Return of the Frozen Player

Clank.

A hand wearing a white glove pulled the trigger. Gilberto actually didn’t have to pull the trigger anymore because the gun and its bullets were made out of Ether. However, he felt comfortable pulling the trigger as if it had become some kind of ritual to him.

“He truly is a magician…” Gilberto murmured.

It was commonly said that magicians were always prepared.

An unprepared magician was bound to fall behind others and die.

‘Sniping is similar to magicians in that sense.’

Snipers had to be prepared as well.

Sniping locations, escape routes, and traps—snipers had to have all of those prepared, and they also had to use their brains. They had to make sure that their bullets would hit the target, and only then would they pull the trigger.

“I wonder….” Gilberto calmly stared at the approaching Isaac.

‘Isaac—a Heaven and the Heavenly Demon’s right-hand man.’

“I wonder who is more prepared between us?”

***

Swoosh!

Isaac flew across the sea and toward Gilberto.

“You managed to hit me twice, but there won’t be a third time.”

Isaac avoided Gilbert’s bullets while flying toward the latter, but Gilberto’s bullets carried enough destructive power to create a massive wave upon hitting the sea surface.

‘He has definitely become even stronger than before.’ Isaac had no idea what Gilberto had been doing, but it was undeniable that Gilberto had become ridiculously stronger than before. ‘The closer I get to him, the more destructive his bullets will become.’

Isaac acknowledged that he could not allow himself to get hit by Gilberto’s bullets.

‘You should have killed me with that bullet earlier.’ Isaac had taken two bullets from Gilberto so far, and he was determined that it would be the last time he would get hit. ‘I will not allow any of your bullets to hit me anymore.’

Isaac picked up the pace.

Bang!

Gilberto tried to keep Isaac at bay with his attacks.

However, Isaac easily avoided Gilberto’s bullets by simply moving left and right.

“There’s a limit to what a gun can achieve…”

Guns were powerful, but their attacks were projectiles that could be easily avoided by those who were strong enough.

‘That’s why guns and bows have never become mainstream...’ In short, one could become a master marksman, but they would still be using the same bullets as novices. ‘However, magicians are different.’

Magicians could perform a variety of attacks with endless variations, and a dedicated magician could easily overwhelm anyone with their flurry of attacks.

“All right. I’m here.”

Isaac saw Gilberto in a prone position on a beachside hill.

“...I don’t know if I should say he’s stubborn or confident.”

Gilberto was getting ready to shoot, even though Isaac was already so close to him.

Impressed, Isaac summoned a few massive playing cards.

“This is my gift for your resilience.”

The massive playing cards flew toward Gilberto like missiles.

Boom!

The entire hill was flattened in the blink of an eye.

Isaac was disappointed. ‘I did not expect it to be this boring.’

He descended and walked on the flattened hill to confirm Gilberto’s death.

“Oh, no. Was that too much?”

Isaac shrugged upon seeing Gilberto’s horrible condition.

He bent one knee to put his hand on Gilberto’s chest.

Lub dub, lub dub.

“Huh?” Gilberto's heart was beating fast, but his eyes resembled a dead fish.

“...”

The contradiction filled Isaac’s heart with a sense of incongruity.

Gilberto’s heart started to beat even faster.

Lub dub lub dub lub dub!

“What?” Isaac hurriedly retreated. “What is that?”

Dozens of magic barriers engulfed his figure, but before he could even start thinking about what was going on, Gilberto’s figure shone and exploded.

Boom!

“Argh!” Isaac screamed. The explosion struck him, sending him flying and rolling on the beach until he struck a boulder.

“Ugh…” Isaac’s ears were ringing, and his eyes were swimming as he forced himself to stand up. ‘Self-destruction? Did he just sacrifice himself just to kill me?’

Many burning questions popped up in Isaac’s mind, but he couldn’t help but think that he was missing something important here.

‘No, don’t tell me…’ A shiver ran down Isaac’s spine, and he threw himself to the ground.

Whizz!

Argh!” Isaac’s left foot exploded into a bloody mist.

If he hadn’t thrown himself to the ground, his lower body would have exploded into a bloody mist rather than just his left foot.

“Argh. An illusion, huh? You learned an interesting trick.”

In other words, Isaac had fallen into Gilberto’s trap the moment he arrived on the beach.

‘Where is he, then?’

“Magic Box!”

Thud!

Four boxes manifested on the beach.

Isaac hurriedly entered one of the four boxes, and the boxes started shuffling themselves.

Bang! Bang!

Two of the four magic boxes exploded upon being hit by Gilberto’s bullets.

“This is bad…” Isaac emerged from out of the boxes with a frown. He was frowning because Gilberto’s bullets had come from both east and west.

‘In other words, one of those two bullets came from the wrong—no, perhaps those two bullets didn’t come from where Gilberto really is located…’

Isaac grinned. His left foot was still regenerating, so it felt itchy.

‘It feels nice to use my brain after such a long time.’

“Scan.” A magic circle manifested beneath Isaac’s feet, and it started looking for vestiges of magic.

“...Huh?” Isaac frowned. ‘Why can’t I feel even a trace of magic?’

Magic would always leave traces, and one could obtain a lot of information from those traces. Gilberto had been sniping Isaac, so there had to be traces of magic somewhere.

