Chapter 256

After they were finished with their respective investigation, the two groups gathered in one place. Fortunately, they hadn't encountered any problems.

“Did you find out where the monsters crawled out from?”

“Yes.”

One of the Connectors in the group that had gone to search for the labyrinth where the monsters had come out replied to Sungyoon.

“Because of the environment of the Moon, the monsters' tracks were clear, so it was quite easy to track them down. The trail originates from a labyrinth around nine kilometers away from here. What did you guys find?”

“We also found out where they had gone.”

“Is that so? Doesn’t that mean our job is done?”

None of the Connectors thought about exacting revenge on the monsters. Death was their constant companion, and it would be impossible to track down the monsters even if they wanted to do it. The tracks would disappear inside a labyrinth.

“I believe it is.”

“The monsters that came out of the labyrinth wasn’t just one or two. There were at least several dozen.”

“We know it too. We also saw the number of tracks that went inside the labyrinth that we found.”

“If we aren’t careful, this place will be swarming with monsters like Gagarin·Yang city.”

The Connector talking to Hyunwoo spoke with a voice full of worry.

Gagarin·Yang city hadn’t built their defense at the time of their demise, but at the time of incident, it had many Connectors inside it. Yet, the city had fallen in a short amount of time, and most of those Connectors were either dead or missing now.

There was no reason history wouldn’t repeat itself through Armstrong city.

“Don’t say such horrible stuff. Moreover, our city is different. We’ve prepared our defense, and our quality and quantity of Connectors is overwhelmingly superior. So don’t worry too much.”

Hyunwoo patted the Connector’s shoulder.

“Hey!”

A Connector, who had gone inside the Moon Surface vehicle to send a report to Armstrong, came rushing out of the vehicle after receiving a a response.

“We’ve received an emergency recall order! Monsters have been spotted near Armstrong city!”

In a flash, the mood of the Connectors turned bleak.

***

Clunk! Clunk!

The Moon Surface Vehicle rattled as the driver kept his foot on the accelerator. The Connectors weren’t traveling a paved road on Earth, so the bumpy ride didn’t feel good. However, no one within the vehicle complained.

“Hmm?”

As they got closer to Armstrong, Sungyoon continuously waved his hand through the air. When his eyes widened, Grace, who was sitting next to him, asked.

“What’s wrong?”

“It's magical energy.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can feel magical energy in our surroundings.”

When the other Connectors heard Sungyoon's statement, they all focused their senses. Some tried to wave their hands through the air like Sungyoon.

“It's indeed magical energy.”

“I’m sure of it.”

The others felt it too and confirmed their findings.

“How long before we reach Armstrong?”

Hyunwoo summoned his weapon and armor as he asked, and everyone else followed suit.

The Connector driving the vehicle answered.

“Thirty minutes!”

“Alright!”

Hyunwoo looked out the window as he bounced his sword on his shoulder. Suddenly, he moved his face closer to the window.

“I found one.”

He tilted his neck as he spoke.

“It’s a monster.”

The other Connectors moved toward the windows on Hyunwoo’s side.

“It's an Ogre.”

“It really is walking across the Moon.”

The Ogre was a monster with an enormous muscular body, and it could rip apart a hippo with its bare hands. This monster was slowly wandering as if it didn’t have a particular destination in mind. However, it then caught sight of the Moon Surface vehicle and opened its mouth wide.

“Did it just roar?”

Tim mumbled. The monster was acting on instinct to intimidate its enemies, but the Moon didn’t have any air. The Ogre’s roar was basically useless outside of the labyrinths. However, it seemed unfazed by its ineffective roar as it charged toward the Moon Surface vehicle.

“What should we do? Should we kill it?”

Unfortunately for the Ogre, those chosen to defend Armstrong city were all capable of using high rank Jewel Gems. A monster like an Ogre was weak to them.

“Let’s not do that.”

Sungyoon stopped the Connectors who wanted to jump out of the Moon Surface vehicle.

“We have to prioritize the safety of Armstrong city, so we should reach the city as possible. Anyway, the Ogre is too slow to catch up to the vehicle. It's better to just ignore it and move on.”

“You do have a point. What do you all think?”

Hyunwoo made sure the other Connectors agreed with the proposal. When everyone did, he signaled the driver. The driver pushed down on the pedal and increase the vehicle's speed. As expected, the Ogre fell behind, and soon it disappeared into the distance.

After driving a while like that...

“I can see it.”

The enormous city of Amstrong came into the Connectors' view.

“It's peaceful!”

The tensed Tim, who had been gripping his ax all this time, spoke in a deflated manner at the sight in front of him. He had assumed that Armstrong was in imminent danger.

“We weren’t told that the Armstrong city was attacked. We were notified that monsters were found near Armstrong city. I’m assuming magical energy has leaked out from a nearby labyrinth, and the monsters are roaming the nearby area. Of course, that is plenty dangerous.”

Sungyoon explained the situation to Tim.

