Chapter 249
Chapter 249
The screen showed three spires, each easily distinguishable from one another . Most of the building was colored in red, while two rooms, the one where the party had teleported to and the one they were currently in, were colored in blue .
The holograms showing these images were something commonly seen in Sci-Fi movies . When Sungyoon placed his hand on one, it dispersed . When he retracted his hand, however, it reformed itself .
“What the h.e.l.l is it?”
“What’s going on here?”
His three companions asked . As a response, Sungyoon pointed to the mysterious Gold Gem .
“It suddenly started to vibrate, so I infused magical energy inside it . It was a hunch, but this device reacted to it . ”
“The Gold Gem once again . ”
Grace was impressed, but she also became a bit suspicious of the Gold Gem .
Woooooooooong!
The light and the vibration spread to the other devices in the room, and after a while, the mysterious blue light had seized all the devices . Sungyoon was the reason behind these devices" activation, yet he had no idea what these devices were used for or how to use them .
Tim put his face close to the operating device .
“What kind of device is this?”
“Don"t be so reckless! Don’t touch it!”
“I already know that . ”
Emily grabbed Tim’s thick arm and prevented him from doing anything unnecessary . Tim had no intention of touching it, but it was also true that they couldn’t just stand there doing nothing .
These devices might be the key to their return .
After glancing at all the devices, Grace moved up next to Sungyoon .
“Does it recognize you?”
Since Sungyoon had activated the machines, Grace wondered if they would respond to him . She spoke in a hushed voice full of antic.i.p.ation .
“Please wait a moment . ”
Sungyoon raised his hand as if to ask for some more time . He felt that he could see a vague dark shape within a white fog . Until now, the Gold Gem had hidden its secrets to him, but a strand of that secret had been revealed .
“… This machine creates portals?”
Sungyoon mumbled to himself . Grace stopped paying attention to the devices, and the Ross siblings stopped bickering; they all focused on Sungyoon .
“Portal? Do you mean the portal that brought us here? I knew it was a portal . ”
“It was the obvious answer, right?”
The Ross siblings discussed the topic in soft voices .
Grace spoke up as the representative .
“When you say portal, are you referring to the blue ball of light that allowed us to escape our enemies?”
“Correct . ”
Sungyoon could barely organize the newly-formed memories in his head as he answered her .
“You stole this Gem from the ambushers, right? It now makes sense how they can appear and disappear from unexpected locations . ”
It was an amazing discovery . If humanity could harness the power of the portal technology, the paradigm of labyrinth runs would be changed forever . Sungyoon could guarantee it .
“So great! Our lives will be so much easier if we can use this!”
“We won’t have to pay an enormous sum of money to take a roundtrip on a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p!”
The Ross siblings felt great thinking they could do their work in comfort . Unlike them, Sungyoon and Grace had a serious expression on their faces .
“It sounds like a dangerous technology . ”
“It is a dangerous technology . ”
“Why is it dangerous?”
The siblings hadn’t put much thought into the implications of this technology, and they shut their mouths when the atmosphere around them turned serious .
“Ah . It’ll be dangerous if some terrorists used this technology for evil . ”
Sungyoon had experienced an attack from a terrorist organization . As Emily recalled that incident, her expression turned ugly .
Sungyoon and Grace nodded .
“That is part of it . However, the true danger lies elsewhere . ”
“This technology directly challenges those with a vested interest in moonstones . ”
Vested interests in moonstones .
That phrase made the Ross siblings think .
Moonstone acquisition was the most profitable business on Earth, and an incredible number of businesses and individuals had a vested interest in it . Of course, this group included Connectors too since they gathered the moonstones . Then there were the people who provided service to the Connectors in Armstrong .
An incredible amount of manpower and money was needed to maintain a city as large as Armstrong . Moreover, there was still the transportation industry specializing in connecting Earth to Armstrong and the Moon .
A lot of livelihoods were depended on the item called moonstone .
“What would happen if the portal technology became popular, and one could directly connect the Earth to the Moon?”
Grace spoke .
“First, it’ll have a major effect on any business related to the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p industry . Moreover, the moonstone transport business will go bankrupt . With the emergence of an alternate form of travel that’s much faster than a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, it’ll be the end of them . Also, Connectors would be able to freely travel between the Earth and the Moon . They won"t have to waste time going to Armstrong . Why would they spend on the services provided by Armstrong when Earth has better and cheaper services . What would happen to Armstrong then?”
When Grace reached that point in her explanation, Tim and Emily finally picked up the implications they had failed to spot .
“Are you saying it might ruin Armstrong city?”
Emily asked in a serious voice .
“Of course, it won’t disappear . However, it’ll never be like what it"s right now . It’ll probably function as a base like how it was initially intended to be . ”
Armstrong city’s time as the Lunar city would come to an end .
Tim gulped at the thought of it .
“It really is a dangerous technology . ”
Everyone silently looked between Sungyoon’s Gold Gem and the equipment in question .
