- ...
Yeon looked at the scene in front of him with a very peculiar expression.
"I just want to see the effect. Just once is enough, okay? Just once."
"How many times do I have to say it? I do not want to!"
"But it’s not even something hard!"
"Staaaaahp! I said nooo!"
Seo Jun-Ho chased after Frost, who was running away while grumbling and complaining. Of course, there was no place to escape to on the spaceship, so the two of them were just running around in circles. Yeon sighed; it felt as if he was watching a sitcom.
- Now, both of you, please sit down. It is rather chaotic."
"No, she keeps refusing my request."
"Maybe it is because the Contractor keeps asking me to do weird things."
In the end, Seo Jun-Ho was the first to raise the white flag.
"Fine. I'll back off for now. But someday, we'll have to do it."
"I will absolutely not do it."
They weren't even kids, yet… Yeon shook his head.
- We will be arriving soon, so sit down and put on your seatbelts."
When the spaceship landed safely at the station, Yeon followed after Seo Jun-Ho.
- Your Majesty, do you have to go down right away? There is still a ton of work left…
“Sorry, but I have to go. I'm a little busy." Seo Jun-Ho flicked his fingers absentmindedly. "In return, I'll leave this kid here, so if you need anything, ask him."
"Huh?" Seo Jun-Sik had been summoned without warning, but he quickly agreed. "Oh, well, I guess I wasn't surprised, considering it's what I expected."
"Great. Then you and Yeon can handle the work together."
"When you come back, bring sushi."
"I'll prepare the absolute best for you."
Once he returned to the Players Association, he headed for his personal training ground without even changing his clothes.
"Let's see…"
He threw his coat in one corner and folded up his sleeves.
‘I should start making Frost Knights from now on if I want to summon a full four hundred of them.’
He already knew the process and the method, as he had made one before. But it was an enormous task—it had taken him an entire 80 days to make just five. Not to mention that he didn't plan to make them hastily. He wanted to customize each one individually, just like he had done for Sir Hart.
"I need to create bodies that can crank up each person's abilities to a hundred twenty percent."
First, he put the knights who had reached the Star Destruction stage in their lifetime to the back of the line. Since they would take more time and effort, he wanted to gain a bit more experience before he worked on them.
Summoning the darkness, Seo Jun-Ho started kneading it like dough. "Are you just going to watch?"
"...."
Frost had been watching him silently from the entrance, but now pouted at his question.
"Promise not to ask for weird things, and I will help you."
"Alright, alright. I won't until this task is done."
"You have to promise." Frost approached with a wary expression and held out her pinky finger. "You have to sign."
“Let’s do a fingerprint sign.”
Once he firmly pressed his thumb on her palm, the production of the knights began.
* * *
"Brr, it's so cold."
Even though it was the season of cicadas and scorching heat, Shim Deok-Gu wore a padded jacket as he entered the training ground. Seo Jun-Ho's personal training ground was a winter wonderland.
"Hmm…."
He mumbled as he looked around the entire floor of the building used as a training ground.
"There’s more of them again..."
It had been six months since Seo Jun-Ho returned from space. During that time, he hadn't shown his face to the media even once and spent almost twenty-four hours a day here.
"I'm here."
"Oh, hey!"
A voice rang out from behind an ice statue with slender yet muscular arms.
“Why’d you ask me to come?”
“Why do you think? It’s because I wanted to show you first.” Seo Jun-Ho walked out from behind the ice statue and smirked. "Ta-da! How is it? I finally completed Sir Kis."
"What do you mean how...?" Shim Deok-Gu looked at the ice statue for a moment and shrugged. "They all look similar to me."
"Tsk, you have no eye for detail, huh, Player Association President." Seo Jun-Ho lightly clicked his tongue. "Assistant Frost, please explain."
"Yea, Professor Jun-Ho."
"’Yea’ is informal speech…"
Frost was dressed in a work overcoat. Ignoring the complaint, she began to explain.
