Return of the Frozen Player

"Ah, right!"

"Get that punk first!"

Greatly shocked by the death of Jang Seon-Ho, who had been in charge of the group, the fiends moved in a hurry. It was because they realized that they would be in trouble if they could not secure Arthur first.

"I got him!”

A member of the Gluttony Squadron flew over like a ray of light. Specter and the archmage were still five steps behind, and she was already behind Arthur.

‘I won!’

The moment she reached out in triumph…

Crack! 

Her wrist was broken as if she had struck something solid.

"Arghhhh!"

Retreating, the fiend stared in front of her.

‘There’s a wall.’

An invisible transparent wall had been placed there. It was obvious who had done it.

"Hohehe, how come fiends are still so stupid even after 26 years?" Next to Specter, the archmage sneered at her.

"Tsk."

"We'll see about this, Specter!”

Securing Arthur was now out of the question. Accepting the situation, the members of the Gluttony Squadron hurriedly left their positions. They were trying to run away using the ordinary fiends as bait.

‘Jang Seon-Ho, that punk! He got defeated with his eyes open.’

‘It makes me angry, but that punk’s ability is a half-step higher than anyone here.’

‘It's not bad to plan for the future…’

However, Specter wouldn’t just watch them go.

"You’re showing your back to me as your opponent?”

It certainly seemed that time really had passed. He wouldn't have dreamt of this before. He smirked and clenched his fist lightly. The darkness that was hovering around was sharpened like an awl.

"Bang."

As soon as he opened his fist, hundreds of awls shot out at the fiends.

Pabababak!

Ten ordinary fiends turned into skewers in a flash and died. The members of Gluttony Squadron responded. They hurriedly gathered their magic, turned around, and struck the awls away.

"Damn it! Damn it!"

"Meeting Specter wasn’t part of the plan!"

"Who told you to touch my nephew so fearlessly?" 

Specter moved forward.

Each time, there was a trace of darkness on the ground, clearly indicating his existence.

"Curtain of Darkness."

Hwaaaaak!

Darkness stretched out in all directions and enveloped the area. No one would be able to get out of this space from now on, unless they used Teleport.

"…Damn it, it’s too late to escape."

The Gluttony Squadron members quickly grasped the situation. Apparently, Specter wasn’t planning on just letting them go gracefully.

"We have to fight."

"Yeah, we don't have to be intimidated just because of his name.”

"Jang Seon-Ho is not a moron, so why would he stand up to Specter? He did it because he had a chance."

There were still more than fifty of them left. What if they joined forces?

‘It doesn’t matter even if he’s Specter, he would eventually get tired.’

‘He still hasn't recovered all his strength yet.'

'This might be our last chance to kill him…!’

The fiends were under a great illusion, but that wasn't unreasonable either. Specter and Seo Jun-Ho had intentionally led the public to believe that Specter was still in the middle of recovering. This was also why he announced that he would not come up to the 2nd floor for the time being and would only stay on the 1st floor. The more the fiends looked down on him, the easier it would be to kill them.

"It feels a little bad. Right? You and I are being looked down on a lot," complained Skaya.

"It's because kids these days don't know anything," said Specter, raising his hand slightly. "If they don't know, we’ll beat it into them.”

Dozens of fiends rushed at him all at once as he was raising darkness. Naturally, the fiends’ skills were all different from each other. A dragon of fire covered the sky, a whirlwind came, and growing plant roots came upon him.

“…”

Among them, there were even some fiends whose skills were hard to guess. This was especially the case with the Gluttony Squadron members.

'But…'

It was only a fleeting struggle. The moment they met Specter, their fate was fixed in one of two ways.

"Take your own life."

Or…

"Die by my hand."

Chwaaaaaak!

Specter reached into the overflowing darkness. When he pulled his hand out again, there was a huge black scythe in his grasp.

"Death Scythe."

This was an extremely powerful attack, which had cut the Frost Queen’s chest wide open and even killed Skaya in the Cave of Trials. This technique made use of the specific property of the darkness attribute to ignore and destroy all other energy in its way.

Chwwaaaak!

The scythe was swung sideways.

"…Ah!"

Looking at Specter’s figure from behind, Arthur broke out into a groan without realizing it. For a moment, there was an optical illusion as if the world had been split in half.

'No, is it not… an optical illusion?’

Even though the world was fine, that could not be said about a single one of the fiends charging at Specter. They couldn’t even utter a scream as they split in half and fell, soaking the ground with blood.

Hudududuk!

The sound of rainwater falling could be heard.

“…”

“…”

The remaining fiends wore strange expressions that they had never worn before in their lives. It was not fear and it wasn't a sense of despair either. Fiends weren't creatures who would feel those one-dimensional emotions when witnessing such a scene.

"…Just what the hell is that?"

Skaya shrugged her shoulders when asked by Arthur.

"It's normal for us, but for the fiends over there… I don't know. A nightmare?” she spoke, covering one of Arthur's eyes. "And children shouldn’t see things like that. It's dirty, dirty."

“…”

But Arthur had already witnessed everything.

‘I'm the biggest idiot in the world.’

He had been worried about Specter and the archmage. He originally thought that because 26 years had passed, they wouldn’t be able to handle the fiends who had gotten stronger while they were gone.

'…But what is this?'

Dozens of fiends were unable to deal with just two people. No, they wore astonished looks because they couldn't even deal with a single Player. The hero, 26 years later, was still strong enough.

