Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 116
Only Noblemtl
The typical purpose of creating secret passages is usually evasion or crime. If the purpose was crime, then they wouldn’t have created a conspicuous pyramid, so evasion is the only thing left.
This means that you are being chased by assassins or a large group of people.
Alan felt the bricks, which fit so tightly that it was difficult to fit a piece of paper between them.
“The passage may have been built for other reasons, but it is not an ordinary structure.”
“I told you it felt like a temple to me. So did that maggot named Gary or something.”
“Did you feel any sense of piety in the internal structure?”
“I don’t know about that. Instead, I’m saying that there is a room where it seems like there was a place for gatherings or some kind of ritual.”
“What about statues or paintings?”
“I don’t remember that.”
Their voices echoed faintly inside the secret passage.
The passage was dark, but fortunately, unlike the mazes and caves, there was no black fog, so I didn’t have to wear a headlamp. I had come in to avoid the eyes of the Roman Company, so it would be better to avoid being noticed.
“Brother, I see from above that you keep sending explorer brothers in, but won’t you not recognize me anyway?”
“That would be fine, as long as I don’t get caught coming out of the secret passage. We’re almost there now.”
When they reached the dead end, Taylor stepped forward. Unlike when he came in, this time his memory was clear and he immediately found the button.
As I pressed the walls in order, the bricks that had been stacked one after another moved silently and pressed against each other.
Alan couldn’t figure out if there was any magical or mechanical design in it.
“What do you feel, senior?”
“No. But does that matter?”
It was the same for Zion. It meant that a mystery unknown to her was applied, as she observed things from a different perspective than Allen, and was even strong.
I would like to just stick to the wall and observe, but I gave up because I was afraid that I might miss the big truth if I got caught up in small pieces of knowledge.
There were more than 10 explorers inside when Taylor and Roman were arguing earlier, so there must be a lot of competitors inside the pyramid.
As soon as I had that thought, the dark passage on the other side became bright. Since it was a one-way passage and there was no place to escape, I moved slowly for the time being.
The other side also recognized this side and moved cautiously. When they got close enough to see the face in detail, the explorer in the lead opened his mouth.
“Oh, what’s that? It’s the explorers again. We’re going this way, so don’t follow.”
“Roman, control your little brats. You’ll run into them whenever you’re bored, no matter how many people you put in.”
“Those kids are always like that.”
They disappeared in annoyance. The floating wagon following them was empty, either because they had come up empty or because someone had already taken all the stuff.
Taylor took the lead again, speaking.
“It was empty before, so it’s not surprising.”
“Let’s first go to the room where you found the training method.”
“It’s this way. Even though so much time has passed, old memories come back vividly.”
True to his word, Taylor moved without hesitation even when faced with complex intersections.
The place we arrived at was a round room with a hemispherical ceiling. There were passageways in all four directions, so we could enter from anywhere.
“Again? Sir, we got here first.”
“It doesn’t look like there’s anything to eat, so should we just stay together?”
“You’re all so shameless···.”
The explorer who had arrived first shook his head. Judging from the fact that he didn’t threaten to leave, it meant that, as Taylor had said, he had found nothing.
Alan examined the carvings on the walls of the room. There were four passages, so the walls were divided into four, and two of them had dragons carved into them, while the rest had dragons carved into them.
‘You clearly said there were no pieces···.’
Taylor’s remarks were drowned out by a sudden surge of curiosity.
Even though it was a piece of stone, each and every scale radiated a luster, its claws were fierce enough to pierce anything, and its sharp eyes seemed to be alive.
Even when Alan moved, the dragon’s eyes followed him. It wasn’t really moving, it was an optical illusion.
‘That’s interesting.’
What Alan particularly noticed was not the dragons and dragons themselves, but the human figures carved with them. The people carved under the stag-horned dragon and the sleek dragon were dancing, while those carved under the two-horned dragon and the two-headed dragon were lying down.
‘Good and evil? Coexistence and domination? Reward and punishment?’
Many thoughts were running through my head, but I couldn’t come to a conclusion right now.
