Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 93
Only Noblemtl
The Soldos Federation is a nation that occupies almost an entire continent, and the national power they boast of radiates from their vast lands.
With its vast land and vast resources, it was only natural that Soldos would rise to the ranks of a major power, as it was the perfect place to attract people.
If there are advantages, there are also disadvantages. The land was so vast that it took a lot of time to move around.
Although these are acceptable drawbacks, people absolutely hate waiting and being bothered, and most of the developments have been made in an attempt to alleviate that.
The same goes for the train that Alan is currently on. The hyperloop train, built to overcome time, raced across the continent at incredible speeds.
No, the expression flying would be more appropriate. The train, with almost no air resistance, ran at a speed of well over 1000 km/h.
Shiva enjoyed the gentle vibrations that came from the body and were transmitted to the seat. It was like sitting in a massage chair, so it would be nice to sleep, but she couldn’t.
“Are you listening?”
“Brother Allen, aren’t you tired?”
“I’m having so much fun figuring out how Hyperloop works. How did they build a vacuum tube that could span the continents? Who would have thought of running a train through it?”
Thanks to Alan who never stops talking, Shiva finds out what hyperloop is, something she doesn’t care about. It was a mistake to wake up after drinking holy water. Hearing Taylor’s breathing, he knew she was pretending to sleep.
There was no way Shiva could have been mistaken, because Taylor got up and got off the train as soon as they reached their destination.
“Is this the countryside?”
Those were Taylor’s first words as he looked around the Hyperloop station.
The city they arrived at, Lynx, had a population of just over 50,000. Most of the buildings were low, and the streets were quiet.
Of course, it couldn’t be compared to Maze City, where tens of millions of people live together. The only places that could compare to this place, where skyscrapers are plentiful and people are constantly flocking in, were other labyrinthine cities.
While Alan pondered whether there was a way to bypass the hyperloop’s security, Shiva quietly moved closer to Taylor.
“You’re near Maze City, but you’ve never been here before?”
“It’s over 1500km away, what’s nearby… It’s because Soldos is so large, if it were another continent, you’d have to cross several countries and still have some left. And there’s a labyrinth in Maze City, who would have time to waste their time on a place like this?”
“Because there’s another world out there.”
Alan, who failed to break through the security, agreed.
“You’re looking to see what runes and circuit magic are written on it?”
“That would require me to break the firewall and security design, and then the Soldos Federation would come after me.”
“It’s unfortunate, but what can we do?”
“Umm… Should I practice hacking more?”
Taylor shook her head as she watched Alan, who was thinking dangerous thoughts rather than giving up. She seemed like she would actually do it if left alone, so she deliberately changed the subject.
“Do you see this? I recorded the video inside the memory correction. This time, I won’t give in, so you have to upgrade me first.”
“Brother···.”
“Why again?”
“You are too narrow-minded. Brother Allen told me to solve it first because he was having trouble with the budget, so why are you doing this…”
“A man’s heart is like a reed.”
“Then, starting today, let’s study Mother’s scriptures together and spend time cultivating our spirits.”
While I was having a big party of nonsense, a dwarf wearing a suit approached me. Unlike the average dwarf, he had a short beard that only reached his chest and chocolate-colored skin.
“Hello. I’ve come to pick you up.”
The dwarf’s eyes were glowing blue. This must have been a comparison between the photo Rolf had sent and the impressions of Alan and his party.
The dwarf guided Alan to the truck. The leopard climbed into the cargo bed easily, and the box with spider legs instead of caterpillars also easily boarded.
“You guys are such harmonious people. I don’t think you need to worry about teamwork.”
“Can you tell me what’s going on?”
Alan asked from the passenger seat, but the dwarf shook his head.
“I am just an employee. I don’t know the details.”
As the employee pursed his lips, Alan naturally looked out the window. The white mountain range, always with a snow cap on its head, was swallowing the sun.
The sun went to rest after its last work of turning the white snow and ice red. In an instant, darkness fell over the entire city. But for a moment, the streetlights came on all at once, illuminating the surroundings.
Unlike the always saturated Maze City, the roads of Lynx were quiet. Since there were no cars, the speed of movement was extremely fast even after passing several traffic lights.
Alan captured people’s expressions one by one in the quickly passing scenery.
‘Is this a characteristic of the rings?’
His expression was bright and his actions were leisurely. He was the complete opposite of the citizens of Maze City who always pursued speed and whose anger was rising to their throats.
‘What’s the difference? Population density? Geographic location? Noise? Crime rate?’
Many reasons came to Alan’s mind, but he couldn’t come to a conclusion.
As Alan was thinking deeply, the dwarf’s voice came to his ear.
“It’s a boring city compared to Maze City. I don’t know if you’ll like it, Explorer.”
“The scenery is nice and the people seem happy. It’s a nice city.”
“Haha, that’s why I like this place. Another big plus is that you can see the White Mountains from anywhere.”
Alan checked Shiva’s expression through the rearview mirror. The smile on his face did not seem to leave, as he had the blood of a dwarf who loved mountains.
The truck, which had been moving through the city, arrived at a five-story hotel on the outskirts of the city. The facilities were not particularly good.
“Do the people you work with also stay here?”
“We each found different accommodations. Each group also had a staff member like me tag along. See you tomorrow.”
The staff member who guided us to our room handed us a terminal and disappeared.
Taylor sat on the bed and whispered quietly as soon as the door closed.
