The entrance of the Beginner’s Labyrinth was bustling with Connectors exiting the labyrinth. Some of them looked relieved that they had survived the day. Most of them had bright faces as they converted the weight of the moonstones into wealth in their minds.
Sungyoon, Tim, and Emily observed this sight.
“In the beginning, I wanted to gain experience as soon as possible. I wanted to be assigned a Personal Labyrinth. Now that the time has come, I have mixed feelings.”
Tim let out his thoughts.
He wanted to achieve his mother’s dream with his sister. He thought about the day he took his first step into the Beginner’s Labyrinth. He had done so with high spirits. Had he become attached to this labyrinth? The man knew that was bullshit, so he shook his head from side to side.
“… it really is the end.”
Emily stood next to her brother as she looked at the labyrinth. She let out a sigh as she spoke.
If there was a beginning, there had to be an end. By clearing the Beginner’s Labyrinth, they had walked a step closer to achieving their dream. They should be happy, and they were happy. However, there was a part of their heart that felt wistful.
They had finished clearing the Beginner’s Labyrinth, but it also meant that they had to disband their party with Sungyoon.
“It isn’t the end. It is a new beginning.”
As if he understood her feelings, Tim consoled his sister by patting her shoulder. However, her reply was ruthless.
“My arse!”
Tim’s face contorted in a funny manner.
“Really…!”
Soon, the two siblings fell into their familiar routine of bickering with each other. They exchanged verbal insults. Words flowed back and forth like water. It was as if they were in their element. They even used childish arguments. They brought up an incident from 10 years ago as to who ate more pie. Sungyoon stood a bit away from them as he looked at the labyrinth.
If he thought about it, his relationship with the two siblings had left a profound impression in his heart. In the beginning, they had been a nuisance that had brought a monster towards him. Of course, there was no ill intent behind their actions, and they had taken responsibility for it. Sungyoon had no ill-will left towards them. Afterward, he had accepted their offer of making a party, and the trio had been fighting together for the past half a year in the dark and dreary labyrinth. Now, it was time for them to part from each other, and it would have been a lie if Sungyoon said he felt nothing.
Normally, he had nothing better to do, so he usually waited for the two siblings to finish their fight. However, that wasn’t the case that day.
“Shouldn’t we start going now?”
The two siblings stopped their verbal spat when Sungyoon interrupted them. Both of them looked embarrassed and shame-faced. However, they continued to glare at each other with sharp eyes.
Sungyoon pointed towards the opposite direction of the labyrinth.
“We’ve cleared the Beginner’s Labyrinth as beginner Connectors. This will be the last time we’ll be able to have a drink with each other. Since we don’t have much time left, we should start heading out right now.”
They would occasionally meet to work on their teamwork, so they might get the chance to come back to the Beginner’s Labyrinth. However, they wouldn’t have the same opportunity to drink alcohol like they had today.
“We really don’t have time to waste here.”
This was their last hurrah. Even if it was a bit unreasonable, Tim wanted them to drink until their nose turned crooked. Sungyoon just accepted Tim’s loud proclamation. Emily was still staring daggers at her brother, so he just walked past her. She grumbled at Tim but agreed with the plan. She silently followed after him.
On that day, Tim and Emily drank as if they wanted to kill their liver. They had started off lightly with a couple of cans of beer, but they had also ordered hard liquor with very high alcohol content. They started drinking like a fish. Connectors' bodies were hardy, so they didn’t get drunk easily. However, there was a limit to how much a Connector’s body could process.
The two siblings pretty much passed the bottle between the two of them, and they poured alcohol down their throat. Unlike the two siblings, Sungyoon stuck to his usual beer. In the end, he was the only one that wasn’t severely impaired by alcohol.
‘I guess I should have expected this.’
After he downed the last ounce of beer remaining in the can, Sungyoon stood up. The Ross siblings had paid beforehand, so the receipt was present at the corner of the table. Sungyoon tried his best not to see the figure printed on the receipt as he cleared the table. He helped the two outside. The two siblings were in a complete stupor.
‘I should really be thankful for having the body of a Connector.’
Tim was a stocky man that was over 190cm tall. Emily was taller than the average woman, over 170cm tall. Sungyoon was supporting both of them, yet he wasn’t having a hard time. Drunk people usually became touchy, so that was annoying. However, the two of them were capable of walking if Sungyoon supported them.
Sungyoon exited the store and moved towards where the Ross siblings resided. He already knew the location of their lodging. Fortunately, the place wasn’t that far from the store.
He arrived in front of a building after walking for around 30 minutes. The three-story building was made out of concrete, and it was indistinct. It was accommodations provided by their company. It wasn’t some fancy house, but it was much better than living in the ‘Chicken Coop’.
First, Sungyoon tried to wake up Emily.
“Ms. Emily. We’ve arrived at your lodging. Ms. Emily.”
He was supporting Tim with one hand, so he had to shake the hand supporting her. Emily’s body shook this way and that. Her face was slack, and her hair covered her face. It made her look like some crazy cat lady. However, the shaking was effective. Emily groaned as she raised her head.
“Mmm!”
She barely regained consciousness, but she wasn’t of sound mind yet.
She turned to look at Sungyoon, who was propping her up.
“Ah~! Sungyoon~ Bah~!”
She spoke much slower, and she was tripping over her words. She was the ideal image of a drunk person.
She raised both hands and encircled her arms around Sungyoon’s neck. In the next moment, she clung to him like a baby monkey hugging its mother.
Tuhk!
However, she couldn’t put any strength into her arms and legs, so she almost fell to the floor. Sungyoon halted her fall by grabbing her waist. She was tall for a woman, but Sungyoon was also over 180cm tall. There was enough of a height difference and an angle that allowed her to hang from Sungyoon’s neck.
