Labyrinth Exploration 101 - L.E Chapter 65 (Part 2): Runaway (2)

Yeah, he was a soldier. The one who taught me the rules of the labyrinth.

The guy who said never to get attached to labyrinth dwellers… until he met a child he couldn’t help but love.

“I sometimes wonder. Could there have been a better way? A better method to pull him out of that illusion.”

Back then, I was inhuman. A hunting dog driven purely by reason, with no sense of right or wrong.

I let him be. Because he was strong, I chose the easier method.

I killed his daughter.

“…Sometimes, living in a fake world might be happier. If you can get what you want most.”

Kang Hyun spoke, a strange glint in his calm, sunken eyes.

“Maybe. But not for me.”

Life is a series of countless choices. I can’t just discard the ones I don’t like as mistakes and cherry-pick the ones that feel right.

“Wrong or right, it’s all me. If I threw that away, I wouldn’t be me anymore.”

Good or bad, it’s all my life.

Erase one step from ten years ago, and my place ten years later would be completely different. There’s no way to edit only the marks I don’t like.

“Living in a fake world isn’t living. It’s becoming the fake.”

I don’t love the life I’ve walked, but I embrace it willingly.

My life was, of course, dogshit. But within all that misery, there was happiness. Seo Ji-hyuk, [MoMo]—they were my stars.

“…We’ve arrived.”

Meanwhile, Lim Hae-jun had reached somewhere.

“Found it. The research facility.”

It was some kind of building. The place where they’d relocate the Consciousness Labyrinth. Heavily guarded, emitting EMPs to disrupt spells.

But I’d already learned how to counter EMPs. Studied it diligently at the Mitamna Library.

Analyze the EMP pattern, craft a spell that’s unaffected, and you’re good.

“Should we head out now?”

“No. First, we need to scout the interior.”

I pulled out a piece of paper styled like a business card.

A thin slice of mana carbon fiber plastic, coated with crushed Mana Stone and infused with my spells. Essentially, a makeshift artifact.

“No point getting there just to waste time getting lost inside. That’d be some dumbass shit.”

With my sequence, I can link objects to my nervous system. Meaning, I can move this business card like it’s my own finger or toe.

So, if I send this card out…

…*Flutter.*

A business card drifts out from the hotel’s ruins, carried by the wind to somewhere far off.

*Flutter.*

It drifts through the air for a long time. Past neon lights, the hum of air taxis, the smog of the lower districts, until it settles on some ground.

A puddle of rainwater. The card floats there, waiting for someone.

*Splash!*

A walker stomps through the puddle, pressing down on the card.

Afterward, when the foot lifts, the business card is no longer in the puddle. It has stuck fast to the sole of the walker.

* Thud. Thud.*

The man patrols with the business card stuck to the sole of his shoe, then changes shifts with the next guard.

“Good work.”

“Yes.”

He passes through security—iris scan, fingerprint, even a blood test—before entering.

“Goddamn, I’m dead tired…”

*Click. Hiss.* Sitting in front of the security room’s surveillance cameras, he lights a cigarette and asks,

“How’s the situation?”

“Caught another one.”

At that moment, the card detaches from his walker’s sole.

It slinks across the security room floor—*creep, creep*—sliding out unnoticed.

It crawls along the corridor’s edge, *wiggle, wiggle*, as inconspicuously as possible…

It stops in front of the research lab. Waits silently in the corner, like it’s always belonged there, until the door opens.

The moment a researcher steps out—

*Swish!* It darts inside.

Then, it wriggles cautiously onto a desk, peering at the documents they’ve written. Analog papers, since digital ones risk hacking. They’re thorough…

[ Unconscious Labyrinth ]

The Unconscious Labyrinth. Connects consciousness through a capsule. Projects the entrant’s deepest desired happiness into their unconscious. Similar to a dream, if the unconscious is disrupted, the consciousness doesn’t clearly recall it, but a sense of refreshment and happiness lingers for a while.

Extremely high risk. Numerous possibilities for use as virtual reality. Estimated to be more addictive than A-grade drugs, with significant economic value…

★★★ Full activation expected to take at least four days.

“…Tch.”

Back in the hotel ruins, I clicked my tongue.

“It’s definitely an Unconscious Labyrinth. Good thing there’s still some time before it’s fully activated.”

An Unconscious Labyrinth, entered without proper equipment, can scramble a person’s consciousness. Thankfully, even they know that and use ‘capsules.’

“…Should we move out now?”

“Hold on.”

Now we need to pinpoint the labyrinth’s location.

I maneuvered the card to scout the facility’s layout. From the research lab to the security room, the lab, the break room—I mapped it all in my head.

Half a day passed like that.

“Basement Level 3.”

Finally, I found where they’d relocated the labyrinth.

“Ugh. That hurts like hell.”

I briefly cut the connection to the card. Pressed my throbbing temples and aching eye sockets, massaging them.

“So, we heading out now?”

This guy’s been itching to leave. Got claustrophobia or something?

“Nope. First…”

I flopped onto the mattress.

“Gonna sleep.”

I’d been linked to the nervous system for too long.

Moving an object as if it were me takes a bigger toll on the body than you’d think.

“…Sleep?”

“Yeah. You too. Night.”

I shut off my brain instantly.

One of the perks of my sequence.

Sleep when I want, wake when I want.

Dangun

I'm currently Translating the following novels: "Labyrinth Exploration 101" & "The Monarch Who Levels Up by Devouring " If you want to support me and read more chapters please subscribe to my Patreon!

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