Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 428



Only Krnovel

Excavation (10)

A few minutes after finishing the call with Goldberg, the caretaker of the mansion came rushing in. The old caretaker remained calm despite his master’s urgent orders and greeted the three intruders with great hospitality.

“Follow me.”

It felt very natural to walk along the forest path wearing a butler’s uniform. As I left the forest, I saw a mansion and a garden full of flowers, and the gold color filled my eyes as if it were proof of the ownership of the El Dorado Bank.

The caretaker guided the guests to a good spot to admire the flowers. He pointed to a covered outdoor table.

“If you are resting, I will prepare some food to satisfy your hunger.”

A moment later, a maid automaton wearing a steel skirt brought out breakfast: toast, ham, fried eggs, etc. Oros handed Henry a piece of sugar-sprinkled toast.

“Henry, you said you were hungry earlier, right?”

“I’m fine. Why don’t you eat bread?”

“Eating sugar causes muscle loss.”

“You’re a professor, so you’re saying such nonsense. It’s okay to eat in moderation! And is your body going to break down just because you eat a little sugar?”

Henry stabbed Oros’s arm muscle with a knife. Instead of drawing blood, the knife simply bent.

“If you treat the villa’s belongings carelessly···.”

“It’s okay. Mr. Allen, please.”

The bent knife straightened out in an instant. Thanks to [Molecular Assembly], it became as good as new, with light streaming from the blade.

“It’s really amazing. But why have you been feeling the air with your fingers all this time?”

“Henry, just let me concentrate.”

Alan split his mind into three: one to think about eating, two to think about unlocking the storage device security pattern, and three to think about the results of the expedition.

‘What a pity.’

I participated in an attempt to figure out what the relationship was between ancient civilizations and their destruction, but I didn’t get a clear answer.

Of course, if scholars heard Allen’s thoughts, they would likely curse him for having lost his conscience. Research doesn’t produce results in a few days, and even accidental discoveries are the result of years of effort.

But one thing I learned: the destruction was persistent and malicious.

The destruction of a country does not mean that it is the end. The culture, people, and architecture remain, only the signboards change.

But this time, the destruction we encountered truly destroyed everything. Coatl’s soul became an empty shell.

“Professor Henry. Oh, it must be dawn there. Sorry for the late hour. Is the baby okay? What? Dead?”

The baby rescued from the shelter also stopped breathing. The ancient man suffering from hyper-magic also met his end while climbing out of the labyrinth, so perhaps it was a foreseen future.

‘At least they don’t take away knowledge or things carelessly. I like that.’

On the other hand, I had another thought. Dragon, the master of the Reptilian Assassins, said, ‘Unauthorized knowledge brings destruction.’

‘At what point does civilization reach the point where the labyrinth moves? So it is generous with knowledge?’

Isn’t it like they’re livestock raised to be eaten?

‘Interesting.’

Even the most terrifying assumptions couldn’t stop Alan’s curiosity.

‘Will it make any difference if I quit alone?’

No matter how much I thought about it, the answer was ‘No.’ The world was obsessed with exploring mazes and the knowledge that came from them. Progress would never stop just because Alan was careful.

‘Let’s do as we have been doing.’

If I meet destruction on a single-log bridge, I won’t be able to escape anyway. Until then, I plan to enjoy the exploration as much as possible.

‘Maybe I’ll figure out a way to destroy the bridge and bring about destruction…’

After spending several hours in this and that thought, a dark shadow loomed over my head. Some of my gaze caught sight of a pitch-black squid floating in the sky.

It was the Eldorado Bank’s private jet. It was so urgent that it landed vertically in the garden. The caretaker noticed uprooted plants and flying flower petals and closed his eyes gently.

Acting Chairman Goldberg came rushing through the open door, his face blazing with urgency, while Alan, Oros, and Henry moved about leisurely, like tourists.

“You came at a time when I was getting bored. Let’s go soon.”

“Thank you for treating me well.”

In response to Oros’ words, the caretaker said that he did not know the master’s speed and asked him to visit again.

The interior of the private jet looked like a hotel room, not an airplane. The box and the kid went off to explore, and Goldberg sat Alan next to him.

“How did you find out?”

“I was lucky.”

“I told you to do whatever you want, but in reality, it was more of a joke… Haa… What happened to the gold bars I piled up?”

“I only took two gold bars.”

It was a box and a toy for a little boy to play with. Alan was not interested in gold as currency, although he might have been interested in gold as a material.

“Thank you so much.”

“I am more grateful.”

“···Did something happen inside? Don’t just stay still, please answer me.”

At those meaningful words, sweat poured down Goldberg’s face. He quickly wiped it away with his beard and shot Allen a desperate look.

“Are you curious about the past?”

The dwarven bloodline of the El Dorado Bank were indeed descendants of El Dorado, the slaves who stabbed their master in the back, and what choices they made for future generations.

Goldberg opened his mouth slightly at Alan’s words. His eyes continued to roll around.

“I thought it was a relic discovered by chance···.”

“The history of banking goes back over a thousand years. Are there no records left by our ancestors from back then?”

“There have been many things that have happened in the past. Even countries often falter after 100 years, so why should banks be any different? There’s a reason why their names change so often.”

While Goldberg quietly wiped his beard, Alan took out the storage device. As befitting a civilization that loved gold, the storage device resembled a gold bar.

“You said you only took two gold bars.”

“This is not gold.”

