A Beautiful Lie
“The hotel has been completely incinerated.”
A subordinate's report. Seer received the live feed of the scene directly through the lenses of his glasses. The entire hotel where Kang Hyun and Seol Ha-woon had been staying had collapsed, reduced to a heap of rubble dozens of meters high.
“Are you certain they didn't escape?”
“Yes, sir. We are reviewing the footage, and there is no sign of anyone exiting the building.”
They had brought the hotel down from the inside. There were only two possibilities.
A trick to sow confusion, or a suicidal bid for survival.
According to confessions extracted from several explorers, they would be subjected to a Forced Recall if they sustained fatal injuries. They might have chosen to harm themselves to trigger a recall and seek help from the outside.
“Keep monitoring the site. I do not care how many men it takes. Maintain a constant watch around the hotel.”
“Understood, sir.”
Seer cut the transmission. *Tap. Tap. Tap.* He tapped his fingers against the table, lost in thought. He was contemplating his own struggle to survive.
So far, he had identified sixty-three outsiders and captured thirty-two of them. He hadn't gone out of his way to hunt them down. Excessive searching and tracking would only provoke unnecessary wariness. Instead, he monitored the exchange offices scattered across the continent, abducting only those who visited them.
Once the labyrinth currently being excavated was fully opened, Seer would throw them inside. If the outside world attempted to erase this world, the labyrinth within the labyrinth would vanish along with it.
Trapped in that nested labyrinth, they would serve as the perfect hostages to ensure the preservation of his world...
I had carved out a space within the hotel's ruins.
A safe zone of about 180 square feet, maintained by my spell. With food from the Cookie Box, drinking water, a desk, backrests, and mattresses, my preparations were thorough.
“Guess I'll do some studying.”
I spread out a book on neural implants on the desk. Across from me, Kang Hyun was also reading a novel.
*Rustle. Rustle.*
The crisp sound of pages turning filled the quiet space. It was actually quite impressive; even though it was a data book, it simulated tactile features like this.
“...Ha-woon hyung.”
Kang Hyun suddenly spoke up.
“What?”
“What do you think will happen to the captured people?”
“I heard Seer plans to throw them into a labyrinth within the labyrinth.”
To be honest, I didn't care about Kim Du-gyeom, Kate, Kim Dong-ha, or anyone else. My only focus was clearing this labyrinth. There were simply too many items here that I wanted to take back with me.
Especially the black tea and the snake wine. If possible, I also wanted to bring back the Pony Projector, as it was an incredibly useful item for supplementing my mobility.
“I don't know what kind of labyrinth it is, though.”
“It's likely an Unconsciousness Labyrinth.”
I tilted my head at Kang Hyun's response.
“How do you know that?”
“Shindra mentioned it when she was explaining the raid on the mining site.”
An Unconsciousness Labyrinth. A dream-like labyrinth where an explorer's subconsciousness enters.
“Then we might be in for a massive headache.”
Unconsciousness Labyrinths carried a far higher risk than ordinary ones. It was especially disastrous if one's physical body was pulled in entirely.
To give an extreme example, there was once an explorer who emerged after living three thousand years inside an Unconsciousness Labyrinth. In reality, only three months had passed, but having experienced three millennia of subjective time, his mind had completely shattered.
Kang Hyun set his data book down.
“If the labyrinth is destroyed while they're still inside...”
“They could become vegetables. Or remain trapped there forever.”
“You know a lot about this, hyung.”
I let out a dry chuckle.
“I should be the one asking. How do you know? Did your father teach you?”
Kang Hyun froze instantly. A faint tremor rippled across his face.
A sore spot.
His past, or perhaps his weakness.
“...Wait. Found him.”
I smoothly changed the subject. Conveniently, someone had just been caught on my drone's camera.
A quick-witted, squirrel-like man. Having stopped by an exchange office to buy a ticket, he had sensed something amiss and was currently fleeing in a panic.
“It's Im Hae-jun.”
“Hae-jun? Can we help him from here?”
Kang Hyun asked, sounding concerned.
Empty words he didn't mean. There was no genuine emotion in Kang Hyun's voice. The shell was there, but the substance was entirely missing.
“No,” I shook my head. “Quite the opposite, actually. We should pray he gets caught.”
