Chapter 268
Sungyoon followed Russell and Bruce .
Crunch!
He stopped when he stepped on a half-burnt object . A round heap of ashes broke apart under his foot .
‘Wood?’
Sungyoon saw a charred piece of lumber off to the side . It seemed it was a part of a house . He stomped on the ground to dislodge the ashes from his boots, but as he moved forward, he stepped in more burnt objects . In the end, he gave up on trying to keep his boots clean from ashes .
“This is horrifying . ”
Emily walked close to Sungyoon and grabbed his sleeve .
Sungyoon agreed with her .
The burnt village was rife with a thick acrid smell and ashes; corpses were strewn on the floor between these piles of ashes . Every one of this village's residents had died fighting, so terrifyingly horrible wounds were on each one of their corpses .
Over time, Emily had gotten used to fighting, but her heart was still soft at its core . She hated what she was seeing right now .
Even Sungyoon, Tim, and Grace had ugly expressions .
“Are you sure all these people were terrorists?”
“They are . There were more than we had expected . ”
Hyunwoo kicked a corpse to the side to clear the path, and his callous gesture made Russell and Bruce frown .
“Do you have proof?”
Russell asked, but the one to answer his question wasn't Hyunwoo .
“We have no idea . We just follow the orders from above . If you have questions or complaints, it’ll be faster to take it up with our president . ”
At some point, Jinsoo had sidled up next to Hyunwoo . Bruce gave an ugly look to Jinsoo, who spoke in a wily manner . However, Russell firmly pressed down on his comrade's shoulder .
“I see . That means we only have your words as evidence . Am I correct?”
“That’s right . I’m sure you want testimony from the terrorists, but they can't give it . So, you’ll have to take our word for it . ”
Hyunwoo shrugged .
“We can’t get a testimony because you killed all of them . ”
The mood in the place cooled down .
“Do you have any more questions for us? If not, we would like to head back now . Our work here is done . ”
“Our president made us do ‘volunteer work’, so we wasted a lot of our time . We have our own lives to live, and we have to gather moonstones . ”
“You want to leave after making this mess?”
Bruce growled . However, Hyunwoo remained calm in his demeanor .
“We did nothing wrong . It's not like they were innocent people . This was the village of terrorists . Of course, it's our duty to wipe out this village, and . . . ”
Hyunwoo knitted his brows, and for the first time, a displeased expression appeared on his face .
“Do you have the authority to interfere with our actions?”
“Didn’t we tell you already? We came here at the behest of Armstrong city . ”
“Bruce, you should learn from your friend a little bit . Do you know why Russell is keeping his mouth shut? If he had the authority, he would've been the first one to use it . That means you guys didn’t receive the authority to arrest us . ”
Bruce looked at Russell . Russell firmly shut his mouth and glared at Hyunwoo, but he soon let out a sigh and looked around . All that appeared in his sight was burnt, broken homes and Fabion Connectors standing in the wreckage, looking at his group .
‘If we decide to fight head-on, our side will suffer some casualties too . ’
Even though Russell had Bruce on his side, the other side wasn't a pushover .
“We have to preserve this site and report back to Armstrong . ”
“Be my guest . We have nothing to hide . In fact, we’ll help you preserve this site by getting out of here . ”
“Then go . ”
Russell pointed toward the tunnel at his back .
“Thank you! You shouldn’t make such a grim face . I want you to think about it . Who else would make a base so deep within the Great Labyrinth, except terrorists? No one with permission from Armstrong city would create such a suspicious hideout here . That's why you guys should stop looking at us as if we're cold-blooded killers . ”
“Still, are you self-aware enough to realize that your story and actions up to this point have been very suspicious?”
Russell relaxed his face for now . There was a lot of smoke, but no fire, and on top of that, Hyunwoo was saying all the right stuff .
“You should take it up with our president . ”
“I plan to do that . However, we won’t be the one making a fuss about it . It will be Armstrong city, and it’ll cause some near-term issue for your company . ”
“That’s something the company will take care of . It has nothing to do with us . ”
Hyunwoo gestured toward his comrades, and they moved toward the tunnel . Hyunwoo and Jinsoo brought the rear, and as Hyunwoo brushed past Sungyoon, he tapped Sungyoon’s shoulder .
“You can rest easy now . I killed all the terrorists who threatened your safety . ”
After laughing once more, Hyunwoo walked away from Sungyoon, leaving behind Sungyoon and the group amongst the corpses and piles of ashes .
***
“Do you think they caught on?”
Jinsoo kept glancing backward as his party climbed up the Great Labyrinth .
Hyunwoo replied in a flat voice .
“Of course, they know something is wrong . However, they won’t know to what extent . ”
“You're quite laid back about all of this . ”
“In the first place, I already knew we were pushing it by carrying out this plan . If something bad occurs from this, the President will take care of it . ”
“I never expected both of them to show up . ”
“Me too . ”
Hyunwoo thought about Russell and Bruce . If he had to fight the two of them, even he would have to be ready to put his life on the line .
“It means the mayor of Armstrong city is paranoid . We have a questionable past, and we took out too many men . So he decided to send two of his strongest pieces here . ”
Even if an investigative party had come, Hyunwoo was leaning toward not attacking them . However, he had to erase from his mind whatever thought he still had about attacking when he saw who had come to investigate . He wouldn’t lose against them, but most likely either Russell or Bruce would've escaped .
