NOVEL WEB Chapter 96: Star, The Ice Crystal (3)
Future Strategy Department Head Shim Geon-Ho was dumbstruck; he could never have imagined that a rookie who had just joined the company would blatantly provoke him that way. Rookies usually yielded to their superiors, no matter how angry they became, right? However, Chang-Sun did not seem to care.
“You arrogant…!” Geon-Ho sputtered, briefly experiencing an inner conflict. Although he wanted to slam Chang-Sun’s head against the ground, too many people were watching, and Executive Director Oh would surely be watching them at the moment. Continuing the confrontation would do him no favors.
“Let’s go,” Chang-Sun said, snorting in Geon-Ho’s face before leaving with Gyeo-Ul, joining the main unit again.
Geon-Ho glared at Chang-Sun’s back with gritted teeth. Suddenly, however, someone came up to him and called out, “Department Head Shim?”
Geon-Ho looked in the direction of the voice with a frown; he saw a familiar-looking man. He was Kim Hyeong-Jun, whom Director Kim Yeon-Seung had introduced as his son who had recently joined the company. However, Geon-Ho remembered Hyeong-Jun as an idiot who had pissed himself in fear of Chang-Sun, who had grabbed Hyeong-Jun by the collar.
“What?” Geon-Ho snapped, his eyes shining sharply.
Hyeong-Jun flinched for a moment, feeling offended when he saw the contempt in Geon-Ho’s eyes. However, now was not the time to get angry about that. He politely said, “I want to talk to you about something. Could you give me a moment of your time?”
“Can’t you see the expedition has begun? Stop saying useless stuff and get ready…!” Geon-Ho scolded Hyeong-Jun.
“It’s about Lee Chang-Sun,” Hyeong-Jun whispered very quietly, worried that somebody else would overhear him; still, it was enough to intrigue Geon-Ho. He continued, “It’ll only take a second. Please spare a moment. You won’t regret it.”
“Of course,” Hyeong-Jun said, smiling coldly as he began to devise an insidious plot.
* * *
[You have entered the Dungeon ‘Yeti Hill'.]
[Commencing the Dungeon Quest!]
[Quest theme: Fallen.]
[At the edge of an endless snowfield, there is a legendary castle called the ‘Winter Palace’. Dominate the place and become the master of ‘Winter’.]
[A blizzard rages constantly across the snowfield, and glaciers fill the landscape. Many Yetis settled within this snowfield long ago and became great hunters. Be prepared to face their ambushes.]
[To complete the quest, every participant has been granted access to the <Inventory>, <Status Window>, and <Skill Window>.]
[The instructions are clearly provided below, so please refer to the document.]
[Best wishes to all participants.]
Whoosh!
When the troops passed through the Gate, the first thing they experienced was an achingly cold snowstorm.
“Ugh! Why is it so cold?”
“I did wear winter clothes, just like they told us…but it looks like winter clothes won’t be much help here.”
“I can see why people stopped going to the South Pole after it became a devils’ nest.”
“Oh, this is crazy! There’s almost no visibility…!”
The Players were taken aback when they experienced the outrageously cold weather; most of them had been complacent during the briefing that had been held by the Council before they took volunteers. They had thought a Dungeon could not possibly be that cold.
Of course, the fact was that ‘Yeti Hill’ had been the Sword of Ohsung Clan’s white elephant for a long time, but most of the volunteer Players were skilled Players, and they had believed they would be able to solve the issue somehow. Cold? They could use winter defensive equipment. Visibility? They had artifacts for that. Yeti ambushes? They could take turns and stand guard. Above all…
‘Many fire mages have joined this expedition too…!’ they had thought. They had all assumed there would be no issue, as the Clan ‘Fire King’, which was made up of attack-type fire mages, had joined the expedition.
[A blizzard is raging.]
[Many Players are suffering from negative status effects that slow them down significantly.]
However, the cold weather was more severe than they had expected. No matter how much winter defensive equipment they used, the cold wind penetrated into their bones through the gaps in their armor. The problem was that they were about to be buried in snow due to the fierce blizzard.
