Return of the Frozen Player

“Since when?” Gong Ju-Ha asked. Despite the vagueness of her question, it wasn’t hard to tell what she was asking about.

“It has been some time now,” Seo Jun-Ho replied.

“...I’ve never seen anyone fool the whole world like what you have done.”

People knew him as a Player who only had one D-grade skill, but he was already known to have outstanding potential. It was unfair that he had an elemental skill on top of that.

She looked at him bitterly as if faced with an ex-lover. “I suppose that means you want to join Goblin even less now.” He hadn’t been pulled in even when she thought he only had a D-grade skill. She thought that she might be able to bring him in if she followed him around, but now, it was impossible.

“I won’t join. However, it’s not just the Goblin Guild. No Guild will be able to have me,” he said, reassuring her. She had to be satisfied with just that.

“What, if you have an ice-type skill… Was that you, back at the safari?”

“I admit that I did lower the temperature around us a bit,” he said.

“You are a liar, Contractor. That was my doing.” The Frost Queen scowled, but she was a part of his skills anyway.

“And Cheetey, too?”

“Um, well…I suppose I helped you out a little bit?”

“You liar. That was all my doing,” the Frost Queen said once again.

“Aaahhh!” As Gong Ju-Ha screamed, her face turned as red as a tomato.

‘Just stay by my side. I’ll protect you.’

‘Just trust me. I’ll carry you all the way through.’

‘O-Of course I did. I’m pretty good at that.’

Why was her memory so good at times like this?

‘Ugh, I must’ve looked like a complete idiot.’

She thought that she might need to buy more blankets to hide under.

“Just kill me now…”

The temperature rose as she got flustered. The frozen seats and stage became a sea of water as if a flood had just passed through.

“I-I need to calm down.” Everyone had their embarrassing moments. No one was perfect. Though, it could become a problem if there were too many of those moments. “To be honest, I always thought you were special from the very beginning. Call it my feminine instinct.”

“You have one?”

“I do! Of course, I didn’t know that you have an elemental skill or even the rare ice-element skill on top of that.” She looked at him with interest. “How did you hide it? Didn’t you want to tell people?”

“Who knows.” Seo Jun-Ho wasn’t the type of person to go through extra trouble to get attention. Actually, he had enjoyed the past few months because he didn’t receive the excessive attention he used to get.

‘I suppose things will get noisy soon.’

He let out a light sigh. “I don’t like to be bothered.’

“Well, I don’t blame you.” Things would get noisy once his skill was revealed. “I want to respect your wishes, but this isn’t something that I can keep to myself,” she said.

“I know.” He nodded. Even though the stage was floating 80 meters off the ground, there were Players down there. Moreover, they were all Rankers or worked with Rankers. They would have seen the way ice formed from out of nowhere and seen the hail fall from the sky.

“Anyway, why isn’t the stage going down? It’s over,” Gong Ju-Ha said.

“Oh, about that…”

The moment he spoke, the stage started to shoot downward like they were riding a drop tower.

“I thought this would happen. It didn’t end with killing Beary,” he said as the ground came closer and closer.

But this Dungeon had underestimated the Players—Players could easily ride an amusement park attraction without safety gears.

“...” Gong Ju-Ha’s head drooped forward and she was silent.

Seo Jun-Ho started shaking her shoulders. “Miss Ju-Ha. Miss Ju-Ha? Oh my god, Miss Ju-Ha?”

Goblin’s Princess wouldn’t even blink when faced with vicious and powerful monsters, but the amusement park ride made her faint standing up.

***

“Captain Gong! Ju-Ha!” Jang Kyung-Hoon cried out. He was the first one to run over. He shook her unconscious body and looked at Seo Jun-Ho. “What’s wrong with her? Was she hit with a telepathic skill?”

“Um, well…” As Seo Jun-Ho took a moment to find the right words, Shin Sung-Hyun approached them. “I think she’s simply unconscious. She has acrophobia,” he said as he looked at her.

“That’s right. When the stage started to fall, she suddenly fainted…”

“Well, it happens quite often. She’ll wake up once some time passes.” With that, Shin Sung-Hyun looked around. They were mostly surrounded by healers who were treating the wounded, but there were also some grief-stricken Players moving corpses covered with white sheets.

“...”

It was a familiar sight. Even though Dungeons and Gates had different names, those who entered them both felt the same feelings, and the aftermath of the battle was also the same.

“How many?” Seo Jun-Ho asked.

“Seven.”

“Mm,” he said to himself. That was three more than the previous count.

