The man took short steps before he leaped off the ground. He killed a bee in an instant and kicked off from its back to fly into the air.

- Kieee!

- Chrr, chrr!

He took them in before he casually swung his sword in a zigzag motion. There was a loud, satisfying sound as dozens of wasps fell to the ground.

The man landed gently and looked up at the sky, expressionless.

‘There’s no end to this.’ 

No matter how many he killed, there was no sign that the bees filling the sky were diminishing in number.

‘It looked like a few hundred of them went to the tower earlier…’ 

He already knew who was in there. The only two Guilds that were free to attack the tower were Goblin and Hallem.

‘We have to start cleaning up here and enter the tower.’ 

He didn’t know what was in there. But seeing how there was a powerful aura coming from the tower, he assumed that it held the key.

“...Hm?” He squinted as he stared at the tower, noticing something.

‘Crystals?’ 

Something sparkly was raining down from the sky.

However, it wasn’t crystals. There was no reason for them to be falling from the sky.

‘Then…’ 

Kim Woo-Joong looked a little higher, and his eyes widened.

‘Seo Jun-Ho?’ 

It was the ice elemental user Seo Jun-Ho. He had created a staircase out of ice and was running to the top of the tower.

‘But why…’ 

It didn’t take long for him to receive an answer.

- Kieeeee!

Despite the distance, he could feel the powerful cry in his bones. Even though they were so far apart, Kim Woo-Joong felt his soul shake.

“Bleghh!”

“Gah!” 

Several Players started to vomit as it shook their very cores. Kim Woo-Joong’s face fell as he looked around.

‘What in the world is there…?’ 

He wasn’t sure of the answer, but he quickly came to a conclusion. Whatever was there, there was no way that Seo Jun-Ho could kill it by himself.

‘I have to help him.’ 

Just as he started sprinting toward the tower, the ground started to shake.

Rrrrrr!

“Dammit! There are bees underground!”

“What… What kind of monster is this?”

It was their first time seeing the digger wasps. They had a bizarre appearance, looking like a crossbreed between an insect and an animal. As the fierce monsters attacked, their frontline quickly started to be pushed back.

‘...What should I do?’ 

Kim Woo-Joong squinted as he looked up at the tower, eyes shining.

A large shadow had swallowed the roof. His eyes lingered for a second before he turned back to his Guild members, feeling reassured.

‘I believe in you.’ 

Specter had entered the battlefield.

***

Not just anyone could be called the strongest at any time. When someone truly was the strongest, they stood at the top with no competition.

Slice! 

So, Specter was the strongest Player.

“You can block everything else, but you can’t block this.”

Slice!

Though there were dozens, hundreds of elementals in existence, none of them had the inherent contemptuous nature of darkness, a trait that made it more powerful than all the others.

- Kieeeee! 

Janabi screeched. As he looked down at his regenerated body, there was a quizzical expression on his face.

- Kiii?

He couldn’t understand. Every time his body regenerated, it would become tougher, stronger, and even more overwhelming than the last. However, his prey didn’t seem to care at all. Seo Jun-Ho would just swing his spear without a second thought. And every time that happened, Janabi’s arms and legs would fall like the dead branches of a tree.

- Chrr!

It made him distressed. He couldn’t quite understand what was going on, and he felt like it was hurting his reputation as king.

‘I’m glad.’ 

Seo Jun-Ho’s body dissipated like smoke as he easily dodged Janabi’s attack.

Night Walking erased all his traces, and he calmly walked toward Janabi.

‘I’m really, really glad.’ 

The fear Jun-Ho had felt when he first encountered Janabi seemed like so long ago. It hadn’t been long since Janabi was born, so he heavily lacked experience. And aside from his impossibly strong regeneration skills, he didn’t really have anything outstanding about him. It wasn’t like he could use an elemental skill like the Frost Queen or had any other superpowers.

‘There’s only one thing that sets me apart from you.’ 

It was experience. Seo Jun-Ho was infinitely grateful that he was the first Player Janabi had encountered.

‘Unfortunately for you, I have more experience fighting Players than you do.’ 

Seo Jun-Ho vowed to kill Janabi. His eyes glinted coldly.

-...

Janabi started to breathe heavily, and his chest felt tight. He could barely see in this place, and even then, the space was covered with mirrors from top to bottom, so it only made him dizzy. This situation was maddening enough, but on top of that, his enemy was completely hidden.

-...

He couldn’t smell him.

He couldn’t hear him.

He couldn’t even sense the strange aura that his prey gave off.

- Tchrr.

At that moment, he finally acknowledged and accepted the fact that if things continued like this, the roof could become his grave.

-Kiii. 

And he didn’t want that.

He had come to possess the kingly DNA after eating part of the queen, and his instinct didn’t want him to die.

‘Our race must prosper.’ 

That simple goal convinced him to keep going.

There was only one thing he could do now.

- Kirrr!

It was to ‘remember.’ To take the past experiences embedded in his DNA and make them his own. He would master any useful skills from the experiences of the prey that he had eaten today.

That was Janabi’s only solution.

He stabbed his hand into his forehead. His six fingers started to prod at his brain.

- Kii… Kiiii…

The pain was indescribable, but Janabi didn’t stop even as he started to drool. He forced the memories and experiences of the Players to resurface.

