Moon’s Labyrinths - Chapter 266

Chapter 266

hapter 266

“Over there . ”

Russell pressed his face against the window of the vehicle and pointed out .  Instead of his Moon Surface vehicle, Russell was riding in the Moon Surface vehicle belonging to Sungyoon's party .  On the other side of the window, the others in the vehicle saw the large maw of the Great Labyrinth .

“Is this the other Great Labyrinth?”

“Yes . ”

Sungyoon stood next to Russell and also pressed his face against the window .  He had only experienced one out of the four Great Labyrinths, the one inside Armstrong . So he was curious about the new Great Labyrinth .

As if a large meteor had hit the Great Labyrinth, its entrance opened its maw at the center of the enormous crater .

“I somewhat expected it, but still it's a lot . ”

Several dozen Moon Surface vehicles belonging to Fabion were parked near the entrance, and it emphasized the number of Connectors mobilized to this location .  It seemed Fabion had caught sight of Sungyoon’s party, and several people exited the Moon Surface Vehicles .

Grace placed her hand on the window .

“Not all of them went into the Great Labyrinth . ”

“They probably felt the need to defend the vehicles . It's now more imperative since monsters can roam outside the labyrinths . ”

Sungyoon and all the Connectors traveling with him had to hunt down a good number of monsters to reach this place . Although the monsters weren’t difficult foes, they were strong enough to wreck unattended Moon Surface vehicles .  

“It also makes it more likely that they have something to hide . ”

Russell sounded cynical .

“Let’s go there . ”

Tim, who was in charge of driving, stepped on the gas pedal . He parked near the Great Labyrinth, and all of the Connectors in the vehicle stepped out .  

“What brings you here?”

The person in charge of this group of Fabion Connectors stepped forward with his helmet on .  

“What brings us here? Do you own this place? Why are you talking as if this is your territory?”

The man’s face hardened at the sarcastic remarks . He turned to look at who had spoken, but took a step back when he realized the identity of the person . His face became pinched as if he had bit into a lemon .

“Mr . Bruce . ”

Even though this Connector had the power of an enormous corporation named Fabion behind his back, he couldn't trifle with Bruce . The power backing Bruce was stronger than Fabion .

Moreover, Bruce was one of the strongest Connectors .  

‘This is going to get messy . ’

The man inwardly spoke . The worst-case scenario had just arrived, but unfortunately for him, the worst-case scenario didn’t end with Bruce .

“You guys came out on such a large scale . Is this place that important?”

“We aren’t here to check up on that . ”

The man’s face darkened when he saw two men speaking in such a friendly tone .

‘Sir Russell and the Knight . ’

The man had been put a tough spot with just Bruce, yet Russell, who was just as strong, had added to his troubles . Then there was Sungyoon, who had no peers in terms of fame .

The man grumbled . Things had turned really messy .

‘I can't kill them and shut them up . ’

In the worst-case scenario, he had been given the order to kill . However, his opponents were too strong .  Even if the ‘expeditionary force’ came back out of the labyrinth, victory wouldn’t be guaranteed .  The man and his group were mere guards tasked to defend the entrance .

“I could've never expected to meet such famous people here . ”

The man decided to act humbly .

“I’m sorry, but why did you come he—”

“Why are you here?”

Bruce cut off the man’s words, and flipped the question back on him .

“You scraped all your fighting force and brought them here . Did you guys discover something good here?”

“Discover? We are just working for humanity . We came to gather information about this Great Labyrinth . ”

“I doubt it . ”

Bruce snorted .

“It’s true . It can’t be helped if you don’t believe me . ”

The man showed his guts as he calmly responded to Bruce’s sarcastic words .

“Shall we go see if you're telling the truth?”

Bruce smiled . His lips parted to reveal his sharp canines, and his fingers twitched as if he were about to attack the man .  

The man backed up in fear, and the Fabion Connectors, who were standing in the rear, quickly assumed a fight stance and injected magical energy into their Gems .

The tension was rapidly reaching its flashpoint .

“Bruce . ”

Russell grabbed Bruce’s shoulder .

“Stop it . We're just here to see why Fabion mobilized so many people . We aren’t here to start a war . ”

Russell’s words made the Fabion Connectors relax a little .  However, when they heard his next words, a chill ran down their spines .

“At least, not yet . ”

The man broke out in cold sweat when Russell looked at him with cold eyes .  Sungyoon joined the conversation at that moment .

“You're here to gather information about this Great Labyrinth?”

“T-that's correct . Why else would we come to this place?”

In the man's eyes, Russell and Bruce were monstrous existences, and he found it easier to talk to Sungyoon .  So he answered Sungyoon’s question with a glad expression .

“Do you mind if we lend a hand?”

“What?”

“We would like to go into the Great Labyrinth and help in gathering more information . ”

The man’s eyes rolled around in a furtive manner .  He had no idea what to reply, but he knew he couldn't get away with rejecting the offer .

