Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Tuh-buhk!

When his foot came down on the surface, the sound of his footsteps rang out . It sounded louder than usual .

After he went into the second floor, he found that it didn’t differ much from the first floor . The place was pitch black, and cold walls surrounded him . There was a silence that made one s.h.i.+ver, and the path branched off into different tunnels .

No, there was something different . It was minor, but he could feel it against his skin . The magical energy had become a bit more dense . It seemed the amount of magical energy had increased . But the difference was so small that he wondered if he was imagining it .

Sungyoon started to search for monsters . He wandered around the second floor like a hungry predator looking for prey . As a precaution, he had placed his moonstones inside a plastic bag, and they rattled within his pack .

-Koo-roohk!

The first monster he ran across was a Mad Dog .

‘It seems the Mad Dog is going to be my first monster on the first and second floor . ’

Sungyoon had such thoughts as he watched the drooling Mad Dog . It had bared its teeth towards him .

‘If s.h.i.+nhae wants a pet, I’ll buy her a cat . I’m not buying her a dog . ’

Hamster and lizards were also off the table .

Sungyoon got into his familiar stance as he extended his s.h.i.+eld forward . Since he changed floors, he went back to being cautious in his hunt .

Fortunately, the attack pattern of the monsters hadn’t changed . The Mad Dog was beyond tenacious . It was borderline stupid as it tried to attack Sungyoon’s neck .

Puh-uhk!

He skillfully knocked down the Mad Dog with his s.h.i.+eld . Sungyoon furrowed his brows .

‘I’m definitely feeling more force on impact . ’

He felt electricity run up his arm . He had planned on immediately chasing down the Mad Dog, but he stopped .

Usually, the Mad Dogs on floor one shook their head to overcome their stunned state . This was also true for the Mad Dog on floor two . However, this version of the Mad Dog recovered from its stunned state at a surprising speed .

‘I’m only on the 2nd floor, yet it is so powerful . ’

In his mind, he had cleared the 1st floor quickly, so he had been confident in himself . This was clearly a disadvantageous situation for Sungyoon .

Still, a Mad Dog was a Mad Dog .

Pshook!

Sungyoon’s spear pierced through the Mad Dog’s head .

-Yip!

It still let out a yelp like a dog before it fell . When he retracted his spear, he watched the corpse change into a moonstone .

Toohk!

Sungyoon put away the Moonstone into the plastic bag . The bag became heavier by the new addition .

The difficulty level had clearly gone up, but he thought he would be able to handle it . Sungyoon started expanding his search radius with the stairway at the center .

Fortunately, this place had signs too . He wouldn’t get lost in trying to find the exit .

The frequency of his encounter with monsters went up compared to the 1st floor . It seemed the Big Rat didn’t nest on this floor . All six monsters he encountered were either a Mad Dog or Six-legged Lizard .

After killing his 3rd Mad Dog on the 2nd floor, he was about to move forward once again .

-Keek!

He heard the cry of a monster . Sungyoon quickly raised his s.h.i.+eld, and he looked toward the source of the sound .

A midsized monster was glaring at Sungyoon .

‘Needle Hedgehog!’

It looked as its name implied . It looked exactly like a hedgehog, and Sungyoon became tense when he saw it . It was his first time seeing it, but he knew its ident.i.ty . Its agility, power, and defensive capability was much lower than the Mad Dog . However, it was much more dangerous than the Mad Dog .

Its stiff quills were pointed towards Sungyoon .

Pshoook!

In a flash, a single needle was shot towards him .

Hweek!

Sungyoon twisted his body . The needle flew past him, and a frightening sound of destruction rang out .

He swallowed dryly as he looked at the Needle Hedgehog . He saw its red eyes and stiff quills .

This was why the Needle Hedgehog was more dangerous compared to any of the monsters he encountered up to that point .

‘Ranged attack . ’

It unilaterally attacked its enemy from a place where it couldn’t be attacked easily . Sungyoon would be put in a terrible situation if he wasn’t careful .

‘Is there any cover for me?’

