Labyrinth Exploration 101 - Chapter 210

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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 210

The Way Home (2)

“What’s this person’s name?”

During a brief rest, Seo Ji-woo asked Yoo Seok-hoon. Yoo Seok-hoon answered quietly.

“Jeong-hyeop. Sergeant Yoon Jeong-hyeop.”

Yoon Jeong-hyeop, Yoon Jeong-hyeop… Seo Ji-woo muttered his name. Yoo Seok-hoon watched her intently.

Thud.

Just then, the loading was complete.

The world brightened again. The musty smell of medicine and the stench of blood rushed in. It was a field medic tent.

There, Yoon Jeong-hyeop opened his eyes.

─You’re awake?

At Seo Ji-hyuk’s voice, Yoon Jeong-hyeop turned his head. Seo Ji-hyuk smiled and asked.

─How’s your body?

─Yes. I barely survived. Thanks to Sergeant Seol…

Seo Ji-woo couldn’t take her eyes off Seo Ji-hyuk’s appearance. This was the clearest she’d ever seen Seo Ji-hyuk. Old memories, faded by their long-ago farewell, seemed to come vividly back to life.

Yoon Jeong-hyeop groaned as he raised his upper body.

─…What happened to Gustav?

The corner of Seo Ji-hyuk’s mouth trembled slightly. He stared into space for a moment.

─It was a trap. But… it won’t take long.

“That bastard kidnapped hundreds of children and used them as living batteries. To operate some kind of magic or formula.”

Yoo Seok-hoon’s voice intruded into the memory. He continued like a narrator.

“He built a facility underground in the desert. Our mission was to kill Gustav.”

The scenery of the memory changed.

Fully recovered, Yoon Jeong-hyeop climbed a hill in the desert. At the top was Seo Ji-hyuk.

Seo Ji-hyuk was looking out at the distant horizon from there. Seo Ji-woo watched him from right beside him.

─Sergeant Seo Ji-hyuk.

─Yeah. What?

─Are you alright?

Seo Ji-hyuk tilted his head. Yoon Jeong-hyeop fidgeted with his fingers and continued with difficulty.

─There’s a rumor going around that it’s been agreed to ‘abandon’ the children… the kids. We don’t know what Command is thinking, but…

Seo Ji-hyuk listened quietly to his words. He remained silent for a while. His blue hair fluttered forlornly in the desert wind.

Seo Ji-woo looked back at Yoo Seok-hoon. Her eyes demanded an explanation of the situation, but Yoo Seok-hoon just watched the two in silence.

He seemed to still be with them.

─Well. I’m not alright. Absolutely not alright.

Seo Ji-hyuk was honest. A smile like tears spread across his lips.

─I feel like I’ve lost my way for a moment. I came here to protect them, but now they’re telling me to abandon them. Isn’t that too much?

Yoon Jeong-hyeop unnecessarily ran his hands through his short hair.

─That’s true. But… we have to do something somehow. It’s not like we’re doing meaningless work. Also, you’re the most upright person I know, Sergeant…

Suddenly, the desert light shone on Seo Ji-hyuk. However, his appearance seemed somehow precarious.

“Are you proud of your brother?”

Yoo Seok-hoon asked. Seo Ji-woo didn’t answer. She couldn’t answer. Her throat was already completely blocked with tears.

─Then I’ll be going.

Yoon Jeong-hyeop turned around. As he descended the sand dune where the desert wind was swirling, he looked back at that place once more from in front of the tent.

─Huh…?

Someone was suddenly beside Seo Ji-hyuk. He approached very naturally and sat down next to Seo Ji-hyuk.

Seo Ji-hyuk looked at him and smiled. The precariousness that had been felt from Seo Ji-hyuk found stability in an instant.

Yoon Jeong-hyeop watched that scene for a long time…

Again, the space changed.

It was nighttime with thick darkness. Yoon Jeong-hyeop was on guard duty with a tense expression. A gun was firmly gripped in his hand, and only the sound of desert wind echoed throughout the area.

Rustle, there was a sign of someone. He reflexively turned his gun barrel.

─Lava!

The moment he shouted the password, a low and calm response came back.

─Sparrow.

It was someone he could recognize just by voice.

Yoon Jeong-hyeop lowered his gun barrel, and Seol Ha-woon appeared like a shadow. In his hand was a large duffel bag.

─Sergeant Seol. But isn’t it funny? Korean passwords in the desert.

─Not bad. I can shoot anyone who hesitates.

Seol Ha-woon answered indifferently and held out the duffel bag.

─Here.

─Uh, what is… Whoa? What is all this?!

