Ch. 215

## Chapter 215: The Woman in Sunglasses (1)

“…”

At the cold, detached statement, Drawer and Reward’s expressions froze completely solid.

「I knew it! It’s just like those forum posts said! Hyun-sam had zero intention of honoring his word!」

「Then are we… getting executed right here?」

“Ah, right. Almost forgot.”

*Slide.*

Hyun casually handed over two Grade-10 Mana Stones, one to each of them.

Drawer and Reward stood in absolute daze as their hands reflexively closed around the brilliant blue crystals.

“Is this…?”

“Your compensation for the 18th floor.”

“Ah… thank you so much! We genuinely had zero expectation that you’d actually hand these over…!”

“Y-You are completely free to kill our characters whenever you wish now!”

“…?”

Hyun tilted his head in mild confusion.

*‘That sentence parameter sounds a bit twisted. Is the system auto-translation glitching out?’*

Deciding it was likely their clumsy way of expressing profound, life-saving gratitude, he chose to let the odd phrasing slide.

The entry corridor to the 19th floor was a straight, narrow pathing vector.

Hyun maintained *Assimilation* with Ain as they moved forward, while Drawer and Reward nervously trailed behind their footsteps with hesitant, awkward postures.

「Hyun-nim, is this floor completely devoid of spatial content too?」

「No. While it’s clear of mechanical traps, a few monster spawns roam the area… along with a few other entities.」

「Other entities?」

「NPCs.」

「There are actual NPCs stationed in a place like this?」

「Yeah. Given the recent influx of active players, it’s easy to overlook, but NPC factions hold massive strategic interest in the Labyrinth as well.」

While the Labyrinth was a high-lethal risk zone for NPCs, its resource yield was undeniably priceless.

Recognizing this, the Magic Kingdom had chosen to systematically develop and explore the maze rather than abandon it as a dead zone. Over five years of steady operational effort, NPC cartographers had successfully mapped the entire upper-tier grid.

Although they hadn’t fully cataloged hyper-complex anomaly zones like the 16th and 17th floors, the precise coordinates for primary magic arrays, major thoroughfares, and lethal trap grids were completely logged.

「Right about now should mark the official start of their lower-tier exploration campaign.」

Once the upper tiers were mapped, the Magic Kingdom’s strategic focus naturally shifted to the lower levels.

Pioneered by skilled yet financially desperate individuals, squads of NPCs were actively risking their single lives to chart the lower boundaries of the Labyrinth.

「Look over there. That’s the forward outpost.」

After a few minutes of steady pacing, Hyun pointed toward the entrance of a circular stone structure measuring roughly 50 meters in diameter.

Though it closely resembled a weathered ancient ruin at first glance, the location fulfilled a vital operational function.

While the 19th floor generally boasted a low monster density, making it inherently safer, this specific outpost was fortified with defensive barrier arrays, rendering it the absolute safest zone in the region.

“What’s this? We have incoming?”

“It’s way too early for a supply rotation.”

The second they stepped inside the structure, every single eye in the room locked onto them.

Even so, the total headcount inside capped out at a mere five individuals. The low staffing was logical: exploring these tiers required a baseline Level 300 combat spec, and high-tier NPCs with that level of power rarely volunteered for lethal assignments unless backed into a corner.

“Are all three of you users?”

*Nod.*

“Yes.”

“That is correct.”

“Ha, how unusual.”

The interaction was brief and dry.

The sole individual who paid them any real mind was a middle-aged man wearing a frayed robe; the rest simply flicked a brief glance over before immediately returning to their respective duties.

Seeing the cold reception, Ain tilted her head in subtle confusion through their link.

「What’s with these guys…?」

「Don’t pay it any mind. They’re just completely disinterested in player affairs.」

Hyun understood the exact reason behind their detached demeanor.

From his memories of *Asra Online*, outposts like this provided nothing beyond the absolute bare minimum facilities for survival.

*‘Though it looks like a few additions were patched in compared to the past.’*

Inside the outpost, two distinct functional additions now stood out.

First was a makeshift card table set up in a corner, likely used to pass the time. The second was a display shelf lined with a mismatched collection of personal belongings.

「What’s that setup over there?」

As Ain’s gaze tracked toward the display shelf, Hyun shared his internal knowledge.

「Those are likely recovered personal effects.」

「Personal effects…?」

「Belongings left behind by those who never made it back from the lower tiers.」

Hyun recalled a similar sight from his past memory logs.

Near the sanatorium where he had first encountered Shatin and Shatina, an identical display setup existed, and he had posed the exact same question to Rubren back then.

Leaving behind personal items was a shared funeral custom practiced by both Celestial and Abyssal factions. It was a clear demonstration of how the evolving AI framework continuously shaped the cultural depth of *Asrian*.

「That’s… surprisingly heavy…」

「It’s NPC culture. It holds zero relevance to our gameplay loop.」

Hyun shifted Ain’s steps forward, intending to pass straight through the outpost.

Right at that second, the middle-aged NPC who had spoken earlier called out to him once more.

“Hey, are you planning to head down to the lower tiers?”

Hyun offered a silent nod.

“How strange. Is today some kind of public event? Another user headed down to the lower tiers just a little while ago.”

“A user… went down to the lower tiers?”

“Yeah. Wearing those strange clothes just like you guys. Nobody besides users runs around in gear like that.”

In a fraction of a heartbeat, a specific player profile flashed through Hyun’s mind.

He immediately tossed a 100-gold coin to the NPC to extract detailed intelligence.

“What did they look like?”

“I don’t need this kind of pocket change, but…”

Despite his nonchalant words, the man smoothly pocketed the coin and readily answered the question. The briefing didn’t take long at all before a decisive detail landed.

