Return of the Frozen Player

“You must’ve been startled.”

“Of course I was! And he even turned into stone. At that moment, I even wondered if I was dreaming.” Shim Deok-Gu grew pale as if he was still being haunted by the memory.

“What about the body?”

“Oh, right, Confession of the Dead.” Shim Deok-Gu’s face darkened. “I’m sorry. There was the whole thing with the Heavenly Demon, so I just got rid of it on the spot.

“Hm… It’s a bit of a waste, but it can’t be helped. You made a good decision.” This was a hundred, a thousand times better than Shadow coming back to life because of his impressive stealth skills.

‘Though, I would have been able to sense his presence.’

But even then, his clone couldn’t have done the same. After all, his clone would have already died by then.

“Are you done with your business on the 4th Floor?” Shim Deok-Gu asked.

“Yeah. I just had short conversations with them.” His friends were shedding blood, sweat, and tears in their training to get even stronger.

“Then, when are you planning to go up to the 5th Floor?”

“In three days.” He had already been wondering about what he should do, but the assassination attempt made it clear.

‘It’s too dangerous to leave Earth without leaving any measures in place.’

After three days, he would be able to use his Cloning once again. Unless he left Seo Jun-Sik behind, he wouldn’t feel at peace.

“Even if Jun-Sik gets taken out, I’ll get his memories, at the very least,” said Seo Jun-Ho.

“But you said last time that you guys could share thoughts all the time.”

“I don’t know if it’s because my skill proficiency is too low or because it’s too far, but I couldn’t hear him from the 4th Floor.”

“It’s probably because it’s too far,” Shim Deok-Gu agreed. They didn’t even know where Another World was in the universe. “Will you really be fine, though?”

“What do you mean?”

“Needless to say, the 5th Floor will be teeming with all sorts of tedious enemies. What if you need Jun-Sik?”

“It’s fine. If I ever need him, I can just recall him.”

Seo Jun-Ho decided to spend the next three days preparing to enter the 5th Floor.

***

Three days passed in the blink of an eye. When Seo Jun-Ho summoned Seo Jun-Sik again… He looked very upset and annoyed.

“I’m upset and annoyed.”

“About what?”

“Listen. I wasn’t able to eat a single piece of sushi that day.”

“...Wow.” How was that more upsetting than being petrified?

Seo Jun-Ho stared at Seo Jun-Sik as if the latter was a fascinating specimen before changing the subject. “Well, anyway, you know what you have to do, right?”

“In short, watch over Earth carefully while raising my proficiency.”

“Bingo.” According to Butcher’s memories, there were a total of four executives targeting the Players.

“Butcher got fucked, and that son of a bitch Shadow got fucked. So there are only two left, right?”

“Yeah. That leaves Colonel Charbork and Nazad Hallow.” Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes darkened. “And Nazad Hallow is especially dangerous. You know that, right?”

“Of course I do. You guys have a history, too.” Seo Jun-Ho killed Nazad’s disciple Arma and even took the ‘Aura Buff Ring’ Nazad gave to his disciple as a gift, so it was only natural that the fiend hated him. “Those two are too strong for me to handle.”

“That’s too bad. I wish your proficiency were just a bit higher.”

Seo Jun-Sik could use up to seventy percent of Seo Jun-Ho’s stats. Unfortunately, his proficiency was too low, so he could only use thirty-five percent of Seo Jun-Ho’s stats.

“Well, I’m sure this will be resolved in time,” Seo Jun-Sik said coolly. However, his face grew very serious. “And Original, you should be careful as well. The Heavenly Demon probably gave the executives those orders to—”

“Slow me down.” They both agreed on the possibility that Seo Jun-Ho might encounter the Heavenly Demon on the 5th Floor.

“I’m telling you not to push yourself too hard. Got it? Anyway, my limit is only around two weeks.”

“I know,” Seo Jun-Ho answered. Seo Jun-Sik had his own reservoir of magic energy upon being summoned. If he didn’t use any of it, he could stay outside for two weeks.

