Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 122
Only Noblemtl
A sleek, heavy door made of an unknown metal stood in place, seemingly unwilling to admit any visitors.
Alan spoke to Lecter, who was trying to open the door.
“I’ll let the professor know.”
“Are you serious? You probably want to jump right in like me···.”
That’s true, but the words on the door bothered me. If the door is still closed until the incident is resolved, it means that the internal conflict has not been resolved.
We had been together for a few days and felt a sense of kinship, but it was not yet time to talk in detail about what he saw. It might have been Taylor, who taught him the training method unconditionally, or Shiva, who was screwed up but faithful.
“If an enemy suitable for the maze appears, we can easily solve it on our own. However, if it is an enemy that is troublesome to deal with, the intensity of the attack will inevitably increase.”
“Are you saying that if we break too much, there won’t be anything left to study? Let’s do that.”
Fortunately, Alan’s persuasion worked. After escaping from the underground, Lecter headed towards the wired communication device installed nearby.
In the labyrinth, the wireless communication distance was very short, but wired communication was fine as long as the line was connected. Of course, the labyrinth would swallow up the communication line, so this method was only possible in unchanging ruins.
As soon as Lecter put down the communicator.
Knock knock knock!
A sound like heavy equipment was rushing in. The source of the sound was, of course, Professor Oros. A muscular man with wide eyes was rushing in with a menacing momentum.
“Is this it? Mr. Lecter, Explorer Allen. You’ve already discovered a place like this. I applaud your observation skills.”
“Professor, if it weren’t for class, you would have discovered it too. Rather, you have a hard time excavating and teaching. If it were me, I would have been bedridden.”
The praise from Oros and the flattery from Lecter that followed were in harmony. If Alan were a normal person, it would have been so embarrassing that he wouldn’t know where to look.
After a brief moment, Oros approached the pile of rubble with shining eyes. The hole was too narrow for him to fit through.
“Let’s clean up first and then go in. It’s dangerous, so go that way.”
As Alan and Lecter moved away, Oros began clearing away the rubble. Grabbing and throwing with his industrial-grade hands, he easily hurled chunks of concrete like pebbles.
The traces of the collapsed building had completely disappeared. If someone who didn’t know saw it, they would have thought the building was originally located next to it.
As the sturdy Oros headed underground, the passage felt narrow. And a strong vibration was felt.
Alan, who was looking for the cause, fixed his gaze on Professor Oros’s back. He must have felt it too, because he cleared his throat.
“My heart was pounding without me knowing it. Even at this age, it still doesn’t stop beating…”
Depth 5 is said to be the maximum reach of a living organism, and the sights of those who reach it are beyond imagination. Who knew that the sound of their heart alone could make the passage shake?
The throbbing became more intense as the blockade door approached.
“Hoo… It’s sealed tightly. I wish I could infer what’s inside by reading the letters, but it looks hazy, like it’s covered in fog….”
Alan just listened to the story quietly. Even though Oros said that, he could actually be the same type as Lecter. Lecter, who happened to meet his eyes, smiled.
Meanwhile, Oros tried to get his fingers through the crack in the door, trying to force it apart, but the gap was too narrow for his fingers to fit through.
“Whew!”
He took a deep breath. His brain, trained by decades of study, quickly made a decision on which method to use.
Boom!
The door and fist collided, causing the basement to shake. Surprisingly, the door withstood Oros’s blow.
“If we had tried to open it on our own, we wouldn’t have even been able to look at it.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Alan followed the circuit near the closed warning text. He saw a panel, but he didn’t say anything about it. The door was opening without even having to touch the panel.
Oros forced open the door by denting it and inserted both fingers. His back muscles bulged as he watched from behind, and his sturdy exploration suit screamed in pain.
Just as his face showed its ugly muscles through his torn clothes, the door opened completely.
Oros tapped his exploration suit in regret.
“If it’s strong, it’s not very elastic, and if it’s elastic, it’s weak. It’s a real dilemma.”
It looked very sturdy to Alan’s eyes, but it seemed to fall short of Oros’ standards.
‘It won’t be able to be pierced with one or two shots from a magic bullet.’
That thought was fleeting, and now it was time to focus on the newly appeared passage.
I wonder if the statement that it was closed was a lie, as I could see a scene that gave me an idea of the situation at that time.
Alan bent down and felt the skeleton. Dressed in what appeared to be a lab coat, the skeleton was reaching toward the door.
“If the flesh was intact, it is estimated that he was about 2.2 meters tall. This is the average height of an underground male.”
“Interesting. What would Explorer Alan think when he saw that skull?”
“The skeleton was found dead with his arms outstretched toward the door. And he was wearing a lab coat. So that means there was a problem inside and he couldn’t get out.”
The scars on his spine also indicated that he had been attacked from behind. In such cases, it was usually one of two things: either he had been betrayed, or he had been chased by something.
“It’s already scary. It’s exciting.”
Rather, wouldn’t it be normal to be afraid of the being inside? Alan followed Oros with that thought in mind.
Remains of similar shapes to the skeletons seen at the door were strewn throughout the hallway. All of them had their heads turned toward the entrance.
“They only targeted critical areas like the heart and spinal cord. There’s a reason the skeleton is relatively intact. Explorer Alan.”
“Go ahead.”
“What do you think about that?”
