Moon's Labyrinths

In a small room, several fluorescent tubes lit up the ceiling with white light . The wall, ceiling, and the floor were all painted white . No furniture was present in the room . Only an operating table was located at the center . It was a sight that would make one instinctually break out in goosebumps .

A person lay on top of the operating table . No, it wasn’t a living person . It was a corpse . The body had been ruthlessly mangled, and one could tell he had died a horrible death . The identity of the corpse was none other than Kim Soobin .

His corpse had been transferred to earth and cremated in front of his family . Yet, for some reason, that corpse was present in this nameless facility .

Chul-kuhk!

The door to the room opened, and Hyunwoo came in and pushed in a cart containing a lot of surgical tools . He looked at Soobin’s corpse once and then pushed the cart next to the operating table .

Ssssk!

He picked up a scalpel . The light from the ceiling made the silver-colored scalpel shine .

Poo-oohk!

Hyunwoo didn’t show any hesitation as he stabbed the scalpel into Soobin’s corpse . The beautiful silver light became buried within the grotesque chunk of flesh .

Suh-guhk! Suh-guhk!

For a long time, the sound of flesh being cut could be heard within the room . Hyunwoo cut the corpse like a butcher taking apart a pig . He was very proficient at dissecting the corpse .

The internal organs of Soobin’s body were revealed . This time, Hyunwoo worked like a technician . He worked with precision, closely observing Soobin’s internal organs .

After a while, he exited from the room, leaving Soobin’s corpse as if it were a frog that had been used for dissection .

He washed his dirtied hands and changed his clothes . Since he wanted a can of beer, he exited the dissection room in the basement and moved towards the 1st floor . There he discovered someone waiting for him .

“How was it?”

It was his partner in crime . Chairman Dongin poured a cup of hard liquor for himself as he asked the question . Hyunwoo didn’t look surprised at all . He sat across Dongin as he brought out a cup for himself .

“It is as we had expected . His internal organs were all damaged, and the damage to the heart was severe . Even if Woo Sungyoon hadn’t killed him, Kim Soobin wouldn’t have lived for long . ”

Hyunwoo took the hard liquor away from Dongin and poured a cup for himself . He downed the liquor, which burned as it went down his throat . The sensation was blissful . After emptying his cup, he shrugged .

“Still, we gained a lot of information . Swapping out his corpse was worth it . ”

“As expected, it isn’t usable yet . ”

Dongin looked disappointed as he looked towards the center of the table . Reflecting the light from the white fluorescent tubes, a Blood Gem was letting out an ominous light .

“There’s no way this will be easy . This is an item that has the potential to turn common sense on top of its head . ”

Hyunwoo poured another cup of alcohol .

“Still, do you think we’ll find a way if we keep experimenting?”

“I believe that’s the only way forward . ”

Dongin kept swirling the ice in his cup until the ice started breaking down .

* * *

Sungyoon looked at his Moon Surface Vehicle . After he was deported to earth, the investigative team from Armstrong had towed the vehicle back to the city . It had been completely repaired now . The completely-destroyed wheels were replaced . And if he wanted to, he could drive across the surface of the moon right now .

“There’s nothing particularly wrong with it . ”

Chelsea looked over the vehicle . She spoke as she placed her hands on her hips .

Once her vacation ended, she had come back to the research facility . Sungyoon had asked her to check the repaired vehicle, and she had readily agreed . Sungyoon could do basic maintenance when it came to normal cars . However, when it came to Moon Surface Vehicles, he knew nothing .

“It’s fine . There was no problem with the swapped-out wheels . They didn’t touch anything else . The price they charged you is fair too . ”

Chelsea spoke as she tapped one of the large wheels of the Moon Surface Vehicle . Thankfully, Soobin had only damaged the wheels . According to the mechanic, if the engine fee had been messed with, the repair fee would have been astronomical .

“Will it be ok to drive it now?”

“Yes . ”

Sungyoon nodded and got into the driver’s seat . Since nothing was wrong with his vehicle, he planned on driving it to the parking lot . So, he rolled down the driver’s seat window and spoke to Chelsea .

“I’ll park this guy outside of Armstrong . Please wait for me . I’ll be back in a moment, and then I’ll treat you to a meal . ”

“I’m not sure if I should be saying this, but are you sure about this?”

