Return of the Frozen Player

”Awooooo!”

Nelson’s howl ripped through the air as if it were a gunshot signaling the start of a race.

Seo Jun-Ho nodded.

‘I see...’

He had been thinking that it was a brazen move to involve in the plan, considering that they were planning to launch a surprise attack. However, the System messages in front of his eyes erased his doubts.

[A Werewolf’s howl could be heard.]

[You have been struck by an inexplicable fear and anxiety.]

[Hero’s Mind (EX) has resisted the effects of Howling.]

A werewolf’s howl had an astounding effect even on Seo Jun-Ho, so there was no need to mention what kind of effect it would have on the vampires.

“Let’s go.”

Nelson tore the barbed wire fence apart, and the werewolves on the rooftops rushed inside. At the same time, the door to the rooftop of the factory was flung open, and dozens of vampires flooded out.s

“S-shit! The dogs are here! What should we do?”

“I-I think we should call the apostle—”

“You idiots! Do you really want to call the apostle for something as trivial as this? You would be lucky if you managed to get away with your life,” the vampire supervisor replied coolly with a cigarette between his teeth.

He took a moment to look at the werewolves running toward them. “Only one of them has transformed…”

They probably didn’t want to waste their Lunar Force.

The vampire supervisor smirked and said, “Stop freaking out. Light ‘em up.”

“Y-yes, sir!” The vampires shouted courageously. They retrieved something and carried it on the rooftop.

‘Is that…?’

Seo Jun-Ho’s eyebrows furrowed.

Ratatatat!

Bullets fell upon the werewolves like rain…

“W–what?!”

“Scatter!”

The werewolves dispersed in all four directions and waited for the hail of bullets to pass.

Their expressions turned ugly as they scrambled to take cover behind the nearby vehicles and sturdy pillars.

“Shit! Is this a pharmaceutical company or a military base?! Why the hell do they have Gatling guns here?!”

“There’s no way that there’s a mole among us.”

In other words, there was only one explanation. There was something here that they wanted to protect badly enough that they were willing to go to extreme lengths just to protect it.

“What are we supposed to do? There’s no way we can withstand a Gatling gun, even if we transform.”

“How about three of us transform and carve a path in different directions?” someone suggested.

“Let’s do it!” Nelson shouted from a short distance away. He was holding up a slab of concrete and was using it as a shied. “I’ll rush and distract them. Then, three of you will transform and start ripping them apart.”

“I like that. I’m in.”

“Me, too.

After coming up with a plan, Nelson lifted the giant slab of concrete in his hands.

“Hup…! Eat this!”

He spun around a few times and threw it like a discus.

“H-he’s a lunatic!”

“Here it comes!”

“Shoot it! Shoot it down!”

Ratatatat!

The vampires aimed their guns at the giant slab of concrete flying toward them, but the concrete ended up being much thicker than they expected.

Slam!

It flew accurately to the rooftop of the factory, and it crushed a couple of vampires upon landing. At the same time, Nelson charged forward.

Grrrr!

He moved as fast as lightning.

However, the vampire supervisor merely smirked at the sight. “Shoot.”

Ratatatat!

The rain of bullets continued. However, the vampire supervisor’s command was for someone who knew what they were doing.

Bang!

“…!

A bullet ripped through the air.

Nelson’s glorious charge was interrupted, and he fell to the ground face first.

“Nelson!

“Shit, there’s a sniper!”

The werewolves were furious at the death of their comrade.

However, before they could transform out of fury, someone interrupted them.

“You don’t need to worry,” said the human mercenary.

One of the werewolves grabbed Seo Jun-Ho by the collar.

“What the fuck did you just say?! Is it because you’re not one of us that you don’t care, huh?! Is that it?!”

“You’re mistaken. Look at Nelson.”

The werewolf turned to look at Nelson, and his expression changed.

“Ku… so this is how I die? It’s a fitting death for a werewolf. It’s not bad at—huh?”

They were sure that Nelson should have at least been gravely wounded by the sniper just now, but he ended up being perfectly fine somehow. Even Nelson himself was surprised as he rubbed the part where he got shot.

“Wow. I had no idea that Nelson’s hide had always been that thick.”

“No, that’s definitely not the case.”

“Was it a warning shot?”

