Duo Leveling LITRPG | Post Apocalyptic | SYSTEM-Chapter 213 - 286- The Fire in the Snow +287

Jhin focused power into his legs, releasing a sudden burst of acceleration. He called back over his shoulder to the others still running behind him.

"Keep up—full speed. I'll get that door open, no matter what."

He quickly closed the distance to the massive shopping center's entrance. Just ahead, he spotted movement—several archers inside the barricade had spotted him and loosed their arrows without hesitation.

[Skill 'Phase Step (F)' activated.]

Whish! Whip!

Reading their trajectories with Soft skills, he dodged smoothly before the arrows could find him, his speed never dropping for even a moment.

He reached the door in a flash—right as one of the guards tried to shut it completely.

"Wh-who…?!"

Without wasting a breath, Jhin slammed into the man, knocking him flat. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

The door, halfway shut, jerked to a stop.

Killing intent surged in an instant—all eyes turned on Jhin, weapons drawn.

"Let's all take a breath. Just—just let us outlast this storm. That's all we need."

Their suspicious glares didn't soften.

Just then, his party scrambled through the gap, panting, flushed, covered in frost. Jhin had held the entrance open just long enough for them to slip in.

Still, every person in the shopping center had a blade, a spear, or a bow aimed directly at them.

And that's when it happened.

"Ahhh!"

Hyden, who had been trailing behind, was suddenly yanked off his feet and lifted into the air.

A hand—or something like it—had grabbed him. There was no visible creature. It was made entirely of snow, clumped and shaped into something monstrous.

"A snow wraith…?!"

"Shut the gate! Hurry!"

The people inside panicked.

But with Michael and the other players already inside, none of them could approach. Not easily.

These weren't ordinary people. They were elite—each at level 190, some of the strongest in the world.

"Jhin! Hyden—he's—!"

"Leave this to me!"

Clicking his tongue, Jhin turned and dashed back outside—straight into the heart of the blizzard.

The creature holding Hyden let out a guttural howl, its icy body towering above the swirling snow.

A snow wraith.

It's not a physical entity—regular attacks won't work.

He'd read about them. Not particularly hard to kill, if you knew how. And this was the perfect chance to test something new.

Time to practice—in live combat.

[Skill 'Clone (S)' activated.]

Mid-run, his body split in two.

Now there were two Jhins sprinting forward—identical in every way, from clothes to breath.

As they both leapt into the air, the clone to his right let out a battle cry, flames roaring from its clenched fists.

[Clone casts combo skill, 'Fire Explosion (F)'!]

A tremendous burst of heat ignited in midair, slamming into the wraith's chest with a thunderous boom.

Fire exploded across its snowy form, and its grip faltered.

Jhin seized the opportunity, diving in and tearing Hyden from its grasp.

"K-K-Kyle…?" Si-hoo stammered, dazed and shaking.

Jhin didn't answer. He just pulled the younger player close, shielding him as they made their retreat back toward the center.

The doors were still open.

Behind them, the wraith let out a furious roar.

"You deal with me," growled the clone.

Still cloaked in fire, the clone rushed in, fists blazing.

Boom!

BOOM!

Explosion after explosion erupted in the snowy gale.

The clone didn't hesitate, didn't flinch. It fought like it was burning itself alive—because it was.

Even as Jhin and Hyden slipped through the shopping center's threshold, the clone outside continued to fight, its flames refusing to die.

And then—

"…Tch."

The doors slammed shut.

At that exact moment, the clone was finally extinguished, reduced to flickering ash.

ROAAAAARRRRRR!

The snow wraith's enraged howl echoed faintly through the sealed walls.

Inside the shopping center, silence fell like a heavy curtain.

Thud!

Then came the backlash.

[Clone has perished.]

[All accumulated damage is now being transferred.]

Crack!

As the skill ended, every blow the clone had suffered was transferred back to Jhin's body.

He staggered, barely staying upright. It felt like his bones were on fire.

'So… clones do share damage. I'll have to be careful using this.'

He'd assumed dying wouldn't matter.

But it turned out all the clone's memories—and pain—were synchronized at the moment of death.

Not like the kill switch erasures from before. This was different.

'A risky skill… but powerful.'

Still steadying his breath, Jhin looked up.

The shopping center's interior was deadly quiet.

From about ten meters away, the inhabitants still had weapons drawn, trained directly on him.

And that's when he realized—

'This place… it's not frozen.'

Despite the cold raging outside, it was warm here.

Even hot.

Activating Soft skills, he felt it clearly—heat, heavy and unnatural. The rest of the city had been buried in snow, but not here. That had to mean something.

He stepped forward and raised his voice.

"Please, everyone—calm down. We didn't come to fight."

"…And why should we believe that?"

Turning, Jhin gestured to his party to lower their weapons. No need to escalate things now.

'Not like they could threaten us, anyway.'

Truth was, his group consisted of elite combatants. A team of level 190 veterans. No one here could match them.

'And this doesn't feel like a Company outpost.'

With a quick pulse of spirit sight, Jhin read their auras—these people were "benevolent spirits." Not wicked, not evil.

They wouldn't do harm without cause.

"We only want to wait out the blizzard. That's it. Once it passes, we'll be on our way."