"Look carefully. The body of Sir Kis is made of thinner ice compared to the other knights. Despite the reduced weight, it has similar strength. Furthermore, its long arms and legs will make it difficult for the enemies to read its tempo due to its quick movement. Not only that, but the rotational engraving on its limbs is optimized for long-range attacks. Oh, oh, also, by using twice the amount of darkness inside, we have increased its joints’ range of motion. Therefore, we believe that it will show an amazing performance on the battlefield."
"... I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about." Shim Deok-Gu looked at the ice statue with a genuinely apologetic expression. "I don't know much about sculpting figures."
"It’s not a figure!"
"It is not a figure!"
"Even if you say it's not..."
Shim Deok-Gu couldn’t help but think that his friend and Frost Queen had holed themselves up in the training grounds for three months, chipping away at some blocks of ice.
‘At first, I thought they found a hobby to cool their heads down, so I liked it.’
But they were way too absorbed in making Frost Knights for it to be a hobby. They even seemed a bit deranged as they cut down their sleep and meal times.
Shim Deok-Gu found it a bit difficult to believe them.
“So, does this thing really have any use? Isn't it just an Ice Golem or something?"
"Pfft."
A snort of laughter involuntarily escaped Seo Jun-Ho at his friend's ignorant remark.
"If these were only at the level of Ice Golems, I wouldn't have even thought of going up to the 9th Floor with these guys."
"... Did you make up your mind after all?"
Seo Jun-Ho nodded confidently.
"Yea. I'm going up."
"..."
At that statement, the look in Shim Deok-Gu’s eyes changed as he stared at the ice figures behind his friend. For Seo Jun-Ho to be so confident, they had to be quite impressive.
‘Is this guy capable of waging war against the world alone or something?’
Shim Deok-Gu laughed at the ridiculous thought and shook his head.
"Okay, so when do you plan to go up?"
"It'll probably be next month. I need to prepare for it... Hm?"
‘Prepare, prepare.’
As he mulled over those words for a moment, Seo Jun-Ho tilted his head. He felt as if he had forgotten something.
* * *
"Original, you bastard, are you out on the sea catching the fish to make sushi or something?!"
A pile of documents flew through the air. The anger that had been suppressed for three months was now erupting once a day.
"No, even if he literally hatched the fish from eggs and raised them, it wouldn’t take him so damn long! Nowadays, fish farms are well developed."
- I do not know. However...
Yeon let out a sigh as he gathered the scattered documents.
- You never said when you wanted it. You just told him to bring it when he comes back.
"Still, there are unspoken rules. I thought it would’ve been a month at most."
- It seems His Majesty did not think the same.
"No way…"
Seo Jun-Sik started stamping the documents again with a gloomy expression.
- Hmm?
Yeon had been reviewing the documents to hand over to Seo Jun-Sik, but he suddenly frowned slightly.
"Why? What's wrong? Is there something interesting?"
Having found a reason to take a break, Seo Jun-Sik approached from behind and read the report over Yeon's shoulder.
"Hmm? Tomb raider?"
- Yes... I heard there have been some troubles lately, but it seems more serious than I thought.
"With people gathering from all over the universe, it seems like some strange characters are involved too."
- ....
Contrary to Seo Jun-Sik's subdued reaction, Yeon was deeply engrossed in the contents of the report.
- Something is strange, isn't it?"
"Hmm? What is?"
- Aren’t tomb raiders usually people who steal valuable items from other people's tombs to gain profit?
"That's right."
- But look at the tombs that have been excavated.
Seo Jun-Sik shrugged after he browsed through the data and photos attached to the report.
"There doesn't seem to be anything particularly strange. They were all powerful warriors."
- Yes. That is the strange part.
Yeon adjusted his posture and spoke with a serious expression.
- Why would they only dig up tombs of warriors that do not yield any particular financial gains?
"Uh... Maybe because those tombs of powerful warriors have weapons buried with them from their lifetime?"
- Is that the case on Earth?
"No, but in martial arts novels, they usually bury the deceased with their weapons."
