Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 423



Only Krnovel

Excavation (5)

In the center of the brightened space, a golden labyrinth letter showed its presence. It was broken and then reassembled, and it was much easier to see.

[Operating hibernation capsule 1/300]

This was a shelter built to avoid destruction, and the snake was the guardian spirit of this place, signifying that one of the survivors of El Dorado was still alive.

Henry was jumping around. He kept spinning around in circles as if he was going to whip me if I didn’t tell him the contents of the labyrinth text.

“Will Henry give you a massage?”

Oros turned his back to Henry. The whip that tore through his rough skin was just a light pat to Alan and Oros.

“Stop joking and tell me the answer quickly. If I were to die right now, you would be curious to know the cause.”

“Henry, calm down.”

Oros explained the contents of the labyrinthine text. Meanwhile, Alan examined the control device that rose above his waist.

“I really want to be chosen by the Labyrinth too. Phew···.”

“I find that regrettable.”

The ancient writings scattered throughout the labyrinth are collectively referred to as labyrinth writings, and the chosen ones are granted the mysterious ability to decipher the ancient language.

It’s a mystery that any archaeologist would like to acquire, but as always, things in the world don’t go as planned.

Still, Henry had his bearings. He flicked the control knob with his whip handle, and the floor moved left and right, revealing a passage leading downwards.

Alan said, looking into the dark.

“You solved it without even knowing the labyrinth script.”

“I’ve tried opening similar buttons in other ruins. If something happens by pressing the wrong button, why worry when there are two depth 6s?”

“Henry? Are we the shield?”

“Why? Of course I hired you for this. Do you think I hired you to joke around with you? Hurry up and take the lead.”

At Henry’s urging, Oros went down the stairs first. The dwarves, who had erected a sturdy orc wall, followed closely behind.

The passage led downwards at an angle, and there were no stairs or anything in sight. However, when a person stepped near it, a golden step appeared.

I quickly went down the steps, sliding down. Below, there was a space that resembled a concert hall that gradually got higher as I went further back.

Alan took a quick look around. The gold-plated cylindrical object, or capsule, was large enough to easily fit a sturdy male orc.

“There are exactly 300 capsules.”

Only one capsule was glowing softly like a night light, while the 299 capsules with their lights off surrounded it as if they were escorting it.

As soon as they realized that, the three of them ran towards it. Since the capsule was placed vertically, Henry couldn’t see the top, so he hung on Oros’s back.

Through the square transparent window at the top, I could see the baby. He was blond and even his skin was golden.

“this···.”

“It was a waste of time.”

It was Oros and Henry’s sighs in that order. He was full of thoughts about asking questions, but this made him lose his temper. Henry looked at Alan.

“Are you okay? You must be very disappointed.”

“Disappointed? I’m fine.”

A green light flickered in Alan’s right eye. Of course, Henry couldn’t see it because of the visor.

“It looks just like a human baby.”

“Except for the part where he’s a good kid.”

“The average height is 2m, so that appearance would be normal.”

“I guess I’ll have to look at another capsule.”

“It’s empty.”

“what?”

Henry tapped Oros on the shoulder while he was on his back. Oros obediently walked to another capsule.

“No, it’s really empty! Do you know why?”

“Let Alan find it.”

Alan pressed various buttons on the screen that appeared when he wore the golden crown.

“Shelter resident basic guidelines, this isn’t it. Things to watch out for in case of a problem, this isn’t it. Emergency procedures…, I found it. It’s corpse recycling according to the Shelter Maintenance Act. The owners of the empty capsules have become one with the shelter.”

“Then what about the baby?”

“It is a priority for protection.”

“Inside the shelter, that means highest rank.”

Henry understood immediately. The 299 were slaves, and there was one who would enjoy their support: a baby covered in gold dust.

“A parasitic wasp….”

“It’s a little different since the corpse is recycled. It’s only natural that it’s better to dispose of it rather than wasting resources maintaining a useless body.”

“That way, the shelter’s maintenance period will be extended.”

There was no disagreement with Henry’s statement. Shelters are built to protect survivors from external pressures, so why waste resources on preserving corpses?

“I guess that means they’ve been around long enough to be used for maintenance.”

“Is the year also displayed?”

“It’s stopped in the year 9999.”

“They had such a great civilization with such great technology, but they set it up like that? Well, they probably didn’t know they would be buried for such a long time. Anyway, El Dorado is a civilization that existed at least 10,000 years ago. Back then, we lived by breaking rocks, but someone else created this kind of civilization.”

Oros grabbed Henry and put him down.

“It must have been much more than ten thousand years ago.”

“Of course I know. But why did you put it down? Put it back up.”

Oros shook his head and looked down the passage. Alan did the same. After waiting for a moment, people came down on the golden steps.

They were soldiers from Soldos and officials from the Geological Survey. As the darkness covering the ruins disappeared, they were able to come and go as they pleased.

The owner of the ruins was Soldos, and the research team had to report what they hunted or found as it was. So they left the snake skin on top.

Someone stepped forward. He seemed to have an air of hidden aura, unlike any ordinary civil servant. He was wearing sunglasses even in the basement, but they had a perception-impairing spell on them.

“good morning.”

The man with the stern features nodded his head slightly in greeting, then stuck his face into the capsule. He clapped his hands.

“This is a great discovery. We will reward the research team’s efforts with a generous budget and compensation.”

“Cucumber! The investigation team leader is coming. Don’t bother me and get out.”

“I will just watch. As per the contract, the government will naturally take any special babies.”

“I’ll do the work after I take a break, so don’t rush me. If I make a mistake because I’m tired and old, won’t it be a big problem?”

