Return of the Frozen Player
Chapter 36 - Watchdog Hunt (1)

Watchdog Hunt (1)

They’re only 30 centimeters away. Both of them were within Seo Jun-ho’s range. If he made a surprise attack, he could cut their heads off with a single stroke.

But… I don’t have a good pretext to do that. 

He knew that they were fiends, and he’d gotten that information from reading another fiend’s memories. But if he killed them, he would have no way to prove that.

The best-case scenario would be for them to reveal that they’re fiends themselves… But that was impossible. They weren’t amateurs; they wouldn’t reveal themselves in a place with lots of players.

Then the only thing I can do is to make my own playing field. Luckily, they didn’t know that he knew who they were. Seo Jun-ho calmed himself as he turned to Gong Juha and laughed.

“Isn’t this fun? I’ll play a few more rounds.”

“Geez, gambling is a scary thing…” Even as she expressed her concerns about gambling addiction, Seo Jun-ho didn’t let his attention on the Watchdogs waver.

“Shall I start?” The two Watchdogs nodded as they pushed forward ten chips each. At that, Seo Jun-ho pushed all twenty of his chips forward.

“Please begin.”

“Since there are three people this time, I’ll be using five cups.” The dealer began to elegantly shuffle the cups. As he got faster, it began to look like there were twenty.

“Wow, that dealer is no joke.”

“Who is he? With that level of skill, he was probably big.” Even onlookers admired his beautiful skills.

Tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap!

The dealer finished shuffling and looked at the players, waiting for them to choose.

“The far right.” As soon as Seo Jun-ho answered, the delinquent woman and the skinny man followed.

“The middle.”

“Let’s go with the far right.”

The dealer flipped the cups. Seo Jun-ho and the skinny man were right.

Gong Juha’s eyes sparkled at his forty chips.

“Wow. Mr. Snake head, you have a talent for this. How are you so good?”

“That’s…” Seo Jun-ho trailed off as he reminisced. Green taught me. 

One of the Five Heroes, Gilbert Green. Seo Jun-ho’d been curious while Green was teaching him marksmanship, and asked how he dealt with an enemy that made good feints or an enemy who moved faster than his eyes could follow. Green had said only one thing:

‘Watch the substance, not the shell.’

His advice had helped immensely. It still did.

If you look at their stats, Gong Juha’s are probably higher than the dealer’s. But there’s a reason she can’t win despite that. 

She only watched the shell, or in this case, the cup. On the other hand, Seo Jun-ho was able to tell which cup the ball was under right away.

The dealer’s ability has nothing to do with speed. The afterimages from his movements weren’t from how fast he was moving. The answer was ‘illusions’. They were illusions that the dealer was creating.

If you watch his shoulders, wrists, and the cups at the same time, it’s obvious that something’s off. The dealer would use the illusory skill after he started shuffling and change the cup the ball was under. It really was something of a scam. But if you could see through the trick, it wasn’t hard to guess the answer.

You just have to watch his shoulders. The way his muscles move are telling. It was easy. You just needed to watch his shoulder muscles and count how many times his arms moved, how they moved, and in which direction. If he just told Gong Juha the basics, she wouldn’t lose a single time.

“I’ll tell you when we’re done.” Seo Jun-ho organized his chips and looked at the skinny man next to him.

Did he guess it by chance? To check that, he played the game three more times. The delinquent woman didn’t win a single time, but the skinny man and Seo Jun-ho won all of them.

He’s not just copying my answer. In two of the games, the man had answered before him. That meant he’d figured out the trick.

That man… he’ll be harder to deal with than the woman. If possible, he wanted to take one of them out tonight. It was important to evaluate their skills before the battle.

As he finished his thought, the dealer got up and spoke sadly.

“Please wait a moment. There will be a dealer change.”

Seo Jun-ho had won all four of his bets. On top of that, they were all all-in. His 1 million won had quickly become 16 million.

(TN: ~10k USD -> ~160k USD)

The loss was too great, so the casino had decided to change the dealer.

“A-amazing. You made 16 million in five minutes…” Gong Juha looked at him in envy. It wasn’t the money she was jealous of, but purely his game skill.

Perfect timing. 

“The dealer’s gone, so let me show you something interesting,” he said loudly. He reached into his jacket and fumbled around the inner pocket. Of course, there was nothing in it. But when he pulled his hand out, he was holding an ice compass. He’d used his Frost skill in that short amount of time.

“Wow, that’s pretty.” Gong Juha’s eyes sparkled as she studied it. The two fiends next to them were also secretly interested. Seo Jun-ho smiled faintly.

“President Shim Deok-gu lent me this. It’s quite an interesting artifact.”

“It’s an artifact? Now that you say that, I feel like I sense magic from it…” Of course she did. It was made of magic.

“If you use magic on this compass, it helps you replace certain people.”

“Certain people?”

“Haha, well, there’s no reason that they would be here, but…” As he spoke, he poured magic into the compass, and the needle started to spin violently. When it finally stopped, Seo Jun-ho looked up to where it was pointing.

“…Huh?” Gong Juha had been staring at the needle, and she blinked. It was pointing at the two people next to Seo Jun-ho.

“Uhm, Mr. Snake head. The needle’s pointing at them.” Seo Jun-ho feigned a shocked expression and pretended to hide it.

“Oh, why… why is it doing that?” He swallowed, his face unreadable. “Team Leader, my stomach hurts, so I’m gonna go to the bathroom…”

“Oh, go ahead.” As Seo Jun-ho got up and waved to Gong Juha, so did the skinny man.

“I’m going to the bathroom too.”

“Will it take long?”

