Labyrinth Exploration 101 - Chapter 65

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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 065

Runaway(2)

─The hotel has been completely burned down.

A subordinate’s report. Seer received the scene footage through the lenses of his glasses. The entire hotel where Kang Hyeon and Seol Ha-woon had stayed had collapsed and was reduced to dozens of meters of debris.

“Are you certain they didn’t escape?”

─Yes. We’re examining the footage, but there are no traces of them coming outside.

They had brought down the hotel from the inside. There were two possibilities.

A trick to cause confusion, or suicide to survive.

According to facts confessed by several explorers, they get forcibly sent back when they suffer fatal injuries. They might have chosen the method of inflicting harm on themselves to request help from the outside.

“Continue surveillance. Personnel doesn’t matter. Scout around the hotel endlessly.”

─Yes.

Seer cut off the communication.

Tap. Tap. Tap. He tapped the table with his fingers, lost in thought. It was contemplation about his own ‘struggle’.

He had captured 63 outsiders so far, and had captured 32 of them. He didn’t bother seeking them out. Excessive searching and tracking would only cause unnecessary wariness. Instead, he monitored exchanges throughout the continent and only kidnapped those who visited them.

Soon, when the labyrinth being excavated was completely opened, Seer would push them inside it. If the outside tried to destroy this world, the labyrinth within the labyrinth would disappear together with it.

Those trapped in the labyrinth within the labyrinth would become hostages to maintain our world…

* * *

I created a space in the hotel’s debris pile.

About 5 pyeong, a safe zone formed by my formula. Food supplies, drinking water, desk, backrest, mattress, etc. made with 【Snack Box】 – the preparations were solid.

“Guess I should study~”

I spread out implant books on the desk. Kang Hyeon across from me was also reading a novel.

Rustle. Rustle.

The sound of turning pages one by one was clear. It’s fascinating. It’s a data book but even this function is implemented.

“…Ha-woon hyung.”

Suddenly Kang Hyeon called me.

“What.”

“What will happen to the people who were captured?”

“Seer said he’d put them in the labyrinth within the labyrinth.”

Actually, I don’t care at all about Kim Du-gyeom, Kate, Kim Dong-ha, or whatever. I’m only thinking about clearing this labyrinth. Because there are many things I want to take.

Especially the black tea and snake wine. If possible, even the 【Pony Projector】 – it’s an item that could supplement my mobility, so I want to take it.

“I don’t know what kind of labyrinth that would be.”

“It’ll probably be a consciousness labyrinth.”

At Kang Hyeon’s answer, I tilted my head.

“How do you know that?”

“Syndra mentioned it when explaining the excavation site raid operation.”

Consciousness labyrinth. A labyrinth similar to dreams that an explorer’s consciousness enters.

“Then it could be quite troublesome.”

Consciousness labyrinths have higher danger levels than most labyrinths. Especially if the ‘body’ falls in completely, it’s the worst.

As a concrete example, there was someone who lived 3,000 years in a consciousness labyrinth and came out. It was actually 3 months, but he had experienced those 3,000 years, and his mind had collapsed.

Kang Hyeon put down his data book.

“If the labyrinth gets destroyed while they’re inside…”

“They might become disabled. Or be trapped forever.”

“You know well, hyung.”

I chuckled.

“I want to ask you. How do you know? Did your father teach you?”

Suddenly Kang Hyeon stiffened. A faint line was carved on his face.

A sore spot.

His past, or weakness.

“…Wait. Found it.”

I naturally changed the subject. Just then, someone was caught on the drone.

A squirrel-like man with quite quick wits. He had stopped by an exchange to buy a ticket, but sensing something suspicious, he was hurriedly running away.

“It’s Im Hae-jun.”

“Hae-jun? Can we help him from here?”

Kang Hyeon asked as if worried.

Empty words without sincerity. No emotion comes through in Kang Hyeon’s tone. There’s a shell, but no contents exist.

“No.”

I shook my head.

“Rather the opposite. We should pray he gets caught.”