“I’ll come back before then to check in on things,” added Seo Jun-Ho.

“Cool. Bring me a Melona when you come back.”

Leaving Seo Jun-Sik behind, Seo Jun-Ho and the Frost Queen headed over to the Dimensional Elevators.

“Hoo. This part is always nerve-wracking,” he said.

“And exciting,” the Frost Queen remarked.

Entering a new Floor meant entering a new world. And there, a Player could find their new self.

“And that means I can get even stronger. Let’s go!”

He finally pressed the button to the 5th Floor, something he had been anticipating for a long time.

Shwaaa!

The sound of a flushing toilet filled his ears.

“Ew! What a stench,” The Frost Queen yelped. She held her nose with a scrunched face.

Seo Jun-Ho did the same. He wasn’t sure what was going on.

‘What? I definitely pressed the 5th Floor button on the Elevator.’

Right now, they were standing in the stall of a dirty bathroom. However, this wasn’t just some random place.

[This is the 5th Floor.]

[Bringer of Spring’s effect has been activated. All stats increased by 30.]

…

According to the system log, they were most certainly on the 5th Floor.

Creak.

Once they stepped out of the bathroom, they entered a rowdy bar.

“Pour some more!”

“Drink! Drink!”

“Hey, can’t you be quiet while drinking?! You little lumps of scrap metal!”

Both Seo Jun-Ho and the Frost Queen blankly observed the happenings in the bar with wide eyes.

“C-Contractor. This place is strange.”

“...”

She was right.

Was it because of the atmosphere of the noisy bar? No, no matter where one went in the world, all bars were noisy.

There was something else that was off.

“Hey, gimme a battery if you have a spare. I can’t see out of my left eye.”

“Don’t make me laugh. Why don’t you pay me back for the batteries you borrowed from me first?”

“Dammit. You want me to pay for them? I don’t have a lot of free credits left.”

Prosthetic legs? Prosthetic hands? Prosthetic eyes?

No, if that were all, the two of them wouldn’t stand there agape.

“They’re made up of machines. Contractor.”

In other words, they were cyborgs.

Unless this was the most elite cosplay convention in the world, every person in the bar had to be a cyborg straight out of a sci-fi movie.

“Hm?”

Just then, a few cyborgs glanced at Seo Jun-Ho.

“Hey, is that guy a pureblood human?”

“Yeah, right. Do you really think there are any of them left in this heartless world?”

“Of course there are. Most of the people at the center are purebloods.”

“Ha. Even then, they wouldn’t come to some dirty back-alley place like this. He probably got a skin procedure.”

‘The attention is going to get annoying,’ Seo Jun-Ho thought. He took the Frost Queen with him and left the bar before going into a dirty alleyway littered with trash. He looked up at the sky.

“...”

There were cars flying through the sky, and there were eye-catching neon signs flashing in all sorts of colors. Holographic dancers were also dancing about beneath the night sky.

[Welcome to Neo City!]

There was even an airship flying through the air with a banner.

It was a sight Seo Jun-Ho could have never expected.

‘What is this? I thought all the Floors were all connected to worlds that are vaguely fantasy-themed.’

This was true of the monsters that came out of Earth’s Gates, Frontier on the 2nd Floor, and the 3rd Floor lava region, Balbortan. The 4th Floor, Another World, was the only Floor with cities similar to Earth, but he didn’t really get to appreciate it in detail because of the overwhelming number of cockroaches he had to face.

“I see. I see.” The Frost Queen nodded slowly. “This world is of science fiction, specifically of the cyberpunk genre.”

“...Woah, how do you know all that?”

“I have seen it in dramas and movies. Typically, the dark secret of these kinds of places lies in the fact that their government is run by AI.” Just as she said, Neo City did seem to have a cyberpunk aesthetic.

“Huh?” But that wasn’t the most shocking piece of news to Seo Jun-Ho. “How am I supposed to go around here?”

“Indeed, I do not sense a single thread of magic energy in the air.”

