Labyrinth Exploration 101 - Chapter 24

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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 024

Fall(4)

Whiiiii…

Sandstorms sweep across the world, engulfing everything. It’s hard to even open my eyes, and dusty particles pour into my mouth.

It’s a scorching desert that feels like it could melt my skin. There, my heart pounds like crazy. To save someone. Placing my hands on someone’s chest, applying hemostasis to their gushing wounds.

‘Ha-woon, ah.’

The guy calling my name while coughing up blood. His voice is mixed with blood too, as if he’s spitting out blood instead of speaking.

‘I’m… sorry.’

He looks at me, grabs my hand, and tells me he’s sorry.

Those words irritate me. If you’re sorry, then live. Just live. I want to say that, but my lips won’t part.

‘You know, ah, my… sister…’

Seo Ji-hyuk said.

Thud, thud. With breathing that was cutting off his life.

‘My, sister…’

Even as Seo Ji-hyuk was dying, he worried about someone else. That frustrated me about him.

‘Sister… poor… my…’

At the moment of death, in that instant when his breath was cut off, what was he thinking?

When he died talking about his sister, what feelings did he harbor?

What kind of dream was he having?

“…!”

I opened my eyes. I quickly raised my upper body. I breathed roughly and clutched my heart. My whole body was trembling.

“I told you. That it would hurt.”

Someone’s voice flowed in from beside me. I looked in that direction. Mentor Yoo Yul was there.

“More than your body.”

She continued speaking while looking at me.

“Your heart.”

My eyes were moist. I realized belatedly that tears had formed. I wiped them with my sleeve.

“It’s nothing much. Is this… the infirmary?”

Yoo Yul silently crossed her arms. She lifted one corner of her mouth diagonally. It was an expression resembling a smile.

Then the infirmary door opened. One more person entered.

It was Yoo Ji-in.

Click-clack. She walked over showing off legs that were three segments longer than Yoo Yul’s, looking back and forth between Yoo Yul and me.

“Mentor Yoo Yul, please refrain from overly sadistic classes in the future.”

“I’ve never been sadistic.”

“I heard there was blood and screaming everywhere?”

“Only he was like that.”

Yoo Ji-in faced Yoo Yul and chewed the inside of her mouth. She looked ready to spit out curses at any moment.

She shifted her gaze to me.

“Seol Ha-woon. Are you alright?”

“Yes.”

“Wasn’t the class too sadistic?”

“Yes. It wasn’t. I… tried too hard.”

Noodle-like veins popped out on Yoo Ji-in’s temples. It must not have been the answer she wanted. She glared at me and clicked her tongue.

“Fine. Whatever, then.”

She left with a whoosh, seems like she’s preheating to show her true personality.

“Seol Ha-woon.”

Yoo Yul called my name.

“Yes?”

“Let me ask you one thing.”

She crossed her legs. This time she succeeded properly.

“What exactly did you imagine? Violent refinement like yours isn’t common.”

“Uh… um…”

I scratched the back of my neck.

“It’s a bit embarrassing to talk about.”

Yoo Yul looked at me with a slightly expectant face.

“Do you happen to know what kidney stones are?”

“…What?”

* * *

[ Labyrinth Exploration NaN, Labyrinth Interior Stills ]

Stills were uploaded to IONet. Lee Si-ah immediately accessed the site.

“Wow.”

Quite a lot of photos were released. There seemed to be at least thirty or more.

Lee Si-ah calmed her pounding heart and scrolled down. She examined each one like appraising treasures.

Photos of the scene conquering the Labyrinth. Judging by the cargo slightly visible, it’s the Cargo Dungeon!

The explorers captured in the angle were Lee Jun-ho, Ryu Yeon-hwa, Seo Ji-woo, Kate, Kang Hyeon… and Seol Ha-woon.

The explorer Lee Si-ah had been unconsciously looking for.

In some forest, there’s a scene of Seol Ha-woon handing an arrow to Im Hae-jun, but it somehow looks heroic. Why would a mage give arrows to an archer?

Anyway, Lee Si-ah looked at the very next photo.

“…”

Her breath trembled.

