Return of the Frozen Player

Hart looked at Seo Jun-Ho with curious eyes from top to bottom.

‘Just what...'

Seo Jun-Ho received Hart’s teachings, even if it was just a few days. Therefore, Hart should be pleased if Seo Jun-Ho’s aura had become stronger since then. However, the feeling of absurdity took precedence over his pride as a teacher.

‘What the hell has he been up to?’

The aura Hart felt was much hazier than before. Did that mean that Seo Jun-Ho became weaker rather than stronger?

‘That's ridiculous.’

Seo Jun-Ho’s aloof eyes were like the winter snow on a mountain, and his steady torso and posture seemed like they could support the skies. Overall, Seo Jun-Ho seemed relaxed and confident even amidst them all.

"Oh, so he’s Specter?"

"Indeed, he's a great Player with skills that don’t match his age."

"You said he is one of the best Players. It seems that you weren’t lying.”

“Haha…” Hart couldn’t help but chuckle at the whispers around him. How could he hold it in?

‘Everyone’s thoughts are like that because this is their first time meeting him.’’

Honestly, if this were Hart’s first time seeing Seo Jun-Ho, he would have made the same assessment as them. However, this was the third time he met Seo Jun-Ho.

‘Above all...’

Seo Jun-Ho had already surpassed the current Hart. Yes, Seo Jun-Ho had already surpassed Frontier’s best swordsman, who was also more than a hundred years old.

‘It is evidenced by the fact that I can’t even properly gauge his breadth anymore.’

Hart seemed amused. Should he tell his comrades the truth?

'There’s no need to do that.’

If he told them the truth, it would temporarily increase morale, but there was a high chance that they would start relying on him a lot. Having made a decision, Hart simply greeted Seo Jun-Ho with his eyes.

‘He’s being considerate of me.’

Seo Jun-Ho sent a look of gratitude at Hart.

Meanwhile, an old man in a neat robe spoke, "Since it seems that every relevant individual has gathered here, it’s about time we start the meeting.”

The old man tapped the floor with his cane, and a large map that seemed to be made of gold appeared in mid-air

"First, this is the extent of what he had done so far,” said the old man.

A part of the map turned black as if it were rotting. Looking at the map, Seo Jun-Ho muttered, "I don't see any regularity."

"At first, he mainly attacked the cities down south, but now, he is attacking everywhere.”

Nazad Hallow’s movements were quick. He appeared in the east and then in the west like he was trying to one-up Hong Gil-Dong.[1]

“The empire’s failure must have spread by now.” The Frost Queen covered her mouth and giggled.

Nazad Hallow seemed to be saying…

- I know how strong you are, and I know how you’ll respond.

Whenever the empire did its best to gather troops and prepare for his ambush, Nazad Hallow would reappear somewhere completely out of the empire’s expectations and wreak havoc there.

‘Naturally, the damage is extensive.’

Seo Jun-Ho could already imagine the empire’s current status. Aside from the extensive damage the many cities had suffered, it was also incredibly costly to move so many soldiers at once and in rapid succession.

The citizens had to be trembling with anxiety right now, and the nobles had to be kicking up a fuss as well to have troops deployed to their cities.

“This is bad. At this rate, there would be uprisings everywhere.”

“Uprisings? Are you sure about that?”

“Uprisings wouldn’t be a surprise. Disobeying His Majesty’s orders is tantamount to treason, but do you really think that only a few nobles would transfer their knights and soldiers to their estates in order to protect their territory and families?”

It was unknown if it was because Seo Jun-Ho was an emperor himself, but his train of thought ran differently from the other nobles.

‘Hmm. If this continues, the emperor's dignity will fall to the bottom.’

If things got that far, the empire would become a tasty piece of cake for everyone to enjoy.

The Tower Master of the Magic Tower made a sidelong glance at Seo Jun-Ho and said, "In addition to his elusiveness, his troops aren’t nothing to be scoffed at either."

“Those corpses…”

“When Hameln was captured this morning, a hundred thousand enemy troops were apparently deployed to the siege.”

“…!”

