Labyrinth Exploration 101 - Chapter 172

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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 172

 

As world caves in(8)

 

I followed Dale’s guidance as he led the way. Every staff member we encountered in the corridors was Dale.

 

There was a Dale in the maintenance room, a Dale in the control center, and Dales everywhere throughout this Space Center.

 

“Our Space Center will spare no effort in supporting your journey to the moon.”

 

Dale smiled as he opened the gate.

 

“To check for infection status, we’ll briefly separate you two for examination.”

 

I didn’t sense any hostility from Dale.

 

I could deal with everything here and move on, but the odds weren’t certain, and I still needed information.

 

“See you in a bit.”

 

“Yes.”

 

We split up in opposite directions.

 

I walked down the corridor and asked Dale.

 

“Dale.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“May I ask a few questions?”

 

Jeremy had called this place a den of demons. There must have been a reason for that.

 

“Of course.”

 

Hiss. Dale opened the next gate.

 

“Have many people come looking for this place?”

 

“Recently there have been relatively few, but there were quite a lot before. However, there was a bit of a problem. Most of them were contaminated.”

 

“What kind of contamination?”

 

“They were people who differed from our standards. Unfortunately, we had no choice but to turn them away.”

 

If that contamination was due to radiation exposure, I could understand why Jeremy called it a den of demons.

 

“Then. Do you know about Noah’s Ark Project?”

 

For a moment, Dale hesitated. He turned to look at me.

 

“…Ern, you’re still a traveler with insufficient information access privileges, but I’d like to tell you specially.”

 

Hisss. Dale resumed walking and opened the third gate.

 

“Noah’s Ark was a human preservation project. Even if Earth were to perish, it was meant to restore humans with completely identical DNA sequences in the future.”

 

That meant a human cloning project.

 

I chuckled softly.

 

“You’re the evidence of that.”

 

“Hmm… I don’t understand what you mean. I’m merely management personnel.”

 

He’s a clone, but doesn’t realize he’s a clone himself.

 

“This is it. Please go inside for a moment.”

 

Dale pointed to a rectangular isolation room. I willingly entered.

 

Swoosh.

 

The door closed and a hologram message appeared in the air.

 

[Checking for contamination…]

 

An invisible scanner swept over my entire body.

 

[Status Check: Normal.]

 

[Proceeding with disinfection procedure.]

 

Disinfectant was sprayed from the ceiling.

 

[Ern. Welcome to the Space Center interior.]

 

The gate on the opposite side opened silently. I stepped inside. Beyond it were countless Dales, and it was surprisingly clean.

 

Transparent glass and dazzling white tiles. Dales with identical faces moving through the corridors. Their movements had not an inch of error, and not a speck of dust on their uniforms.

 

As if only this place had avoided the devastation of nuclear war, unrealistically clean— Crack!

 

Crackle!

 

Electric current sparked deep in my eyeballs. The futuristic scene before me briefly distorted into gray ruins, then with sparks that seemed to burn my optic nerves— Bzzt! —returned to normal.

 

What did these clones do to me?

 

I closed my eyes and opened them again.

 

“Please follow me.”

 

The Dale right in front of me gestured politely. I roughly brushed away his hand.

 

“When will my companion join us?”

 

Then Dale blinked his large eyes mechanically.

 

“…Unfortunately, that person cannot come here.”

 

My brow furrowed.

 

“Why?”

 

“You should be aware of the reason yourself, Ern. And this situation will ultimately benefit you.”

 

Ultimately benefit me.

 

At those words, I remembered the day I first met Kate.

 

I had seen it then. The message she received.

 

[This is PD Yoon. About this matter— there’s no other way—]

 

[Don’t die— due to your Labyrinth collision—]

 

[Absolutely don’t die—]

 

[However, the Labyrinth will not be stopped— this has been confirmed with Magnus of Hailford—]

 

Sequence Supersense had detected even that.

 

If she were to die in this Labyrinth.

 

“Please follow me.”

 

Dale gestured again.

 

I suddenly became curious.

 

What lengths would I go to for my own survival?

 

* * *

 

Kate followed behind Dale. She didn’t let her guard down. She strained her five senses to catch even the smallest information and signs from her surroundings.

 

Just as Seol Ha-woon had done.

 

Then, Dale, who was walking ahead, spoke first.

 

“Kate. Do you dislike your companion?”

 

“…Dislike him?”

 

“Yes. I sensed that kind of atmosphere between you two.”

 

It would be much more than just dislike.

 

She probably hated Seol Ha-woon.

 

The ‘why’ didn’t matter. If Seol Ha-woon was the one who killed Percival, she had the right to hate him far beyond any justification.

 

“That’s too personal a question.”

 

“I see. I apologize. This is it.”

 

Dale pointed to an isolation room.

 

Kate first extended her magic power to probe beyond the wall. It was an imitation of that technique of Seol Ha-woon’s.

 

If his hands were adult hands, then hers were still tiny baby hands.

 

Fortunately, she couldn’t sense any lingering traces of gunpowder or magic power.

 

Kate preheated her magic power and entered inside.

 

Hiss.

 

The door closed and a hologram message appeared.

 

[Checking for contamination….]

 

A scanner swept over her from top to bottom.

 

[Warning: Contamination detected.]

 

[Contamination levels exceed acceptable range.]

 

[Jane. We’re sorry.]

 

“What the-”

 

The moment the message disappeared, the floor beneath her feet gave way.

 

She hadn’t expected this kind of method.

 

A sudden fall. Kate instantly released her magic power to maintain balance and landed while absorbing as much impact as possible.

 

Thud!

 

“Tch.”

 

Her soles nearly shattered. Kate frowned and surveyed her surroundings.