“Now that I think about it, Woo Sungyoon was there too . The Mayor really likes him . ”
As Hyunwoo had said, the Mayor was paranoid, and he would have mobilized only the Connectors he trusted the most . So Sungyoon's presence in the investigative party was an illuminating piece of information .
“It’ll be very troublesome to kill him now . ”
“It doesn't matter . That’s none of our business anymore . Let’s just watch how that bastard decides to take care of Woo Sungyoon . ”
Hyunwoo’s eyes fell on the back of the enormous man walking in front of his party . Dongin had tasked Gisoo to kill Sungyoon, and Gisoo's frustration was evident in his footsteps . He yelled at the other Connectors who got on his nerve and nitpicked about the small stuff .
“Mr . Gisoo is in a foul mood . ”
Hyunwoo laughed at Jinsoo’s words . Their actions were petty, but they were happy at the Gisoo's misfortune .
“He cussed me out, and he made it clear that he could do better than me . However, he messed up . ”
“How many got away?”
“A lot . ”
The Fabion Connectors had never expected so many people to be living in this village . They had no preparation or plan . Time wasn't on their side, so they had just decided to ambush the village with overwhelming force .
Their urgency worked in their favor, and they enjoyed the advantages of an ambush . However, Fabion wasn't trying to win a fight . Their goal was to wipe out their enemies, and in consideration of that, this ambush was a failure .
“Since our opponent has a portal, it was always going to be impossible to wipe them out . Yet, he boasted that he would never fail . It makes me laugh when I think about him swaggering around with his nose up high . ”
‘He's an idiot with muscles for his brain . ’
Jinsoo sneered at Gisoo .
“Though, this means everyone in Fabion will now know about the portal's existence . How will the President react to it?”
“Of course, he’ll want to own it for himself . ”
Then, it wouldn’t just be about trying to bury the evidence of their past actions . Dongin probably knew the worth of the portal, and with how greedy he was, he would covet the portal .
“If a portal linking Earth to the Moon exists, President would be free from Armstrong city's influence . ”
All the countries in the world used Armstrong city to control Connectors, and Connectors were forced to spend a lot of money in Armstrong city . None of the Connectors and their companies liked this arrangement .
“What should we do?”
“What do you mean what should we do? It's none of our business . ”
Hyunwoo was talking about the company he was working for, yet there wasn’t an ounce of affection in his voice .
“He’ll do what’s best for the company . ”
***
“What should we do about this?”
Russell placed his hands on his hips as he looked at his surroundings . It didn’t matter where his gaze fell; it was all devastation .
“Thankfully, the corpses won’t decay . ”
At the very least, evidence wouldn’t disappear through decomposition .
“I don’t think we should be rash in touching the scene . Wouldn’t it be better if we call for a professional?”
“That sounds like the better idea . ”
Connectors were specialists in the field of killing monsters, so the group would be hopeless in finding clues about what happened to this destroyed village .
“It would be best if we left this site as it is . We might accidentally destroy evidence otherwise . ”
“That’s true . ”
Russell agreed with Sungyoon, so he spoke to one of his party members .
“We’ll have to go notify Armstrong city . ”
They had to exit the Great Labyrinth to do this .
“We’ll stay to protect this place . Those bastards from Fabion might come back to destroy the evidence . ”
Bruce said as he sat down at a nearby rock .
“We’ll stay too . If Fabion does decide to come back, it’ll be tough to stop them with only your party . ”
After saying that, Russell turned to look at Sungyoon .
“I would like your party to go and make the report . Is that ok?”
“We are fine doing that . ”
“Don’t just contact them . I want you to go back to Armstrong city to receive orders from him . I don’t think it's wise to explain our current situation through the radio . ”
“Are you sure he’ll be ok? The ambushers consider him a marked man . What if he gets ambushed along the way? We do not know if these people were really the ambushers . ”
Bruce tapped the rock that he was sitting on .
However, Sungyoon dispelled his worries .
“It doesn't matter . I have a method that’ll allow me to escape . ”
The existence of the portal was only a risk when it came to the collection of moonstones . It wasn’t a problem when Sungyoon used it to escape from trouble .
“If you aren’t worried about it, please go talk to the Mayor . ”
Bruce lay down on top of the large rock .
***
Sungyoon’s party exited the Great Labyrinth . They only saw the tracks of Moon Surface vehicles, and not the vehicles themselves . Fabion had really pulled out of this place . The party radioed the simplified version of their current situation to Armstrong city, and then started their return trip to Armstrong with their permission .
The portal would've been a faster and easier method of travel, but the party didn’t want Russell and Bruce to learn about the existence of portals . So they couldn’t leave behind their Moon Surface vehicle .
The vehicle had been on the road for a while when it suddenly came to a stop . Since they were only halfway to Armstrong city, Sungyoon, Grace, and Emily looked at Tim, who was the driver .
The surprised Tim pointed out the window . His finger pointed toward a heavily wounded person fallen on the Moon's surface with blood coloring the ground . The party immediately exited the vehicle . Sungyoon looked over the body and found out that even though with severe wounds, the person was still alive .
Sungyoon picked up the person with his arm . He realized the person was a woman, and when he saw her face, it shocked him .
‘Isn’t she Soyoung’s mother?’
She was the lady he had parted with under awkward terms not too long ago .