Return of the Frozen Player

Yuri slowly opened her eyes and realized that she was on someone else’s back.

‘...It feels stable.’

The person carrying her was running at a fairly high speed, but she couldn’t feel even a single tremor from the high-speed movement. The person’s stride was consistent as well

Upon seeing the side profile of the person carrying her, Yuri muttered unknowingly, “Specter?”

‘Am I dreaming?’

“Oh, you’re finally awake.”

‘So, this isn’t a dream…’

“Where am I—” Yuri’s expression abruptly distorted when she remembered what happened to her. She could remember how Stigma defeated her and the subsequent torture she suffered at Chef's hands.

Yuri started trembling upon recalling those harrowing scenes.

Seo Jun-Ho saw Yuri biting her lips tightly, and he reassured her.

“You’re fine now. I took care of them.”

“But, Chef was there as well...”

“I took care of him, too.”

“...I owe you. Thank you.”

Yuri nodded and tapped Seo Jun-Ho’s back.

“I can walk on my own now. Please put me down.”

Yuri immediately examined herself as soon as she got off Seo Jun-Ho’s back.

It seemed that she had recovered greatly after receiving treatment from Specter.

“What happened?” Yuri asked.

“I saw your post on Community. You’re Yuri Alekseyev, right?”

“Well… yes, I’m known by that name,” Yuri nodded. She felt uneasy for some reason.

Seo Jun-Ho explained what had happened in a nutshell.

Afterward, he stared at her with a serious look on his face and asked, “What exactly did you mean by human extermination and prepare for war?”

“Ah!” Yuri stiffened, but she quickly explained, “Tepes wants to exterminate the human beings of this world.”

“Won’t he run out of human blood? I mean, vampires need human blood to survive, right?”

“Tepes’ plan involves overcoming the thirst for blood and eventually becoming a god through evolution.”

“...” Seo Jun-Ho was speechless. It wasn’t really strange because Tepes’ idea was so absurd that a sane individual couldn’t have come up with it.

“Paradox has been holding Tepes back by opposing his plan until now, but Paradox is already…” Yuri glanced at Seo Jun-Ho before continuing. “Anyway, Paradox is dead, so he no longer has the chains that have been holding him back all this time.”

“Do you know more details of his plan?”

“No. True Vampire Stigma started chasing me soon after I found out what I told you just now, so…” Yuri trailed off.

Seo Jun-Ho could only hope that Seo Jun-Sik and the Frost Queen would be able to find more details about Tepes’ plan.

“You should go down to Earth. We’re going to need the Players’ support.”

“Will do.” Yuri didn’t bother to insist on staying and fighting. She wasn’t in a condition to fight, and her slot configuration wasn’t suitable for combat as well. In addition, someone had to go down to Earth to bring reinforcements up here.

“I wish you the best of luck.” Yuri bade farewell and disappeared from Seo Jun-Ho’s view into a carriage.

Seo Jun-Ho stared at the carriage for a while.

All of a sudden, Seo Jun-Sik’s voice rang in his head.

‘Hey, Original. I think we found it...’

***

Upon entering the hotel room he had booked earlier in the day, Seo Jun-Ho saw two figures staring at a video projection with serious looks.

“What is it?” Seo Jun-Ho asked.

“Here,” the Frost Queen said as she played the video.

The city in the video wasn’t Trium.

“Where is that?”

“It’s a small city called Ferris located on a continent directly next to this continent where we are right now. Paradox used to live here.”

The city in the video was covered in red fog.

However, the red fog looked thicker and stickier than Trium’s red fog.

- Aaaahhh!

- Mom! Mom!

The red fog in the sky seemed to have become a massive vacuum cleaner that sucked everything on the ground toward it. The tornado of red fog lasted for about thirty minutes.

“Is that it?” Seo Jun-Ho asked.

“No, it’s the other way around…” Seo Jun-Sik answered grimly, “This is just the beginning.”

“What do you—”

The video answered Seo Jun-Ho’s question.

The people who got sucked into the red fog fell to the ground, and their demeanors were now different. After falling to the ground, they thrashed around for a few seconds, and they immediately started running after getting up.

“...!”

They pounced and bit the people hiding in the buildings.

“Did they get infected when they got sucked into the red fog?” asked Seo Jun-Ho.

“Perhaps, but they’re different from ordinary vampires because it seems like they have lost their minds,” Jun-Sik answered.

“Yes. It appears that they have become beasts whose sole purpose in life is to bite human beings—like zombies—for example,” said the Frost Queen with a nod.

