Flower of Snow (5)
The first broadcast of Labyrinth Exploration NaN. A day highly anticipated by the general public and desperately awaited by core fans.
Lee Si-ah sat in front of the TV, trying to calm her racing heart. Next to her, she had set up her laptop and tablet on stands.
"Hurry up."
Don't give me that nonsense about chicken or pizza. She had no intention of eating anything while watching. It would only distract her.
After about five more minutes of commercials...
[ With your own hands, you will select the nation's explorer. ]
[ The world's first labyrinth-clearing explorer audition program. ]
[ Labyrinth Exploration Now and Never ]
[ Now, the first page opens. ]
Finally, the main broadcast began. Lee Si-ah clenched her fists tightly.
The opening featured Yu Ji-in first. Standing on a stage where a majestic mist flowed, she looked at the camera and smiled.
"Hello, citizens. I am Yu Ji-in, the mentor of the explorers."
Against a black background, blue particles floated faintly beside her.
"Starting today, you will meet explorers whose potential knows no bounds."
With a light gesture from Yu Ji-in, the particles transformed into crystals, clinking softly.
"They will explore the depths of the labyrinth, battle its anomalies, claim victories, and experience defeats, showing you everything they have."
The faces of the explorers appeared inside the blue, transparent crystals. Kang Hyun, Lee Jun-ho, Seo Ji-woo, Ryu Yeon-hwa, Jo Woon, Kate... They were all familiar faces to Lee Si-ah.
"From now on, please watch the fierce stage of competition that will unfold here."
The screen focused back on Yu Ji-in.
Her expression grew more serious, and she spoke in a lower, softer voice.
"And remember. Your heartfelt support will determine the future of the explorers."
The crystals shone brilliantly. The faces of all ninety-six explorers flashed across the bright blue surfaces.
"Now..."
Along with Yu Ji-in's smile, the screen slowly faded.
"...we begin."
The opening was over.
The next scene showed a set with ninety-six chairs.
"Wow, amazing."
"It's huge. Ah, so those are the chairs."
The first to appear were a man and a woman.
It was a tradition of sorts for the Labyrinth Exploration series, but the participants who appeared first were usually nothing special.
"Your name is Lee Dong-hyuk..."
"Yes, I'm Lee Dong-hyuk. I'm twenty-two."
"Ah, I'm twenty-three. I'm Kim Yoon-seo. It's a bit awkward, isn't it?"
"Ahaha, yes. I know you, Kim Yoon-seo."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes. You're a spellcaster, right? You do YouTube?"
Just as they were having their trivial conversation, the screen immediately cut away.
The hallway of the set. Kang Hyun walked down it with steady, heavy steps.
Along with the caption, footage of Kang Hyun's third preliminary exam appeared as an insert.
He executed the warrior exam flawlessly, earning high praise from the examiner.
"Whoa."
"Wow."
Kang Hyun, whose appearance alone drew admiration, sat down in a chair without hesitation.
He was on the humble side.
"He really is handsome."
Next, four other unaffiliated explorers entered, but Lee Si-ah had little interest in them. They looked like school kids. The moment they saw Kang Hyun, they froze in intimidation and couldn't say a word.
Thump—
Suddenly, an unfamiliar sound broke into the audio. Lee Si-ah's ears perked up.
The camera angled from the ground up.
Thump.
Thump.
A cane tapped against the floor of the set. A long leg limped. As the screen panned up further, a face with long, messy hair came into view.
It was Seol Ha-woon!
"Ah~ that person passed too."
"Do you know him?"
"I saw him during the spellcaster exam."
The participants chattered about him, and Lee Si-ah's heart fluttered.
He looked exactly like he did in the still cuts.
A man with a strange, decadent beauty. His eyes were somehow deep and dark, and though it was a cliché expression, he looked like a man harboring some sad secret.
He sat in eleventh place, right next to Kang Hyun. He was different from the other explorers, who had kept their distance to avoid Kang Hyun.
"The participant Seol Ha-woon. He wasn't bad. He has talent."
He had an insert cut as well. It was an evaluation by the high-ranking spellcaster Kim Se-jin, who had been in charge of the third preliminary exam.
