Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 99
Only Noblemtl
The coccyx is the last part of the spine and the vestige of a tail. If you are a vertebrate and do not have a tail, you can think of a coccyx as a substitute.
So Taylor is left holding her half-burned pelvis in thought.
“Orcs, goblins, and even dwarves have tailbones. What are they? Are they some unknown new species? Or mutants?”
“It could be a homunculus created by the designer of the ruins.”
“That’s plausible. Homunculi can change shape greatly depending on the creator’s intention.”
“Mr. Harsh, should we also take the remaining remains here?”
Harsh looked at the charred bones with a disgusted expression, and his shoulders shook when his name was mentioned. How could he feel after working his whole life as a miner and discovering evidence of mass murder?
“Um… Uh… Yes, please do that for now. If you show it to a biologist, they’ll probably come up with some conclusions. I’ll be in the hallway, so you can take care of the research here.”
Harsh covered his mouth with his hand and disappeared. He looked as if he was about to vomit. Taylor looked at his back for a moment.
“That’s natural. I have a lot of experience, so it’s okay.”
“I was very surprised too.”
“You could say something like that while furrowing your eyebrows or something.”
Alan stared at the ashes again. Judging by the hibernation device and living quarters, this was clearly a bunker. But what had happened to turn it into a crematorium?
An unidentified virus spreading? Someone going crazy and committing genocide? An invasion of monsters? Or a prank by the designers of the ruins?
There was a high chance that it was a joke. Those who created the relics were well-versed in magic and mysteries, and those who did so were likely to be screwed up or even broken.
This does not mean that they are crazy, but that they cannot be defined by the common sense or norms of society. To the eyes of the general public, they may appear to be crazy.
As the conversation flowed in that direction, Shiva stepped forward.
“Most of the bad brothers and sisters who joined the purification service corps show that tendency.”
“Purification Volunteer Corps? What kind of organization is it that has such a cute name?”
“I’m talking about people who have had their brains expanded.”
“ah···.”
Taylor said with a knowing voice. The scene where the nun suddenly appeared and collected the gang members was certainly impressive.
“There are a lot of people like that among explorers.”
“Isn’t there some sort of order?”
“Explorers are all just one-handed people, so if you mess around without thinking, you’ll die. The law may be far away, but your fists are very close.”
“you’re right.”
“Does a priest agree to something like this?”
“What can we do if it’s true? The saying that a hawk is a good medicine is like gospel.”
“Did you get hit on the head a lot by the nun Mother?”
Alan left the two of them chatting away and walked around. He had worked hard so far, and now he was faced with a headache, so he understood why they wanted to rest.
From the start, there was no need to worry about being hired. All you had to do was do what you were told and receive your pay.
But what can I do if I am curious? For Alan, it was a realm of fun, so there was no room for boredom. The pleasure of filling the library in his brain one by one was superior to anything else.
‘Broken glass, marks of being dragged.’
It wasn’t transported after death, but while alive. That’s why there would be scratches on the inside of the door, as if they had been scratched by fingernails. In fact, the door was so strong that there were only fingernails and bloodstains.
‘Why did they set the fire?’
Fire has the meaning of purification, but it also implies destruction. Here, of course, it was the latter. I could sense the intention to wipe out all life within the bunker.
‘But why were the living facilities and power plants left alone?’
There was no reason for that. If it were Allen, he would have collapsed the entire bunker and destroyed the power plant.
‘There are two possibilities. Either it was a malicious prank by the ruins’ designer, or the destruction had to stop for some reason.’
Alan’s gaze turned to the half-burned remains. Taylor saw the wound on the cervical vertebrae and concluded that the carotid artery had been severed.
‘Are you the suspect or the victim?’
At that moment, a commotion was heard outside. The sound of people running broke Alan’s concentration. As he followed the people, he saw a sign of collapse, like a large apple that had been bitten into.
If you ask if this is so surprising, the answer is ‘yes.’
The bunker was underground. What would you see if the outer wall was destroyed? Most people would answer dirt or ground. But.
“Don’t come near!”
“Everyone step back!”
People were extremely vigilant. Outside the bunker, there was no ground but a murky color. The ominous, writhing shape made people’s hearts flutter just by looking at it.
Taylor put a hand on Alan’s shoulder. Alan was dragged backwards as he scraped away at the concrete and rebar near the collapse site.
“No matter how curious you are, don’t go there. Don’t even touch it.”
“Do you know what it is?”
“If you fail to open the space gate, that’s what happens. If you don’t want to become a dimensional missing person, kill your curiosity.”
“How did you know I was going to be missing?”
“Because the space series archmage went in and investigated it himself.”
“That means you’re back.”
“Again, again. My eyes are spinning.”
Even though Alan was an adult, Taylor looked at him as if he were looking at a child left on the beach. It wasn’t a bad feeling.
I followed Taylor’s advice obediently, fearing that if I did it wrong I might have problems controlling my blood pressure.
Since then, people have searched every corner of the bunker to find a way out.
“Are you trapped here?”
“Ha… I hate myself for being possessed by high salaries.”
It was a waste of time.
Still, a minimum of order was maintained.
Even though hope seemed lost, the reason order was maintained was because of the flow of magic power. The flow that had been rough due to the power plant overload was calming down. It was a special phenomenon that even people with low magic sensitivity could feel.