“No, I’ll be back in five minutes,” he replied with a firm voice.

Seo Jun-ho did not go to the bathroom. He ran out of the hotel as if he was being chased, and hid inside a back alley.

Blink, blink. It was a dark alleyway, with the only light coming from a streetlamp that would blink occasionally.

“Huff, huff…” To anyone else, it would seem like Seo Jun-ho was hyperventilating. The skinny man who had been following him stepped casually into the alleyway.

“I don’t think this is the bathroom.”

“……” Seo Jun-ho stared at him wordlessly. The man smiled as he spoke.

“Your luck is really bad. Don’t you think so?” At least, that’s what he thought. An ice compass. It’s probably a tool to replace fiends. He’d never imagined that such an artifact would exist. If the needle hadn’t pointed exactly at him and the delinquent woman, he wouldn’t have known what it was.

No one can know who we are for tomorrow’s attack. That’s why he’d come.

His bones were visible in his hands as he gripped a sword.

“I’ll kill you painlessly.”

Before he could attack, Seo Jun-ho looked down at the ice compass in his hand. It had started to melt, and he tossed it aside without a second thought. As the skinny man watched it shatter on the ground, his forehead wrinkled.

It broke? An artifact broke so easily? Artifacts had magic in them and were highly durable. Even if it was weak, it wouldn’t break from simply falling to the ground. The look in his eyes changed.

“It’s fake… In other words, this is a trap.”

“I already thought so while playing, but you catch on quick.”

As Seo Jun-ho unsheathed his sword with a shing, the fear on his face disappeared. He now looked like a hunter contemplating his prey.

“How did you know?”

“No comment.”

“Is there anyone else who knows who we are?”

“No comment.”

“…How much do you know?” That was a question worth answering. It would keep him from running away. Seo Jun-ho gave a lopsided smile.

“Hm, well, I know your schedule for tomorrow.”

“I see.” Someone who knew that wouldn’t be able to live. The skinny man swung his sword without warning.

Woooosh! The sword pierced through the air, aimed at Seo Jun-ho’s neck.

“……!” Seo Jun-ho barely managed to dodge. His face fell as he touched his neck.

“You dodged? Not bad.”

He did his best to dodge, but the skinny man was relentless. They were thinking the same thing.

…He’s fast. 

Seo Jun-ho’s Speed stat was over 60, but it was hard for him to keep up.

But it’s not just a difference in stats. Even if the skinny man’s Speed stat was over 80, he wouldn’t be so fast. That left one option.

Skill. Seo Jun-ho stared at his opponent with a hard look in his eyes, and the man tilted his sword.

“So you’ve figured it out. I’m an acceleration skill user, and I have three levels. That was the first one…” He readied his stance again. “And this one will be the third level.”

“…Why are you telling me that?”

“I evaluated you with the first attack. You won’t be able to block this one even if you know it’s coming.”

He realized. He was correct. It would be impossible for Seo Jun-ho as he was now to keep up with the man’s speed. Not only that, his opponent’s eyes were starting to turn red. He’s going to use Demonic energy on top of his acceleration. The skinny man was planning to kill him with the next attack.

“Dammit.” Seo Jun-ho clicked his tongue.

He catches on quickly, and he’s cautious. But once he decides to do something, he doesn’t back out. He’d figured that out after watching the skinny man at the casino and in the alley.

There’s no use in dragging this out. Everything will end in the next strike. Seo Jun-ho’s eyes were cold. Each member of the Watchdogs was stronger than he was. If his concentration faltered at all, his head would go flying.

“…Phew.” Seo Jun-ho changed his mind. He took his stance and slowly closed his eyes. He no longer needed his sight for this battle.

“You won’t be able to follow me with your eyes, so you’ll just close them… Not a bad choice.” The skinny man stared at his opponent and lowered his stance. He planned to cut through Seo Jun-ho’s windpipe with this attack. Let’s see, the best place to aim…

Out of all the pressure points on a human body, the best places to kill with a sword were the head and heart. He checked Seo Jun-ho’s stance, and the skinny man’s eyes flashed.

There are a lot of openings around his head. I can slice through his neck with a single stroke. He made his decision. I’ll go with the heart. 

It was a cautious decision out of the one-in-a-thousand chance that Seo Jun-ho had intentionally made the opening. On the off chance that was true, he wouldn’t put himself in danger.

“Goodbye.” With that, the man leapt off the ground.

Tap. Wooooshh!

At the sound of his footsteps, darkness seemed to explode from the void and covered the alleyway. It blocked the man’s vision, filling his sight with darkness.

“Guh?!” He was surprised by the unexpected situation, but he didn’t stop. A smokescreen won’t change anything. He knew where the heart was. Even if his opponent tried to dodge, he wouldn’t be able to deal with his speed.

I just need to stab the target with my sword. He didn’t hesitate, and his sword didn’t waver. The skinny man accelerated and swung.

A terrifying sound was heard as his sword buried itself into Seo Jun-ho’s chest.

As expected. A corner of his lip curled up. As expected, his sword had been faster.

But there was something he’d overlooked.

Crackle! 

Seo Jun-ho never intended to dodge. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to.

“I said this before, but you’re too careful.”

“……!”

The skinny man’s caution had been his downfall. Especially because his opponent had been someone like Seo Jun-ho who knew how to engage in psychological warfare.

Crackle? That’s not the sound a sword makes when it hits flesh…?

Realizing that something was wrong, the skinny man quickly dropped his sword and drew back. But Seo Jun-ho wasn’t so careless.

“Kuh?!”

The man finally realized that his hand and sword were frozen in ice.