Chapter 317
“Geez, that’s complicated.”
Lee Taeyeon muttered gloomily after meeting the magician.
The reward for conquering the labyrinth—a wish. She had been agonizing over what to wish for.
Should she wish for all the dead to be resurrected? Or should she turn back time and create a world where the monsters never invaded?
But hearing that she couldn’t fulfill her wish unless she conquered the labyrinth left her grumbling.
“Does that mean no one has ever made a wish come true?”
[No. A wish isn’t something that can be achieved so easily.]
“Reaching this point wasn’t exactly a walk in the park…”
[The standards are relative. What the magician desires is beyond that.]
“Whatever.”
Lee Taeyeon shook her head. Her hair swayed softly with the motion.
“Being able to return to Earth—that’s enough for me.”
Finally, she could leave this dreadful place.
A satisfied smile spread across her face.
“Open the path for me.”
[Understood.]
‘Woong.’
The space began to part.
From beyond, a familiar scent wafted through. She took a deep breath.
Earth.
Her hazy gaze locked on the space ahead.
“Finally…”
She murmured in a thrilled voice, her eyes looking back at Balbamaba.
“You’ve always been a talkative and annoying creature, but having spent so much time with you, I’ve grown attached. Goodbye.”
[Farewell. I must say, you were a unique adventurer, the first of your kind to descend the labyrinth.]
“Thank you as well.”
[For what?]
The voice spoke quietly.
[It was enjoyable for me too. A fulfilling time.]
“As it’s the last moment, let me ask again—what exactly are you?”
Who was this voice?
She knew it was a transcendent existence.
Even with her abilities, she couldn’t fully grasp its power.
Even after spending countless hours in its presence, she remained clueless.
Though she had asked many times, the voice never answered her question.
The voice chuckled softly.
[You’ll find out in due time.]
“Soon?”
Though the words were cryptic, it seemed her identity would remain a secret until the end. Lee Taeyeon pouted her lips.
“You’re so stingy.”
The voice let out a laugh.
[Then let me give you a gift.]
Before her, a light appeared. It coalesced into a single orb.
[You’ve obtained an orb that holds something within.]
“What’s this?”
[You’ll know in due time.]
“Hmm… Thanks.”
Even her observational skill couldn’t decipher the orb. Since it was handed directly to her, it likely wasn’t useless. She accepted it with gratitude.
“Goodbye then. I don’t think we’ll ever meet again.”
She had no intention of returning to the labyrinth.
To return to this hellish place—it was an unthinkable idea.
But the voice only chuckled quietly.
[Is that so? Then goodbye indeed.]
“Yes.”
Lee Taeyeon nodded resolutely and stepped forward.
She entered the space.
Earth.
How much could it have advanced? With so many capable people, they must have at least restored electricity.
Given her enhanced physical abilities after conquering the labyrinth, maybe they had even built new buildings.
How happy, how colorful their lives must be.
And what kind of life could she lead?
With happiness, she crossed the space.
The Earth appeared before her.
Her pupils shook.
“What…?”
What greeted her were crumbled buildings and a gray world.
“…Have I been summoned to a deserted land?”
Her voice trembled.
Yes, that must be it. Only a few survivors remained.
It wasn’t possible to restore the entire land devastated by the monster invasion.
This place must be one of those abandoned areas.
She tried to believe that.
But the cruel world showed her the truth.
“Aah…”
Above the sky.
A massive crack devoured the sun.
‘Why?’
Lee Taeyeon’s eyes wavered.
They had definitely closed that crack.
They had won.
They surely had.
But what was this?
Something was wrong.
She felt nausea rising to her throat.
“Gah.”
She barely managed to exhale. Cold sweat trickled down her cheek, chilling her to the bone.
“Oh. A new returnee?”
A voice called out.
She saw a familiar face.
“Long time no see. Who… Oh? Lee Taeyeon?”
“…Youngjung.”
