“...Phew.”
Seo Jun-Ho entered the aerobics room for the first time in months and unwinded his stiff body.
‘It feels nice to move around after a long time.’
For the time being, he would have to live in this room. Since he had spent this regression doing nothing but playing around, he hadn’t even raised his Overclocking output.
‘And what’s more...’ The look in Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes deepened. He had received a message from his friends a few hours ago.
‘After two and a half months, a war has broken out.’
The cockroaches had launched a large-scale attack against the Players. Forget Quests; it seemed they had been spending each day struggling to stop the monsters.
“Maybe I should die.” Somehow, he got the feeling that it was too late for this regression, too. Seo Jun-Ho thought for a moment and shook his head. ‘
Still, I can’t just uselessly waste the pages like that.’
To kill Erebo’s body once and for all, he had to look for more information, no matter how small. It was all because even though he had fought that clever bastard more than a hundred times, Erebo always showed him new patterns.
“Huh?”
Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes suddenly grew wide. He had spread his senses across the hotel, and just now, he felt that someone had walked in.
‘And that magic wavelength somehow seems familiar...’
He went right to the lobby. Indeed, a familiar face was looking around.
“Captain Ju-Ha?”
“H-hello...” she greeted him hesitantly, looking awkward.
“Wow, it has been so long!” Seo Jun-Ho’s face was absolutely delighted as he approached her. She was a new face in his repetitive, tiresome life, and he hadn’t seen her in eight years.
Gong Ju-Ha looked a little flustered. “A-aren’t you a little too enthusiastic? It hasn’t even been three months yet.”
“Oh, right.” Seo Jun-Ho laughed bitterly. Three months, she said. To her, it really was only a short length of time.
pαndα noνɐ1,сoМ He led Gong Ju-Ha to a sofa in the lobby.
“Um...” She sat down and tilted her head.
“Is there something on my face?” Seo Jun-Ho tilted his head as well.
“N-no. It’s not like that.” Gong Ju-Ha hurriedly waved her hands and fell into thought.
‘Did he lose weight? Or did he gain weight? No, it’s nothing like that...I feel like the air around him has changed a lot.’
To be frank, Seo Jun-Ho had always been strange since she first met him. He was very mature for his age, and she instantly saw that he had the experience of a veteran. Back then, she had no idea why he was like that, but she recently learned why.
‘It’s probably because he’s Specter.’
However, his aura had drastically changed again from back then.
‘Something... Something’s different.’
Was it experience? No, rather, Seo Jun-Ho was giving off an aura different from what a human could give off.
‘It’s almost like...’
A boss monster. Yes, his aura was so cold she thought that Janabi would have become like this if Janabi’s violent nature had fully developed. Even though Seo Jun-Ho was just sitting there quietly, his presence was so overwhelming it took her breath away.
‘...’
In other words, he felt unfamiliar to her. Gong Ju-Ha felt a strange sense of loss as if someone had completely stolen away the person she had known so well. With effort, she shook her head and said, “I came here to escort you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re aware of the war that recently broke out on the 4th Floor, right?”
“I’ve heard about it, yes. About the cockroaches resolving to annihilate the Players.”
“That’s right. So I came here to find you, Jun—Specter, in the hopes that you would lend us your strength.”
“I see.” Seo Jun-Ho slowly nodded.
‘This is a new event.’
He had never lasted for more than two and a half months in his previous regressions, and this would likely be the first and the last time he would last this long.
“Unfortunately, I think that would be difficult.”
“Why is that?” Gong Ju-Ha looked baffled. “Do you have something to do here or something like that?”
“Yes, I do.” Seo Jun-Ho nodded. He thought for a moment before continuing. “It would be easier just to explain.”
He told her about his current situation. The longer he spoke, the more Gong Ju-Ha’s face fell.
“Are you... okay?” she said after he managed to somehow suppress her shock.
Seo Jun-Ho looked at her vacantly and nodded. “I am. I even took a long rest this time, and I was even able to find peace of mind. I’m perfectly fine.”
“Perfectly fine?” Gong Ju-Ha trembled as she stared at him. He’d looked tired from the moment she saw him, and his now-emotionless face bothered her. She’d simply thought that he was tired, but that wasn’t the case.
‘No. You don’t look fine at all.’
Gong Ju-Ha gulped before asking in a shaky voice, “How many times have you regressed so far...?”
“...”
Seo Jun-Ho kept his mouth shut. He didn’t want to tell her. He didn’t want to worry her. However, those stubborn eyes stared at him with obstinance, and he eventually gave in.
“This is my 106th try.”
“...Oh my god.”
Gong Ju-Ha covered her mouth. He hadn’t just died two or three times but 105 times?
‘What if it were me?’
She suddenly felt dizzy. When she imagined it, she felt as if she were being enveloped by this dark energy, and vertigo threatened to overtake her body.
“...”
What should she say to him?
Should she apologize? Should she comfort him? Encourage him?
After a long time, Gong Ju-Ha finally spoke. Her voice sounded slightly hoarse after trying to keep her silence for a while.
“...I’ll help you.”
“I appreciate it, but you can’t.” Seo Jun-Ho bitterly smiled. “The Quest requires me to destroy Erebo’s hivemind by myself.
“That’s exactly why I have to help.” As befitting of her position as Goblin’s 2nd Team Leader, she asked him a stinging question, “Have you ever tried to clear it with someone else’s help?”
“...”
He hadn’t tried that before. The Quest said he had to do it by himself after all.
“You said you have to destroy Erebo’s hivemind by yourself. Doesn’t that mean it doesn’t matter who kills the rest of the cockroaches?”
