Return of the Frozen Player

“Come on, what’s with your techniques? Didn’t you buy my book? Watch. With this part…”

While Skaya was hosting a free lesson in one corner of the auditorium, Rahmadat ran into his old lover, Joya Vishuta.

“...It’s been a long time.”

“Yeah! Has it?” Rahmadat said coolly. Actually, it didn’t feel like much time had passed for him. It felt like it was only a few days ago when she cried while telling him not to go before he tore her hand away. “Have you been doing well, Joya?”

“...Yeah.” Her shoulders slumped, and she looked down. There was nothing else that she could say. While Rahmadat had been trapped in the cold ice, she had lived a good life.

‘If you compare my pain to yours…’

It would be a sin to even say that she had struggled.

While she stayed silent, Rahmadat checked his watch. “Oh. Unfortunately, I have to get going. I’m worried about the other places.”

“Ah, yeah. It was nice to see you.”

“It was nice to see you, too.” Rahmadat grinned and held out his large hand. “Then, I’ll see you next time.”

“...Yeah.” She took his hand and slowly shook it. Unlike her wrinkled hand, Rahmadat’s hand was as hard as a rock, like it had always been.

“Stay healthy.” Rahmadat turned around and raised his head. “Hey, nerd! It’s time to move!”

“Ugh! Stop calling me that!”

Joya watched as Rahmadat’s back disappeared like the wind. “Thank you, Rahmadat,” she whispered.

She could finally send off her former lover after 26 years with no regrets, along with the heavy feeling of guilt in her heart.

‘I pray that your future is filled only with happiness.’

He had always played it cool, but she prayed that the kind idiot wouldn’t get hurt. She prayed that he would find someone much more beautiful and better than her and that he would find happiness.

Joya prayed with all her heart.

***

It was dusk. A man was walking through a shanty town in Seoul. He had been walking aimlessly toward the moon when he suddenly stopped.

“...”

This was a sight that could only be seen in the slums, not in those luxury penthouses. Unlike the lively air in the downtown area, the air in this town was dead.

The man silently took in the scene with his own two eyes.

“So you were in a place like this.” Isaac Dvor appeared out of thin air, wearing a bottle-green suit. “I have scattered the fiends across the world as you have ordered. They should all be enjoying themselves right now.”

“What about Nazad and Valencia?”

“They are carrying out the orders you gave them, Chairman.”

Everything was going smoothly.

The Heavenly Demon studied the impoverished landscape for a long time before he spoke, “Then, we should also start moving.”

“Where do you wish to go?”

‘“...Somewhere bright. Somewhere very bright, somewhere that has a lot of people.”

“Hmm~” Isaac thought for a second and nodded slowly. “I shall escort you.”

He lightly clapped his hands, and the area around them changed.

“Waaaa! Waaaaa!”

“Baek Du-Gi! Baek Du-Gi!”

“C’mon, radish![1] Show us what you got!”

“Make that third-rate batter strike out!”

“Let’s gooooooo!”

It was a baseball stadium. Cheers and jeers rang in the air.

‘Not bad.’

This was Seoul’s Jamsil Baseball Stadium, which had 25,553 seats. A huge audience had gathered, and it was hard to find a single empty seat. It was the top of the ninth inning, and the air was ripe with excitement.

“Huh?”

The first one to notice the two people was the pitcher at the mound. They suddenly appeared right in front of him.

‘Players?’

In the current day and age, teleportation wasn’t something to be shocked by. However, he hadn’t expected them to interrupt the game.

He was the Dusan Panda’s ace, as well as the pitcher for the national team. Baek Du-Gi sighed. “Look here. I’ll give you an autograph after the game is over, so please return to your seats. Alright?”

They were already losing the game. And these audience members suddenly interrupting the game made his frustration spill over. “Hey… You should listen when someone’s speaking to you…”

The two men had their backs turned, and they ignored him. Baek Du-Gi placed his hand on the white-haired man’s shoulder.

Or rather, he tried to…

“How dare you try to touch him. Know your place.”

“...What? Huh?” Baek Du-Gi huffed, confused. The balance of his body had changed.

It was because the left hand he had for 30 years had completely disappeared.

‘It hurts.’

It took his brain about three seconds to process the fact that his hand had been severed.

‘Ithurtithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurts!’

He let out a piercing scream. “Ahhhh…!”

However, his screams were soon interrupted. Isaac pressed his index finger into Baek Du-Gi’s lips and shook his head vigorously. “Hush. Don’t you know? The Chairman abhors loud noises,” he said as if he was sharing some great secret.

Satisfied, he let go of the head he was holding.

The national ace’s head rolled onto the mound.

“...”

“...”

The audience was silent. Up until that moment, they had assumed that the two men had been part of some kind of performance.

The part-timers selling beer and snacks…

The cheerleaders dancing intensely in support...

The commentators who should have known better than anyone else what was going on inside the stadium…

They all went silent.

“Ah, I ask that you please do not scream…” Isaac requested, pressing his two hands together.

“Kyaaaaaa!”

“A-a murderer! Murderer!”

“The police…Call the police!”

“No, call the Player Association first!”

The stadium was instantly thrown into chaos. Everyone pushed, trying to reach the door before anyone else.

“You cannot leave,” Isaac proclaimed. Just as he said, no one could leave the baseball stadium.

“A-an invisible wall?”

“What the fuck! Let us go!”

“Don’t push! No, don’t…Gahhh!”

People were dying as they were pushed and trampled on.

