Labyrinth Exploration 101 - Chapter 307

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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 307

My Happy Ending(2)

Maze Exploration NaN Monitoring Room.

“Is the filming going properly?”

“Yes. They each found their doors and went in.”

“Phew. We almost missed the cameras again.”

The end of the final labyrinth is the Door of Memory.

Based on the travel feeds each person has built up and the trajectory of memories they’ve walked, an Ideal World where the ‘most longed-for’ happiest memories are recreated.

The explorers will now experience their respective worlds.

“But how is everything proceeding exactly according to the storyboard?”

“Right.”

At the Junior Writer’s words, Kim A-rang was also inwardly amazed.

This labyrinth is unfolding steadily according to PD Yoon Sa-hyuk’s storyboard. The overarching plot is a journey where travelers build up their memories like feeds and eventually reach the door.

Instead, those with low travel log scores and explorers who collapsed midway due to weak mental strength are eliminated, leaving only around 10 at most.

“Exactly 10 people entered the doors.”

The remaining explorers were subjected to forced return.

They were trapped in old memories, crying or grieving until they reached a psychological danger point, so the production team forcibly returned them.

“What if there are aftereffects when this ends?”

“There’s a psychological treatment process exclusively for explorers. But essentially, they have to endure it.”

“…What?”

Kim A-rang shrugged her shoulders.

“It can’t be helped. These kinds of labyrinths that touch on mental aspects are the most difficult and painful.”

“Still, what if they don’t want to come out?”

“Come on-“

“I wish not a single one would come out.”

At the sudden remark, everyone turned around. It was Yoon Sa-hyuk.

“…What are you suddenly talking about, PD Yoon?”

Kim A-rang looked at her watch. It was indeed Yoon Sa-hyuk’s break time.

“Everyone can be happy inside the doors.”

“Huh? Is that something to say?”

“It wouldn’t be ordinary happiness either. It would be the happiness they long for most…”

Yoon Sa-hyuk peered at the monitoring screen.

“I’m curious. If someone offered you the most ideal world you could want, how many people would refuse it? Even if it’s fake.”

It seems like Mr. Yoon Sa-hyuk has been studying philosophy lately. Buddhism, reincarnation, Taoism, and such.

“Still, quite a few people would refuse, wouldn’t they? Let’s check with our explorers?”

“No. Our cast members aren’t good samples.”

Yoon Sa-hyuk continued with a tone mixed with laughter.

“I’m certain. They’ll all come out of the fake world.”

“…Wow. Do you have such strong faith?”

“No. Rather than faith, the entity that constructed the ideal world is ultimately the labyrinth. The labyrinth will manifest that world to seem infinitely real. Like a parallel world. Then…”

Yoon Sa-hyuk said something to them.

Kim A-rang and the Junior Writer were lost in thought for a moment, then their faces quickly brightened.

“That’s really true!”

Kim A-rang jumped up. Her eyes sparkled brightly.

“PD Yoon, what? Did you write that kind of narrative in the storyboard too?!”

“…I just thought of it now.”

“I’m going to wash my face!”

Kim A-rang ran toward the bathroom shouting.

“Everyone, don’t think too hard about this until the doors end! Make sure to monitor properly─!”

She was extremely excited.

I had somehow returned home. That house I bought last time. A house too good for me. A house that was uncomfortable for that very reason.

“…It’s a chair.”

A gift was delivered today.

A chair from a luxury company, incredibly high-end. But ready-made products don’t suit me. I have very serious left-right imbalance due to my left leg.

“Huh? No, it’s not?”

My eyes widened as I examined the chair.

“This is custom-made.”

A small card was tucked under the armrest.

[For Mr. Seol Ha-woon. So that your body can find the most comfortable balance, we have put all of ‘Ergos’s’ technology into this. May it provide you with comfortable rest.]

“…”

I sat in the chair. It was an ergonomically very satisfying chair. The backrest, armrests, and pads all born for my body – I felt no discomfort at all.

