Chapter 266
hapter 266
“Over there . ”
Russell pressed his face against the window of the vehicle and pointed out . Instead of his Moon Surface vehicle, Russell was riding in the Moon Surface vehicle belonging to Sungyoon"s party . On the other side of the window, the others in the vehicle saw the large maw of the Great Labyrinth .
“Is this the other Great Labyrinth?”
“Yes . ”
Sungyoon stood next to Russell and also pressed his face against the window . He had only experienced one out of the four Great Labyrinths, the one inside Armstrong . So he was curious about the new Great Labyrinth .
As if a large meteor had hit the Great Labyrinth, its entrance opened its maw at the center of the enormous crater .
“I somewhat expected it, but still it"s a lot . ”
Several dozen Moon Surface vehicles belonging to Fabion were parked near the entrance, and it emphasized the number of Connectors mobilized to this location . It seemed Fabion had caught sight of Sungyoon’s party, and several people exited the Moon Surface Vehicles .
Grace placed her hand on the window .
“Not all of them went into the Great Labyrinth . ”
“They probably felt the need to defend the vehicles . It"s now more imperative since monsters can roam outside the labyrinths . ”
Sungyoon and all the Connectors traveling with him had to hunt down a good number of monsters to reach this place . Although the monsters weren’t difficult foes, they were strong enough to wreck unattended Moon Surface vehicles .
“It also makes it more likely that they have something to hide . ”
Russell sounded cynical .
“Let’s go there . ”
Tim, who was in charge of driving, stepped on the gas pedal . He parked near the Great Labyrinth, and all of the Connectors in the vehicle stepped out .
“What brings you here?”
The person in charge of this group of Fabion Connectors stepped forward with his helmet on .
“What brings us here? Do you own this place? Why are you talking as if this is your territory?”
The man’s face hardened at the sarcastic remarks . He turned to look at who had spoken, but took a step back when he realized the ident.i.ty of the person . His face became pinched as if he had bit into a lemon .
“Mr . Bruce . ”
Even though this Connector had the power of an enormous corporation named Fabion behind his back, he couldn"t trifle with Bruce . The power backing Bruce was stronger than Fabion .
Moreover, Bruce was one of the strongest Connectors .
‘This is going to get messy . ’
The man inwardly spoke . The worst-case scenario had just arrived, but unfortunately for him, the worst-case scenario didn’t end with Bruce .
“You guys came out on such a large scale . Is this place that important?”
“We aren’t here to check up on that . ”
The man’s face darkened when he saw two men speaking in such a friendly tone .
‘Sir Russell and the Knight . ’
The man had been put a tough spot with just Bruce, yet Russell, who was just as strong, had added to his troubles . Then there was Sungyoon, who had no peers in terms of fame .
The man grumbled . Things had turned really messy .
‘I can"t kill them and shut them up . ’
In the worst-case scenario, he had been given the order to kill . However, his opponents were too strong . Even if the ‘expeditionary force’ came back out of the labyrinth, victory wouldn’t be guaranteed . The man and his group were mere guards tasked to defend the entrance .
“I could"ve never expected to meet such famous people here . ”
The man decided to act humbly .
“I’m sorry, but why did you come he—”
“Why are you here?”
Bruce cut off the man’s words, and flipped the question back on him .
“You sc.r.a.ped all your fighting force and brought them here . Did you guys discover something good here?”
“Discover? We are just working for humanity . We came to gather information about this Great Labyrinth . ”
“I doubt it . ”
Bruce snorted .
“It’s true . It can’t be helped if you don’t believe me . ”
The man showed his guts as he calmly responded to Bruce’s sarcastic words .
“Shall we go see if you"re telling the truth?”
Bruce smiled . His lips parted to reveal his sharp canines, and his fingers twitched as if he were about to attack the man .
The man backed up in fear, and the Fabion Connectors, who were standing in the rear, quickly a.s.sumed a fight stance and injected magical energy into their Gems .
The tension was rapidly reaching its flashpoint .
“Bruce . ”
Russell grabbed Bruce’s shoulder .
“Stop it . We"re just here to see why Fabion mobilized so many people . We aren’t here to start a war . ”
Russell’s words made the Fabion Connectors relax a little . However, when they heard his next words, a chill ran down their spines .
“At least, not yet . ”
The man broke out in cold sweat when Russell looked at him with cold eyes . Sungyoon joined the conversation at that moment .
“You"re here to gather information about this Great Labyrinth?”
“T-that"s correct . Why else would we come to this place?”
In the man"s eyes, Russell and Bruce were monstrous existences, and he found it easier to talk to Sungyoon . So he answered Sungyoon’s question with a glad expression .
“Do you mind if we lend a hand?”
“What?”
“We would like to go into the Great Labyrinth and help in gathering more information . ”
The man’s eyes rolled around in a furtive manner . He had no idea what to reply, but he knew he couldn"t get away with rejecting the offer .
