“Right this way!”

“Please stay in line! We’ll evacuate you all to safety!”

“Do you know the Guardian Knight Ha In-Ho? He’s fending off the monsters, so you’re all safe!”

“Please stay in line! Stay in...I said, stay in line!” The members of the Goblin Guild tried to calm the panicking people, but it was useless.

Clang! Clang!

“Eek!”

“W-won’t it break?”

“Let me get out! Get out of the way!”

“Huh? Stop pushing! Do you know who I am?”

If you looked up just a little bit, you could see the skeleton soldiers fiercely attacking the shield. Consumed by terror, everyone ignored the orders to stay in line and continued to push those in front of them. 

“Geez, Vice Team Leader. The people won’t listen to us, what should we do?”

“Should we bend their ears instead?”

“...Don’t be ridiculous.” 

The Vice Team Leader Ha In-Ho clicked his tongue at his teammates’ words as he upheld the magic shield. He looked at the hundreds of people that were pushing each other at the entrance. They were holders of vice and honorary titles, or otherwise extremely powerful. 

‘They say that those who have power fear death the most…’

After all, didn’t the first Qin emperor seek an elixir for eternal life and filled his tomb with terracotta warriors? Ha In-Ho couldn’t think of a solution and sighed.

Woooosh! 

As an intense heat spread out, a loud sound was heard from one side of the auction hall as a wall collapsed. At the loud noise, the people who regained their senses for a moment turned toward the noise. 

“It’s gonna take forever to send everyone through those small doors! Direct them this way!” Gong Ju-Ha shouted. She didn’t hesitate as she broke through the wall of a building that cost tens of millions to build. 

“Princess-nim, you can’t just break it like that…”

“Why not? It was a good decision. Nice, Princess-nim!”

“Alright everyone, see that over there? The exit is much wider and you can evacuate faster. Follow me!”

Unlike Ha In-Ho, who was embarrassed, the other team members gave the girl a thumbs-up. The audience started to flow out of the auction hall like an outgoing tide through the hole. 

“They’re not even that strong…”

Clang! Clang, clang!

During that time, the number of skeletons banging on Ha In-Ho’s shield had increased. More kept jumping down from the ceiling. As Ha In-Ho looked up at them, his eyes widened. 

‘There are at least 120 of them, just by looking it.’ 

Just who was their enemy that they could carry out an attack on this scale? 

His eyes were still fixed above him when he heard something ‘suddenly’ pierce through the air toward him. 

“...What?!” He twisted quickly, creating a shield around his body. 

Ping!

A bullet from a sniper rifle pierced right through his shield as blood sprayed into the air. A second later, there was a sharp pain that overtook all his thoughts. 

“Guh...Ack!” His concentration was broken, and the magic shield dissipated. 

Clack, clack! 

The skeleton soldiers fell to the floor of the auction hall. 

“In-Ho!” As she heard her precious subordinate cry out in pain, Gong Ju-Ha bit the corner of her lip. It was a habit of hers when she got really mad. 

“I was gonna stall for time until I could trace the Skeleton Mage’s magic...” 

It was too late. The Goblin Guild’s Princess valued her subordinates highly, and she was furious. 

Woooosh!

As if to represent her fury, flames bloomed around her. With her black suit and ponytail, the flames suited her perfectly. 

“Alright.” Gong Ju-Ha made a decision and waved her hand lightly, but the attack that it created wasn’t light, to say the least.

Whoosh.

The soft lighting inside the building suddenly became as bright as day. The fire pierced through the ceilings and shot toward the sky. 

Sizzle. 

That was all. In an instant that didn’t seem to last even a second, the skeleton soldiers turned into ashes. 

The unconscious Ha In-Ho and the stage that held the Heaven’s Breath didn’t even have a scratch on them. Gong Ju-Ha wiped the beads of sweat on her forehead.

“...Man, it’s so hot,” she muttered.

