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Chapter 69




Oliver stood at the classroom door, took a deep breath, and firmly held the letter containing the secret that his mother had given him.
He was such a fervent fan of Phantom that he was willing to chase after all of his adventures, adversities, and everything else.
‘Don’t be nervous. Act like when I was Hudson.’
Oliver tried to steady his breath as much as possible.
He didn’t want to look like he was in pain.
He didn’t want anyone to worry about his health.
If that happened, the engagement between Serengeti and Pangea might fall through.
He hadn’t yet told Serengeti that he didn’t know when he would die and that he wasn’t actually human from Pangea.
He couldn’t have told him.
Fortunately, Phantom didn’t seem to have noticed his condition yet.
‘Act as normally as possible.’
But what does normal mean?
He had forgotten how to act normally because he hadn’t met people from the outside world for a long time.
However, he felt good.
Meeting someone he had fervently followed in real life.
Even though he tried not to be nervous, he kept feeling tense. His whole body was trembling.
It felt like a dream.
He couldn’t believe that Phantom was still right in front of him.
‘I will help him. I will burn everything I have for him!’
How many years had it been since he felt this motivated in reality?
Oliver had only received help from him all this time.
Phantom was the one who broke the egg that had trapped him.
If it weren’t for him, he wouldn’t have met Serengeti again and would have died with only regrets.
Seeing the hope in obtaining a spirit, witnessing his overwhelming presence, and being inspired by his perseverance to never give up—all of these felt as vivid as yesterday.
The hero’s appearance, charging forward without hesitation or retreat.
He wanted to emulate that.
He wished he had the same indomitable will.
So now it was his turn to help.
Enthusiasm burned in Oliver’s eyes.
*
【Your Bow Proficiency has increased to 10Lv (max).】
【To achieve a higher proficiency level, you need the corresponding class.】
【‘Rapid Growth’ level has been upgraded to 2.】
【‘Disciples’ abilities have significantly improved overall.】
【Reputation has increased by 50.】
For several days, he stayed in the castle and repeatedly traveled to Pangea.
All to prepare for the Labyrinth.
He didn’t forget to practice with Isaac and Isabella.
Finally, when all preparations were complete.
【‘Abyss Labyrinth’ has opened.】
【‘Abyss Labyrinth’ is connected to all warps.】
【To enter, 1h of Broken Golden Rule fragments will be consumed.】
Finally, the Abyss Labyrinth opened.
At the same time, ‘warps’ were created in various places on Earth.
In Pangea, they were forcibly connected to the existing warps.
This allowed everyone to travel to the ‘Abyss Labyrinth’ from any warp.
With many challengers, including myself, ready.
There was no time to waste.
【1h of Broken Golden Rule fragments will be consumed.】
【Remaining time is 968h 38m.】
【Entering ‘Abyss Labyrinth’.】
【Upon entering ‘Abyss Labyrinth’, a random ‘Action Condition’ has been added.】
【If you bow for more than 5 seconds, you will be forcibly ejected from the labyrinth.】
【‘Action Conditions’ change daily.】
A condition given to everyone entering the labyrinth!
‘Tough.’
It might seem easy on the surface, but if you don’t consciously correct your actions, you’re likely to be ejected.
Moreover, in a labyrinth where you don’t know what might jump out, having more things to worry about is a huge penalty.
Especially if the conditions change daily and even the slightest actions are restricted, it could lead to an impossible situation.
‘But it’s actually good.’
However, he wasn’t worried.
No, it was actually good.
Because he had a countermeasure.
【‘Heart of the Eternal Overlord’ deletes one random condition in the Abyss Labyrinth.】
【‘Action Condition’ has been deleted.】
Let’s start by deleting one.
Labyrinth Merchant
A floor slick with rotten water.
A foul smell of something decaying.
Whoosh! He lit a torch and looked around.
“······!”
Isaac’s eyes were filled with doubt.
Isabella and I felt the same.
Abyss Labyrinth.
We had anticipated it wouldn’t be easy, given its name, but not to this extent.
‘This place... is the abyss itself.’
Huge walls that seemed to have no end blocked the surroundings.
And on those walls, countless ‘hands’ of various kinds were attached.
The hands were alive, moving and pulling everything they grabbed towards the wall.
Additionally, the floor was crowded with the bodies of those who had been torn apart while resisting the hands.
A grand and bizarre scene. However, there was no time to linger.
“What are your ‘Action Conditions’?”
“You can’t hold hands for more than 3 seconds.”
“Don’t shake your head...”
Indeed, tough.
Fortunately, the good thing was that there were no restrictions on walking.
“What is your condition, Heir?”
“None.”
“Can it be none?”
Isaac’s eyes showed confusion.
“But I will act as if I have one.”
“Ah, to cause confusion?”
He nodded.
Action Conditions. Most of them were of the type ‘Do not do ~’.
His condition had been deleted by the ‘Heart of the Eternal Overlord’, but others didn’t know that.
So, he could use this to cause confusion.
After a moment of thought, he spoke.
“Don’t swing your right hand consecutively. Let’s go with that for today.”
The moment he added a self-imposed action condition.
*
Endless walls.
We walked through the muck between them.
Squish!
Thud!
An arrow flew and embedded itself in my side.
‘Choke!’
I almost screamed.
“Heir...”
“Shh.”