It was a surprise to hear that there were tens of thousands of them, but it was unbelievable that the number of corpses Nazad had at his disposal had already surpassed six digits.

It wasn’t just Seo Jun-Ho. The others found it absurd as well.

"That's ridiculous. How can a human handle so much magic?”

"As far as I know, only the demon king of the ancient times could wield the required magic to support the animation of so many corpses."

"Is there a possibility that they used illusion magic to lower our fighting spirit?"

"That's a possibility, but at this point, we have to assume the worst…”

The party’s morale visibly dropped.

‘We only have a small number of elites, there is nothing we can do against a large army of a hundred thousand.’

While Seo Jun-Ho was still in Another World, he had to face enemies of more than a hundred thousand, but those were cockroaches. They couldn’t possibly be compared to undead creatures.

"Sir Specter, I heard that your world managed to stop this necromancer in the past. What method did they use to do so?”

"Oh, that's…"

Seo Jun-Ho looked slightly troubled at the archbishop’s question.

He saw the reports, but apparently, hundreds of ballistic missiles were fired.

‘As a result, Turkey became a wasteland, but we were able to send Nazad away to the 2nd Floor.’

However, there was no way they could use that method here.

Emperor Gauss was extremely wary of the modern era, especially modern technology. It was only natural since modern technology could easily shatter the peace of this world, which was basically a world of magic and swords.

"Phew, then we have no choice but to hope that God's protection will follow."

"There is no way His Majesty will allow us to bring such a weapon.”

"In addition, we have to know where he’s going to appear as well.”

Listening to the concerns, Seo Jun-Ho raised his hand carefully.

"Wait. Are you saying that if we don’t know where he’s going to appear, we won’t be able to chase after him?"

"That's right."

Seo Jun-Ho was puzzled. "Why is that? Can’t we just teleport to the city where Nazad Hallow appeared?"

Of course, Teleport wasn’t something anyone could use, but the Magic Tower existed in Frontier. If they worked together, they should be able to use Teleport.

"We can't do that because of the rifts."

"The rifts? What's that?"

The Tower Master of the Magic Tower sighed and explained, "Teleport. How could we not think of that? The Magic Tower sent thirty mages to chase after Nazad Hallow as soon as he showed up.”

“And everyone died… Their lower bodies managed to teleport over to the destination, but their upper bodies were left behind.."

Seo Jun-Ho frowned. "Are you saying that he has created rifts all over space itself?"

"You sure catch up quickly. That's right. That is why we cannot recklessly use Teleport. We have no idea what’s going to happen once we do so.”

Without precise information about the locations of the rift in space, there was no way they would gamble their lives and use Teleport.

“In that case, why are we here?"

If Nazad Hallow showed up on the other side of the continent, they wouldn’t be able to chase after him. In that case, all this was just a waste of effort and time.

However, the Tower Master of the Magic Tower grinned at the question.

"Don't underestimate the financial power of the empire and the stubbornness of the Magic Tower."

He flicked his finger.

Thousands of unremarkable scrolls appeared behind him.

"What is this?" asked Seo Jun-Ho upon receiving a scroll with complicated magic formulas carved on its surface.

"It's a magic scroll. We're going to tear these and go after him.”

"I thought you said Teleport doesn’t work?”

"Well, this isn’t Teleport.”

The Tower Master of the Magic Tower kindly explained, "These scrolls have marking, tracking, flight, fast movement, and air resistance spells carved on them."

"What happens if you rip it?”

“You’ll fly to the node designated in advance. Of course, you’re currently holding a scroll with no designated node just yet.”

Seo Jun-Ho finally nodded.

‘So this is why we met in the middle of the continent…’

This way, even if Nazad Hallow appeared in the east, west, south, or north. The travel time would remain roughly the same.

“It must have been expensive to create so many of these scrolls.”

"As I said, you shouldn’t underestimate the empire’s financial capability as well as the stubbornness of our Magic Tower’s mages.” The Tower Master of the Magic Tower swept his gaze across the scrolls with a smile and said, “Of course, this method isn’t perfect. If the target is nowhere near a node, it will be of no use.”