***

On the roof of the Mirage Hotel, 4km away from the Grand Garden Arena. The delinquent woman looked up as the pillar of fire dyed the sky red. She spoke to herself in awe. “...Insanity. Is that really the skill of a human? Is it CG? It doesn’t make sense.” 

She was far, far away, but cold sweat had already formed on her back. 

‘I heard that Gong Ju-Ha’s skill was the strongest special attribute skill Ruler of Flames (S), but…’ 

She had never imagined that it was on that level. What would happen if she fought with a monster at a close distance?

She trembled. She didn’t want to think about it. 

“Phew, it’s a good thing that I’m a sniper.” She let out a sigh of relief and adjusted her goggles. Her vision expanded like a telescope. 

‘So that’s Heaven’s Breath.’ 

Next to it was Ha In-Ho, whom she had taken out. The one who had been protecting the Heaven’s Breath was gone, so there was no more reason to hesitate. 

“Come here, cutie.” As she looked down at Heaven's Breath, she activated her skill. 

‘Teleport.’ 

The next instant, she felt something heavy in her hand. “Wow, this is totally my style,” she remarked, admiring the beautiful core. A call came from her boss. 

—The item?

“Who do you think I am? I have it.”

—Good job. Come to Point B right away. 

“Okay~” She hung up and got ready to leave. She patted her rifle and made a wistful face. “...Tsk, Seo Jun-Ho that bastard got away.” She had promised to shoot a bullet through his head if she saw him, but that guy was really lucky. 

“But if he ever comes to the 2nd floor, someday I’ll…huh?” 

The delinquent woman saw something and adjusted her goggles again. 

Whirrr. 

Her vision expanded, and she found the face she was looking for. 

“Seo Jun-Ho!” Her exclamation was mixed with anger and excitement as she raised her sniper rifle again. “I thought you were a lucky guy, but I take that back.”

He was running down the street. She didn’t know where he was headed, but he was running really fast.

‘Tsk, unlucky bastard. If you’re gonna run, why are you running toward here?’ 

She looked through her scope and aimed at Seo Jun-Ho’s forehead. 

“I’ll make your head explode painlessly with one hit.” Her voice seethed with killing intent, and she pulled the trigger without a moment’s hesitation. 

Boom!

A ripping sound rang out on the hotel’s roof. The bullet disappeared then reappeared in front of Seo Jun-Ho’s nose. 

“Ufufu, this isn’t a bullet that should be used for a rookie who only debuted two months ago.”

There was a reason why she could be a sniper for the best corps, the Watchdogs. It was because she was a sniper who could ‘teleport’ her bullets right in front of her opponents. From her opponent’s perspective, the bullet would pierce through their bodies before they could even hear the bullet ripping through the air.

“Go to hell…huh?” She checked for Seo Jun-Ho’s corpse through the scope, and her eyes narrowed. She had been expecting his corpse, but he was still running down the street. “What? Did I mess up?!”

She tilted her head, confused, and loaded her rifle one more time. 

‘That’s weird. I’ve never messed up in the past 3 years…’

Her sniping success rate was 100%. She had never failed to defeat an opponent, and she wrote off her first mistake as a coincidence. 

But this was her real mistake… 

If she was truly a seasoned sniper, she would have left her spot the moment her bullet missed.

“I won’t miss this time.” She aimed carefully at Seo Jun-Ho again. 

At some point, their distance had shrunk to a single kilometer.

‘Die!’ 

As she pulled the trigger, she used her Teleport skill once more. The bullet disappeared and once again reappeared right in front of Seo Jun-Ho. 

‘I did it properly this time. He can’t dodge that.’ 

She watched him, reassuring herself. 

Woosh! 

He lowered his head and dodged the bullet. 

“Fuck! How is he doing that?!” She saw it with her own eyes. She reeled from her shock and shouted. “He dodged? My bullet? Right in front of him? That easily?” 

It was impossible. 

Even Ha In-Ho, who was called the Guardian Knight on the 2nd floor, had fallen to her attack. 