Youngjung. A player who had been in hard mode. Someone she knew.
Lee Taeyeon barely managed to look at him.
An unkempt beard, disheveled hair, dry skin.
That appearance—
He looked like a survivor of a ruined Earth.
Youngjung’s eyes lit up with joy upon seeing her. He shouted loudly.
“Hey! Everyone, come see who’s returned!”
At his call, people started gathering noisily.
“Who came back?”
“What? Taeyeon?”
“Huh, it’s really her?”
The eyes of the gathered people sparkled as they started chattering excitedly.
“Wow! Lee Taeyeon actually cleared [Solo mode]! And so quickly too!”
“This should give us some breathing room now!”
Lee Taeyeon stared blankly at them.
Their hair, haphazardly cut. Their dirty skin.
They all looked just like Youngjung.
She parted her parched lips.
“…Why do you all look like this?”
“Ah.”
Youngjung’s face hardened.
Finally, the others also realized what Lee Taeyeon had expected upon returning.
Youngjung scratched his head.
“Um… Taeyeon, calm down and listen.”
“Haha, I get it. This is a prank, right?”
Though Youngjung tried to explain, Lee Taeyeon smiled brightly.
She raised her arms.
“Right? It doesn’t make sense. We won, so why does Earth look like this? You’re all just trying to surprise me, aren’t you?”
“No.”
Youngjung shook his head solemnly.
“We believed the same and returned to Earth. But what welcomed us was a ruined world. Taeyeon, we were deceived by the monsters.”
“Stop lying!”
Lee Taeyeon shouted.
“That can’t be true! We won! We won, I tell you! We overcame it!”
Her eyes were filled only with denial.
“We won! Didn’t we? We fought through those hellish times, cleared that godforsaken labyrinth, and finally got here! This can’t be it! It just can’t be!”
Her cries were like the tantrum of a three-year-old child, devoid of reason or logic.
But no one refuted her.
Youngjung spoke gloomily.
“That’s how it turned out, Taeyeon.”
“Haha… Ha…”
A faint laugh escaped from Lee Taeyeon’s lips, only to abruptly stop.
“You’re all fake.”
“What?”
“This is the final trial, isn’t it? Some kind of test. Fine. I’ll overcome it.”
Lee Taeyeon drew her sword, and the people flinched in shock.
“Ah, crap. We’re screwed.”
“Should we stop her?”
“Who’s going to do that?”
Silence fell at that question.
If it were against any hard-mode player, it wouldn’t be an issue. After all, they were all hard-mode players who could handle anything.
But Lee Taeyeon was a solo-mode player.
Among them, only one person could restrain her.
“…Is Taesan here?”
“Yeah, he returned a few hours ago. I’ll go fetch him right away.”
The person scurried off, leaving others clicking their tongues. They figured he wanted to avoid dealing with Lee Taeyeon and chose to flee.
“Taeyeon, can’t you just calm down?”
She let out a sinister laugh.
Don’t make me laugh.
They were all fake.
Earth couldn’t possibly look like this.
This had to be a trial created by the labyrinth.
And trials were meant to be overcome.
The killing intent emanating from her grew stronger. The crumbled buildings groaned as they collapsed, and the faces of the people turned pale.
“Wait! What’s going on here?”
“Oh no, we won’t even have time to stall her!”
Lee Taeyeon gripped her sword tightly.
At that moment, a weary voice rang out.
“You’re back?”
“Ah.”
Her pupils widened. The killing intent that had been spreading dissipated. The people around her let out a collective sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness. I thought I was going to die.”
“Taesan, it’s all yours.”
“So that’s why you called me so frantically… Makes sense.”
A sharp gaze.
He looked indifferent in a way, yet his face showed the exhaustion of someone worn out. He glanced at Lee Taeyeon with tired eyes.
“It’s been a while.”
“Taesan.”