“Of course not…”

A decent sniper’s location would only be revealed upon pulling the trigger.

“Hey, you. Explain.”

“Let go of me first,” said Seo Jun-Ho as he looked down at the hand holding him by the collar.

The werewolf took his hand away with an embarrassed look. “A-ahem. M-my apologies. I thought you were saying that my brother is expendable, so…”

“I get it, but don’t let it happen again.” Seo Jun-Ho said coldly.

He slowly lifted his head. The bullet came from a tall chimney about a kilometer away.

‘I don’t think it’ll be necessary to go all the way there…’

He retrieved a bow from his Inventory. The werewolves tilted their heads at the sight.

“A bow?”

“I didn’t think a human would be even more stuck in the past than we are.”

Seo Jun-Ho ignored them and poured magic into his eyes, sharpening his vision.

“Hm.” When Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes landed on the sniper, the sniper’s eyes also landed on him. Seo Jun-Ho had no idea whether it was a coincidence or not, but the important part was that he was the sniper’s new target.

‘This should be fun…’

Darkness bloomed and transformed into an arrow that flew toward the bowstring.

Seo Jun-Ho pulled the bowstring as far as possible.

Twing!

Bang!

He let go of the bowstring as soon as he heard the gunshot.

“Shit!” One of the werewolves sprinted to protect Seo Jun-Ho. He was sure that a fragile human body wouldn’t be able to withstand a bullet.

However, nothing happened.

‘What…?’

The bullet and the arrow collided with each other.

However, there was only one explanation for this astonishing feat.

‘…Why is the bullet so slow?’ thought the werewolves.

Freeze!

Seo Jun-Ho’s power to freeze slowed the bullet down to a snail’s pace.

Rrrip!

The arrow tore through the bullet, and it didn’t lose any speed or strength as it buried itself into the sniper’s face.

Seo Jun-Ho spoke, “Sniper down. Move out.”

“…”

“…”

The werewolves stared agape at the human right in front of them.

The human remained unperturbed, and he looked as if sniping someone a kilometer away was a daily occurrence to him.

“Hot damn! I don’t know who you are, but you’ve got some skills!”

“If there’s another sniper, we’ll count on you to take them down!”

The sniper was dead, and with a mysterious reliable human watching their back, the werewolves knew that there was only one thing left for them to do.

“Wolves…!”

The werewolves swept their gazes across the rooftop.

“Chaaaaaarge!” Nelson made a move and ran forward, attracting the vampires’ eyes.

Ratatatat!

“Hehe, mere guns aren’t enough to stop me!”

Nelson eagerly started scaling the rooftop.

“Shit! Shoot him!”

“Don’t let him get up here!”

“Aim for his eyes!”

“Awooooo!”

The vampires trembled upon being struck by Nelson’s Howling. They whiffed and sprayed bullets everywhere. Nelson took advantage of the chaos to finally climb up the rooftop. Then, he started tearing the vampires apart with his claws.

“R-run!”

“Run away!”

The vampire supervisor crushed his cigarette and tossed it aside. “Hey! Who said you can run?!”

The vampires were too scared for them to listen to the vampire supervisor’s words.

Unfortunately, there was nowhere for them to go.

“Good work, Nelson.”

While Nelson caused havoc among the vampires, the other werewolves transformed and scaled up the rooftop. Upon arriving, they immediately surrounded the vampires in all directions.

“I-impossible…”

The vampire supervisor was finally scared. Astaneca was more well-armed than a military base, so how did the werewolves overpower them?

Team B, mission complete.

Fifty-two vampires dead, zero allied casualties.

***

“Human, that was awesome!”

“If it hadn’t been for you, we would have taken a lot of damage while trying to take over the rooftop.”

Upon arriving inside the factory, the werewolves didn’t hold back in praising Seo Jun-Ho. They even stroke Seo Jun-Ho’s back as a way of showing that they had fully accepted Seo Jun-Ho in their team.

“All right, all right. That’s enough talking.” Nelson looked down at the hallway. “Team A should have reached the production line by now. However, our mission is to save the humans here.”

“How much time do we have left?”

“We still have around forty minutes before they change shifts.”

“Shit. We’re cutting it close.”

The werewolves licked their lips and started sniffing the air.

Sniff! Sniff! Sniff!

