Chapter 689
How long had it been since the intruders entered?
The Gardener’s face, which had been anticipating a cruel spectacle, grew more and more distorted with each passing moment.
“W-What… what are these?”
It was inevitable.
The traps he had prepared were being smashed to pieces without even putting up a fight.
No—was that all?
If they were breaking through in a normal way, he wouldn’t feel this wronged.
But this shortcut-riddled process was trampling his craftsmanship as a Gardener.
“I’ve never tortured plants in my life. Even if they’re bad, I feel a little guilty watching them suffer….”
Teresa sprinkled holy water infused with Divinity.
With the surrounding air dried out by [Primordial Flame], the plants were desperate for even a single drop of moisture.
In the end, they had no choice but to absorb water steeped in Divinity—like drinking hydrochloric acid.
“Guilt disappears fast once you do it. Look. You’re already adjusting the concentration skillfully.”
“Hehe. You’re right. I guess I’m getting used to it, little by little.”
Teresa blushed at Jinhyuk’s compliment.
Goguma and the Spirit Beasts were also wreaking havoc on the ecosystem, ripping off leaves and chewing through them.
The Gardener pressed his throbbing temples with his fingers.
‘Okay.’
He could understand up to that point.
But what he couldn’t stand was the black-haired man.
That punk the others called “Jinhyuk” was doing things that defied description.
Fwoooosh.
The labyrinth was burning.
The garden that had once boasted perfection was turning into ash by the second.
As if that weren’t enough, he was smashing statues that honored ancient beings, building statues that looked exactly like himself on top of them, taking commemorative photos, and even pissing in the lake the Gardener had painstakingly created.
He was carrying out one heart-attack-inducing act after another.
Of course, the meticulously prepared traps were being triggered in response to his rampage, but none of them worked.
Kaboom!
Boom!
The patterns were being read perfectly.
Even if it was still only the beginning of the labyrinth, it was absurd.
In the end, unable to endure it any longer, the Gardener summoned his direct subordinates.
“E-Everyone, immediately… g-gather!”
[Three Labyrinth Designers respond to the Gardener’s call.]
Vwooom!
Space split open, revealing Labyrinth Designers with different appearances.
They were elites—selected from among the geniuses who had devised countless labyrinth traps throughout the Tower.
Among them, the small figure standing in the middle possessed even greater talent than the others.
“Did you call for me? Great master of the garden.”
Balseter.
The torture magician in charge of the psychiatric ward.
He belonged to the lower floors of the Tower of Trials, but he had been scouted upward for designing creative and elaborate traps.
In fact, in this line of work, people even said that if he had been born on the upper floors instead of the lower ones, he would have designed far more powerful labyrinths.
“Y-Yes. Fearless bastards dared to enter my garden and are turning it upside down. Y-You guys… they’re s-smashing all the traps you were so confident in, t-that’s what I’m saying!”
“That can’t be.”
“Even gods and Great Heroes couldn’t withstand it and were buried here… Hmm. Maybe it’s because it’s still the beginning.”
The Labyrinth Designers quickly reviewed the intruders’ actions since entering the labyrinth, checking the record of how they had broken through each trap.
You could practically hear eyeballs rolling at high speed.
But only one person.
Only the senior designer, Balseter, froze in place for some reason.
Shiver. Shiver.
His body trembled.
The red swirl pattern on his cheek—his trademark—was soaked with sweat and slowly streaking downward.
“Balseter. What’s wrong?”
“It seems some boring guys came in and he lost interest. Well, it’s not like they even have the right number of people or a proper composition. They probably pushed in on luck.”
“Yeah, look at that. It’s like they’re stuffing ancient species and Spirit Beasts into their bodies and forcing their way through. Tsk, tsk.”
The two designers smiled in mockery at the reckless breakthrough.
Their individual stats weren’t bad, but that only applied to combat.
If they could fully leverage a well-designed labyrinth, crushing those guys wouldn’t be difficult.
“Y-Yes. I-I don’t want to see my garden ruined any further. You go and s-stop them directly. A-And that black-haired man… be s-sure to capture him alive and bring him to me. I-I’ll t-take care of him myself.”
The Gardener ground his teeth as he stared at Jinhyuk.
He wanted to feed him to the plants alive and have him slowly dissolved for at least a hundred years to vent his rage.
“Don’t worry, Gardener.”
“We will fulfill your wishes soon. Please enjoy yourself comfortably here.”
Impenetrable labyrinths that had never been conquered.
Those trapped inside their own castles never knew.
What a real monster was.
What it felt like to be brutally mocked, have their pride trampled, and even have their existence denied.
They would never know.
“Ugh…!”
Balseter reached out his hand, but the two designers had already teleported to where the Veteran Corporation was.
—
Vwooom!
Space split, and a resident shaped like a chameleon with rolling eyes and another shaped like a seductive fox appeared.
“Oh. You’re here.”
Jinhyuk found them immediately.
The others also stopped what they were doing as the unfamiliar beings approached.
Instinct told them they hadn’t come with good intentions.
“You’re packed together like a swarm.”
“Hehe. Should we introduce ourselves?”
“There’s no need. They’re going to die soon anyway.”
The designers chatted as if they were having fun.
It was a typical pattern for people with overgrown egos. They can’t tell shit from soybean paste until they dip it in.
Jinhyuk waited patiently and let the little show run to the end without interrupting.
He had no reason to rush in the first place.