*Pant, pant, pant!*
Through the drone's lens, Im Hae-jun was running for his life. He knocked over obstacles and even fired arrows while backstepping.
*Hey, kid, just let them catch you.*
“That's the only way we'll find out where they're keeping the captured explorers.”
Right on cue, Im Hae-jun was pinned down. Wrestled to the ground by men who looked like paratroopers, he thrashed wildly.
“Let go! Let me go! Let go of me! *Screeech!*”
He tried to bite the hands of the men attempting to handcuff him. Unfortunately for him, they were prosthetic limbs. Solid steel, even.
“*Arghhh!*”
Clutching his rattling teeth, Im Hae-jun was dragged away. I tracked the vehicle carrying him using the drone.
“Hyung.”
During the lull, Kang Hyun spoke up.
“Did things like this happen back when you were on active duty?”
I looked at Kang Hyun.
“...Things like this?”
“Yes.”
Right now, Kang Hyun was seeking something from me. He was searching for a piece of my past.
“Labyrinths... that are complicated like this.”
*I don't know.*
I was about to answer that way when, suddenly, an old memory flared to life like a struck lighter.
I scanned our surroundings. I couldn't feel any 'cameras' filming us yet.
They were probably still searching for us, given how abruptly the building had collapsed.
“...There was a labyrinth called the Parallel World. It was a perfect replica of the Earth we live on. It was quite dangerous.”
It was one of the incidents from my active-duty days.
Labyrinths were usually the domain of explorers, but occasionally, the military had to step in.
“Why was it dangerous?”
“Because a father who had lost his daughter ended up going inside.”
What must it feel like to be a parent, a father or mother caring for their child? As someone who had never known parents or had children of my own, it was difficult to imagine. Was it a feeling so vast and profound that no outsider could ever hope to measure it?
To an orphan like me, that unconditional, agape love was something to be deeply envied—but for him, it was a poison and a sin.
“It's a predictable story. In that parallel world, his daughter was alive. Perfectly healthy.”
“......”
Kang Hyun's eyes lowered quietly.
“He watched her from the shadows. At first, perhaps just looking at her was enough. But greed crept in.”
At some point, that place became his reality, and our world became his hell.
“He murdered the parallel version of himself. He chose to become a Labyrinthin. He fought to the bitter end to protect his daughter.”
It wasn't some grand ambition. He didn't want to overthrow the world.
He simply wanted to see his child's smile for a little longer. He couldn't bear to lose her again.
For a man who had grown up wealthy and climbed the ranks of success, his only remaining wish was to live long enough to see his child find true happiness.
Just that.
“Was that man... someone you knew, hyung?”
I smiled without a word.
Yes, he was a soldier. He was the one who had taught me the rules of the labyrinth.
The very man who had warned me never to grow attached to a Labyrinthin had met a child he couldn't help but love...
“Sometimes I wonder if there was a better way. If there was some other means to drag him out of that beautiful lie.”
Back then, I was cold and unfeeling. I was a hunting dog driven solely by cold logic, devoid of any moral compass to judge right from wrong.
I left him be. But because he was a strong man, I chose the easier path.
I killed his daughter.
“...Sometimes, wouldn't it be happier to live inside a lie? If it means you can have what you desire most.”
Kang Hyun spoke. A strange light flickered in his deeply sunken eyes.
“Maybe. But not for me.”
Life is a series of countless choices. I can't just discard the ones I don't like as incorrect answers and only carry forward the ones I deem right.
“The mistakes and the right choices—they are all me. If I throw them away, I cease to be myself.”
Whether I like it or not, it's all my life.
Erase even a single step from ten years ago, and where I stand ten years later changes completely. There is no way to edit out only the parts you dislike.
“You aren't living inside a lie; you're turning yourself into a fake.”
I don't particularly love the path I've walked, but I embrace it willingly.
My life was, of course, a complete shitshow. Yet, even amidst all that misery, there were moments of happiness. Seo Ji-hyuk and MoMo were stars that shone in that darkness.
“...They've arrived.”
In the meantime, the vehicle carrying Im Hae-jun had reached its destination.
“I found it. The research institute.”
