Return of the Frozen Player

Most fiends were stronger than Players. Players would frown and protest if they heard this, but it was the truth. While Players only learned how to hunt monsters, fiends learned how to hunt both monsters and Players themselves. While Players let their guards down as soon as they left a Gate, fiends would constantly be on edge because their identity could be discovered at any moment. In other words, fiends took their skills to the next level. There was a great difference between a monster hunter and a professional killer.

“Considering the target’s current path, he’ll definitely pass through here.”

“Then, it’s there,” Gouf muttered, looking up at the small cabin. There were traps around the perimeter that would alert of a monster’s presence. Perhaps it belonged to a hunter.

The fiends scanned the area and started to speak.

“Seo Jun-Ho has shown a tendency to play hero.”

“It’s a mistake that all overconfident rookies make.”

“If he sees an injured person, he won’t be able to just pass them by.”

They had plenty of time to collect information about Seo Jun-Ho in the last month and a half.

“We’ll take advantage of that.” Gouf jutted his chin. “Nino, Shiso. Hide yourselves and get ready to ambush him.”

“Alright…”

“We’ll attack him first, so get ready to join in.”

The twins left, and all that remained were Gouf and one other fiend. The latter’s face was filled with intense emotions, but they disappeared as quickly as they came.

“Get in place,” Gouf ordered him.

“Yes, sir.”

As the man left, Gouf studied the road leading up to the cabin with cold eyes. It was unheard of for a fiend to get revenge for their dead superior, but that was how much Kal Signer had meant to him. The latter had saved Gouf when he was dying in a Gate and granted him great power by making him a fiend.

‘Seo Jun-Ho…’

The Player was only the beginning, not his final target. His final target would be none other than the Sword Saint, Kim Woo-Joong. Compared to him, Seo Jun-Ho was just a small fry.

“Signer-nim said you were born with luck.” Gouf acknowledged that luck was also a skill. But today was different. He was sure of it. “But today, no amount of luck will save you.”

***

Seo Jun-Ho laughed. It had been a while since he had let loose like this. He felt refreshed after stretching his stiff muscles.

“I know I lost 50% of my stats…” But he didn’t feel as if he had gotten any weaker. In fact, he felt like he had gotten stronger, thanks to Overclocking. “Heh, it’s only natural that I’d want to try out a nice weapon.”

“And you have already done that, several times. While laughing like a child.” The Frost Queen jutted her chin and pointed to the pile of dead whip wolves. “You should test it out properly, not on weaklings like these. Hm… Perhaps fiends will do.”

“Fiends? How cute.” Seo Jun-Ho grinned. “No matter how many of them there are, Frontier is huge. There’s no way I’d run into them in a place like this.”

“Contractor, humans are unpredictable.” The Frost Queen seemed to have noticed something. “Look, a fiend could be living in the cabin over there.”

“No way.” Seo Jun-Ho looked at the cabin. It was placed near the entrance of the forest. “See those wires on the trees? They’re basic traps to alert you of monsters. The cabin probably belongs to a hunter,” he said confidently, calling upon the things that Hakan had taught him.

He started to walk toward it, for no other reason than the fact that the path passed through the cabin.

“Hm?”

“Huh?”

Seo Jun-Ho’s nose twitched. The Frost Queen gripped his hair.

“...Contractor,” she said in a low voice.

“I smell it too.”

The smell of blood.

As he approached the cabin, he saw the corpse of a middle-aged man next to a stack of firewood. A deep, straight cut ran across his chest, and the blood was still hot and flowing.

‘A murder?’

There were no CCTVs in Frontier’s field, which meant that these kinds of cases would remain unsolved unless the culprit was caught right away.

Seo Jun-Ho stepped closer to the body and studied the wound. “He’s dead. They killed him in one strike.” The cut was clean, and there had been no hesitation. Whoever had done this was skilled. “Frost, sweep the area.”

“Leave it to me.”

He turned back toward the corpse and activated Confession of the Dead.

“...” There was no need to look deep into the past. Seo Jun-Ho’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked back to half an hour ago when the man died.

He recognized the killer.

“...”

“C-Contractor, I’m sorry, I…” As she watched the playback over his shoulder, her face turned even paler than usual. She almost felt like she had brought this upon him by suggesting it earlier.

“...It’s not your fault.”

The victim was just an ordinary hunter. The man who had killed him was a fiend Seo Jun-Ho had seen in the memories of the fiend that Skaya had brought over to him.

The gears started turning.

‘There are two possibilities.’

Either the killer was merely acting like a fiend and killed the hunter because he felt like it. And the second…

“This is a trap,” he whispered. As soon as the words left his lips, his temples started ringing, as if Keen Intuition was agreeing with him.

Seo Jun-Ho remained expressionless as he started to hear someone running toward him. He looked up.

