The Frozen Player Returns

“Um, excuse me…” The waiter shifted nervously as he returned with the change.

The man walking up to Seo Jun-Ho was quite famous. His name was Ply, and he was so obsessed with money that people had nicknamed him ‘Moneybug.’[1]

‘What should I do?’

In the end, the waiter squeezed his eyes shut and stepped in between them whilst laughing nervously.

“I-I’ll give you beer on the house, so please don’t act like this here…”

“Move.” The muscular man pushed the waiter’s face aside and took the seat in front of Seo Jun-Ho. He was bald and had a long mustache. He looked strong, and Seo Jun-Ho could sense that he actually was strong.

‘Hm. In Player terms…I think he’d be around level 60.’

When Seo Jun-Ho looked up as if asking why he was there, the man scratched his head before speaking, “Hey, rich Player.”

Seo Jun-Ho looked at him with interest. “How did you know that I’m a Player?”

“People from around here usually don’t flaunt their money like that. Unless they’re nobles I suppose… But you can tell that they’re nobles by their clothes.”

“I see.”

“I’ll cut to the chase. My name is Ply, and I’m interested in your money. Let’s talk outside.”

“Sounds good.” Seo Jun-Ho stood up and held out his hand to the fallen waiter to help him up. He dusted off his shoulder. “I’ll eat another time. I have something to attend to.”

“Y-yes…”

Ply snickered with his lackeys, thinking that he was an easy catch. They followed Ply out of the restaurant and led Seo Jun-Ho to a dirty back alley.

“I thought you wanted to talk. I don’t know if this is the best place to do that.” The familiar, humid stench of an alley filled the air.

The men laughed as they surrounded him in a circle.

“Are you that stupid?”

“Do you really not know what’s going on?”

“The boss is right. Players are dumb.”

“I gotta admit, you have guts. You don’t seem scared.”

Seo Jun-Ho ignored their mocking. “Who here is good at writing? Raise your hand.”

His voice was so confident that one of the men unwittingly raised his hand.

“Alright. You get a free pass.” Seo Jun-Ho made a mental note of his face and nodded.

Ply fumed. “You stupid bastard, why did you listen to him?! Lower your hand!”

Once his lackey lowered it, Ply looked nervously at Seo Jun-Ho.

“I don’t like beating around the bush. Hand over your money, and I won’t hurt you. I’ll even make sure that no one in the city will touch you.”

“How typical.” Seo Jun-Ho reached into his inventory and dug around before pulling his hand out. The men looked expectantly at his fingers.

“Sorry, but this is all I can give you.” He gave them the middle finger.

Their faces darkened. A vein popped on Ply’s forehead. “Fine, we’ll do this the hard way.” He nodded toward his lackeys.

“Soon, you’ll understand that there are things more important than money.”

“Seems like he needs some sense beaten into him...”

“It won’t take long, boss.”

They were not just simple street thugs.

‘They know how to use magic.’

As they cornered him, they used magic to strengthen their legs. When attacking in such a narrow alleyway, it was impossible to dodge or escape.

Seo Jun-Ho had been retreating, but all of a sudden, he pulled his right hand out from behind his back and held it up.

He hit the head of one of the attacking thugs with the back of his hand.

‘That’s one...’

As the first flew through the air and struck the nearby wall, another thug attempted to punch him from the side.

‘He has strengthened his fist with magic. If I actually get hit, a bone or two might probably break.’

Seo Jun-Ho caught the thug’s fist in mid-air and into his palm before using his elbow to hit the thug’s chin. The thug let out a bloodcurdling scream as he was hit. His eyes rolled back as he crumpled to the ground.

A third thug ran at him with a club. “You bastard!”

Seo Jun-Ho ducked and hit the latter’s chin with his palm. From afar, it looked like he had just given him a light tap, but it was enough. The third thug fell to the ground facedown.

“Huh? This guy…” Ply started to get nervous when he saw how fast his three lackeys were taken down. But it was too late to turn back now…

“Gotcha!” A large, muscular man came in with a kick aimed at the back of Seo Jun-Ho’s head, but he grabbed the muscular man’s ankle without even looking back and swung the latter’s body around like a bat before hitting the remaining lackeys in the head.

Bang!

The muscular man’s head struck another one that was toward Seo Jun-Ho.

“G-gah…!”

“Ahhh! My head!” They gripped their bleeding skulls as they fell and rolled around the dirty ground in pain.

“These useless bastards!” Ply spat in disdain. But despite what he said, he had already realized a crucial fact.