‘Haa, haa, haa!’

Im Hae-jun, as seen by the drone, was running away quite earnestly. Knocking down obstacles and even shooting arrows with backsteps.

Hey man, just get caught comfortably.

“That way we can find out where they’re keeping the explorers.”

Just then, Im Hae-jun was captured. Pinned down by guys resembling an airborne unit, Im Hae-jun struggled.

‘Let go, let go! Let go! Let me go! Kyaaak!’

He bit the hands of those trying to handcuff him. Unfortunately, it was a metal prosthetic arm. Even steel.

‘Ugyagaak.’

Im Hae-jun was taken away with his teeth chattering. I tracked the car carrying him away with the drone.

“Hyung.”

In that moment, Kang Hyeon asked.

“Were there incidents like this when you were active?”

I looked at Kang Hyeon.

“…Incidents like this?”

“Yes.”

Kang Hyeon is now hoping for something from me. He’s seeking my past.

“These… somewhat complex labyrinths.”

I don’t know.

I was about to answer that way, when suddenly.

An old memory lit up like a lighter being ignited.

I looked around. I still didn’t sense any ‘cameras’ filming us.

Probably, they’re in the middle of searching for us. Since it collapsed too suddenly.

“…There was a labyrinth called parallel world. A labyrinth reproduced exactly like the Earth we live on. It was quite dangerous.”

One of the episodes from my active duty days.

Labyrinths were usually the explorers’ domain, but sometimes soldiers would enter too.

“Why was it dangerous?”

“A father who lost his daughter ended up going in there.”

What would be the feelings of a father or mother thinking of their child? As someone without children or parents, it’s hard for me to imagine, but would it be such a profound emotion that others dare not evaluate it?

The agape love that someone like me, an orphan, could only envy, was poison and sin to him.

“It’s a predictable story. In the parallel world, his daughter was living. Perfectly fine.”

“….”

Kang Hyeon’s eyes quietly narrowed.

“He secretly watched over her. At first, maybe just looking was enough for him. But greed grew.”

At some point, that place became his life, and this place became his hell.

“He killed his parallel world self. And became a Labyrinth Person himself. He resisted to the end to protect his daughter.”

It wasn’t a grand goal. It wasn’t ambition to overturn the world.

Just because he wanted to see the child’s smile for a long time. Because he didn’t want to lose the child again.

His small wish, having grown up wealthy and running on the path to success, was to live long enough until the child felt sufficient happiness.

That was all.

“Was that person someone you knew, hyung?”

I silently hardened my expression.

Yes, he was a soldier. The person who taught me the principles of the Labyrinth.

He who said one must never form attachments to Labyrinth People, met a child he couldn’t help but form an attachment to….

“I sometimes think. Was there a better way? Wasn’t there a better means to pull him out of that fake world?”

I was inhuman back then. Being a hunting dog biased only toward reason, I had no value judgment about what was right or wrong.

I left him alone. Since he was a strong person, I chose the easier method.

I killed his daughter.

“…Sometimes, wouldn’t living in a fake world be happier? If you could obtain what you desire most?”

Kang Hyeon said. A strange light flickered in his calmly sunken pupils.

“Well. Not for me.”

A life where you make countless choices while living. You can’t dismiss the ones you don’t like as wrong answers and only take what you think are right answers.

“Both the wrong and right things are all me. If I threw that away, I wouldn’t be myself anymore.”

Whether good or bad, it’s all my life.

Even if I erased just one step from 10 years ago, my position 10 years later would be completely different. There’s no way to only correct the traces I don’t like.

“It’s not living in a fake world, but I would become fake.”

I don’t like the life I’ve walked, but I willingly affirm it.

My life was certainly shit. But within all my misfortunes, there was happiness. Seo Ji-hyuk and [MoMo] were such starlight.

“…We’ve arrived.”

Meanwhile, Im Hae-jun had reached somewhere.

“Found it. The research facility.”