I contentedly turned on the computer.

KAKAO

An empty internet screen. I stared blankly then pressed my temples.

“…Who was it.”

Someone is definitely missing from this world, but I can’t remember who that someone is.

“…”

I stare at the blinking search bar. My mind is blank. I can’t even remember the name.

│What was it│

│What was it again│

│ㅁㄹㅁㄴㅁㅇㄹ│

│Ah what was it│

I randomly tap the keyboard then run my fingers through my hair.

Is this gestalt collapse?

No, it’s a bit different.

No, it’s very different.

I’m definitely forgetting something. Someone I can’t forget.

“Hah…”

I focused my sequence on my memory.

Just as I was desperately trying to grasp the invisible afterimage flickering in my mind.

Knock knock-

Someone knocked.

I opened the door from my seat.

“Ha-woon. Take this.”

Seo Ji-hyuk and Seo Ji-woo were standing there holding some housewarming gifts.

“Take this.”

I received the items with telekinesis. Seo Ji-woo said.

“We moved to the building next door too.”

I let out a hollow laugh.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Oh right, you know we’re entering the labyrinth soon, right?”

Mitamnan Debut Team’s labyrinth strategy.

“Yeah. I know. Of course. Are you all prepared?”

“Of course. Hwa-rim will be here soon too. Let’s discuss things a bit….”

Time flows by. Occasionally doing variety shows, photo shoots, and CF filming, then entering labyrinths with the debut team.

After clearing them without difficulty, unit activities continue as well.

Going out to small-scale labyrinths with four people.

The strategies always succeed. They never fail.

Crackle. Crackle.

A rare break time with no schedule.

Sitting in camping chairs in front of a blazing campfire, staring blankly at the flames.

Seo Ji-hyuk is beside me.

Crackle, crackle.

In that place where the sound of burning firewood and chirping insects quietly harmonize.

I suddenly fidgeted around my neck area. A necklace hung near my collarbone.

“…What’s this.”

Looking at it, it was Seo Ji-hyuk’s dog tags.

“Hey. Why do I have this?”

Then Seo Ji-hyuk looked at me and laughed as if it was absurd.

“Don’t you remember? I gave it to you last time. When I was discharged.”

“Oh right.”

“But you’re still carrying that around? Just throw it away.”

Seo Ji-hyuk reached out his hand. I quickly retrieved it and hurriedly put it in my chest.

“…What do you mean throw it away. Want to die?”

“What, why are you being like this.”

Seo Ji-hyuk lets out a hollow laugh.

But right now I have two necklaces. Seo Ji-hyuk’s dog tags, and one with a meteorite hanging on an ordinary string….

No, wait.

How did this become a meteorite.

It looks like an ordinary stone, so why do I think it’s a meteorite.

“Still, I was grateful.”

Suddenly Seo Ji-hyuk muttered.

“Grateful for what.”

“Just. For staying by my side. Always.”

While pondering such words, crimson sunset light shone down.

Rays flowing in from beyond the mountain ridge dyed both sky and river simultaneously. A landscape where the world rippled with various lights.

It was beautiful.

However, I also had this thought.

A strange intuition coming from nature’s waves.

Probably arising from the ‘faint fluctuation’ of magic particles shimmering on my skin, a very uncertain speculation.

Memories of an existence I don’t know, constantly circling in my head.

Combining all of that, if.

If I am fake.

No, what’s even more frightening is.

If only I am real in this world.

“Wow. It’s pretty.”

Seo Ji-woo, who had approached at some point, sat between us.

The reflected sunset dyed our faces. Seo Ji-hyuk’s clear smile, Seo Ji-woo’s mischievous face, and even me with my limping leg.

I’m happy.

It’s a happy ending.

Too generous for someone like me. So much that I wonder if I’m allowed to enjoy such luxury.

…However.

Even so.