“Well, let’s not worry too much about it for now . The scenario described by Ms . Grace can only happen if anyone can freely use this portal technology . ”
Sungyoon tried to improve the mood .
“That’s true . What do you think, Mr . Sungyoon? It seems the Gem finally gave you some information . Will it be enough to ruin Armstrong?”
Grace tried to speak with a lighter tone as she asked the question .
“Unfortunately, it didn’t give me all the info . It almost makes me wonder if it"s making fun of me . It doesn’t like showing any info about itself . ”
Sungyoon tapped the Gold Gem .
“It only sent me the memory of how to get out of this city using the portal . ”
“That should be enough for now . ”
“So we can get out of here?”
Tim rejoiced . He hadn’t voiced it out loud, but he had been very stressed being in an unknown location with no clear exit .
“Yes . ”
“Let’s hurry up and leave this place then . ”
They had fought consecutive life-threatening battles before being sent to this ancient city, and the portal that sent them here could s.h.i.+ft the paradigm of labyrinth raids . Tim’s head hurt a lot from thinking about all this . If it were any normal day, he would"ve dropped everything at this point and gone to sleep .
“We"ll do that . However, we have to do something on the topmost floor before that . ”
“Let’s go . ”
Tim led the way . Emily looked exasperated by Tim as she followed him . Sungyoon and Grace brought up the rear . The building had three spires, but the party had business in just one of them .
Geek!
When they arrived at the top of the spire, they opened the door .
“There’s another one . ”
A Skeleton was residing inside the room . Tim quickly approached it and bashed it with his s.h.i.+eld .
Puh-uhk!
As always, the Skeleton crumbled with the blow .
Sungyoon headed toward the corner of the room . He was trying to take measures so that they could head back to where they came from .
"Huh? What is this?”
Grace had found something . The party followed her gaze .
“… Is it a wall painting?”
The paintings on the wall weren’t a great work of art . It wasn"t the fault of the artist, as it seemed everything had been done in a rush . The drawings were very rough . However, the pictures were clear enough to be recognized . For some reason, Sungyoon couldn’t turn his gaze away from them .
‘I believe this is the beginning . ’
Sungyoon looked at the left-most painting . Naturally, his party turned to that painting too .
Their eyes fell upon a peaceful sight . The people in the cities and towns looked happy . The buildings in the painting looked like those in the ancient city . Sunlight was s.h.i.+ning on the people, and everyone was smiling .
‘The next one… . ’
An abrupt change had happened between the two paintings . In the second one, people were crying and screaming and the cities and towns were burning . The drawing depicted people cutting each other down with sharp blades .
“A war broke out . ”
Emily covered her mouth with her hand . Sungyoon frowned when he saw the crying children, and he took another step to the side .
‘What the h.e.l.l is this?’
Something odd had appeared . The background was the same as in the first picture, a peaceful sight, but one thing was different . The picture contained another thing .
‘… Monster?’
That was the only word that fit the figure . It was huge, several times larger than the mountain drawn next to the city .
‘What the h.e.l.l is this… . ’
Sungyoon called it a creature, but the creature wasn’t drawn properly . The shadow looked like what would happen if energy coalesced into a formless shape . Sungyoon felt that the artist had been so afraid that he couldn’t draw the creature . However, the two red eyes in the middle of its body were as clear as they could be .
Sungyoon took another step to the side, and the other three followed suit . At some point, they had stopped talking to each other .
The creature within the picture was going on a rampage, and the monsters had joined it . Cities and towns had been destroyed, while many tried to escape . The people who had previously fought each other joined forces to fight the creature, but they died .
Sungyoon moved on to the next picture .
He saw numerous people surrounding the creature .
These people were armed to the teeth, and they fought the creature with their lives . The creature slaughtered all of them . However, the people didn’t give up . They continued to sacrifice their lives and attack the creature .
In the same painting, Sungyoon and the others saw a group standing some distance away from the fight . Each of them held a staff, and they were focused on something .
The party took another step .
The land within this painting was floating in the air, and an enormous amount of earth and rocks filled the air . The people fighting the creature, the creature, the monsters, the people with the staff, the cities, and towns, all were on this ma.s.s of land .
They moved to the next painting .
The surface of the floating land bent in on itself and solidified with the creature at the center . It looked as if the land was trying to imprison the creature . The creature fought against its imprisonment, but its fearsome power could do nothing in front of the size of the land .
The four took the final step and looked at the last painting .
The ground was empty except for primitive people . As these people hunted and gathered food, they looked up into the sky . The round sun was setting in the west, and another celestial body floated in the sky .
Sungyoon’s party saw the creature and the monsters buried by an enormous ma.s.s that was emitting a cold silver light .
Chelsea"s words came uninvited to Sungyoon"s mind . He recalled that she told him about the most likely hypothesis regarding the formation of the Moon .
‘The Moon had broken away from Earth . ’