The First Conqueror of the Labyrinth
Countless system windows floated up before my eyes.
Achievement: You have successfully become the first conqueror of the labyrinth.
You were the first to successfully use Paryeolbando directly.
Synchronization Rate increases by 1%.
Musin is faintly pleased.
Party 328 has cleared the gate.
Rewards are being distributed.
The labyrinth’s 10th floor has been cleared, and the entry conditions for the 9th floor have been unlocked.
Congratulations.
You have taken one step closer to the end of the world.
“Ah.”
There was so much of it. Too much. I could accept the rewards, sure. And yes, seeing that text made it real—I had actually cleared the place.
But then there was this.
You have taken one step closer to the end of the world.
What was that supposed to mean?
The end of the world?
What on earth was that doing there all of a sudden? I was still trying to make sense of it when the next notices appeared.
The gate has been completely cleared.
As you succeeded in clearing the gate, it will not affect the Contamination Rate.
The gate is shutting down.
With the announcement that the gate was ending, the walls all around us crumbled away.
And just like that, my consciousness returned to reality.
* * *
“……”
I opened my eyes. My breathing was still out of rhythm, and I floated there for a moment, staring up at the bright ceiling light before I could help squinting. Damn, that was bright.
“Ugh……”
The aftereffects of coming out of a gate were always miserable. I was still fighting off the pounding headache when a voice came from right beside me.
“You’re awake?”
“……!”
I jerked and turned my head. Ye Jiram was sitting there beside me.
“Are you okay……?”
She was here, the Ye Jiram who had just died to the death commander. I asked in confusion because of that.
“What do you mean, okay? It wasn’t even a death-penalty gate. Have you never seen someone die inside a gate before?”
“……”
“Oh, so it was your first time? Well…… I guess expecting much from a newbie was too much.”
“That’s……”
“So. How’d you clear it? I thought you wouldn’t be able to.”
“Ah.”
So Ye Jiram also knew I’d cleared it. Well, we had been in the same party, and the system windows would have popped up for her too, so it would’ve been stranger if she didn’t know.
“Did you know? We beat Irene there.”
“……Ah, yes. That is impressive—huh? Irene was there too?”
Irene had entered the labyrinth too? And still, I’d won against her?
That was genuinely shocking. The Irene, of all people, had entered the gate—and I’d still beaten her to it.
……The攻略 guide really is good.
Being told how to clear it had been a huge help.
“To think you’d beat that Irene. Well, now that’s an interesting story.”
Ye Jiram’s face was lit with amusement. For some reason, she seemed to like that more than actually clearing the gate.
“Haha.”
“……You’re really happy about this?”
“Of course. That arrogant woman with her nose in the clouds lost, didn’t she? Ah, serves her right.”
She looked so pleased that I didn’t know what to say.
“You’ve got a seriously filthy personality.”
“What was that?”
“No, I said your name is pretty.”
“……You were insulting me just now, weren’t you?”
“Me?”
“I’m going to—”
She raised two fingers sharply, as if she meant to jab me in the eyes. I gave an awkward laugh and edged away.
“Anyway, forget that—how did you actually clear it?”
“Huh? How I cleared it……?”
How was I supposed to explain that?
……I couldn’t beat it with a sword, so I brought out my real body.
And then I got my buff and wrecked it. There was no way I could say that.
“Well, I mean…….”
Just as I was scrambling for some excuse, she frowned.
“I didn’t even see it in the video.”
“……Video?”
I froze at that. A video? What video?
“Kim Hyukcheol took footage of us.”
Ye Jiram pulled out her phone and showed it to me. On the screen—
Krrrrr-shhhhhhhh—!!!
—there was me and Ye Jiram fighting the death commander.
……This is bad.
My eyes twitched. So Kim Hyukcheol had been the one after all.
……He’s an information broker.
He was probably the most famous information broker in Korea. His rank was only B-class, so he wasn’t especially high-tier, but he used that position to run gate-related streams online and make a living off them.
I knew him well enough.
I’d seen him a few times before.
He was one of the rare people who could show what was happening inside a gate.
So, of course, viewers would flock to it.
The problem was—
“You mean there’s video of me inside the gate?”
My image was on there? I nearly jumped out of my skin. Which meant—
Did he catch me as Musin?
I stared at the screen with trembling eyes.
Chijijik—!!!
“Uh…… the quality?”
The video quality was strange.
“Once the death commander appeared, the gate rank went up. That was Kim Hyukcheol’s limit.”
“Ah…….”
The limit of a B-class information broker.
“He’d only be able to see up to an A-class gate to begin with. Then the boss appeared and it rose to S-class, right? That’s when the problem started.”
That was the one good thing here. Still—
Even so—
I was about to think that if my transformation into Musin showed up, then it wouldn’t matter anyway, when—
BANG—!!!
Ye Jiram was slammed into a wall after taking a hit. That was the moment she died.
In other words—
There.
The moment I changed into Musin.
Just as I swallowed dryly and kept watching—
Chijijijijijik—!! Thud—!!!
“……Huh?”
The video shut off completely.
