Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 39
Only Noblemtl
Cave (1)
A dark warehouse overall. Shelves on one wall were filled with lubricants and coating sprays, and beneath them were stacks of inactive automata.
The warehouse, which seemed to be filled with the smell of oil and iron, was mostly dark. There was only one place that was bright, and Alan was reading a thick book under the bright light of a desk lamp.
The whites of his eyes were bloodshot, as if he had been reading for quite some time. Feeling tired, Alan rubbed his eyes and closed the book.
Then I pulled down the bed that was against the wall and lay down on it.
Even though he had his eyes closed, they were not closed. His left eye was connected to all things in the universe and was navigating the infinite world. If he had connected briefly, he would have only seen a two-dimensional window, but now that he had officially connected, a three-dimensional world greeted Alan.
It was a world made of light and light. Ghosts flew between the buildings that were built through the clouds. Those ghosts were people who had connected to all things in the universe.
Alan changed the settings to block them from view, but the ads still remained and lingered around.
There was a balloon-shaped advertisement for brain expansion surgery at half price next to it, and at the foot of the stairs was a dachshund with a hot dog made of synthetic meat as its body.
Alan turned his head absentmindedly. His body floated and flew through the city, across the countryside, and over the sea. He finally arrived at an island, which was Breaker’s homepage.
‘Announcement?’
It had been a while since he had seen a pop-up window that wasn’t an advertisement, so he accessed it and a giant stone tablet appeared in front of Alan.
‘This is an expedition to train labyrinth explorers.’
After reading the top title, Alan slowly scrolled down and looked at the contents below.
‘First, you must be eligible to apply.’
If you registered with Breaker, there was a note at the top saying you could apply even if you weren’t a direct explorer like Alan or Dennis.
It was planned to train labyrinth explorers, and the text indicating that each party will have a direct explorer to follow as a leader is highlighted in a different color.
There was also a large phrase written on it telling explorers without a regular party to apply without worry.
‘Next are the precautions.’
First, there is no civil or criminal liability for accidents that occur due to ignoring control.
Second, the expected exploration period is 20 to 30 days, so applicants are responsible for bringing their own basic exploration supplies. However, if the period is exceeded, Breaker will organize a supply team.
It was very pro-explorer content. If you listened well, you would be compensated even if you got hurt, and you didn’t have to worry about additional supplies.
Alan floated in front of the slab with his arms crossed.
‘There’s no tuition fee. The conditions are really good.’
There was a reason why the commission for selling loot was higher than other places. In the case of Roman Company, the commission was 7%, and in the case of Breaker, it was a whopping 20%, so it would have been disappointing if there were no welfare services like this.
That doesn’t mean that he’s going to enter Roman. Breaker also rents out workshops and has invested heavily in the convenience of explorers.
Even though his head was in a downward position, Alan was still thinking carefully.
It was an opportunity I couldn’t miss. But why does the conversation I had with Furansoir come to mind?
‘There is a high probability that the collector is in the labyrinth.’
However, this was not an act of trying to use the labyrinth explorer as a meat shield.
In fact, Breaker’s large-scale expeditions, known as training camps, are regular events, and the last two have resulted in no deaths or serious injuries.
So, there was no room for doubt even if an announcement was made in this way.
Alan narrowed his eyes and stared at the slate. The information quickly combined in his head and he immediately came to a conclusion.
‘Are you really trying to catch the collector? If so, you’re probably planning to send in powerful explorers to hunt him down under the pretext of training.’
There was also a reason why the nondisclosure agreement was only valid for a month. You only had to keep your mouth shut until you got off. Since it was something related to collectors, even if the period ended, no one would go around talking about it.
Alan scanned the stone tablet, ignoring the magical feeling that bound his heart because of the oath. What was written below was unimportant.
‘Is it dangerous?’
The labyrinth was originally a dangerous place. It was even more unthinkable for Alan to go alone.
I looked at the list of guides that Breaker had released, listed at the very bottom. When I approached it, a new pop-up window appeared.
At the top was written ‘Jake Marshall’. He was the president of Breaker, an active labyrinth explorer, and a strongman at Depth 7.
Depth 7 means that the reached layer is between 61 and 70. Alan only went through mazes from 1 to 10, so his depth is 1.
Depth is a new classification method that was created after the discovery of the labyrinth, and even if it had the same depth of 7, there was a tendency to give higher ratings to labyrinths from Maze City than labyrinths from other continents or countries.
The Maze City labyrinth is the largest of all the labyrinths in the world, so much so that some people even call it the Great Labyrinth.
Anyway, the depth 7 strongman was a superhuman who ran at the forefront wherever he went in the world.
‘Wouldn’t it be okay if Chairman Marshall is with us? Depth 7···.’
As soon as he discovered the word ‘depth’, Alan’s thoughts went round and round. It was a habit that was both a strength and a weakness.
‘What’s on the 61st floor?’
I couldn’t figure it out now. Knowledge is power, and knowledge is value, so it was impossible to find valuable things in the ocean of information called Samramansang.
Information up to the 30th floor was somewhat spread out.
‘They said that creatures from the past appear on floors 21 to 30. Even if they are similar to modern creatures, they are much larger···.’
Alan turned his gaze back to the slate. It was now time to decide whether to join the expedition or stay on the surface because it was too dangerous.
*
In the empty lot near the labyrinth station, Alan looked inside the wagon pulled by the leopard. Inside, the exploration supplies were neatly organized.
