Labyrinth Exploration 101 - Chapter 295

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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 295

Our Night(1)

“…Huh? Where did it go.”

I looked around. The grizzly bear had suddenly disappeared. I don’t know why.

Because I uploaded a photo to the travel log?

“….”

I don’t know.

Let’s go for now.

I walked along the snow-covered path, leaning on my walking stick.

Travel.

Come to think of it, I’ve never been on a proper trip.

When I was young, I had no money, when I became an adult, I was in the military, and now I’ve become a cast member of Labyrinth Exploration NaN.

[Warning! Travel log rankings are updated every hour. If your score is low, you will be expelled from the labyrinth.]

[ID Seol Ha-woon’s current score: 11 points]

[Current cutline: 5 points]

I descended through the mountain area. It was an absurd snowy wasteland, but not a blizzard. Fortunately, the mountain’s slope itself was similar to Back Mountain.

As I walked like that, my steps came to a halt.

Suddenly, a familiar place appeared.

The mountain ridge visible in the distance. Gently winding curves. And a village standing apart from there.

A small house.

It was definitely a form that existed in my memory. Everything was familiar.

“….”

My expression hardened.

Whiiiiii──.

Cold wind brushed against my cheek. I walked toward that place as if enchanted. The closer I got, the more my heart pounded.

I stood nearby and very quietly looked beyond. There was a person moving under the warm light.

It was someone I knew.

I looked at her. Curly hair with perm marks remaining, deep wrinkles carved by time. That face containing a lifetime of hardship.

…I had family too.

I didn’t have parents, but I had Grandmother.

I looked at her rough knuckles as she put rice in the pot.

“Grandmother.”

I called to you softly. But my voice didn’t seem to reach.

I secretly bit my teeth. I turned on the travel log and took a photo.

Click.

A photo was actually taken.

Not long after, young Seol Ha-woon approached the scene beyond. The small kid watched Grandmother’s mood, and Grandmother glared at me fiercely.

‘You little parasite.’

It was something she often said. Grandmother would glare at me and then toss me rice and side dishes.

I didn’t know why Grandmother treated me like that back then, but now I do.

Grandmother was already suffering from a serious illness.

‘Get out, In-seok!’

After meals, Grandmother would sometimes chase me away. Saying I was a selfish brat who wouldn’t leave anything for grandma if I ate too much, and if I left food, calling me a brat who didn’t know the value of rice.

I would sit on the ground and sulk. Then sometimes, faint groans would leak out through the door.

‘…Ugh.’

I didn’t understand the meaning of that sound. I was too young to understand.

I was born without knowing and left at an orphanage, Grandmother took me in without me knowing, and one day Grandmother passed away again.

I was six years old then, too young to even know what a portrait photo was.

“…What are you doing.”

I looked at young Seol Ha-woon making a snowman in the front yard.

Crunch. Crunch. With his small hands like fern leaves, he stacked two rice balls on top of each other.

The kid couldn’t seem to see me.

“You saw my memory.”

I lowered my head. Now it was certain.

The fact that Silo, who resembled Seo Ji-hyuk, appeared in the life labyrinth, and that their magic was ‘doors’.

This program looked into my memories.

“….”

Suddenly, I saw an old bicycle placed in front of the house.

Grandmother never said anything about my mother. Same with my father. She only repeated that they both died too early.

My parents disappeared from this world without even a photo, but this bicycle alone remained in my memory.

Thanks to Grandmother’s words that it was ‘your mother’s thing.’

Her child’s belonging that she couldn’t throw away until the end, even though it had become scrap metal and didn’t work properly.

My mother’s keepsake.

I took a photo with the travel log.

Click.

│I had family too│

Grandmother’s photo, bicycle photo

@Seol Ha-woon Grandmother. And mother’s keepsake.

This labyrinth seems to be a journey retracing our memories. It’s not entirely bad. Because we get to see again the things we want to remember, the things we must not forget.

Still, when our pasts flow by, everyone be careful not to get swallowed up by them.

I uploaded Grandmother’s photo and the bicycle to the feed.

─Kang Hyeon: Hyung…

─Im Hae-jun: Master

─Seo Ji-woo: What is this about

─Lee Jun-ho: Sigh… so this wasn’t just happening to me.

─Jo Woon: I always support Seol Ha-woon’s strong spirit.

─Yoon Hwa-rim: Oppa..

