Chapter 266

“They are over there.”

Russell pressed his face against the window of the vehicle as he spoke.

On the other side of the window, they could see the large maw of the Great Labyrinth.

“Is this the other Great Labyrinth?”

“Yes.”

Sungyoon stood next to Russell, and he pressed his face against the window too.

There were a total of four Great Labyrinths.

Sungyoon only experienced going into the Great Labyrinth within Armstrong, so the new Great Labyrinth held great interest to him.

It was as if a large meteor had hit the Great Labyrinth. The entrance opened its maw at the center of the enormous crater.

“I somewhat expected it, but there are a lot of them.”

There were Fabion’s Moon Surface vehicles crowded near the entrance to the Great Labyrinth. There were several dozen Moon Surface vehicles, and it just emphasized the great number of Connectors that had been mobilized to this location.

It seemed Fabion had caught sight of Sungyoon’s party. Several people exited the Moon Surface Vehicles.

Grace placed her hand on the window.

“It seems not all of them went into the Great Labyrinth.”

“They probably felt the need to defend the several dozen Moon Surface vehicles. It is that much more imperative since monsters are starting to roam outside the labyrinths.”

In truth, Sungyoon’s party had to hunt down a good number of monsters to reach this place. The monsters weren’t difficult foes, but they were strong enough to wreck the unattended Moon Surface vehicles.

“It also makes it likely that they have something to hide.”

Instead of his Moon Surface vehicle, Russell was riding in Sungyoon party’s Moon Surface vehicle. Russell sounded cynical when he spoke.

“Let’s go there.”

Tim, who was in charge of driving, stepped on the gas pedal.

“What brings you here?”

Sungyoon’s party parked near the Great Labyrinth, and they exited their vehicle. The person in charge of the group left behind stepped forward with his helmet on. He asked the question.

“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. However, he had to step back when he realized who it was. His face became pinched as if he had bit into a lemon.

“It is you, Mr. Bruce.”

Even if the man had the power of an enormous corporation named Fabion behind his back, Bruce was someone that couldn’t be trifled with. In fact, the power backing Bruce was stronger than Fabion.

Moreover, Bruce was one of the highest ranked Connectors.

‘This is going to get messy.’

The man spoke inwardly. The worst case scenario had just arrived. Unfortunately for the man, the worst case scenario didn’t end with Bruce.

“You guys really came here on a very large scale. Is this place that important?”

“We aren’t here to check up on that.”

The man’s face darkened when he saw who was speaking to each other in such a friendly tone.

‘Sir Russell and the Knight.’

They were in a very tough spot with just Bruce, yet there was Russell, who was as powerful as Bruce. Then there was Sungyoon, who had no peers in terms of fame.

The man grumbled. Things had turned really messy.

‘It’ll be impossible to shut them up by killing them.’

If the worst case scenario happened, he was given the order to kill. However, his oppoents were too strong.

Even if the ‘expeditionary force’ came back out of the labyrinth, victory couldn’t be guaranteed.

They were merely guards tasked to defend the region around the Great Labyrinth entrance. They wouldn’t be able to injure their opponents with the force out here.

“I never would have expected to meet such famous people here.”

The man decided to act humble in front of them.

“I’m sorry, but why did you come here...”

“Why are you here?”

Bruce cut off the man’s words, and he flipped the question on the man.

“You scr.a.p.ed all your fighting force to bring them here. Did you guys discover something good here?”

“Discover? We are just working for humanity. We came to gather information about the other Great Labyrinth.”

“I doubt it.”

Bruce snorted.

“It’s true. It can’t be helped if you don’t believe me.”

It seemed the man had some guts too. He calmly responded to Bruce’s sarcastic words.

“Shall we go see if you are telling the truth?”

Bruce smiled. His lips parted, and one could see his sharp canines.

His fingers twitched as if he was about to attack the man.

It caused the man to back up. The Fabion Connectors, who were standing in the rear, quickly lowered themselves into a fight stance as they injected magical energy into their Gems.

Tension was rapidly reaching its flashpoint.

“Bruce.”

Russell grabbed Bruce’s shoulder.

“Stop it. We are 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 to relax a little bit.

However, a chill went up their spines when they heard his next words.

“At least, not yet.”

The man let out cold sweat when Russell looked at him with cold eyes.

Sungyoon joined the conversation at that moment.

“You are here to gather information about this Great Labyrinth?”

“T...that is correct. Why else would we come to this place?”

In his eyes, Russell and Bruce were monstrous existence, so it was easier for him to talk to Sungyoon.

He looked glad as he answered Sungyoon’s question.

“Do you mind if we lend a hand?”

“What?”

“We would like to go into the Great Labyrinth, and we want to help in gathering more information.”

