Moon's Labyrinth

‘We should be arriving at our destination soon. ’

They were in a dark cave. A large and ominous door was letting its presence known. However, Hyunwoo looked bored as he sat on top of a boulder.

Only his eyes revealed the deep curiosity that he felt.

“Did something good happen?”

“No way. ”

Jinsoo had approached him. Hyunwoo waved his hand in the negative.

“I’m just an old man sitting in a dark space. What is there to enjoy about this situation? ”

“Then you should have gone down to earth. A lot of fun stuff should be happening down there. ”

They had become a complete turncoat against earth. This was why they sometimes accompanied the monsters down to earth. They caused all kinds of mayhem.

“You are pretty amazing. You know they hate it when you accompany them. ”

“Who cares what they think?”

Jinsoo shrugged his shoulders.

“They gained so much because he cooperated with them. The fact that they are complaining about how hard it is to retrieve us from earth is out of line. We did enough for them. They should treat us better. ”

The monsters were treated like consumable commodities. They didn't need to be retrieved unlike the Connectors. They had to open additional portals to retrieve the Connectors.

This was why Ursus, who was leading the monster army, asked the Connectors to avoid going down to earth.

Most of them followed Ursus’ request, but there were those like Jinsoo, who ignored it.

“It really is great down there. I can do anything there. I can kill and destroy everything to my heart’s content. I can carry out any criminal activities. It is heaven for me. ”

The screams and pain felt by the victims filled his desire for conquest and destruction.

Currently, Jinsoo was living in the golden age.

“I know for sure that you really want something else. Am I right?”

Hyunwoo laughed as he spoke. He spoke as if he knew everything. Jinsoo stopped moving in an exaggerated manner. He came to a complete stop.

However, it lasted only for a moment. A smile appeared on his lips.

His smile was very cruel. It was frightening.

“Well, you are right. ”

Jinsoo didn’t deny it at all.

“It is too funny. Those that put on airs as they yelled at me ran away like dogs!”

He looked at his hands.

His hands had been dyed with blood until not too long ago.

The Connectors were an amazing and confident group of people. He hadn’t been able to become one of them, yet they all died futilely against him.

“I don’t want to say this since this is your hobby. However, you shouldn’t overdo it. If you act out enough to become a detriment to the plan, you become nothing to them. ”

“Yes, yes. ”

Jinsoo raised both hands. He didn’t sound sincere as he gave his answer.

“Doesn’t that apply to you too, Mr. Hyunwoo?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You went on a ‘walk’ a couple of days ago. You weren’t accompanied by anyone. ”

“Ah. You noticed that?”

Hyunwoo was calm. He spoke as if it was nothing.

“It seemed the act of betraying my country and earth had some effect on me. That is why I went out for a stroll. I wanted to calm my heart, so I went to a place that held sentimental value. ”

“Wow. I thought you were incapable of bleeding or crying. I can’t believe you felt those emotions. ”

“I thought I was immune to those emotions, but as I get older, I grow sentimental. This is why one should die when one gets old. ”

Hyunwoo and Jinsoo looked at each other. Both men were smiling, but for some reason, it felt as if murderous intent was flowing out of them.

“Ha-haht! I guess it can’t be helped since your age made you feel that way. I am getting older too, so I can relate. ”

“Mmm! I really like the respect you are showing towards an old man like me. Young kids these days are lacking in that department. ”

“I’ll be heading out now. ”

Jinsoo acted like a respectful young man. He left after bowing 90 degrees towards Hyunwoo. Hyunwoo waved his hand, and he laughed like a benevolent grandfather.

When Jinsoo disappeared, his benevolent laughter changed into a jeer.

‘He caught wind of it. ’

It wasn’t surprising. Kim Jinsoo was a man, who always observed Hyunwoo for an opening.

In his eyes, all Connectors were his enemy including Hyunwoo.

However, he didn’t care about that.

‘If Woo Sungyoon develops as planned. .. ’

An existence like Kim Jinsoo wouldn’t even be worthy of Woo Sungyoon’s eyes at that point.

***

There was no door at the entrance to the tower. There was an arch-shaped hole at the bottom of the tower.

“Thankfully, there is no door. ”

Bruce entered through the hole.

“He’s so shameless. He still can’t let go of the fact that he couldn’t open the door yesterday. ”

Russell clicked his tongue as he followed behind Bruce into the tower.

Sungyoon’s party let out a bitter laughter as they entered the tower too.

The center of the tower was open until the top, but one couldn’t see the ceiling. There was a helical staircase built against the walls. They could see doors to rooms along the staircase.

“We have to climb it, right?”

“Of course. ”

Bruce and Russell bent back their neck as they looked upwards.

Bruce was the first one to step onto the staircase.

He lightly stomped one feet on the staircase.

He put more strength into the stomp, but the staircase remained intact.

He placed his other foot atop the staircase. With his full weight on the staircase, he jumped a couple times in place.

“I don’t think it’ll suddenly collapse on our way up. ”

The Connectors continued to climb up the staircase.

“This is quite dangerous without a railing. ”

Emily stuck close to the wall. Bruce, who was leading from the front, grabbed the handle to a door. It was the first room that he had reached.

The wooden door had somehow lasted over the test of time, but it was obvious that the door was rotten. It was barely hanging on.

“It is another door. ”

He glared at Russell, who teased Bruce from his side. He slowly opened the door.

“There’s nothing in here. ”

“This place feels like a deserted house. ”

Russell turned around to look at Sungyoon.

“Do you feel anything?”