Chelsea was half suspicious and half worried .

In the past, Jimin had asked Chelsea to check up on Moon Surface Vehicle before purchasing it for Sungyoon . Jimin had told her that she would be buying her dinner as recompense .

Chelsea remembered the days when Sungyoon had looked like a beggar living in Armstrong city . Moreover, she knew that he could be a bit cheap . Hence, she was worried that he was overdoing it .

“It’s fine . I have this . ”

Sungyoon showed her a card . It was a company card Jimin had given him .

“She said I can throw the money into the air if I wanted to . She ordered that by the time I get back to earth, I must spend every single penny in the account . ”

It was an extreme measure implemented by Jimin . If she left him alone, Sungyoon would once again sleep in his vehicle and only eat vitamin packs for food . She knew he would spend the least amount of money he was given . So she had threatened Sungyoon with a penalty if he didn’t expend it all . Sungyoon had no choice but to spend the money .

Chelsea let out a hollow laugh when she heard the whole story . The way Sungyoon and Jimin interacted was so unconventional that it made her head hurt .

“Also, she gave me more money, so I can buy you a meal . You don’t have to worry about it . ”

“If that’s true... . ”

When he insisted on it like this, it wouldn’t be polite to turn him down . Moreover, she wanted to eat food produced by somewhere else than the research facility . She had lived the good life on Earth, and she was having a hard time getting used to living on the Moon again .

On that day, Chelsea once again felt overwhelming happiness as she was able to taste a variety of feasts .

* * *

Sungyoon drove across the surface of the moon . He was starting to get a rough idea on how to get to his Personal Labyrinth even without guidance, but he wasn’t heading towards his Personal Labyrinth right now .

‘Labyrinth F-038 . ’

It was a Personal Labyrinth located six days away from Armstrong when using the Moon Surface Vehicle . It was Sungyoon’s destination .

Like Sungyoon’s labyrinth, this one had been recently assigned . It was an untouched labyrinth, and the owner had put out a request for party members . Jimin had been thoughtful in her consideration . She didn’t want Sungyoon to go back to his Personal Labyrinth so soon after he had killed Kim Soobin in there .

If Connectors were contracted to a decent-sized company, they wouldn’t have any problem gathering party members affiliated with their company . However, it seemed the Connector who was assigned the F-038 labyrinth was affiliated with a very small company . When Connectors from a small company tried to clear a labyrinth, they tried to recruit Connectors from other small companies .

‘If I want to clear my Personal Labyrinth in earnest, I have to gather other Connectors in the same fashion . ’

Jimin was doing her best to support him, but it was impossible for her to match him with party members from the same company . Sungyoon had no choice . When it would become too tough for him to clear his labyrinth, he would have to gather other party members .

‘If not, I’ll have to go to another labyrinth and join a party . ’

The fact that a Connector was assigned a Personal Labyrinth didn’t mean they had to clear only their labyrinth . If one was capable of becoming a member of another party, one could clear other labyrinths too . It wouldn’t cause any problems . Most of the Connectors from small companies formed parties and picked one of the Personal Labyrinths they wanted to clear . This was also the same for larger companies . Each Connector possessed a labyrinth, and they chose which labyrinth they wanted to clear based on income potential and difficulty . They focused on the labyrinth which they were best suited to clearing .

Currently, Sungyoon was going to a labyrinth that wanted a temporary party . The owner wanted to explore and gauge the general rank of the labyrinth . If they had wanted a permanent party, Jimin wouldn’t have sent Sungyoon there . This was why the level of Connectors being gathered was quite low .

‘They said it is a labyrinth owned by a 1st Gen . ’

The 1st Gen wouldn’t be on the same level as Sungyoon . Sungyoon was classified as a 1st Gen, but he possessed abilities that far outstripped a regular 1st Gen .

However, Jimin had to find this job in a hurry after the incident with Soobin . It couldn’t be helped that the opportunity wasn’t that great . But she didn’t consider this to be too bad of an opportunity . There was another reason why she had gone with this plan .