Isaac grinned as he watched the chaos unfold. “How fun. All I did was block the doors, but they are already killing each other.”

“...They are pitiful. How are humans so lowly?”

The Heavenly Demon watched the people with sorrowful eyes. Isaac glanced at him and shrugged.

‘Whenever he has that look on his face, he merely moves on without a second thought.’

It was all an act. Well, he might genuinely feel pity for humans. But…

‘His actions suggest the complete opposite, so I do not believe so.’

Isaac held back his laughter. “What shall we do now? Should we just kill them all?” he asked.

“...Hm.” The Heavenly Demon stood on the mound with his hands behind his back, watching the scene.

The outfielders were running toward the fence, trying to get away from him. People were heading to the basement level, trying to find a different way out.

He watched them as he spoke, “Isaac. What do you think a Hero is?”

“A simple question. They are the same as these impertinent people,” he replied immediately. “They employ restraint to understand the trickery of black magic…They are beings that magicians, such as I, hate.”

“I do not understand what you are saying...” The Heavenly Demon gently shook his head and gave him a beautiful smile. “I believe that Heroes are those who plant seeds of hope.”

“Wow…Spoken like a poet. Though, I do suppose that it is those who have fallen into despair who wishes for heroes.”

“So I have always wondered…” The Heavenly Demon grinned. He showed his white teeth as if he was delighted by merely imagining it. “If they were forced to choose, would they save countless citizens who need their help? Or… Would they choose to save one precious friend of theirs?”

“...That’s.” Isaac’s face stiffened like a corpse, despite always smiling. He stared at the Heavenly Demon with piercing, emotionless eyes before he quietly clapped. “That is a genius idea. Amazing! Thanks to you, my art has reached a higher level.”

The Heavenly Demon had no idea what Isaac was saying, but he understood that Isaac was very happy.

“Now, lead the way so that we may start the game.” He nodded lightly. “We will invite the Players first.”

His feet moved lightly.

***

“Dammit!” Shim Deok-Gu threw the mouse in his hand. However, the articles being displayed on his monitor were still there.

[Breaking news! Fiend appears in Seoul, confronted by Players and police.]

[Statue of Liberty in New York falls. Fiend’s large-scale invasion causes panic.]

[The Player Associations act as fast as they can, but it’s not enough.]

[Player Associations worldwide send out evacuation alerts via text.]

…

“The fact that the Dimensional Elevator has been seized means that they have captured Gilleon.” Shim Deok-Gu paced around the room with a grave look.

The situation was serious as well. The news channels were showing the latest battles between the fiends and Players. The live mosaic censorship wasn’t enough to cover the horrific scenes.

ραпdα nᴏνê|(сòm) “I expected the fiends to make a move, but I didn’t think it would be such a large-scale takeover…”

“...” Seo Jun-Ho quietly pressed his Vita.

‘They’re not answering.’

After heading to Nest, Skaya and Rahmadat became unreachable. The fiends had probably gone there as well.

[Breaking news! Two unidentified assailants suspected to be fiends attack Jamsil Baseball Stadium…]

Shim Deok-Gu raised the TV’s volume. The three of them stared at the screen with serious expressions.

[All I want is Specter.]

The man had white wavy hair that fell to his shoulders and a thin hairline. At first glance, he almost looked like a delicate lady. But if one looked closer, he seemed bigger than Rahmadat as he stood there while giving off a strange aura.

“Who is that bastard?” Seo Jun-Ho muttered.

“...Impossible.” Shim Deok-Gu shook his head and hurried over to a wall and took off the painting. Behind it was a small safe.

“Geez, you’re so old-fashioned.”

“Shut up! That’s not important right now.” The safe scanned his iris and fingerprint. Afterward, he entered a password.

The safe didn’t contain sparkling gems or gold.

“They’re all documents?”

“They’re not just any documents. These are top-secret files that only the Korean Player Association’s president can see.”

Shim Deok-Gu messily scattered those precious documents and crawled around the ground, frantically looking for something.

“Here it is!” He picked up a photograph and looked up at the TV and then down again. “Shit, I suspected this, but…” Deok-Gu rarely spoke harshly, but he started to curse.

Seo Jun-Ho’s eyebrows furrowed at the sight, and he approached his friend. “Hey, what’s going on?” He carefully took the photograph from Shim Deok-Gu’s trembling hand. It depicted a man and a woman.

‘This man…’

The photograph was quite blurry, but the white, wavy hair was recognizable.

“I think it’s him. His hair was a little short back then.”

“Deok-Gu, who is this man?” Gilberto asked.

Shim Deok-Gu collapsed onto the couch, trembling as he looked up at the two others. “...This is the Chairman of the Fiend Association, with Valencia Citrin.”

“...”

They didn’t understand it at first. But as the words repeated several times in Seo Jun-Ho’s mind, his face fell. “The Chairman is the Heavenly Demon, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, I didn’t think that the bastard himself would come down. This is so much worse than we had predicted…”

The big shot had come. Moreover, he was currently holding more than 20,000 citizens hostage at the Jamsil Baseball Stadium.

“Jun-Ho, you know this is obviously a trap, right? He’s gonna kill you! You can’t go.”

“...”

Seo Jun-Ho stared at the TV.

He could see the smiling Heavenly Demon, as well as the thousands of frightened citizens crying.

- Specter-nim. Specter-nim.

They were chanting his name as if they were praying for him to come.

“I...”

Seo Jun-Ho made a decision and spoke.

1. His name sounds similar to kkakdugi, which is a type of Korean pickled radish. ☜