Labyrinth Exploration 101 - Chapter 264

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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 264

Reminiscence(4)

There was no one in the village. The people who had been lively until yesterday had vanished overnight.

The sense of déjà vu scattered in an instant, and all the scenery of the village looked different.

Silent. Cold. Desolate. A chilly wind wandered aimlessly between the cozy Back Mountain and old houses.

I walked, leaning on my walking stick.

“What should we do?”

Im Hae-jun asked in a trembling voice.

“…What do you mean what should we do. Just follow me for now.”

We wandered through the empty village. The swing in the deserted playground creaked in the wind, and warmth still lingered inside the houses visible through open doorways.

But the most important thing was missing – people. As if they had evaporated.

“There really isn’t anyone here…”

I walked and walked until I reached the boundary of the village. A blue barrier shimmering like a mirage divided the space.

Tap.

The moment I lightly touched it, part of the fingerprint on my fingertip wore away and disappeared. It wasn’t pain. It was literally the experience of existence ‘vanishing’. If I crossed this barrier, I would probably cease to exist as a human being entirely.

This thought wasn’t new.

This sensation wasn’t new either.

I had definitely felt it before.

I tried to express this overlapping sense of déjà vu in one word.

“Regression.”

Was I… no, were we all repeating this place? Were we caught up in the Labyrinth, continuing through time?

I didn’t know yet.

But if this was regression, which iteration of myself was I?

What had the previous me done, what had I failed at, and what had I forgotten?

The weight of memories I couldn’t recall pressed down on my shoulders. The immeasurable uncertainty was suffocating.

I roughly ran my hand through my hair.

“Let’s go back for now.”

“…Yes.”

Im Hae-jun clung tightly to my back. He seemed frightened by the village that had suddenly changed.

We returned to the front of the inn. Seven explorers were already outside. They all had serious expressions.

Kate stood with her arms crossed, gazing at the sky, Lee Jun-ho gripped his sword hilt while staying alert, and Seo Ji-woo stared blankly around the empty streets.

“What’s going on here?”

Seo Ji-woo asked.

“I don’t know either. Not yet.”

It was a Labyrinth befitting a maze. Finding our destination was the problem from the start.

However, the hint was ultimately the meteorite. And to stop the approaching meteorite.

“First, let’s build a watchtower. I’ll devise a formula to intercept the meteorite.”

Labor was needed.

A year passed. During that time we built a watchtower, and I focused on my memories with Sequence every single day.

But this damn sense of déjà vu wouldn’t materialize into reality. Instead, I took walks through the village several times a day.

Thud. Thud.

Walking through the village, I kept having strange thoughts.

The feeling that something was ‘different’.

Thud. Thud.

What was different? What was I missing?

“…Don’t you make fish-shaped pastries anymore?”

Kate suddenly appeared. She stood beside the village’s paulownia tree with her hands clasped behind her back.

“It’s summer.”

Kate nodded and stroked the bumpy bark.

“Aren’t you curious? Were the villagers we saw a year ago hallucinations that were never there to begin with? Or were they there but disappeared? It’s been a year and it still hasn’t been resolved.”

Kate seemed to be probing something from me, but I couldn’t understand her true intentions.

She gazed at me intently.

“You’re getting weaker.”

She hit the mark.

I was focusing Sequence only on myself. I was overworking myself all day long.

The effort to grasp memories that wouldn’t emerge, evidence of regression, was quite exhausting. As much as refinement, no, even more painful than that.

Not only was I wasting magic power, but I was greatly weakening my mind and body.

Nevertheless, I was certain of one thing.

“I’ll find a way somehow.”

Then Kate averted her gaze. A bitter smile spread across her lips like a small fragment.

“…Yes. You would. Even if it’s a path that harms yourself, you’ll find a way somehow.”

It was a voice tinged with strange faith.

Before I knew it, the sun had set beyond the ridge, and the sunset swept over us before fading away.

“Kate.”

I called her name.

“Is this our first time here?”

