Day 58 in the Labyrinth.
Before Omega arrived at the hideout, I crossed over the warp device first to visit the machine factory.
Boglebogle – Teleporting magic tools are super convenient. People really should use magic tools!
Rize Nova – That’s not a magic tool.
The monsters that came with me were four: Kinogine Aracne, Blood Jellyfish Princess, and the puppets Niarah Nepensys and Japan.
It’s not like we’re charging into enemy territory here. This number of people should be enough for protection.
Rize Nova – Three mothers and daughters… this is quite a family outing.
Boglebogle – Quit talking nonsense.
Boglebogle – Wait, is Japan also a girl?
Japaaaan! This place looks fun! There are so many amazing things!!
Peeeee! Hello, everyone!
The princess waved her hands in greeting to the robots.
By the way, the princess seemed perfectly fine after sleeping through the night.
Welcome!
Nice to meet you!
The robots, remembering the princess, bowed politely, and when they turned to me, they bent forward at a ninety-degree angle to greet me.
It seems Omega had engraved my existence into the robots’ memories.
While I was exchanging greetings with the robots…
Pyo Pyo?
Omega, who happened to be passing by the warp device, noticed us and tilted her head.
Gauntlet. What brings you here? Pyo?
“I just came to hang out. The exploration team has been here once, but I’ve never been, so I wanted to take a leisurely look around the town.”
Pyo Pyo! Then, I will personally guide you!
“Weren’t you busy?”
I asked while looking at the various mechanical parts hanging off Omega’s body. It was clear she was transporting parts to build something.
I am busy. There’s a lot to build with the parts of the Mechanic Hydra. Pyo Pyo.
“Then you don’t have to guide us. We’ll just figure things out on our own.”
That’s not acceptable! Pyo!!!
“Why?”
Being with you, Gauntlet, is more fulfilling than making machines! That’s why I decided I would visit at least once every day! Pyopyoron!
Omega flung the mechanical parts hanging on her and stuck herself tightly next to me.
Boglebogle – She’s talking a lot more.
Rize Nova – Indeed. Has her affection for Gauntlet grown, making her chattier than yesterday?
As she guided us, Omega rambled on about various things without stopping. When we arrived in the town center, she pointed out various places with her tail and continued her introduction about the town.
Japaaaan! Amazing! Fun! Exciting!
While Japan looked around with sparkling eyes, I felt somewhat indifferent.
Of course, it’s a beautiful town. It feels like experiencing a slightly wrong future city, and the mystical machines I’ve never seen before are plenty, making my eyes happy.
But, there are clearly disappointing aspects overwhelming those advantages.
‘There’s nothing here a normal creature could eat.’
This place is a town of machines.
There isn’t a single food that a normal creature can consume.
Sure, there are buildings that look like restaurants, but they only serve oil and stuff required for machines, not food that creatures like me can ingest.
Moreover, there were no recreational facilities.
Are they so focused on work because they’re machines?
That’s the town’s fatal flaw.
‘Seeing it with my own eyes, it really does fit the name “Machine Factory.”’
I admired Neo Hyeong-seok’s foresight inwardly. That guy has a surprisingly good naming sense.
Anyway, it looks like I won’t be moving here to live later on.
I’ll just have to be satisfied with visiting occasionally.
Boglebogle – But it’s quiet today. Others are listed as assistants.
Rize Nova – I heard the assistants are having a meeting today too.
Boglebogle – They hold it often. I’m jealous.
*
At the same time, while Kang Geon was touring the machine factory…
Three women, dressed in black suits and guided by a bodyguard, passed through the gates of an impressive mansion into the yard.
In order: Seo Dan-bi, Shin So-mang, and Ha Yumi. They were the Earth’s assistants.
And the mansion they visited belonged to Hwang Mir, the third-generation chaebol and a friend of Seo Dan-bi.
“Why did they have to choose her own house for the meeting… even though she has a private house…”
As they crossed the yard, Seo Dan-bi looked around anxiously.
Seeing this, Shin So-mang lowered her voice to ask in confusion, “Pururu. Why are you shivering like that? Do you need to pee?”
“Ew, saying that? Are you a child? Just say ‘I need to go to the bathroom’ already.”
“Do you need to pee?”
“…”
“If you need to go, just do it behind those bushes over there.”
“Why would I go there when there’s a bathroom inside the house, you crazy person… And no, I don’t need to pee.”
