The Frozen Player Returns

Chapter 141. Superstar (4)

Crash!

Seo Jun-Ho rose high after hitting the ground with his spear, then fell on top of the landslide. The point of view was still first person. The video showed both of his eyes moving busily and searching for a way out. It would be hard to stand still or maintain your balance on top of a landslide, but Seo Jun-Ho still managed to climb up.

-…?

- Are there any smarties here? Is that physically possible?

└It’s possible.

└If you have great reflexes, great athleticism, and great concentration, of course. You're also probably gonna need some great stats.

└Oh, I understand. You're saying that ordinary people like me can't do it.

The view slowly changed. The first person point of view was appropriate to express Seo Jun-Ho's current position and feelings, but it also made the viewers dizzy.

Boobooboobooboom!

From a distance, Seo Jun-Ho was as quick as a flying squirrel. In an instant, he found something to use as a stepping stone and didn’t hesitate to throw himself forward. It was a scene where it wouldn’t be strange if he lost his balance or stepped wrongly. But while Seo Jun-Ho was performing difficult acrobatics, frightening magic came hurling toward him.

- Magic! It's the kobold mages’ attack!

- Oh, he’s screwed…

- This is fatal. Those smelly sons of b**ches found the weak spot so well it makes me want to swear.

- Seo Jun-Ho's concentration will also be greatly disrupted.

It certainly seemed that such a thing would happen and it seemed that it should, but it didn’t happen. On the contrary, Seo Jun-Ho's concentration in the face of a crisis had become as sharp as a freshly sharpened sword. He blew up a flying fireball, swatted one away, and dodged another before continuing to climb all the way up.

-...

-...

The people who saw it realized just how fierce he was and that that fierceness was not for himself, but for the sacrifice he made for others. Naturally, comments supporting him began to come up one by one.

- Those vile kobold mages, just how long are they gonna keep shooting magic?

- Just a little bit more... Just push a little more.

- You're almost there! Don't lose your focus until the end!

- If you go up all the way to the end, I'll sponsor you some PP!

Since ancient times, stories of heroes going through adversity had always been supported by countless people.

Tak.

Finally, Seo Jun-Ho's feet stepped on the hard ground of Hainal Mountain’s summit. He had finally climbed up above the seemingly unending landslide.

"Gasp, gasp...”

The chat window became noisy and plastered with comments in an instant. However, the camera that showed Seo Jun-Ho breathing roughly, gradually moved away. A single human being and hundreds of blood kobolds that had yet to be caught on camera were shown on the screen. The sight of so many of them on the summit of Hainal Mountain stole the viewers’ breaths.

- …There’s still a long way to go before the rest of the battalion comes, right?

└I don't know from just the video, but some were swept away by landslides and most of them hid in the ground.

└Jesus, then he has to handle that many alone? If I were him, I'd run away.

- Don't worry, everyone. My friend who participated said that he was successful.

└Don’t give spoilers.

The violin sound reminiscent of the cold wind gradually faded. There was no more music.

Wheeing.

Only the sound of the melancholic wind blowing through the summit filled the video.

Dududududu!

Seo Jun-Ho remained unshaken even in the face of hundreds of blood kobolds.

Piing, piing!

He began to shoot his bow and eliminated the kobolds in silence. It was such an applause-worthy archery skill, but it wasn’t enough to deal with so many kobolds. Looking at it from the eyes of a third party, it seemed like his actions were meaningless.

“…”

Clatter, clatter.

As the kobolds and blood kobolds approached, he abandoned his bow and equipped himself with a shield and a halberd. A lone man charged toward the group of kobolds.

Crack!

Then, they clashed…

From then onward, the sounds of the battle became the background music. There were the sounds of a kobold's skin being sliced, blood spurting, screams, and the sound of Seo Jun-Ho's armor being destroyed. With the addition of the Frost Queen's cuts and edits, the intensity of the battle was emphasized several times.

- …

- …

It seemed that the people watching the lonely fight had nothing to say. The chat window became silent. Seo Jun-Ho was fighting like crazy and the video was fun—only these two sentiments lingered in their minds.

***

No matter what anyone said, the highlight of the video was the scene in which the battalion joined one by one and opened the way for Seo Jun-Ho. The next was a one-on-one match against the blood kobold lord. Seo Jun-Ho showed off his overwhelming physical prowess in the duel against it.

“…”

After finishing off the blood kobold lord, Seo Jun-Ho stumbled out, leaned against an earthen wall, and looked at the bright sun. His exhausted eyes were revealed through the half-split helmet. He seemed like a lonely warrior as he uttered not a single word after the fierce battle. At the same time, the camera slowly began to zoom out. The video showed Seo Jun-Ho being supported by Baek Geon-Woo as the scene slowly faded into black.

<Produced by Queen>

When the video ended, there was momentary peace. It was a short video that lasted less than 40 minutes, but the viewers felt like they had watched a movie. People began to converse.

- It was fun.

- I knew he was good when he fought a thunder bear, but it wasn't good because of the lack of visuals, but this one’s good.

- By the way, the producer of the video is Queen? Who the heck is that? Is she a professional video producer that I don't know about?

└I've never heard of that name either.

└If I can get in touch, I'd like to give her some of my work. I can match however much gold or PP she asks for.

- I watched it first without thinking like I was watching a movie, so I’ll have to watch it again to analyze it properly.

The outstanding performance of a kind masked man with the heroic spirit of sacrifice.

The comments of ‘Salmon in the Mountains’ featuring such a main character only had favorable reviews.

"Frost, let's check the rankings now."

"G-go ahead."

The two gulped down their saliva. Their previous video didn’t get a video ranking, only a real-time ranking. Of course, despite that, it received a lot of attention, but that was because the name Seo Jun-Ho had aroused interest.