He needed to buy time until the clue arrived.
Only after their petty boasting peaked did the two designers finally unleash their full power.
“This will be the last time you see us.”
“Don’t worry too much. The pain won’t last long. Ah, of course—you were ordered to be captured alive, so you won’t get a comfortable death.”
A giggle rang out.
At the same time.
[Labyrinth Transformation has begun!]
Ruuumble!
The terrain and objects shifted in a frenzy.
The entire labyrinth began to rearrange itself according to the designers’ will.
Walls of plants slid at an invisible speed.
Completely different, vividly colored leaves swallowed the field of view.
They dragged in powerful, threatening entities that normally only appeared after the midpoint of the labyrinth. The traps also jumped to an entirely different level.
Certainly.
Labyrinth Transformation was a dangerous ability.
Each strike born from countless irregularities was enough to deal fatal wounds to intruders.
But—
‘Hermen on the 33rd floor and Itmisha on the 27th floor. Those guys.’
‘If you calculate the patterns they prefer, the characteristics of this labyrinth, and the fact they’ll choose the most threatening options to quickly quell the Gardener’s anger…’
‘It’s not hard to predict what kind of layout they’ll go for.’
Thud.
Jinhyuk stepped straight into the center of the perfectly transformed maze.
The new plants reacted instantly.
“Screeee!”
“Graaah!”
Green liquid sprayed out from between jagged teeth.
It was an acidic fluid capable of dissolving even Mana Stones in an instant.
Vines and countless small insects surged in without mercy.
[Glacial Sculpting ‘Frost Razor Wind’ is activated!]
Thin ice branches spread out like a spider web.
Though slender, it was a defensive technique that boasted strength beyond ordinary steel.
But—
Scritch! Scritch!
An earwig’s pincers sliced through the ice as if cutting tofu.
Screee-screee-screee!
Two-headed worms closed the distance in an instant, making hideous noises.
“Those ice sticks won’t work!”
“It’s too late to run now. You went too deep.”
As Jinhyuk stepped forward to evade, the sound of triggers locking together echoed in rapid succession.
A new type of trap activated.
Twitch.
The ground rippled, and purple tentacles shot upward.
Kaboom!
Boom!
The spot where Jinhyuk had stood just moments ago became a wasteland.
Naturally, Jinhyuk’s body—forced to take that storm head-on—had been minced into pieces.
Only a pool of blood remained, proof that a living being had been there just a moment ago.
“How boring.”
“I agree.”
The two Labyrinth Designers snorted as they looked down at the gouged-out ground.
They had come with expectations, but it was over before they could even warm up.
It was so dull it was starting to annoy them.
At least, that was the emotion spreading through their bodies—
until a chilling voice spoke from right behind them.
“Wow. You built a meat grinder instead of a trap. Impressive.”
“……!?”
“W-What?”
“Shh. You’ll get hurt if you turn around.”
A cold sensation pressed against the backs of their necks.
A blade so frigid it seeped into the bone.
“H-How?”
“Ah. You’re wondering how I’m standing here perfectly fine when I should be minced meat over there?”
That was simple.
“The one over there is a clone that looks exactly like me.”
A fake made with [Flowing Moonlight].
While the clone acted as bait, the real one calmly moved through the reshaped labyrinth and hunted down the designers who were secretly pressing buttons from behind.
“N-No way. Even so, there’s no way you could make a perfect clone we wouldn’t notice.”
For thousands of years, distinguishing between real and fake had been their bread and butter.
Labyrinth Designers specialized in deceiving and manipulating opponents.
They couldn’t accept the reality that a rookie human had outplayed them.
But their anger and humiliation didn’t last long.
Drip.
The blood trailing down their necks felt especially cold.
As their heads cooled, the reality they had refused to see began to surface.
The first thought that came to them was this.
‘How… how did he find our location so fast?’
Even if a clone was possible, Labyrinth Designers built their bases in the most secret and safest points inside the newly changed labyrinth.
Even worn-out gods couldn’t find the innermost layer that quickly.
But the fact that he had done the impossible meant—
‘……Is he on a different level?’
Far above.
This whole situation only made sense if he was looking down from a sky-high vantage point where everything was visible.
In other words.
If Labyrinth Designers were those who designed traps to corner rat-like intruders,
then this man was a hunter who grasped the labyrinth’s essence itself and hunted everything he saw.
“W-What do you want? If you’re not killing us right away, you must want something.”
“Now you’re talking.”
Jinhyuk smiled.
He had planned to use them to create a clue for conquering the Gardener anyway.
Given the way these two hated pain despite their cruel nature, if he scared them a little, they would turn into docile sheep and do exactly as told.
But at that moment.
Vwooom!
Purple wavelengths rose from the two designers’ bodies.
“…Huh?”
“Huh?”
Before they could even understand what was happening, a violent explosion erupted.
Kaboom!
“Kuaaaagh!”
“Aaaagh!”
Their bodies burned alive.
The Gardener, having noticed the betrayal, moved.
“Tsk… you really don’t have a shred of humanity. No matter what, is it fine to just use your former colleagues and kill them like this?”
Jinhyuk bit his lip, unable to swallow the injustice.
He could never do something like that with a clear conscience.
Still, with that, the easiest card for reaching the Gardener was gone.
But misfortune never lasts forever.
Ding!
A status window appeared—one that blew away Jinhyuk’s bitterness in an instant.