There was a lump of metal at the place Oros pointed to. To be exact, it was the mark of an automaton that had been crushed and torn.
“It’s a security automaton.”
Alan dug through the rubble with his cane. Since the deployment location was a school, he was equipped with non-lethal weapons. If he was in animal form, he had blunt fangs, and if he was in human form, he was carrying a stun gun or a club.
They weren’t humane guys, though. The lowest level of suppression entered into the soul stone was limb crushing.
“The automaton’s vital points are different from those of a living being. That’s why it seems to have been damaged in this way.”
“Is it possible that this is just venting anger?”
“If that was the case, the skeleton would not have been intact.”
“Whatever is lurking here might be particularly sensitive to movement, just like it is now.”
Alan looked in the same direction as Oros. The already dark passage became darker and a human figure became more prominent.
“Mr. Lecter, please cast a lighting spell.”
“All right.”
When Lecter tapped the bracelet-shaped Evie, white spheres rose up. Pure white light sources hung in a row on the ceiling, illuminating the surrounding area.
“It looks interesting.”
The entity that appeared across the hallway was something resembling a human figure. It looked like muscles on an anatomy chart walking on their own.
With every step he took, his muscles were clearly visible contracting and relaxing.
Two beings, easily over 2 meters tall, walked towards each other with heavy steps. Just like their size, tension filled the passage.
“Do you know how to use spoken language? Any sound is fine.”
Oros raised both hands to his shoulders, showing his palms as if he had no hostility.
Of course, the answer that came back was a sharp attack. The muscle fibers in the guy’s hand literally twisted and turned into awls.
The awl’s destination was Oros’s heart. Oros took a deep breath before the tip reached it.
“Ugh!”
Krrrr?
Although it couldn’t be seen because of the massive back muscles, one could easily imagine the creature’s bewildered face.
“Oh, that kid has bad habits.”
At the same time, the creature’s other hand shot up. This time, it seemed to be aiming for Oros’s neck, but after a bounce, it poked at his eyeball.
The process was good, but the result was not good. The guy who had his wrist grabbed by Oros was slowly brought down to his knees.
Kkiei!
“Do you feel pain? It looks like you have a metabolism, so I wonder how you were able to survive the long hours in the ruins.”
“There must be a way to hibernate.”
“Explorer Alan is right. First of all, this child···.”
Suddenly, the creature’s shape became distorted. It looked like a snowman melting under the scorching sun.
“Cheer up. If you disappear like this….”
Oros was taken aback, but that was also the creature’s plan. A net made of twisted muscle fibers covered Oros. Red cloth was draped over the orc’s green skin.
Lecter simply watched the scene with curious eyes.
“It’s a parasitic type. The underground host has turned into a mummy.”
“What about you, Professor? Is there any way I can help you?”
“If you just leave her alone, she’ll figure it out. Can’t you see?”
As soon as he finished speaking, Oros’s hands ripped off the muscles covering its body. The creature struggled to keep from falling, but it was no use.
“What an interesting kid. It would be worth studying him.”
Oros, his upper body exposed, laughed heartily. The creature, crumpled along with his exploration suit top, was being compressed into a cylinder he had brought with him.
“Then shall we continue?”
Oros, still in good shape, took the lead once again. As he walked, his muscles, unusually large for an old man, showed off their presence.
There were a few instances where creatures that had teased Oros appeared, but they were all contained in a barrel. Oros’s whistle grew louder as each gap in the cart was filled.
And deep inside the lab, Alan found several red gems. To be exact, there was something red inside a transparent storage case.
“I guess this is the original form of a muscular organism.”
“It was a facility that was researching bio-armor, but unfortunately it was involved in an accident. It reminds me of an abomination.”
“A disgusting body?”
“These are the monsters that appear at the next level that I have reached. If you are an Alan Explorer, you will reach there at some point.”
Oros was at depth 5. He said it was a floor he couldn’t reach, meaning it was after the 51st floor.
That was important, but for now, I focused on Oros’ words.
“Perhaps it was a bio-armor. It had to have at least the bare minimum of thinking to respond to the user’s will, but it seems there was a mistake.”
Should we make a reinforced suit only out of hard materials like metal? The equipment that started from such a question was the bio-armor. It was born mainly from the fields of study that deal with living things, such as genetic engineering and chimera engineering.
Oros, who returned to the camp, instructed that the samples he had brought be kept in strict custody. He could just laugh it off himself, but it would be troublesome if they got stuck to a student.
“Mr. Lecter and Explorer Alan, you may rest.”
Of course, there were not many people who would take those words literally.
*
Alan fell asleep after working late into the night. Normally, Taylor would have forced him to sleep, but now there was no one to stop him.
‘What are you talking about?’
The noise was so loud that it woke my tired body up on its own. At the same time, the box was shaking my shoulder.
“I woke up.”
beep-
When I turned my head, Lecter, who should have been in the bed next to me, was not there.
“You’re awake?”
He was standing at the entrance to the tent with his arms folded. His calm demeanor stood out in contrast to the commotion.
It was the same for Alan. He put on the power suit helmet with an indifferent expression.
“I can hear screams, what’s going on?”
“that···.”
Kkaaa!
The cries of something that appeared as the tent tore open erased Lecter’s words. The intruder was the creature he had seen underground. Lecter’s cold eyes stared straight at the creature.
“I guess there wasn’t just one lab. It was fun.”
End