'That means my name is worth clicking on the video once...’

On top of that, the video itself was great this time. Seo Jun-Ho clicked on the rankings sections with slight expectations.

……

42. Battle of Arran Gorge

43. Salmon in the Mountains

44. Haribu Naval Battle

…….

"43rd place! 43rd place!"

“…”

Unlike the surprised Seo Jun-Ho, the Frost Queen looked slightly disappointed.

"43rd place, it's really amazing. We don't even belong to a Guild,” Seo Jun-Ho said in surprise.

"But... The comments were so hot that I was looking forward to it," the Frost Queen replied disappointedly.

Both below and above were videos taken by Players or teams belonging to a Guild. Although Seo Jun-Ho was said to have been famous on Earth, his influence wasn’t working in Frontier.

"You go up one step at a time like this. You can't be full on the first bite.”

"...Well, I have taken care of a kingdom. I do not get influenced by such little things."

Feeling better, she sipped her tea.

"Mmmm, the tea after getting good results is especially sweet."

Wrong. He had just placed more Spirit Crystal shavings than usual. He had done it thinking that if the results of the video weren’t good, she could drink tea and feel better.

"By the way, Contractor. How much PP did you earn?"

"Hmm? Ah.”

Having forgotten about it, Seo Jun-Ho belatedly opened the information window.

[Salmon in the Mountains]

Number of views: 624,712

Number of recommendations: 26,973 times

Obtained PP: 6,247

Sponsored by PP: 32,500

"Uh…”

"Oh..."

He earned 6,247 PP from the views and the people who liked the video sponsored 32,500 PPs. The total was 38,747.

"Isn’t this a lot?"

"I, I do not know...”

Seo Jun-Ho thought that he should ask Gong Ju-Ha about this later since he had no idea how much the items in the PP store usually cost.

"Anyway, with this much, we won’t have to worry about PP.”

The ranking would likely go up for a few more days, or it would maintain the status quo. The number of views was expected to rise to at least 800,000 and more donations were also expected in the coming days.

'I won't have to worry about PP prices to get information from now on.’

This was because he had secured enough PP for himself to use.

"Good. It feels good to have things working out so well,” Seo Jun-Ho said contentedly.

There was only one thing to do now. It was to complete the Overclocking training.

‘When that's done, let's leave Gilleon and go to the Canal Mountains.’

It was an area with powerful monsters around level 80. Of course, it was dangerous. As such, it was not a place where people who valued safety visited very often.

‘On the contrary, those who are trying to avoid people’s eyes such as the fiends are very active there.’

This was the information he learned after using the skill, ‘Confession of the Dead,’ on a fiend he captured. Originally, he planned to hunt in the Canal Mountains, but now, he had more work to do there than hunting.

‘The Canal Mountains has a fiend branch…’

It was not a big branch—it was only a small branch of about ten people.

'They'll probably be good opponents for training. though…’

Seo Jun-Ho slowly closed his eyes. The training room became hot in an instant.

"…He’s working hard.”

The smiling Frost Queen looked admirably at her Contractor and muttered.

***

Ttak, ttak

"He’s an interesting fellow," muttered Shin Sung-Hyun, the master of the Goblin Guild, while cutting his nails short. He asked the Vice Master, "That's him, isn't it? The one that Specter uses as his agent."

"That is correct. I remember all of the Big 6 guilds, including us, digging up his information at the time."

"Good. Bring me the data you organized then."

"Well, that's..." the Vice Master trailed off, but spoke at the end with difficulty, "There's a little bit that’s suspicious."

"Suspicious? Which part?"

"He grew up in an orphanage, went to school normally, and then became a Player."

It was a very ordinary past; there wasn’t anything strange at all.

"…That's a little strange.”

But such an ordinary past did not really fit with a ‘special’ person like Seo Jun-Ho.

"Is it the Association?"

"Yes, I think they modified Seo Jun-Ho's history."

Considering where Seo Jun-Ho belonged, it was an easy answer.

"Any information about the real thing, other than the fake profile?”

"…I apologize. Shim Deok-Gu, the President of the Association, seems to have covered it up. I have been working with the guild information department, but we have not received even a shred of information about Seo Jun-Ho."

Shin Sung-Hyun frowned upon hearing this. The information department of the Goblin Guild, classified as one of the Big 6, had been mobilized, but nothing came out of it? It made no sense.

“President Shim Deok-Gu went through so much trouble to cover up his past?” pondered Shin Sung-Hyun.

"We believe it was likely at Specter’s request… but yes."

"…It has been a while since I've seen an interesting guy. When we sent Ju-Ha before, he refused to join the Goblin Guild, right?”

"Yes, he said he wanted to be the head of a snake rather than a dragon's tail.”

"The head of a snake… Keuk.”

Shin Sung-Hyun twisted his mouth and laughed. He murmured as he watched Salmon in the Mountain playing on his desk. "He boasts that he’s a dragon with that, but claims to be a snake with his words...”

Interested, Shin Sung-Hyun opened his mouth. "Did you say he’s close to Ju-Ha?"

"She says they’re besties… In other words, they are very close."

"Then ask her to invite him over. The next time we tackle a Dungeon should be good.”

The qualification to take part in a Dungeon raid of the Goblin Guild was a valuable opportunity that could not be bought even with thousands of gold.

"Sometimes, things that are hard to see from afar are very noticeable from up close."

Tap, tap.

Having finished cutting his nails, Shin Sung-Hyun tapped the hologram video with his neatly trimmed fingers.

"I hope you’re like that, too, Specter’s agent."

Shin Sung-Hyun, one of the Nine Heavens, also called the Controller of Space, softly laughed.