Return of the Frozen Player

Exactly ten minutes after Isaac Dvor left...

[...System recovery 97% complete.]

[...System recovery 98% complete.]

[...System recovery 99% complete.]

[System Restore complete.]

Huff! Huff”

Life returned to Namgung Jincheon’s eyes for the first time since the Alpha Neigong Chip was stolen from him. He had been laying there like a dead fish.

As he gasped for breath, a mix of shock and fury filled his face.

‘It was a damn EMP!’

There was one thing cyborgs feared the most. It was an electromagnetic pulse that could render them into a piece of scrap metal.

Namgung Jincheon knew that, so he implemented anti-EMP systems all throughout the Alliance building.

“Damn it all…”

However, that system had been overpowered in a single attack.

That could only mean one thing…

‘It’s the clown who works for the Heavenly Demon.’

The EMP he had used was just that powerful.

‘I’ll think up countermeasures for the EMP later.’

Impatient, he quickly circulated his neigong. A few moments later, he started trembling like a leaf.

Because it was gone…

The thousands of gapja worth of neigong should be pulsing through his artificial veins, but it had disappeared without a trace.

He opened his eyes, feeling deeply forlorn and dejected.

“...It’s over?” he asked.

Was it actually all over? Could he even accept the reality of the matter?

“No…”

The answer left his lips before he could even think.

He couldn’t accept the truth. He couldn’t...

“I won’t accept this. It can’t be. It can’t be. It can’t be,” he said with a hollow laugh. “No, no, nononononononono.”

He rambled like a madman for a long time, but his face suddenly turned grave.

“I spent seven hundred years on this.”

He had been running for seven hundred years with only one goal in mind, and he was so close to reaching it. He was only one step away from breaking the seal on the System Chip.

“It was right in front of me. It would have all been mine!”

Ahhhhhh!

Even though there wasn’t a drop of neigong in the old man’s voice, his fit of rage made the room shake. However, none of his men were here to help him. There wasn’t even anyone to hear him scream.

All four of his assistants had dead, and Namgung Jincheon himself had chased the martial artists out of the city.

‘But it doesn’t matter. It’s not—it’s not over yet.’

His eyes blazed with vengeance. Foolish man. His brilliant mind was still intact despite all the time that had passed. If he were going to give up on enlightening the world now, he never would have started this in the first place.

“Give it to me.” He ripped the neigong chip out of Kwak Won-Son’s corpse and absorbed it.

‘It’s not enough.’

Compared to the boundless neigong he had before, this was a mere speck of dust. In fact, the tiny amount of neigong made him even more thirsty for power.

‘It’s not enough, it’s not enough, it’s not enough! I have to get it back. I have to get my neigong back.’

Because it belonged to him—the Neigong Chip was his right.

Namgung Jincheon closed his eyes and activated the Sect Record Chip.

‘Entry number 759, Double Mind.’

As the name suggested, it separated his mind and his conscience into two. Another Namgung Jincheon appeared in his head, and they had a serious conversation about the current situation.

‘Let’s think about a solution.’

‘We’ll have to get our neigong back first. What is our plan?’

‘I do not know if it was carelessness or indifference, but he left the System Chip and the Sect Record Chip behind.’

‘Yes. They should hold the answer.’

‘We must also prepare for that clown’s EMP.’

It was no different from having two heads, so he came to a conclusion twice as fast as usual. Soon enough, Namgung Jincheon found the answer.

‘I recommend using entry 982 in the Sect Record Chip. The Great Law of the Absorbing Star.’

‘Yes, I suppose that’s all we can do. I concur.’

It was a forbidden technique that allowed one to suck neigong from their target. If someone learned that he even learned that skill, he would be marked as an official enemy of the Murim Alliance.

However, it didn’t matter...

‘Because we will soon be Murim..’

‘Because we will soon be Murim...’

He gave a command to the Immortal Army.

- Attack the Players, but do not kill them under any circumstances. Capture them alive.

- Especially the ones they call the Nine Heavens and the members of the Big 6.

- You may cut off their limbs.

If he used the Great Law of the Absorbing Star, he could absorb the neigong from the Players and recover a portion of his power.

‘But even if we collected enough neigong, we have to find a way to take care of that man.’

‘He only managed to disable us because we were not aware of his abilities. If we simply take adequate preparations, we can do everything.’

‘Wait, are you referring to…?’

‘Yes...’

Namgung Jincheon looked down at his wretched body. It was an old, outdated frame he had been using for hundreds of years.

‘We must go to the Sky Dragon Armory.’

‘Indeed.’

It was the Alliance Leader’s personal armory, where all his magic weapons were stored. The marvelous, flashy weapons tempted him, but he ignored them all and went to the final room. It was a secret armory only the Murim Alliance Leader could enter.

[Access authorization verified.]

[Welcome, Alliance Leader.]

Creak!

The door opened, revealing a two-meter-tall artificial body with dozens of thick cords attached to it. It had an exquisite finish of gold and red. It was a beautiful, daunting robot.