“Goodbye.”

Seo Jun-Ho’s spear stabbed through Janabi’s focused face. He sliced downward, and the darkness-infused blade was not met with resistance. Janabi’s body was bisected.

‘I can’t let my guard down just yet.’ 

His body was sliced into eight, sixteen, thirty-eight, and sixty-four pieces. Seo Jun-Ho tore him apart into hundreds of pieces.

“...”

He looked blankly down at the pieces of flesh at his feet and frowned.

‘The message… It isn’t there.’ After he had defeated the Frost Queen, a message immediately appeared. But right now, there was nothing.

That could only mean one thing…

‘He’s not dead.’ 

Seo Jun-Ho invoked the darkness once more and ordered the wolf-shaped shadows.

“Clean everything up thoroughly.”

With that, the wolves dashed toward the pieces of Janabi and started to tear into them.

However, their feast lasted for only a second.

A fang sprouted from a piece of flesh, ripping through a shadow wolf’s neck.

“...!”

The piece of flesh quickly started to grow in size.

- Guhhh.

It regenerated its body and crawled forward, devouring the other shadows. It slowly stood, and it appeared to have restored its original body.

‘Something has… changed.’ 

Firstly, Janabi’s shoulders had become broader. Though Janabi had been small and thin before, his body had become more muscular now. Not only that, but he now had two extra arms on each side.

- Kuuuhhh. 

Janabi gripped his head; it seemed that he still wasn’t fully awake.

‘If I can even win…’ 

This might be his last chance to do so.

Seo Jun-Ho summoned a great amount of magic, more than he had ever summoned as Specter 26 years ago.

“Hup!” At the same moment, his chest swelled. With his lungs filled with air, he then exhaled toward Janabi.

‘Frost Breath!’

Crackle! 

Everything his breath touched froze into white, Janabi included. Seo Jun-Ho then dashed forward toward Janabi’s crouching figure, his right hand gripping a jet-black scythe.

‘I made the Death Scythe by compressing the power that comes with its wrathful nature.’ 

This was one of his three most destructive techniques.

‘Please, just die with this one…!’

He gnashed his teeth and swung as hard as he could in a diagonal line.  

“...!”

However, just as the scythe touched the ice, Janabi’s head turned from within it. As soon as Seo Jun-Ho met Janabi’s eyes, he started to panic.

‘It’s a trap! Should I retreat? Or…Should I keep going?’ 

But it was too late… Even before he could make a decision, his scythe tore into Janabi’s frozen figure.

Slice! 

Janabi’s top half slid off in a diagonal line.

Crackle! 

But as it did, Janabi’s arms broke out of the ice and grabbed Seo Jun-Ho’s throat.

‘So stubborn!’ 

Seo Jun-Ho was taken by surprise. But then he realized…

‘He already knew that he would be dismembered…’ 

And Janabi baited Seo Jun-Ho for this very moment.

- Kuuhh! 

Janabi’s body was regenerated in an instant, and his three fists started to pummel Seo Jun-Ho.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Seo Jun-Ho quickly protected his head and maneuvered his body to minimize the damage.

However, that wasn’t enough for Janabi.

- Kiii! 

He squeezed Seo Jun-Ho’s neck, making the latter lose his center of gravity.

Bam! 

Janabi sent his fist into Seo Jun-Ho’s neck.

‘...!’ 

The force made Seo Jun-Ho reel, and he quickly realized that single attack had fractured his neck.

‘White Armor’s neck was also destroyed...’ 

This couldn’t continue... The first thing he had to do was to create distance between them. Before the next attack came, he reached for Janabi’s chest.

“Fuck…Off!”

Crackle! 

Ice poured out of his palms, pushing Janabi out of the Curtain of Darkness. It looked like a frozen hill had appeared on the roof of the tower.

- Kikikiki. 

He became like a pincushion as hundreds of ice shards were stuck in his body, but Janabi was laughing as he stood. After all, he had escaped the nasty Crystal Room and Curtain of Darkness.

“Dammit…” The first thing Seo Jun-Ho did was to create a clone of himself using darkness. He placed it behind him so that it would be safe.

‘From this moment on, this puppet is Seo Jun-Ho.’

Even if someone came up to the roof, they would see Specter fighting Janabi while protecting Seo Jun-Ho.  

‘I can’t let them see that I’m wearing White Armor either.’ 

Darkness writhed and rose from the ground and started to cover his body. Now, he seemed to be wearing armor made out of thick shadows. Finally, he put on Specter’s mask.

“Yes… I suppose Floor Masters aren’t that easy to kill. “

- Kishishi. 

The monster had gathered enough experience in a tiny span of time to trick him. But the bigger problem here was Janabi’s extraordinary regeneration capabilities. If Seo Jun-Ho couldn’t stop it, he wouldn’t be able to kill Janabi.

‘How can I stop him from regenerating?’ 

He would have to find out.

‘I’ll kill him on the cellular level, and if that’s not enough, I’ll…Huh?’ 

At that moment, Seo Jun-Ho sensed a familiar aura.

“Wow, wowowowowowowow…”

She had come up to the roof with a grim expression on her face, but she became like an idiot when she saw Specter.

“S-S-S-S-Specter-nim…!”

It was Gong Ju-Ha.