‘I knew this would happen when they didn’t pay attention to the briefing…! Damn, these Players.’ Cha Ye-Eun thought, looking down on the pathetic Players. However, they could not turn back now; she could only shout, “Everyone, forward march!”
The volunteer Players began to move forward all at once. The snow had piled up so high that the Players’ feet sank in deeply, draining their stamina as they moved. However, one clan’s march was unusually quick.
‘The Myeongga Clan,’ Ye-Eun thought, sighing lightly as she looked at the Myeongga Clan’s Players who were taking the lead; they were practically running.
As they had lost many of their colleagues in the [Phantom Maze Circle], the Myeongga Clan was extremely angry and determined to take revenge on their colleagues’ behalf. ‘Fine Saber’ Son Jin-Seok, the Clan leader, was especially angry. While passing through the Gate, he had yelled to the Players of the other Clans, saying he would tear the Phantom Demon Jeong Yoo-Jin to pieces and warning them not to get to her before he did. He had even declared that if someone else from another Clan killed her, he would consider the Clan the Myeongga Clan’s enemy and wage war.
‘I hope nothing happens,’ Ye-Eun thought. From her long experience, she knew people who got too emotional in Dungeons did not meet good ends, but Jin-Seok had no intention of calming down or listening to others. Thus, she could only hope she was worrying for nothing.
‘Everything is so difficult. Will I… be able to carry out this expedition well?’ Ye-Eun wondered.
She was not sure why, but ever since the punitive force was formed, she had felt a constant sense of unease. Everything had been a mess from the start: She had still been unable to contact the search party she had sent on a recon mission, and the volunteer Players, who had been confident until this morning, had been overtaken by vicious rage after the [Phantom Maze Circle] incident. The air around them was very heavy, and it felt almost as if they would explode at any moment.
If their current state was what the Highoff Clan had intended, they had certainly succeeded, because the volunteer Players had become ticking time bombs. Going on a punitive expedition with these people would only cause casualties.
‘Still…’ Ye-Eun thought hopefully. ‘Will Lee Chang-Sun create a miracle again?’
She fixed her gaze on Chang-Sun, who was following behind her. In the Tutorial Dungeon, the White Tiger Clan’s training institute, and even the [Phantom Maze Circle], Chang-Sun had always produced miraculous results. She did not know much about Chang-Sun, and the only time she had spent with him was when he asked her to take care of the injured. However, Ye-Eun felt that Chang-Sun would be able to do something.
Just then, she briefly met Chang-Sun’s gaze.
* * *
“Hehehe! It looks as if the witch likes you,” Seo Jeong-Gwon said, giggling as he approached Chang-Sun.
Looking back at Jeong-Gwon, Chang-Sun frowned and thought, ‘He’s annoying.’
Ever since had [Phantom Maze Circle] had been disabled, Jeong-Gwon had been following Chang-Sun around, even only receiving first aid. When Executive Director Oh summoned Chang-Sun, Jeong-Gwon had tagged along. When Chang-Sun took his meals, Jeong-Gwon had eaten alongside him. Even when Chang-Sun went to the bathroom, Jeong-Gwon had followed. Jeong-Gwon was a middle-aged man who was bulkier than Baek Gyeo-Ul, so it was quite unpleasant even for Chang-Sun that Jeong-Gwon kept clinging to him.
[The Celestial ‘Calamity Tiger’ is content to see his claw and fang getting along.]
‘What made him think that?’ Chang-Sun thought, not hiding his annoyance.
Still, Jeong-Gwon paid it no heed. Chang-Sun could not tell whether Jeong-Gwon was simply bad at reading the room, or indifferent to his annoyance. Regardless, Jeong-Gwon wanted to stay by Chang-Sun’s side and talk to him, leaving Chang-Sun mentally fatigued.
“Many men have made a move on the Iron Witch, even the foreigners, but most of them ran away in the end when she nearly shot them in the head. I’ve never seen her show interest in someone else first!” Jeong-Gwon remarked with a grin, looking back and forth between Chang-Sun and Ye-Eun after their eyes met.
