Chapter 290

Chapter 290

Sungyoon jumped out of the portal and stopped supplying his magical energy to the Royal Gem before his feet could hit the ground . Then, he bent forward to get as close to the ground as possible .

His posture looked awkward and funny . However, Sungyoon had done it in preparation for the possibility of an attack . Thankfully, no attacks pa.s.sed through the portal before it closed .

“Hoo-ooh~!”

With that, Sungyoon took a deep breath . He welcomed the air that filled his lungs as he pushed off his legs to get up .

“Mr . Sungyoon!”

The Mayor greeted him, while Plu-El and Aruwen looked relieved to see him .

Sungyoon greeted them and his party members, who had been impatiently waiting for him .

“Are any of you hurt?”

“We are fine . ”

As if to allay his worries, Grace raised her arms to show that she was fine . It didn’t seem she was exaggerating .

This time, Sungyoon posed a question to the Mayor .

“Where’s the safe?”

“Over there . ”

The Mayor pointed to a corner in the room where several Connectors safeguarded the safe . The safe looked dirty, but it was intact even after going through all this mess .

‘It"s quite st.u.r.dy . ’

“Do we have the key?”

“No . We couldn"t find the key within the debris, so we plan on breaking it open by force . ”

“Let’s do it right now . ”

Sungyoon took up his ax . The Mayor had no objection to his plan, and he retreated a step .

“What if the items aren’t in the safe?”

“Don’t put that evil on us!”

The Ross siblings whispered to each other . They were just voicing the worries that everyone in the room felt .

‘There’s no way that can happen . ’

Sungyoon anxiously executed his actions . Since he didn’t want to break the safe in this room, he lifted and carried it outside . The others followed him out .

When they arrived outside, they saw all the Connectors who had partic.i.p.ated in the plan . They were either resting or healing their wounds .

Sungyoon tossed the safe away from the Connectors, then brought down his ax . He did his best to control his strength .

Puh-uhk!

A dull vibration pa.s.sed through his hands . Sungyoon showed exquisite control over his strength . His strike crushed the hinge of the safe"s door and flung the door far away . All kinds of Devices and Gems with tags attached to them fell from the safe .

“Which one is it?”

“I’ll look for it . ”

Plu-El approached him . She squatted in front of the pile and sorted through the mess of Devices and Gems . Everyone else nervously watched her . Suddenly, she came to a stop and carefully picked up a particular Device .

“I found it . ”

Cheers rang out all over the place .

***

They saw the city that was enclosed within a large s.p.a.ce . It was an exotic city touched by the pa.s.sage of time . The city"s design looked similar to that of the cities Sungyoon and Aruwen could enter with their special Gems .

However, there were some differences too .

“This is the holy city?”

Even if someone was ignorant about their culture, that person could not miss the religious buildings inside the city .

“It"s quite different from the cities that you"re used to seeing, right?”

Plu-El spoke from behind Sungyoon .

“It seems each special Gem leads to a different city . ”

“That’s right . As I’ve told you before, the special Gems were the treasures of our leaders . Each leader was in charge of a city . The warrior leader was in charge of Fortress city that had the strongest military might . The shaman leader was in charge of the holy city that was the center of our religion . The mage leader ruled the city of magic where anything related to magic was gathered . ”

“What about the city connected to the Royal Gem? What kind of city was it?”

“At the time, the Royal Gem was pretty much the symbol of the king . Which city would a king rule from?”

“… The capital?”

“That’s right . ”

‘This is a really important Gem . ’

The Royal Gem basically signified the authority of a king . Even though the ancient civilization was no more, this Gem was a remnant of that time . Since it was a connection to their past glory, the Royal Gem meant a lot to the Moon people .

The people near them looked at Sungyoon’s Royal Gem with renewed respect in their eyes .

Plu-El walked forward without any hesitation .

The portal she had made led to a room within the holy city, and she guided the group to a different room .

“Isn’t this room similar to the one we saw in Mr . Sungyoon’s city?”

Emily asked in a curious voice . She could see unknown machines in the room and holographic screens floating in the air .

There was only one difference between this room and the one in the capital city; the buildings displayed on the holographic screens were red in the capital city"s room, while all of the buildings displayed on the holographic screens here were blue .

Plu-El approached the holographic screens and performed some actions .

The images on the screens started to change . The buildings slowly faded away, and new images started to appear in their place . Two circular shapes appeared on the screen, one large and one small .

Everyone knew what they were .

“It"s Earth and the Moon . ”

Emily mumbled .

“Where should I send you all?”

Plu-El, who had her hands on the keyboard, turned her head to look back at the group .

***

Three weeks had pa.s.sed since the extraordinary event had taken place in Armstrong city . However, the UN and all the countries in the world didn’t know what to do . They couldn’t come up with a clear plan . The incredible distance of 384 thousand kilometers was the problem .

Even when a country wanted to send troops over the ocean, immense time, effort, and resources were required to pull it off . Moreover, there was no guarantee that the invasion would succeed . In fact, there was a higher probability of failure .

Now, s.p.a.ce had to be inserted into that equation . It was a completely different proposition when it came to sending troops to fight on the Moon .

This was why the talks mainly centered around rescuing the survivors, but no one knew where the survivors were . Even if they traveled through s.p.a.ce to reach the Moon, they couldn’t just randomly search for survivors since monsters were crawling all over Armstrong city .

In many ways, Earth was in a state of deep chaos .

Despite the political mess, time continued to flow and people had to get on with their lives .

“Mom! Hurry!”

s.h.i.+nhae waved her hand toward Jimin, who laughed and walked toward the little girl .