"More than anything, that man understood my spellcraft..."
Video of the third preliminary exam briefly flickered on screen, but it cut off in the middle. It was editing designed to tease the audience.
"What? Show me more!"
Next, famous explorers from various major guilds made their appearances.
Lee Jun-ho, who walked up without hesitation to sit in the first-place seat; the spellcasters Seo Ji-woo and Ryu Yeon-hwa, who already had solid public recognition; Kate, the wealthy heiress from Country B; Jo Woon, who came from China; and so on.
Before long, all ninety-six seats were filled.
Then, Yu Ji-in appeared once more.
"We will now begin the Level Test."
The Level Test was the Linear Labyrinth. Ninety-six participants would enter the exact same labyrinth simultaneously to be ranked.
"Ah..."
"Ah, I didn't even warm up properly today."
The explorers' reactions varied. Some made excuses, some smiled with anticipation, and others froze in tension.
Suddenly, the camera zoomed in on someone.
Seol Ha-woon and Kang Hyun.
Seol Ha-woon asked Kang Hyun:
"You confident?"
He spoke casually. One might wonder if they knew each other, but looking at Kang Hyun's reaction, that didn't seem to be the case.
"I'll just have to try my best. Are you alright, Seol Ha-woon?"
Kang Hyun glanced at Seol Ha-woon's leg.
Seol Ha-woon smiled relaxed and shot back:
"I gained something in exchange for what I lost. It means I'm fine, even with a leg like this."
Was it a battle of nerves?
Or was it a stepping stone to get closer?
"Everyone, please get ready."
In the meantime, the Level Test began.
All ninety-six explorers were teleported into the same labyrinth, and from this point on, Lee Jun-ho had the most screen time.
"Goblins."
Spotting the goblins, Lee Jun-ho smirked and charged. Sword light flashed in the darkness. The goblins' heads fell helplessly, like scoops of ice cream sliding off a cone.
Lee Jun-ho dashed forward as if running a track race. Even when he triggered traps, he either endured them with his body or cut through them.
Swift sword, clean cuts.
The perspective shifted, weaving the less famous participants like side branches between the screen time of famous contestants like Ryu Yeon-hwa, Kang Hyun, Seo Ji-woo, and Yun Hwa-rim.
And then...
Thump. Thump.
Once again, that familiar sound returned.
Seol Ha-woon. Leaning on his cane, he stopped the moment he spotted a goblin. He immediately lowered his posture and pointed his finger at the goblin.
*Bang.*
A real magic bullet discharged. It was the spellcraft shown in his one-minute self-introduction video.
He killed three goblins, then used a wire to climb up and survey the labyrinth from above.
"Found you."
His words "Found you" perfectly matched the actions that followed.
Seol Ha-woon did not trigger a single trap, nor did he let the goblins detect his presence. He avoided combat as much as possible. To be precise, he resolved situations without initiating combat. Out of dozens of goblins, the only one that actually saw his face was probably the very first one.
All of them were shot and killed from a distance by magic bullets.
He arrived at the hallway.
The final path, crawling with goblins. A stage where combat was inevitable, and one that would be incredibly difficult for a limping spellcaster.
Lee Si-ah focused as if watching a movie.
How would Seol Ha-woon solve this? What would he show them?
"Disperse."
First, he released his spellcraft. A mist-like current extinguished every single torch in the hallway.
"...Concealment."
Whispering quietly, he walked forward without a sound.
There was no echo from his cane. The same went for his footsteps.
An incredibly precise presence-concealment spell.
What came next was even more unexpected. He pulled a military dagger from his back pocket.
In other words, close combat.
Moving stealthily, he stabbed a goblin in the back. Pierced through its vital point, the goblin died instantly. It was swept away without even letting out a death rattle.
"Whoa..."
From the viewer's perspective, the tension was like watching an espionage film.
Lee Si-ah swallowed hard and opened the [Live Talk] for Labyrinth Exploration.
Seol Ha-woon, who had turned the hallway into a graveyard, soon reached the trophy room.
But before opening the door, he set a trap first, and his meticulousness shone once again. The goblin guard protecting the trophy tripped on a wire, and its lower body was blown away.
