Moon's Labyrinths

Chelsea was barely able to convince the two that they were wrong. Children at that age could pick up a couple of words from their surroundings. The fact that Shinhae knew a couple of English words didn’t mean she was a genius. Chelsea was careful, but firm with her words.

Sungyoon and Jimin looked a bit dissatisfied. However, they didn’t become unreasonable by arguing against Chelsea. They quietly accepted her words, and Chelsea let out a sigh of relief. The two of them had become idiots, but they weren’t too far gone where they couldn’t be helped.

The dinner continued.

Sungyoon was mostly interested in seeing his daughter eat dinner, but it wasn’t as if he didn’t converse with the other guests. As for some of them, it was the first time meeting each other, things had been awkward in the beginning. However, as time passed, everyone started to speak more freely.

This was especially true for Sungyoon, Tim, Emily, and Jimin. The three Connectors would be assigned Personal Labyrinths in the near future, and Jimin was the president of a Connector company. Information about future work started to flow between them.

“You’ve already purchased a Moon Surface Vehicle?”

Tim was truly surprised as he spoke.

“You are very quick. Our company is just having meetings about the labyrinths we’ll be assigned.”

Jimin shrugged her shoulders. There was pride in her gesture.

“I’ve already finished making preparations beforehand. I had made sure that there will be a seamless transition towards raiding the Personal Labyrinth when Mr. Sungyoon cleared the Beginner’s Labyrinth.”

However, it was as if she suddenly remembered something. Her shoulders had been pulled back in pride before, but now they were hunched. She chewed her lips a couple of times, as if the words were stuck in her throat. She was barely successful in spitting out her next words.

“Mr. Sungyoon has to aim for the Great Labyrinth.”

However, the people around her didn’t notice the fierce internal struggle occurring within her.

“I’m very jealous. Our company is doing everything they can to stop us from going into the Great Labyrinth.”

The president was explicit in stating their goal of raiding the Great Labyrinth. It left a deep impression within Tim and Emily. At that moment, Jimin’s eyes shone.

“I’m guessing your company is opposed to the idea of you raiding the Great Labyrinth?”

“You don’t know the half of it. The president, employees, and fellow Connectors of our company keep telling us that our goal is foolish. They tell us that we have a hero complex, and that we are trying to look cool by doing something dangerous. They say to us that it is foolhardy of us to put our life on the line for the Great Labyrinth.”

Tim usually refrained from talking about private details of their company, but this time, he was frustrated. His frustration made him speak out.

Jimin was like a carnivore crouched within a bush. She pounced at her prey. She stealthily directed her words towards Tim.

“What happens if your company opposes you until the end? What if they move to stop you from entering into the Great Labyrinth?”

“Well, what is there to do? There is no way we’ll give up on the Great Labyrinth. We’ll probably leave the company.”

It was as if she had been waiting for those exact words. Jimin quietly placed two business cards in front of Tim and Emily.

“What is this?”

“It is my business card.”

Tim and Emily picked up the business card, which had Jimin’s name, company name, contact info, and more. It was the standard business card one could see everywhere.

“If you do leave your company, please keep my company in your list of potential destinations. At the very least, my company will do everything in its power to support you in your quest to raid the Great Labyrinth. You wouldn’t have to tiptoe around anyone, and you can party with Mr. Sungyoon. Those are the upsides to joining our company.”

“Are you trying to scout us?”

Emily couldn’t tear her eyes away from the business card as she asked the question. She didn’t sound as if she felt offended by the offer. In fact, she sounded quite interested in it.

“I won’t deny it. The chances of a successful raid in the Great Labyrinth goes up as one gathers more talent.”

In truth, Jimin’s offer was very appealing to Tim and Emily. Above all else, the prospect of being able to party with Sungyoon was the biggest selling point.

“What’s the downside?”

Tim had said it as a joke. Unexpectedly, Jimin was truthful with them and told them about the downside of joining her company.

“My company is small. It is VERY small.”

She put a strong emphasis on the word ‘very’. Tim and Emily had talked with Sungyoon about his company before, so they already knew this fact. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the size of the company was proportional to the amount of support it could give. This was why Tim and Emily had to be very deliberate in choosing a company if they did decide to move on.

“If we somehow have to leave our company, we’ll think about it.”

Tim put away the business card as he spoke. Was he being serious? Or was he saying it because he wanted to save her face? It was something only Tim knew. Emily followed Tim as she put away the business card.

Jimin wasn’t able to get a definite answer, but she didn’t look disappointed. She was just taking her shots.

The Ross siblings were affiliated with a large company that was well-known within Canada. It would be brave or dumb to leave such a company, just because of a disagreement. How many people would actually follow through with leaving such a large company? Still, Jimin knew that the Ross siblings had a lot of goodwill towards Sungyoon, and she was just using this ‘goodwill’ to her advantage.

She really wanted to scout both of them into her company.

‘I have to try my best.’

Sungyoon was her last hope. She would give it her all in trying to support Sungyoon. She was trying to lure in the sibling because she wanted Sungyoon to work with colleagues that he was familiar with.

She was looking towards the future with hope, yet, she still felt uneasiness boil up from within.

Jimin could see that the Ross sibling’s goals didn’t align with their current company’s goals. This was why she was trying to scout them. However, she wasn’t the only one that was capable of scouting Connectors.

She took a glance towards Sungyoon.

In a very short amount of time, he had been assigned a Personal Labyrinth. He was a 1st Gen Connector that was capable of using a Gold rank Gem at the minimum.

