The Frozen Player Returns

emories of living creatures.

And second…
Their memories have been erased.

If that were the case, it made sense that the skill would fail to activate.
After all, there were no memories to look at.

…

However, there could be another explanation he hadnt even thought of at all.

Seo Jun-Hos chest grew tight with frustration.

Lets go.
Theres nothing more to see here, he said.

…

When the Frost Queen didnt reply, he turned around and scratched his cheek.

Man, I guess the cockroaches werent the only ones who had met their natural enemy.

The Frozen Queen had also went stiff, as if she were a toy that had run out of battery.

***

Seo Jun-Ho returned to the hotel before sunset.
The other party members were already gathered in the lobby and were betting on who had gathered the most marbles.

Ehem.
Skaya looked more haughty than usual.
She looked at Seo Jun-Ho nervously.
…How many did you get?

214.

Dammit! If I used the 5.0, I would have beaten you! Still looking angry, she told them that she had gathered 155.

Now, I feel depressed…

Why are you so upset that you lost?

’

Its not that, Skaya said, letting out a long sigh.
There was a vending machine in front of that school over there.

Yeah, I saw them all over the place.

I happened to be passing by, so I put in the marbles I collected today.

The vending machine required a hundred marbles per use.
They all looked at her eagerly, afraid that they would miss a single word.

So what did you get? A skill? Stat points?

…Nothing.

Nothing came out?

Yeah, it was one of the broken vending machines Wei Chun-Hak had mentioned.
Skaya looked like she was about to cry.
Now, Ive lost one of my chances.

What do you mean?

I can only use the marble vending machines nine more times.
Why should it count when it was bugged?

Hm…

Vending machines that ate marbles without giving out any rewards.
They wouldnt be there for no reason at all.

Since you have already lost a chance, can you try using it nine more times? Seo Jun-Ho proposed.

Do you wanna die? Do you want to eat Mios cooking tomorrow?

…?

They ignored Mios confused face and continued the conversation.

I found forty-nine.

Rahmadat and I collected about sixty each.
With our current pace, I think it would take us about two weeks to collect a thousand.

Aside from Cha Si-Eun, who had found the least number of marbles, their numbers didnt differ much.

Ill lend you the Magic Detector 4.0 tomorrow, Skaya said to Cha Si-Eun.

What about you, unnie?

Ill be fine since Im gonna make the 5.0 tonight.
If Skaya lended the Magic Detector to the other party members, they would be even faster in gathering marbles.

Theres something I need to tell you all, Seo Jun-Ho said.
He told them about Exterminator.

So, the cockroaches couldnt even move? -yo? Kim Woo-Joong asked.

Yes.
They were all frozen up.

The look in their eyes changed.
They recalled the myriads of cockroaches they had seen covering the city on their first night.
If Seo Jun-Ho was telling the truth, they could hunt them easily and level up.

It may be too early to say for sure.
Test it out a few more times while youre collecting marbles, Gilberto advised coolly.

If the results were the same as today, they would no longer need to hide at night.
They would spend the day collecting marbles and spend the night collecting EXP.

***

’

It seemed that Keen Intuition had some sort of trick up his sleeve.
After finding 214 marbles on the first day, he found a whopping 150 on the second day before it was even noon.

Thats 364, Seo Jun-Ho said.
With this, he could use the vending machine three times.
He looked around for the machines to fulfill the third Quest.

Now that I want to use them, I cant find any…

He continued walking down the street and finally came across a vending machine.

Oh, but this is…
Seo Jun-Ho looked around.
After going running around all over to find marbles, he had somehow ended up in front of a school.
This was the broken vending machine Skaya had mentioned last night.
Strangely enough, it did capture his attention, but he didnt really want to use it himself.

– Wait.
Try using that vending machine.

…Werent you listening last night? Its broken.

– I am well aware.
However…However, I sense something.

As always, Keen Intuitions advice had no basis.

All he does is tell me what he senses.
But…

Seo Jun-Ho stroked his chin.
Just as monkeys sometimes fell off trees, there were times when Keen Intuition was incorrect.

Actually, some of the places he told me to go to yesterday didnt have any marbles.

Despite those moments, Keen Intuitions probability of success was still high, but that didnt mean Seo Jun-Ho could trust him a hundred percent and follow him blindly.

Youre saying that you sense something special about that vending machine, right?

– Of course; however, the decision lies in you.

All Keen Intuition did was expand Seo Jun-Hos options.
He never forced them onto him.

Putting my marbles in there knowing that its a broken vending machine…
Thats not an easy decision to make.

Wei Chun-Hak had warned them to immediately go to another vending machine if they came across a broken one.
Out of the 20,000 Players, not a single one had gotten anything out of those broken vending machines.

…Let me think about it a bit more.
He couldnt make a decision right away, on the spot.
He didnt see any reason to go as far as giving up a guaranteed profit from another machine.

And this is a school.

Seo Jun-Ho studied the vast grounds of the high school.

A school that big should have an underground parking lot.

His goal for today wasnt just to collect marbles.
It was also important for him to test the effects of Exterminator a few more times just to make sure it was working.

Lets go.

Must we do this?

Ill give you cake back at the hotel.

…

He could hear the Frost Queen quietly trailing behind him.

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