‘We should be arriving at our destination soon . ’


  They were in a dark cave . A large and ominous door was letting its presence known . However, Hyunwoo looked bored as he sat on top of a boulder .

  Only his eyes revealed the deep curiosity that he felt .

  “Did something good happen?”


  “No way . ”


  Jinsoo had approached him . Hyunwoo waved his hand in the negative .

  “I’m just an old man sitting in a dark space . What is there to enjoy about this situation? ”


  “Then you should have gone down to earth . A lot of fun stuff should be happening down there . ”


  They had become a complete turncoat against earth . This was why they sometimes accompanied the monsters down to earth . They caused all kinds of mayhem .

  “You are pretty amazing . You know they hate it when you accompany them . ”


  “Who cares what they think?”


  Jinsoo shrugged his shoulders .

  “They gained so much because he cooperated with them . The fact that they are complaining about how hard it is to retrieve us from earth is out of line . We did enough for them . They should treat us better . ”


  The monsters were treated like consumable commodities . They didn’t need to be retrieved unlike the Connectors . They had to open additional portals to retrieve the Connectors .

  This was why Ursus, who was leading the monster army, asked the Connectors to avoid going down to earth .

  Most of them followed Ursus’ request, but there were those like Jinsoo, who ignored it .

  “It really is great down there . I can do anything there . I can kill and destroy everything to my heart’s content . I can carry out any criminal activities . It is heaven for me . ”


  The screams and pain felt by the victims filled his desire for conquest and destruction .

  Currently, Jinsoo was living in the golden age .

  “I know for sure that you really want something else . Am I right?”


  Hyunwoo laughed as he spoke . He spoke as if he knew everything . Jinsoo stopped moving in an exaggerated manner . He came to a complete stop .

  However, it lasted only for a moment . A smile appeared on his lips .

  His smile was very cruel . It was frightening .

  “Well, you are right . ”


  Jinsoo didn’t deny it at all .

  “It is too funny . Those that put on airs as they yelled at me ran away like dogs!”


  He looked at his hands .

  His hands had been dyed with blood until not too long ago .

  The Connectors were an amazing and confident group of people . He hadn’t been able to become one of them, yet they all died futilely against him .

  “I don’t want to say this since this is your hobby . However, you shouldn’t overdo it . If you act out enough to become a detriment to the plan, you become nothing to them . ”


  “Yes, yes . ”


  Jinsoo raised both hands . He didn’t sound sincere as he gave his answer .

  “Doesn’t that apply to you too, Mr . Hyunwoo?”


  “What are you talking about?”


  “You went on a ‘walk’ a couple of days ago . You weren’t accompanied by anyone . ”


  “Ah . You noticed that?”


  Hyunwoo was calm . He spoke as if it was nothing .

  “It seemed the act of betraying my country and earth had some effect on me . That is why I went out for a stroll . I wanted to calm my heart, so I went to a place that held sentimental value . ”


  “Wow . I thought you were incapable of bleeding or crying . I can’t believe you felt those emotions . ”


  “I thought I was immune to those emotions, but as I get older, I grow sentimental . This is why one should die when one gets old . ”


  Hyunwoo and Jinsoo looked at each other . Both men were smiling, but for some reason, it felt as if murderous intent was flowing out of them .

  “Ha-haht! I guess it can’t be helped since your age made you feel that way . I am getting older too, so I can relate . ”


  “Mmm! I really like the respect you are showing towards an old man like me . Young kids these days are lacking in that department . ”


  “I’ll be heading out now . ”


  Jinsoo acted like a respectful young man . He left after bowing 90 degrees towards Hyunwoo . Hyunwoo waved his hand, and he laughed like a benevolent grandfather .

  When Jinsoo disappeared, his benevolent laughter changed into a jeer .

  ‘He caught wind of it . ’


  It wasn’t surprising . Kim Jinsoo was a man, who always observed Hyunwoo for an opening .

  In his eyes, all Connectors were his enemy including Hyunwoo .

  However, he didn’t care about that .

  ‘If Woo Sungyoon develops as planned . . . ’


  An existence like Kim Jinsoo wouldn’t even be worthy of Woo Sungyoon’s eyes at that point .

  ***

  There was no door at the entrance to the tower . There was an arch-shaped hole at the bottom of the tower .

  “Thankfully, there is no door . ”


  Bruce entered through the hole .

  “He’s so shameless . He still can’t let go of the fact that he couldn’t open the door yesterday . ”


  Russell clicked his tongue as he followed behind Bruce into the tower .

  Sungyoon’s party let out a bitter laughter as they entered the tower too .

  The center of the tower was open until the top, but one couldn’t see the ceiling . There was a helical staircase built against the walls . They could see doors to rooms along the staircase .

  “We have to climb it, right?”


  “Of course . ”


  Bruce and Russell bent back their neck as they looked upwards .

  Bruce was the first one to step onto the staircase .

  He lightly stomped one feet on the staircase .

  He put more strength into the stomp, but the staircase remained intact .

  He placed his other foot atop the staircase . With his full weight on the staircase, he jumped a couple times in place .

  “I don’t think it’ll suddenly collapse on our way up . ”


  The Connectors continued to climb up the staircase .

  “This is quite dangerous without a railing . ”


  Emily stuck close to the wall . Bruce, who was leading from the front, grabbed the handle to a door . It was the first room that he had reached .

  The wooden door had somehow lasted over the test of time, but it was obvious that the door was rotten . It was barely hanging on .

  “It is another door . ”


  He glared at Russell, who teased Bruce from his side . He slowly opened the door .

  “There’s nothing in here . ”


  “This place feels like a deserted house . ”


  Russell turned around to look at Sungyoon .

  “Do you feel anything?”


