Moon's Labyrinths

The feeling of tension had felt as if he were being pulled by a taut rope . So, when that rope was cut, he felt exhaustion wash over him . Sungyoon suspended the Gems . All the Gems that he had overclocked immediately turned gray . For a fixed amount of time, his Gems would lose their light . However, he was planning on heading back to Earth, so it wouldn’t cause him any trouble .

However, his problem came in another form .

Pah-jeek!

He couldn’t hear the sound . However, he could feel an unpleasant sensation coming from the Device on his wrist, run up his arm .

Toohk!

The Gold Gem fell to the surface of the Moon and became half-buried in the dust . Sungyoon picked it up and shoved it into his pocket . He had to check the damaged slot on his Device and also the new Device he had just acquired . He had a lot to do, but he decided to just sit on the surface of the Moon .

In the battle, he had been extremely worked-up, so he had been oblivious to it all . But after he exited the labyrinth, he finally processed the crisis he had just experienced . Cold sweat ran down his back . He quickly put his hand into his pocket and took out his treasure . Sungyoon absentmindedly stared at Shinhae’s picture for a long time . He continued to stroke it with his hand .

How long did he stay like that? When he felt his heart calm down enough, he put Shinhae’s picture back into his pocket . Humans got used to everything . Humans were capable of getting used to the fear of death . Sungyoon felt himself recover faster than the first time when he had almost died .

He looked at the slot where he had equipped the Gold Gem . As expected, the slot had been burnt black .

‘Shit!’

His eyes turned grim . The damaged slot was a Purple rank slot . Although it was a waste, it was only a Purple rank slot . It shouldn’t have made him frown like this, but the destruction of the slot disadvantaged him in some other way .

‘I don’t have a Device where I can equip my Gold Gem . ’

In the past, he had used the Gold Gem to survive in the sealed section . Afterward, the man had relied on the Gold Gem in various ways . Even if he encountered a danger that he couldn’t handle, he always knew he had the power of the Gold Gem in his back pocket . It gave him the power to overcome what he once thought was an insurmountable situation .

However, this amazing Gem would be useless to him if he couldn’t use it . He no longer had a hexagonal-shaped slot he could use . His Devices no longer had the ability to slot in a special ability Gem .

‘Will I find one here?’

He took out the Device that he had acquired after killing the Bigfoot . This one was also shaped like a bracelet . It seemed the bracelet type Devices were quite common, but he wasn’t interested in the outer appearance of the Device . He needed a slot that was capable of slotting a special ability Gem .

The expression on Sungyoon’s face subtly changed .

There were three slots . The number was a bit low, but in return, the ranks of the slots were higher . There were a whopping two Green rank slots and one Yellow rank slot .

One of the Green rank slots was for a weapon Gem . It was wedge-shaped . The other slot was shaped like a star, and it was capable of slotting a physical ability Gem .

However, the Yellow rank slot was a bit different . It was shaped like a circle . But a circle-shaped Gem did not exist .

‘Universal slot . ’

It was a slot capable of accepting all Gem shapes .

He no longer had the hexagonal slot capable of equipping special ability Gem, but he had found a Device with a Universal Slot . Fortunately, he had found a Device capable of accepting the Gold Gem .

However, Sungyoon felt conflicted . It was to be expected . It was a Yellow rank slot, the highest rank slot he possessed . But even then, it was still part of the Rainbow Rank, so if he equipped and forcefully activated the Gold Gem, this Yellow rank slot would be destroyed . This fact still remained true . If he put the Gold Gem in this slot for emergency use, he might burn out his highest-ranked slot .

If he didn’t have a Yellow rank Gem, he wouldn’t have struggled over this decision . However, he did possess a Yellow rank Gem .

‘First, I have to check what ability it possesses . ’

He had never activated it before, so he had no idea what special ability the Yellow rank Gem had . Sungyoon brought out the Yellow Gem from his pocket and placed it into the Yellow slot .

Pieces of metal started to push out from within the circle, locking up the hexagonal shaped Yellow Gem . As he felt a bit amazed by the sight, Sungyoon activated the Gem . Since it was his first time activating it, it took a bit of time . In the end, the Gem soaked in the connector’s magical energy, and Sungyoon gained the information about the Gem’s ability .

He became surprised . It was the same case with the Gold Gem . The special ability Gems were really unique in what ability they possessed . They were aptly named . Sungyoon tried to organize the information that had appeared inside his head .

This Yellow Gem ranked up the lower-ranked Gems equipped on the Device . If activated, it would steal some of the monster’s magical energy when they were killed . The small amount of stolen magical energy would be used to evolve the Gems .

It really was a good Gem . A Connector’s strength depended on the ability of the Gems they possessed . It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that by increasing the power of the other Gems, this Yellow Gem increased the power of a Connector .

‘Of course, this is only true if I have a Device capable of equipping the evolved Gems . ’

At the very least, he had two more slots for Green rank Gems . He planned to evolve two Gems to Green rank and use it . They would become great assets to him .

When his thoughts reached this point, his head started to hurt again . If the Yellow Gem was crappy, he would have risked the loss by slotting the Gold Gem in the Yellow slot . However, the Yellow rank Gem had displayed too good of an ability .

‘... let’s head back for now . ’

It was time for him to return to Earth . He had a lot of time to mull over this problem . Sungyoon placed the moonstone dropped by the Bigfoot into the storage compartment . He got into the driver’s seat and started the vehicle .

* * *

Sungyoon was sitting inside the Aldrin spaceport . He had delivered all his moonstones to the professional transport company . Hence, he didn’t have much luggage, and only the little he brought up to the Moon was all he was taking back .