If this information became widely known, all kinds of companies and countries would try to scout Sungyoon. He would be flooded with offers. When she thought about Sungyoon’s worth, she knew that the debt she had purchased were pennies in comparison.

Fortunately, Sungyoon wasn’t showing any signs of leaving her company. However, one could never know what the future had in store. As soon as Sungyoon would leave for a different company, Jimin’s hope and future would crumble into the ground. She would have no more resources to pursue her dream, and she would have no chance of finding a prospect better than Sungyoon.

However, that might be better for Sungyoon. At the very least, he would have no one above him that would want to push him towards entering the Great Labyrinth. She was probably the only crazy person in the world that wanted to push a high-rank 1st Gen Connector into the Great Labyrinth.

But even if she knew all this, she had no choice but to move forward. The only thing she could do was to work to the best of her ability.

It happened at that moment.

“Noonim?”

She heard a familiar voice, and Jimin turned to look at the owner of the voice.

A man stood a bit away, and he was looking down at her. She knew him. He was family.

“Hello, Woosang.”

It was her brother Hahn Woosang. They had never expected to meet each other at this restaurant, so both of them were surprised.

“What brings you here?”

Jimin stood up as she asked the question.

“Some of our Connectors were assigned Personal Labyrinths this year. As their sunbae, I’m here to celebrate with them.”

Woosang pointed backward, where several people were clustered together. Jimin’s eyes were drawn to one person. Her eyebrows shot up. Her eyes displayed her distaste, and a very dark emotion started to rise up from her heart.

It seemed this person had also recognized her. He couldn’t hide his shock, and he started looking nervous. His eyes were shaking as he tried to avoid looking at Jimin.

Jimin looked away from him. She wasn’t even going to acknowledge his presence. She threw away the unpleasant memories outside of her heart.

“What brings you here, noonim?”

“I’m here for the same reason as you.”

Jimin pointed towards her side. He caught sight of Sungyoon, who was wiping Shinhae’s sauce-covered mouth. Woosang picked up on what Jimin meant, and he became very surprised by it.

“You are… Mr. Sungyoon, right?”

“Yes. It has been a while.”

Sungyoon and Woosang exchanged brief greetings. In the past, Woosung had been rude to Sungyoon, and he had gone along with his brother to apologize to him. After that incident, this was his first time seeing Sungyoon. They never really had the opportunity to interact with each other. It would be understandable if he still felt a bit of resentment towards the incident involving Woosung, but Sungyoon hadn’t taken Woosung’s rudeness to heart at all.

“You are at a level where you can be assigned a Personal Labyrinth?”

From what he knew, Sungyoon had worked as a Connector for Jimin’s company for a year at most. He was only a 1st Gen Connector, yet, he had been assigned a Personal Labyrinth.

One needed Devices and Gems of certain quality and quantity to be assigned a Personal Labyrinth. Moreover, most companies required their Connectors to clear the Beginner’s Labyrinth to gain experience. It meant that Sungyoon had gone to the 10th floor of the Beginner’s Labyrinth. If he pieced together other clues, Woosang came to the conclusion that Sungyoon had completely cleared the Beginner’s Labyrinth in less than a year. It was an extremely short amount of time.

“I was lucky.”

Sungyoon replied.

“You are amazing. Your speed is on a different level compared to the other 1st Gen.”

Woosang spoke as he glanced at the people he had brought. There was only one 1st Gen in his group. Everyone had taken notice of the fact that Sungyoon had received a Personal Labyrinth really quickly. However, Woosang had taken a subtle dig at one of his party members by comparing Sungyoon to him. This person looked as if he had swallowed a bug. Woosang felt a bit better when he saw this. This bastard had always made him feel a deep sense of displeasure. He always had that feeling when this bastard entered his company after betraying his noona.

“I’m glad you are an employee of my noonim’s company.”

“Pfft!”

Jimin burst out laughing. Sungyoon was surprised. There was nothing funny in Woosang’s words, so he was confused. He had no idea what was funny. However, it seemed that Chelsea knew something as she also burst out laughing alongside Jimin. She laughed a bit louder than Jimin. It was as if she wanted to send a message to someone.

“Ah! Ms. Chelsea, you are here too.”

“Hello, Woosang. It’s been a while.”

Woosang had noticed her when she laughed, and it seemed the two of them were acquaintances. Chelsea was Jimin’s best friend, so this wasn’t odd at all.

“It seems I’ve taken up too much of your time. I have to entertain others too. Please have a good time.”

“Yes. You have a good time too.”

After he received a response from Jimin, Woosang said goodbye to Sungyoon and Chelsea. He led his group to a table a bit farther away.

“He grew up to be a good man.”

“He’s still a kid.”

Jimin and Chelsea conversed about Woosang. Then, Chelsea suddenly looked towards Sungyoon.

“Do you perhaps know that person, Mr. Sungyoon?”

Chelsea pointed towards one of the people in Woosang’s party.

“Chelsea!”

Jimin furrowed her brows as she tried to stop Chelsea. However, Chelsea would take none of it.

“Why? It isn’t as if I’m going to say unfair words about him.”

Sungyoon looked to where Chelsea was pointing at. There was a man who clearly had an awkward expression on his face. He kinda squirmed as if he had done something wrong. However, he didn’t know this person.

“I don’t know him.”

“He’s that guy. He’s one of Jimin’s previous employees who ran out after stabbing her in the back.”