Sungyoon observed his surroundings . Fortunately, he saw a 50 cm deep ditch not too far away . Sungyoon moved into that ditch .

Shook!

A needle shot past above his head . It felt like he was on a battlefield where guns were being used .

Fortunately, the monster could shoot only one needle at a time . This fact gave him comfort . If it shot its needles like a machine gun, he wouldn’t have been able to raise his head .

The needles kept shooting past above his head but running away wasn’t an option for him .

He’ll have to fight much stronger and dangerous monsters in the future . He had all the information about the monster available him . He couldn’t just run away, because the monster was capable of long ranged attacks .

Sungyoon observed the needle being shot towards him .

He could see it . When he became a Connector, his vision had developed to an astonis.h.i.+ng degree . His eyes could pick up the speedy needle .

He already knew he could do this . However, it surprised him when he experienced it for himself .

Sungyoon raised his body .

Shoohk!

The Needle Hedgehog remained in the same location as it kept shooting its needle .

‘Be calm . ’

Sungyoon twisted his body to dodge the needles . He slowly approached the Needle Hedgehog . Most of the needles were dodged, but he had to occasionally use his s.h.i.+eld to block a few needles . When the needle embedded itself in his wooden s.h.i.+eld, he could feel the destructive power behind it . It gave him chills, but he did his best to calm his heart . He continued to advance forward .

Then…

Kwah-jeek!

-Kek!

He stabbed his spear towards the Needle Hedgehog, who was desperately shooting its needles towards Sungyoon . It struggled as the spear embedded itself into the body of the Needle Hedgehog .

Shoohk!

In a flash, it shot another needle . Sungyoon had his hands full as he tried to hold onto his spear . He didn’t notice the needle being shot towards him .

Poohk!

He couldn’t dodge it . The needle flew past his s.h.i.+eld as it embedded itself in the right side of Sungyoon’s stomach . However, his hard leather armor did its job . The needle embedded itself into the armor, but it couldn’t damage Sungyoon .

It was a totally unexpected sequence of events for Sungyoon . He couldn’t come up with a coherent thought as he quickly stabbed with his spear .

-Koo-kek!

This time the spear blade found its mark . It pierced into the Needle Hedgehog’s neck . It let out a grotesque scream before it slumped to the floor .

For a moment longer, Sungyoon kept up his guard against the Needle Hedgehog . Finally, the Needle Hedgehog’s body turned into light . At that moment, Sungyoon dropped to the floor .

‘s.h.i.+t!’

He pulled out the needle from the armor, and he threw it on the ground . He was annoyed . If his heart was still beating, it would be pounding in his chest . It would be beating so hard that it would have felt as if his heart would jump out of his chest .

‘If I hadn’t worn my armor, it would have been really bad for me . ’

He suddenly felt thankful towards Jimin, who had purchased this armor for him . If he wasn’t wearing his armor, the needle would have pierced through his . . .

‘The hospital fee here is probably really expensive . ’

If he was injured, Jimin said he shouldn’t hesitate to go to the hospital . She told him not to worry about the cost of treatment . However, he considered the cost to be too burdensome to use the hospital . Above all else, he didn’t want to get injured .

‘I have to push through this . ’

He couldn’t back off, because he was frightened . He pounded his armor with his fist to encourage himself .

Still, he decided to be a bit more cautious . This place was full of deaths and injuries . Being cautious would work only up to a point .

Sungyoon picked up the moonstone . The only consolation was the fact that it dropped a bigger moonstone compared to the Mad Dog .

‘I’ll leave for the day . ’

This was the first time he had almost been seriously injured . He tried hard to push all his emotions down, but his hands were still shaking a little bit . In truth, he was a bit surprised that he hadn’t lost his will to fight .

He carried his rustling plastic bag as he backed out of the labyrinth without stopping . In the end, he exited the labyrinth without getting into much trouble

However, Sungyoon didn’t immediately head back to his sleeping place . It wasn"t too late yet, and he had to dispel the fear that had been instilled into his body even if it was by a small amount .

Boom!

Fear usually came back like a hammer swung at his heart . He had overcome his fears, but it wasn’t as if he was free of the fear . Still, many of the fears he had from his life were minimized when he came here .