Since he was going to meet Shinhae, he had washed his body . His body gave off a faint smell of soap . He had also worn the clothes he only wore when he went back down to Earth . He had never worn it on the Moon . These were new clothes .

As Sungyoon waited for the spaceship, he took out Shinhae’s picture . He passed the time looking at the picture . He had seen this picture so often that it was starting to turn ragged . It happened when he inwardly thought about getting a new picture .

“Oh my?”

Someone stopped next to Sungyoon . She had a sweet voice that made one feel good just from listening to it . Normally, a person would become curious, and one would look up to see the owner of the voice . However, Sungyoon’s eyes remained rooted on his daughter’s picture . Instead, all the people nearby stared at her .

“Mr . Sungyoon!”

Her luggage came to a stop, and she called out Sungyoon’s name .

Sungyoon was trying to focus on the picture, yet someone was interfering with this task . Sungyoon didn’t care who it was . He raised his head with a sour expression on his face .

In the beginning . Sungyoon didn’t recognize her .

She had clean and groomed blonde hair . Her gorgeous hair was full of vitality as it flowed down to the small of her back . Her exquisite face was perfectly balanced, enough to arouse admiration from others . She had worn skinny jeans that looked painted on her . She wore a shirt with the American flag printed on it, and it couldn’t hide her ample bosom . Her glamorous body was on full display .

“What a coincidence . You are heading down right now?”

Sungyoon blinked his eyes . She knew his name, and she was acting friendly towards him . It seemed this woman knew him, but Sungyoon had never seen her before .

“Who are you?”

He didn’t feel the need to beat around the bushes . Sungyoon openly asked for her name .

It might be considered rude if a person failed to remember you . Of course, there was no way the person being forgotten would feel good about it . However, a smile appeared on the woman’s lips for some reason . She looked like a child who had pulled off a successful prank .

“It’s me! It’s Chelsea Strobe!”

Sungyoon looked Chelsea over once again .

She looked completely different from her normal self . She no longer wore her large glasses and dirty lab coat, and her hair was on longer disheveled . She had decked herself out like other normal women, and she had swapped out her glasses for contact lens . She had gone from being frumpy to stunning . She had only put in a little work, yet she had been reborn as a high-level beauty .

Chelsea’s heart pounded a little bit as she stared at Sungyoon .

‘What kind of reaction will he show?’

The gap between her appearance as a researcher and how she normally dressed was huge . She knew that . It was a small pleasure for her to show her normal self to people who only knew her as a researcher .

“You are Ms . Chelsea?”

“That’s right . ”

“Are you heading down to Earth?”

“Yes!”

“I see . Please have a safe trip . ”

‘Huh?’

A small crack appeared on Chelsea’s bright smile .

‘Huh?’

This wasn’t it . This wasn’t the reaction she had wanted to see . It seemed Sungyoon didn’t care what she wanted, as he, once again, started looking at Shinhae’s picture .

She hadn’t expected him to react like some redface virgin, who would keep stealing glances at her . She didn’t expect a compliment, either . However, she wanted to see him look surprised . For a brief moment, she wanted his grave face to be swept up by shock .

However, Sungyoon was beyond cool . He wasn’t even showing much interest in her . If she stood in front of a guy like this, normally, he would ask her ’what’s up’ . It didn’t matter if she was an acquaintance or not . Shouldn’t he pay attention to the person standing in front of him? She didn’t know how Sungyoon was wired, but he kept looking at his daughter’s picture .

Sssk!

There was a change in Sungyoon’s gesture . Chelsea’s eyes shone . She waited in anticipation . Finally, he was going to say something to her .

However, Sungyoon just took out another picture of Shinhae, and he just started looking at this other picture once again .

“...”

The light in Chelsea’s eyes died . She looked baffled as she looked down at Sungyoon . In the end, she let out a big sigh .

‘I’m the idiot for expecting something from this guy . ’

Tuhl-suhk!

She sank down next to Sungyoon and pushed her head forward . It was almost as if she was placing her chin on his shoulder .

“Show it to me . ”

Sungyoon frowned at her abrupt gesture .

If she had put her face near some other man, his face would have turned red . He wouldn’t have frowned like Sungyoon . Chelsea pouted .

She didn’t acknowledge Sungyon’s discontentment . She just pushed her head closer to him . She knew one sure-fire method that would quell his discontentment at once .

“As expected, Shinhae is cute . ”

“Isn’t she?”

The frown on Sungyoon’s face was nowhere to be seen, and a stupid smile appeared on his lips . This time Sungyoon moved his face closer to Chelsea .

“This is a picture I took when Shinhae was four years old . She is still cute, but she was very cute at that age . . . ”

Sungyoon started to brag about Shinhae .

‘He really is enjoying himself . ’

He kept talking as his eyes remained on Shinhae’s picture . His bragging about Shinhae went in one ear and out the other . Chelsea just looked at Sungyoon’s face .

He was quite handsome . Moreover, he wasn’t acting like his normally gloomy self . He had also done his best to dress up for Shinhae, so his looks were highlighted .

However, Chelsea wasn’t looking at his appearance . Her eyes remained rooted on his expression . He looked like an excited young boy when talking about his daughter .

‘He really is an unusual human being . ’

In terms of rarity, he was probably like an endangered species .

In the end, Chelsea gave up on thinking about complicated thoughts .

“Shinhae must have really liked her father at that age . ”

“Of course! You wouldn’t believe what happened in the past . . . ”

She propped her chin on her two hands and continued to listen to the man loquaciously brag about his daughter .