“No. I don’t feel anything special within the room. How about you, Sir Russell? Do you feel anything out of the ordinary?”

“No. I equipped it, but I don’t think it will react to me. ”

Russell raised his arm. His armor hit it, but he had a Device equipped on his arm. The Mage Gem was slotted in the Device.

“Let’s continue to go up. ”

Bruce pointed towards the stairs.

They arrived at each room as they climbed the staircase. They opened each door as they advanced, but they didn’t see anything eye-catching within the rooms. The only thing they found was broken down furniture.

Everyone wanted to just ignore the rooms to reach the top, but there was a chance that there was something out of the ordinary within one of the rooms. This was why they opened every one of them.

“In the end, it was all for nothing. ”

Russell stood at a platform at the very top. He let out a sigh as he looked at the last door.

In the end, it had been a massive waste of time. None of the rooms held anything interesting.

Russell slowly opened the last door. The helical staircase had come to an end, and a door was present at the top of the tower.

“There’s no way we find nothing in there, right?”

“Don’t jinx us!”

Russell kicked backward towards Bruce, then he fully opened the door.

He was greeted by a large space. Unlike the rooms that were present along the staircase, this place used the entire area up top. There were no inner walls that segregated rooms. It also didn’t possess outer walls. One could look out into the city. There were only a couple of pillars that held the ceiling up.

‘This place is more like a terrace than a room. ’

It was a great place to look out for a great view. However, they didn’t see much since the city was encased by sturdy walls.

Sungyoon looked up. He recalled seeing the top of the tower embedded into the ceiling.

‘Do the top of the tower share the same ceiling as this space?’

“Mr. Sungyoon! Over there!”

Emily tapped at Sungyoon’s arm.

She was pointing towards a certain direction.

He saw a familiar set of machines. It was a machine that existed in Sungyoon’s capital and Plu-El’s holy city. It was the device that projected the hologram.

Russell and Bruce caught sight of the device too, so they approached it.

“Hey. You should activate it. You have the Mage Gem, right?”

Russell was put in an awkward spot when Bruce spoke up.

“I still haven’t awakened it, so what can I do?”

Even as he said those words, Russell started touching the machine.

He tried pressing the Mage Gem against the device, and he also tried sending his magical energy through the Gem. However, the machine didn’t do anything.

“Mmm. Knight? Mr. Aruwen and Ms. Plu-El? Do you mind helping me out?”

Russell called out to the three, who possessed the special Gems.

“We won’t be of any help. The machine will not activate without the Mage Gem. ”

Plu-El crushed Russell’s hopeful thoughts.

“Can’t the Knight use the Royal Gem to activate it?”

“The Royal Gem isn’t some universal item. ”

In the end, Russell backed away from the machine.

The Connectors ignored the machine once they realized they couldn’t activate it. They started searching their surroundings, but the only thing out of the ordinary was the machine.

“…there is nothing here. ”

Bruce sounded annoyed as he mumbled his words.

He even checked the pillars and the outer walls of the tower. He checked if there were any symbols engraved into them, but he found nothing.

“Didn’t Sung Hyunwoo say there was something here that could stop the Grenoid?”

“He said there is a way to stop the monsters from invading earth here. ”

“Shit! Does this mean he duped us?’

“There is no guarantee that he was referring to this place. ”

Russell placated Bruce, but his voice sounded drained of energy too.

“In the first place, he sad it exists with the ‘Great Labyrinth. ’ He gave no other hints. . ”

Russell added at the end.

“However, there is no guarantee that he didn’t lie to us. ”

“Shit!”

Bruce stamped his foot once.

***

Afterward, the Connectors searched the tower one more time. They wanted to make sure that they hadn’t missed anything.

However, they couldn’t find anything, and the Mage Gem was showing no signs of waking up.

In the end, the Connectors expanded their search radius to the city.

“Did you find anything?”

Sungyoon was looking at the wall surrounding the city. Emily walked up behind him as she asked the question. Sungyoon shook his head from side to side.

“It is just a wall. There is nothing extraordinary about it. Did you find something, Ms. Emily?”

“No. ”

Emily glanced at Sungyoon.

“Are you blaming yourself for this?”

“What?”

“You look down. ”

The mayor had mobilized the Connectors to this place, because he had heard Hyunwoo’s story through Sungyoon.

This was why Emily was a bit worried about Sungyoon feeling some form of responsibility for this failure.

However, Sungyoon shook his head from side to side.

“Not at all. At the end of the day, I only delivered the message. I’m not the one that decided to go ahead with this plan. It wasn’t my call to make this decision, so I don’t feel the need to feel guilty about it. I’m not that kind of a person. I feel disappointed, but it has to do with the fact that earth continues to suffer from the attacks. I’m worried we won’t gain anything from this venture when we sacrificed so much. ”

“I see. ”

“Let’s head back to the tower once more. ”

At Sungyoon’s insistence, the party returned to the tower.

The tower had been thoroughly investigated, so no one was at the tower.

His other party members continued to climb the staircase as they checked the rooms once again.

However, Sungyoon didn’t follow them upwards. He decided to focus on searching the 1st floor.

‘As expected, there is nothing here. ’

Sungyoon felt despondent, but he didn’t give up on his search. This time he searched where the staircase started.

He was checking the space between the1st floor and the staircase when it happened.

Ssssk!

He felt the Royal Gem twitch.

Doo-doo-doohk!

It was as if a secret door was opening. A part of the floor sunk into the ground.

Then a staircase leading to the basement was revealed.