Like a movie scene, Kang Hyeon and Seol Ha-woon shaking hands while facing each other. Both their faces were covered with mud, sweat, and things like fallen leaves.

Was it right after successfully conquering the Labyrinth? Or during the conquest?

Either way, this is a hit.

She immediately accessed the community. She copied the photo and posted it right away.

[ Labyrinth Exploration NaN Preview Stills ]

9 carefully selected photos. Among them, she put Seol Ha-woon and Kang Hyeon as the very first photo.

When there are multiple photos, many people just look at the first photo, roughly flip through the rest, and write comments.

─Wow Kang Hyeon is so handsome.

─Whoa, damn

─Must be a cargo labyrinth ㅇㅇ figured there’d be one

─But who’s the guy facing Kang Hyeon?

└Seol Ha-woon. Former UDT.

└UDT? His spectrum is really wide

─The long hair next to Ganghyun has a nice vibe too lol

─Seol Ha-woon?

The reactions were satisfying. The speed at which comments were being posted was also unusual. Lee Si-ah felt itchy all over her body.

She couldn’t bear how much she wanted to see it. The first broadcast, episode 2, episode 3, episode 4. And…

“Seol Ha-woon.”

So far, nothing is known about Seol Ha-woon. He doesn’t seem to have any SNS like Instagram either.

That’s what makes him more intriguing.

What kind of person he is.

What kind of person he’ll appear to be.

IONet’s editing is famous for destroying people. They were the first to start what they call ‘devil’s editing’ with reaction splicing, interview distortion, and so on.

Lee Si-ah rested her chin on her hand as she watched him on the screen.

Please, she hoped Seol Ha-woon would survive their labyrinthine hands.

* * *

The next morning at dawn.

Ding! Ding! Ding! The annoying alarm sound woke me from my sleep.

“Ah shit, what…?”

When I opened my eyes, [MoMo]’s status window filled my vision.

[ Recognition Level Up! ]

[ Recognition Level: 6 ]

[ An additional 30 days have been granted. ]

[ Karma: Level up gift has been given. ]

“Oh! Shit! What!”

I threw off my blanket and got up.

Finally, a level up. Even-numbered level ups are extremely important to me.

What could the gift be!

[ Reinforced Compressed Rimless Glasses Acquired ]

“…Ah.”

Suddenly my mood became complicated.

Reinforced Compressed Rimless Glasses.

Reinforced Compressed Rimless Glasses?

What the hell is this.

【Reinforced Compressed Rimless Glasses】■ Overview: Reinforced compressed rimless glasses. Durability is exceptional compared to existing rimless glasses. Wearing these might let you see things you couldn’t see before, and accomplish things you couldn’t do?■ Grade: Unique■ Grants Trait ‘Nervous System Amplification’ when worn.■ Nervous System Extension: Inject Magic Power into the rimless glasses to temporarily amplify the character’s nervous system. Effect increases proportionally to Magic Power input, and Magic Power is consumed every second.■ Perception increases by 2 when worn, but Magic Power is constantly consumed.

Unique. It’s actually an incredibly good item with even an ‘item trait’ attached.

“What kind of item is this.”

But it’s an item I’ve never seen before. Nervous System Extension… does it mean the five senses? I put it in my inventory for now.

I checked the trait I gained from refinement.

【First Refinement】■ Grade: Lower-Middle■ Magic Power +0.3■ Magic Power circulating through circuits becomes more pure.■ Innate attribute granted to Magic Power – 「Punishment 」■ Karma Cleansing: When fighting targets with ‘evil’ karma, refinement grade increases by 2.

Evil karma… probably means bad guys like villains, and my innate attribute is beating up those bastards?

It’s puzzling.

“Magic Power grade is C.”

It went up from C- to exactly C.

However, it shouldn’t be compared to other ordinary C grades. Rank only refers to ‘ability to utilize Magic Power.’

This isn’t arrogance or conceit. My Magic Power quality itself, my talent value is a whopping [11.8]. That means I’ve already surpassed the threshold of genius.

Even using the same formula, I’d be far superior to other C-grade mages.

“Well…”

That aside.

Why did I suddenly level up out of nowhere.

I opened internet communities on my smartphone.

“The view count exploded.”

I could tell just from the first page of any random community.

