Moon's Labyrinths

The news of Hyunwoo’s ambush, which really wasn’t an ambush, once again took the world by storm. To be precise, it raised the whole world's alert levels to a level so high that one couldn’t raise it anymore even if the world went further down the tubes.

Sungyoon entered a particular building. Since he and Plu-El resided in Korea, the Mayor practically lived in Korea too. Therefore, the Korean government had temporarily allocated them a building to work in. The building had a grandiose name: the Temporary City Hall of Armstrong City. There were only two such halls in this world, one in Korea and the other one in the US.

‘Still, the Temporary City Halls are useless since they are located on Earth.’

However, these buildings weren’t meaningless in the sense that they brought awareness to the population at large. They were a constant reminder of Armstrong city.

The building was big enough to back up its name. Giving Sungyoon and the others this building was a calculated move by the Korean government. If Armstrong city were to be regained, any help given right now would translate into more power within the city.

Of course, only a few rooms in the building were being used. After all, any bureaucratic work related to Armstrong city had ground to a halt.

‘Still, he's an amazing person. He could retain his position as the mayor of Armstrong city.’

Michael Smith, the mayor of Armstrong city, was known for being conservative. He always worked to take the safest path, but his abilities were undeniable. Some might make fun of him for being a coward, but Armstrong city had always been under constant threat from various avenues. A person with his traits was the ideal person to be the mayor of such a city.

That was why he could keep his mayoral seat despite losing Armstrong city.

Moreover, the world was too busy blocking the all-out attack from Grenoid, and Michael Smith was the only person available to take lead on the plan to recover Armstrong city.

“Do I go in here?”

Jiyoon looked nervous as she stood behind Sungyoon. Normally, she wouldn't come to these meetings, but Jungbum had grown to a considerable size. Jimin was the president of the company, and she couldn’t always follow Sungyoon, so she had started to slowly delegate more work regarding Sungyoon to Jiyoon.

Jiyoon wasn’t a simple temp worker anymore. She acted like Sungyoon's manager.

Not too long ago, Sungyoon had asked Jiyoon how her college was going. The workload on her plate wasn’t something she should be able to keep up with as a full-time student.

She looked abashed, but proud at the same time as she had replied to him.

‘I'm working directly under the great Knight. Of course, my university made sure that my work under you is counted toward my college credit.’

Jiyoon’s major was related to the study of labyrinths and moonstones. Therefore, the arrangement made sense. However, her university was amongst the top five universities in Korea, so Sungyooon was a bit surprised upon hearing that they had been so flexible.

Sungyoon and Jiyoon got on the elevator. The Mayor’s office was located on the top floor, and the elevator quickly reached the place. When the door opened, Sungyoon immediately stepped toward the Mayor’s office.

“Nonsense!”

A loud noise erupted from within the office.

Sungyoon had been about to knock on the door. His hand froze in the air, and he turned to look at Jiyoon, who stood next to him. Her eyes had turned round as she stared at the door.

“Even if he committed a crime, you have no right to confiscate his enormous fortune!”

Sungyoon felt a little bit of anger rise within him. He had never heard this voice before, but the voice was dripping with greed, and Sungyoon was very familiar with that quality.

‘Her voice sounds like the voice of my ex-wife or Jimin’s mother.’

The matter must be an important one since such a woman had gotten involved. She sounded like a hyena blindly searching for money, and Sungyoon had no desire to spend any time with her.

He unenthusiastically knocked on the door several times and entered with a strong preconceived notion of the woman.

It was called the Mayor’s office, but it looked as if a small company had been shoved into a large floor. Sungyoon caught sight of a woman arguing with one of the employees.

Her face was full of wrinkles, but it still retained signs of beauty. One could tell that she would've been popular amongst men in her youth. However, her slanted eyes revealed her extreme temper, and the shape of her mouth revealed the extent of her greed.

“Ah! You're here, Mr. Sungyoon!”

The employee greeted Sungyoon in an exaggerated manner. He looked hopeful as he thought he could use Sungyoon to get away from this tenacious woman.

“I’m sorry, Madam. Your opinions don’t matter. If you're dissatisfied with the ruling, please go through the court. Please do it through official channels.”

The employee didn't even wait for her answer as he got up.

“Are you here to see the Mayor?”

“Yes. I was told it was an urgent matter, so please lead me to him right now.”

Sungyoon wasn't here on urgent business; he just wanted to help the employee escape this tough situation.

It seemed Sungyoon had guessed right about the situation as the employee’s face brightened.

“Since it's an urgent business for the Knight, I’ll lead you to the Mayor right now!”

The employee spoke in a loud voice as if he were performing for an audience.

“As you can see, you’ll have to leave for today. ”

The woman chewed on her lips. She wanted to say some sharp words, but she was having a hard time coming up with the right words.

The employee used this opportunity to quickly lead Sungyoon and Jiyoon away.

After a moment, the woman pushed her anger down. She fumed as she snatched up her handbag and barged out the door. The door slowly closed behind her.

“Whew~! She’s finally gone.”

He shouldn't be saying this in front of guests, but the employee had suffered too much under the woman’s barrage. However, an embarrassed expression soon appeared on his face as he led Sungyoon to the Mayor’s room.

When the door opened, the Mayor scrunched up his face in displeasure. However, his face relaxed when he saw Sungyoon in the doorway.

“Ah! You're here, Mr. Sungyoon.”