The Moon Surface vehicle stopped near Armstrong city.

After the driver contacted Armstrong city, he turned around to shout at the Connectors.

“We got a order! They want us to search and destroy all the nearby monsters!”

“It’s time to work!”

Hyunwoo stood up as he spoke. He stretched his stiff body.

The other Connectors started to get up in ones and twos.

“Our foes are probably monsters that exited the surrounding normal labyrinth. I hope there aren’t any idiots here that will die to monsters from normal labyrinths, right?”

Several Connectors let out small laughters.

Not all the Connectors present had gone into the Great Labyrinth, but they had long since cleared their own Personal labyrinths.

This might be an exaggeration, but they would be able to crush the monsters as if they were ants. These were normal monsters that were aimlessly roaming the moon.

“I trust there are none. Still, we should move in groups. There are some here that’ll fair poorly in an ambush thanks to the Gems they possess.”

The Connectors grouped up in their own parties. If their party members weren’t present, they chose to group with acquaintances.

Sungyoon’s party gathered in one location.

When Hyunwoo saw that everyone was ready, he spoke once again.

“We’ll head out now. The Connectors, who were on standby in Armstrong city, were already sent out to defeat the monsters. This is why we probably won’t find too many monsters. That doesn’t mean we should slack off. Our proud city is very large. It’ll take us a long time just to search around the city.”

“Proud city? In my eyes, it is the vampire city! It sucks out all my money!”

One of the Connectors spoke out, and everyone laughed uproariously.

“They might suck your blood, but it is the only city that’ll give you honey up here. If you have any complaints, you can take it up with the mayor at a later time. Let’s get moving.”

After Hyunwoo’s final words, Connectors started to exit the vehicle in ones and twos. They started to spread out around Armstrong city.

***

Puh-uhk!

Tim’s axe cut off the head of a monster that looked like a monkey.

Blood erupted onto the surface of the moon.

“This is the fourth monster we’ve killed.”

Tim picked up the moonstone dropped from the Yeti.

“This is going well.”

“It is to be expected. These are monsters from regular labyrinths.”

Emily and Grace spoke in a relaxed manner.

They’ve already experienced going pretty deep into the Great Labyrinth, so monsters from normal labyrinths didn’t pose much trouble to them. They would probably lose sleep if they did struggle with them from being angry about it.

Even Emily would be able to hunt down the Yeti by herself.

After killing the Yeti, Tim surveyed his surroundings.

“Even if we hadn’t come, the Connectors on standby could have easily taken care of these monsters. I wonder why they called us back? We could have continued our investigation.”

“Maybe, they brought us back just in case. There is precedence with what happened at Gagarin·Yang city. A little bit of caution isn’t a bad thing.”

“You are right. However, wouldn’t the ambushers show up here if we aren’t careful?”

Sungyoon’s party was far away from the other parties.

If they were attacked right now in a similar fashion as the ambush within the Great Labyrinth, they would be in great danger.

“I told you to shut that big mouth of yours.”

Emily glared at him with anger in her eyes. Tim flinched, because he had jinxed the party before.

“Don’t be too harsh on him.”

Grace gently pacified Emily.

“It’ll be to our benefit if the ambushers attacked us here. Even if we are ambushed like before, we can last long enough if we solely focus on defense. By that time, help would come to us. The nearby Connectors would converge on them. It would be a great opportunity to kill the ambushers once and for all.”

Sungyoon had a similar thought. This was why a small part of him wanted an ambush.

‘We’ll be able to pull out the source of our problems by its roots.’

Even if the other Connectors were excluded, they just needed support from Hyunwoo. He could easily kill all the ambushers by himself.

‘The fact that we are expecting it makes it unlikely that they attack.’

Sungyoon shook his head once, and he once again moved forward to look for monsters.

***

It was quite easy for the Connectors to defeat all the monsters that were near Armstrong city.

None of the Connectors, who had gone out to eradicate the monsters, died. None of them were injured.

After a certain amount of time, the magical energy around Armstrong city receded. All the monsters that roamed nearby the city went away.

The threat being faced by Armstrong city hadn’t really been a threat.

However, this didn’t mean the crisis came to a complete end.

Afterwards, the magical energical energy further leaked out from the labyrinth, and more monsters started to appear outside.

Fortunately, magical energy didn’t leak out from the Great Labyrinth. Still, the fact that the regular labyrinths were leaking magical energy was enough of a danger.

The upper management of Armstrong city was completely allergic to the idea of monsters approaching Armstrong city.

This was why the Connectors, who were on standby duty, were sent out on patrol. They were being sent out of Armstrong city to exterminate the monsters.

Sungyoon’s party was part of those patrols.

However, it was also true that they were still in danger of being attacked by the ambushers, so Sungyoon’s party always patrolled near other high ranked Connectors. This would allow help to reach them in time.

This was how Sungyoon’s party started spending their time in defense of Armstrong city. They went around hunting monsters.

Then there were those that monitored them.