“I’m sorry, but this ‘is’ Earth. This is what it’s become.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
It couldn’t be true.
It mustn’t be true.
Her grip on her sword remained firm.
“You’re fake too. You’re another creation of the labyrinth…”
Her murmurs were filled with disbelief, and Taesan sighed.
“Yeah, sure. You’re not going to listen to words, are you?”
[Kang Taesan has activated Temporary Time Stop. Time within a 100-meter radius of Kang Taesan will freeze for 2 minutes.]
Time froze.
In the stillness, Taesan moved alone toward Lee Taeyeon.
“For now, just lie down and cool your head a bit.”
Taesan raised his sword.
[Kang Taesan has activated Addition.]
[Kang Taesan has activated Multiplication.]
[Kang Taesan has activated Target Skill Reset.]
[Kang Taesan has activated Multiplication.]
[Kang Taesan’s Non-lethal Attack.]
[92,236,816 damage dealt to Lee Taeyeon.]
Lee Taeyeon stared blankly at the ceiling.
Through the cracks of the worn and crumbling structure, the sky was visible. It was barely functional as a building.
But it was the most intact structure in this place.
“Calmed down?”
“…Somewhat.”
Taesan sat on a shabby chair and stared at her.
He spoke.
“How do you feel?”
“Disgusting.”
Lee Taeyeon replied quietly, and Taesan nodded.
“I understand. I felt the same. It was awful, and I wanted to destroy everything.”
“Can you explain what’s going on?”
Her voice was grim, and Taesan began to speak.
As she listened to the stories filled with bitter experiences, she clenched her eyes shut.
They hadn’t won.
In the illusion of victory, they had dreamed of impossible hope.
After returning to Earth, countless people had died to the monsters that appeared.
It was a massacre.
Most of the initial returnees had been easy-mode players. They couldn’t resist the monsters and were wiped out.
Only after the hard-mode players returned did people band together, managing to secure some territory.
Since then, it had been a cycle of despair. Monsters kept appearing, and though they were defeated, many lives were lost in the process. New returnees merely replaced those who died.
On top of countless corpses, they were slowly dying out.
Lee Taeyeon asked quietly.
“…If we have hard-mode players, shouldn’t all of you have been able to handle the monsters?”
“That was the case initially. But things changed. Monsters far stronger than those we had faced before started appearing. There are some we can’t defeat even with dozens of us working together.”
Taesan spoke calmly.
“We’ve been deceived by them.”
“…What about Choi Joonsang?”
Choi Joonsang—a skilled player from easy mode and an expert electrician. He had talked about becoming the Edison of the modern age, creating light bulbs and rebuilding the world.
“He returned before I did. I haven’t seen him since. Judging by his absence, he’s probably dead.”
“What about Park Jiyeong?”
She was a normal-mode player and an exceptional chef. She had planned to return to Earth and showcase her culinary skills.
“She died two days before I returned.”
“…Yoon Seahn?”
A hard-mode player and a law scholar. He had believed laws were necessary for rebuilding civilization and had drafted an Earth-specific legal code during the labyrinth, completing it just before clearing. Everyone had promised to follow his laws.
“He died a year ago.”
She shut her eyes tightly.
She continued to ask about people she knew, people she remembered.
Most of the answers she received were the same: they had died.
“This is the situation we’re in now.”
Taesan rubbed his tired eyes.
“We have no way of knowing the situation in other countries. We don’t have the luxury to find out. But considering our state, it’s hard to imagine they’re faring any better.”
The world was truly falling into ruin.
Even the labyrinth, which had once served as a refuge, no longer existed.
Lee Taeyeon stared blankly at the floor.
“That’s why we need you.”
“…Me?”
“Yes. You need to become our leader.”
At Taesan’s words, Lee Taeyeon immediately looked up in surprise.
“Me? I’m not cut out to be a leader…”
“No.”
Taesan shook his head.
“You have to do it. I can’t.”
