Return of the Frozen Player

[Jonathan here; on standby.]

[I’m sitting on a patio. I’ll keep an eye on the streets.]

[On my way.]

‘...Where is he?’

Shin Sung-Hyun’s eyes scanned the streets.

‘An old man drinking tea on the patio of a cafe, the woman on the roof watering a pot, and a boy giving out leaflets on the street…’

They looked suspicious in his eyes.

‘The voice seemed to belong to a middle-aged man, but anyone can easily fake their voice. I have to doubt absolutely everyone, regardless of their age or gender.’

If this were indeed a trap that their enemies had created for them, there would be nothing strange about Seo Jun-Ho getting attacked at any time while walking side by side with dozens of Overminds right now.

‘When the time comes…’

Crush!

Shin Sung-Hyun unknowingly crumpled the newspaper in his hands. He barely managed to hold himself back from mustering his magic.

Seo Jun-Ho had told Shin Sung-Hyun to run away if things went wrong, but Shin Sung-Hyun wasn’t sure if he could follow Seo Jun-Ho’s orders.

‘Where are you? Someone suspicious…’

Shin Sung-Hyun focused on his surroundings.

“Are you looking for someone suspicious?”

“...!” Shin Sung-Hyun hastily turned around, but a hand covered his mouth.

He was pushed with his back against the wall.

“Heup!”

A plump middle-aged man was standing in front of Shin Sung-Hyun, and the latter could swear that he had never seen the former before.

The plump middle-aged man frowned. “Are you out of your mind? Why are you recklessly mustering your magic here?”

“...” Shin Sung-Hyun finally realized that he had instinctively mustered his magic. Fortunately, it was just a small amount of magic.

Shin Sung-Hyun looked around and realized that no one seemed to have noticed the strange movements in the alley.

“I’ll let you go, so can you please stay quiet?”

The plump middle-aged man slowly let Shin Sung-Hyun go and took a step back.

Swoosh!

The Players finally noticed what was going on, and they appeared to discreetly block the plump middle-aged man’s escape routes.

“Master Shin Sung-Hyun.”

“Are you okay?”

“...Ah, yes.”

Shin Sung-Hyun nodded at the Players.

“I didn’t expect to see you here, so I didn’t immediately recognize you,” said Seo Jun-Ho.

“Do you know him, Specter-nim?”

The plump middle-aged man boisterously laughed and turned to Shin Sung-Hyun. “I thought you would immediately recognize me.”

“I’m sorry, but I think this is my first time meeting you. Where did I…” Shin Sung-Hyun trailed off.

It seemed that Seo Jun-Ho had reached the same conclusion as Shin Sung-Hyun.

“A thousand faces?” muttered Seo Jun-Ho.

The plump middle-aged man—no, Yuri Alekseyev, who was also known as the one with a thousand faces nodded with a smile. “It’s been a while. Before anything else, please follow me.”

***

Yuri led Seo Jun-Ho’s group to a huge factory.

Screech! Bang! Screech!

The factory’s machinery incessantly screeched.

Seo Jun-Ho and Shin Sung-Hyun soon found themselves in an office.

“Make yourself at home,” said Yuri.

Seo Jun-Ho and Shin Sung-Hyun sat down.

The rest of the Players and the failures were waiting outside the factory.

“What are you doing here, Yuri?” Shin Sung-Hyun asked with a frown.

“I guess you have a short fuse,” said Yuri. She leaned on her chair and said, “It’s a long story; are you willing to listen?”

“Summarize it, please,” replied Shin Sung-Hyun.

“I’ll try my best, but I’m still waiting for—speak of the devil. He’s here.”

‘Huh? Who is she talking about?’

Seo Jun-Ho and Shin Sung-Hyun turned to the footsteps outside the door.

“Hmm? Wow, look who we have here.”

A middle-aged man with a cigarette between his lips grinned upon seeing Seo Jun-Ho and Shin Sung-Hyun.

“I thought you were going to nag me again because you told me to come here as quickly as possible. I didn’t expect that you would have such a pleasant gift for me.”

“Chun-Hak?” muttered Seo Jun-Ho.

“Long time no see, Specter-nim. It’s been a while as well, nerd.”

“My name is Shin Sung-Hyun.”

“You seriously think I called you that because I don’t know your name?” Wei Chun-Hak casually sat across the two and crossed his legs. He threw his cigarette to the ashtray and said, “Did you come here after hearing what we sent out?”

“What is it?”

“Hm, I guess you two didn’t hear what we sent out.” Wei Chun-Hak shrugged and looked at Yuri. “This is really an unexpected gift. I’m convinced that our plan will work with these two here.”

“Let’s see.” Yuri nodded. She turned to Seo Jun-Ho and Shin Sung-Hyun and asked the two about just how many Players had come here.

“Hm. Forty players and two hundred failures…” Yuri muttered, seemingly hesitating. “It’s a pity that the other Heavens aren’t there. It would have been great if the Sword Saint were here."

“He’s still recovering from his injuries,” said Shin Sung-Hyun.

“Injuries? That monster got injured? You have to tell me more about that.”

“Before that.” Seo Jun-Ho cut Wei Chun-Hak off and said, “I want to know why you guys are here first.”

“Well, it’s not that interesting of a story.”

Yuri Alekseyev and Wei Chun-Hak’s arrival in the city was a work of fate. They simply decided to come here and hide from the Overmind army.

“We heard your voice, so we were planning to head to where the thunder is sleeping.”

“We were going to leave the city as soon as the Overmind army let their guards down, but…”

However, their minds changed after staying in the city for the next few days.