Kate’s brow furrowed. She seemed not to understand the question itself.

“First time?”

“…Never mind.”

Kate pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows.

“Jong-su hasn’t been answering lately, so please manage him somehow. Even if he doesn’t listen to me, he listens to you.”

Then she turned around and went down the mountain.

I stepped with my walking stick in the opposite direction from her. I was thinking of continuing my walk a little longer.

Had I walked for about 30 minutes?

“Ha-woon oppa!”

Yoon Hwa-rim’s loud voice caught me. Vrooom! The cart came racing like mad.

I was startled. Her condition was more problematic than the cart. Her face was covered with tears and dust, and her voice was cracked with sorrow.

“Jong-su, Jong-su!”

Even without finishing her sentence, I knew it was a serious situation.

I got on her cart. We rushed down and arrived at a household.

The explorers were already gathered there.

“…”

I was momentarily speechless. The sounds of the world grew distant as if I had fallen into water, and a severe headache struck.

I took a deep breath and faced that scene.

Lee Jong-soo.

He was dead. His neck caught in a snare above the main beam, creaking like a pendulum.

Cause of death: suffocation.

“…Crazy bastard. This son of a bitch, really. Fucking bastard…”

Lee Jun-ho gritted his teeth. Kang Hyeon placed a hand on his shoulder.

Suddenly Kate looked up. A cold light dwelled in her eyes.

Im Hae-jun buried his face on the floor and cried, Yoon Hwa-rim trembled without even getting off her cart. Seo Ji-woo shed tears while pulling at her own hair.

“What are you doing.”

I said to them.

“Jong-su, get down.”

However, no one moved. Everyone just stood frozen in place like people who had lost their souls.

Creak- Creak- Lee Jong-soo’s corpse still swayed like a pendulum.

I gritted my teeth hard.

“Snap out of it and get Jong-su down first!”

That day we buried Lee Jong-soo. We dug the ground ourselves and laid his body to rest.

There was no forced return.

Lee Jong-soo had died peacefully. Had that one year in this empty village been so agonizing for him?

Afterwards, I came out to the boundary of the village, leaning on my walking stick.

I stood at that edge again.

I reached my hand toward the blue barrier that shimmered like a mirage on the other side.

“Hyung. It’s dangerous.”

I paused and turned around. It was Kang Hyeon.

He slowly approached and picked up a tree branch that had fallen on the ground. It immediately became his sword, a broadsword.

“Look.”

He thrust the broadsword forward. The cross-section that touched the boundary was cleanly annihilated.

“We can’t cross over.”

“….”

I nodded. Kang Hyeon threw away the broadsword. The steel became an ordinary tree branch again.

Kang Hyeon murmured quietly.

“It was probably suicide. He said it was hard, many times.”

“Jong-su did?”

“Yes.”

It was incomprehensible to me.

Lee Jong-soo was a solid guy. Even with his innocent appearance, he was an elite who had undergone countless training as a warrior.

Explorers complete a curriculum that trains not only the body but also the mind. Training to maintain composure even in extreme pain and fear.

Lee Jong-soo was also someone who had passed through all those processes.

As if reading my mind, Kang Hyeon smiled bitterly.

“The usual Jong-su wouldn’t have done that. But… there’s forced return, isn’t there. Or rather, there should have been.”

Forced return. Lee Jong-soo shouldn’t have died. Having suffered fatal injuries, he should have been sent back to his original dormitory.

“…Right.”

I sat down on the grass field. My knee was uncomfortable, so I stretched out one leg. Kang Hyeon also sat down next to me.

Wind blew from beyond the boundary. That strong current disheveled our hair.

“We can see the outside, but we can’t go out.”

“Even if we went out, there’d be nothing to do. It’s not our world.”

Suddenly, Kang Hyeon’s gaze softened.

“Hyung.”

I met his eyes.

I still couldn’t see their depth. He was always too transparent, but perhaps because of that, he was like an abyss.