“...”
The Frost Queen nodded quietly from her seat next to him. Actually, she made a similar suggestion before.
‘And I refused...’
Seo Jun-Ho opposed it—he vehemently opposed it. However, the Frost Queen didn’t insist on it because she knew why Seo Jun-Ho refused her suggestion.
‘You are afraid, Contractor.’
Whenever he fought Erebo with someone else, they would always die. Sometimes it was just one person, but most of the time, it was everyone. And it had become some sort of trauma. In the end, he resolved to clear the Quest by himself.
“...”
Seo Jun-Ho fell into thought again. For sure, things would become a lot easier with Gong Ju-Ha’s help.
‘I won’t have to expend nearly as much physical, magical, or mental energy to defeat the cockroaches.’
In other words, when the time to fight Erebo arrived, he would be in much better shape. Erebo had always been getting away by the skin of his own teeth, so Seo Jun-Ho’s chances of success should dramatically improve with Gong Ju-Ha’s help. He had no reason to refuse her offer as well. After all, if he failed, he could just go back in time and save her.
‘The memory will probably haunt me for a long time...’
But it was okay...
As long as he had Hero’s Mind, he would not break.
Seo Jun-Ho made a decision.
“I’ll be counting on you.”
***
“Now that I’m actually about to do it, I’m feeling a bit nervous,” said Gong Ju-Ha. She was standing at the intersection, and the sun was setting above them.
Seo Jun-Ho glanced at her. “Are you truly okay with this plan?”
“I told you, I am. Why did you say that as If I’m about to walk to the gallows or something?”
“That’s good, then. They’re coming.”
Dudududu!
When the sun set, countless cockroaches started flooding the intersection.
“Ugh, I can never get used to these little pests no matter how often I see them,” Gong Ju-Ha said with a disgusted expression before turning to Seo Jun-Ho one last time, “Please succeed.”
“Yes. And don’t die.”
“I told you not to worry so much. Even though I look like this...”
Fwooosh!
She ignited a giant flame, which fought against the darkness.
“I’m pretty strong, you see.”
Gong Ju-Ha tied her hair back with an elastic band and raised her hands. The vicious sea of flames moved as if spurred by the command of an orchestra conductor. The wall of fire and the wall of cockroaches collided, and a sizzling smell instantly filled the streets. Seo Jun-Ho stood still as he watched the one-sided massacre. Eventually, he quietly departed.
‘Night Walking.’
Tonight, he would only kill one cockroach.
***
“Hm?”
Erebo sat inside a scarlet palace and tilted his head.
‘Why is that crazy witch here? She’s alone, too.’
She was a powerful Player, and she was among the top ten Players giving him a headache. The flame elemental user was in a remote city, destroying his cockroaches all by herself.
‘This is suspicious. It has to be a trap.’
Erebo’s wariness shot up, and his vision moved through all the cockroaches in the city. The first places he checked were the insides of buildings and the city’s outskirts to see if this was bait to lure him in. However, he soon learned that this wasn’t the case.
‘There is no one... The city truly is empty.’
So, what was that girl fighting there all alone?
Why? For what reason?
Erebo couldn’t understand it, but for now, he stood up from his seat.
‘It would be a waste to hastily throw away an opportunity like this.’
Anyway, there was no way he would enter the battlefield until he was certain of his victory. After all, that was one of the rules he had set for his survival.
‘If this girl truly is making a mistake, this opportunity will not come twice.’
Protecting the hivemind from the flame elemental user had always been one of his nuisances. If he could just get rid of her, he would instantly emerge victorious from this war.
As such, Erebo spread his wings and took off into the sky.
***
“She fights well.”
Seo Jun-Ho was standing on the roof of a building on the outskirts of the city. However, even from this distance, he could see how much of an upper hand she had. He got the feeling that she might actually be one of the strongest elemental users among the Players.
“Well, she is not as skilled as I am, but that child is commendable,” the Frost Queen said.
“I think she’s stronger than you, actually...”
“Sigh. If you had met me when I was in my prime, the fear wouldn’t have allowed you to look into my eyes.” The Frost Queen sighed and watched the battle for a little longer before she spoke, “How long do you think that vixen will last?”
“I don’t know.” If he was being honest, he thought that she would only be able to last for an hour or two more. Just by looking at the fight, he could tell that her fighting style drained a great amount of magic power.
‘But that will still be enough...’
Gong Ju-Ha didn’t have to kill all the cockroaches in the city. All she had to do was hold out until he killed Erebo.
Seo Jun-Ho closed his eyes and waited. He had spread his magic all over the city, and he was lying in wait for his prey.
And now...
‘...He’s coming.’
Leading an enormous amount of insects, Erebo appeared in the sky.
“As I thought, he retreated by himself. What a shameless pest.”
“He has always acted as such.”
Erebo released the cockroaches into the battlefield and went off somewhere as usual. Normally, the distraction formed by the cockroaches would have made Seo Jun-Ho fail to locate Erebo.
But now, it was different.
‘I can sense him.’
Seo Jun-Ho had spread a delicate magic trap resembling a spiderweb. And through it, he could sense where Erebo was heading in real time.
“Ha, so that’s where he has been hiding the whole time?”
Seo Jun-Ho clicked his tongue.
So that was why he had never been able to find him. Erebo was currently hiding at the bottom of the river that ran through the city. He was likely watching the battlefield through the hivemind.
“Seems like he’s a rat rather than a cockroach.”
Seo Jun-Ho coldly smiled. He then melted into the darkness and disappeared.
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