Chapter 98 :

Episode 21 : Second World (4)

On his way to another world, HwanGi felt his body advancing throughout the portal and he could feel himself getting nauseous from this trip.

‘This is less worse than the first time.’ HwanGi mused, recalling a memory of the past.

———

⟨ It was a normal day without any trouble as usual, going to work and avoiding contact with anyone to not bring about misfortunes for everyone.

Leaving work and heading back home after finishing his paperwork, HwanGi was walking along the street as he looked at the sight in front of him with a slight empty blank stare.

It was because every night, he would have nightmares about his past, losing everyone he loved and watching as they got hurt because of his unfortunate presence.

Eventually, he was lost in his thoughts for a while, not knowing that he had bumped into people a lot of times as he was walking.

Unexpectedly, when he bumped into a woman, he snapped out of his thoughts and apologized to that person.

When he laid his eyes on this woman, his eyes went wide, eyes shaking upon seeing the person he hadn't seen for ages.

"Miss.. Mic—?" He said, barely remembering her name.

"Oh? And who might you be?" The lady spoke while smiling.

When he heard that, HwanGi thought he got the wrong person. But how could he when the person in front of him looked the same as she was when he first met her?

"Do you not remember me? I'm Seong HwanGi. Sans's childhood friend."

The lady responded, sounding overjoyed that she finally met him once again. "Ah. I remembered you." 

"How have you been lately?"

"I'm perfectly fine. How about you? You look like you're having such a hard time living."

"Well.." HwanGi couldn't deny that when all of the fatigue and stress were written into his face.

"Maybe you should relax for a bit." The woman grinned again. "I heard there's a VR game that could ease your mind. How about giving that a go?"

"Is that so?"

"Here. You can have this. Think of it as a present for our reunion." Handing a newly bought VR headset to HwanGi as she spoke.

"Wait. I can't accept this.." 

"Please?" The lady with her pleading puppy eyes forced HwanGi to give up on resisting her present and he undoubtedly accepted the gift.

"..Thank you so much." 

As HwanGi glanced at the present, he was going to ask for the woman's name again since he had forgotten her name.

But when he averted his eyes back to looking at the woman, she was nowhere to be seen.

"Miss..?"

With a dumbfounded expression, he stood there, dazing at where the woman had gone. 

Naturally, he tried to search for her but it was to no avail after looking at every nook and cranny throughout the streets and buildings.

"Where could she have gone..?" ⟩

Remembering such a past from just traveling through the portal, HwanGi was deep in his thoughts.

"HwanGi-ssi! Look out!" Calling out his name, HwanGi halted his reminiscence of the past when he heard a shout from JoonChul.

But to be greeted with a white bear's claws descending down upon him, HwanGi was caught too off guard when he thought he was still inside the portal.

In the last second, he unsheathed his sword and blocked the claws from harming him.

Despite him blocking the attack, he perceived his legs getting deeper into the ground as he was getting pushed downward by the bear.

No, it was not the ground, but the layers of snow on the ground. That was the reason why his legs were digging into the snows with no difficulties.

Since there was snow, it could also mean there was a cold atmosphere. When HwanGi finally realized that, his body grew sensitive to the cold.

"Urgh.." Being pushed back by the bear and no longer able to hold on much longer, HwanGi groaned and released a blast of ‘Divine Flame’ at the bear.

It was effective enough that the bear stopped itself from dealing with HwanGi when it became aware that its skin was burning slowly but surely.

[Stage #12 has begun!]

After catching his breath and understanding what was occurring before him, he had witnessed immeasurable numbers of polar bears targeting everyone within ‘The Rebels’ guild.

[Stage #12 : Fight or Flee.]

+

Stage Information: After arriving in the Arctic World, there would be those who think of you as an easy prey to hunt. And that would be the polar bears who aimed to eat you for their delightful meal for the night.

Stage Task: Pick the following options for completing this Stage.

[ 1 ] Survive by killing the polar bears or blocking their aggressive assault within the time limit. 

— Or —

[ 2 ] Run away from the polar bears to ensure your safety.

Time Limit: 5 Hours.

Reward: ???/??? 

( Reward depends on your choice on which method you chose to complete this Stage. )

Failure: None.

+

Without much time to even check nor read the Stage's description, HwanGi had to get his legs out of the snow and ready himself for the polar bear in front of him.

In spite of him only seeing the Stage task for a split second, HwanGi remembered it quite well. Enough of that, he was more nervous on which option he would choose.

