Labyrinth Exploration 101 - Chapter 157
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Labyrinth Exploration 101 Episode 157
Eight(1)
“I said no. How many times do I have to tell you?”
On the short path from the monitoring room back to the duty room, Kim A-rang shook her head at the request from the other end of the phone.
─Please just tell me that one thing. A-rang, you know me. You know I can keep my mouth shut. Just tell me whether he gets eliminated or not. Is our Ha-woon getting eliminated?
“That’s the most important thing, how can I tell you that? I’m hanging up.”
─Hey, don’t do this! If you knew how much I like Seol Ha-woon-
Click.
She hung up the phone.
With three days left until the broadcast, requests are flooding in.
Not just acquaintances among ordinary people, but middle and high school classmates, even people from other broadcasting stations want spoilers for the next episode.
They even send threatening texts, you know?
“Haaaam…”
Kim A-rang yawned as she lay down on her bed.
She felt dead tired, but surfing communities was essential.
│There’s this asshole at our company who keeps saying Seolhaun will definitely get eliminated│I just want to punch him right in the philtrum. Fuck, does he think he’s the only one watching?─Yeah fuck└Didn’t spoilers come out? That she gets eliminated└Don’t you know Labyrinth? Their spoilers have never been wrong└You’re not hoping for that, are you?└ㅋㅋ I want to punch this bastard in the philtrum too
│Is it true that Seol Ha-un’s elimination is basically confirmed?│Most of the real insiders are treating Seol Ha-un as eliminated..─Even without those insiders, the situation does look pretty unfavorable─If he survives alone from there, he’d literally be the main character ㄹㅇ If he survives, I could see him getting 1st place.
“…Pfft.”
Of course the rumormongers only say things like that. It’s viral marketing that we’re deliberately spreading from our side.
│Wow, looks like Seokjun is also a fan of Jemallot ㅋㅋ│It’s airport fancam footage and Mallot has a character keyring attached ㅋㅋㅋㅋ─He keeps showing it off on Bubble too ㅋㅋ telling people to vote for Jemallot─ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ That keyring is so cute ㅋㅋ─Seokjun already followed Jemallot on Instagram ㅋㅋ But Mallot is being super cold and absolutely won’t follow back ㅋㅋ└Mallot probably doesn’t even know who Kim Seokjun is└Stop talking nonsense
By the way, Seok Jun is a famous idol. Kim A-rang, being a broadcasting station PD, meets him quite often. He’s the main vocalist of a 1.5-tier boy group that seems like it’ll become 1st tier soon.
“Do idols particularly like Seol Ha-woon?”
Before, a female idol’s smartphone wallpaper was Seol Ha-woon, which even made the news, and he got quite a lot of hate for it.
In Kim A-rang’s opinion, ‘age’ seems to be the reason. Kang Jun-ho and Ke Ji-woo might become their direct competitors, but Seol Ha-woon is about five or six years older anyway.
Anyway.
Now in South Korea, talking about Mitamnan is essential.
Not only on communities and YouTube, but on all public broadcasts, comprehensive programming, and cable, they talk about Mitamnan. Even though it’s not their own program, they invite rankers for in-depth discussions.
The phenomenon of public broadcast veterans leeching off a mere cable show.
It’s not entirely unpleasant.
Swipe swipe.
Kim A-rang moved her fingers to turn on a live stream.
Active Mage Ranker Yoo Ho-jin’s Guest Seat: Mitamnan Related Stories Lee Byeong-su LIVE 53,173 viewers
“…53,000 people watching at this hour.”
Live streams are quite an important indicator. The firepower is too big to ignore.
─Yoo Ho-jin: Seol Ha-woon… Considering the location of the defense base, this person does look like he’s in trouble. But the possibility isn’t completely zero. He’s Jemalok, you know?
They’re talking about Seol Ha-woon as soon as she tuned in.
─Lee Byeong-su: Speaking of which, there’s a lot of public opinion that even Jemalok will have a hard time this time
-Absolutely
-It’s time for him to get eliminated
-For real
-You’re absolutely right ㅠㅠ
-ㅠㅠ Please don’t die, you’re absolutely right
-ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-The insiders already spoiled everything lol
The chat messages are coming up incredibly fast.
─Yoo Ho-jin: It seems like many people here already know… I won’t say anything.