In truth, Ye-Eun was not famous because she was an agent of the Council; even so, almost every experienced Player in Korea knew her. The Iron Witch Cha Ye-Eun was a world-class expert in magic, and the revolver loaded with six magic bullets was her trademark; each pull of the trigger struck like a missile, razing entire areas to the ground.
As Ye-Eun was also an EX grade Player, a rare occurrence in Korea, people naturally believed she could become a high ranker soon. Thus, she had become a symbol of the Council, able to directly influence the manager of the Council’s Korean branch. Even the Clan leaders from major Clans could never take her lightly; thus, Jeong-Gwon laughed incessantly, as the Iron Witch now seemed to be stealing a glance at Chang-Sun.
“Team Leader Seo,” Chang-Sun began quietly.
“Huh, what is it?” Jeong-Gwon asked, tilting his head.
“You’re hurting my ears, so please be quiet,” Chang-Sun requested.
Jeong-Gwon felt silent, and his shoulders drooped like a scolded puppy when Chang-Sun snapped at him. He wanted to get close to Chang-Sun, who had saved him, but it seemed Chang-Sun had no interest in being friendly with him.
In truth, Jeong-Gwon was doing so because he wanted to make Chang-Sun part of his team. He had always known Chang-Sun was exceptional, but going through the [Phantom Maze Circle] incident had strengthened his resolve to never let anyone else take Chang-Sun.
‘Besides, someone who has the guts to openly provoke Department Head Shim Geon-Ho would be perfect as my right-hand man!’ Jeong-Gwon thought, even though he already knew Executive Director Oh had already called dibs(?) on Chang-Sun. ‘Ah, forget it! First come first served(?)! Yeah, sure!’
All Jeong-Gwon could think about was poaching Chang-Sun from the Future Strategy Department and making him join Raid Team 2. Then, he would make Chang-Sun his right-hand man, just as he had done with Moon Yi-Byeol. If he had Chang-Sun and Yi-Byeol by his side, he would surely become the Raid Team Department Head, who would be appointed soon!
Of course, Executive Directive Oh would be furious if he found out what Jeong-Gwon was planning, but Jeong-Gwon planned to worry about that later. However, the problem was that it was difficult to win over Chang-Sun’s favor.
‘Mwhahaha! You wait and see! Little strokes fell great oaks, so you’ll become my right-hand man in the end!’ Jeong-Gwon thought.
Silently observing the situation from beside Chang-Sun, Gyeo-Ul was even more amazed than ever; no rookie other than Chang-Sun would be able to speak so rudely to ‘Smilodon’, who was known to be the most belligerent of the White Tiger Clan’s four Raid Team leaders.
‘Hyung-nim is indeed great,’ Gyeo-Ul thought with a nod. On the other hand, he wondered whether it was alright for a team leader to leave his team members alone and wander around.
Some time later, Chang-Sun came to a halt.
“What’s wrong?” Jeong-Gwon asked, tilting his head and wondering what was going on.
Seemingly having noticed something, Chang-Sun quickly examined the surroundings, and said expressionlessly, “There’s something Executive Director Oh asked me to do, so we’ll get going. Gyeo-Ul, let’s go.”
“Yes, hyung-nim!” Gyeo-Ul answered.
As soon as Gyeo-Ul seeped into his shadow, Chang-Sun kicked off the ground.
[The Skill ‘Windstalking Tiger’ has been activated!]
Pah!
With his exquisite Lightness Skill, Chang-Sun moved forward; his feet did not sink into the snow at all.
“Hey, wait…!” Jeong-Gwon cried, trying to stop him; in the end, however, Chang-Sun slipped out from under his nose.
Just like Ye-Eun, he was also about to become a high ranker, but he could not follow Chang-Sun’s movements; he was left chuckling dumbfoundedly, muttering “What the hell…”
However, soon enough…
“He’s making me want him more and more!” Jeong-Gwon exclaimed, bursting into hideous laughter. His eyes sparkled as he looked forward to seeing what kind of miracle Chang-Sun would create again.