Chapter 310
Chapter 310
‘We should be arriving at our destination soon . ’
They were in a dark cave . A large and ominous door was letting its presence known . However, Hyunwoo looked bored as he sat on top of a boulder .
Only his eyes revealed the deep curiosity that he felt .
“Did something good happen?”
“No way . ”
Jinsoo had approached him . Hyunwoo waved his hand in the negative .
“I’m just an old man sitting in a dark s.p.a.ce . What is there to enjoy about this situation? ”
“Then you should have gone down to earth . A lot of fun stuff should be happening down there . ”
They had become a complete turncoat against earth . This was why they sometimes accompanied the monsters down to earth . They caused all kinds of mayhem .
“You are pretty amazing . You know they hate it when you accompany them . ”
“Who cares what they think?”
Jinsoo shrugged his shoulders .
“They gained so much because he cooperated with them . The fact that they are complaining about how hard it is to retrieve us from earth is out of line . We did enough for them . They should treat us better . ”
The monsters were treated like consumable commodities . They didn"t need to be retrieved unlike the Connectors . They had to open additional portals to retrieve the Connectors .
This was why Ursus, who was leading the monster army, asked the Connectors to avoid going down to earth .
Most of them followed Ursus’ request, but there were those like Jinsoo, who ignored it .
“It really is great down there . I can do anything there . I can kill and destroy everything to my heart’s content . I can carry out any criminal activities . It is heaven for me . ”
The screams and pain felt by the victims filled his desire for conquest and destruction .
Currently, Jinsoo was living in the golden age .
“I know for sure that you really want something else . Am I right?”
Hyunwoo laughed as he spoke . He spoke as if he knew everything . Jinsoo stopped moving in an exaggerated manner . He came to a complete stop .
However, it lasted only for a moment . A smile appeared on his lips .
His smile was very cruel . It was frightening .
“Well, you are right . ”
Jinsoo didn’t deny it at all .
“It is too funny . Those that put on airs as they yelled at me ran away like dogs!”
He looked at his hands .
His hands had been dyed with blood until not too long ago .
The Connectors were an amazing and confident group of people . He hadn’t been able to become one of them, yet they all died futilely against him .
“I don’t want to say this since this is your hobby . However, you shouldn’t overdo it . If you act out enough to become a detriment to the plan, you become nothing to them . ”
“Yes, yes . ”
Jinsoo raised both hands . He didn’t sound sincere as he gave his answer .
“Doesn’t that apply to you too, Mr . Hyunwoo?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You went on a ‘walk’ a couple of days ago . You weren’t accompanied by anyone . ”
“Ah . You noticed that?”
Hyunwoo was calm . He spoke as if it was nothing .
“It seemed the act of betraying my country and earth had some effect on me . That is why I went out for a stroll . I wanted to calm my heart, so I went to a place that held sentimental value . ”
“Wow . I thought you were incapable of bleeding or crying . I can’t believe you felt those emotions . ”
“I thought I was immune to those emotions, but as I get older, I grow sentimental . This is why one should die when one gets old . ”
Hyunwoo and Jinsoo looked at each other . Both men were smiling, but for some reason, it felt as if murderous intent was flowing out of them .
“Ha-haht! I guess it can’t be helped since your age made you feel that way . I am getting older too, so I can relate . ”
“Mmm! I really like the respect you are showing towards an old man like me . Young kids these days are lacking in that department . ”
“I’ll be heading out now . ”
Jinsoo acted like a respectful young man . He left after bowing 90 degrees towards Hyunwoo . Hyunwoo waved his hand, and he laughed like a benevolent grandfather .
When Jinsoo disappeared, his benevolent laughter changed into a jeer .
‘He caught wind of it . ’
It wasn’t surprising . Kim Jinsoo was a man, who always observed Hyunwoo for an opening .
In his eyes, all Connectors were his enemy including Hyunwoo .
However, he didn’t care about that .
‘If Woo Sungyoon develops as planned . . . ’
An existence like Kim Jinsoo wouldn’t even be worthy of Woo Sungyoon’s eyes at that point .
***
There was no door at the entrance to the tower . There was an arch-shaped hole at the bottom of the tower .
“Thankfully, there is no door . ”
Bruce entered through the hole .
“He’s so shameless . He still can’t let go of the fact that he couldn’t open the door yesterday . ”
Russell clicked his tongue as he followed behind Bruce into the tower .
Sungyoon’s party let out a bitter laughter as they entered the tower too .
The center of the tower was open until the top, but one couldn’t see the ceiling . There was a helical staircase built against the walls . They could see doors to rooms along the staircase .
“We have to climb it, right?”
“Of course . ”
Bruce and Russell bent back their neck as they looked upwards .
Bruce was the first one to step onto the staircase .
He lightly stomped one feet on the staircase .
He put more strength into the stomp, but the staircase remained intact .
He placed his other foot atop the staircase . With his full weight on the staircase, he jumped a couple times in place .
“I don’t think it’ll suddenly collapse on our way up . ”
The Connectors continued to climb up the staircase .
“This is quite dangerous without a railing . ”
Emily stuck close to the wall . Bruce, who was leading from the front, grabbed the handle to a door . It was the first room that he had reached .
The wooden door had somehow lasted over the test of time, but it was obvious that the door was rotten . It was barely hanging on .
“It is another door . ”
He glared at Russell, who teased Bruce from his side . He slowly opened the door .
“There’s nothing in here . ”
“This place feels like a deserted house . ”
Russell turned around to look at Sungyoon .
“Do you feel anything?”