He guided Sungyoon and Jiyoon to the sofa.

“I’m sorry. A person was causing me a lot of headaches earlier...”

“I saw the woman outside.”

The Mayor’s forehead creased up once again.

“She is Hyunwoo Sung’s mother.”

As if he needed to vent to someone, the Mayor answered the unasked question.

The unexpected information surprised Sungyoon.

“His mother? Was she here to argue his innocence?”

It seemed she was a mother. If she was really here for such a person, he would have to revise his opinion of her.

As expected, he shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

“If she were here for that, I would've taken pity on her. But no. She came here for his money.”

He should have known. It seemed he could indeed judge a book by the cover. His initial instinct was right.

“Didn’t the government confiscate his entire fortune?”

“Yes. He's a traitor to humanity, and his actions caused an astronomical amount of damage.”

“Did that woman receive a penalty too?”

Even if Hyunwoo had caused immense harm to humanity, he was an individual. Most countries couldn’t pursue damages using guilt by association.

Despite knowing this, Sungyoon wondered if she was punished somehow. That could explain her rage.

“No way! She just didn’t like the fact that her son’s entire fortune would belong to the government. She started showing up a couple of days ago. She thinks she has a right to a portion of her son’s fortune. She even argued that she should have the entirety of his fortune.”

“Did she talk about her son?”

“It was surprising, but she wasn’t interested in him even one bit.”

The Mayor let out a sigh.

“Honestly, I shouldn't have been surprised. It was one of the phenomena that occurred when Connectors started making an exorbitant amount of money through the labyrinths and the moonstones.”

Sungyoon could feel Jiyoon’s eyes twinkle. As someone who was still young, she was curious about such topics.

“I’ve researched into Hyunwoo Sung’s past. He doesn’t have a father.”

The Mayor rubbed at his neck.

“Hyunwoo Sung’s mother used to work on the Moon when she was young. She was a prostitute who specialized in working with Connectors. Moreover, she bore three children from her line of work, their fathers unknown.”

“I’m guessing she didn’t have those children because she liked kids?”

“Of course not. She wanted to become a mother of a Connector. That was why she worked on the Moon. She wanted to receive a Connector's seed. However, she was one of the many unlucky ones. All three of her children didn’t show signs of awakening. In a flash, the three children became a burden to her. From that point on, she started treating them poorly.”

Both Sungyoon and Jiyoon frowned.

“Since she was able to work on the Moon, she was pretty. However, she wasn’t beautiful enough to serve the really high rank Connectors. Her main clientele were 1st Gen Connectors. It doesn’t matter what Gen the father is; the children born from any gen of Connectors awaken at a similar rate. However, she concluded that her children didn’t awaken as Connectors because they were the children of 1st Gen Connectors. She spoke all kinds of unkind things about 1st Gen Connectors in front of her children.”

Sungyoon treasured Shinhae, who was a normal human, and the actions of Hyunwoo’s mother was unthinkable to him.

“Thankfully for her, Hyunwoo Sung awakened late as a Connector. As if that wasn’t enough, he became one of the top Connectors of Earth. After many twists and turns, her gamble had succeeded. Afterward, she lived the good life on the money Hyunwoo Sung earned.”

“She is acting that way because she can no longer live a life of luxury? Is she that disappointed?”

“She is. Her golden goose is now gone, and it spurred her into action.”

It might be a serious issue for her, but no one felt sympathy for her.

“What about her own fortunes?”

“It seems she could withdraw the money from Hyunwoo Sung’s bank account at will. So she didn’t accumulate much wealth in her own name. Now that his accounts are frozen, she has no idea how she’ll live. Her future is dim.”

The Mayor rubbed his hands.

“Let’s stop talking about that subject. We have other urgent matters to discuss. First of all, I’m glad you're safe, Mr. Sungyoon.”

The Mayor almost had a heart attack when he had received news that Hyunwoo had ambushed Sungyoon.

“We’ll increase the number of guards around you and deploy more people around all your family members.”

Sungyoon felt such a move was useless.

‘He won’t be able to assign Connectors to guard us.’

Connectors were the main line of defense against monsters; they couldn’t be reassigned so easily. And regular police and soldiers had no chance against Connectors and monsters.

Still, it was better than nothing.

‘I can’t always keep them by my side.’

Most Connectors and troops were useless against a Connector of Sung Hyunwoo’s caliber. As expected, they had to stop the monsters from attacking Earth.

“Has the frequency of the attacks decreased?”

“It's still the same.”

The Mayor shook his head from side to side.

“It isn’t just the monsters. The Rejected are causing a lot of trouble too. The Connector you killed not too long ago was one of the Rejected.”

“Wasn’t he a Connector?”

The Rejected was a group consisting of those children of Connectors who couldn't become Connectors.

“According to our investigation, Fabion had been conducting some outrageous experiments.”

The Mayor brought out a thick envelope of documents from the drawer of his desk.

He pushed it toward Sungyoon. Sungyoon read the documents, and his face stiffened.

“Is this true?”

“All true.”

Sungyoon started to flip through the documents faster. It appeared as though he were taking a cursory look, but he made sure to read all the crucial information.

“We’ve confirmed all the information with Fabion’s chairman Lee Dongin.”

Sungyoon almost threw down the documents.

“They were artificially making Connectors...”

“Among the Rejected, all the ones in charge of fighting are Connectors now.”

It truly was a shocking piece of news.