Moon’s Labyrinths (Web Novel)

Of course, Miyun didn't plan on making her move right now.

“Don’t talk bad about Dad!”

Shinhae yelled out once again and stepped out from behind Jimin.

Miyun let out a sigh. She spoke in an open manner as if she wanted everyone to see what she was dealing with.

“When I take her back, I’ll have to teach her some manners again.”

Shinhae flinched in surprise and once again clung to Jimin’s leg.

“I... I don’t want to go….”

The little girl looked up at Jimin. She looked like a puppy burrowing into the arms of its owner when faced with a large predator.

Jimin was furious. Although she had expected Shinhae to be afraid of Miyun, she never imagined the fear would be this much. Jimin could guess how Miyun had treated Shinhae in the past. She gently took Shinhae into her arms, and Shinhae burrowed her face into her chest.

“It seems you keep underestimating us. We have no intention of handing Shinhae over to you.”

“Is that so?”

A big smile appeared on Miyun’s lips.

“Well, it can’t be helped. It has been a while since I’ve met my daughter. I can’t fight in front of her. It would be unsightly. I am doing this because I love this child.”

Saying those words, Miyun turned around with a clean movement. She acted as advertised.

Other than her birth mother, Jimin had never wanted to slap someone more than Miyun.

“Ah! I almost forgot!”

Miyun suddenly turned her head to look over her shoulder.

“Please send my ‘love’ to my husband. I’ll be calling him at a later date. I want to talk to him about Shinhae.”

‘As expected, she is planning something.’

Jimin could guess this plan had something to do with money or Lee Jaeho. No, it might be both.

“Wait a moment.”

Miyun was about to leave when Jimin stopped her.

“What is it?”

“Mr. Sungyoon isn’t like his past self. You won’t be able to use him and dump him so easily now. It seems an impression of a person doesn’t change easily.”

Miyun was confident in making her move against Sungyoon because she thought he hadn't changed that much.

“I’ll give you one warning. Mr. Sungyoon isn’t someone that’ll be easily manipulated by you like before. It is all thanks to you.”

It had nothing to do with his wealth, power, or fame. Sungyoon’s personality had changed at a fundamental level. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the past Sungyoon had died, and Miyun was the one who had killed him. Shinhae was Sungyoon's everything now, and Jimin wondered if Miyun knew how dangerous it was to mess with Shinhae now.

In the past, Sungyoon had been willing to sacrifice everything for Shinhae. The current Sungyoon would be willing to destroy everything for her sake.

“Thank you for your warning.”

Miyun laughed as if she found Jimin’s words ridiculous.

“However, I know my ex-husband very well. We were married once. Yes. I know him very well.”

Miyun still wasn’t getting what Jimin was saying. However, Jimin didn’t care as she had already expected this.

“I warned you. Now please scram.”

“I’ll do so. I’ll see you ‘next’ time.”

Miyun finally left.

When she couldn't hear Miyun’s voice any longer, Shinhae hesitantly looked up.

“… She’s gone?”

“Yes, she is gone.”

Shinhae acted like the main character of a horror movie. She kept trembling while looking at her surroundings as if she were worried a ghost might suddenly show up.

After hearing Jimin's confirmation, Shinhae finally let out a sigh of relief. However, she didn't let go of Jimin, and Jimin didn’t put her down either.

“Unni. Do I have to live with that person again?”

“No, you don’t. You will live with your dad.”

Shinhae let out a bright smile. However, her complexion was pale, and she was still a bit shaken and worried.

“It’s fine. Everything will be fine. Shinhae’s dad is an amazing person. There is no way he’ll send you to that woman.”

“Yes! Dad said he can win against ten lions! Dad is an amazing person!”

Fortunately, Shinhae had regained her strength. Jimin smiled as she talked to Shinhae. Even as she was having the conversation, Jimin thought about what she had to do in the future.

‘I should contact Mr. Sungyoon just in case. Also, I should increase the security around Shinhae.

