The Legendary Newbie of the Ghost Story Labyrinth - Chaper 52

WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

The Legendary Newbie of the Ghost Story Labyrinth

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 52 - Abandoned Mine Shaft (1)

Park Minho hesitated.

'Should we just move on? No, does it make sense to ignore something this abnormal, though? Who knows what might happen later, right?’

In the end, they needed to understand what was going on before deciding whether to continue deeper or retreat back to the city. If they ignored it and pressed forward, they might end up running headfirst into disaster.

“Ivan, we need to figure out what’s happening here. We can't just blindly walk past this. We won't take any unnecessary risks, though. If it looks dangerous, we’ll head back to the city.”

"Understood.”

Ivan said he would follow as quietly as possible.

“The Miner entities aren’t normally aggressive, but when that many gather together, there’s no telling what could happen. Besides, they aren’t exactly weak.”

In fact, more than a few explorers had died after foolishly picking fights with the Miner entities.

Newly awakened explorers would sometimes decide to test their abilities on what looked like harmless Miner entities only for the creatures to suddenly turn violent and smash their skulls open with their pickaxes.

"Let’s move.”

Once the last Miner entity in the procession disappeared into the distance, Ivan began moving.

The pursuit continued for more than half a day. After passing through several branching tunnels, they eventually reached an area unfamiliar even to Ivan, despite his extensive experience on Floor 8.

"Interesting. I smell sulfur.”

Ivan furrowed his brows slightly. His expression suggested he had no idea why sulfur would be present here.

In any case, it seems we’re heading deeper and deeper underground.”

Eventually, they arrived at the very end of the tunnel. A massive stone wall blocked the way forward. And there, the group witnessed something astonishing.

"Wh-what?”

Nicola’s eyes widened in shock. The Miner entities were passing directly through the solid rock wall as though they were walking into water.

While everyone else stood there in confusion, Ivan nodded as if he finally understood.

“It must be an Entity Rift.”

"An Entity Rift?”

"Yes. A passage that only entities can travel through. They’re said to be extremely rare. This is my first time seeing one in person.”

The group approached the wall and examined it. His hands felt nothing but solid stone. Ivan continued explaining what he knew.

"Occasionally, there are individuals who somehow skip between levels even when no shortcut should exist to those places. There’s a theory that they used Entity Rifts.”

"But you said only entities can pass through then.”

Ivan nodded at Park Minho’s question.

“That’s right. Perhaps they’ve discovered some method. Or perhaps they transformed themselves into entities… Anyway, going any farther seems impossible. We have absolutely no way to get through the wall…”

"No.”

Park Minho shook his head and stepped forward. Seol Suyeon immediately grabbed his wrist.

"Oppa, surely you aren’t thinking of…”

"Let me just give it a try.”

"No, but…”

"We didn’t come all this way just to turn around. Besides, I’ll have to do this eventually on Floor 15. Might as well get some practice in before then.”

His most important goal right now was the Error Junkyard on Floor 15. That place had no entrance, a completely sealed world, so it could only be breached through Reality Manipulation or Reality Collapse.

"Mister, what exactly are you trying to do…?”

Nicola looked completely bewildered. Meanwhile, Ivan silently stepped back, as though he had been briefed about this beforehand.

Park Minho reached toward his shadow. At once, the King’s Noose hanging within it wrapped itself around his neck.

"Kgh...!"

His body immediately staggered. In that instant, Park Minho realized he would never truly grow accustomed to this pain. The only reason he could endure it at all was thanks to his anomalous trait, Adrenaline Pump.

"Urgggh...!"

With his face turning bright red, Park Minho stretched a hand toward the wall. Then, using his Reality Manipulation ability, he erased the Entity Rift.

-Crack!

Something sounded as though it were splitting apart. The rock wall didn’t shatter nor break, but completely vanished as though it had never been there in the first place.

"Uugh...!”

Quickly removing the noose, Park Minho dropped to one knee and gasped for breath. In mere moments, his complexion had become as pale as a corpse.