“Then why are you trembling and looking around?”
“I’m just worried about running into Mir’s mom.”
“Is that bad?”
“Yeah. Their mom dislikes people of lower social status or those without money… basically, people like us. They treat us like dirt. If you’re not a good servant, forget it, you’re treated as a slave.”
“Really? Wow, are there people like that even now?”
“In the past, there were videos of them acting dominantly online. Even though she’s my friend’s mom, I can’t say much, but she treated me like a commoner every time she saw me. It made me want to kill her.”
“So if we run into her, we could get kicked out right away?”
“Since we were invited by Mir, that’s unlikely, but if her mom is in a bad mood that day, we’re definitely out of here. She takes out her frustrations on everyone.”
Whispering quietly as they followed the bodyguard, they soon caught sight of women sitting on the garden terrace waving at them.
“Dan-bi! Over here!”
“Here!”
It was Hwang Mir’s friend, the Dimension Magician, Sage Lunaris.
When the assistants arrived at the terrace, the bodyguard quietly discreetly stepped away.
“Why did you want to meet at your family’s house?”
Seo Dan-bi asked as she sat next to Hwang Mir. She kept glancing around in case she might run into her mother.
“This place is right in the middle between Yumi’s house and So-mang’s house, making it easier to meet.”
“Oh. That’s true… but wait, why are you not counting the distance from my house?”
“Do we really have to?”
While Seo Dan-bi and Hwang Mir were talking, Shin So-mang and Ha Yumi also took their seats next to them.
So the five of them had gathered today for their meeting as assistants.
Hwang Mir and Sage Lunaris were participating as prospective assistants.
“Alright, everyone. Let’s save the casual talk for later and get straight to the point. We have important discussions today.”
Ha Yumi clapped lightly and announced.
And thus, the assistant meeting began.
*
The Earth’s assistants were feeling a sense of crisis lately.
The cause was an assistant named Rize Nova.
The benefactor, Rize Nova.
A figure accumulating immense wealth as the leader of Planet Lumina.
Such a person is generously supporting Kang Geon, making the Earth’s assistants feel their significance is gradually fading.
So after deliberating, they came to a decision.
Let’s give Kang Geon support as substantial as Rize’s!
If it were just the three existing assistants, it would be impossible, but luckily, they had a reliable benefactor: the third-generation chaebol, Hwang Mir.
With her, supporting Kang Geon as much as Rize was not entirely impossible.
Moreover, Hwang Mir was not against the idea of supporting Kang Geon either.
She had heard discussions about actively recommending herself as the sixth assistant.
“Hmm. Are you really sure you’ll recommend me as the next assistant?”
“Of course. You can count on us.”
“If Geon gets expensive invitation tickets, the next assistant will definitely be Mir. We’ll support with coins every day and always mention that it’s Mir’s support.”
As Seo Dan-bi and Ha Yumi assured her, Hwang Mir’s lips curled as she envisioned a future where she could see various monsters through a broadcast as an assistant.
“When I was little, my dream was to become a chosen child like the protagonists in monster anime… and now, as an adult, I’m finally achieving that ridiculous dream. Hehe.”
She already felt like the sixth assistant at heart.
“Alright! I’ll fully support you! Oh, and don’t just give coins… what was it? Building civilization? Creating towns? You were talking about doing that, so how about sending fertilizers or seeds needed for farming?”
“Hmm? Why farming all of a sudden?”
Shin So-mang, her mouthful of tiramisu cake, tilted her head.
“To create a town, we need to farm too, right? We can’t just rely on hunting for food all the time.”
“Hmm. Can farming be done in the labyrinth?”
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never seen a broadcast, so how would I know? But let’s just send some anyway. You never know.”
“Hmm. Do as you will.”
Hwang Mir shifted her gaze away from Shin So-mang and turned back to Seo Dan-bi to ask another question.
“By the way, Dan-bi, can we send living creatures too?”
“Living creatures? Well… I checked once, and it seems we can send them. But the fee is super high. And there’s a fee difference depending on the creature, plus humans are basically impossible to send.”
“I’ll bear the fee, so let’s send livestock then.”
The discussion among them continued.
10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes…
While Hwang Mir, still not a formal assistant yet, led the discussion, various support plans were being discussed.
Naturally, they also talked about monster countermeasures.
As time passed and discussions on support plans wrapped up, the topic naturally shifted to how Sage Lunaris was doing.