Nevertheless.

“Ha-woon.”

Suddenly Seo Ji-hyuk called my name. His gentle eyes had turned to look at me.

“Before and now, I believe in you who believes in yourself.”

The meaning of you believing in me who believes in myself, I probably understood in my own way.

I quietly nodded and gripped the meteorite necklace.

Whoooosh!

Magic power flowed in from my grasp. The sequence crackled as it connected with the inside of the meteorite.

The memories contained in this stone, that I had forgotten until now, seep into my mind. They rush in clear as a river.

A name.

That guy’s name comes to mind.

Kang Hyeon.

I close my eyes. His face blooms in my darkened vision.

There, you had said this.

‘I am the truth that escaped from this repetition. I always exist as truth. No labyrinth can influence me.’

A person who always exists as truth. A human who can only be truth in all worlds.

Hyeon.

As you said, since the labyrinth cannot reproduce you, a world without you is truly fake.

I quietly opened my eyes. Seo Ji-hyuk and Seo Ji-woo were still looking at the sunset. Their profiles were so peaceful they seemed rather unreal.

“Ji-hyuk.”

I looked at Seo Ji-hyuk. Traces of time had naturally settled on him. You too had become what Mitamnan viewers would call an ‘old-timer’.

“Am I fake?”

Seo Ji-hyuk looked at me. His eyes reflected me like a pond of unknowable depth. They contained the person called Seol Ha-woon.

Seo Ji-hyuk looked at me for a very long time, then smiled faintly.

“…No.”

He shook his head and said.

“Ha-woon, you’re real.”

Right.

If I’m real, as you say.

I must escape from this fake.

“…Thank you.”

The problem is the flow of magic power.

From the moment I realized this place was fake, that familiar ‘memory transfer’ that deceived my consciousness and skipped scenes disappeared.

To escape from this place, I must ultimately find that door.

If there’s an entrance, there’s also an exit. To find the exit, I must follow traces similar to the entrance.

I entered my newly prepared workshop. With my back to the night view of Gangwon Province spread beyond the glass window, I activated my Sequence.

I captured the magic power of this world. I analyzed the captured magic power with all my intuition and rewound my memories to the past.

The door I encountered at the end of the Labyrinth.

I didn’t simply recall it as an image. I interpreted its properties magically.

The cold metallic sensation when I grasped the door handle, the subtle frequency the door emitted as it opened, the unique waves of magic power composing the door panel.

I meticulously recorded the patterns, density, and frequency of such wavelengths. It was the work of extracting a single ‘key’ from the remnants of memory.

The principle is simple. Materializing a detector, a compass that emits the exact same wavelength as the unique frequency I extracted from the door in my memory.

Rustle- Rustle-

I spread out dozens of sheets of paper and repeated calculation after calculation. Magic power output, wavelength propagation range, filtering to screen out the countless background magic power filling this fake world.

My head feels like it’s about to burst, but I can’t stop.

Establish one line of intuition, simulate, and if I find an error, start over from the beginning.

Finally, I materialized my magic power into a compass.

“Ah, my head…”

Pressing my throbbing temples, I infused magic power into the compass.

Whiiiing…

I feel nothing. Or perhaps the signal is too weak.

Was my intuition wrong?

I modified part of the formula. I changed the form of the wavelength. I adjusted the output more precisely and infused magic power into the compass once more.

Once, twice, three times, ten times, twenty times, continuing for dozens of times.

When sweat soaked my back and my eyes became dry, finally.

─Thud.

Very faintly, the compass twitched. I also felt the sensation of an echo bouncing back after hitting my magic power.

A signal so faint it could be mistaken for a hallucination.

However, my nervous system amplified by the Sequence didn’t miss that minute tremor.

I stood up from my seat.

I didn’t know how many days it would take, but now that the direction was set, I would surely reach the destination.

Thud. Thud.

I left the workshop, tapping my walking stick.

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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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