The video was fast-forwarded, showing Ferris’ demise. Overnight, a city with a population of thirty thousand was infected. The citizens of Ferris were reduced to ashes when the sun rose by daybreak.

“Is that… Tepes’ plan to exterminate humans?”

“It’s much more convenient and faster than killing humans one by one.”

It was truly an efficient way to kill a large number of humans in the shortest time possible.

Seo Jun-Ho bit his lips. “We have to be prepared.”

“How do we even prepare for that?” Seo Jun-Sik shook his head. “You saw it in the video, and there’s no way we can prepare for that kind of attack.”

The red fog had already grown large enough to cover the entire city of Trium. No matter how determined they were and how desperate they wanted to protect the citizens of Trium—there was no way they could protect every corner of Trium from the red fog.

“...First, let’s go back.”

Seo Jun-Ho finally obtained the information he needed, but his worries weren’t assuaged at all.

***

The village was already busy even before Seo Jun-Ho got back from his mission, but the entire village was thrown into an uproar when they heard the horrifying news that Seo Jun-Ho had brought back with him.

An emergency meeting was conducted, and Skaya reassured the werewolves.

“It is unnecessary to panic. Even if Jun-Ho’s words are true, our goal is still the same.”

“...That’s true.”

Arnold and the other werewolves nodded.

Their goal had always been the red fog.

“But we do have to execute our plan ahead of schedule.”

“I agree. Tepes can carry out his plan at any time, after all.”

Actually, Tepes’ plan to exterminate all human beings could even be carried out tonight.

The werewolves gulped and rose from their seats.

“I’ll get in touch with the other tribes as soon as possible, and I will tell them to get here with as many warriors as they can bring.”

“That would be nice.” Arnold nodded and looked at Seo Jun-Ho. “Jun-Ho. How many reinforcements will be coming from your world?”

“Hm.” Seo Jun-Ho thought about it for a moment before replying, “I’m thinking around twenty thousand people.”

Seo Jun-Ho reckoned that things would be different from what had happened on the 5th Floor. The eight thousand people on the 5th Floor volunteered to rescue Seo Jun-Ho.

However, he reckoned that it would be different this time because…

‘Climb has already collapsed, so there should be more participants this time.’

“Twenty thousand people?!” Arnold was stupefied. “A-are they all as strong as you by chance?”

“Of course not.” Rahmadat snorted. He shook his head and said, “You overestimate the Players. However, the majority of them should be on par with your warriors. Of course, the stronger one will be more powerful than the vampire apostles.”

“That is a pleasant surprise…” Arnold clenched his fists. They truly had a chance of winning against the vampires if they had that many powerful allies. “This time, we should be able to get rid of the red fog and drive out the vampires from Trium for good. Of course, we will also stop Tepes from achieving his goal.”

The werewolves had consistently been on a disadvantageous all this while, and they had lost more than their honor. Therefore, there was no way that Arnold would retreat in the face of the golden opportunity that would allow him to recover their honor as wolves.

“In two days at daybreak, we shall commence Operation Recapture Trium.”

***

Rahmadat asked as soon as the party returned to their residence after the emergency meeting.

The party returned to their residence after the emergency meeting. As soon as they arrived at their residence, Rahmadat asked, “Jun-Ho. Did you read Chef’s memories?”

“I did.”

The reason he froze Chef’s head at the last minute was that there was a huge chance that he wouldn’t be able to read Chef’s memories once the latter was incinerated by the sunlight.

“Where is the Heavenly Demon right now?”

“He’s on the 3rd Floor.”

“Damn it. I knew it.” Rahmadat sighed.

Seo Jun-Ho added, “It’s the best Floor if you want to hide. The 3rd Floor is a lava field, after all.”

“Is he still recovering?”

“Yes, but I don’t know whether he has recovered or if he’s still recovering.

Chef came up to the 6th Floor to develop a drug.

“He came here to develop a drug similar to Wolf Wine.”

The drug required the blood of werewolves, whose vitality and regeneration rate were high. Chef managed to create the drug, and he gave it to the Heavenly Demon.

Seo Jun-Ho reckoned that the Heavenly Demon’s recovery rate had to have increased after taking Chef’s drug.

“...”

Seo Jun-Ho felt his intuition telling him that there was a high chance that the Heavenly Demon would show up on the next Floor.

‘When we meet again, I’ll make sure to put an end to our ill-fated relationship…’

It was also the reason Seo Jun-Ho kept on training to become even stronger.