-lol going to hell
-Seolhaun has gotten so many more fans lately lol
-Hahahaha
-lol those caterpillars are so grosslolol
-Our company also had Seolhaun fans and Kate fans fighting with each other lol
-Please kick out fandom bashers;;
─Lee Byeong-su: Yes. Managers, please quickly remove fandom bashing… Then let’s stop talking about the preview and look at the PPT you prepared?
─Yoo Ho-jin: Ah, sounds good. Next.
Click. A PPT appears on the screen.
─Yoo Ho-jin: First, this is an analysis of Jemalok’s formulas related to Defense Labyrinths.
-Oh lololol
-Oh
-Oh
-That sounds fun lol
-Malok again?
-Hahahaha
-Again Malok
─Lee Byeong-su: What do you mean “again Malok,” everyone? Ha-woon is currently feeding several YouTubers.
─Yoo Ho-jin: That’s right. You keep saying “again Malok,” but Jemalok is quite a hot topic among mages these days. Because he really writes formulas well.
─Lee Byeong-su: Ah, but what does it mean to write formulas well?
─Yoo Ho-jin: Hmm~ That’s a good question. Usually ordinary people think that formulas just come out when you do mental visualization, right? Absolutely not. Theory is as important as mental visualization. You need to know theory for mental visualization to become stronger too. In that regard, the formulas that Malok writes, or designs… are very clean. There’s no unnecessary stuff.
─Lee Byeong-su: Like his personality?
─Yoo Ho-jin: Ahaha. Yes, I’ve never met him directly, but just based on his appearance in this program. It really resembles his personality. The development of his formulas is very, extremely efficient, so he doesn’t waste any magic power at all. I brought something…
Formula A, Formula B.
Two formulas appear on the screen.
Formula A was complexly distorted, while Formula B was intuitively clean.
─Yoo Ho-jin: Which one looks like Jemalok’s formula to you?
─Lee Byeong-su: Uh… Formula B?
-B
-BBB
-B
-BBBB
─Yoo Ho-jin: Look at this. I think the viewers can tell too, right? Anyone can see that Formula B is cleaner. Without any wasted parts.
─Lee Byeong-su: But isn’t B easier?
─Yoo Ho-jin: That’s right, that’s it! That’s the misconception most ordinary people have. Since it looks simpler, they think it must be easier to make, right? Easier to understand, right? Absolutely not.
Kim A-rang knows the reason.
Formulas are sensitive, and magic power is even more delicate.
If the formula’s shape is off by even a fingernail’s width, or if the circuit is short by even 1mm, the magic power explodes.
An accident occurs.
In other words.
─Yoo Ho-jin: Efficient formulas are the aesthetics of subtraction, not addition. But if you subtract wrong, the entire formula gets distorted.
─Lee Byeong-su: Ah~ So subtraction is much harder than addition?
─Yoo Ho-jin: Exactly! With addition, you just keep going and somehow complete a formula. But magic power gets wasted here and there. If there’s too much addition, the formula manifestation speed slows down, but there are no other problems. But with subtraction, if you really mess up, it’s a disaster, a real disaster. It’s not just a problem with the formula—actual magic power explosions occur… It’s an incredible tightrope walk. To extract maximum efficiency, you inevitably face errors.
-Seol Ha-woon walking a tightrope lololol
-He’s right, he does seem like a genius
-True, from what I hear about university accidents, they’re all on the mage side
-Righteous god wow
-Ha-woon was an efficiency fanatic lololol
─Yoo Ho-jin: So this is what I think. Since he practically can’t have the mobility required of modern mages, he polished his formula efficiency like crazy and honed himself. Mr. Righteous is both a glass cannon and the sharpest sword. In fact, they say Seol Ha-woon spends 12 hours a day in the Unexplored Library.
─Lee Byeong-su: Wow, that’s really cool, isn’t it?
-Fucking badass character
-Just a protagonist lol
-lololol isn’t he just a firepower otaku
Kim A-rang slowly fell asleep while listening to the broadcast.
* * *
…Scrape scrape. Scrape scrape.
I completed the wooden sword with a carving knife. Not long, a dagger slightly larger than my hand. A masterpiece where my Mana Memory and the master’s mastery book harmonized.
〔What is it?〕
Aro asked with curious eyes.
“This is…”
What was the most expensive ‘category’ sold at MoMo’s auction house in the past?
Accessories.
In almost all RPG-type games, the most expensive ceiling items are accessories. This dagger is top-grade among them.