‘She wants me to experience the true reality of teaming up with other Connectors . ’

Sungyoon had only experienced partying up with Tim and Emily . Both siblings had very good character traits, and he had never felt uncomfortable partying up with them . Of course, he knew not all people were like the two siblings . In fact, good people like Tim and Emily were in short supply .

If Sungyoon wanted to continue raiding labyrinths, he had to experience teaming up with regular party members . But the probability of him finding extremely good party members like the Ross siblings was extremely low .

If he had his way, he wanted to continue with the Ross siblings . However, the Ross siblings were contracted to a pretty large and famous company . Their company wouldn’t allow them to team up with a 1st Gen from a small company . The fact that they had been able to party up with each other in the Beginner’s Labyrinth had been a very rare incident .

Sungyoon had a hard time trusting others, so this wasn’t a good situation for him . If it were up to him, he wanted to turn the vehicle around .

However, if he wanted to raid the Great Labyrinth in the future, he needed experience teaming up with other Connectors . So, he pushed down on his disagreeable feelings as he drove the vehicle .

Sungyoon looked at his watch . His watch indicated it was very late right now .

Ggeeek!

He stopped his vehicle . The promised time was still away, so he didn’t need to drive all night .

Sungyoon got up from the driver’s seat and headed towards the sleeping area in the back . He sat on the bed and laid all his Devices and Gems on the bed .

‘Amazing . ’

The number of Devices and Gems he possessed now was truly great . He had received all the Devices and Gems used by Soobin .

As he looked at his newly-acquired Devices and Gems, Sungyoon could understand why Soobin had boasted about them .

First, Sungyoon decided to check the Gems .

There were the Gems that he had used for a short amount of time, the Red rank halberd and the Orange rank Gem that enhanced his strength by seven-folds . Aside from lamellar armor, there was the Yellow rank helmet, arm and leg armor . He possessed Blue rank Gems capable of casting gravity magic and healing magic . Then there was the Blue rank Gem capable of increasing strength by four-fold and another Blue rank Gem capable of increasing his senses by four-fold .

Finally, there was another Blue rank Gem with quite the unique ability called Object Storage .

It was a special-ability Gem with the shape of a hexagon . It could store objects in a special domain . Normally, the Connectors used these types of Gems to store water and food, but they also used it to transport moonstones .

The investigative team had found that Soobin hadn’t used a vehicle to travel to Sungyoon’s labyrinth . He had traveled using only his own two legs . It seemed he had used the Gem capable of storing water and food to great effect .

‘What a wretched bastard!’

Did Soobin really want to kill Sungyoon that much? He couldn’t say he had lived a perfect life, but his life had been good enough so that he shouldn’t have bought enmity from others . In fact, he could make a case that he had taken the short end of the stick in life .

Sungyoon cussed out Soobin once again even though he was dead .

‘He said he had sold all his low-rank Gems . ’

Sungyoon hadn’t received many low-rank Gems . It seemed Soobin had coveted high-rank Gems . According to the investigation, Soobin had been financially broke at the end . When he found out he could use high-rank Gems, it was assumed he had sold all the Gems he didn’t need in order to fund his purchases of higher rank Gems .

However, Sungyoon didn’t care . He no longer needed the lower rank Gems .

‘When I look back at the fight, it seemed he didn’t have any more Gems he could use in battle . ’

In the fight against Soobin, Sungyoon had been worried that his enemy had more Gems at his disposal . This was why he had been strict in not giving him time to activate any more Gems . He realized his efforts had been overkill . He felt a bit aggrieved by this, but he had come out of the fight with his life intact . So he decided to let it go .

His gaze went to the Devices this time . There were three bracelet-type Devices and one necklace-type Device .

Sungyoon had used this bracelet for a brief amount of time before . It was the bracelet type Device capable of equipping the Red rank weapon Gem, the Orange-rank body-ability Gem, and the Orange-rank armor Gem . It was the first Device to catch his eyes . The second bracelet could slot three yellow-rank armor Gems, and one blue-rank special-ability Gem . The third bracelet Device could slot Green-rank physical-ability Gem, two blue-rank physical-ability Gems, a blue-rank attack magic Gem, and a blue rank support magic Gem .

The Gems mostly matched up with the Devices . It seemed Soobin had made sure the Gems and the Devices matched up when he gathered them .