“What should we do now?”

“…We have to keep doing what we’ve been doing. And,”

I clenched my fist. My nails dug into my palm.

“Time.”

I continued speaking to Kang Hyeon.

“Don’t let time break you down. I’ll definitely find an answer someday.”

His complexion hardened faintly, but it was only for an instant. He smiled and nodded.

“Yes. I’ll keep believing.”

Beep beep beep-

Just then, my wristwatch rang.

“Ah, it’s mealtime. I’ll go cook. It’s my turn today.”

Kang Hyeon left. I stayed here for a while, feeling the wind.

“I want to remember.”

That thought suddenly occurred to me.

A labyrinth must have an exit. The same goes for a maze.

Therefore, even if this is regression, there must definitely be something ‘constant’.

Something that doesn’t change even as time flows, even as time arbitrarily turns back…

…Whoooosh.

Time continues to flow.

We build the tower.

We try to forget Jong-su’s death and wait for the coming end. Spending tedious time in this ghost-like village.

And so, the meteorite descends.

Craaaack—!

The sky splits and the world tears apart.

Everyone prays for this labyrinth to end.

───-

With a strange sensation of magic power sweeping through my entire body, my vision suddenly opened up.

The horizon was suddenly revealed clearly, the sky became bright blue, and some village appeared.

“Huh?”

“There’s something over there.”

“What is that. Isn’t that Korea? But what kind of maze is like this?”

“That’s why it’s a maze, you idiot…”

On the first day, we all investigate the village together,

From the second day, the residents start disappearing.

We design and begin building a tower to intercept the meteorite.

And so on the day that became the first year, Jong-su died. It was suicide.

After burying Jong-su, I came out to the boundary of the village. I sat alone on the grass field and looked toward the other side.

Whoooooosh…

The rushing wind. The direction of the wind that always dishevels my hair as it moves forward.

Direction.

…Direction?

“!”

In an instant, a light went on in my head.

The direction of the wind blowing from beyond this village is always constant. It always rushes toward the southeast.

It had been like that all year long. In reality, this would be impossible.

And to the southeast of this village, there is the meteorite.

The meteorite.

I stood up. Leaning on my walking stick, I harbored some intense thought.

“I want to remember.”

A labyrinth must have an exit. The same goes for a maze.

Therefore, if this is regression, if I’m experiencing infinite regression, there must definitely be a ‘center’ of that regression.

I arrived at that place. The meteorite that had now become like a back mountain. I dug up the road surface with my walking stick.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

I put all my strength into it. As a result of sequence overuse, my body was already broken, and my circuits were worn ragged.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

However, I am certain. This is a magical realization that this is the right method.

Thwack!

A hard fragment came out. It was part of the meteorite’s surface.

I grasped it tightly.

“Haah…”

Now, I reconstruct my remaining magic power through my mental visualization.

What I want to do is─ implant my ‘memories’ into this meteorite fragment.

This is not simple storage of information. It is a transmission of everything I have experienced today, carved into mere matter, and therefore the most difficult and dangerous application of sequences.

“…Kuk!”

Pain as if my brain was being torn apart arose. A handful of blood spewed from my mouth. My heart stopped, if only briefly.

“Haah, haah…”

However, I succeeded.

I definitely succeeded.

I smiled faintly and put this fragment back into the meteorite. I wiped the blood on my body onto the grass.

And then…

“…Is that as far as it goes.”

That was exactly how far the memory went. I had implanted my memories into an object.

It was a very dangerous attempt. To use an analogy, it was major surgery like removing the brain once and putting it back in.

The ‘previous iteration’ me who had extremely overused sequences probably didn’t live long.

But it was worth it.

“Thanks to that, I found out.”

I put the meteorite fragment back in.

It’s now been three days since I came here.

All the village people had disappeared, and while exploring the village with sequences, I discovered clues left by my previous iteration self.

“It was a good method.”

I deliver myself to me.

If I continue connecting memories like this, I should be able to find the exit.

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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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