Return of the Frozen Player-Novel

Arthur sighed deeply while staring at the busy village.

"I don’t know what’s going on anymore."

He couldn't understand it. Even if Gilberto managed to defeat the failures, a more terrifying challenge was waiting for him. It was a challenge that he could only do once, and failure meant death.

"I was planning on giving up when I heard about how I only have a one percent chance of succeeding…” Gilberto trailed off and looked at the ground.

The Gray Envoy—Gilberto Green—was the epitome of composure, but to think that he could be so immature. Arthur was right. The people back on Earth would never believe it, even if Arthur told them about it.

"Arthur…" Gilberto looked up and smiled slightly before speaking, "Sometimes, a Player must throw away everything they have to uphold their pride.”

"…I'm sorry, but that’s not cool at all."

"Hm…" Gilberto looked down and resumed counting the ants on the ground.

Meanwhile, the village chief approached him and asked, “We’re ready; how about you?”

"We’re… well…” Arthur's gaze glanced at his immature father.

"I’m always ready," replied Gilberto with sharp eyes. It looked as if his previous sullen appearance had been an illusion.

The village chief nodded and said, “A human is going to make targets, so I'll calculate the score for the sake of fairness."

"Sure," said Gilberto.

"Your name is Gilberto, right? You have a total of 783 opponents."

Seven hundred and eighty-three… Gilberto pondered over the number and muttered, “It seems that it’ll be a bit overwhelming.”

"Well, we have many convenient abilities."

"Are you not going to participate?"

"…Is that so?" Gilberto nodded and started moving. His opponents—the 783 failures—were already prepared.

"I’ll hurl pebbles into the skies on the count of ten!" Arthur’s voice echoed throughout the village under the amplification of magic. The reason Arthur decided to use pebbles rather than larger stones was simple.

There were many participants, so Arthur had to throw at least a hundred thousand stones for a meaningful result. To do that at once, Arthur had to use pebbles.

"The rules are simple: destroy as many targets as you can.”

The failures nodded and muttered to themselves.

"Oh, that’s easy."

"Yeah, I don't think it's particularly difficult… I think we’ll win.”

"It's so easy it’s like taking candy from a baby…”

“Ten!” Arthur started counting, and the failures started to feel a bit nervous.

It couldn’t be helped because it was a competition.

“Four, three, two, one…!” Arthur abruptly sent pebbles flying into the skies.

"Wait, what?!"

"Hey, what are those?! Why are they so small? I can’t even see them from here!”

Some of the failures screamed in indignation.

The largest stone Arthur had sent flying into the air was only the size of a ping-pong ball. They were thrown so high that they looked like tiny dots from the ground. The failures kicked up a fuss, but someone emptied his mind and concentrated.

The failures were startled by the gunshots, and they inadvertently turned to where the noises had come from.

Gilberto wielded two revolvers and was constantly pulling their triggers. His eyes were steady rather than darting around because he was looking not at every single pebble but at everything above him.

A magic bullet was fired every time Gilberto’s gaze grazed a pebble.

He looked like he was haphazardly firing his revolvers, but each bullet struck true.

He instinctively knew the trajectory of each and every pebble, even if they were under the influence of the wind. Every information he needed to deliver a bullet to his target had long been memorized by his body, which had fired millions of bullets.

“…”

"D-damn it! We can’t just stand here and watch!"

"Destroy them, no matter what!"

"We can't let a human beat us!"

The failures activated their unique abilities to destroy the pebbles.

Gilberto quickly captured vital information that he had to take advantage of.

Gilberto immediately focused his shots on the left side.

However, the failures quickly caught on.

"Hey, spread out! Don’t overlap!"

"He’s hogging the left side. Keep him in check, you idiots!"

The unique abilities of the failures created a kaleidoscope of lights that pervaded the sky above the village. Gilberto’s bullets started missing their targets because the failures would get to the pebbles first before Gilberto’s bullets could.

"It's been a while since I brought this out."

M61 Vulcan.

It was an American Gatling-style rotary cannon named after Vulcan, the god of fire, metalworking, and the forge.

It was a weapon that was weak against the strong and strong against the weak. In short, it was the best weapon to deal with a large number of weak enemies. However, it was an extremely difficult weapon to wield, especially if one wanted to use it accurately.

The reason Gilberto was a crucial member of the 5 Heroes during their heydays was that he was unrivaled at wiping the weaker monsters. In other words, Gilberto was the best at cleaning up battlefields.

Gilberto wielded two custom-made M61 Vulcans and looked up. His cold eyes immediately captured the radiance of the pebbles in the sky.

The moment he pulled the triggers of the two Gatling-style rotary cannons, a tremendous vibration coursed through him.

Gilberto unleashed a hellfire of 6,600 rounds per minute or 13,200 rounds per minute combined.

"Argh…!” Gilberto's eyes turned bloodshot, and the extreme concentration required to allow every bullet to strike true made his head feel so hot that it felt like it was about to explode.

Gilbert had to calculate, aim, generate the magic bullets, and then fire them—all within a blink of an eye. It was a grueling process that he had to repeat many times over.