BOOM!
Right then, his elapsed time appeared as a caption.
"...Two hours and fifty-five minutes?"
Lee Si-ah tilted her head in confusion. Lee Jun-ho had clearly taken only about fifteen minutes to get here.
The Live Talk was already in an uproar.
While Lee Si-ah was dazed, the perspective shifted back to Kang Hyun.
At the twenty-three-minute mark. Similarly, Kang Hyun, who had dealt with the goblin guard in the trophy room, caught his breath and picked up the trophy. As he was trudging out, an incident occurred.
"Whoa, whoa!"
He fell straight through a trap door beneath the threshold.
It wasn't just Kang Hyun.
From elite explorers like Lee Jun-ho, Ryu Yeon-hwa, and Seo Ji-woo, to those whose names were barely known, everyone fell into the exact same trap.
"Aaaah!"
"Ugh!"
They plummeted through the gaping floor. The basement they fell into was crawling with goblins.
Chitter, chitter!
Screeech!
Surrounded by the horde, the explorers dealt with them in their own ways.
Lee Jun-ho's performance was particularly spectacular. He actually laughed as if enjoying the situation, swinging his sword. He minced everything around him like a blender. A goblin's air gun pellet lodged in his shoulder, but he didn't care. He simply took another step forward and severed the creature's neck.
"Fun."
Lee Jun-ho lowered his sword.
A scene where the goblins' bodies lay dismembered and scattered. Blood dripped from the tip of his sword like raindrops.
...The perspective shifted again.
An angle showing a hand picking up a teacup, which was the trophy. It was Seol Ha-woon again.
Having retrieved the trophy in the same manner, he paused as he was about to leave.
He stared at the door in silence. For a rather long time, and with deep significance.
It was a slightly different reaction from the other explorers. It was a silence that made the viewers anticipate something.
"No way?"
Lee Si-ah's eyes widened.
Seol Ha-woon had detected every single trap so far. If so, could it be this time too...?
"Ha."
Seol Ha-woon chuckled. As if he had realized something!
He picked up a pebble from the ground and infused it with mana. Sssss. Blue mana flowed from his palm.
Click.
He placed the pebble on the spot where the trophy had originally been. Then, he looked back at the exit.
"Correct."
What was correct? Whispering softly, Seol Ha-woon walked majestically toward the exit.
Lee Si-ah swallowed hard.
Thump. Thump.
His limping stride was like slow motion itself, and amidst the mysterious tension, he... safely left the trophy room.
The trap that had swallowed all the other explorers did not trigger. It didn't exist for him.
"Spellcaster Seol Ha-woon is the only one... who found the 'perfect answer' to the advanced spellcraft I designed."
Only then did the interview with high-ranking explorer Kim Se-jin, which had been cut off earlier, continue.
The pieces of the puzzle fell into place.
"His thinking is flexible. He meticulously doubts any problem and thoroughly dismantles it. His ability to grasp a spellcraft as a whole is outstanding. Needless to say, his intuition in reading the flow of mana is exceptional."
A short clip of Seol Ha-woon's third preliminary exam, where he escaped from the subspace lawn, played.
While all the other spellcasters focused only on the lawn, Seol Ha-woon alone paid attention to Kim Se-jin's position, eventually figuring out the truth about the 'center of gravity' and escaping differently.
"However, compared to other spellcasters, his achievements are fewer. He lacks experience as a spellcaster. And his unhealable leg is a very unfortunate penalty."
Thump. Thump.
The screen returned to the present.
A man walking out of the labyrinth alone, leaning on his cane, without a single scratch.
"He is someone who always needs more time. So, he is slow. Slow, but incredibly smart."
In the empty labyrinth, his final results appeared.
[ Hits Taken: 0 ]
[ Traps Triggered: 0 ]
A flawless record—not a single hit allowed, not a single trap triggered.
However, it was the slowest speed among the ninety-six participants.
"...A slow genius. That's how I would describe the spellcaster Seol Ha-woon."
Just as Lee Si-ah had expected, Seol Ha-woon was a character far from ordinary.