“I will help you.”

As Cucumber gestured, his subordinates deployed recovery promotion magic tools and handed him boxes of expensive stamina recovery potions.

Alan snuck a pack of Muravel recovery potions. He planned to analyze how good the items used by Soldos’ secret agents were. Alan looked at Henry, who was sitting comfortably in the chair he had brought out for him.

“You’re not an ordinary civil servant, you’re a secret agent.”

“How did you know?”

“The secret agent I met before also used the code name Pumpkin.”

“Those guys always change their names. Before Cucumber, they were Carrots. Hey, did you hear our story?”

Cucumber, who had been giving instructions to the soldiers, walked over with a limp. He passed Henry and Oros and stood in front of Alan.

“I heard that Mr. Allen joined the investigation and wanted to meet him.”

Cucumber was polite. Even with the government on his back, politeness was essential in front of Depth 6. If you don’t want to get your head broken.

“Me?”

“That’s a humble response for someone so famous. There are many people who say that’s all they know.”

A screen appeared in front of Cucumber’s chest. A video of Alan bombing Goldeye’s villa with magic played. There was also a scene of Titans fighting each other.

The publisher was obviously an Eldorado Bank official. Still, the scene where he struggles with the Titan was omitted in response to Alan’s request.

“Young age, depth 6. This combination is bound to be a hot topic.”

“The interest will die down soon anyway.”

The world was overflowing with topics and entertainment. Even the current interest was just a flash in the pan, easily swept away by the torrent of information.

“What’s the main point?”

“I would like Mr. Allen to work for Soldos. How about a life as a civil servant with ample support, rather than a difficult life in a labyrinth? I will also continue to support the research you like.”

While Cucumber was captured, Henry and Oros went to work removing the capsule. Alan wanted to end the conversation quickly and join in. And he didn’t want to work under Soldos. Working as a mercenary and going under were two completely different things.

“I refuse.”

“Vega, Camiro and Aroma.”

Alan stopped as he passed Cucumber. Below Soldos was Vega, below that was Kamiro, and Aroama was Kamiro’s port city.

“Soldos doesn’t care if you’re an orphan from Aromaa. If you have enough ability, if it’s a force for the country, you can easily rise to a high position. Do you still not like that?”

“You did a thorough investigation.”

Now that Alan has taken care of the drug cartels and slave traders, it’ll be hard to dig up anything more than that.

“A thorough investigation is a natural procedure when recruiting someone.”

“The answer is the same.”

“If you change your mind, please let me know.”

Alan took the business card that Cucumber handed him.

“I mean the snake corpse above.”

“yes.”

“It was scattered here and there as if it had been eaten by animals.”

“It is a loss due to battle.”

“Oh, I see. I hope you enjoyed the hunt···.”

He left the corpse of the hunter he had hunted as per the contract, but he didn’t promise to hand it over intact. As if he knew that, Cucumber just smiled and walked away.

Alan quickly approached the hibernation capsule dismantling site. The investigators were sweating profusely as they followed Henry’s instructions.

“I mean, take it easy. Be careful out there!”

“You still have the capsule containing the baby left.”

“They intentionally cleared away only the surrounding capsules. Hey, why are they like that?”

Without doing anything, the light emitted by the capsule grew stronger. The door opened slightly, and smoke escaped through the gap. A cold fog spread around the capsule, reaching ankle height.

“Why is it like that?”

“I guess···.”

Alan quietly touched the golden crown. It seemed that the system of the relic recognized Alan as one of its kind and opened the capsule.

“Eww!”

People who were climbing up the golden steps fell down. The steps blinked wildly.

“The power has become unstable.”

“It’s brave of you to have endured this far. Ah!”

“Why are you doing that?”

“If the baby comes out now, it’ll be a big problem. The environment then and now are completely different.”

The door opened slowly. Alan snapped his fingers, and the baby disappeared.

“Huh?”

Henry, his eyes wide open, stared intently at the capsule and spotted an object reflected on its surface. He turned his head to look at the device on Alan’s side.

“that?”

“It’s a sterile incubator.”

“You even use spatial magic freely. I can see why Oros cherishes you so much.”

The incubator was a device made for the little one. It was now useless and was left to sit idle, but fortunately, it found a use.

As Alan stared at the baby, the little one began to nibble at his ankles. He even tapped his tail on the floor for no reason.

“Go over there and play.”

Even when the magic stone was thrown, he remained still with a blank expression. Then, when the box flew away, he ran after it out of breath. The two of them got entangled and fought each other for the magic stone.

Everything started to break down as if the flow of time had suddenly come crashing down on me. Cracks appeared in the walls, dust fell from the ceiling, and the lights kept flickering.

“Let’s go out.”

“I guess there’s nothing I can do.”

“Do you feel regretful?”

“If you explore the ruins, it happens more than once or twice.”

There was nothing left to see in the shelter. After everyone had left, a few hours later, the sinkhole that was the entrance to the shelter disappeared without a trace.

The investigators took photographs of the baby and recorded his vital signs, which were displayed outside the incubator. Alan was always there.

“I’ll pay for the incubator separately.”

“It’s okay. I’ll always be by your side just in case.”

“Of course. Do whatever you want.”

Who could stop Alan, the incubator creator, from staying by and watching?

So night fell. As people went to sleep one by one, Alan sat next to the incubator.

Alan looked at the surveillance equipment installed around him. That was the end of the action. The screens connected to the equipment would only show Alan sitting there.

Alan turned his head and looked at the baby.

“Who are you? You seem to have a big soul for a baby…”

The baby opened his eyes straight and looked at Alan.