“No . I don’t feel anything special within the room . How about you, Sir Russell? Do you feel anything out of the ordinary?”
“No . I equipped it, but I don’t think it will react to me . ”
Russell raised his arm . His armor hit it, but he had a Device equipped on his arm . The Mage Gem was slotted in the Device .
“Let’s continue to go up . ”
Bruce pointed towards the stairs .
They arrived at each room as they climbed the staircase . They opened each door as they advanced, but they didn’t see anything eye-catching within the rooms . The only thing they found was broken down furniture .
Everyone wanted to just ignore the rooms to reach the top, but there was a chance that there was something out of the ordinary within one of the rooms . This was why they opened every one of them .
“In the end, it was all for nothing . ”
Russell stood at a platform at the very top . He let out a sigh as he looked at the last door .
In the end, it had been a ma.s.sive waste of time . None of the rooms held anything interesting .
Russell slowly opened the last door . The helical staircase had come to an end, and a door was present at the top of the tower .
“There’s no way we find nothing in there, right?”
“Don’t jinx us!”
Russell kicked backward towards Bruce, then he fully opened the door .
He was greeted by a large s.p.a.ce . Unlike the rooms that were present along the staircase, this place used the entire area up top . There were no inner walls that segregated rooms . It also didn’t possess outer walls . One could look out into the city . There were only a couple of pillars that held the ceiling up .
‘This place is more like a terrace than a room . ’
It was a great place to look out for a great view . However, they didn’t see much since the city was encased by st.u.r.dy walls .
Sungyoon looked up . He recalled seeing the top of the tower embedded into the ceiling .
‘Do the top of the tower share the same ceiling as this s.p.a.ce?’
“Mr . Sungyoon! Over there!”
Emily tapped at Sungyoon’s arm .
She was pointing towards a certain direction .
He saw a familiar set of machines . It was a machine that existed in Sungyoon’s capital and Plu-El’s holy city . It was the device that projected the hologram .
Russell and Bruce caught sight of the device too, so they approached it .
“Hey . You should activate it . You have the Mage Gem, right?”
Russell was put in an awkward spot when Bruce spoke up .
“I still haven’t awakened it, so what can I do?”
Even as he said those words, Russell started touching the machine .
He tried pressing the Mage Gem against the device, and he also tried sending his magical energy through the Gem . However, the machine didn’t do anything .
“Mmm . Knight? Mr . Aruwen and Ms . Plu-El? Do you mind helping me out?”
Russell called out to the three, who possessed the special Gems .
“We won’t be of any help . The machine will not activate without the Mage Gem . ”
Plu-El crushed Russell’s hopeful thoughts .
“Can’t the Knight use the Royal Gem to activate it?”
“The Royal Gem isn’t some universal item . ”
In the end, Russell backed away from the machine .
The Connectors ignored the machine once they realized they couldn’t activate it . They started searching their surroundings, but the only thing out of the ordinary was the machine .
“…there is nothing here . ”
Bruce sounded annoyed as he mumbled his words .
He even checked the pillars and the outer walls of the tower . He checked if there were any symbols engraved into them, but he found nothing .
“Didn’t Sung Hyunwoo say there was something here that could stop the Grenoid?”
“He said there is a way to stop the monsters from invading earth here . ”
“s.h.i.+t! Does this mean he duped us?’
“There is no guarantee that he was referring to this place . ”
Russell placated Bruce, but his voice sounded drained of energy too .
“In the first place, he sad it exists with the ‘Great Labyrinth . ’ He gave no other hints . . ”
Russell added at the end .
“However, there is no guarantee that he didn’t lie to us . ”
“s.h.i.+t!”
Bruce stamped his foot once .
***
Afterward, the Connectors searched the tower one more time . They wanted to make sure that they hadn’t missed anything .
However, they couldn’t find anything, and the Mage Gem was showing no signs of waking up .
In the end, the Connectors expanded their search radius to the city .
“Did you find anything?”
Sungyoon was looking at the wall surrounding the city . Emily walked up behind him as she asked the question . Sungyoon shook his head from side to side .
“It is just a wall . There is nothing extraordinary about it . Did you find something, Ms . Emily?”
“No . ”
Emily glanced at Sungyoon .
“Are you blaming yourself for this?”
“What?”
“You look down . ”
The mayor had mobilized the Connectors to this place, because he had heard Hyunwoo’s story through Sungyoon .
This was why Emily was a bit worried about Sungyoon feeling some form of responsibility for this failure .
However, Sungyoon shook his head from side to side .
“Not at all . At the end of the day, I only delivered the message . I’m not the one that decided to go ahead with this plan . It wasn’t my call to make this decision, so I don’t feel the need to feel guilty about it . I’m not that kind of a person . I feel disappointed, but it has to do with the fact that earth continues to suffer from the attacks . I’m worried we won’t gain anything from this venture when we sacrificed so much . ”
“I see . ”
“Let’s head back to the tower once more . ”
At Sungyoon’s insistence, the party returned to the tower .
The tower had been thoroughly investigated, so no one was at the tower .
His other party members continued to climb the staircase as they checked the rooms once again .
However, Sungyoon didn’t follow them upwards . He decided to focus on searching the 1st floor .
‘As expected, there is nothing here . ’
Sungyoon felt despondent, but he didn’t give up on his search . This time he searched where the staircase started .
He was checking the s.p.a.ce between the1st floor and the staircase when it happened .
Ssssk!
He felt the Royal Gem twitch .
Doo-doo-doohk!
It was as if a secret door was opening . A part of the floor sunk into the ground .
Then a staircase leading to the bas.e.m.e.nt was revealed .