Chapter 54 Part 2:  Saving Private Kim Tae-Byung  

He bowed deeply towards everyone.

Who can fathom the terrible feeling of someone who vowed to be firm, consistent, and as unbreakable as bamboo, to be bending over backwards for the sake of young people who have not yet blossomed?

A pensive mood immediately sets in.

“You are free to leave at any moment, and those of you who choose to remain, please pay attention to what I have to say.”

He pointed up and to the right of the four directions.

“These two places we marked, will be taken over by our guild..”

“Is that possible?”

“Yes. It’s possible.”

How? How will they be able to do that? But Lee Hyung-woo sounded confident.

“These two places have relatively narrow terrain, so we can follow the tankers and figure out where the walls end and form a camp. We can also leave marks on these spots with our vaunted tankers.”

Everyone nodded at that. Tankers from Big Dipper have a reputation for moving as if they were dancing.

The formation of a linked camp was also reliable.

“I would like to request help for the other two locations.”

“We’ll take the left one.”

Jo Yeon-Ho raised his hand to speak.

Hyewon-Unnie, who was sitting behind him, seemed to have given the instructions.

“Thank you.”

“We’ll take the bottom.”

A woman dressed entirely in black accepted the request. The crest on her chest was a white raven on a black background.

Nightwalkers.

It’s an assassin’s guild that specialized in scouting.

“Scouting is our specialty,” she said, “But we’d also like to have a team nearby to assist us on our signal. It’s hard to rescue and scout at the same time.”

Everyone was grateful to have the Nightwalkers cover the bottom area, which was also the widest part. So the other guilds nodded at them in agreement.

“Finally, let me tell you about… the boss monster at this gate.”

That was the highlight.

The atmosphere tightened as if time was suddenly constricted.

“This boss monster appears to be a type of monster that has never been identified before. Its habitat appears to be all over this gate, and it’s very difficult to spot. It usually hides in the mist a lot. So If you see anything suspicious, please radio in immediately.”

It was a terse message, given how little information was known, but the weight it carried was not light.

We all packed light and stood in front of the entrance of the gate.

A gap was seen in the oddly distorted space, beyond which unknown colors disappeared and reappeared countless times.

“Rescue time is up to 24 hours! If it goes beyond that, others will be in danger, so we will withdraw immediately!”

“Yes!”

“Understood!”

“Then let’s enter!”

They disappeared into the entrance of the gate one-by-one.

After everyone had entered, it was Netherworld’s turn.

I was standing next to Hyewon-unnie, and I took a step forward after them. I suddenly experienced a sensation of floating,

?Notice: You have entered the gate!?

?Verifying user…?

?Verified User: «Han Seo-Ha» (Awakener)?

?Connecting system…?

I then arrived eerily to a familiar place— A gate.

‘It’s all red.’

True to its name, the air was pervaded with a red hazy mist.

I can barely see through it.

«Spatial Interference»

I activated the skill to scan the surrounding space, and I could almost see the people around me.

People began to use their Reconnaissance skill one-by-one, to scan their surroundings.

It’s a basic rule of the rescue party, that a member must possess the ‘Reconnaissance skill’ or something similar.

This is because movement is essential.

“Everyone, this way. We’re going to move to the left!”

Pyo Hye-won shouted, and we all started running to the left in unison.

As we ran, I looked around every corner for survivors.

I continued to maintain the spatial interference for a long period of time. It was pretty tiring, but not impossible.

However, we didn’t get to see any survivors as we continued walking forward.

It wasn’t long before we reached the end of our section.

In the middle of nowhere, at what we presumed was the point where the link was broken, there was…

Nothing.

“There’s nothing there, right?”

“Yes, Guildmaster.”

‘Where the hell did everyone go…’

That was strange.

The map obviously showed that there were forks in the road all around this area, but there were none here.

There were only two paths. It didn’t take me long to figure out what was going on.

“… It’s moving.”

It’s a Moving maze.

That was what this gate was all about.

When I reached that point, I quickly looked at Pyo Hye-won.

She had guessed the same thing and was speaking into her radio.

“It seems that this place is moving, so we shouldn’t trust the information we saw beforehand.”

?What??

?No wonder I couldn’t see the end even though I kept walking… I got it. The rescuers are also in danger, we need to evacuate immediately!?

“No, we’ve made it to where we last lost contact, and unless the scouts haven’t noticed, the gate isn’t going to change in a short period of time. There’s another path besides the one we came in, and if we follow it, we might be able to meet up with them!”

If the gate isn’t changing rapidly, it’s likely that the people who were there before we lost contact with them also encountered the same terrain.

There’s one road we walked in on, and one road we didn’t.

It’s all too clear where we would head to.

?… If you feel anything out of the ordinary, you need to pull out immediately. We felt sorry for the other missing people, but we don’t want more people to be sacrificed in the rescue effort.?

“Alright, don’t worry, we’ll go in small groups.”

As the transmission ended, Hye-won and I exchanged glances.

I nodded my head.

We both knew where we were headed.

It was on another straight path.

He might be in there.

Kim Tae-Byung.

‘Is he alive?’

I wondered if I could handle it if I came face to face with his dead body.

?

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