He couldn't forget that they'd drawn weapons and fired first—but in truth, he didn't blame them.

To them, they were the outsiders.

One of the defenders spoke up.

"That's not for us to decide. We follow Lord Clarke's orders."

At that, all eyes turned.

Someone was approaching from the back.

"Clarke" had arrived.

The man wore a sleek fedora and thick leather coat—his presence heavy with that distinctive aura of middle-aged charisma.

Jhin swallowed tightly.

'…Hmph.'

Rank 12: "Whitevalley" Clarke.

Even if you'd never seen the original, the resemblance was striking. Like a walking cut-out from a game world. The outfit, the attitude—everything was perfectly tailored.

And yet…

'It really looks like him… too much so.'

He narrowed his eyes, inspecting the man closer.

'Still the same. Uncannily so, actually.'

It was impressive enough that even Millie might've begrudgingly given props for the cosplay. The synchronicity was that convincing.

Of course, the man before him wasn't the real Clarke.

'Another impersonator?'

Jhin's expression turned sour. This damned game—every time he blinked, someone else was faking a name or stealing a title.

If the system had just let people carry over their names from the previous version, none of this would've happened.

Another thing to blame on the devs. Or the admins. Or both. Damn it.

Perhaps his expression had betrayed his thoughts, because the so-called Clarke glared daggers at him.

That piercing gaze locked onto Jhin—and in those eyes was raw hostility. A challenge, plain as day.

"Are you the leader?" the man asked curtly.

Technically speaking, it had been Michael who'd taken the reins and guided the group all the way from Paradise to here.

But no one objected to the question. Not even Michael or Jhin. Neither of them had much interest in being in charge.

More importantly, Michael seemed to already suspect that this "Clarke" wasn't real.

'Well, of course he would. Michael was a long-term New Capital player before getting transferred here.'

He'd even been involved in the intelligence ops during the Adonis rescue mission. No way he didn't know the real Clarke.

The fake Clarke, meanwhile, didn't lower his guard. His presence remained sharp, his voice clipped and commanding.

"Come inside."

"…?"

"Everyone else, get it together. We've got guests. Can't exactly throw out people who survived all the way here."

His words were oddly polite… while his eyes still looked like they wanted to kill someone.

That contrast made Jhin narrow his gaze further. He couldn't read this man's intent at all.

Still, for now, he chose to follow.

Fighting wasn't the goal. Not when they needed a place to outlast the snowstorm.

The frozen city. A shopping center still miraculously untouched.

Jhin had his theories.

'This heat… must be the reason why this place didn't freeze.'

The deeper they went, the hotter it got. Practically stifling. Like a public sauna.

He activated Soft skills to analyze it more closely.

'Whatever the source is, it's strong enough to withstand a C-rank disaster. Impressive.'

He slipped off his coat and stored it in his inventory. It was hot enough to sweat.

They passed deeper underground and finally arrived at a small office tucked beneath the mall.

And then—unexpectedly—the fake Clarke bowed his head.

Deeply.

Even his tone changed.

"…Please. I ask for your forgiveness."

"…What is this?"

"You already know I'm not the real Clarke. But I had no intention of mocking Millie. I swear it."

He glanced up, just enough to meet Jhin's eyes.

"Kyle, sir."

Jhin blinked.

This wasn't what he expected.

From an impersonator, he'd expected arrogance. The usual bluster and deception. But this man had bowed first.

Now that was surprising.

He frowned slightly.

"How'd you know I'm Kyle?"

"…How couldn't I? A quick online search would tell anyone."

"That's strange. No one else here seemed to recognize me."

When he first entered the center, they'd all treated him with intense suspicion. Not exactly how you'd treat a known hero.

And say what you will—Jhin was a hero by now. His legacy was far from obscure.

'And if the internet still exists, then Clarke's identity should be public knowledge by now too.'

Kyle's face was everywhere—there was no way someone like Millie, internationally famous even before the world went to hell, wouldn't be outed as Clarke by now.

She would've gone viral on every newsfeed. Forums would've exploded.

"That's because most people here don't have magic phones yet. And the ones we do have… you'd need to get all the way out to the outskirts of Whitevalley to access the network."

The man pulled out a battered-looking device—an outdated version of the magic phone, the very same kind Millie used to have before she upgraded.

"I heard they've only been distributed around the Venus region so far. I got lucky and stumbled on this one by chance."

Fair point.

Whitevalley had always lagged behind—especially now, with a B-rank dungeon in the vicinity.

Severe magical climate damage made even veteran players think twice about entering.

The man swallowed hard.

"Besides… I saw you fight that snow wraith. No ordinary person could've handled it like that. Not without a scratch. How could I not recognize you?"

He straightened up again.

His eyes were still intense, still charismatic, but now his voice was genuinely respectful.

"My real name is Danny. As you probably guessed, I've just been borrowing Clarke's name for now. IPowerge this place—Olive Department Store."

The story that followed was simple.

He'd once been just a vendor running a food stall nearby.

Every day, 6 AM, first to open. That day was no different—until the world changed.

He'd been pulled straight into the dungeon phenomenon while setting up shop.

From that moment… until now.