Of course, Taesan was strong.
He was the strongest easy-mode player, capable of defeating even Lee Taeyeon under the right conditions.
“But I can only take down one strong monster at a time. I can’t protect everyone. I’m like a gun that needs repairs after every shot. In times like these, someone purely strong like you needs to take the lead.”
Taesan spoke softly.
“I don’t know how strong you’ve become, but since you cleared [Solo Mode], you’re surely much stronger than the last time we met.”
The last time they had seen each other was during the final Earth Return Quest—a time that now seemed like an eternity ago.
Even then, Lee Taeyeon had been incredibly strong. After clearing [Solo Mode], she must have grown far more powerful.
“I… I can’t…”
Lee Taeyeon’s voice trembled.
To become a leader.
To take responsibility for the lives of others.
It was impossible. It was already overwhelming just to protect herself. Carrying the lives of others as well? Her mind wouldn’t be able to bear the weight.
But Taesan’s next words stopped her from refusing.
“I know. I know how much you’re struggling. I know why you’ve been rejecting this all along. But, Taeyeon, we don’t even have the luxury to struggle anymore.”
Taesan gave a bitter smile.
His expression silenced Lee Taeyeon.
Despite being an easy-mode player, Taesan had always been confident, finding ways to overcome even the most desperate situations without fear.
But now, his face was full of exhaustion.
That expression prevented her from saying no.
“I’m not asking you to decide right now. Take some time to cool your head.”
“…Do we even have the time for that?”
The world was falling apart. There was no way they could afford to let someone of Lee Taeyeon’s caliber sit idle.
“I know you must feel frustrated, but I don’t want to push you too hard. Maybe the monsters are playing games with us, but they’re giving us a bit of breathing room. Right now, the monsters are manageable for me and the others.”
With that, Taesan left the room. The door creaked as it closed.
Left alone, Lee Taeyeon stared blankly at the closed door.
She did nothing, her gaze drifting upward to the sky through the cracks in the ceiling.
Everything felt unreal.
Reality didn’t feel like reality.
A day passed like that, and eventually, she snapped back to her senses.
She gazed at the rift beyond the broken ceiling.
‘That thing…’
She couldn’t sense it before, but now, after descending the labyrinth and gaining sufficient power, she could tell.
The energy emanating from it was beyond her comprehension.
The force within the rift belonged to entities on the same level as the gods of the labyrinth, at the very least.
They couldn’t be defeated.
Fighting them would only lead to an inevitable death.
“A-Ah…”
Her body trembled.
Earth was not a safe place.
The monsters still existed, and she would have to risk her life to fight them.
Her teeth chattered. Her entire body shook, and her mind wavered.
Death.
It loomed directly in front of her.
As she began to fall into panic, the door opened.
“Um…”
A cautious voice called out as a young girl entered. Startled, Lee Taeyeon hurriedly regained her composure and blankly looked at the girl.
“Kim Minji…?”
“Ah, you remember me!”
Kim Minji—a normal-mode player. A cheerful girl Lee Taeyeon had been relatively close to.
With a bright expression, Minji spoke.
“I was so surprised to hear you’d returned, Taeyeon! I always believed you’d come back someday, but I thought it would take much longer!”
“…Right.”
Lee Taeyeon thought so too. But her desire to clear the labyrinth had pushed her to move faster.
If she had known this would happen, she would have stayed there longer.
Kim Minji clenched her fists with determination.
“Now that you’re back, we’ll be able to expand our territory! We can defeat the monsters and start living like we used to!”
She spoke with confidence.
Lee Taeyeon asked in a trembling voice.
“…What about your brother?”
Kim Minji had an older brother. The two often bickered but cared for each other like any normal family.
Minji scratched her head awkwardly.
“Ah… Haha… He died a month ago.”
“…How?”
“He died protecting me. Stupid, really. I could’ve survived just fine.”