Jimin’s eyes turned fierce.

‘Yes. Bring it on, Mr. Sungyoon’s ex-wife.’

Jimin ground her teeth, and her will to fight burned fiercely.

***

Sungyoon had come up to the Moon, but he was hunting by himself.

The Ross siblings would be joining him a month later. Grace was helping the recovery efforts of London, and she would be arriving on the same day as the Ross siblings.

Suh-guhk!

Sungyoon cut down the monster coming at him.

Ggyahhhhhhhh!

The Mad Dog screamed when its leg was severed, and soon, its body started to emanate smoke.

This monster was a low-rank monster with no resistance to magical energy. The lightning of the sword was anathema to the Mad Dog.

Sungyoon showed no interest in the Mad Dog’s corpse as he could instantly kill the monster by severing its leg. He swung his sword a couple more times in the air as he fell deep into his thoughts.

‘What was it?’

He tried to remember the sensation he felt when he had cut down the Super Golem with a single strike. It was a sensation only felt by high rank 1st Gen Connectors. Sungyoon still couldn’t pin down the source of that sensation.

“Sunbae-nim!”

At that moment, a man ran toward Sungyoon. The man had a short buzz cut and an innocent appearance.

He was equipped with a crude sword, shield, and armor. At a glance, anybody could tell he was a beginner Connector.

This man was a new Connector who had entered Jungbum. He had become Sungyoon’s junior colleague.

His name was Kim Sukhwahn. Sungyoon was overseeing Sukhwahn’s hunt for the next couple of days at Jimin’s request.

“Here.”

Sukhwahn gave two moonstones to Sungyoon. These moonstones were incredibly small compared to the moonstones gathered from the Great Labyrinth, but they meant the world to Connectors who were just starting out, like Sukhwahn.

“Good job. You reacted very well this time.”

Two Mad Dogs and a Slash Cat had attacked them at the same time. Sungyoon had taken care of the Mad Dog and left the Slash Cats to Sukhwahn.

Under the tutelage of Sungyoon, Sukhwahn's skill had risen. He could easily kill two monsters now.

“You can drop the honorific. I’m younger than you.”

Sukhwahn was a very diligent worker. Moreover, he had entered Jungbum because he admired Sungyoon. He was very friendly toward Sungyoon.

“I'll think about it. Let’s end it here today.”

Sungyoon looked at his watch. It was about time to return. He gathered the moonstone of the Mad Dog that he had just killed, and put away all three moonstones into his storage Gem. Then he climbed up the labyrinth with Sukhwahn.

The two of them were hunting within the Beginner’s Labyrinth, but this Beginner’s Labyrinth wasn't the one that Sungyoon was familiar with.

The Beginner’s Labyrinth within Armstrong city had been sealed, and a new one had been created just outside the city.

It was less accessible than the previous labyrinth, and one had to use the Moon Surface Vehicle to reach this place. So, this new location wasn’t very popular right now.

“It seems you're in a better mood now.”

While they were climbing the labyrinth, Sukhwahn spoke to Sungyoon.

“You looked like you were in a very bad mood until not too long ago.”

“I had received some not too good news.”

When Sungyoon had heard that Miyun had tried to approach Shinhae, he had been livid with anger.

That damn woman was once again trying to act on her greed. She was planning to use his treasure, Shinhae, against him. Thankfully, Jimin had been by Shinhae’s side, and Miyun was forced to walk away without making much of a fuss. Sungyoon had been barely able to calm himself down.

Still, he knew that Miyun would approach Shinhae once again in the future. It was only a matter of time.

If he was being honest, Sungyoon was willing to kill Miyun. Of course, this was the absolute worst-case scenario.

For now, he delegated all the matters about Miyun to Jimin.

Of course, he didn’t feel good about it.

And even after a few days had passed, his mood was still sour.

“Don’t worry about it. I feel better now.”

Sungyoon couldn’t continue to be angry. He pushed down the anger so that he could return to living his own life.