‘Food is···.’
First, I saw a box of pound cake. It was extremely compressed and hard, and had fruit particles covered in sugar. I had to drink water to eat it, because if I ate it straight, my teeth would break.
‘And a water jug.’
Fortunately, the water problem was solved with a magic tool. If you had to bring 30 days’ worth of water since there was no place to get drinking water on floors 1-20, the difficulty of the exploration would have increased by two orders of magnitude.
Now that I could carve two runes at the same time, it didn’t matter if the water jug broke. Of course, it was best not to encounter that situation.
The pill bottle containing essential vitamins and minerals was also safely located.
Just in case, I also put some high-calorie compressed biscuits between the tool belts. I just hoped I wouldn’t have to eat them if possible.
‘It’s the worst tasting thing because it’s only made with nutrients. The explorer who says this is delicious is most likely not a human.’
Alan swallowed the joke. He looked around and saw no one he knew.
Unfortunately, Dennis’ party was not attended. Still, Kakda is doing well, so we will meet again someday.
People were gradually gathering in the vacant lot. Although recent participants were not allowed to apply and the selection was made from explorers who mainly traveled through the maze layer, there seemed to be about two hundred people.
With so many uniquely-looking explorers, Alan’s mask was one of the more ordinary ones.
While Alan was examining their faces, someone suddenly spoke from behind him.
“Are you by any chance a young master from somewhere?”
The person who spoke was a goblin. Not just any goblin, but an explorer who had replaced a significant portion of his body with magicware.
“no.”
“Then what is that automaton behind me? Even at a glance, it looks like it’s been modified quite a bit.”
“This is a leopard I created myself.”
“Not a tiger, but a leopard? Now that I look at it, you’re a magic engineer like me. My name is Kiki.”
“This is Alan.”
After shaking hands, Kiki looked Alan over from head to toe.
“I don’t think you have any Magicware. Are you a purist?”
“Except for my left eye, I have a naturally good body.”
“You looked like an ordinary person, so I thought you were wearing expensive magic wear. That’s why I thought you were the master.”
As Kiki said, the more expensive the Magic Wear, the more similar it was to the original body. It could also be modified into any other form.
The goblin magic engineer didn’t have the money to do that, and just by looking at his appearance, especially his head, he looked like a robot.
There are cases where brain expansion devices are so large that parts or pipes end up poking out of the head, and Kiki was one such example.
Alan asked, watching the bubbles move along the transparent pipe.
“Judging by the flow of bubbles, is it water-cooled?”
It wasn’t a joke. The higher the calculation and control power, the more important the heat dissipation became, and I heard that there were some wizards who modified it like that.
Kakda praised the era as “a great era where even non-existent talent can be created,” and boasted that he did not need to attach such a large device to his head.
Kiki became angry when she heard Alan’s words.
“Bubbles? I paid so much money to have it properly taken care of… Are there a lot of bubbles?”
“No. There is only one number, and the size seems to be about 0.3mm.”
“That will disappear soon. Judging from where we’re standing, it’s the same 6th group. Let’s get along well. But, will it be efficient to drag that around? Even if I take a quick look?”
“Only the outside.”
“That’s a given.”
Kiki approached cautiously and examined the leopard, and Alan looked at the back of its head. It was covered in pipes, so its original shape could not be seen.
‘Will it be uncomfortable to sleep?’
While Alan was thinking like that, Kiki, who had finished observing briefly, returned to the side.
“Aren’t you really a young master from somewhere?”
“···.”
“No, even though Magicware only has eyes, aren’t you called a magic engineer? A leopard would just sweep through a maze just by looking at the runes written on the outside.”
“Not to that extent.”
“Well, the goalkeeper is a bit strong. It’s hard to ignore the wolf riders when they’re all together. But···”
Just as the suspicious questions were about to continue, Breaker’s aerial vehicles appeared one after another and landed in the empty lot.
Explorers in various clothes and equipment disembarked, and the last to disembark was Jake Marshall, who was over 60 years old but had no gray hair. All of his gray hair was slicked back, revealing his forehead.
The explorers who had disembarked moved towards their respective groups.
A guide arrived in front of Alan and Kiki. He was a man with his head completely covered by a pitch-black helmet. The helmet seemed to be emitting considerable magical power.
‘It feels somehow familiar···.’
As Alan looked at the guide, his eyes began to make judgments on their own.
Name: Zion
Race: Human
A green line was drawn around the outline of her body to confirm the match of her body shape, and the most decisive piece of evidence was the bag she was carrying.
It was the bag that Zion had shown me at the workshop. It must still be full of Chilseong and Hextech swords.
Allen’s eyes met Zion’s. To be precise, Allen’s eyes and Zion’s pitch-black visor looked at each other.
Zion spoke to the explorers in that state.
“The ten people here just need to trust me and follow me. Then you don’t have to worry···.”
“Wait a minute, this is my job. What are you doing?”
A deep, familiar voice intervened. It was François, who had presented Allan with the pledge.
Zion’s pitch-black visor stared intently at François.
“Here… isn’t this Group 9?”
“It’s Group 6. The number 6. I showed you the block map in the car.”
“If you look at it upside down···.”
François, his nose twitching, pointed with his finger to where Group 9 was waiting.
“That’s your job. But why are you wearing a combat helmet?”
“···.”
Zion turned around without saying a word. His helmet was removed and disappeared as if it were a lie. His gait was strangely fast, and his hair swayed violently.
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