The explorers who had been sitting down first left, and Taylor tapped Alan on the shoulder.
“I mean the carvings on the wall.”
“Go ahead.”
“It wasn’t there when I came here before…. Essel Matap withdrew after seeing this?”
“It must have been created after the withdrawal, or it must have been judged to be worthless. It seems to be the latter, since no expedition was sent even though rumors must have spread.”
“Let’s talk for a moment.”
Taylor wrapped his arm around Alan’s shoulder and pressed him against the wall. Before opening his mouth, he looked back for a moment, and saw Zion creeping up on him like a cat.
“It’s important, so get out of here.”
“too bad.”
“That’s too much. Other guys might be charmed by your pitiful expression, but it’s impossible for me.”
At Taylor’s gesture, Zion moved to the opposite wall and pressed against it, but his ear was turned in this direction.
“That won’t work. Let’s talk about it through spiders.”
The spider that had been hanging from Alan’s back moved to Taylor’s shoulder and inserted a cable into the port at the back of his neck.
[Can’t you hear?]
[yes.]
[At first, I thought you came here because the ruins appeared and you were curious? But after seeing the sculptures, I think there must be another reason.]
[When I first touched the cylinder that I gave to Mr. Lorenzo, an unidentified star character appeared. Even after looking through all the intermediate versions of the interpretation, I still couldn’t figure out what it meant or what it did. However, it responded to the training method that the old man taught me.]
[Um… Did you find anything?]
[no.]
[Take it slow. If exploration was a trivial field that could be completed in a day or two, people wouldn’t be so obsessed with it.]
[yes.]
The spider turned back to Alan. It shot a silent look at him, asking him to tell it what Zion had said, but Alan shook his head slightly.
“joy!”
“I, I. I’m not a kid···.”
Taylor clicked his tongue at Zion’s childish tantrum.
As Alan looked around, he found Shiva, who had a kind face to begin with, but now had a much more compassionate expression.
“Are you feeling good?”
“I feel a surge of excitement for no apparent reason. Maybe it’s just that I’m in really good shape today.”
“Check if he drank holy water.”
“Brother Taylor, such prejudice is not good. It is true that holy water is food for the soul, but do I drink it whenever I want?”
“that’s right.”
Taylor frowned as Zion took Shiva’s side. At that moment.
Yeah, yeah!
The entire room shook. Although natural phenomena occur in the primeval forest, earthquakes have never been observed before. So this meant that something was wrong with the pyramid itself.
As Zion closed her eyes, a strong wave emanated from her.
“It’s sinking. Hurry up.”
This time, Zion was in the lead. They quickly reversed course along the same path they had been on.
When Taylor reached the secret passage, he pressed against the wall, but nothing happened.
“Come out to the side.”
As soon as Taylor stepped aside, a silver arc filled the spot. The rapid succession of strikes scraped the bricks, leaving the surface smooth as ever.
“profit!”
An enraged Zion unleashed a much more brilliant sword energy, but Alan stopped her.
“There are ruins that can be destroyed, and there are ruins that cannot.”
“I know what you mean.”
“There’s an entrance above, so let’s go that way this time.”
We headed up as Alan had said, but all we saw were restless explorers and a blocked door.
All the doors at the top of the pyramid were closed. To be exact, they were blocked by dirt.
“Why is dirt so hard?”
“Why? Because it’s a labyrinth.”
It looked like soft dirt, but there was no change even if you scratched it with a sword, shot it with a gun, or used magic on it.
“What the hell are you?! What the hell are you touching?!”
Someone’s scream echoed down the hallway, but it was hollow.
Alan kept his cool. Even though he didn’t have the ability to get out of here right away, he trusted the statistics that had been accumulated over a hundred years.
The labyrinth was filled with traps and monsters everywhere to keep out intruders, but paradoxically, there was always a way out.
‘That’s why scholars still haven’t figured out the true nature of the labyrinth.’
It was too dangerous to test the qualifications,
There was a long way to go to protect something.
Alan’s thoughts were broken by a commotion.
“Everyone down!”
“It must have happened in a place controlled by the Romans.”