Tuhk!
Russell put his hand on the man’s shoulder .
“Why are you thinking so hard? The Great Labyrinth isn’t yours . According to the treaty, all labyrinths on the Moon are under Armstrong city"s stewards.h.i.+p . Moreover, it"s not like you guys received some special permission from Armstrong . ”
Gagarin Yang city had openly rallied against the treaty to threaten Armstrong city’s authority on the Moon, but it had then fallen . Armstrong city had once again become the sole force on the Moon .
“Unlike you all, we received permission from Armstrong city to come here . ”
The man looked at the writ of Armstrong city and saw the Mayor’s signature .
“That is why we"re asking for cooperation from you guys . Shouldn’t you show some effort to comply?”
“…”
The man had no response . In terms of power and authority, the other side was clearly superior .
‘They came well prepared . ’
Fabion was always in the danger of Armstrong city finding out about their mobilization, and they had done it despite the risk . However, Armstrong city was being more cautious than ever before .
“Understood . ”
The man had no choice but to get out of the way .
***
The three parties entered the Great Labyrinth . All of them mainly raided the Great Labyrinth within Armstrong city, so the prospect of looking at the new Great Labyrinth was novel to them .
Unlike their expectations, the insides here looked pretty much the same as the Great Labyrinth in Armstrong city .
“Are you sure we should leave those people in our rear?”
Grace glanced back at the entrance . Even though she was unable to see it, she could imagine the frustrated man glaring at the entrance .
“It’s fine . They are all just so-so Connectors . They might cause us some trouble if they get in our way, but we could teach them a lesson when that time comes . ”
Russell indifferently spoke . In front of Grace, he always acted like a playful grandfather, and she always had to remind herself that he was one of the strongest Connectors in the world . The idea of fighting the small group of Connectors outside wouldn"t scare him .
Seeing the worry on Grace"s face, Sungyoon pointed toward his Device .
“It"s fine . You don"t have to worry . ”
“Ah! You"re right . ”
Grace finally relaxed when she realized they had the perfect exit route in the portal .
“What is that? Is that what you guys are hiding from us?”
Bruce picked up on the exchange and got close to Sungyoon . Sungyoon answered him in a calm manner .
“I’ll tell you immediately once you get permission from the Mayor . ”
“Tsk! You"re so stingy . ”
Bruce pouted as he walked away . He kept grumbling to himself as he complained about Sungyoon being a miser and a petty person . Since everyone knew that Bruce was just playing around, no one paid attention to his complaints .
“How are we supposed to track them down?”
Tim, who had been walking at the front, turned his head around .
This was the Great Labyrinth, and as the name implied, it had a lot of floors and divergent paths . If they weren’t careful, they would miss Fabion’s expeditionary force and might even get lost .
“You don’t have to worry about that . ”
Bruce quickened his steps as he walked past Tim . There was no hesitation in his steps . The dumbfounded Tim followed Bruce .
“Look here . ”
When they arrived at the first divergent path, Bruce pointed at the wall of the tunnel . A large arrow entered the group"s sight . Placing arrows was a method commonly used in clearing labyrinths to have an easier time finding the right paths .
“Since this is their first time raiding this Great Labyrinth, they won’t have much information to work with . They would have to mark their paths, and their markers will guide us . ”
Bruce let out a confident smile .
“Well, let’s go . ”
***
All the gimmicks of the Great Labyrinth in Armstrong were present here too, special monsters, common sense-defying physics, different terrains .
Moreover, the Great Labyrinth was the labyrinth that housed the strongest monsters . Regular Connectors would either run away or die here . Their corpses would forever decorate the Great Labyrinth .
However, the three parties were made up of anything but normal Connectors . They easily killed the monsters on the early floors and pushed past the Great Labyrinth . All the monsters died from a single blow from Bruce and Russell . Bruce grumbled that it was boring to kill these ‘weak’ monsters, and he didn’t even bother gathering the moonstones .
“How far did they go?”
A week had already pa.s.sed since the three parties had entered the Great Labyrinth . They had reached the seventeenth floor . Fabion’s expeditionary force had moved through this place before, so the three parties didn"t encounter many monsters . They were moving through the Great Labyrinth at an extremely fast speed .
Yet, they hadn’t caught sight of Fabion’s expeditionary force .
“Are you sure we came the right way?”
“The arrow pointed toward this direction . ”
Russell recovered the moonstone and tossed it toward Bruce . Bruce looked annoyed by it as he put away the moonstone into his storage Gem .
“Do you think they made those marks to deceive us?”
“That might be a possibility . However, we can’t do much about it . It"s impossible for us to do a thorough search with the number of people we have . We can only move forward . ”
“s.h.i.+t!”
Bruce kicked the wall of the labyrinth and resumed walking . As the group went down one more floor, they heard desperate footsteps .