"In other words, we can only hope that Nazad Hallow will invade a location with a nearby node.”

"That's right. And..." The Tower Master of the Magic Tower started.

"T-Tower Master!” A mage interrupted. “We have received a call for reinforcements! Nazad Hallow has appeared in the castle of Merhen!"

"What? Merhen?"

The Tower Master of the Magic Tower hurriedly looked at the map. His expression distorted at the sight of a red ‘X’ marking on Merhen.

"Damn it! We don’t have a node there!"

"Then, we should just go to the nearest node." The archbishop's eyes turned to Mateo, which was below the territory of Merhen. "Tower Master, distribute the scrolls connected to the node in Mateo. We shall go there."

"All right."

The relevant scrolls flew toward everyone like birds.

Seo Jun-Ho's eyes shone while looking at the map.

"Wait, please give me a scroll connected to the node in Lacus."

"What? Lacus?"

It was a city above Merhen, but it was further than Mateo from Merhen. The Tower Master of the Magic Tower frowned.

‘Does he want to strike from the rear?’

No, if that were the case, then Hellen, just below Lacus, was more suitable than Lacus.

It was obvious from the distance that Seo Jun-Ho wouldn’t be able to participate in the battle on time if he were to appear in Lacus.

"We’re in an emergency. Going to Lacus means that by the time you reached Merhen, the battle would be over by then."

"Still, please…"

“…” It seemed that The Tower Master of the Magic Tower interpreted Seo Jun-Ho’s insistence as cowardice as he stared in disdain at the latter.

He threw a scroll at Seo Jun-Ho's feet and said, "I had no idea that Earth’s Hero values his life so much."

Everyone stared at Seo Jun-Ho with unkind eyes. Asking to be sent to a city that was so far away from where the battle was going on could only be interpreted as cowardice on Seo Jun-Ho’s end.

However, Hart was different.

He stared at Seo Jun-Ho with a gaze full of trust before saying, "Well, then, let's move."

Rip!

Upon tearing the scroll in their hands, they soared into the night sky and disappeared into the horizon like a meteor.

Seo Jun-Ho picked up the scroll on the floor.

"Contractor, do you have a plan?"

"I always have a plan."

Of course, he had no idea if it would even work.

"Let's go."

Rip!

Weightlessness took over him as he flew up north like a meteor.

***

“…”

The lord of Merhen’s eyes quivered as he looked down at Merhen from the castle walls. Merhen was surrounded by walls that stood fifteen meters tall. The walls of Merhen were taller than the average city, so this sight was a first for him.

‘I couldn’t have known that there would be a day when I would wish that the walls were higher.’

The countless corpses on the plains of Merhen made the lord of Merhen think that way. In the midst of the throng of corpses, an old man clad in a black robe swung his staff with a cold look.

"Uaahhhhhh."

"Gaauhhhh."

The undead started running toward the wall while uttering unpleasant noises. They were running so fast that it shattered the prejudice about the undead being slow movers.

The lord of Merhen bit his lips and shouted, "The dead will have to be buried! Bury them once more!"

"Yes!"

Swoosh!

The archers sent a hail of flaming arrows toward the running corpses.

There were so many undead that there was no way one could miss even if they shot randomly toward the skies. The arrows struck true and started burning the corpses, but they continued running at the same pace despite their bodies melting in real-time.

"T-that's absurd…!”

"Lord! The attacks aren’t working!"

"Damn it."

The Imperial Family announced that a group composed of the cream of the crop would reinforce cities under siege.

‘But if they want to come here, then they’ll be coming from Mateo.’

It would take them three hours, even on the fastest horse. Three hours was also the most optimistic estimate, and it was only applicable if the reinforcements left for Merhen as soon as they received the request.

“…”

The lord of Merhen shut his eyes tightly. He couldn’t waver here. His people were depending on him, so there was no way that he would show them a pathetic side of him.

With that being said, the lord of Merhen sounded like he was crying as he screamed frantically, "Reinforcements are coming! Three hours! We just have to hold out for three hours!"

1. Hong Gil-Dong is like the Korean version of Robin Hood with magical powers, and he moves fast. ☜