‘We shouldn’t have messed with him…’

Using only his right hand, Seo Jun-Ho had taken out six of Ply’s subordinates without moving a single step. Ply was also strong enough to take them out, but not like this.

‘Should I fight to kill…?’

He started to grab the handle of the axe at his waist, but he eventually shook his head. Murder was a serious crime in the city, and this guy wasn’t worth it. Plus, even if he used his axe, there was no guarantee that he would be able to successfully kill this guy.

“...Get the others. We’re leaving.” He ordered the last man standing before turning around.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going? I’ll let it go if you come here, but you’re dead if you try to run away.” Seo Jun-Ho’s voice was light but it was laced with a subtle threat.

“Goddammit!” Ply couldn’t help but curse again when he realized just how badly he had messed up. In the end, he started walking slowly toward Seo Jun-Ho.

“Hurry up. 3, 2, 1...”

He ended up running toward Seo Jun-Ho before the countdown could reach zero.

“You’re faster than your lackeys, at least. How about we start with you kneeling?”

“Yes, sir.” He knelt without hesitation and looked up at Seo Jun-Ho as if he was waiting for the latter’s order. His obedience was adorable. Seo Jun-Ho smiled and called over the lackey that had held his hand up earlier.

“Here.” He handed him a pen and paper. “Write down everything your boss says.”

“Everything?”

“What, you don’t want to? Do you wanna join your friends?”

“N-not at all! I want to do it!” The man gripped the pen in a hurry.

Seo Jun-Ho squatted down so that he was at eye level with Ply. “It’s my first time here, so there are a lot of things that I don’t know. I trust that you’ll be able to teach me some things.”

“I’ve been here for a long time, so I know a lot.”

“Really? That’s good.” He grinned and patted Ply’s head. Ply laughed nervously.

“W-what kind of information do you want…?”

“Everything.”

“...Excuse me?”

“Tell me everything you know. I’ll decide later what’s important or not.”

“S-sir, it would take more than a few hours to tell you everything I know.”

“What are you saying?” Seo Jun-Ho tilted his head. “If a few hours are not enough, then you can take the whole day. And if that’s not enough either, you can just take the whole week.”

“...”

He had really messed up this time. Ply had no choice but to start talking.

***

“The steak and soup are pretty good here.”

“The tea isn’t bad either.”

It was morning. After warming up a bit last night, Seo Jun-Ho had gone straight to sleep. His breakfast was the meal he had paid for the day before. Ply was sitting at the table next to him and was busy spouting information.

“Emily from the general goods store is worried about her stock decreasing.”

“Harmon, the captain of Gilleon’s city guard has recently gotten into gambling; his debt has been piling up.”

“The tycoon who has recently set up a shop in the city has a huge surplus…”

Ply’s left eye was dark and bruised. He had gotten it when he tried to escape earlier but Seo Jun-Ho caught him.

‘Hm. I don’t like that he tried to run away, but he knows more than I expected.’

Ply had more information than Seo Jun-Ho had hoped—information that only natives would know, and knowledge that would cost a fortune to get from information guilds.

“You know…” Seo Jun-Ho spoke as he chewed on his steak. “You’ve only been talking about things related to money. I thought that you were famous around here.”

“T-that’s correct. They call me Goldberg or Moneybug.”[2]

“Why don’t you start telling me about other things? I need information on the nobles around here.” Nobles were powerful in the Ruben Empire and if he wanted to establish connections with them, it would be best to get some information about them first.

“That’s…” Ply glanced at him before lowering his voice. “Actually, our job involves collecting debts and interest, or gathering protection fees.”

“What the hell, you guys are loan sharks?”

Ply cleared his throat. In other words, they would know nothing about monsters or nobles.

“So you only know about things related to money?”

“Yes, but there is no one else who knows that stuff better than me. I’m one of the 2 Scoundrels of Gilleon, after all.” He seemed strangely proud of that.

“2 Scoundrels? Who’s the other one?”

“His name is Haus. He has always been ambitious.”

“Is he a loan shark too?”

“No. He manages gambling dens and pubs in the red-light district. He cheats his players and dilutes his alcohol with water. He’s a horrible person.”

“You’re one to talk, you’re a loan shark.” Seo Jun-Ho snorted and lowered his fork. “So you’re telling me that he’ll have information about nobles?”

“Since he also manages private venues for nobles, he’ll definitely know more than I do.”

“Sounds good. Lead the way.”

“...Excuse me? To where?”

“To the gambling den. Lead the way.”

1. His name can also be read as ‘fly’, but I thought that would be too distracting. ?

2. Can be read as Gold Bug. It’s a pun. ?