[ Popular! ] Labyrinth Exploration NaN Still Cuts

In the list of popular posts, the still cut views reached a whopping 238,150.

Other communities and SNS showed similar situations.

#NANStillCuts

#LabyrinthExplorationSeason3

#LabExpNaN

#KangHyeon

#LeeJunho

#SeoJiwoo

#LabExpNaNFirstEpisode

#RyuYeonhwa

#WhosBesideKangHyeon

“What’s ‘WhosBesideKangHyeon.'”

I scrolled through the photos filling the SNS feed. Among them, the cut that received particularly much attention and retweets was the photo of Kang Hyeon and me shaking hands.

“…Oh.”

I unconsciously pursed my lips.

With the lush Grove as background, both at matching eye level, even dyed in backlight – the composition was perfect.

Well, of course Kang Hyeon is handsome, but when did I start looking like this?

Hmm hmm.

I cleared my throat unnecessarily and stood in front of the bathroom mirror.

My skin is definitely smooth. Clean and white. Thanks to diligently applying the skincare set every morning and evening. Even the boost from camera steaming amounts to 0.2.

Appearance │ 7.8 │ B-

Thanks to that, my Appearance stat is almost approaching 8.

That’s a decent level. From 8 onwards is objectively handsome appearance, and from 9 onwards is the level that captures street attention.

“As expected, you need to be next to someone famous.”

Kang Hyeon is a guy whose inner thoughts are unreadable, but just being next to him drops these crumbs.

“Oh. This was captured too?”

A cut of me handing Im Hae-jun the Magic Arrow I personally enchanted. Mine and Im Hae-jun’s expressions are unnecessarily serious, like we’re going to save the world.

“Ah right.”

I checked my vote count.

[ Labyrinth Exploration NaN ]Name: Seol Ha-woonRank: 96Vote Count: 20,232

Almost 10,000 votes went up at once.

“Not bad.”

Just as I was about to start today’s routine in a good mood.

[ Filming will begin soon. Please gather at the Set Stage. ]

[ Filming will begin shortly. Please gather on set. ]

A group message arrived.

It’s about time to enter the Labyrinth. I tidied up my bedding and put on my uniform.

* * *

Under soft lighting, the marble floor sparkled brilliantly. Sunlight gently filtered through the massive glass walls. A chandelier decorated the center of the ceiling, and the stores lined up below were filled with luxury brand displays.

It was a set stage that looked like an entire department store had been transplanted here.

“Nice to see you~”

Main MC Yoo Ji-in made her entrance. From head to toe, she was decked out in luxury brands to match the department store concept.

A suit jacket that looked like it cost tens of millions of won at first glance, with fashion reminiscent of an equestrian rider.

“As you can see, we’re at a department store today. This mission is in collaboration with BraveWorld.”

In other words, product placement. The signs inside the stores were probably all PPL too. Labyrinth Exploration NaN is a brand exposed worldwide after all.

The actual set stage was identical to that department store.

“What you need to do here is simple. Travel preparations. In other words, shopping.”

Shopping. The participants’ eyes widened.

There’s no human who doesn’t like the act of buying things. The reason humans obsess over income is solely to consume.

And if that consumption doesn’t cost your own money? It’s the cherry on top.

“Of course, you don’t have any money on hand. Your currency will be your vote counts.”

Vote counts.

Yoo Ji-in pointed to a place called [AOMS WAY Aviation Exchange]. AMOS WAY was also PPL, of course. A hugely famous airline operated by BraveWorld.

“Please exchange your vote counts for coins at the ‘AMOS WAY Exchange’ that always boasts the best service and safety. They’ll exchange 1 vote count for 1 coin.”

The participants each tapped their wrists.

[ Labyrinth Exploration NaN ]Name: Seol Ha-woonRank: 96Vote Count: 20,535

Simply put, it meant I had 20,000 coins.

“I won’t say much else. Everyone enjoy shopping to your heart’s content for 3 hours~”

Yoo Ji-in spun around.

“…Oh, right.”

Then she showed just her profile while giving a meaningful smile.

“Please also look forward to a special trip after shopping. Hints about the destination will be scattered throughout this department store.”

A special trip.

I already know what that is.

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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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