Magic energy was one of the natural forces of the world. However, he couldn’t sense a single trace of it here.

‘If that’s how it is, I won’t be able to recover any magic energy that I’ll end up using.’

He would have no other choice but to go down to recharge.

Seo Jun-Ho let out a small sigh, but his eyebrows suddenly furrowed. “...Wait. It’s not completely devoid of magic.”

Two mighty-looking cyborgs were approaching him. The magnificent engraving of this place’s national flower was on their arms and chest. They looked like Dyson vacuum cleaners, and red light emanated from their heads, similar to a barcode scanner.

- Target has a great amount of energy. Neo City identification code scan failed.

- Imperial Bounty Hunter Seo Jun-Ho identified. Criminal record: 0. No issues identified.

The cyborgs disappeared after muttering something while making mechanical whirring sounds.

“Wow, I thought cyborgs only existed in the minds of Earthen imagination,” whispered the Frost Queen with wide eyes.

“So did I, ten minutes ago.”

He had never thought that the 5th Floor would be like this. Seo Jun-Ho felt this great need for information, and the feeling was stronger than on any other Floor.

“Information. First, we have to obtain information”

The first thing he did was thoroughly read the system log, just in case he missed any messages.

‘I knew it.’

Sure enough, he had missed a few messages.

[This is the 5th Floor.]

[Bringer of Spring’s effect has been activated. All stats increased by 30.]

[In this city, you will be working as a bounty hunter.]

[Find the Floor Master and defeat them to proceed to the next Floor.]

[You have received 100 field credits.]

[You can read, write, and speak in Neo City’s language.]

So, he was a ‘bounty hunter’ here. If he took those words at face value, he should be hunting down criminals with bounties on their heads.

“Find the Floor Master and defeat them. The method for clearing this Floor is simpler than I had expected.” The Frost Queen pointed out.

“Who knows? Let’s ask around while we’re at it.”

Seo Jun-Ho hurriedly leaped off of the ground and landed on the roof of the building where the bar was located. He couldn’t see the entire city from here, but he could estimate the size. ‘I think it’s about as big as Yeoido.’

Compared to Frontier, it was insanely small, but if the Floor Master was hiding here, it would be difficult to find them.

“Contractor, perhaps there is some kind of information guild here, as with Frontier.”

“Good idea.”

Seo Jun-Ho went back into the bar and approached a table where three cyborg men were sitting.

“Hey.”

“What?”

“I just became a bounty hunter for this city, but I don’t know a lot of things. Can you tell me where I can get some information?”

“Hm. That shouldn’t be difficult, but…” the cyborg man in question rubbed his prosthetic fingers together, signaling for money.

Seo Jun-Ho nodded. “I’ll offer three credits. Otherwise, I’ll just go to another table.”

“One per person, is it? Not bad.” The cyborg chuckled and held out his hand. “You know that everyone pays upfront here, right?”

“Wait,” Seo Jun-Ho said. He was sure the System gave him 100 credits, but he had no idea how to access them.

The cyborg men’s faces darkened when they saw him flounder.

“Hey, were you trying to fool us?”

“No, that’s not it. I have credits, but I don’t know how to take them out.”

“What a bumpkin...”

“Did your mommy from your home planet give you some pocket money so you wouldn’t starve?”

The cyborgs continued to talk.

“All right, where are your credits stored?”

“I think it’s this one.” Seo Jun-Ho showed them the Vita wrapped around his left arm.

“Geez, what era is this from?”

“Other than the fact that it’s an outdated piece of junk, it does look well-preserved.”

“Moving on. Hold that over my palm.”

Once Seo Jun-Ho moved his Vita over, a hologram window appeared.

[Pay 3 credits?]

The cyborgs nodded and revealed satisfied smiles afterward.

“So you weren’t a scammer after all. Now you know how to trade credits, right?”

“Thanks,” Seo Jun-Ho responded. He was genuinely grateful.

“So, where should I go if I want information?” he asked.

The three cyborgs answered in unison, almost as if they had planned it.

“The Murim Alliance, of course.”