It was some building. A place to move the consciousness labyrinth. A space with tight security that emitted EMP to interfere with formulas.

However, I had already learned how to break through EMP. I studied consistently at the Unexplored Library.

I just need to analyze the EMP pattern and create formulas unaffected by it.

“Should we depart right away?”

“No. First we need to investigate the interior with this.”

I took out paper disguised as a business card.

It was made by thinly slicing magic carbon fiber plastic, crushing part of a magic stone and applying it to the surface with my formula. Essentially a makeshift artifact.

“There’s nothing more fucking stupid than going all the way there only to waste time getting lost inside.”

I can connect objects and nervous systems with sequences. That means I can move this business card-like plastic at will, like fingers and toes.

So, if I send this business card flying outside….

…Flutter flutter.

A business card flowing out from the collapsed hotel ruins flies somewhere carried by the wind.

Flutter flutter.

It floats through the air for a long time. Passing neon lights, air taxi engines, and lower-class smog, it settles on some ground.

A puddle with collected rainwater. The business card floats there, waiting for someone.

Splash!

Someone’s walker stepped on the puddle. Precisely crushing the business card.

Afterward, when the foot lifts, the business card isn’t in the puddle. It stuck firmly to the bottom of the walker.

Thud. Thud.

The man patrols with the business card stuck to his shoe sole, then switches with the next archer.

“Good work.”

“Yes.”

He enters after undergoing iris, fingerprint, and even blood tests in front of the security system.

“I’m tired to death….”

Click. Crackle. Sitting in front of the security room’s surveillance camera, he lit a cigarette and asked.

“How’s the situation?”

“They captured one more.”

Then, the business card falls off from the bottom of his walker.

The business card moves stealthily, stealthily across the security room floor and goes outside.

Crawling along the corridor edges as inconspicuously as possible, wriggling, wriggling….

It stops in front of the laboratory. It waits at the very corner of the laboratory until the door opens. Quietly. Pretending to be a business card that originally lived here.

Then, the moment a researcher opens the door and comes out.

Whoosh! It moves quickly and enters inside.

Then it wriggles again, carefully climbs onto the desk, and sneakily looks at the documents they wrote. Analog documents. Digital has hacking concerns. Thorough….

[ Unconscious Labyrinth ]Unconscious Labyrinth. Enter by connecting consciousness to a capsule. Projects the happiness most desired by the entering human through the unconscious. The mechanism is similar to dreams, so when the unconscious awakens, consciousness doesn’t remember clearly, but refreshment and happiness persist for a while.Very high danger level. Many possibilities for virtual reality applications. More addictive than A-grade drugs, estimated to have great economic value….★★★ Complete opening appears to require more than 4 days.

“…Tsk.”

Back at the hotel ruins. I clicked my tongue.

“It’s definitely a consciousness labyrinth. Even unconscious. Fortunately, there’s still some time before complete opening.”

If you enter an unconscious labyrinth with your bare body without proper equipment, human consciousness gets confused. Fortunately, these guys know that too, so they use ‘capsules’.

“…Should we head out right away.”

“Hold on.”

Now I need to find the labyrinth’s location.

I moved the business card to explore the entire structure of the research facility. From laboratories to security rooms, experiment labs, break rooms, etc… I drew a mental blueprint of the places the business card traveled.

After about half a day passed like that.

“Underground 3rd floor.”

I finally discovered where they moved the labyrinth.

“Ugh. It hurts like hell.”

I temporarily cut the connection with the business card. I pressed my throbbing temples and swollen eyelids as if massaging them.

“So do we go outside now?”

Why has he been wanting to go out so much? Does he have claustrophobia or something.

“No. Before that.”

I flopped down on the mattress.

“I’m going to sleep a bit.”

I connected the nervous system for too long.

Moving objects that aren’t me as if they were me is work that exhausts the body far more than expected.

“…Sleep?”

“Yeah. You too. Sleep well.”

I immediately turned off my brain’s power.

It’s one of the advantages of sequences.

I can sleep when I want and wake up when I want.

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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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