How much her health had improved.
Whether she could use her dimensional abilities again.
Curious, the three assistants asked questions while Sage answered that while her condition had improved, regrettably, she still could not use dimensional magic.
After that, the conversation smoothly transitioned to casually chatting about snacks and drinks like ordinary girls.
Then suddenly,
Ha Yumi quietly spoke while looking at the others one by one.
“By the way, doesn’t it seem weird that things have been so quiet lately?”
“Strange? What’s strange?”
“Pururu seems to live life with no worries at all.”
“If you think too much, you’ll age quicker. What’s so strange about it anyway?”
“The state of things in the world. YouTube is chaotic right now with monsters, yet the government isn’t responding at all. The same goes for overseas.”
“Maybe they’re just brushing it off as urban legends?”
“That doesn’t make sense. Although very few, there are people who have actually been harmed by monsters, right? Recently, there have even been reported deaths. It’s clearly strange that they’re doing nothing about it.”
“Oh, the one caught on CCTV? But if someone doesn’t know about the existence of monsters, they’d reasonably think the perpetrator was human. The prevailing opinion is that the monster in the footage was just a person in a costume.”
Ha Yumi set her cup on the table.
Then let out a sigh and continued speaking.
“Along with that, there’s another strange point.”
“What is it?”
“The videos being uploaded on YouTube, right? Among them, many are clearly fake videos, but occasionally, there are those that seem real. Yet all those videos are getting deleted.”
“They’re only deleting the ones that seem real? How do you know this?”
“I always keep YouTube open next to Geon’s broadcast while I work. And I periodically check the monster videos being uploaded.”
“You lunatic… But hearing that, it does seem odd that only the real-looking videos are getting deleted.”
“Right? So I came up with a hypothesis. Want to hear it?”
Everybody’s attention turned to Ha Yumi.
Seo Dan-bi nodded slowly, and Ha Yumi continued.
“I think right now on Earth, there might be monsters using possession or parasitism abilities. They could be taking control of high-ranking individuals or people in the media to manipulate public opinion. The reason is simple: When the great monster invasion begins eventually, they want us humans to be utterly unprepared and not able to respond. In other words, they’re conducting underground work in preparation for the invasion.”
“Isn’t that taking it too far? It sounds more plausible that they’re covering up incidents to prevent social chaos…”
“Well, that would be a relief. It means they’re aware of the seriousness of the situation and preparing to respond. But I still think my hypothesis is worth considering.”
Ha Yumi spoke.
Some were seriously listening to her words.
“So… parasitic monsters are manipulating public opinion to dismiss the existence of monsters as mere urban legends, hence preventing humans from preparing for the great invasion… is that what you’re saying?”
Sage Lunaris asked.
Ha Yumi vigorously nodded in response.
“Exactly. It seems you understand quickly, possibly because you’re from a fantasy world.”
“Well… I can’t entirely dismiss that possibility. But can you tell me where you heard about the great monster invasion?”
“Oh, that was just a guess. Since monsters are appearing little by little, I thought there might be a great invasion one day.”
“…I see. Anyway, I’ll look into parasitic monsters myself.”
“Wait, are you believing my inference?”
“To avoid the worst-case scenario, we should consider all possibilities.”
“Wow, you really believe this…”
“…?”
Just then, as they were talking, a woman approached the terrace and called out to Hwang Mir.
“Mir, are those your friends?”
It was Hwang Mir’s mother.
“Yes, they’re friends.”
Upon Hwang Mir’s response, the other four immediately stood up and greeted her politely.
Hwang Mir’s mother slowly looked over the four of them.
“Have fun, then.”
With a sweet smile, Hwang Mir’s mother turned and walked back towards the mansion.
While she stared blankly at the woman’s retreating figure until she closed the door behind her, Seo Dan-bi finally snapped back to reality and nudged Hwang Mir’s shoulder.
“Hey… why was your mom acting all weird? Did she eat something strange? Isn’t she the one who always scolded you for hanging out with such weird people?”
“You noticed? My mom and dad have been really calm lately. I don’t know why, but… it’s good for me.”
The assistants and Hwang Mir were unaware.
That right after stepping inside, Hwang Mir’s mother was staring intently at them through the gap in the window.
Of course,
“Hmmm… why is she staring so hard?”
Sage Lunaris had already sensed it from the beginning.
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