It was a secure facility. The place where they were keeping the Unconsciousness Labyrinth. It was heavily guarded and emitted an EMP designed to disrupt spellcasting.
However, I had already learned how to bypass the EMP. I had studied it thoroughly back in the library during Labyrinth Exploration NaN.
All I had to do was analyze the EMP's pattern and construct a spell formula that remained unaffected by it.
“Shall we head out immediately?”
“No. We need to scout the interior with this first.”
I pulled out a piece of paper styled like a business card.
It was a makeshift artifact I'd crafted by slicing a thin sheet of mana-carbon fiber plastic, coating it with crushed magic stones, and imbuing it with my spell formula.
“There's nothing more retarded than breaking in only to waste time wandering around trying to find our way.”
Using Sequence, I could link my nervous system to inanimate objects. In other words, I could control this plastic card as naturally as my own fingers and toes.
So, if I sent this card drifting outside...
*Flutter, flutter.*
Slipping out from the collapsed hotel ruins, the card caught the wind and drifted away.
*Flutter, flutter.*
It drifted through the air for a long time. Passing neon lights, air taxi engines, and the smog of the lower-class districts, it finally settled onto the ground.
It was a puddle of rainwater. The card floated on the surface, waiting.
*Splash!*
A combat boot stepped into the puddle, pinning the card directly beneath it.
When the foot lifted, the card was no longer in the puddle. It had stuck flat to the sole of the boot.
*Thud. Thud.*
The man went about his patrol with the card stuck to his shoe, eventually swapping shifts with the next guard.
“Good work.”
“Thanks.”
He passed through the security system, undergoing iris, fingerprint, and even blood-draw scans before stepping inside.
“Man, I'm exhausted...”
*Flick. Sizzle.* Sitting in front of the security monitors, he lit a cigarette and asked,
“What's the status?”
“They said they captured another one.”
Just then, the card peeled away from the sole of his boot.
Sliding stealthily across the floor, the card crept out of the security room.
It crawled along the very edges of the corridor to avoid detection, inching forward...
It stopped in front of the research lab. Tucked away in the corner, it waited for the door to open. Quietly. Pretending to be a piece of trash that had always belonged there.
Then, the moment a researcher opened the door to step out,
*Swish!* It darted inside.
Crawling up onto a desk, it peered at the physical documents laid out. They were analog papers—a meticulous precaution against digital hacking...
Unconsciousness Labyrinth: Accessed by connecting consciousness to a capsule. It projects the subject's deepest subconscious desires and happiest memories. Because the mechanism is highly similar to dreaming, if the subconsciousness is shattered, the subject will not retain clear memories of the experience. However, a lingering sense of refreshment and euphoria will persist for a time.
Risk Level: Extremely High. Highly viable for virtual reality applications. Possesses addictive properties exceeding Grade-A narcotics; projected economic value is substantial...
★★★ Complete opening is estimated to require at least 4 days.
“...Tsk.”
Back in the hotel ruins, I clicked my tongue.
“It really is an Unconsciousness Labyrinth. Fortunately, we still have some time before it's fully opened.”
Entering an Unconsciousness Labyrinth bare-bodied without proper equipment would scramble a person's mind. Fortunately, these bastards seemed to realize that, which was why they were using capsules.
“...Shall we head out now?”
“Hold on.”
Now, I had to map out the location of the labyrinth.
I maneuvered the card to scout the entire layout of the facility. From the labs to the security rooms, testing chambers, and break rooms... I drew a blueprint of the places the card traversed in my mind.
After about half a day of scouting,
“Basement level three.”
I finally located the chamber where they had relocated the labyrinth.
“Ugh. My head is splitting.”
I temporarily severed my connection to the card. I massaged my throbbing temples and pressed down hard on my aching eyelids.
“Are we going outside now?”
Why is this guy so eager to leave? Does he have claustrophobia or something?
“No. Before that.”
I flopped onto the mattress.
“I need to sleep.”
I had kept my nervous system linked for too long.
Moving an inanimate object as if it were an extension of my own body took a far greater toll on my physical form than one would think.
“...Sleep?”
“Yeah. You should too. Goodnight.”
I immediately shut down my brain.
It was one of the perks of Sequence.
I could fall asleep and wake up whenever I wanted.