Labyrinth Exploration 101 - L.E Chapter 71 (Part 2): Die With a Smile (1)

I couldn’t help but put a hand to my forehead, biting my lip hard.

For the first time in a long while, I felt a wall so vivid it stung.

Why is this girl’s luck so insane lately? Her fortune for rare drops is unreal.

Swallowing the taste of envy, I said, “…You could use it as a mana socket substitute.”

A “significant amount” of mana. In *MoMo*’s terminology, that’s top-tier. It can store more mana than most high-grade mana sockets, and it even boosts Mana Recovery—a near-endgame item for socket gear.

“Yeah, it seemed like it. But my current mana socket is pretty good.”

“…Is thaaat so?”

For a split second, greed crept in.

Since she got a *Dragon Scale*, maybe I could trade her something for it. Seo Ji-woo seems like she’d love the *Pony Projector*—it’s short-legged and cute, right?

I subtly gripped the Pony Projector in my pocket but shut my eyes tightly.

…I can’t.

I can’t let greed ruin me. No matter what, I couldn’t scam his little sister.

I handed the Dragon Scale back.

“It’s way, waaay better than your socket. Don’t sell it to anyone.”

“Huh? Better than mine? Mine is super expensive too. I got it as a gift.”

“It’s way better. Way. Waaay.”

“…Well, alright!”

Seo Ji-woo grinned ear to ear.

“So, what’s yours?”

“…I’ve got something.”

“What is it? You said we’d show off!”

“…Mine’s not for showing.”

It’s too pathetic to reveal.

While someone’s gloating over snake wine, she’s got a dragon.

“Everyone, please disperse~ Resting well is a skill, too~”

Yoo Ji-in’s voice rang out just in time.

Having returned after nearly three weeks, we would need to rest for quite a while.

I left the set.

* * *

In a dark office in the city of Raynos.

Sier awaited the imminent end, passing what might be his final day.

“I always… thought this was a broken world.”

Some children starve, lacking even cockroach-protein gruel, while nobles raise entire cows for a single meal.

Some tycoons implant million-dollar cutting-edge prosthetics just for convenience, while some laborers shove rusty, infection-ridden scraps into their severed limbs.

A world where you can’t pinpoint where it all went wrong.

A living hell—or so he’d believed.

But perhaps even this was their home.

“Quite an interesting spectacle you orchestrated.”

A strange voice suddenly echoed. A shiver ran down Sier’s spine. His body froze, his breath caught.

“No need to tense up.”

Don’t fear. Sier took a deep breath. Feeling awe for the first time in his life, he turned to look.

A woman was there. She had appeared unnoticed and sat casually on the sofa. Her golden pupils gleamed like the eyes of a dragon from legend.

“…….”

Sier said nothing. His options were limited. Reverence, adoration, praise, condemnation, prayer. He instinctively knew she was someone who could evoke all those emotions at once.

“Is it ‘you’.”

The creator of this world. To him, an unreachable absolute, but in her world, perhaps just another individual…

“I can’t be your ‘You.’ You’re independent. Don’t limit yourself. Fatalism doesn’t suit you, at least.”

Her dry tone seemed to press down on Sier.

“…Why have you come here?”

“You called me. Did you plant the labyrinth in that girl?”

Deep within Kate’s body, that labyrinth still lingers. A labyrinth within a labyrinth, coiled in her unconsciousness.

“The opposite. She consumed the labyrinth.”

Sometimes, someone with such overwhelming sensitivity can “digest” a labyrinth. Kate is one of those rare humans.

“You must have anticipated that. You paved the way, didn’t you?”

“…….”

Sier gazed at the woman silently.

Lies were meaningless now. At least to her.

“Are the people there rejoicing?”

“Rejoicing indeed.”

Sier smiled.

“That’s a relief.”

He knew from the start he couldn’t oppose them. No effort could succeed if he treated them as enemies.

“If we provide the entertainment they desire, might they not offer us another choice in return?”

The best way to survive—no, the only way—was to acknowledge they were pets and beg for mercy.

“That was my hope.”

The woman tapped the air with her finger. Golden currents swirled, forming a specific shape before Sier’s desk.

“One is an hourglass, the other a button.”

He stared at them quietly.

“Press the button, and this world halts. It loses all its structure and vanishes instantly. Everyone here, except you, will disappear without knowing they ever ceased to exist.”

The ideal end Sier had envisioned.

She was granting this world one final blessing.

“However, if you choose the hourglass, the connection between your world and ours will be completely severed. Your inner core will begin to fade, and a slow, irreversible decline will set in.”

A labyrinth cannot be an independent world. A rift, after all, is a scratch etched into the original body. Without the original, the rift cannot exist.

“You will slowly wither away, shivering from cold and thirst in the dying light. Perhaps after you die and four more generations pass, the sky will lose its strength and the earth will lose its heat. The greatness you have achieved will crumble, slowly but surely.”

Mulling over such lonely words, Sier asked in a low voice.

“…Is it truly something we achieved?”

Her eyes traced a faint arc.

“I still don’t understand the principles of magic. So I don’t know your principles either.”

What constitutes an individual is ultimately belief. Belief is truth itself, truth itself. Your world is what you built. If you can’t even believe in that, you might as well forsake existence altogether.”

Sier gazed at the hourglass before him.

If he chose this, his generation would survive. But their world would gradually fade away.

The final generation would die in unbearable agony.

Thus, severing this moment now would be the right choice.

Nothingness.

If everyone vanishes without knowing their end, it’s as if nothing ever was. No pain of existence, no fear of death—they’d be simply gone.

That dissolution might even be a paradise of sorts.

“…Life is suffering, and death is salvation.”

Sier murmured. A wistful smile rose to his lips.

He slowly reached out…

“It seems we must choose the long suffering.”

He gripped the hourglass tightly.

The woman raised an eyebrow.

“Is this the first time you’ve made a choice that goes against reason?”

“First time? I had dreams as a child. I thought riding on my father’s shoulders would let me see the end of the world.”

Sier gave a transparent laugh.

She, too, showed a faint smile.

“Same here.”

“I’m glad to hear it. That you, too, are human like us.”

Sier carefully lifted the golden hourglass, gazing at the beautiful, magical object before raising his eyes.

She was gone.

Like a mirage that had never existed in this world to begin with…

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!

•