The duffel bag was full of all kinds of precious supplies. Clean water, medical supplies, cake, candy, fruit, combat rations, etc… Yoon Jeong-hyeop asked like an excited child.

─Wow. Where did you get all this stuff? Did you smuggle it?

“Ah…”

Such innocent expressions made Seo Ji-woo sad. Because Yoon Jeong-hyeop was already a dead person. Because he was just a fragment of the past that remained only as a memory.

─There was a face I knew among the traders. I had created some debt before. You go eat. I’ll stand guard tonight.

─Hey. No. Still, guard duty-

─I’ll stand it. I need to sort out my thoughts too. So get lost. I still don’t understand how you became a sergeant. Aren’t you getting discharged?

─…I’m not.

Yoon Jeong-hyeop pursed his lips and shouldered the duffel bag.

─Sergeant Seol. But that… is it true?

─What.

─That you’re on the Black team.

Seol Ha-woon frowned. Yoon Jeong-hyeop quickly lowered his gaze.

─If rumors spread, then it’s not Black.

─…There’s no one else but Sergeant Seol.

“Black, you mean UDT BLACK, right?”

“Right. UDT BLACK. Black belongs to UDT but is a bit different. Each individual is like a unit themselves, simply put, they’re agents. Even within UDT, they don’t know who’s Black.”

Yoo Seok-hoon seemed envious of Seol Ha-woon over there. It seemed he secretly wanted to become Black himself.

─There’s one more candidate, isn’t there?

Seol Ha-woon said. Yoon Jeong-hyeop shook his head.

─Nah… Sergeant Seo Ji-hyuk doesn’t suit Black. He’s too white.

─And I suit it because I’m pitch black inside and out?

At Seol Ha-woon’s mischievous joke, Yoon Jeong-hyeop kept his mouth shut.

For a joke, his expression was too blank. At least his lips should twitch a bit.

─Don’t underestimate him. He’s much tougher than you think.

Seol Ha-woon leaned against the guard post. Seo Ji-woo found him puzzling.

When did he say he was ‘just’ acquainted with Seo Ji-hyuk?

─Yes. Then I’ll be going.

Yoon Jeong-hyeop left, leaving the guard post to him.

─What? Why did you come?

─Ah, Sergeant Seol said he’d take over.

─…Really? That guy?

If it’s Seol Ha-woon, he’s trustworthy. All the unit members think so.

─And this. He got supplies.

─Oh?!

─Hey shit, what’s this! Isn’t this cake?!

─Crazy, hey. Wow, fuck!

Seeing the supplies, everyone laughed like children. They especially lit up their eyes as if they were going to cry at the cake.

Except for Captain Yoo Seok-hoon.

He went outside alone. Yoon Jeong-hyeop also cautiously followed and peeked in that direction.

In the distance, Seol Ha-woon and Yoo Seok-hoon are having a conversation.

No, Yoo Seok-hoon is talking and Seol Ha-woon is letting it go in one ear and out the other.

“I probably wasn’t a good superior to Seol Ha-woon.”

Yoo Seok-hoon muttered self-deprecatingly.

“Because I was jealous. Because I had too much greed compared to my abilities.”

Yoo Yul raised her eyebrows.

“You coveted the Black Team?”

“….”

Silence was the answer.

Kuuuuuuung!

Suddenly the scene changes, and something pours down from the sky with a trumpet-like roar.

It’s bombing.

The sky is covered with black smoke and flashes, and the earth splits with screams. Everything is destroyed, everything burns.

─Damn it! Everyone get down!

It was a multinational force. Gustav was a famous villain, but units of all nationalities participated in his subjugation.

“It was bullshit about ‘saving the child,’ but that wasn’t really it. They coveted the magic Gustav was trying to develop.”

Kwaaaaaaaak!

Yoon Jeong-hyeop looked at someone’s back while shaking from the explosion.

Seo Ji-hyuk stood alone in the middle of the bombardment.

─Sergeant! It’s dangerous!

Seo Ji-hyuk slowly, very slowly turned around to face him.

─…Yeah.

Even at death’s door, he was calm. Rather, he seemed like someone who wanted death.

─Sergeant…?

From Yoon Jeong-hyeop’s perspective, Seo Ji-hyuk was an incomprehensible person. That feeling had affected everyone watching Yoon Jeong-hyeop’s memories.

People think Seol Ha-woon is incomprehensible and Seo Ji-hyuk is easy to understand.

But the more time spent with them, the more that thinking becomes the complete opposite.

Rather, Seol Ha-woon is easy to understand.

He’s a person with clear purpose. Someone who fixes his focus solely on the task called ‘mission.’ There’s no pretense or decoration in his actions.

But Seo Ji-hyuk is….