- In the Central District, when a warrior dies, their family or close friends take the warrior’s favorite weapon as a memento to remember them forever. The deceased is buried only with an old weapon. There is no way to make money by digging up a tomb.
Upon hearing that, Seo Jun-Sik's eyes narrowed too.
"If that's true, even if the tomb raiders were aliens who didn't know about this tradition or were from Earth..."
- Over 72 tombs have been excavated. Unless they are complete idiots, they should have realized it much sooner.
And yet, they continued to excavate only tombs of warriors. Moreover, they only targeted the tombs of the powerful. When Seo Jun-Sik's thoughts reached that point, he also realized that something was strange.
"Wait a minute. Tomb raiders usually don't take the deceased's body, do they?"
- No. If the body has expensive prostheses and other such, they might take them, but they usually don't take the entire body like this.
They had taken the bodies from all 72 excavated tombs. This meant that the purpose of the tomb raiding was in fact related to the bodies of the deceased.
Seo Jun-Sik said, "Yeon, show me the list of all the Players who have purchased the Transformation Art using their points."
-Yes, Your Majesty’s representative.
Yeon immediately displayed a hologram with the data on the screen. Looking at the screen, Seo Jun-Sik made another request.
"Show the top 100 Players with the highest points, and then display the skills they bought with their points in order from the highest rank."
As Yeon typed quickly, the 100 skills of the top Players appeared one after another. A moment later, as if on cue, the gazes of the two were fixed on a specific point.
"Oh, damn it."
- Oh my.
Seventy-Two Corpses Resurrection. It was a cursed skill that resurrected the dead and turned them into powerful zombies.
* * *
"Ssp. Haaaah."
It was complete darkness in the underground room, with not even a single speck of light. A man breathed his energy into the cold body lying there.
Creak!
Then the body began to move.
"It's done."
The man stored the body in his inventory and slowly flipped his hood over his head.
‘The preparations are complete.’
The long wait had come to an end. With a smirk on his face, the man slowly trod forward.
Splash. Splash
He walked along an edge with the water lapping at his feet then he climbed up a ladder.
Clang!
"Shit, that scared me."
"What's this, was he doing sewer maintenance?"
"No way, who would close the manhole and work alone?"
"Then why is someone coming up from there..."
The passersby's attention shifted to the person who emerged from the manhole.
"..."
Under normal circumstances, their gaze would have made him feel awkward. After all, he had a clear purpose and had been cautious in his actions to achieve it.
"But not anymore."
His purpose had already been accomplished. From now on, he would only move forward to achieve that purpose.
"So step aside."
Swooosh!
One casual move, while muttering something to himself, and the heads of dozens of bystanders flew into the air. As the rain of blood poured down, the man calmly walked forward, stepping on the ground stained with blood as if it was the red carpet.
He was heading toward the Dimensional Elevator.
"Specter... Specter..."
"Why are you looking for the Original?"
A familiar voice came from behind and stopped the man's steps. He slowly turned around with half-closed eyes, looking at the person in front of him.
"Oh. Are you the clone from back then?"
“Yea, that’s me. Good timing."
Seo Jun-Sik, who owed a little debt to the other person, nonchalantly drew his weapon.
"Heavenly Demon, you bastard. I don't know why you exposed yourself in the city, but... you made a huge mistake."
"Did I make a mistake?"
"Yes, a very big one."
Seo Jun-Sik was not weak anymore. Moreover, now that his main body had reached the Star Destruction Stage, he was even stronger.
‘He probably wants to go down to Earth and cause a ruckus.’
Just for that purpose, he wouldn’t even let the dead rest in peace.
“But I won't let you go down."
A chilly air flowed from Seo Jun-Sik's blue eyes as he took out a blue spear.
"Today, you will die."
"... I don’t think so."
"Ah, sorry, you’re right."
A voice suddenly rang out from right beside the Heavenly Demon. As he turned his head, his eyes met Seo Jun-Sik’s—the clone was already next to him.
"It's not ‘today.’ You'll die here and now."
Swoooosh!
Blood splattered on the wall next to them.
Comments