***

The remaining fiends went mad. They let out a futile laugh and killed themselves. The overwhelming fear that came after thinking about many things had paralyzed their sense of reasoning.

"Is it over?"

Withdrawing the Curtain of Darkness, Specter slowly walked over to Arthur and Skaya.

"…Oh, even though it’s late, thank you for your help."

Arthur clumsily bowed to the two. The last time he had seen them was at the Seoul History Museum, on November 11 of the year when he had come up to the 2nd floor. As such, it was bound to be a little awkward.

Slap!

Skaya spoke, lightly slapping him on the back. "Oh my, look at him being awkward just because he has grown up. Just like before, call me auntie… No, just call me noona."

"…Did I ever say that?”

"She made you do it," said the Specter in a sour voice. “When a child is three years old their language skills develop tremendously and most communication becomes possible. That's why she chased you all day, bothering you to call her auntie one more time."

"What do you mean bother! Bother! Arthur laughed and liked it, too!”

"He laughed for about five minutes, then he would always cry, so you always got scolded by Gilberto."

Back then, Skaya was even banned from approaching Arthur within a 5-meter radius.

"…So something like that happened,” responded Arthur.

It was a past Arthur didn't remember. Well, who remembered things clearly when they were just three years old?

"…Anyway, you've worked hard."

Specter hugged Arthur lightly. Arthur smiled faintly even as his whole body throbbed.

"It’s thanks to Uncle," Arthur said as he shook the 'Stamina Regeneration Necklace' around his neck.

It was an artifact that Seo Jun-Ho had purchased at an auction in Las Vegas and sent over to him.

"Hmm, but he’s a little late."

Arthur tilted his head as Specter confirmed something on the Vita and murmured.

"Someone else is coming?"

"Yeah, with your friend…”

"Oh! River!"

Arthur's face turned pale once again. It was only then that he remembered that two fiends had set out to kill River earlier.

"You can feel relieved, relieved! Your friend is safe. He’s probably better off than you.”

Arthur breathed a sigh of relief at Skaya’s words.

"Is there more in your party?"

"Hmm?"

Specter looked up from his Vita.

‘I see… This kid didn't even notice.’

Indeed, the people who were here thought that the sniper was Specter himself. It would have been hard for Arthur, who was taken hostage and was also distracted by his friend’s potential death, to grasp the situation in a calm and composed manner.

"There's one more in the party. I wasn't the sniper.”

"Oh… I see.”

The moment Arthur nodded ever so slowly…

"Leader Arthur!"

A welcoming and familiar voice rang in his ears. Turning his head, Arthur saw River running and his face brightened.

"River!"

"Leeader!"

River ran over with a posture that looked like he was ready to throw himself into Arthur’s arms, but when he saw the latter’s terrible appearance, he slowed down. It turned out that Arthur’s condition was even worse than what River had imagined. Dark clouds gathered over River’s face.

"…I'm sorry, if I was just a bit stronger.”

"It's not your fault. You were a big help, really."

Arthur raised one of his uninjured hands and patted River on the shoulder. Without River’s wits, all but himself of the Watchguards would have already been killed by the fiends.

"You saved the Watchguards."

"…Really?"

"Really."

After looking and smiling at each other, Arthur said, "By the way, who saved your life? I should at least say thank you to them."

"Huh? You haven’t heard… yet?”

"Heard? What?"

River looked back at Specter and the archmage with an awkward expression. How could he say this himself?

“…?” Arthur tilted his head.

But why? Thinking he shouldn’t be more inquisitive, Arthur’s heart began to pound.

‘What's wrong with me? Is it the aftereffects of a fiend's skill?’

The moment he put on a serious look, he heard a sound.

Step, step.

The sound of high-quality leather shoes coming up the mountain path echoed ever so softly.

“…”

Arthur slowly turned his head and looked at the ridge where the sound came from. He didn’t know why, but he just felt like he should look over there. Was this caused by something tugging at his soul? He couldn’t understand it. He felt like he had to check the identity of the approaching person no matter what.

‘A man.’

It was a man. Rather than being slim, he was stick thin with loose dry blond hair tied back. However, the man’s eyes were shining more than anyone else. The man with a long rifle on his shoulder stood in place. Arthur's eyes trembled as he looked at the man. The tightly shut lips parted, and a word popped out without him realizing it.

"Fa… ther?"

Water began to trickle down from his stinging eyes as if a faucet was turned on.

"Dad… Is that you?"

The moment Arthur asked with trembling voice, the same smile as his father’s in his now fading memory appeared on the man’s mouth.

“…!”

Upon confirming the smile, Arthur ran over to Gilberto, choking back his tears. Gilberto came to meet him. He smiled brightly while hugging his son, and patted him on the back.

"I'm sorry. Dad was very late, wasn’t he?” Gilberto consoled.

"Uahhh! Ahhhhh!"

Three people, including Specter, stared at Arthur with warm eyes, who was sobbing sadly like a child.

"…I-I've never seen Leader cry like that before,” said River, flustered.

"It has been 26 years since he met his Papa," commented Skaya.

"Even if he pretends to be an adult, he’s still a child," Seo Jun-Ho replied.

"…But isn't Arthur older than us now?” Skaya raised a question.

"Hmm." Specter stroked his jaw.

That was a little tricky.