After Jimin had lost contact with Sungyoon, she had lived like a broken person for two weeks . However, she had realized that she couldn’t continue to live like that .

She was different from the girl who fell apart when her father had disappeared . She was no longer the naive girl who had entered headfirst into the intense business world with money, but no knowledge .

She had to be different .

A major influence behind this change in her was the responsibility she felt toward her daughter . s.h.i.+nhae had yet to know that her father was missing, and Jimin was doing her best to hide this information from her .

‘I can’t hide it forever . ’

She didn"t need to hide it forever . She just had to hide the information until Sungyoon returned . That way, s.h.i.+nhae wouldn’t have to go through any unnecessary hards.h.i.+p from worrying about her dad . She would be able to live a happy life .

Therefore, Jimin had brought s.h.i.+nhae to her favorite zoo . She was doing her best so that her daughter could continue to live a normal life .

The zoo was not busy today . It was to be expected considering the state of the world . All the adults who had come here had a shadow darkening their faces . The only ones acting normal were the innocent children having fun at the zoo .

s.h.i.+nhae arrived near the cage containing lions, which were her favorite animal . Without a care in the world, she let out a large yawn . Then, she put on a bright smile as she looked at the lions once again .

After s.h.i.+nhae had played for a long time, she and Jimin exited the zoo and entered the car . s.h.i.+nhae was tired, and she fell asleep inside the car .

On the way back, Jimin did her best to not wake up the child . She then carefully carried the child into the house, but this wasn’t the house owned by Sungyoon and Jimin .

“I’m here . ”

“Welcome back!”

Aiin greeted Jimin .

“Oh my! s.h.i.+nhae is asleep?”

“Yes . ”

Aiin deftly took s.h.i.+nhae in her arms . s.h.i.+nhae tossed and turned for a brief moment, but it seemed Aiin’s arms were also comfortable . A happy expression appeared on the little girl"s face, and she resumed her deep sleep .

“Hoo-hooht! She’s such a cute child . ”

Not long after Sungyoon went missing, Jimin had taken s.h.i.+nhae and gone to reside in her parents" home . Aiin and Hweeyoung had insisted on it . After all, they had experienced losing their husband within the labyrinth . Jimin knew they were worried for her, so she hadn’t put up much of a fight in accepting their offer .

After handing s.h.i.+nhae to Aiin, Jimin went to the living room .

“You"re here, Noona?”

Woosang and Woosung were also here .

They had been lucky as they had returned to Earth before the mess in Armstrong city broke out . Moreover, they were living at home right now . They had made various excuses for their presence here, but Jimin knew that her brothers were worried about her .

However, they weren’t alone . Another person was sitting next to the two brothers .

“You"re here, Hyunwoo ahjussi?”

“Yes!”

Hyunwoo, who had been conversing with Woosang and Woosung, turned to greet her . Since there was no flight to the Moon, Hyunwoo had nothing much to do . He frequently visited Hweeyoung"s and Aiin’s house with Woosang and Woosung in recent days .

Jimin sat down in the living room as she conversed with the three men . It didn’t take long for Hweeyoung and Aiin to join the conversation too . None of them brought up any news about Armstrong city, as everyone knew it was a sensitive topic . They knew that Jimin was pus.h.i.+ng herself to act calm, but her nerves were as taut as the string on a bow . If that string snapped, they knew Jimin might collapse . That was why they brought up inane topics to be considerate of her feelings .

Some laughs occasionally broke out, but the conversation was brittle . There was no substance behind it, and it was dry like the rough sands of a desert .

“I . . . I need some air . I will be back . ”

It seemed Jimin was having a hard time keeping up this farce . She carefully stood up .

No one stopped her . They just looked at her back with worried gazes .

“Hoo-ooh~!”

When she came out to the backyard, Jimin let out a sigh and raised her head .

The night sky was devoid of stars . There was only the full Moon, which was unusually bright tonight .

Jimin felt spiteful toward the Moon as if it had stolen away all the light from the surrounding stars .

In the past, it had felt like the Moon had taken her father from her . This time, it felt like the Moon had taken her husband .

‘No . ’

Jimin forcefully shook her head from side to side, and her long hair flew through the air like tangled threads .

‘He"s alive . I know it . ’

She once again looked up at the sky . Even though she had hardened her heart, she felt her mental state slowly chipping away . The media was slowly starting to bring up the possibility of the survivors being dead on the Moon . They were talking about holding a joint funeral service for the fallen .

Jimin wholeheartedly disagreed with those opinions, but she had no proof to back up her feelings .

She could only wait .

‘Where are you right now?’

Wait for Sungyoon"s return .

‘When will you be back?’

The dam that restrained her tears finally cracked, and a single tear fell down her pale cheek .

“Mr . Sungyoon . ”

“What’s wrong?”

At first, she thought she was hallucinating . She missed him so much that her brain had deceived her into hearing Sungyoon’s voice . She was sure of it . Yet, she couldn’t stay still .

Jimin slowly turned her head .

Even if it was a delusion, she felt hope . She wanted to drag this out for as long as possible . She knew despair and a heavy sigh awaited her . However, her eyes caught sight of him . She rubbed them, but he didn’t disappear .

“Mr . Sungyoon?”

“Yes . Have you been waiting long?”

His smile and his voice matched everything she knew about him . This was real .

“Mr . Sungyoon!”

It was as if the impudent full Moon had prepared a surprise for her . Under the Moon"s gentle light, Jimin jumped into Sungyoon’s arms .