The fear given to him by the Great Labyrinth had such weight .

Sungyoon ignored the desire to turn his head away . He stared straight at the Great Labyrinth .

‘Yes . I can’t be afraid right now . My goal is there . ’

Sungyoon looked at the Great Labyrinth as if he wanted to demolish it with his gaze . Sungyoon stood there for a while as he stared into the terrifying pitch-black maw .

* * *

After returning from s.p.a.ce, Jimin didn’t take a break . She went to work at her company . Even when she didn’t have any Connectors affiliated with her company, she had never taken a day off . Obviously, she wouldn’t rest when she had just one Connector contracted to her company .

‘This should wrap it up . ’

She was typing data into her computer . She was making plans . When Sungyoon went into a Personal labyrinth in the future, he would be able to acquire moonstones in earnest . She was gathering data for a company that’ll transport the moonstones to earth . She might not need this plan, and the probability of not needing this plan was high . Still, she would be ready .

Jimin stretched .

‘It is already this late . ’

The clock hand was already pointing at 8 . She got up from her desk as she got ready to leave work .

Flas.h.!.+

A light flashed outside of the window .

Afterwards . . .

Rumble!

A loud noise rang out . It sounded as if the sky was falling . Jimin approached the window, and she looked outside . Streaks of light illuminated the dark sky .

Gradually, she saw pools of waters form on the ground, and the winds caused waves to form in the puddles . This wasn’t regular rain . It was a fierce storm .

Was it because she was on the moon not too long ago? It had been awhile since she felt melancholy while watching the falling rain .

‘Didn’t he say that her name was s.h.i.+nhae?’

She suddenly thought about Sungyoon’s daughter . He had asked her to look after s.h.i.+nhae . After she came down from the moon, she had been busy with her work . She hadn’t thought about the child . However, she was done with her work for the day .

‘There should be no problem, but . . . ’

If something was wrong, the hired help would have contacted Jimin .

‘Still, I should visit her once . ’

She checked the time once again . While she was watching the rain, twenty minutes had pa.s.sed . At this hour, the child should be alone at home .

She exited her office . She got in her red foreign car, and she drove through the rain .

She was familiar with this road . In the first place, she had purchased the apartment that she had loaned out to Sungyoon . Of course, she knew where it was .

It didn’t take her too long to arrive at Sungyoon’s apartment . The apartment houses in this region were for the lower-income bracket, so all the cars in the parking lot were normal . Her red foreign car stuck out like a sore thumb .

Click!

Jimin opened her umbrella as she exited her car . She could see the porch of the apartments through the rain . It was still too early to sleep, so most of the porches had light leaking out from the windows . Sungyoon’s house was one of them .

Jimin entered the apartment complex, and she rode the elevator up to the floor where Sungyoon resided . She went up to the front door, and she rang the doorbell .

Ding dong!

The sound of a bell rang out . She put her hand down as she waited .

『Who is it?』

A young child’s voice could be heard through the intercom . Jimin pressed her face towards the camera of the intercom . Then she spoke .

“Are you s.h.i.+nhae?”

『…who are you, ajumma?』

The child sounded full of suspicion . Of course, the girl would be guarded when a strange woman had shown up in front of her house . She didn’t feel put off by it . However, the kid had called her ajumma . There were no ill intentions behind her words . In the eyes of a child, older women were all ajumma . Jimin knew this, but a small wound was left behind by that word .

Jimin spoke calmly .

“My name is Hahn Jimin . Unni is your dad’s colleague at work . Did your dad mention me?”

She emphasized the word ‘unni . ’ She couldn’t help it as a woman .

The intercom remained silent for a short moment .

『…I heard about you . 』

“That’s good . Your dad asked me to check up on you . Could you open the door for me?”

The intercom became silent once again . Soon, she heard an electronic beep that indicated the intercom was shut off .

In the end . . .

Click! Click!

Jimin heard the locks unlock . The thick steel door was pushed open, and she could see the small face of a child peek through the gap .

This was how s.h.i.+nhae and Jimin met for the first time .