El Dorado was a storage device containing records or knowledge of the civilization. It was first lost while being chased by the abomination, secondarily destroyed during the dwarf rebellion, and thirdly lost when the dwarves who restored it with reproductive cells thought it was gold and used it as funds.

“Lastly, time took its toll. There was only one good storage device left.”

“Anyway, it’s ours···.”

“Surely someone told me to do whatever I want.”

Goldberg was about to speak when he felt an intense gaze. His eyes met those of Professor Oros, a large man who looked like an orc but also resembled a troll.

“Ownership must be clearly defined···.”

“Ahem!”

“Let’s make the knowledge that comes out of the storage device a common property. It can never be compromised.”

Goldberg finished his speech, having overcome the momentum of Depth 6. He was briefly embarrassed by Allen, but he was the acting chairman of a global organization disguised as a bank.

Alan took off his golden crown and placed his hand on the storage device. Stars that only those worthy could see appeared in the sky. Alan ran his finger among the stars.

It was just a labor without a clue, but Alan silently continued. Why did he go through all this trouble? Because the knowledge was inside. That was his feeling.

The fingers moved so fast that I could hear the wind cutting through them. If I were to touch the metal plate, it would just rip apart.

Goldberg moved away from her madness or even her ghostly behavior. As she opened the liquor refrigerator to relieve her frustration, Henry followed her like a shadow.

When the number of patterns attempted on the private plane reached 5,000, excluding the 20,000 that had been performed at the villa, Alan’s fingers stopped.

‘at las.’

The star-engraved door opened, and the secret hidden inside showed its face.

[Occurrence of disease]

From the beginning, bold content flowed out. Oros, who sensed something, approached, but the letters were visible only to Alan.

‘Disease would mean disgust.’

It was time to learn about the origins of the abomination that was so deadly to the ancients and young dragons.

[The corpse of a monster is discovered in a dimensional rift. The four great families cooperate in research.]

[The more I study the monster, the more confused I become. If evolution has an end point, the closest creature is right before my eyes.]

[It is clear that this is a gift from Sachamama to the people of El Dorado.]

‘What is Sachamama? Is he a dragon, a leader or an object of faith?’

The question that came to Alan’s mind quickly subsided when he saw the following sentence.

[The 10th evolution experiment failed. However, a powerful biological weapon was acquired. It is expected that it will have an absolute advantage in the event of war with an enemy nation.]

The abomination was not a natural disaster, but a catastrophe brought about by ancient civilization itself.

Oros became interested after hearing Alan’s summary.

“A monster that is close to the end of evolution… What could it be?”

“hmm···.”

Alan pretended to be troubled, but he actually knew. The ‘perfect corpse’ that the Katan’s powder had been talking about in the 58th floor lab was none other than the monster.

The problem was that the world was now repeating the same things that the ancient civilizations had done. It had been over 20 years since Katan died, so perhaps one of the secret labs had created the disease.

“Mr. Alan, is there anything else?”

“yes.”

“I feel sorry.”

In any case, ancient civilizations studied monsters and achieved results. They developed physical treatments to cure the terrible diseases of the abomination and hyper-magic.

‘The procedure is only effective for patients with hypermania. What is the cause?’

Alan thought about the blood and somatic cells he had secretly extracted from Taylor. He had intended to study them after work, but looking at the records, he knew they were not something to be messed with.

‘Let’s prepare thoroughly and conduct research.’

Of course, there was no choice not to do it.

Alan found the kid exploring the plane with the box. It was time to change the barrel. He used [Space Control] to call the kid right in front of him.

Kyuureuk?

The little boy who was about to chew something quickly closed his mouth. Alan threw a magic stone to him and checked his power suit while the little boy licked it.

The power suit was a piece of equipment that protected the boy and concealed his identity, while also serving as a storage facility for the scales and bodily fluids he sheds.

As soon as the inspection was over, the boy ran to Uda. As Alan rolled the can in his hand, the black scales and fluid inside shook back and forth.

‘Once we finish antibody research, the risk will be greatly reduced.’

Oros stared blankly at the boy, knowing his true identity. Henry looked at his friend strangely.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a thieving expression.”

“Henry, you’re a bandit.”

“If you take a picture and show it to the babies, they look like they’re going to burst into tears.”

Meanwhile, Alan hid the barrel in his bosom and dug through the storage device to the bottom. The only remaining storage device also had scars here and there from the passage of time. Alan managed to salvage two pieces of information that could have disappeared at any moment.

The first was an augmentation procedure using the body of a monster. One family that participated in the research quickly changed course after realizing that they were not able to reach the same level.

‘Similar to Yong In-hwa, no, it’s a better treatment.’

It greatly enhanced physical and intellectual abilities, and felt like it was forcibly breaking the limitations of paper. However, it had the disadvantage of requiring periodic administration of stabilizers.

‘The stabilizer’s material is the body of a monster. In fact, it must be considered dependent.’

The second was information about a substance that had been imbued with magic and hardened like metal. It was a secret that had been secretly extracted by a spy dispatched from El Dorado.

‘The description of the appearance is exactly the same as Ice Steel.’

The interesting information was that the larger the Ice Steel, the stronger its resistance to mysterious phenomena. Alan naturally thought of the place with the most Ice Steel. Oros, who heard the explanation, was the same.

“Ice Steel can only be mined in Kasara.”

Iceteel was discovered around the same time as the Labyrinth, and the Destroyer staying in Kasara was an unidentified figure.