint, briefly lighting up the goshiwon room.

“You scared me.” The Frost Queen flinched and took out her earphones. “Are you awake, Contractor?”

“Yeah. I feel like I had just woken up from a deep sleep.”

“You didn’t fall asleep while meditating, did you?” she accused.

“It’s just a figure of speech. I did it properly.” He grinned and stood from his seat. He tapped on Vita and nodded. “It has been three hundred and sixty-four days. We’ll be going back in just a few minutes.”

“This was the longest year of my life.”

“It wasn’t that bad, though.” He gripped his hands into fists. It was hard to put into words just how much he had learned. “Maybe that’s why I feel a bit sad about leaving.” He actually wished he could be trapped here for about two or three more years. “Should I ask him to extend my stay for another month?”

“Contractor, this is not a karaoke place.”[3]

“...Yeah, I suppose it wouldn’t be possible.” Players’ Skills weren’t all-powerful. Even though the skill had trapped him here for one year, it probably came with various restrictions.

‘Time probably flows differently here, and he probably can’t use it consecutively.’

It was time to go back now. It had been a while since he had trained like this, and it brought back good memories of the past. However, he couldn’t stay here forever. There were too many people who needed his help, and there were too many pesky fiends out there as well.

“I hope… The Port Lane mission isn’t over yet.” However, he wasn’t worried about the two friends he had left behind. He trusted them. They weren’t weaklings who needed his help. They were comrades who always had his back. “And to be honest, I want to fight.”

His heart thumped. He wanted to test out his new techniques, the same way someone would test out a new sword. He hadn’t been able to test them out in this tiny goshiwon, but he would be able to test them out in an open area.

“Now that I think about it, that bastard told me he’d see me again.” He grinned. Gu Shi-On had probably meant to be cocky, as he didn’t think he would actually see Seo Jun-Ho again.

‘I’m excited to see his face when he sees me again.’

Clack!

The door to the goshiwon had been locked all year, but now, it finally made a clicking sound. Seo Jun-Ho looked back at the small room, feeling like a weight had lifted off his shoulders.

“The room is still as empty as always.”

“Let us go. I do not wish to come here again.”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

He grabbed the doorknob while the Frost Queen stood next to him.

He pulled it open. Through the door's crack, he could see the bright light of the sunset.

***

Gilberto frowned.

‘This is hard...’

He and Skaya had taken out all the fiends who had infiltrated the downtown area. After that, they turned their attention to the fiends at the beach, who were fighting an unrecognizable monster. There were eighteen of them in total. [4]

‘The Pride and the Despair Squadron, right?’ The fiends were probably part of one of these two Squadrons—that was probably why he was having difficulty sniping them.

‘If there were only one or two of them like before, I could just shoot a guided projectile…’

However, there were more than ten powerful enemies, and each of their skills managed to block his attacks. As soon as a bullet left his gun, it was rendered useless.

‘Not even silent bullets or guided bullets are working on them.’

Gilberto checked how much magic power he had left. His expression turned determined.

“Skaya, do you hear me?”

[Yeah, but I’m busy right now! Help me out, at least!] She was occupied with using flight magic over the ocean. There were three squadron members that had been assigned to take her down, as they couldn’t abandon the hunt.

“I’m gonna start using stronger bullets.”

[Wait, you can do that? Why do I feel like I haven’t seen them till now?]

“...I got a new weapon, you see.” Gilberto lowered his sniper rifle and took out the one Seo Jun-Ho had given him. It was as light as the first time he had held it in his hands. But unlike swords or spears, the weight of a gun wasn’t an indicator of its strength. “It’s my first time using it in battle, so I don’t think I’ll have full control over it.”

But it would be much more useful than just sitting around and doing nothing.

“Stand by. I’m saying this again, but it’s my first time using this.” He didn’t know just how destructive his attack would be. Gilberto put his eye up to the scope and aimed toward the ocean. At the end of the horizon, the fiends looked like tiny flies.

‘As for magic power… I’ll put in about eighty-percent.’

Even though it was his first time using this technique, he had to put enough power into the attack. Most of his magic power was instantly poured into the body of the gun. It was enough to make him feel anemic, and his head spun from the side effects.

“Ugh.” Gilberto pulled himself together. He bit his lip so hard that it bled. His trembling hands eventually stilled.

‘Gotta keep still…’

The only thing moving was his hair in the wind.

‘And calm my breath...’

It would be a big mistake to assume that a sniper would have a small lung capacity. Gilberto could hold more air in his lungs than most Players.

‘And standby...’

The gun was trembling ever so slightly, but it soon came to a complete stop. He looked more like a statue than a human being. Gilberto didn’t even blink a single time as he waited.

Waiting was his favorite part of sniping.

‘Take the bait…’

He waited very patiently, like a skilled fisherman waiting for fish to bite.

Click.

He pulled the trigger.

The gray bullet drew a smooth arc in the air as it silently flew to the horizon.

1. Lit. “Old monster” ?

2. She uses old-fashioned slang ?

3. When you go to a karaoke place, you can ask to extend your stay whenever you want. ?

4. The raws stated 13, but the numbers in the following chapters didn’t add up, so we took the liberty to change it. ?