But I put a finger to my nose to silence them.
The side that had been pierced was excruciatingly painful, but dealing with the situation was more important now.
I heard the sound of an arrow flying through the air.
At a speed that could pierce my side before I could react.
If I hadn’t turned my body instinctively upon hearing the sound, I would have been shot in the heart.
‘Trap.’
It wasn’t shot by a person.
It was a trap.
Looking in the direction the arrow came from, I saw a crossbow installed on the wall.
Who had the nerve to install a crossbow on that wall?
That trap was unexpected even to me.
“There’s a Trapper ahead of us. And a high-level one at that.”
Trapper.
This was definitely set up by a person.
It didn’t have a rapid-fire function but was designed to shoot the heart of anyone who entered its range.
Splash!
I pulled out the arrow and drank a potion I had prepared in advance.
The blood that was gushing out stopped, and new flesh began to grow over the wound.
“How could they get ahead of us?”
Isabella asked, adding a bandage to the wound.
We thought we would be the first to enter since we came in as soon as it opened.
But there was someone ahead of us, setting traps.
And they were skilled enough to deceive all of our senses.
“Unless their entry point was in front of ours or they had a mount...”
Isaac answered.
The entry point in the labyrinth is random.
Of course, it wouldn’t be in the center, but there could be slight differences.
‘This is troublesome.’
Trappers are one of the most annoying classes to deal with.
Especially in a confined space like this, they exert absolute power.
A high-level Trapper could set up traps that attack with a time delay, not just by stepping on a certain area.
“Isabella, watch the rear. Isaac, watch the front.”
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
*
There are many traps.
However, once you are aware of them, they don’t pose a life-threatening danger.
They were relying on quantity rather than careful placement.
In other words, they knew we were catching up.
The speed at which they were setting traps was much slower than the speed at which we were breaking them, so they were setting them hastily to slow us down.
‘Got them.’
A group in the distance.
We finally caught up.
Two Trappers who kept setting traps and a Warrior protecting them.
“Already caught up?”
“What, those guys!”
The two Trappers shouted in surprise.
They must have already noticed that their traps were being destroyed, so their reaction was natural.
“Setting traps haphazardly leads to this. Trust me.”
A Warrior with tanned skin, his shirt off, his hair cut straight, and wielding a battle axe—a typical Barbarian.
【Lv.9】
A strong, high-level character.
But from his hairstyle, he was clearly a Desert Barbarian.
If his hair was cut straight, it meant he was a bodyguard of the Desert Queen’s inner circle.
They called them Barbarians.
“...Hmm, wait. I see a familiar face.”
The Barbarian’s gaze lingered on one person.
Isabella.
The Barbarian, now certain, burst out laughing.
“Hahaha! Snake Princess, the fugitive is here!”
“Executioner Yagumo...”
“After your eyes met with that guy called the Holy Horn, you ended up running here?”
“Why are you here?”
Isabella asked coldly.
But she couldn’t understand.
Why was a Barbarian, who should be protecting the Queen in the desert, in the Abyss Labyrinth?
“This is your grave, Snake Princess. You, a traitor to the Queen!”
There was no room for discussion.
Seeing the Barbarian charge like a bulldozer, Isabella said,
“I will handle him.”
“Go ahead.”
The same level 9.
If it were in the past, I would have stopped her, but she had grown.
“Snake Princess! You couldn’t beat me in the desert, and you think the result will be different now?”
“I am not the Snake Princess. You’re trash.”
While the two were facing off, Isaac and I ran past the Barbarian simultaneously.
The Barbarian didn’t care about us.
The two Trappers were surprised when the Barbarian didn’t protect them.
“What, what!”
“Yagumo! If you were hired for a lot of money, you should do your job!”
“FUCK! Logout!”
“Logout!”
They were trying to use the rule that logging out forces you to exit the labyrinth.
This meant that, unlike the Barbarian, these two were players.
Their appearances then overlapped.
The images of Pangea residents and Earth residents alternated.
At the same time, a warp appeared behind them.
The warp tried to suck them in, but...
Kyaa?
Helle, who was sitting on my shoulder, tilted her head.
Then the smoke surrounding her body turned red.
Snap!
Suddenly, the warp that was sucking them in stopped.
“What, what? Why can’t I log out?”
“What, what! Are you kidding me?”
This was strange.
Logging out should normally force you to exit the labyrinth.
The warp created behind them was supposed to transport them back to their original location.
But the two were still crawling on the floor in the form of Trappers.
‘Helle can manipulate warps within her range.’
This was now confirmed.
Helle not only could cut off warps but also had the ability to deny and allow them.
However, she couldn’t cut off any warp.
From several experiments, it was clear that Helle could cut off ‘ownerless warps’.
But if a warp manifested within her range, she could manipulate it.
Just like now.
Helle had ‘denied’ the two from using the warp.
‘In the Abyss, you can’t log out unless you use a warp.’
And he gained one more piece of information.
This was the Abyss.
Unlike the usual continents, it was a place where the goddess’s influence was minimal.
If you didn’t use a warp to move your main body back to the continent, a proper logout wouldn’t occur.
That’s why a warp is automatically created when you try to log out.
Thud.
Thud.
As I approached slowly, fear filled the eyes of the two Trappers.
“S, spare us!”
“What the hell...!”
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Distributed by Azit Novel (formerly Azitoon Novel).