〔Travel log evaluation: ★★★★★〕

〔5 travel points acquired!〕

〔A wonderful feed filled with your sincerity!〕

The moment I uploaded the feed, the space disappeared. From that faintly crumbling place, another path appeared.

I walked along it.

Thud. Thud.

Limping, leaning on my walking stick, at the end of my advance.

There was another place.

[Hanbit Orphanage]

Whiiiiii─

A faint silhouette revealed in the fierce blizzard.

An old but neat three-story red brick building. On the peeling metal sign was carved the words ‘Hanbit Orphanage.’

I stared blankly at that place.

It was where I spent my entire adolescence.

I entered the building. It felt as familiar as if I had come yesterday. I walked through the creaking corridor and stood in front of a familiar room.

2nd floor, the corner spot by the window.

There sat young Seol Ha-woon. His face staring expressionlessly at the snow outside the window. His cheeks were chubby.

“Alone again.”

I stood beside him and looked at the same place.

Hey! Hey!

Come with us!

Aaah! Don’t throw it! Save me!

Waaaaaaah!

The children laugh while having snowball fights on the sports field. They cry too. They get angry too.

They seem like ordinary children, but there’s one crucial difference. When they fall or get hurt and cry, when they’re sad or struggling, when they’re lonely or in pain, they don’t call for their mom.

That word, so natural to someone else, is the most distant word in the world to us.

When they fall, there’s no one to hold their hand. The children just bite their lips, get up by themselves, and wipe away their tears.

I looked at young Seol Ha-woon.

“You…”

Suddenly, I thought of something I wanted to say to him.

“You got up well on your own.”

You didn’t expect praise, didn’t hope for others to acknowledge you. That was fine. You simply built up your own endurance.

Now, quite a lot of people have come to lean on you.

Watching you, many people have found their ‘joy of the week.’

“…It means you’ve done well all this time.”

Click.

I took a photo of young you.

│My Childhood Self│

Photo

@Seol Ha-woon My childhood self.

─Im Hae-jun : Whoa, what’s this tiny master;

─Kang Hyeon : Wow, is this you when you were young, hyung?

─Seo Jiwoo: She is pretty cute though ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└Kate : Stop commenting on other people’s feeds and pay attention to your own. Are you planning to get kicked out?

└Seo Ji-woo : ?

─Yoon Hwa-rim : Oppa was so cute~~ Let’s tackle the 8th floor together next time~~

─Kate : You look similar to now.

└Seo Jiwoo: Of course we look alike then. Are you stupid? Why are you like this lol

〔Travel Log Rating : ★★★★★〕

〔Travel Score 5 points acquired!〕

〔My childhood self is not a dark history.〕

Young Seol Ha-woon grows up. Fortunately, he grows quickly and well. Soon he becomes a head taller than his peers.

Thanks to that, no one could look down on me. An orphan without parents. From an orphanage. Because of that background, I got into quite a lot of fights, but I won them all.

Not a delinquent but a champion. I was practically the champion.

As such, I was always alone. I was with the children from the orphanage, but somehow those kids thought of me as an adult, like a teacher.

After all, by middle school second year, I had the best physique even including the adults.

Click.

I took a photo of the Hanbit Orphanage building.

│Hanbit Orphanage│

Photo

@Seol Ha-woon The place I stayed longest in my life. It used to feel awkward to call it home, but now that I’m older, it feels like home.

─Lim Haejun: Wow, boss ㅋㅋ Now that I think about it, you’ll be thirty soon. I can really feel the generation gap at times like this.

└Seol Ha-woon : There are still a few years left though?

─Lee Sin-hye : Honestly, this makes me reflect.

─Yoon Hwa-rim : I think the saying that talent eventually finds a way to shine is right.

The number of comments decreased. Probably the other explorers have started walking a similar path to mine.

〔Travel Log Rating : ★★★★★〕

〔Travel Score 5 points acquired!〕

〔Honest feelings. Nothing to be ashamed of.〕

‘Ha-woon.’

Suddenly time changed. I was standing in a line with my peers at the orphanage, and the Director was looking at me with tears in her eyes.

‘…You all worked hard.’

Graduation was approaching.

High school graduation from the orphanage meant leaving.

Graduating from the place where we had grown up together for so long.

‘From now on, it will be a new world.’

The Director gathered the kids who had now become adults and gave us good words. Her eyes were already red, trying hard to hold back tears.