‘It is as beautiful as always.’

‘Indeed. I have thought about using it thousands—no, tens of thousands of times before.’

He stroked the sparkling robot with his remaining hand, and his eyes were full of wonder.

‘But will it be all right? Our authority over the System Chip still isn’t enough for us to use this.’

‘An EMP will be able to threaten me as long as I am in this frame.’

The robot in front of him was a custom-made frame for the founding emperor of the Aeon Empire.

[Model Emperor-001]

As far as he knew, it was the most powerful artificial frame in this city. He had always been drooling at the thought of using it, there was just one reason why he hadn’t been able to use it.

‘It is a huge gamble. We do not know if the knowledge we have accumulated over the past seven hundred years will transfer over to the new body.’

‘I am aware. If things do not go well, we could lose all our memories and become a blank slate.’

That was why he wanted to become a god without borrowing the strength of Model Emperor-001. After discovering the existence of a powerful-enough EMP; however, Namgung Jincheon had nowhere else to turn.

He ripped off his back and pulled out a long cord. He sat next to the artificial frame.

‘Let us begin.’

As he looked at the robot, his eyes glistened with unquenchable greed.

***

The Heavenly Demon turned away from the window and looked behind his shoulder.

“My liege, I have brought the Alpha Neigong Chip as you wished.”

“Good work,” he said dryly. He cut straight through his forearm with his nail. As blood started to drip down, Isaac Dvor hurried over and caught it in a wine glass.

“Goodness, your blood is precious… You do not need to give me so much.”

“You seem to enjoy lying,” he said coldly.

“That makes me sad. There is no one who is as devoted to you as I am.”

“...”

The Heavenly Demon was silent. Indeed, Isaac’s loyalty ran very deep, but it was only because he had something to gain from it.

“Drink.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Isaac gently lifted his chin and drank the blood.

‘...!’

Ah, this was it. The ecstasy ran through him. It felt like it was stimulating all his cells.

He finished the glass in one gulp and smacked his lips, looking bummed.

The Heavenly Demon stared intently at the Alpha and Beta Neigong Chips. “So. How can I use these so-called Chips?”

“There are two options.”

“Speak.”

“The first option is to implant machinery into your body.” With that, he would have a place to insert the chips, which would subsequently give him a boundless amount of magic.

“And the other?”

“Destroy it.” Isaac’s lips curled up into a smile. He knew that his master would never, ever implant machinery into his body.

‘Because he is a very distrustful individual…’

The Heavenly Demon likely considered it an unfavorable choice because it would be a weakness that could be exploited. As Isaac had expected, his master chose the second option.

“If I destroy the Neigong Chip, the neigong within it would be released into the world, correct?”

“Yes. But this option has a great risk attached to it.”

The Heavenly Demon nodded slowly. “I suppose it depends on my ability to absorb magic.”

This was the perfect option for him. He had the blood of a Mimic. They were frivolous demons greedy for treasures, and they often tricked explorers to devour them.

‘But they do not know their place. Their greed knows no bounds.’

Even if they were full, they would still thirst for more. As such, the power the Heavenly Demon could accumulate knew was essentially limitless. It was true back then, and it was still true even now.

“I shall go to the Cultivation Room.”

“Understood.” Isaac elegantly knelt on one knee before asking, “Then, what shall we do in the meantime?”

“Stop them,” the Heavenly Demon said curtly.

It was all so that not a single ant could approach him.

***

Namgung Jincheon had already retreated, but there was a dark and gloomy air surrounding the players.

“Sniff!”

“Dammit. If I had reacted just a little—just a little faster…!”

“I’m sorry. I swear, I’ll avenge you.”

There were too many people for them to mourn today.

They fought Namgung Jincheon for a mere few hours, but 129 Players died as a result.

“...”

Arthur bit his lips as he watched. He had no idea why his heart felt like it was sinking like a rock when he didn’t even know any of the Players who died. Moreover, he had seen countless Players die in the past, but his heart had never felt this heavy.

“You have to get used to it,” Gilberto said.

“Father…”

Arthur turned to him. He wanted to ask—he wanted to ask Gilberto how it felt to get used to something like this. The weight on Arthur’s heart made it feel like his entire being was sinking deeper and deeper into the darkness.

He couldn’t help but wonder about how his father felt upon witnessing such scenes hundreds of times over the many years of his life. He wanted to ask, but he couldn’t do it.

“They’re heartless,” Gilberto whispered, looking up at the sky. Too much blood had been spilled tonight, and it was a sorrowful night. “We have far too little time to mourn the dead.”

Earlier, he thought that the shining object in the sky was a star. However, as it came closer and closer to them, he realized that they were thousands of humanoid robots.

Click.

Gilberto loaded a bullet into his rifle.

“I have a feeling that tonight will be a long night,” he muttered.

A bullet ripped through the city at daybreak, marking the start of the second battle.