She murmured softly. Her eyes were filled with sadness, but also with resignation.
Lee Taeyeon realized something.
These people didn’t even have the luxury to mourn their loved ones.
“…My brother saved my life. I can’t just let it go to waste. And now that you’re here, Taeyeon…”
Her bright, hopeful eyes looked directly at Lee Taeyeon.
“You cleared [Solo Mode], so you must be much stronger than before, right?”
Within those hopeful eyes was also desperation.
“Please, protect us, Taeyeon.”
Fear of death. Anxiety about the monsters.
This young girl, Kim Minji, was entrusting her future to Lee Taeyeon.
Lee Taeyeon felt suffocated.
“Should I run away?”
Alone in the room after Minji left, she muttered quietly.
She couldn’t escape from a godlike entity, but such beings wouldn’t easily descend to the surface. If she were alone, she could hide.
She was confident in that. Not even the guides, the adventurers of the labyrinth, or the NPCs could find her if she chose to disappear. She had the ability to vanish completely.
“Hahaha…”
A hollow laugh escaped her lips.
It was a meaningless thought.
Beyond the cramped room, the voices of hundreds reached her ears without pause.
“Taeyeon is here…”
“We don’t have to die meaninglessly anymore…”
“We can survive now…”
The voices were filled with longing and hope for Lee Taeyeon. Their reliance on her was evident.
Even if she didn’t want to listen, her enhanced senses picked up every nuance of emotion carried in their words.
Her lips felt dry.
Run away? Abandon their hopes? Turn her back on all their expectations? Ignore their cries of resentment as they died blaming her? Abandon the despair they would feel at her disappearance, and choose to survive on her own?
She couldn’t.
She couldn’t become that shameless.
Every possible escape was blocked.
“Ugh.”
Nausea surged within her, and she barely managed to cover her mouth.
Her head spun.
Even the mental fortitude she had honed over the long years in the labyrinth felt as though it would shatter with a single touch.
No, it had never truly been honed.
Her mind had reached its limit long ago, and she was barely holding together the frayed remnants of it.
Her hand groped around, searching for something to hold onto.
If she didn’t grab onto something—anything—she felt like she would truly lose her mind.
‘Clench.’
Her fingers grasped a small object.
It was a dark, murky stone.
At first glance, it appeared to be an ordinary stone, but within it lay the power to turn back time.
“…The Ouroboros Stone.”
An item from the labyrinth that allowed time to be rewound just once.
When she first obtained it, she had been overjoyed, believing she could return to the past. But that joy quickly turned to disappointment.
The Ouroboros Stone could only rewind time to just before the gods invaded Earth.
Even after consulting with Balbamaba and the transcendent entity that had watched over her, she learned there was no way to avoid the fate of entering the labyrinth.
“…Was this what it meant?”
The voice had asked her once: Do you wish for death? Lee Taeyeon had replied that she didn’t.
Then, the voice asked again: Do you wish to challenge the labyrinth again?
Lee Taeyeon had also said no to that.
Even now, she hadn’t found an answer.
‘But…’
She couldn’t abandon those who placed their trust and hopes in her.
With great effort, she stood up and walked outside. The people waiting for her turned to look at her in surprise.
“Taeyeon?”
“…In two hours, the monsters will come.”
Her quiet words startled everyone. She continued speaking.
“There will be twenty-five of them. Twenty-three of them can be handled by the hard-mode players, but the remaining two cannot. Taesan and I will have to deal with them.”
“What? I can’t sense anything…”
“They’re still beyond your perception range. Everyone, get ready.”
“A-Ah, got it!”
“Taeyeon!”
Kim Minji looked at her with a bright, hopeful expression.
Lee Taeyeon forced herself to ignore that gaze as she gripped her sword.
‘For now, let’s survive.’
And let’s keep these people alive.
If, in the very end, she was cornered with no way to escape…
At that point, what choice would she make?
Even she didn’t know the answer.