“So, Contractor. What was Yuri Alekseyev like? Was he like a three-meter-tall giant?” asked the Frost Queen.

“No, she was an ordinary lady,” said Seo Jun-Ho.

Skaya tilted her head. “Wait. Yuri is a woman?”

“Yeah. It’s unexpected, isn’t it?”

It wasn’t really strange for people to assume that Yuri was a male because her last name was Alekseyev, and it was a masculine last name. Since Yuri was female, then her real last name had to be Alekseyeva rather than Alekseyev.

“She must be using a fake name. I guess she doesn’t want people to discover her true identity.”

“But why would she do that when she’s a Heaven?”

“Well, everyone has their reasons for their own actions,” said Seo Jun-Ho, ending the topic right there and then as he got up from his seat.

As usual, the red fog enveloped Trium once again because it was already night.

‘We will advance into the city at daybreak the day after tomorrow.’

Seo Jun-Ho turned to Rahmadat. “How is your training going so far?”

“...Heh, I would have been quite disappointed if you didn’t ask.” Rahmadat smiled. He gently tapped Seo Jun-Ho’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. I will protect you from the back until you fall.”

“What are you talking about? You should be Jun-Ho’s meatshield, so why would you hide behind him?”

“Tsk. I really feel sorry for you—you’re ignorant of the beautiful and burning friendship of men.”

“Yeah? Well, I don’t like hot things in the first place, and I only drink iced coffee as well.”

The Frost Queen saw them quarrel like elementary school students once again.

She sighed and muttered to herself, “Sigh. They really are a childish bunch.”

‘Says the few hundred years old Spirit whose face is covered in whipped cream…’

Seo Jun-Ho quietly handed over a handkerchief to the Frost Queen.

***

On the afternoon of the next day, many people started climbing up the mountain to the Twilight Claw Tribe’s village.

“Those people are…”

“Mmhmm. They are our allies. We can leave our sides and backs to them on tomorrow’s war,” Arnold replied with a smile.

It had been ten years since the warriors of the four tribes had gathered in one place. Until now, they had been hiding and could only cautiously contact each other.

“Kehaha! Nice to see you again, you punk!”

“Welcome. Grigor, Mekenbo, and Charlotte.”

“How have you been?”

“How long has it been since we got together like this?”

The chiefs gladly hugged each other as if they were family members who were finally reunited after a long time of parting.

“Are the chiefs really that close to each other, even though they belong to different tribes?” Rahmadat asked Mone.

“No way,” Mone smiled slightly and shook her head. “It has been a while since they reunited, so they naturally have to be friendly for now. Wait ten minutes, and something should change.”

Unfortunately, Mone seemed to have overestimated the chief.

It had only been two minutes, but Arnold was already frowning.

“Grigor, you’re still growing that beard? It makes you look like a beggar. Wait, didn’t I tell you about that before?”

“What? Can’t you see that the young wolves of my tribe are growing the same beard?”

“Oh… no wonder why they looked so ugly. It’s actually all your fault, huh?”

“Shut up, Mekenbo. I’m still taller than you, you shortie.”

“Didn’t I tell you not to mention my height?”

Skaya saw the chefs quarreling with each other.

She couldn’t help but ask, “Shouldn’t we stop them? We’re going to war tomorrow.”

“We don’t have to stop them. What they’re doing is a kind of confirmation.”

“What are they confirming?”

“Well, they’re picking on each other because they’re embarrassed to ask their friends about how strong they had become in the meantime.”

“What? That’s dumb. I thought only Rahmadat would do that. Shouldn’t it be better if they just ask each other?” said Skaya. She started shaking her head when the chefs’ quarrel intensified.

“They’re not bad at all,” Rahamadat muttered while staring at the chefs.

The chiefs of each tribe were slightly inferior to Arnold, but the Arch Warriors and warriors of each tribe seemed to be on a similar skill level to each other.

“There should only be around sixty vampire apostles at most, so this might be easier than we think…”

“We can’t be so sure of that,” Seo Jun-Ho said and firmly shook his head.

If Seo Jun-Ho were in Tepes’ shoes, there was no way he would just sit back and do nothing when he could finally accomplish the goal that he had been wanting to achieve for a long time.

“Right now, he could be creating more vampire apostles to keep the werewolves in check once he kick-started his plan of exterminating all human beings.”

“That makes sense...” Rahmadat nodded and clenched his fists.

At last, the dawn of Operation Recapture Trium’s commencement had arrived.