'I won’t be using that again anytime soon.'

The power was simply too great for a mere human to bear. If he used it again before fully recovering, his mind would undoubtedly collapse.

"Are you okay?”

Seol Suyeon hurried over and helped support him. Looking worried, she got some barley tea from the Manager’s Tumbler and handed it to him.

-Gulp, gulp.

After a few gulps, his racing heart finally began to settle.

“Incredible…”

Ivan murmured in awe. He had already known that Park Minho was something special despite not being an Awakened. But he hadn’t expected this.

Nicola, who was standing beside him, had his jaw hanging open.

However, everyone’s attention was soon stolen by the scene that had appeared beyond the vanished Entity Rift.

“This isn’t the abandoned mine…?”

Nicola was right. Beyond the opening was a concrete corridor. White fluorescent lights flickered overhead. It was a completely unknown section of Floor 9. An area that had never been documented before.

"Do we enter?”

At Ivan’s inquiry, Park Minho nodded and got back to his feet. The strain was considerable, but because he had only activated the noose for the briefest possible moment, he was still able to continue.

As they stepped inside, they found various pieces of equipment used by the Miner entities scattered about. The place had a strange atmosphere. It felt less like part of a mine and more like a massive backstage waiting room hidden behind a theater production.

Soon, the group arrived at a vast chamber, and the sight waiting for them left everyone speechless.

"......!"

Countless Miner entities stood inside, lined up in perfect order. They were completely motionless, their heads hung low, like machines that had been switched off.

"What in the world is this?”

No one could immediately answer Nicola’s question. Then Ivan seemed to realize something, his face turning grave.

"The Miner entities perform an extremely important task.”

Understanding the meaning behind the look Park Minho gave him, Ivan continued.

“The Miner entities are responsible for mining anomalous crystals that continuously grow throughout Floor 8. It is thanks to them that the anomalies within Floor 90 are kept at a consistent and stable level.”

"They’re more important than I expected.”

Nodding, Ivan’s expression darkened further as his gaze swept across the area.

“But what do you think happens if all those miners enter a dormant state like this?”

* * *

At the same time.

In a hidden location unreachable from the normal tunnels of Floor 8, a place covered in grotesque, viscous slime.

Priests of the Molting Church, draped in ash-gray robes, gathered around an enormous mass of flesh.

The thing resembled a gigantic brain, half embedded within the surrounding rock. It was a kind of anomalous biological system, responsible for controlling the miners of Floor 8.

The members of the Molting Church were interfering with that system by driving dozens of massive wedges made of rusted iron into its flesh.

-Throb, throb.

The flesh mass quivered as though in agony, its entire body riddled with enormous spikes. The cultists didn’t really pay it any mind, though.

"How far has the procession progressed?”

The High Priest, whose face had grotesquely melted away on one side, spoke in a voice thick with phlegm. A nearby priest immediately bowed respectfully and answered.

"More than 80% have already moved to the waiting chamber and entered dormancy.”

"Excellent.”

Now all they had to do was wait. The anomalous energy of Floor 8 would spiral completely out of control, and everything would descend into chaos.

If something happened to Floor 8, the place that would suffer the greatest damage was the TBU fortress city located on Floor 7.

Floor 8 was not merely an abandoned mine. It was the primary route through which countless goods gathered from higher levels and resources that entered from reality through Floor 11 passed before reaching the fortress city.

If Floor 8 became compromised, the fortress city would face a catastrophic crisis.

The High Priest was confident.

"Just 2 weeks. If the flow of supplies is cut off for only 2 weeks, that city of heretics will begin rotting from inside out.”

And that wasn’t all. Floors 7 and 8 were directly connected. If the anomalous energy of Floor 8 grew beyond control, it could spill backward into Floor 7.

To prevent that, the entrance leading into the abandoned mines of Floor 8 would have to be sealed. But for the fortress city, doing so would be little different from suicide.

The High Priest had absolute faith in the success of this grand scheme.

“When the city falls and fear spreads through its streets, we shall harvest those weak souls to our heart’s content! And then we move toward our ultimate goal! Do you understand?”