“We thought that we shouldn’t leave without destroying the Float Force Power Plant.”

“It’s only a matter of time until we’ll lose hope of clearing this Floor.”

Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes narrowed as he asked, “What do you mean, lose hope?”

It seemed that the power plant had something more than what the eyes could see.

“Specter-nim, what do you think is the role of that power plant?”

“The power plant exists to create Force.”

However, Yuri shook her head and said, “I’ll give you thirty points for your answer, but it’s thirty out of a hundred points. Anyway, do you know what energy they convert to Force?”

“I heard they use magic.”

“I’ll give you thirty more points, so that’s sixty out of a hundred.” Yuri pulled out a document from a drawer and handed it over to Seo Jun-Ho and Shin Sung-Hyun.

“This factory creates and delivers consumables necessary to turn magic into Force.”

“...What is this?” Shin Sung-Hyun was reading the document. He asked, “Delivery has been suspended, and more news will come in two weeks? Did you do something to upset the power plant?”

Wei Chun-Hak shook his head.

“It’s not our fault. They simply don’t need any consumables anymore.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s simple. This world will run out of magic in two weeks.”

“...!”

Seo Jun-Ho and Shin Sung-Hyun looked at Wei Chun-Hak with surprised faces.

“What? The magic in this world will disappear?”

“Yeah, the power plant was created with that purpose in mind.”

The power plant’s raison d’etre was to turn all the magic on the planet into Force to grant the emperor infinite power and lifespan.

“Can they really do that in just two weeks? We’re talking about an entire planet here.”

“They’re done with the preparations,” said Yuri. She flipped the pages of the document and pointed at a picture. “I took this guy’s face, and it turns out that he’s a senior researcher of the power plant.

”Take a look at this part, the conversion rate between magic and Force seemed to have already reached ninety-nine percent.”

“I see, and since they suspended the consumables delivery…” Seo Jun-Ho trailed off and said, “I guess the Overmind emperor must have judged that they have done enough research.”

“He’s already satisfied with the conversion rate as well. Now, he’s planning on getting rid of magic altogether.”

Seo Jun-Ho let out a sigh at their terrible future.

“This Floor will be impossible to clear by then.”

It was impossible to defeat an opponent with infinite energy, not to mention the fact that their enemies’ numbers were overwhelming.

“And that is why we have been using Community to send out messages… we have been hoping that a Player will hear us.”

“Oh, so that’s what you meant….”

The timing was perfect; something terrible would have happened if they hadn’t encountered each other.

“Will we avoid the worst-case scenario if the power plant is destroyed?”

“Yes, I can guarantee it.” Wei Chun-Hak nodded. “The Overmind emperor is strong, but he can’t turn magic into Force without the power plant. The power plant took decades to build, by the way.”

In other words, the Overmind emperor’s foolish ambitions would be laid to rest if they managed to destroy the power plant.

Shin Sung-Hyun turned to look at Seo Jun-Ho and said, “This is great since we’re here to destroy the power plant as well.”

It was great that there were already Players who had been thinking of ways to destroy the power plant while they still had no idea that the power plant even existed.

“I guess things will be easier for us.” Seo Jun-Ho let out a sigh of relief and asked, “Can you show us your plan to destroy the power plant?”

Yuri didn’t say anything while Wei Chun-Hak wordlessly lit another cigarette.

“Don’t tell me…” Shin Sung-Hyun’s eyes narrowed as he continued. “You two still haven’t made any plans?”

“Well, we do have a plan…” Yuri hurriedly said, “But it’s a bit…”

“We spent many sleepless nights trying to come up with a plan, but…” Wei Chun-Hak exhaled a cloud of smoke before continuing. “We had to abandon those plans because of the harsh reality.”

“What do you mean?”

“They can’t be done,” explained Wei Chun-Hak. He leaned against his seat and tilted his head backward. He made a sidelong glance at the power plant beyond the nearby window and said, “It’s a forbidden area.”

“Are you saying that there’s no other way aside from a direct confrontation?”

“No,” Yuri chimed in and shook her head. “We found a way to get inside, but it’s too dangerous.”

“What is it? Tell us.” Shin Sung-Hyun urged.

Yuri let out a sigh and said, “Do you happen to know the beings working there?”

“We heard that they’re notorious prisoners—wait, don’t tell me…” A sense of foreboding swept past Seo Jun-Ho as he muttered, “Were you guys planning to disguise yourselves as prisoners to infiltrate the power plant?”

“Yes, that’s the only way to enter the power plant,” Yuri said with a nod.

“It sounds ridiculous, but she’s right—that’s the only way,” Wei Chun-Hak chimed in.

“No, we can’t do that.” Shin Sung-Hyun jumped up and objected. “Are you seriously telling us to go beyond enemy lines while disguised as prisoners?”

“It’s either that or a direct confrontation. I honestly don’t know which plan is better.”

They had to either confront the enemies directly or infiltrate the power plant while disguised as prisoners. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an easy decision to make.

Seo Jun-Ho fell into deep contemplation.

‘A direct confrontation is a no-go.’

The whole city would be alerted the moment they kicked up a fuss at the power plant. It would only be a matter of time before the army would mobilize, and Seo Jun-Ho also reckoned that even the residents would join the fight.

Seo Jun-Ho shook his head. ‘It’s basically suicide. What about the other plan?’

Seo Jun-Ho shook his head once again. ‘It’s extremely risky. If we get caught, we’ll suffer a worse fate than dying in a direct confrontation.’

However, Seo Jun-Ho had no time to waste mulling over their options.

Seo Jun-Ho kneaded his temples and said, “Tell us more about your plan first.”