Moon's Labyrinths

The information regarding the return of Armstrong city's survivors and the arrest of Fabion was gradually released to the news. This was a scandal that had developed after the fall of Armstrong city. Therefore, the government had controlled the release of the information to get ahead of the media frenzy.

A large company had acted in an immoral manner. Moreover, the crimes weren’t the usual tax evasion, embezzlement, or bribery. It wasn’t a political crime. It was murder, and this news shocked everyone.

On top of that, the media soon dropped another bombshell on the public: the existence of the Moon people. Of course, the public was going crazy. People were starting to theorize the possibility of Fabion causing the downfall of Armstrong city.

The world had focused its attention on Korea, where the core members of Fabion were imprisoned.

“Hey, Jimin! It’s been a while!”

“Chelsea!”

As Chelsea gave a big wave, Jimin rushed forward to hug her.

Her best friend and her husband had gone missing at the same time. It had been a big source of worry for Jimin. Just a while ago, Chelsea had told her through the phone that she was fine. However, Jimin couldn’t help but shed tears when she saw her best friend in real life.

“Ah haha! Were you worried about me?”

“Of course, you dummy!”

When Jimin saw Chelsea laugh without a care in the world, she snapped. It was unlike her, but Chelsea’s cheeky expression triggered her. She lightly punched Chelsea’s side. Yet Chelsea reacted in an exaggerated manner; she held her side and groaned.

Sungyoon stood off to the side as he watched the old two friends reunite.

“I’m glad to see it.”

Grace, who stood next to him, also looked at the reunion with a small smile on her face. Tim and Emily had similar expressions too.

“Where’s the Mayor?”

When the situation calmed down, Sungyoon asked Chelsea, who was arranging her disheveled hair.

“Follow me.”

Chelsea pushed up her thick glasses. Whenever she returned to Earth, Chelsea always wore fashionable clothes. However, right now, she was still dressed in her dirty lab coat and still wore her thick dowdy glasses.

‘Is she trying to say she's on the clock as a researcher today?’

Chelsea led the way to a large building.

As Sungyoon walked behind her, he saw a lot of security inside the building. Police, as well as soldiers, guarded the place. He also caught sight of a few Connectors in full gear.

The elevator ascended to a certain room.

“Ah. You're here.”

The Mayor greeted Sungyoon. However, he wasn’t alone in the large room.

“You're here too, Director?”

“I'm the director of the International Moon research facility. How could I miss this meeting?”

McGregor answered him.

The Mayor, the Director, and Sungyoon had come here to give their opinions. They were here to represent their professions.\Of course, Sungyoon’s party members and Chelsea had also been called here. Aside from them, there were a couple more people in the room. Most of them were Connectors who had met the Moon people and participated in the bloody battle within Armstrong city.

Some people in the room crowded around Sungyoon to shake his hand. They were all politicians with important positions in their respective countries. It was a whirlwind as Sungyoon greeted every one of them. It was only then that he got a chance to greet the Mayor.

“As expected, the Knight is very popular.”

“I’m still not used to it.”

Sungyoon thought he would never get used to it in his lifetime.

“Don’t think too much about it. You deserve to be praised. You earned it with the work you did.”

“You deserve a lot of credit too, Mayor.”

“I don't deserve any credit. I was the mayor of Armstrong city, yet I was unable to protect it. I lost humanity’s only base in space. I am no longer a mayor. How can I be a mayor when I have no city?”

The Mayor mocked himself in a cynical voice.

In Sungyoon's opinion, the situation couldn’t be blamed on the Mayor, but his opinion couldn’t console the man in his current situation. Glancing at his watch, Sungyoon changed the topic.

“It's almost time.”

The prominent politicians had already taken their seats. They remained silent as their face hardened from nervousness. The number of people chewing gum or cracking their necks kept increasing as time passed. Several of them quietly got up, holding cigarette boxes in their hands. However, everyone returned before the meeting was about to start. There were no empty seats.

Tick!

The second hand of the clock ticked, and an odd tension descended in the room.

It didn’t take long for the door to open once again. A person entered under the guard of multiple Connectors.

Plu-El nervously looked around the room, but she felt her nervousness dissipate when she met eyes with Sungyoon. She looked happy to see him, and seeing this acknowledgment in her eyes, Sungyoon bowed his head.

“That person is...”

This woman was also her mother, a mother she never knew she had until a while ago. A complicated expression appeared on Jimin's face. As the representative of the company affiliated with Sungyoon, Jimin had been allowed to witness this interrogation.

Plu-El sat in the chair placed at the center of the room. She wasn’t restrained, but Connectors surrounded her.

The Mayor picked up the mic.

“I feel no need to introduce myself. I will forgo the formalities. You're all busy people, so we will hold a Q&A session with a descendant of Planote.”

He had referred to her as a descendant of Planote instead of one of the Moon people. Moreover, he had called it a Q&A session instead of an interrogation. The Mayor tried to look out for Plu-El to the best of his ability.

“Do you mind retelling the story that you told us before?”

He passed the mic to her.

Plu-El wasn’t used to a microphone, so she stammered a little bit. When her voice started to ring out in the room, amazement appeared on her face.

She continued to haltingly tell her story. It was the same story she had told to Sungyoon and the others on the Moon.

Every country had received a general outline of the story before this meeting, but they all wanted to hear the story for themselves.

As Plu-El explained it, one could hear groans and gasps in the room.

“This concludes what I told the Mayor and everyone else.”

Plu-El put down the mic.

The Mayor looked around the room.

“Does anyone have any questions for—”

Before the Mayor could finish his words, everyone raised their hands.