The memory changes again.

Some shabby and gloomy pub. Empty bottles are scattered messily on the table, and cigarette smoke is thick like fog.

[…Despite international criticism and pressure, the Gustav arrest operation has been in a stalemate for half a year, and while investigation and cooperation are ongoing, there is reportedly no clear progress yet. The victims’ parents are spending each day in agony, despairing at the incompetence of military and police…]

A Korean anchor delivers the situation in a sharp tone, and interviews with despairing parents are broadcast on screen.

Yoon Jeong-hyeop lowered his gaze from the TV screen.

There was no youthful freshness of the early twenties in his appearance. Hair had grown wild like a beast’s, and his whole body was covered with scars and gunshot wounds.

Yoon Jeong-hyeop downed a glass of whiskey in one gulp and asked with his voice.

─Can we… can we really catch that bastard?

Yoo Seok-hoon answered.

─Believe.

He gripped his glass tightly with conviction.

─We won’t let him slip away this time.

They had obtained the most important and most dangerous intelligence.

Inside a dark underground cave. Flashlight beams dimly illuminate the interior.

The space where Gustav was said to be hiding.

The unit raided that place. The order from above was ‘everything is permitted.’

It didn’t matter how many children were there. If they could catch Gustav and return, it was fine to shoot and kill.

─….

The moment Yoo Seok-hoon gave a hand signal, everyone rushed in.

However.

─…What?

It was empty. But it wasn’t too late.

They could feel the warmth of someone who had been there just moments ago, and traces of a hasty departure were scattered about messily.

“Either information was leaked the moment we deployed, or it was a trap to lure us from the beginning.”

Right after Yoo Seok-hoon finished speaking.

Thud──!

A huge explosion erupted, followed by an attack. Multiple gunshots and magic power were exchanged as the screen went dark. Screams and roars echoed.

Made by humans, yet seeming inhuman.

“Almost all of our unit members were consumed. We were clearly betrayed. Someone inside sold our information at the cost of our lives.”

Yoo Seok-hoon’s tone settled heavily like dying embers.

Seo Ji-woo asked blankly.

“But the operation was said to be successful…”

“It succeeded. At our cost. By selling one piece of information, they could obtain both.”

Suddenly the vision lit up again.

─Keurk, kruk…

Corporal Yoon Jeong-hyeop gasped for breath.

Yoo Seok-hoon quietly continued.

“Thanks to us becoming bait, they were able to safely rescue the children those bastards kidnapped.”

─Haa, haa, haa…

Yoon Jeong-hyeop felt around his body. Organs were flowing out from his already completely ruined body.

“They also pinpointed Gustav’s location. Gustav was at the final destination where the children were being transported.”

─Ah, ahuk…

The world slowly grows distant. Blood and tears mix and flow down Yoon Jeong-hyeop’s body.

─Mom, ma…

Those were his last words. His breath quietly stopped, and his eyes never opened again.

“Who…”

Seo Ji-woo muttered blankly. Yoo Seok-hoon looked directly at her.

“Who do you think? Try thinking about it coldly.”

Yoo Seok-hoon asked coldly. Seo Ji-woo stepped backward while pondering.

The person who finally survived in this desert. Someone who didn’t die like Seo Ji-hyuk, didn’t collapse like Yoo Seok-hoon, and was the only one who lived and sustained himself.

Someone who could willingly sacrifice everything for the completion of a mission.

In Seo Ji-woo’s mind, there was only one person.

“…Seol Ha-woon.”

The moment she uttered that name, Yoo Seok-hoon’s face twisted endlessly.

Pus and blood streamed down from his face crushed by burns.

* * *

Buaaaang!

I stepped on the accelerator.

The sound of tires crushing asphalt. A good car is good for a reason. The more you step on it, the faster it goes.

“Ha, Ha-woon! Isn’t this too fast?!”

Im Hyeong-uk in the passenger seat trembled while gripping the handle.

“Shh.”

I drove the national road like a highway. I might get caught by speed cameras, but I didn’t have the luxury to think about such things.

“But. Is, is the fact correct? That Yoo Seok-hoon said Seol Ha-woon was the traitor, ueok!”

I created an air current with magic power. I adjusted the vehicle’s speed even more steeply.

“There’s no way he wouldn’t know.”

“Wha, what? You mean the fact is correct?!”

“….”

Yoo Seok-hoon was lacking as a commander, but he wasn’t an incompetent person. He wasn’t stupid or dull either. Therefore, his reason for specifically seeking out Seo Ji-woo would be clear.

There was no way he wouldn’t know.

There was no way she wouldn’t know that the traitor was Seo Ji-hyuk.

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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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