Tuhk!

Russell put his hand on the man’s shoulder .

“Why are you thinking so hard? The Great Labyrinth isn’t yours . According to the treaty, all labyrinths on the Moon are under Armstrong city's stewardship . Moreover, it's not like you guys received some special permission from Armstrong . ”

Gagarin Yang city had openly rallied against the treaty to threaten Armstrong city’s authority on the Moon, but it had then fallen . Armstrong city had once again become the sole force on the Moon .

“Unlike you all, we received permission from Armstrong city to come here . ”

The man looked at the writ of Armstrong city and saw the Mayor’s signature .

“That is why we're asking for cooperation from you guys . Shouldn’t you show some effort to comply?”

“…”

The man had no response . In terms of power and authority, the other side was clearly superior .

‘They came well prepared . ’

Fabion was always in the danger of Armstrong city finding out about their mobilization, and they had done it despite the risk . However, Armstrong city was being more cautious than ever before .  

“Understood . ”

The man had no choice but to get out of the way .

***

The three parties entered the Great Labyrinth . All of them mainly raided the Great Labyrinth within Armstrong city, so the prospect of looking at the new Great Labyrinth was novel to them .

Unlike their expectations, the insides here looked pretty much the same as the Great Labyrinth in Armstrong city .  

“Are you sure we should leave those people in our rear?”

Grace glanced back at the entrance .  Even though she was unable to see it, she could imagine the frustrated man glaring at the entrance .

“It’s fine . They are all just so-so Connectors . They might cause us some trouble if they get in our way, but we could teach them a lesson when that time comes . ”

Russell indifferently spoke . In front of Grace, he always acted like a playful grandfather, and she always had to remind herself that he was one of the strongest Connectors in the world .  The idea of fighting the small group of Connectors outside wouldn't scare him .

Seeing the worry on Grace's face, Sungyoon pointed toward his Device .

“It's fine . You don't have to worry . ”

“Ah! You're right . ”

Grace finally relaxed when she realized they had the perfect exit route in the portal .

“What is that? Is that what you guys are hiding from us?”

Bruce picked up on the exchange and got close to Sungyoon . Sungyoon answered him in a calm manner .

“I’ll tell you immediately once you get permission from the Mayor . ”

“Tsk! You're so stingy . ”

Bruce pouted as he walked away . He kept grumbling to himself as he complained about Sungyoon being a miser and a petty person .  Since everyone knew that Bruce was just playing around, no one paid attention to his complaints .

“How are we supposed to track them down?”

Tim, who had been walking at the front, turned his head around .

This was the Great Labyrinth, and as the name implied, it had a lot of floors and divergent paths .  If they weren’t careful, they would miss Fabion’s expeditionary force and might even get lost .  

“You don’t have to worry about that . ”

Bruce quickened his steps as he walked past Tim .  There was no hesitation in his steps .  The dumbfounded Tim followed Bruce .

“Look here . ”

When they arrived at the first divergent path, Bruce pointed at the wall of the tunnel .  A large arrow entered the group's sight .  Placing arrows was a method commonly used in clearing labyrinths to have an easier time finding the right paths .

“Since this is their first time raiding this Great Labyrinth, they won’t have much information to work with . They would have to mark their paths, and their markers will guide us . ”

Bruce let out a confident smile .

“Well, let’s go . ”

***

All the gimmicks of the Great Labyrinth in Armstrong were present here too, special monsters, common sense-defying physics, different terrains .

Moreover, the Great Labyrinth was the labyrinth that housed the strongest monsters . Regular Connectors would either run away or die here . Their corpses would forever decorate the Great Labyrinth .

However, the three parties were made up of anything but normal Connectors .  They easily killed the monsters on the early floors and pushed past the Great Labyrinth .  All the monsters died from a single blow from Bruce and Russell .  Bruce grumbled that it was boring to kill these ‘weak’ monsters, and he didn’t even bother gathering the moonstones .

“How far did they go?”

A week had already passed since the three parties had entered the Great Labyrinth .  They had reached the seventeenth floor . Fabion’s expeditionary force had moved through this place before, so the three parties didn't encounter many monsters . They were moving through the Great Labyrinth at an extremely fast speed .

Yet, they hadn’t caught sight of Fabion’s expeditionary force .

“Are you sure we came the right way?”

“The arrow pointed toward this direction . ”

Russell recovered the moonstone and tossed it toward Bruce . Bruce looked annoyed by it as he put away the moonstone into his storage Gem .  

“Do you think they made those marks to deceive us?”

“That might be a possibility . However, we can’t do much about it . It's impossible for us to do a thorough search with the number of people we have . We can only move forward . ”

“Shit!”

Bruce kicked the wall of the labyrinth and resumed walking .  As the group went down one more floor, they heard desperate footsteps .