The Mayor randomly picked and pointed at a person.

“The monster… was it called Grenoid? You said the seal is unraveling. Will the unraveling stop if we no longer bring moonstones to Earth?”

“No. Once the seal starts unraveling, it's impossible to stop it. Moreover, the seal would've unraveled anyway even if you didn’t take the moonstones. The proof is in the fact that Connectors showed up on Earth even before moonstones had been transported to Earth. The seal was already in the process of unraveling. Now, it's only a matter of time before it will break.”

The person who had asked the question groaned.

The Mayor pointed at a different person.

“Was the incident in Armstrong city related to Grenoid?”

“Yes. The magical energy, which is supposed to keep Grenoid in check, leaked out onto the surface of the Moon. It means magical energy is not sealing Grenoid anymore. With this, it would become easier for Grenoid to spread its influence. Monsters originate from Grenoid’s body. Of course, they attack under its control. Only Grenoid could pull something like this off.”

The Mayor turned to another person.

“I heard you made Gems from corpses of Connectors. Are the Gems that Connectors use made similarly?”

“No. We made Gems from corpses of Connectors because our people were short on resources. We had to use desperate measures to survive in the labyrinths. Moreover, our people stopped making Gems out of corpses when our situation stabilized. We only made a few Gems from the dead because it was tradition. We only started manufacturing them after Fabion ambushed us and we lost a lot of our people, Devices, and Gems.”

Another person raised his hand. His question was heavier than the one from before.

“Why did the descendants of Planote attack our cities on the Moon and Earth? What was the reason behind it?”

Plu-El glanced at Sungyoon, who had suffered the most under the attacks from the Moon people.

She let out a sigh as she carefully chose the words to speak.

“We came to stop Kevil, who came down to Earth. We also came down to kill the 1st Gen Connectors. It was the reason we attacked Mr. Sungyoon.”

This was their first time hearing this. She clearly said that the Moon people had come down to Earth to kill.

As a 1st Gen Connector, Sungyoon paid close attention to Plu-El’s words.

“I get that you wanted to stop Kevil. However, you just said you came to kill the 1st Gen Connectors. Why is that?”

“Grenoid is up to something. It wants to carry out this plan using 1st Gen Connectors.”

“It's true that Kevil kidnapped some 1st Gen Connectors on Earth, and the survey party that you attacked first did have a 1st Gen Connector amongst them. But, was it really necessary to kill the 1st Gens?”

“The surest way of denying what the enemy wants is to destroy what they want. At the time, thanks to Fabion, we considered the people of Earth our enemies. Moreover, we were desperate to stop Grenoid. We had no reason to hesitate.”

“Why does Grenoid wants to use the 1st Gens? In most cases, 1st Gen Connectors are weaker than their descendants.”

The person asking the question kept glancing at Sungyoon. He knew Sungyoon was a 1st Gen, and so, he did his best to make his question as non-offensive as possible.

“It seems I’ll have to address this before I can move forward.”

Plu-El fixed her posture a bit.

“From what I could gather, a lot of people on Earth tend to ignore 1st Gens. However, in terms of pure talent, 1st Gen Connectors are overwhelmingly better than 2nd and 3rd Gen Connectors.”

These words surprised everyone and smashed the thing they called common sense.

Plu-El continued.

“They were the first ones to draw out the magical energy of the Moon despite the long distance. Of course, their talent is better.”

“Then why are their abilities inferior to that of 2nd and 3rd Gens?”

“It probably has something to do with the fact that 1st Gens aren’t used to magical energy. Their talent is so excellent that they can draw out the magical energy by themselves, but they have lived their whole lives without magical energy. Their bodies aren’t prepared to receive the magical energy. This is why their abilities suffer.”

“Are you saying the bodies of 2nd and 3rd Gen Connectors are ready to accept magical energy?”

“At least one of their parents are magical energy users. So, of course, the 2nd or 3rd Gens would be used to magical energy. Moreover, their chances of awakening as Connectors also increases because of that. As for whether 2nd and 3rd Gens have talents comparable to that of the 1st Gens, it's a separate issue.”

One of the mechanisms of Connectors that even scientists had been unable to explain became clear at that moment, and Plu-El was the one who had explained it. The Director and Chelsea became busy typing into their laptop. They were feverish as they made sure to transcribe Plu-El’s every word.

“Why would Kevil want to gather these talented 1st Gen Connectors?”

“I am not sure, but I do know it's some plan that would be helpful to Grenoid. These 1st Gens are talented enough to be used as ‘sacrifices.’”

Sacrifice!

It was a terrifying word.

Most of the people in the room frowned when they heard it. A few were even a bit disgusted by Plu-El, who had spoken with a cavalier attitude.

“Is there a possibility that those who were kidnapped are still alive?”

“You shouldn’t get your hopes up. Grenoid considers humans its mortal enemies. There is no way it would treat the 1st Gen Connectors well.”

Just like that, the people in the room kept asking questions, and Plu-El answered them all to the best of her knowledge.

When the interrogation that had been characterized as a Q&A session came to an end, the politicians started to leave by ones and twos.

Everyone had the same expression; it looked as if the troublesome information had given them headaches.

Soon, the room became empty. However, Sungyoon and his group did not leave. They approached Plu-El.

“It has been a while, Mr. Sungyoon.”

Plu-El greeted Sungyoon, then turned to look at the people around him. She recognized some in the group, but there was one person who she had never seen before. This woman was studying her.

Even though this was the first meeting between the two, Plu-El knew who the woman was.

“You're Hahn Jimin.”

This woman was her other daughter.