“You little shits. I’ve got you all.”
Even though their skills were inferior to those of Roman, the explorers went down with courage multiplied by numbers.
“That’s perfect. I just need to cut it nicely.”
“···?”
Alan tilted his head at Zion’s words. He wondered for a moment whether the words pretty and cute could coexist. Zion noticed his gaze and spoke as if making an excuse.
“I don’t mean kill, just cut off the limbs. Do you know what I mean?”
“Don’t do that out of the blue. Look at the situation and then do it.”
“I will do that.”
As Zion nodded obediently, Taylor, who was walking behind him, made a strange expression.
“Among the stubborn ones, he was the best···.”
“Isn’t it because I get along well with Brother Allen?”
“It fits well. Even to me, they’re polar opposites. Or is it because they’re both geniuses?”
“yes?”
“It must be nice to meet a human after seeing only monkeys for so long.”
“Brother, your leap is too much.”
“No, that’s because you don’t know.”
Taylor was reminded of Jake Marshall in his younger days, known for his tough yet gentle demeanor, then and now.
He was certainly kind to those around him, but there was an invisible line drawn. Taylor described the look he sometimes got in his eyes like this.
‘A higher being looks down on the lower being···.’
It wasn’t a look of superiority or disgust. It was just a look that came from the mindset that you and I are different.
‘Perhaps it’s a distortion of memory caused by an inferiority complex.’
Taylor slapped his cheeks loudly with the palm of his hand. Soon, the group of explorers reached the passage blocked by the Roman Company.
A large man who had been looking at the back of the passage turned around.
“What the? This is a restricted area! Get back off!”
“Who cares? If you want to go away, go away!”
When they shouted with one mind and one purpose, the size of the giant hesitated. Even if the members of the Roman Company were stronger than the average explorer, they were still able to fight two of them alone. So how could they stop dozens of people?
When the name didn’t work, the shrunken figure turned and ran away, and the explorers chased after him. Where he went, there was a large door with a dragon and a dragon carved on it.
Alan shook his head as he looked at Taylor. It meant that this place had never been there before.
The door opened to let the big guy in, and the explorers who peeked through the gap held their breath. Whoa! The sound was very loud.
“This is crazy!”
“Fuck! This is it!”
The frenzied explorers rushed inside. The doors flew open, revealing the identity of the thing that had possessed the people.
A treasure mountain made of gold. That was the exact definition. Unlike the pyramids, it was a huge room made of white stone, filled with treasures.
Alan looked at Shiva for a moment.
‘Is that why you looked so happy?’
If that were true, then he would have been nothing more than a living gold detector. If slavery had been legalized in those days, he would have been tied to a pole and dragged around instead of being a detector.
The Roman explorers, who were rejoicing in the midst of the treasure, shouted.
“Do you think you’ll be okay like this?”
“Are we really going to have a go at it?”
The momentum of the explorers who were captivated by gold could not be suppressed.
But the gold did not turn red. Since there were so many treasures, they turned their backs on each other through an implicit agreement.
“Let’s pack quickly too.”
“wait a minute.”
Alan looked at one place. Gold coins were flowing down alone without anyone touching them.
Gold coins flew everywhere with a jingling sound, and then a gleaming golden statue popped out.
Phong!
Alan, who had been prepared in advance, saved the explorer by shooting the magic bullet. The statue caught in the explosion of the magic bullet turned into gold coins and collapsed.
“So you’re saying that you can come in when you want, but not when you leave?”
As soon as Alan finished speaking, statues rose up all over Treasure Mountain. They weren’t particularly difficult opponents, but they kept appearing without end.
A statue holding a golden spear appeared in front of Alan. Alan thought this was an opportunity to demonstrate Zion’s moves.
The guy who passed by as if he was not interested only attacked Zion and Shiva.
“Uh, uh. Brother?”
“These guys are weird···.”
Taylor frowned as he tore down one of the statues that had its back turned.
“Why is it like this?”
“There’s no need to think too deeply about it, we both have something in common. I guess they recognize us as allies because of our Taylor training methods.”
End