‘This is one of those attacks that you can’t block even if you know it’s coming…you’re telling me that newbie is better than Ha In-Ho?’ 

It made no logical sense. But she saw it with her own eyes, and it was hard to deny it. 

As she realized this, the delinquent woman realized that she had been focused on the wrong thing. 

‘Wait, now that I think about it…?’

From the very beginning, Seo Jun-Ho had been running toward the building she was on. 

“...Is he? Dammit!” She cursed and quickly put her rifle into her inventory and reached for the Heaven’s Breath on the ground. 

Crack! 

A sneakered foot pressed hard into her hand, crushing the bones. 

“...!” She couldn’t even think to scream. 

From her crushed hand, her veins started to freeze throughout her body. 

“Huff, huff…phew.” Seo Jun-Ho’s shoulders heaved. He ran so quickly just now that his body was radiating heat. “...I thought I would miss you.” 

He discovered her Teleport skill from the skinny man’s memories, so he had no other choice but to chase her down before she could run away. 

‘Ugh, covering this much distance is hard.’ 

Shadow Step. It used magic to transport the body through darkness and shade, similar to a magician’s ‘Blink’ skill. The only problem was that it consumed a ton of magic. 

“It was a little hard, but the results were good.”

Shing. 

Seo Jun-Ho unsheathed his sword. Tonight, he would erase the Watchdogs from this world. 

***

“It’s hot...I said it’s hot!”

Wooooosh!

Gong Ju-Ha shouted hysterically as she melted another crowd of skeletons. It wasn’t hard to melt the endless amount of skeletons, but the sticky heat bothered her. 

“Ughh, Ant...Antarctica will be cool, won’t it? All right! When this is over, I’m going on a vacation to the King Sejong Station.”[1] She looked like she was about to cry as more skeletons appeared. As she was thinking about how nice it would be to quickly go back to her room and take a cold shower, one of her subordinates dashed over. 

“Princess-nim!”

“What!”

“It’s an emergency!” The subordinate swallowed hard and looked toward the stage as they spoke. “W-we can’t find the Heaven’s Breath!”

“...What?” Gong Ju-Ha’s face hardened as she confirmed this. 

“Didn’t the people in charge take it away?”

“No. I’m sure of it. It disappeared amidst the chaos.”

“But I didn’t let a single skeleton get to the stage…?” They stared at each other blankly. 

Then another subordinate screamed. “Gah!”

“W-what’s with these guys! They’re strong!” 

Gong Ju-Ha’s forehead wrinkled as she turned her head. “Hey! Stop exaggerating about the skele…” She trailed off. Earlier, the Skeleton Mage kept sending the same type of skeletons, but now he sent over new ones. 

“Black skeletons?” There were six skeletons whose bones were completely black. On top of that, they all had different individual weapons. 

“Huh? That…” The subordinates seemed to recognize them. 

“Why? Do you know the skeleton?”

“No, not that...but I know some of the gear they’re wearing.”

“Are they famous?”

“...Do you remember the incident 3 years ago that sent the 2nd floor into a frenzy?” 

Gong Ju-Ha wracked her brain and responded without hesitation. “The Player Disappearance Case?”

“Yes. Players that were over level 110 disappeared without a trace. It was really shocking.”

“Get to the point!” 

At her urgency, her subordinate quickly summed it up. “Their gear matches the ones from the people who disappeared.”

“...What?” Her eyes went wide and she looked again at the black skeletons. Her teammates averaged at level 75, but they couldn’t make a dent on them. 

‘…No, the skeletons are actually winning.’ 

A chill went down her spine. 

“You, do you know the missing Players’ skills or fighting styles?” she asked her teammate. 

“Yes. I know them very well since I was in charge of the investigation back then.”

“What do you think?” 

Her subordinate understood what she meant and swallowed hard. They bowed their head. “Their skills and fighting styles are exactly the same as the ones who disappeared.”

“...Really?” 

That meant only one thing. The Players who disappeared back then had turned into undead.

1. Korean research base in Antarctica ☜