 

It was a dark space. A metallic smell of blood stung her nose. Crackle, crackle- sparks flew from severed wires, and rustle. Unpleasant friction sounds came from all directions.

 

Rustle.

 

The presence of something writhing. She condensed her magic power into the form of a knife.

 

A bluish light illuminated that direction.

 

“…!”

 

She gasped in shock and stepped backward.

 

“Whoo arre youu…? Whaat…are youu dooing heeere…?”

 

A life form that ‘barely’ maintained human shape spoke in a distorted voice.

 

Broadly speaking, it was Dale, but the positions of its eyes, nose, and mouth were randomly mixed up.

 

A failed clone.

 

They were discarded waste.

 

“Wheere arre youu…gooing…?”

 

Kate tried to slowly move away, but there was a presence behind her too.

 

“This is insane.”

 

It was an even more horrific sight. Its face was like half-melted slime, and its body was crumpled like paper.

 

“Arre youu…huungry…?”

 

The creature stared at her with empty eyes and then grinned- a disgusting smile.

 

“Huungry….”

 

Crack. Its jaw opened abnormally wide. Sticky saliva pooled inside its shark-like maw.

 

“Huungry…huungry…huungry….”

 

There wasn’t just one of them. Not just two either.

 

Huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry…huungry….

 

Dozens, no hundreds, perhaps thousands of failures crawled out. Discarded clones filled every direction.

 

“…Huungryyyyy!”

 

Shriek!

 

Kate thrust her long spear into the roof of the mouth of the creature lunging its maw at her.

 

* * *

 

Earth’s final day D-3

 

“We are not going to the Moon.”

 

I stood in front of the massive monitor in the control room, guided by Dale.

 

“We will simply remain here to send all of you up. That is our calling.”

 

Following Dale’s gesture, the screen zoomed in. Various facilities were prepared on the Moon.

 

Probably, the capsule to return to the original world would be there too.

 

“Your life is on the Moon. What do you think?”

 

I gazed at Earth’s distant satellite and fell silent for a moment.

 

“…You’re contemplating.”

 

Dale said.

 

Contemplating.

 

What am I contemplating right now? Even I myself cannot clearly know yet.

 

“Your thoughts….”

 

As Dale was about to say something, flash!

 

Sparks flew in my eyes. The clean control room transformed into ruins with ugly wires protruding, and this time a searing pain erupted in my head as if it would burst.

 

Distant and deep sea-like memories surged and rose.

 

‘Ha-woon.’

 

A voice calling my name. Syllables trembling with resentment and hatred.

 

I could endure the malice of villains well enough. I could shake it off with a sneer.

 

‘I will forever….’

 

But the malice harbored by someone who once showed me unconditional kindness was a kind of sadness that was difficult to bear.

 

‘Forever hate you.’

 

In those ash-like retinas, I was young.

 

I did no wrong to you. The fault was yours.

 

To you who tried to live embracing a fake, to you who was obsessed with ‘that thing’ that wasn’t even your daughter.

 

‘Though I will die here and now.’

 

Percival held his daughter’s corpse in his arms. A horrific wreckage whose entire body was melted by radiation, making even its form unclear.

 

I killed Percival’s daughter. I buried the entire country where she was hiding with a hydrogen bomb.

 

Percival lost his child twice.

 

‘Someday that child will come looking for you.’

 

At that time, I didn’t know who that child was.

 

Now I finally knew.

 

‘Please, die for my sake.’

 

I aimed the gun barrel at Percival’s forehead. He smiled as if resigned and accepted death.

 

‘You’ll understand. You would have done the same as me.’

 

Percival.

 

You left your malice in this world like a seed, and it grew over the years until it finally reached me.

 

You knew what kind of person I was. I was someone who didn’t make lengthy excuses for my actions.

 

I killed Percival. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

The why doesn’t matter.

 

There was simply that fact.

 

“Ern sir. The boarding gate is over there.”

 

Dale’s voice swept away the memories. I belatedly raised my head.

 

Dale’s finger, pointing at the elevator.

 

“….”

 

I looked at Dale who was accompanying me, and at the countless clones standing in this space.

 

“My name is Seol Ha-woon.”

 

I said to them while drawing the pistol from my holster.

 

“My principles.”

 

Even if this decision would someday lead to ‘my’ death.

 

Even if it inevitably would.

 

“Must apply equally to me as well.”

 

I aimed the gun barrel at Dale’s forehead. At that moment, all the Dales in the control room turned to look at me in unison. Dozens of identical eyes converged on a single point.

 

“So I’ll ask.”

 

I stared at Dale without wavering. Dale looked back at me blankly.

 

“Where is Kate?”

 

“Ah… Seol Ha-woon sir.”

 

Suddenly, a crack-like smile appeared on Dale’s lips. He reached for my revolver as he spoke.

 

“You are… a masterpiece.”

 

I didn’t let him.

 

I pulled the trigger.

 

Bang!

 

Dale’s head exploded and his body collapsed. I simultaneously activated my sequence.

 

Within accelerated perception, I assessed the entire control room. I had already counted the numbers. A total of 198 people.

 

I gripped the revolver in my right hand and the fake pistol that could fire mana bullets in my left.

 

The Dales also entered combat stance. Blue electric current rose from their bodies. Designed as mages, it seemed, most showed identical magic power patterns.

 

Railgun. A dangerous opponent. Electric current is tens of thousands of times faster than live ammunition.

 

I had to keep moving while shooting and dodging.

 

Could I do that?

 

I had to.

 

Bodies break down eventually. While I could still use these two legs, I had to push them to their limits.

 

I kicked off the road surface and fired my pistol at the Dales. Trajectories like a downpour flowed backward through the air. Hundreds of bullets soon covered the entire space.

 

At first glance it was random fire, but the accuracy of each shot would be as excellent as precision shooting.

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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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