As a result, he couldn't come to a decision because he wasn't the one in charge. And as obvious as it was, he asked the one who was the leader and most wise.

"JoonChul-ssi! What should we do?" HwanGi uttered.

Far from hearing HwanGi's words, JoonChul managed to hear it in spite of not being close to him. "Did Frostina complete her task?"

"..? Yes, she did?" Expressing his astonishment from JoonChul's question, HwanGi thought. ‘Frostina is his comrade.. so of course he would be concerned over her, but he avoided my answer.’

As HwanGi predicted, JoonChul didn't give the answer to HwanGi's question, thus HwanGi was left without a proper option to complete this task.

HwanGi thought and thought until he was aware of his foolishness. ‘I shouldn't be puzzled over something like this. I'll obviously do anything to protect everyone dear to me!’

Unleashing ‘Divine Flame’ under him in a blink of an eye, forced the snow underneath to melt away easily.

With that, HwanGi was able to move freely in his area and he slashed his sword which was masked with ‘Divine Flame’ at the polar bear.

At that moment, he knew he didn't have to worry about his flame not working because of the bear, since the last time he fought a bear was when he couldn't use ‘Divine Flame’.

"Haa!!"

Penetrating his sword into the bear's gut, he let out a wave of whirlpool into the stomach of the bear which blasted everything inside the bear outside violently and disgustingly to the white snow.

Dying the snow with bloody red, the bear soon couldn't endure the pain and its organs were shattered outside, it died in misery and landed on the snow.

HwanGi let out a pant. "Huff.." 

Without moments to rest, HwanGi continued on fighting to help everyone around him, going toward Mya first since he was most worried about her.

"Mya!" His eyes again were opened to their limits, gazing at what was in front of him. What he saw, wasn't something he could comprehend. 

A child shooting her arrows toward her enemies and using her skills as cleverly as she possibly could, Mya was doing her utmost to survive through this chaotic and brutal environment.

Though she was struggling to do so, HwanGi had a smile on his face and a bitter one at that. 

Once he got by Mya's side, he destroyed the bears who were hit by Mya's arrows and leaves, thrusting his sword and pulling it out insanely fast to get back on killing more bears.

From then on, it was getting increasingly cold and foggy because of the snow that was raining down to the ground.

‘How snowy is this place?’ He could even see the area he had stood earlier, finding it to be already covered by the snow in under a few minutes.

Not only that, his eyes could notice how Mya was shivering from the cold. His thought was to end this fight as quickly as he could, but the question was how?

‘The time limit is 5 hours I think..So how am I going to keep fighting in this coldness?’ 

Then he remembered about Mya's skill and wanted to ask if she had used it on the polar bears already. "Mya. Can you put these bears to sleep?"

Mya heard that question and realized that as well, so she tried to use her skill swiftly, activating it while she was aiming her arrows toward her next target.

[Player ‘555’ has activated the Skill, ‘Nature's Melody’ Lv. 2.]

After she used her skill, the result was the bears falling asleep only for half a second before getting back up, along with the polar bears getting angered by what Mya had done to the bears.

"Eek!" Mya jumped from the glaring of a bear's staring at her, stepping back and bumping into HwanGi's leg.

The bears were furious of what Mya tried to do, as a result, all the bears charged at her, bearing their fangs and crystal claws at the child as if she was just a mere rabbit in their eyes.

"This is bad." HwanGi stood by Mya and pointed his sword to the incoming bears, directing his ‘Divine Flame’ to the tip of the sword.

Not knowing he had used two skills at the same time, HwanGi had shot ‘Wave Vortex’ and ‘Divine Flame’ toward the polar bears.

[Combinations of ‘Divine Flame’ Lv. 3 and ‘Wave Vortex’ Lv. 2 had turned into ‘Divine Tornado’ Lv. 2!]

A fire twister emitting from the tip of his sword, savagely sent forth a frightening tornado burning through the fur of the bears like it was nothing.  

Feeling stunned by the sight before him, HwanGi gaped at how he had just only realized this function in the system.

‘Wait no.. I tried it once, but it didn't work because it required a specific level on each skill.’

Not the time for recollection, HwanGi flinched when a bear managed to get past the ‘Divine Tornado’, he then sprinted toward the bear with his sword aiming for the bear's head.

But to think he saw something familiar on the icicles embedded around a bear's neck, made him halt his attack for a slight moment.

"That is..!"