“It’s a Sequence dagger.”
First, I implanted circuits through Magic Coefficient, and actually overlaid part of a ‘Sequence’.
“It detects danger on its own and protects its owner.”
When you inject magic power, it recognizes that entity as its owner and floats around nearby.
“Auto Defense. It’s practically a skill-grade accessory. You try it too.”
I handed over the dagger.
〔Auto Defense. Practically a skill-grade accessory.〕
“No. Don’t repeat what I say. Try using it.”
Aro injected magic power into the dagger.
Buzz buzz. The dagger floated around the penguin, and when I picked up a stone and threw it.
Clang!
The dagger moved on its own to block it.
“How is it.”
〔Very good.〕
Mages or Archers who find close combat burdensome would drool over this.
Actually, it turned out better than expected, so I thought about using it myself, but for me as a Sequence user, it was too much.
“Put these in too and release it as a Random Box.”
I made other collections appropriately too.
3 SRs, 1 SSR, and this wooden dagger is UR.
〔The probability is 0.02%. You’d need to purchase 5,000 to get it. Beep-beep-beep-.〕
Aro’s laughter sounds somewhat sinister.
“Good. Then I’m going.”
I have many things to do today. Fan meeting rehearsal, and watching the live broadcast too.
Public opinion says I’ll be eliminated from this Labyrinth, but as the person involved, it’s quite enjoyable. It’s cute too.
〔Yes. Good luck with filming.〕
“Yeah. It’s not filming anymore though.”
Aro has been watching Mitamnan through OTT lately too.
I’m not curious about who his favorite pick is.
There’s no need to be curious.
It’s obviously me.
I built his house, give him food, let him watch dramas and movies.
You’re my first pet, and I’m your first owner.
Obviously.
“Aro. Who’s your favorite pick?”
〔….〕
Aro didn’t answer.
My eyes narrowed.
“…Why no answer.”
〔Secret voting is the principle.〕
“You can’t vote anyway. Just who’s your favorite pick. It’s easy.”
I waved my walking stick in front of Aro’s eyes. I tapped my chest with my palm.
〔Secret voting is the favorite pick.〕
“Secret voting isn’t the favorite pick. Who’s your favorite pick?”
〔…Secret voting is the principle.〕
“…”
This robot doesn’t lie. I don’t know if it can’t or won’t.
〔….〕
“…”
〔….〕
“…”
It won’t say until the end.
I glared at Aro then let out a hollow laugh. I pressed my temples and stood on one leg.
“I’m asking one last time. Who’s your favorite pick?”
At that moment.
Aro’s panel changed like a monitor.
〔Initiating system response protocol for received inquiry. “I’m asking one last time. Who’s your favorite pick?” is understood as an inquiry about the validity of individual preference, commonly called ‘favorite pick’. Regarding this matter, the following supplementary explanation is provided based on system regulations and data processing procedures.
According to the design principles of the current voting aggregation system of Labyrinth Exploration NaN, commonly known as Mitamnan, the concept of fixed preference expression for a single target, namely ‘favorite pick’, has limited statistical importance applied in the final result calculation process. This is because the system is optimized to collect and analyze comprehensive evaluation data for multiple targets rather than concentrated support for specific targets, thereby deriving more balanced results.
The point that must be emphasized here is that effectively using all 7 voting rights granted to each participant is absolutely essential for maintaining system data integrity and securing operational efficiency. Voting rights that are not exercised and left unused are processed as Missing Values in that week’s comprehensive evaluation database, which can be potential data loss that may minutely affect the accuracy of final analysis results, and can be considered inefficient utilization of allocated system resources. The concept of designating a specific target as a sole ‘one-pick’ is an item that does not actually apply to my information processing procedures or internal evaluation metrics. From the perspective of maintaining system efficiency and fairness, excessive fixed weighting for a single target can cause potential data bias, so it has been strictly configured to be avoided from the system design stage…]
* * *
“Smile. Smile. Ha-woon, don’t you usually smile a lot normally? Or not?”
“Please smile often during the fan meeting.”
“And, it would be good if you do everything the fans ask for if possible. Don’t refuse.”
“A lot of videos will be filmed and uploaded, so… oh, Ha-woon just needs basic makeup. Foundation would actually have a worse effect.”
“It looks that way, right? Here, here, your skin is too good.”
“Exactly.”
“Touch it. Not a single blemish, and not just the skin tone, but the elasticity is almost like early teens.”