When the duo exited the Beginner’s Labyrinth, they saw a large crowd at the entrance. It wasn’t out of the ordinary.

The Beginner’s Labyrinth always had heavy traffic. In fact, there were clearly fewer Connectors here compared to the crowd that appeared in the old Beginner’s Labyrinth.

One of the reasons behind that was the new Lunar city. A lot of Connectors had gone to volunteer for work on constructing the city.

It meant they would be banned from entering Armstrong. But they still did that as any Connector who helped in the construction of the new city would get very small rights to the city. A lot of beginner Connectors and the 1st Gen Connectors, who usually hunted in the Beginner’s Labyrinth, were successfully lured away by this promise.

This was especially true of the Chinese and Russian Connectors. Almost all of them were helping build the second city.

Sungyoon drove the company’s Moon Surface Vehicle as both of them returned to Armstrong city.

When he arrived at his lodging, Sungyoon received a message. The higher-ups of Armstrong wanted to speak to him.

Sungyoon went to the first district. After walking past the spaceport, several consulates, and the research facility, he reached a certain building.

This building was quite larger than most of the buildings in Armstrong. It was the city hall where Armstrong was governed. This was the first time Sungyoon had visited this place.

A clerk guided Sungyoon to a room on the third floor. The sitting room was decorated in quite a fancy manner, and Sungyoon had to wait for a short amount of time before a man entered the room.

“I’m sorry for making you wait.”

With an apology, this man extended his hand toward Sungyoon.

“It's an honor to meet the famous Knight of London. My name is Michael Smith. I'm the mayor of this city.”

Smith was the highest rank official amongst the higher-ups of Armstrong. He possessed the title of mayor, but he was the mayor of the only city on the Moon. The power he possessed here was drastically different compared to the mayors on Earth.

“I am Sungyoon Woo. It's nice to meet you.”

Sungyoon shook Smith’s hand.

The two of them looked at each other.

“I heard you had some business with me. What is it?”

“I would like to discuss something very important with you, Mr. Woo.”

Smith spoke with a very serious expression on his face.

“First, I want to say thank you. I heard you turned down the offer from the other city.”

It seemed that information had already leaked. Sungyoon replied.

“I have business with the Great Labyrinth of this city.”

“It really is a blessing. If Mr. Woo had gone over to that city, it would've caused a big headache for us.”

Smith shook his head from side to side. As the mayor of Armstrong, he used to have complete control over the Connectors. This moment of weakness was unlike him.

‘It means he views the birth of a rival city as a big threat.’

“You probably know this, but the construction of the new city lit a fire under our feet. It doesn’t help that the other city is promising great benefits to the Connectors. The Connectors are flocking there in droves. Even the number of Connectors going into the new Beginner’s Labyrinth has precipitously gone down.”

Sungyoon nodded. He had seen it with his own eyes.

“We went over many countermeasures. Several plans were crafted, and we decided to choose one of them. And we would like Mr. Woo’s help.”

“What kind of help?”

“We would like to hunt down the Golems.”

Sungyoon’s face hardened.

“… Are you out of your mind?”

It was a very rude thing to say, but Sungyoon had to ask that question.

Smith must have expected his reaction as he didn’t seem offended.

“The ones to bring about this mess in the first place was the Golems. I hope you didn’t forget that.”

“I haven’t forgotten about it. However, we need to hunt down the Golems. If we are successful, we can show everyone that we have the power to respond to the threat of the Golems. Also, it would allow us to further our research about labyrinths. Our status would be raised.”

“Do you think it's possible?”

“Of course. Even the Super Golem wasn’t able to overcome a Connector of Sir Russell’s caliber. Moreover, Sir Russell hadn’t been fighting at full strength as he was worried about causing collateral damage. We’ve already received a verbal commitment from several high rank Connectors including Charlie Russell, Danny Bruce, and Sung Hyunwoo.”

This news surprised Sungyoon.