“Huff, huff…” It was a handsome young man. His face was covered in sweat as if he had run the whole way, and his shoulders heaved as he tried to catch his breath. “...Did you do this?” His face twisted, eyes filled with rage. “I’m asking you a question! Did you do this to him?!”

“...”

Seo Jun-Ho didn’t reply. He held up his hands as he slowly stood up. The man expected him to explain, but he didn’t.

Swoosh!

Black Dragon Fang pierced through his heart.

“...Huh?”

“Why are you asking me that? You killed him 10 minutes ago. Are you crazy?”

The fiend’s acting was impressive. If Seo Jun-Ho hadn’t seen his face in Confession of the Dead, he just might have been fooled.

The man stumbled back, staring blankly at the sword in his chest. “How… Did you know?”

Even though he was about to die, his main concern was that Seo Jun-Ho had seen through his acting. He really was crazy.

“How did I know? That’s…”

Swoosh!

Seo Jun-Ho swung Black Dragon Fang upwards, cutting his upper body in half. He had no intention of answering the question in the first place. But for what he had done, the bastard would probably curse him for it.

“Contractor.”

“I know…”

As he looked down at the fiend’s corpse, he came to a conclusion.

‘If this was a random incident, he would’ve run away.’

But he didn’t run away. Instead, the fiend had gone through all the trouble of pretending to be someone else to approach him. This only meant one thing.

‘They set a trap for me.’

Keen Intuition confirmed his suspicions. But this wasn’t the end…

‘If I’m their target, he wouldn’t have come alone.’

Even Kal Signer had failed to kill Seo Jun-Ho. Of course, the fiends would definitely think that this was because Kim Woo-Joong had interfered in their fight. But humans were predictable. If 5 people failed to kill him, next time they would send no less than 3.

‘He’s not the only one who’s trying to kill me.’

Seo Jun-Ho finished his thoughts and pushed out his magic. It spilled out his body, spreading across the area and relayed information to him.

“Dammit.”

“That idiot! How did he mess up?”

When the fiends realized that they had been discovered, they no longer tried to hide.

“...”

There were three of them, four if you counted the dead one.

‘With that number, they should have all bases covered.’

Seo Jun-Ho paused as he took in the fiends. There was a very familiar face among them.

“Contractor, that man…”

It was Gouf. Kal Signer’s aide and right-hand man. They had been very close with each other, which was uncommon for fiends.

‘Gouf’s Skill is Isekai Battlefield.’

As the name implied, it allowed him to create a battlefield in an alternate reality for his fiends and allies. As a trade-off, he would also be transported. It was an annoying skill that was hard to escape from once it was activated.

‘Gouf would activate his skill and Kal Signer would kill the people inside of it.’

The pair had killed countless Players using this method. Even if he was faced with an army, the skill allowed him to create an advantageous battlefield for himself and his comrades.

“Create Isekai Battlefield,” Gouf whispered.

The cabin and forest disappeared. Seo Jun-Ho looked down and saw sand flying through the hot wind.

‘So this is how that works…’

They had been transported in an instant. The air was dry, and the scorching sun was high above his head.

“Shit, it’s a desert map?”

“I hate the heat,” the twins complained.

‘Gouf has the advantage in here.’

The skill allowed him to adjust stats, topography, weather, and anything else.

‘I’ve studied his skill in great detail thanks to Kal Signer’s memories…’

But he didn’t know what skills the twins had. As such, he activated Overclocking from the outside to the max.

Woosh!

His body heated up almost instantly, but it quickly subsided as frost energy cooled his body whilst running through two circuit lanes.

“It’s hot. Let’s finish this up quickly. Hyung, should I go first? Or you?”

“Go. I went first last time.”

“Okay.” The younger of the two, Shiso, rolled his shoulders. “I’m ready. Shoot.”

At his cue, they activated their skills. The whole area became filled with a humming sound, like a cicada’s cry.

“Phew, it worked.”

Tap!

Shiso smiled lazily as he kicked off a red rock and dashed toward Seo Jun-Ho. He laughed when he saw that the Player hadn’t even noticed that he had made his move.

‘Earth’s top super rookie? The great Black Knight who broke Specter’s record? Don’t make me laugh!’

The twin fiends’ skill was Hyper-Magnetism. They could push and pull each other like magnets; it was such a peculiar technique.

‘When we push each other, we can get close to the speed of sound,’

It had taken them 3 years of nonstop training to reach this level. A mere rookie that had debuted only a year ago couldn’t possibly come close to their level.

Swish.

A spike peeked out from Shiso’s sleeve. He gripped it in his hand and aimed it toward Seo Jun-Ho to stab him.

‘Huh?’

A strange feeling of fear overtook him.

‘What is this? This feeling…’

He felt like he was being stripped naked. His hair stood on end, and goosebumps prickled his skin.

“...!”

Despite his extremely high speed, Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes were following him.