‘Why are his attacks so destructive if he’s not using magic?’ thought Isaac. He was convinced that Gilberto had to have been using magic all this while, but he couldn’t detect even a single trace of magic. ‘Wait, perhaps…’

Isaac extrapolated from missing data and found that things would make sense if Gilberto had been using Force all this while rather than magic.

“Oh, wow.” Isaac was shocked. ‘When did he learn to wield Force?’

Isaac wasn’t exactly sure if Gilberto was really using Force because its pattern was a bit strange.

“It doesn’t matter...” Isaac reckoned that it would only be a matter of time before he found Gilberto because he had already identified the pattern of Gilberto’s Force.

Isaac started comparing the traces of Force he had discovered from both east and west to the traces he had seen from the illusion he had killed earlier.

‘They’re exactly the same.’

In other words, Gilberto’s attacks from both east and the west were both smokescreens.

‘It’s going to take me a while to find him.’

Fwoosh.

Isaac’s demonic energy spread like a fog.

‘There has to be a few fake Gilbertos here. They won’t deceive me. I’m only going to look for the real Gilberto.’

Isaac pulled out a black cloth and wrapped it around the bleeding stump of his left foot.

Moments later, he unwrapped the stump, and a healthy foot appeared.

“I didn’t expect that you’re capable of entertaining me like this…”

Isaac smiled as he started looking around.

***

“Tsk.” Gilberto clicked his tongue.

‘Did he already figure out that they’re illusions?’

Isaac was right. Gilberto had created illusions made out of Ether.

‘There’s nothing wrong with them…’

Gilberto thought that the illusions would buy him a lot of time, but Isaac saw through his trick after dealing with just a single illusion.

‘What a monster… I guess there’s a reason he’s infamous.’

Gilberto agonized over his options. ‘I can still retreat. I can let him look for me here while I head to the castle.’

However, he reckoned that he would become a burden for both Mio and Seo Jun-Ho if he were to return to the castle. After all, Isaac would surely discover that he had been tricked, which meant that he would inevitably return to the castle.

Gilberto fell into deep contemplation. ‘Should I just give it a try?’

It had been four days since Gilberto learned to wield Ether, but he had never really tested its limits because he was busy moving along the coastline and saving his strength for the upcoming battle.

‘If I pour everything into a single shot…’

Gilberto was confident of killing Isaac.

“Father! He’s coming!” Arthur screamed, pulling Gilberto out of his thoughts.

“...!” Gilberto came to his senses and peeked at Isaac through his scope.

“Damn it.”

Isaac was making a beeline for them.

“I’ll buy you some time,” said Arthur.

“What?” Gilberto was astonished. He was about to say something, but he saw Arthur’s determined and firm eyes. The latter’s eyes were telling him to trust him.

“The two of us will die if we fight him in close combat,” said Arthur.

“...” Gilberto didn’t know what to say. Arthur was right. A sniper had to be distant from their target if they wanted to be effective. Snipers were weak in close-combat quarters, so it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they would lose the moment their target got close to them.

“...Thirty seconds,” Gilberto muttered. “Just buy me thirty seconds.”

“...Yes, Father!” Arthur responded enthusiastically to his father, who had chosen to believe him.

Gilberto stared at Arthur’s departing figure. ‘I’m counting on you.’

Arthur was a Player capable of taking care of himself while Gilberto was absent. In other words, he was a trustworthy Player whom Gilberto could trust, and he had made a rational decision by trusting his son.

“Withdraw illusions,” Gilberto muttered, recovering the illusions and the Ether he had expended to create them.

Gilberto closed his eyes. “Particle Development.”

If Gilberto wanted to kill Isaac in a single blow. He needed a weapon that would allow him to generate a destructive force capable of annihilating Isaac’s soul in the proverbial blink of an eye.

‘A regular sniper rifle isn’t good enough.’ Bullets were too slow to hit Isaac.

Gilberto fell into deep contemplation, but he soon emerged from his thoughts with a weapon in mind.”

“Structure Registration. Effect Verification.”

A gigantic weapon manifested on the hill where Gilberto was located.

***

Swish.

Arthur’s sword was unsheathed as he waited for Isaac’s arrival.

However, his heart was beating like crazy.

‘Calm down, Arthur. Calm down…’

It wasn’t strange that he was nervous. After all, he was about to face a Heaven.

In all honesty, Isaac could chop his head off in the blink of an eye.

“Haaa… calm down… Calm down, me…” Arthur muttered.

Isaac finally arrived.

Arthur gripped his sword tightly.

“Hmm?” Isaac descended upon confirming Arthur’s identity. He looked around with a smile before asking, “Arthur Green, right? Where’s your father?”

“Who knows? Maybe he’s in your hair?”

“Pffft!” Isaac chuckled. “It’s great that you’re confident, but it’s heartbreaking to see that your confidence is unfounded.”

“You’ll soon find out whether I’m just bluffing or not.”

“Hmm.” Isaac’s eyes narrowed at the remark. Arthur Green was indeed standing in front of him. He was real rather than just an illusion. ‘There is no way Gilberto will choose to abandon his son.’

Isaac concluded that Gilberto was somewhere preparing something lethal while Arthur was here to buy him time.

Isaac ran a number of simulations in his head.

‘Not bad.’

However, Isaac was the Magician of Death—lethality was meaningless before him.

Isaac grinned and muttered, “...Equation of Death.”

A repulsive energy wrapped around him, but it was death energy rather than demonic energy.