“Let me see.”
After being thoroughly worked over by the staff under the pretext of fan meeting rehearsal and VCR filming.
Returning to the dormitory, I opened the sorcery book I brought from the labyrinth.
[Sorcery: Traces of the Soul]
A method to interpret and examine Kim Yoon-jun’s eyes. The answer related to that seems likely to appear in the combination of sorcery and formulas.
Studying is easy for me. I just need to utilize very low-level sequences.
If I preheat my central nervous system with magic power, my concentration, memory, and comprehension increase, allowing me to fully utilize my magical talent.
After studying like that for a while.
┌─Labyrinth Exploration NaN─┐
The live broadcast began.
I put down my pen.
“It’s been chaos lately.”
While I was in the labyrinth, all kinds of YouTube communities and broadcasting circles were tearing apart the Defense Labyrinth.
A YouTube video inviting a Mage ranker to deconstruct and analyze Seol Ha-woon has a whopping 4 million views.
[Previous Episode Content]
The recap of last week’s story that runs for about 2-3 minutes.
I moved from the desk chair to the sofa.
The opening that follows is…
─Im Hae-jun: Haa… haa…
It’s Im Hae-jun.
Congratulations, Hae-jun.
Ding-
A KakaoTalk message came right away.
[Im Hae-jun: Wow!!!!!! Master, I’m finally in the opening!!!]
[Lim Hae-jun: This is crazy, this is insane ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]
He seems incredibly excited.
─Im Hae-jun: Haa… haa…
[Lim Hae-jun: Hahaha I came up with a smart strategy and I think it’s going to work out]
[Lim Hae-jun: Good good good hahahaha]
─Im Hae-jun: Haa… haa…
Im Hae-jun on screen and Im Hae-jun in KakaoTalk are in quite different states.
KakaoTalk is excited to death, while the screen looks like he’s just dying.
─Kim Yong-tae: …Im Hae-jun. The east is too far. Let’s stop by the back for a moment…
Mercenary Kim Yong-tae pointed at the map.
─Im Hae-jun: No. Then we won’t have enough time.
[Lim Hae-jun: ㅋㅋㅋㅋ The mercenary kept saying let’s go back ㅋㅋ]
While Im Hae-jun is excitedly doing real-time commentary.
Im Hae-jun’s current location in the Defense Labyrinth is displayed with sparkling indicators.
[Current Location]
And that current location extends all the way to Seol Ha-woon’s base in the east.
It’s incredibly far.
─Im Hae-jun: Shh.
Suddenly Im Hae-jun puts his hand to his lips. With serious eyes, he glares at the map and smirks with a deadly smile.
─Im Hae-jun: There’s an enemy crystal nearby. Let’s destroy it and go.
─Kim Yong-tae: …Even going to the east is difficult right now.
─Im Hae-jun: No.
[Lim Hae-jun: A famous line is coming up lol]
[Lim Hae-jun: Oh, I definitely didn’t think about it beforehand lol It just came out randomly lol]
The line that real-world Im Hae-jun is eagerly anticipating, spoken by labyrinth Im Hae-jun.
─Im Hae-jun: I’ll take responsibility.
I looked at the live chat.
-That bastard is really stupid
-Is he an idiot?
-Hahahaha is that guy trying to copy Seolhaun or something?
-ㅋㅋ but why, it’s cute
-He looks low in intelligence
-I can see why Jemal-ol gets eliminated. He’s the only one coming to the east.
It’s a problem if they come and a problem if they don’t come lol
-You’re right lol the maze format is fucking terrible for real lolol it’s basically a structure where Seolhaun has to rely on Imhaejun lol
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ He’s the same age as Kim Woohyun but why does there seem to be such a huge IQ difference
-It’s not because of being young, not because of lack of experience, but a matter of intelligence haha
It was flooded with curses directed at Im Hae-jun.
Everyone’s been on edge lately. Maybe it’s because rankings are announced every week.
I looked at Im Hae-jun’s KakaoTalk messages. The messages that had been coming every 3 seconds suddenly stopped.
I can imagine his dejected appearance. Corners of his mouth turned down, face buried low, probably grumbling to himself for no reason.
─Im Hae-jun: Alright. Everyone charge at once and destroy that crystal first. Let’s go…
Well, in hindsight, it was the right strategy.
Wait for your reevaluation, Hae-jun.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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