‘Ha-woon, if you get caught fighting in the military, you’ll really be in trouble.’

The Director, who had been in her mid-forties when I was young, now had thinning bangs. White hairs were scattered among her black hair.

‘Still, Ha-woon, you work hard at everything…’

The Director hugged me while holding back tears.

‘You’ll be able to get through anything well.’

The words that I’ll be able to get through anything well.

Everyone cried. The Director, the teachers, the graduating friends, and the children who would live here for a few more years, who were parentless just like us, all cried.

The orphanage where I grew up had many good adults.

They just weren’t my parents.

‘Come on! Let’s take a photo!’

We all gathered together and took a graduation photo.

I took a photo of them taking the photo.

Click.

Then another feed was posted.

│The day my little brother Da-on was born.│

Photo

@Lee Jun-ho I still remember this clearly. Mom put a baby the size of a forearm in my arms.

There were no comments. Everyone must be being careful. Because they all know what his little brother means to Lee Jun-ho.

So I left one for him.

─Seol Ha-woon : Cute.

└Lee Junho: Haha thanks

I also posted my next feed.

│Graduation Day at the Orphanage│

Photo

@Seol Ha-woon For us, graduation meant independence.

After that, as Hanbit Orphanage disappeared, another path appeared.

I walked that path.

It didn’t take long to reach that place.

It was Geoje Island. A UDT training facility adjacent to the sea.

Here, I received all kinds of training. Underwater demolition, mana training to meld magic power into the body, hell week, survival week, and even extreme endurance training that would melt your muscles.

Those were days of testing the limits of body and mind.

‘One two, one two….’

I watched the young Seol Ha-woon perfectly carrying out his training. Running shirtless, his body was perfect even now. Completely different from my scrawny self.

I naturally looked at his perfectly intact legs.

He was only 10 years younger than me now, but so different. I felt somewhat envious.

Anyway.

Among all these processes, the most memorable training was….

Diving mask meals.

After finishing all training and being completely exhausted, we’d fill diving masks with water and eat while wearing them on our faces. Because when diving, you must never breathe through your nose.

‘Gweeeeek!’

‘Uweeeeek!’

‘Kheohup’

Many trainees struggled with these diving mask meals. Some vomited while eating, others nearly suffocated. This diving mask meal routine continued every single day.

What about me?

‘Trainee Seol Ha-woon.’

‘Yes.’

‘…Is it tasty?’

To the instructor’s question, I answered.

‘Yes. Very delicious.’

Stir-fried pork with ssamjang, seaweed soup. The menu itself was perfect to begin with.

I mixed the pork and ssamjang with rice, and lifted the entire food tray to gulp down all the seaweed soup.

The other trainees looked at me like I was crazy.

Anyway, continuing with the training like that.

‘Trainee number 17. First place.’

By the way, trainee number 17 was me.

‘Trainee Seol Ha-woon. Congratulations. First place again.’

Drizzle drizzle. On a rainy night.

‘Wow… Ha-woon.’

Someone called my name for the first time.

‘How are you so good at everything?’

Soldier Seol Ha-woon looked back at that place. The falling rain seemed to clear for a moment.

At that time, I met my first friend.

“Seo Ji-hyuk.”

I looked at Seo Ji-hyuk who appeared before me.

…Meanwhile, Yoon Sa-hyuk was in nature.

Nothing but sand, sea, trees, forest, sky.

He sat quietly with his bare feet in the water, thinking about the end of Labyrinth Exploration NaN.

“Are you sad?”

Someone asked. It was Tae-yul. She too stood in the middle of great nature.

“It’s the end now.”

Yoon Sa-hyuk shook his head.

“No.”

Mitamnan received billions of votes. The OTT set a new global record for first place worldwide.

The whole world recognizes all of us, and no one can ignore us anymore.

“I think we’ve enjoyed it enough. Now we need to think about post-debut.”

Tae-yul crouched down and picked up a stone from the sandy beach. Sand fleas scurried away from below with a rustling sound.

Yoon Sa-hyuk asked.

“Did you enjoy it, Mage?”

Tae-yul looked back at him and nodded.

“Yes. It was enjoyable. A very satisfying amusement.”

The final labyrinth was now in progress. When the voting results are announced live during the finale broadcast.

Labyrinth Exploration NaN will come to an end.

“I plan to watch and cherish these memories with interest too.”

All of that──

Was thanks to the mage called Tae-yul.

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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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