“I came because the promised amount was considerable, but there are too many secrets. It’s also suspicious that they insist on splitting the rooms among the people···.”
“If it’s weird, should I just give up and go back? I received a small deposit, so the penalty won’t be that much of a burden.”
“There’s no need for that. I know what’s going on.”
As Taylor set the mood, Shiva, who was looking at the white mountain range wrapped in darkness, also showed interest.
“It must be a relic.”
“Shouldn’t this be reported to the government?”
“That sounds fun.”
Taylor enjoyed the sharply divided reactions, then added further explanation.
“If I report this to the government, an investigation team will come, right? Then the mine will be shut down completely, but what about compensation? What about the uninvited guests who will visit if information leaks out here and there?”
“There are more problems than I thought.”
Taylor glanced at Alan as he chatted with Shiva. He seemed more interested in his new toy, the power suit, than in this conversation, and his mind was focused on it.
“Alan, you should join too.”
“I’ll just listen.”
Still unable to take his eyes off the power suit, Taylor knew that part of Alan’s mind had been assigned to it. One of the mechanical arms that had been working hard had stopped working.
The journey was a journey. I also wondered what kind of brain structure it had that allowed multitasking to happen so easily.
“How far did I leave off the story?”
“Brother, is there a red flag for brain health?”
“Use it!”
“It’s a relic.”
“Oh, that’s it. Rolf’s cousin, who runs a mining business, must be getting greedy. He might think that if he keeps it a secret, all the treasure is his. Or he might have hired extra workers because of his competitors. I think I’ll have to meet the president to find out the exact details, but judging by the way things are going, I doubt he’ll tell me everything.”
After speaking, Taylor went into the shower room. Only after the sound of water rushing did Shiva ask Alan.
“Brother, aren’t you worried?”
“Are you worried? If it’s a real relic, there will be a lot of strange things to find, so I’m looking forward to it.”
You picked the wrong person to ask. Not only Alan, but most of the other dungeon crawlers would have had a similar reaction. They were risk-takers and explorers thirsty for discovery.
*
The next day, the staff member who guided us yesterday visited our room.
“Are you feeling tired? I’ll sign a confidentiality agreement before we leave.”
The document the employee handed over was a contract and a confidentiality agreement with magical measures added. After signing, Taylor was shocked when he saw the account.
“The advance payment is half of the recent exploration income.”
“The rest will be paid in a lump sum once the request is completed. There will also be additional compensation as written in the contract, so please do your best.”
After Alan and Shiva finished signing, they got back into the truck they had seen yesterday. Alan sat in the passenger seat again.
As the car pulled into the road, the employee opened his mouth.
“Let me introduce myself again. My name is Harsh, and I am the cousin of Brother Rolf, who introduced you all.”
“It was the owner’s family.”
“The concept is a little different. Our company revolves around blood relatives, so if you look closely, all of our employees are part of the owner’s family.”
It was the perfect situation for a blood feud. Dwarf blood ties were stronger than anything else, and they would even sacrifice their bodies for the sake of family loyalty.
“As you might have guessed, the reason I hired you was because of the relics I discovered in the mine. Originally, I was going to try to resolve it with the company’s own power···.”
“I guess a lot of your relatives died.”
Harsh bit his lip slightly at Taylor’s words that hit the nail on the head.
“That’s right. We couldn’t even retrieve the body, but we decided that it would be too much of a sacrifice to just bury it, so we hired outside personnel.”
“What have we found out so far?”
“There are multiple entrances, and once you enter, you can’t come back out. Even if you tie a string, it’s cut cleanly. That’s all.”
Alan nodded. Why couldn’t he have taken the body? It was only natural since no one had returned.
As the silence lingered, the truck arrived at the entrance to the tunnel. There were cars parked, and a crowd of people could be seen entering the entrance.
Harsh, who had gathered his gear, pointed at them.
“One staff member is assigned to each party.”
It was said that they would follow them as watchers, but no one complained. They were quite relaxed because of the amount of money, and the equipment that Hash had was also quite good.
He entered the tunnel without even having time to look around. The hot sunlight disappeared and cool air and darkness greeted Allen.
Each arch-shaped support had a magic light attached to it, making it easy to see things. It was a much easier place than a cave filled with black fog.
An elevator appeared in front of Alan, who felt at home. When Harsh pressed the button, the door opened.
“Let’s board.”
“How deep is it?”
“It’s 1km.”
“Are you going down 1km on this?”
“We didn’t dig that deep because of the risk of collapse. Instead, you’ll have to change elevators a few times.”
As everyone boarded, the iron box creaked and went down. Looking at the holes here and there, I could picture how it was dug.
‘If you look at the cross section, it would look like a fish bone.’
Maybe it was because of the same elevators and similar-feeling tunnels, but I quickly became bored.
Taylor, who had reached the lowest level, had a similar reaction. He yawned as if his mouth was going to burst as he walked down the tunnel, then stopped.
“Brother, have you experienced a jaw joint dislocation?”
Taylor slowly closed his mouth and opened his eyes wide, pointing forward. Shiva, who was looking in that direction, showed a similar reaction.
There was a black fog there, like the kind you would find in a labyrinth. It didn’t flow out to the surroundings, but only billowed inside the circular hole.
Harsh turned around and said.
“That’s why I asked Brother Rolf to arrange for explorers instead of just hiring mercenaries. Depth 3 is a completely different class from the rabble.”
End