The man’s eyes rolled around in a furtive manner.

He had no idea if he should say yes or no. He didn't think he could get away with completely rejecting the offer.

Tuhk!

Russell put a hand on the man’s shoulder.

“Why are you thinking so hard on it? The Great Labyrinth isn’t yours. According to the treaty, all labyrinths on the moon are under the stewardship of Armstrong city. It isn’t as if you guys came here after you received permission from Armstrong city.”

Gagarin Yang city had openly went against the treaty to threaten Armstrong city’s authority on the moon. After the Gagarin Yang city fell, there was no force amongst humanity that could go against Armstrong city now.

“Unlike you all, we received permission from Armstrong city to come here.”

The man looked at the writ given by the Armstrong city.

The mayor’s signature was clearly on the writ.

“That is why we are asking for cooperation from you guys. At this point, shouldn’t you show some effort to comply?”

“…….”

The man had no words. In terms of power and authority, the other side was clearly superior.

‘It seems they came well prepared.’

There had always been the danger of Armstrong city finding out about their mobilization. They did it despite knowing the risk. However, it seemed Armstrong city was being more cautious than ever before.

“Understood.”

The man had no choice. He had to quietly get out of the way.

***

Three party entered the Great Labyrinth. All of them mainly raided the Great Labyrinth within the Armstrong city. This was why the prospect of looking at the new Great Labyrinth was novel to them.

Unlike their expectation, the inside looked pretty much like the Great Labyrinth in Armstrong city.

“Are you sure we should leave those people in our rear?”

Grace looked worried as she looked towards the entrance of the Great Labyrinth.

She couldn’t see it, but she could imagine the frustrated man glaring towards the entrance of the Great Labyrinth.

“It’s fine. It isn’t as if they are high rank Connectors. They might cause some trouble if we head out and they get in the way. However, we could teach them a lesson when that time comes.”

Russell sounded indifferent as he spoke. In front of Grace, he always acted like the playful grandfather. This was why she always had to remind herself that he was one of the strongest Connectors in the world.

He wasn’t scared at the prospect of fighting the small group of Connectors outside.

Grace still looked a bit worried, so Sungyoon pointed towards his Device.

“It is fine. If things go wrong, I have this.”

“Ah. You are 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, so he got close to Sungyoon. Sungyoon answered in a calm manner.

“I’ll tell you immediately once you get permission from the mayor.”

“Tsk! You are 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.

However, it was clear that Bruce was just playing around, so no one paid attention to his complaints.

“How are we supposed to track them down?”

Tim, who had been walking in the front, turned his head around.

This was the Great Labyrinth, and as the name implied, there were a lot of floors and divergent paths.

If they weren’t careful, they wouldn’t be able to find Fabion’s expeditionary force. They 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 to his steps.

Tim looked dumbfounded as he followed after Bruce.

“Look here.”

When they arrived at the first divergent path, Bruce pointed towards the wall of the tunnel.

A large arrow had been placed there.

It was a method commonly used in clearing labyrinths. It was a sign one put up, so one would 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. This is why they have to mark their paths, so they can have an easier time leaving this place. Their markers will guide us.”

Bruce let out a confident smile.

“Well, let’s go.”

***

As expected of a Great Labyrinth, this place was much larger in size than the other labyrinths. Moreover, there was physics within this space that made no sense. All common sense had to be thrown out the window.

Moreover, the Great Labyrinth was the housed the strongest monsters. Regular Connectors would either have to run away or die in short order here. Their corpses would forever decorate the Great Labyrinth.

However, the three parties, who had entered the Great Labyrinth, weren’t made up of normal Connectors.

The monsters on the early floors of the Great Labyrinth were killed without much difficulty. They quickly moved through the Great Labyrinth.

As expected of highest ranked Connectors like Russell and Bruce, they were indomitable.

All the monsters died from a single blow from the two men.

Bruce grumbled that it was boring to kill these ‘weak’ monsters. He didn’t even bother gathering the moonstones.

“How far did they go?”

It had already been a week since they had entered the Great Labyrinth.

They had reached the 17th floor. Fabion’s expeditionary force had moved through this place, so they weren’t encountering as many monsters. Still, they were moving through the Great Labyrinth at an extremely fast speed.

Despite this fact, they hadn’t caught sight of Fabion’s expeditionary force yet.

“Are you sure we came the right way?”

“The arrow pointed towards this direction.”

Russell recovered the moonstone for him. He tossed it towards 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 is impossible for us to do a thorough search with the number of people we have. We have no choice, but to move forward.”

“Shit!”

Bruce was annoyed as he kicked the wall of the labyrinth. Then he started walking again.

It happened when the party went down one more floor.

The party heard desperate footsteps running through the labyrinth.