  “No . I don’t feel anything special within the room . How about you, Sir Russell? Do you feel anything out of the ordinary?”


  “No . I equipped it, but I don’t think it will react to me . ”


  Russell raised his arm . His armor hit it, but he had a Device equipped on his arm . The Mage Gem was slotted in the Device .

  “Let’s continue to go up . ”


  Bruce pointed towards the stairs .

  They arrived at each room as they climbed the staircase . They opened each door as they advanced, but they didn’t see anything eye-catching within the rooms . The only thing they found was broken down furniture .

  Everyone wanted to just ignore the rooms to reach the top, but there was a chance that there was something out of the ordinary within one of the rooms . This was why they opened every one of them .

  “In the end, it was all for nothing . ”


  Russell stood at a platform at the very top . He let out a sigh as he looked at the last door .

  In the end, it had been a massive waste of time . None of the rooms held anything interesting .

  Russell slowly opened the last door . The helical staircase had come to an end, and a door was present at the top of the tower .

  “There’s no way we find nothing in there, right?”


  “Don’t jinx us!”


  Russell kicked backward towards Bruce, then he fully opened the door .

  He was greeted by a large space . Unlike the rooms that were present along the staircase, this place used the entire area up top . There were no inner walls that segregated rooms . It also didn’t possess outer walls . One could look out into the city . There were only a couple of pillars that held the ceiling up .

  ‘This place is more like a terrace than a room . ’


  It was a great place to look out for a great view . However, they didn’t see much since the city was encased by sturdy walls .

  Sungyoon looked up . He recalled seeing the top of the tower embedded into the ceiling .

  ‘Do the top of the tower share the same ceiling as this space?’


  “Mr . Sungyoon! Over there!”


  Emily tapped at Sungyoon’s arm .

  She was pointing towards a certain direction .

  He saw a familiar set of machines . It was a machine that existed in Sungyoon’s capital and Plu-El’s holy city . It was the device that projected the hologram .

  Russell and Bruce caught sight of the device too, so they approached it .

  “Hey . You should activate it . You have the Mage Gem, right?”


  Russell was put in an awkward spot when Bruce spoke up .

  “I still haven’t awakened it, so what can I do?”


  Even as he said those words, Russell started touching the machine .

  He tried pressing the Mage Gem against the device, and he also tried sending his magical energy through the Gem . However, the machine didn’t do anything .

  “Mmm . Knight? Mr . Aruwen and Ms . Plu-El? Do you mind helping me out?”


  Russell called out to the three, who possessed the special Gems .

  “We won’t be of any help . The machine will not activate without the Mage Gem . ”


  Plu-El crushed Russell’s hopeful thoughts .

  “Can’t the Knight use the Royal Gem to activate it?”


  “The Royal Gem isn’t some universal item . ”


  In the end, Russell backed away from the machine .

  The Connectors ignored the machine once they realized they couldn’t activate it . They started searching their surroundings, but the only thing out of the ordinary was the machine .

  “.……there is nothing here . ”


  Bruce sounded annoyed as he mumbled his words .

  He even checked the pillars and the outer walls of the tower . He checked if there were any symbols engraved into them, but he found nothing .

  “Didn’t Sung Hyunwoo say there was something here that could stop the Grenoid?”


  “He said there is a way to stop the monsters from invading earth here . ”


  “Shit! Does this mean he duped us?’


  “There is no guarantee that he was referring to this place . ”


  Russell placated Bruce, but his voice sounded drained of energy too .

  “In the first place, he sad it exists with the ‘Great Labyrinth . ’ He gave no other hints . . ”


  Russell added at the end .

  “However, there is no guarantee that he didn’t lie to us . ”


  “Shit!”


  Bruce stamped his foot once .

  ***

  Afterward, the Connectors searched the tower one more time . They wanted to make sure that they hadn’t missed anything .

  However, they couldn’t find anything, and the Mage Gem was showing no signs of waking up .

  In the end, the Connectors expanded their search radius to the city .

  “Did you find anything?”


  Sungyoon was looking at the wall surrounding the city . Emily walked up behind him as she asked the question . Sungyoon shook his head from side to side .

  “It is just a wall . There is nothing extraordinary about it . Did you find something, Ms . Emily?”


  “No . ”


  Emily glanced at Sungyoon .

  “Are you blaming yourself for this?”


  “What?”


  “You look down . ”


  The mayor had mobilized the Connectors to this place, because he had heard Hyunwoo’s story through Sungyoon .

  This was why Emily was a bit worried about Sungyoon feeling some form of responsibility for this failure .

  However, Sungyoon shook his head from side to side .

  “Not at all . At the end of the day, I only delivered the message . I’m not the one that decided to go ahead with this plan . It wasn’t my call to make this decision, so I don’t feel the need to feel guilty about it . I’m not that kind of a person . I feel disappointed, but it has to do with the fact that earth continues to suffer from the attacks . I’m worried we won’t gain anything from this venture when we sacrificed so much . ”


  “I see . ”


  “Let’s head back to the tower once more . ”


  At Sungyoon’s insistence, the party returned to the tower .

  The tower had been thoroughly investigated, so no one was at the tower .

  His other party members continued to climb the staircase as they checked the rooms once again .

  However, Sungyoon didn’t follow them upwards . He decided to focus on searching the 1st floor .

  ‘As expected, there is nothing here . ’


  Sungyoon felt despondent, but he didn’t give up on his search . This time he searched where the staircase started .

  He was checking the space between the1st floor and the staircase when it happened .

  Ssssk!

  He felt the Royal Gem twitch .

  Doo-doo-doohk!

  It was as if a secret door was opening . A part of the floor sunk into the ground .

  Then a staircase leading to the basement was revealed .