“Kim Hyukcheol couldn’t hold out at that point. He passed out from the strain. He couldn’t endure the increased difficulty.”
“Ah.”
Relief flooded me. I let out a breath at the fact that Kim Hyukcheol hadn’t been able to withstand it.
“Of course, there may be other information brokers out there…… but, well. That was the whole video. How on earth did you take it down?”
At Ye Jiram’s question, I answered awkwardly.
“I…… used the skill one more time. Luckily, that worked.”
“What? You could use it twice?”
“If my condition’s good.”
It had originally been once, but I decided to leave it at that.
“Whatever. Either way, we gained a lot from this. Thanks.”
“It’s nothing. If anything, I should be the one……”
I was about to thank her for saving me when—
“Found you.”
A voice rang out from the air. I looked up, and Irene was standing there.
“Oh my. It’s Captain.”
Ye Jiram smiled brightly. But Irene didn’t seem even slightly rattled by it.
“So you cleared the gate.”
“Ah, yes.”
“Hmm……”
Irene looked at me strangely.
“The captain came in second, and we’re first.”
Ye Jiram cut in, but—
“Congratulations……”
Irene only nodded calmly and said, “You seem to have drawn a lot of attention as well……”
At that, I reacted immediately.
“Attention?”
“The party that beat the world-famous Irene. Something like that,”
And the moment I looked at Ye Jiram, she showed me the articles.
Articles of every kind were lined up one after another. Among them—
“Two S-class?”
So who was the other one? It turned out to be Irene and Yu Jin.
And while those two were there, the first ones to clear the gate were two A-class superhumans.
The Black Night Witch, Ye Jiram, and—
……me.
Lee Jinwoo, hero of Yeouido. My name was up in the paper.
“I don’t really like my name being dragged into this. Well, that can’t be helped. Having the knight order’s name up there isn’t bad, though.”
Articles about the new knight order were starting to creep out too.
It was saying that both superhumans who beat the S-class were from the knight order.
Ye Jiram’s identity is still a secret, isn’t it?
The newly recruited members were probably still supposed to be off the record.
……So the Association used the reporters after all.
I understood what was going on.
Then there was nothing strange about it.
“Not bad. Keep…… doing that……”
Irene left after saying only that.
“What was that? She just came to say her piece and left.”
Ye Jiram clicked her tongue, sounding bored. I ignored the dull ache still coursing through my muscles and watched the place where Irene had disappeared.
What was that……?
Hero's Super-sensory has been activated.
I had faintly sensed Irene’s emotions just now.
Pleased? And uncomfortable.
Two different emotions had surfaced around her, both equally impossible to pin down.
* * *
Right after clearing the labyrinth, the world was in an uproar over the continued appearance of Anomaly Gates.
“This latest Anomaly Gate appeared on the shortest cycle ever recorded since Anomaly Gates first started appearing.”
“Some are now saying the gates may actually be changing.”
“And since the 10th floor was just the beginning, there are already predictions that there may be more floors ahead—”
“To discuss this, we have Professor Choi Cheongjo of Korea University, a doctor of gate studies, with us……”
That was all anyone talked about on the news. Half of it was about the Anomaly Gate, and a quarter of the rest was about Irene. What remained was about me and Ye Jiram.
Hmm.
I turned off the TV after watching for a while. As soon as the business of selecting the deputy leader was over, I’d gone straight back to the dorm.
Apparently the fatigue had piled up, because I collapsed the moment I got there.
When I woke up, it was night.
“……Ugh.”
I was sore everywhere. My body was so exhausted that even after sleeping for hours, it still hurt.
Ignoring that muscle pain, the first thing I did was check the reward I’d earned for clearing the labyrinth gate.
Rewards are being distributed.
Let’s see.
What would it be this time?
Would you like to receive the reward? (Y/N)
Without hesitation, I hit Y.
Pop—!
A box dropped out of thin air.
“Hmm.”
It was an orange box.
◈ An orange box.
◈ A reward that may contain a national-class artifact.
An orange box……
It was the kind of thing you got for clearing an S-rank gate.
Other people must have gotten one too, depending on contribution.
……So this is what it feels like to open one.
If luck was on your side, you could get a national-level weapon. Even if not, you were supposed to end up with something very good.
Interesting.
My heart racing a little, I moved my hand toward the box. Just as I was about to open it—
Korka's Phantom Image has been activated.
The box’s true form is being released.
“Huh.”
Korka’s Phantom Image was triggering again after a long time. The box began to glow, and its color started changing.
Gold. It was turning gold, which meant—
◈ It has transformed into an SS-rank box.
◈ Contains the lingering trace of the death commander.
“……Whoa.”
It had turned into an SS-rank box. What exactly was Korka that it could even do something like this?
SS-rank, seriously.
It wasn’t as shocking as it might have been, since I already had a few SS-rank artifacts, but it was still staggering that things like this kept dropping into my hands.
Swallowing dryly, I carefully opened the box.
Whoooosh—!!!!
An incredible light burst from inside, and when I finally looked at what lay in the box—
“……What is this?”
I couldn’t stop my face from twisting hard.