"We understand—!”

The cultists answered as one, which left the High Priest nodding in satisfaction.

Then he turned toward a young man standing at his side.

"I have high expectations for you.”

"I will do my utmost, High Priest.”

The young man replied politely. He was extraordinarily beautiful. Had one not heard his voice, it would have been difficult to determine his gender at a glance.

Several years earlier, he had joined the Molting Church and served as a spy within the fortress city.

But after performing a decisive service for the cult, he had now returned fully to their fold.

The High Priest’s trust in him was immense. He was aware that many within the cult envied the young man’s rapid rise through the ranks, yet he paid no mind to that.

If anything, he treated the man almost as though he were his chosen successor.

"Do not forget our true purpose."

“Of course. I will devote myself to it with every ounce of my very being.”

* * *

First, Park Minho pulled out his scanner and pointed it at one of the sleeping Miner entities.

-Beep.

[Miner / Entity / Dormant]

As expected, they really were inactive. At this rate, the workforce responsible for continuously removing the anomalous crystals growing throughout Floor 8 had effectively disappeared.

It didn’t take much imagination to predict what kind of disaster that would lead to.

Just then, an alarm blared.

[Unauthorized Entity Detected—!]

A siren immediately followed, then something black appeared.

“Ugh! What the hell is that?!”

Nicola recoiled in horror. The creature resembled a gigantic spider.

It looked as though a car-sized spider had been grotesquely twisted and warped by anomalous energy.

Looking closer only made it worse. What seemed like spider legs were actually multiple human arms fused together. And the spider’s body resembled a giant human head. The creatures were horrifying beyond words. Three of them rushed forward with terrifying speed.

“Black-class! We need to retreat!”

Ivan immediately shouted. Black indicated a powerful entity saturated with anomalous energy. And there were three of them.

There was no reason to hesitate. The group turned and ran. They sprinted toward the entrance as fast as they could. By the time they reached the corridor, however, the creatures had already closed much of the distance.

“I’ll hold them off. You guys go!”

Ivan drew his blade and shouted. But Nicola moved first. He yanked something from his phase compression backpack and threw it.

The object was a folded mechanical device. After hitting the ground, it bounced once and automatically unfolded. Then it generated a shimmering energy field.

-Bzzzzzt—!

It looked remarkably similar to the barrier used by Team Leader Kim Sungjin of TBU.

-Boooom! Crash!

The spider entities slammed into the shield and were temporarily halted. Using that opportunity, Nicola began to frantically scatter junk mines across the floor.

They were improvised explosives created by combining all sorts of anomalous objects.

"Run! Now!”

As they fled, a tremendous impact echoed behind them.

-Craaash! Shatter!

Nicola’s energy field had finally broken apart. A few seconds later, every junk mine detonated at once.

-BOOOOOM—!!

Feeling the heat wave rushing toward them from behind, Park Minho grit his teeth and asked,

"Did we get them?”

Panting heavily, Nicola shook his head.

"They’re Black-class entities! No way they’re dead from just that! But…huff! Huff! We should’ve bought some time!”

Because Nicola’s junk mines were made from discarded anomalous objects, each one produced a different effect.

Coagulating tar that restricted movement. Sensory-overload bombs that scrambled a target’s sense of direction. Noise grenades that generated unbearable ringing in the ears. And countless other random effects.

Thanks to those distractions, the group successfully escaped through the destroyed Entity Rift and made it back into the abandoned mine area.

“So where do we go now?”

At Nicola’s question, both Ivan and Seol Suyeon turned toward Park Minho.

"Back to the city. We need to report what’s happening. This isn’t something we can handle on our own.”

But the spider entities clearly had no intention of letting them leave so easily.

_Screeeeeeech—!

The shriek sounded as if it was filled to the brim with fury.

"Hurry!"

Park Minho urged everyone forward, then Seol Suyeon suddenly grabbed them.

"Wait!”

"What?"

"There’s something else up ahead! It’s bright red.”