They inspected the walls and the ground for a while, and their eyes eventually lit up.

“The basement.”

“They’re in the basement…”

They managed to locate the humans using their enhanced sense of smell.

“Move out!”

The werewolves made their move. They didn’t bother looking for a set of stairs that would lead to the basement. They directly broke the ground with their feet and jumped down the hole they had made all the way to the basement.

“Hm…” Seo Jun-Ho dropped down as well.

And his face fell instantly upon landing.

The air was thick with the smell of blood. He had long gotten familiar with the smell of blood, but the stench of blood in this basement was so strong that he felt dizzy. He even felt like vomiting.

He looked up and saw the werewolves standing still in silence.

Seo Jun-Ho tried to move past them, but Nelson held his hand out in front of him.

“I-I think it’s better if you don’t see it.”

“…I appreciate your concern, but I have to see it with my own eyes.”

He had to see why the stench of blood was so thick and strong.

Seo Jun-Ho stepped forward and moved past the werewolves.

“…!”

Seo Jun-Ho shook uncontrollably at the horrible sight.

There were naked human corpses suspended upside down by meat hooks as if they were meat in a butcher shop. Even more horrifying was that every human’s head was split open in the middle, and their blood dripped into the buckets beneath them.

Once the buckets were full, the assembly line would then divide the blood into packs that would eventually land neatly into the boxes further down the assembly line.

‘Holy shit…’

The sight almost shattered Seo Jun-Ho’s imperturbable mind.

Seo Jun-Ho closed his eyes and whispered, “I guess there aren’t any humans for us to rescue.”

The number of corpses hanging by the meat hooks had to be over a few hundred corpses, and there were also hundreds of corpses sealed in airtight containers, waiting to be discarded.

The werewolves felt somber.

“ I—um. I’m sorry….”

“Why?”

They weren’t the ones who had done all this.

The culprits were the ones who should say those words.

“Let’s go. We have nothing to do here.”

“Wait.” The werewolves probably hadn’t noticed it because the smell of blood in the air was too overwhelming and thick. However, Seo Jun-Ho’s senses had picked up on something.

“There’s a rat.” After saying that, Seo Jun-Ho mustered his magic. Watchguard of Darkness bloomed and transformed into several wolves. The wolves of darkness then ran away, seemingly in search of something.

A few moments later, they came back dragging a man.

“Ah! S-save me! Save me!” The man was trembling like a leaf as he looked up at Seo Jun-Ho and the werewolves. The man was wearing a neat suit. His hair and even his eyebrows were neat. His outfit and grooming were enough evidence of his status.

“This bastard…” Nelson started.

“Do you know him?”

“Yeah, he’s the CEO.”

“I see…” Seo Jun-Ho couldn’t help but wonder why someone as important as the CEO was at one of his factories in the middle of the night. Seo Jun-Ho coldly looked down at the man in front of him.

“P-please spare me!” the young businessman begged and grabbed Seo Jun-Ho’s feet. “I-I’m human. I’m not a vampire!”

He then rambled on about why they should save him.

Seo Jun-Ho remained silent as he stared at the hanging corpses. He couldn’t help but wonder which of the two resembled vampires more—a literal vampire or this man?

“You...”

“…Pardon?”

“You also suck the blood of your fellow humans. Doesn’t that mean you’re a vampire as well?”

“What are you…”

What was this man talking about? The CEO became filled with unfathomable fear. He let go of Seo Jun-Ho's foot and hurriedly crawled away.

“Go eat.”

‘Eat? Eat what?’

As soon as the question popped into the CEO’s head, the wolves of darkness started ripping his flesh away.

“Guahhhh!”

In mere seconds, he was ripped to shreds, but Seo Jun-Ho didn’t even blink an eye.

“Um…”

“A-ahem.”

In contrast, the werewolves seemed disturbed by the brutal sight.

Nelson sighed. “I understand why you did that, but that was a bit reckless.”

Why was the CEO here in the middle of the night? What was going on with the vampires? What was the red fog? They had a mountain of questions that they wanted to ask the CEO.

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

He pulled over a meat hook and hung the dying man by his ankles.

“I have many things I would like to ask you, so hurry up and die,” Seo Jun-Ho spat coldly.

Fortunately, the night was still young.