"Argh!" Gilberto groaned.

He almost fell to the temptation of rest, but he persisted and focus on his goal.

The failures who had lost their fighting spirits muttered to themselves.

"Hey, why are we just standing around in the middle of a competition?”

"Our opponent is doing his best, you know?! We should do our best as well!"

The failures knew that the tenacious human had already won the competition, and they were sure that the latter knew that as well. However, the tenacious human was still doing his best, and it seemed that he would keep on doing that until the end.

The sight ignited the hearts of the failures.

"Hey, punks! Get a move on and do your best!"

"Stop those damn bullets! Do everything!"

"Are we a bunch of weak-hearted fools? Show me the iron will we have cultivated for over a thousand years!"

A kaleidoscope of colors filled the skies once more.

The match ended when Arthur finally exhausted his magic.

He was sure of it.

This was the longest time he had ever used Telekinesis (B) in recent months.

Meanwhile, the failures ran straight to the village chief. They were curious about their own scores. They were sure that the human was the winner of the competition, so there was no point asking for the latter’s score.

"Chief!"

"What’s the score? How many stones did I break?"

The village chief used Force to carve words in the air.

"Damn it, I lost to you?"

"What did I tell you? When I’m focused, I’m always better than you…”

The Failures who had done their best didn’t seem to be regretful.

"Yeah, that weapon was disgusting as well.”

The failures approached Gilberto, who was quietly catching his breath.

"Hey, congrats."

"Congrats. I knew you would win. I became sure of it in the middle of the competition."

Gilberto opened his eyes at their words, and he couldn’t see anything through his bloodshot eyes other than red.

“My…”

Gilberto swept his gaze across the failures and said, "My opponents… are all of you."

“…”

The failures were confused by his words, but Gilberto soon drove it home. “Compare the number of pebbles I destroyed to the sum of all the pebbles you have destroyed. I want to keep my word.”

"…What?"

The atmosphere turned ugly.

It seemed that Gilberto really thought that he was fighting them all.

"Chief, who won?"

“Give me a moment,” said the village chief, evidently startled by Gilberto’s bloodshot gaze. He calculated and soon arrived at the sum of the pebbles that each and every failure had destroyed by themselves.

"Gilberto, you destroyed a total of 520,706 stones."

Meanwhile, the failures destroyed a total of…

"What a shame; it’s only 519,102.”

"What?!"

The failures were dismayed. The difference was less than two thousand. They were even more dismayed when they recalled that they had decided to rest in the middle of the competition.

"Ah, if I had known that the difference wouldn’t be so huge, I wouldn’t have rested.”

"Yeah. If we hadn't taken a break, we could have won it.”

“…” The village chief stared wordlessly at the failures’ reaction before turning to look at Gilberto. “Human, are you willing to accept a rematch if they want a rematch? Of course, you can refuse."

Gilberto grinned at the question and said, "I don’t mind a rematch."

"Ooooh!" The failures were thrilled upon hearing Gilberto’s answer.

Stony blinked at the sight and asked, "Chief, why are you laughing?"

"Well, you just asked him for a rematch."

"Not that."

Gilberto had just told everyone that his patience and concentration were superior to theirs. The village chief chuckled. "Concentration. Indeed, your concentration is better than ours from what I saw in the competition. The answer you gave me just now has also told me that your patience is extraordinary.”

“…”

The village chief sounded remorseful for his earlier prejudice. "Human. No, Gilberto."

"Yes."

"Your concentration and patience are greater than the failures—No, perhaps even greater than the Overminds out there."

“Does that mean…” Gilberto trailed off.

The village chief clasped his hands and continued. “Are you willing to accept the fruit of the research that 72,392 failures started a thousand years ago and were just completed by 784 failures?”

The failures’ eyes widened. The village chief’s words meant that he would leave everything to the human in front of him.

"Well, it should be fine if it’s him..."

"Yeah, I mean we fought him..."

"He knows how to ignite a heart that has cooled down long ago."

No one opposed the village chief’s decision.

The 784 failures bowed with their hands clasped together.

Gilberto took in the sight and nodded.

"I will make sure not to disappoint those who have already gone to heaven.”

***

Meanwhile, in the Imperial Palace of the Babella Empire...

"Y-Your Majesty!" A knight opened the door to the throne room and entered. He fell on his knee and reported, "A-a huge flow of Force was detected from beyond the wall!"

“The wall?”

"Yes! The lab is also asking for support!"

Kineos' eyes narrowed. He had locked up the failures beyond a massive wall, and he had been farming them for many years now.

Kineos’ brows frowned for the first time in a really long time. He was in a dilemma because it hadn’t been that long since the holy relic that had been powering up the Radio Tower was just taken away from him.

Kineon was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

All of a sudden, Prince Digor spoke. "I’ll go there, Your Majesty."

“Are you confident?”

"Of course, I am aware of its importance as well, so I will definitely take care of it."

Kineos nodded at Prince Digor’s confident response.

"All right. Do whatever is necessary to stabilize it."

"Understood, Your Majesty," said Prince Digor. However, his eyes—hidden from His Majesty the Emperor—shone in a bleak light.