Alan, who was excited by himself, continued his exploration. The bunker facility that originally existed underground was predicted to be much larger, but the corridor leading to it was blocked by a murky color.
“There is no clear solution.”
“Time will tell. You should stop wandering and rest. You’ll collapse from exhaustion.”
Alan examined the mammoth soulstone next to Taylor, who had her eyes closed.
“Ah, snowdrops!”
I heard Taylor turn to the side.
The input window spread out before Alan was a veritable sea of stars. The content contained within was as vast as the size of the mammoth.
In fact, since Alan was hired for money, everything he gets from the ruins belongs to Harsh.
Mercenaries tend to take small rewards when they get something from a place where their employer is not present, but Harsh saw the soulstone that Allen took out. Even if that wasn’t the case, he didn’t want to cheat.
So I brought it up.
“Let me just take a look inside.”
“Do as you wish, or I will persuade the elders to let you go. Escape is still far away, but Explorer Alan has made the greatest contribution to this expedition.”
“There is no need for that.”
“You are honest and uncompromising. If there were more people like you, the world would be a much better place to live in.”
To Alan, it was not material things but knowledge that mattered. The Mammoth Soulstone could disappear at any time, but the information about the structure of the star script contained within it was eternal.
It was such a pleasant misunderstanding that Alan just nodded his head slightly.
Two days passed since Alan began the task of storing the mammoth’s star characters in his head.
The hallway became noisy.
“There’s a door! You can escape!”
“Tell everyone!”
Even though they didn’t have to spread the word, their voices were so loud that people who had set up camp in each district began to stick their heads out one by one.
The murky colors that Taylor had described as an unstable space-gate disappeared, and a landscape appeared. A mountain covered in white snow was visible.
Harsh found out where it was.
“It is a ridge connecting the peaks of the White Mountains. It is a popular hiking course.”
“Brother, I remember too.”
Lois also chimed in.
And then something flashed through the landscape. The dwarf cousins shouted in unison.
““Ttungtongi!””
The creature they called Tongtong was a wyvern. As the people looked on, Harsh added an explanation.
“He’s the ruler of this area. He’s quite big because he’s a big eater.”
Harsh’s words were a bit misleading. The wyvern was not just a little fat, but obese. If he gained any more weight, he wouldn’t be able to fly.
“They are smart and don’t cause friction with people. They are like seals or dolphins in an aquarium. Sometimes they block the road and throw a tantrum, but if you give them chocolate or candy, they will get out of the way.”
As soon as the escape route was visible, the people who had been lying down started to move briskly. If it had been like this in the past, the speed of civilization development would have been twice as fast.
Before the people who had filled the bunker with their belongings left, they threw the debris out. The debris rolled around on the ridge. After checking, the hesitation disappeared.
As Alan passed through the door, he heard the distinctive sound of snow crunching. The words Accessible to All Worlds appeared in the corner of his vision.
Voices of relief were heard here and there, and some people even kissed the ground.
“evil!”
Suddenly a scream was heard, but people had no time to pay attention to it.
“What? Where did you go?”
“The magic stone is gone!”
All the loot from the ruins was gone. The pouch that contained the mammoth’s soulstone was empty. The pelvis without the tailbone that was recovered from the crematorium was also gone.
Since they had worked so hard but got nothing, people fell into a collective depression. They all groaned and looked as if their families had fallen apart. Naturally, the additional compensation disappeared.
In the midst of the sorrow, only Alan remained unharmed.
“Aren’t you upset?”
“Don’t be too caught up in material things.”
“This is a passage that touches my heart. Like Brother Allen, we can escape corruption only by staying away from desires.”
“Does Ddaengjoong have the right to say something like that? And who was the person who received the high commission?”
As Alan shrugged, Taylor whispered in Shiva’s ear.
“Has Alan ever seen something like that?”
“Brother, what did I miss?”
“You have eyes like a full beast. You must be satisfied because you put the stars in your head.”
“It is a perfectly right result. Spiritual fulfillment is a much healthier and superior concept than material greed. Brother Taylor should follow suit…”
“Ah! Stop! Stop bothering the old man.”
I couldn’t stay here any longer, with the loot gone, and I couldn’t even find the door leading to the ruins.
Alan, who was slowly descending the ridge, asked a question.
“Why did it disappear?”
“Could it be that it was a time-fixed and repeating relic?”
“It keeps repeating a certain time period… It’s like a labyrinth that is permanently restored.”
“Wouldn’t it be different?”
“How?”
“You can find it in the universe. I don’t know either.”
“What happened to the ruins···.”
As Alan spoke, Harsh and Lois’ conversation could be heard.
“I just got off the phone and they said the entrance to the ruins has completely disappeared.”
“Huh? I didn’t even get any gold dust to sprinkle on my blood relative’s grave…”
“It’s a shame. We can’t do anything about it, so let’s forget about it.”
Alan turned his head as he watched the people scurrying down. The desolate cliff was made up of layers of rock. It was truly a picture made by time.
Because it was a steep cliff, there were signs of rock climbing everywhere. There were bolts stuck here and there, and there were ropes too.
Alan’s eyes moved as he observed the cliff. A part of it was greatly enlarged.
There was an intruder on one of the layers. It had been hit directly by the weathering, but Alan’s eyes defined it this way.
Type: Concrete
Is this a natural concrete-like structure, or is it the work of climbers?
Alan couldn’t come to a conclusion.
End