‘Miss Ju-Ha will be sad.’

Shin Sung-Hyun spoke when he saw the regret on his face. “If it weren’t for you, the number might have been higher. I promise to reward you for that,” he said.

“I simply did what was needed.”

“And rewards should be given when people do what is needed with great proficiency.” He turned and looked at the stage with slightly narrowed eyes. “Water…”

“Pardon?”

“The stage and the seats are completely drenched as if there was a flood.”

“Oh, that…” Seo Jun-Ho started speaking nonchalantly, but he stopped. There was something strange about the way Shin Sung-Hyun was looking at the theater.

‘Why is he looking at it like that?’

His eyes were sharp, like a detective’s, but he had no reason to do that.

‘Didn’t he see me use my skill?’

They had been 80 meters in the air, which meant that even a normal person with good eyesight would be able to see what happened. Moreover, they were Players.

‘Now that I think about it, the Guild members aren’t treating me any different.’

At first, he thought that they had been too overwhelmed with the grief of losing their comrades. But seeing Shin Sung-Hyun’s reaction, Seo Jun-Ho realized what happened.

‘They didn’t see it.’

They hadn’t seen something that they should have, and the reasonable assumption to make was that it was because they were in a Dungeon.

“You couldn’t see too well, could you?” he asked casually, testing the waters.

“Yes. When the theater rose up to the sky, it was completely covered in darkness, and we couldn’t see anything.”

“I see…”

“It was covered in darkness, I said,” he repeated.

“...?” Seo Jun-Ho blinked, looking at him with a confused expression.

‘Well, either way, he’ll end up finding out about my Frost skill once Ju-Ha gives him a report.’

It didn’t matter if they had already seen it or not.

“It would be better to hear from Miss Ju-Ha herself,” he said, feeling relieved.

“I suppose I could do that.” Shin Sung-Hyun nodded and started to send out the other Guild members. It seemed that he would publicly reveal Seo Jun-Ho’s reward later. He had made great contributions despite being a guest, which meant the reward would be something big.

“...”

Once all the other Guild members of Goblin left Forever Land, only the two men were left inside.

“What is it that you want to say to me?” Seo Jun-Ho asked.

“...” Shin Sung-Hyun silently took out a pen from his inventory. Unlike his usual self, he seemed a little unsettled. “Do you remember this pen?”

“Yes. I used it to sign the contract last time,” Seo Jun-Ho replied. He specifically remembered it because it seemed much too plain of a pen for a Guild Master to use.

“This pen is actually an artifact,” Shin Sung-Hyun stated.

“An artifact?” Seo Jun-Ho’s eyebrows knitted as he watched Shin Sung-Hyun let go of it. As the pen floated in the air, the black nib turned blue.

“After you used this pen and left the room, it became like this,” he said.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that you, Seo Jun-Ho, possess an elemental skill,” he said smugly.

Seo Jun-Ho was dumbfounded.

‘So there’s an artifact that can do this. I was too careless.’

But that was the end of it… The fact that he was an elemental skill user was no longer a secret because Gong Ju-Ha already knew everything.

“So what if I do?”

“...” Sung-Hyun was a little taken aback by Seo Jun-Ho’s nonchalant response. He started to explain his hypothesis. “At first, I was amazed. You were a talented Player who appeared out of nowhere. You have an unimpressive skill, and though your body wasn’t completely trained, you were able to clear the Cave of Trials. It was too suspicious.”

“Um, I’m not sure why it is.”

“You were a promising Player, and you were on your way to becoming one of the best. But your background was too normal… It was as if someone had manufactured it.”

That part was true. Shim Deok-Gu had completely remade his identity as Seo Jun-Ho.

“Well, people say that some are just naturally gifted. I suppose that’s what I am. I thought I was just a normal person, but I realized that I was much more than that.”

“That’s not humanly possible,” Shin Sung-Hyun said firmly. “People consider Kim Woo-Joong and me to be geniuses that only come around once in a century, but we still made mistakes when we first became Players. However, you never made mistakes. You’re perfect.” He clicked the pen again. “So as I kept thinking about it, it came to me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“A Player with incredible potential that seemed to have come out of nowhere. An elemental skill user. The darkness that covered the stage earlier. Doesn’t another Player come to mind?”

“Huh?”

“You may have fooled the world, but you haven’t fooled me.”

As realization dawned on Seo Jun-Ho’s face, Shim Sung-Hyun looked at him sharply.

“I have always wanted to meet you, Specter.”