Emily possessed a dazzling beauty. There was a sweet-smelling fragrance that tickled his nose, and her ample breasts were pressed against his body. Any man would find their heart beating faster in such a situation.
However, Sungyoon just frowned as he let out a sigh. She was only an annoying drunkard to him right now.
“Look~ Here~! I~~really regret it~!”
The arms around Sungyoon’s neck tightened, and she moved her face closer to his face. She had pale skin and large brown eyes. She was exhaling breath that was mixed with the smell of alcohol. She was oozing sex appeal. It was enough to make anyone blush. However, Sungyoon looked annoyed, and he raised his head to avoid her face.
“Continue~! With Mr. Sungyoon! I want to~ Party with you~!”
“I see. It really is too bad.”
“That’s~ Right! It reeeeeeeeeeeeallllllllly is too~ Bad!”
“Yes, yes. I understand. Ok.”
Sungyoon gave soulless answers. He gave up on trying to make Emily come to her senses.
She kept mumbling as she tried to entangle herself with Sungyoon. He did his best to fend her off, and this time Sungyoon shook the brother.
“….”
He didn’t wake up at all. He was already on a trip to the dream world, and he had set up real estate there. Tim was fully asleep. In fact, it was faint, but Sungyoon could hear him snore.
One sibling was clinging to him, and the other wasn’t waking up. Sungyoon had no choice. He moved the two of them towards the front door of the building.
Ding dong!
He was barely able to use his thumb to press the doorbell, since he was holding the two siblings in each hand. It didn’t take long for the interphone to let out static, and Sungyoon heard someone’s voice.
[Who is it?]
“Hello. My name is Woo Sungyoon. I’m party members with Mr. Tim Ross and Ms. Emily Ross. They are both drunk, so I’ve escorted them here.”
[Wait a moment.]
It seemed the man had seen Tim and Emily’s wrecked state through the interphone’s camera. He didn’t ask any other questions and hung up the interphone.
After a brief moment...
Squeak!
The door opened, and a man stepped out. It was a young-looking man with a large beard. He was a Connector, and one much older than he looked. His eyes headed toward Sungyoon and then at the two hanging onto him. Emily was rubbing her face against Sungyoon, and Tim was snoring. The man frowned.
“Would you look at these….”
He looked at Sungyoon.
“Did you say you are Woo Sungyoon? You are a member of their party?”
“That's right.”
The man yelled loudly into the building. After a brief moment, two people exited the building. It was a young man and a young woman. Their faces hardened a little bit when they saw what kind of state Tim and Emily were in. The two of them took instructions from the bearded man, and they moved to take Tim and Emily.
Tim was sleeping, so he didn’t present much of a problem. But Emily was semi-conscious, and she wasn’t letting go of Sungyoon’s neck. Everyone looked surprised by this. However, Sungyoon was too busy trying to detach Emily’s hands from his body to notice. She was a woman, but she was also a Connector. She had a vice-like grip, and Sungyoon needed to use a considerable amount of strength to peel off her arms.
She continued to flail her arms towards Sungyoon as she was being dragged into the building. Sungyoon massaged his neck, which had turned red. It felt as if he had been attacked by a wild animal.
“They caused you a lot of trouble. Thank you very much.”
The man thanked Sungyoon.
“It’s fine. I’ll take my leave.”
Since he had walked the two siblings home, his work here was done. He no longer had any reason to stay here. Sungyoon gave his farewell, and he left.
As Sungyoon moved farther away, the man kept his searching eyes on his back.
‘So, he is the man named Woo Sungyoon.’
He was Tim and Emily’s party member and was quite famous within their company. Tim and Emily were bright future prospects, and they had continued to praise Sungyoon nonstop.
However, Sungyoon didn’t enjoy high public sentiment in their company. Tim spoke about all the reasons why he admired Sungyoon, but he was only met with ridicule. In the first place, most Connectors didn’t think too highly about the idea of raiding the Great Labyrinth. That was the prevailing opinion in their company. When they heard about Sungyoon, he sounded like a dummy that didn’t know how the world worked. Moreover, he was only a 1st Gen Connector. He was barking up a tree that he couldn’t climb. This was why everyone thought Sungyoon was a blowhard.
However, Tim didn’t allow others to mock Sungyoon. He almost got into several fights with other members of his company. Thankfully, surrounding people stopped the fight, so nothing big came out of it.
No one talked to Tim about that topic afterward. It also meant opinions about Tim within the company tanked, and Sungyoon’s reputation tanked further.
Moreover, Emily was showing signs of being romantically interested in Sungyoon. It was another reason why the man's image suffered greatly.
Emily possessed extraordinary beauty. Many men within the company liked her. Connectors were polygamists, and they maintained their youthful appearance as they aged. This was why many Connectors had much younger spouses. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say most of the Connectors within their company were aiming for Emily. However, some weirdo had shown up from nowhere, and he had stolen Emily’s heart. Not to mention, he was only a 1st Gen Connector.
For many reasons, many in the company didn’t look kindly on Sungyoon.
Everyone had a nickname for Sungyoon. The Connectors called him idiot, blowhard, scammer, etc.
Of course, the man looking at Sungyoon’s back didn’t have friendly eyes either.
‘Still, this is the end to their association.’
Sungyoon was a mere 1st Gen, while Tim and Emily were 3rd Gen. They would live a different life from this point on. They were living in different worlds. They had said that they would try to meet occasionally to practice teamwork for the Great Labyrinth raid. That was easier said than done. He would come up with likely excuses to split them apart.
If Sungyoon used their personal relationship to ride the coattails of the Ross siblings...
‘I'll take care of him somehow.’
Murderous intent flickered in his eyes as he stared at the distant back of Sungyoon.
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