“Hmm… for starters, it was a female player. And she was wearing some weird black glasses over her eyes.”

*‘I knew it! It’s her!’*

「Hyun-nim, isn’t he talking about that woman from earlier?!」

Ain had reached the exact same conclusion simultaneously.

The user who had headed down into the lower tiers was undeniably the mysterious player who had vanished into thin air near the Labyrinth entrance earlier.

The woman wearing sunglasses paired with Level 200 restriction earrings!

*‘How is that mechanically possible?’*

Hyun immediately spotted a massive logical contradiction.

He had unequivocally secured the global system achievement for being the first player to complete the Gate Opening Ceremony for the lower tiers.

So how on earth was there a user who had reached the lower tiers *before* him?

Even if she had taken the central transit elevator from the Labyrinth entrance, zero direct transportation vectors existed that bypassed straight to the lower floors. To reach this depth, a player was system-required to navigate through the connecting passage between the 18th and 19th floors.

*‘How on earth did she bypass the 18th floor layout?’*

Was there an unmapped shortcut or hidden system mechanic he was completely unaware of?

With his mind racing, Hyun pressed the NPC for further temporal data.

“Roughly how long ago did she pass through?”

“Not long at all. Probably hasn’t even been an hour.”

“Under an hour…?”

“I heard the highest-level user on the server was only around Level 200, but I guess that intel was completely wrong? If users are going to flood the lower tiers like this, I might need to start looking for a new line of work soon.”

*RING! RING! RING!*

At that exact second, a piercing emergency siren echoed through the outpost.

It was a broadcast communication spell transmitted directly from the surface world.

< Emergency broadcast! All personnel currently in the lower tiers, cease exploration immediately and return to the surface! Repeating! All personnel in the lower tiers, abort exploration and return to the surface… >

The sharp siren completely drowned out the ambient noise in the outpost.

Likely due to the unstable mana currents surging through the Labyrinth, the audio feed was heavily distorted and cutting out intermittently.

“Huh? A retreat signal?”

The middle-aged man who had just been chatting mumbled, looking mildly embarrassed. “I didn’t expect to lose my job *this* fast…”

As the emergency siren blared, not only he but every NPC inside the outpost immediately halted their tasks.

“What is all this commotion about?”

“Keep it down! I can’t hear the broadcast!”

< Unidentified high-yield energy impacts have been detected across the 1st, 3rd, 14th, and 15th floors of the upper tiers! System sensors have confirmed a collective mana signature measuring 560,000 Gigantes! We are currently investigating the source of these impacts, so all personnel in the lower tiers must cease operations and return to the surface immediately! >

The quiet outpost instantly dissolved into a flurry of frantic activity.

“Is anyone currently deployed outside the perimeter?!”

“Pashe and Luke are out on a mapping run, but they’re scheduled to return any second now. They have 5 minutes tops!”

“Good! We hold our position until they make it back, then we fall back together!”

The NPCs swiftly initiated situational assessment procedures.

To reach the main elevator on the 13th floor, they were system-forced to pass directly through the 14th and 15th tiers. However, the emergency feed had explicitly warned of high-threat anomalies operating on those exact floors.

Knowing they might breach those entities on their way up, consolidating their total combat power before ascending was the absolute logical choice.

“What about you three? Are you seriously planning to descend further despite this chaos?” the man asked, turning toward them.

Hyun offered a firm nod.

“Hah… right, you’re users. Must be nice having extra lives to throw around.”

“These two behind me are ascending to the surface. Take them along with your squad,” Hyun stated, pointing toward Drawer and Reward.

Turning back to the couple, he added, “This works out for you. If you stick close to these NPCs, you should be able to make it back to the surface without dying.”

“Ah, we…”

“Don’t say you’re following me down,” Hyun cut in cleanly before they could construct a counter-argument. “Because from the 20th floor onward, I don’t have the spare capacity to keep you alive.”

“R-Right… of course…”

“Truly… I will never forget what you did for us today as long as I live!”

Drawer and Reward hastily concluded their heartfelt thanks before falling into rank alongside the NPC squad.

As the entire group sprinted toward the ascending route leading to the upper tiers, Hyun and Ain walked in the absolute opposite direction, completely alone.

They held zero interest in the chaos unfolding across the upper Labyrinth.

Hyun’s focus was locked entirely on tracing the profile of a single player.

「Who do you think she is?」 Ain asked once they cleared the perimeter, leaving them in total isolation.

Though she hadn’t specified a name, Hyun instantly caught her meaning.

「This time… I genuinely have zero clue.」

「Even you don’t know, Hyun-nim?」

「Yeah. I can’t formulate a solid guess at all.」

He mentally reviewed the physical parameters of the woman he had briefly passed in the city.

She wore high-tier earrings locked behind a Level 200 requirement.

She appeared to operate as a strict solo player.

And according to the outpost NPC, she had already descended into the lower tiers ahead of them.

*‘Level 200 minimum, solo player, and possesses verified route data to the lower tiers that even I don’t know…?’*

The more he analyzed the variables, the more complex his internal deduction became.

There were zero high-tier Rankers from *Asra Online* who matched that specific player profile or presence. If she wasn’t a veteran from *Asra*, the scenario made even less operational sense.

At this point, part of him genuinely wondered if she was a developer testing a dev-tier cheat character.

*‘Potential Explosion!’*

Hyun maximized Ain’s movement speed.

He swiftly located the descending vertical shaft situated near the outpost perimeter. This cavernous drop, which felt like a bottomless abyss at first glance, served as the primary entry point to the 20th floor.

The candidate floor tiers where Louise was likely hiding were the 20th, 22nd, and 23rd floors.

In short, Hyun and Ain had officially arrived at the first potential coordinate zone.

「Let’s prioritize locating Louise first.」

Following the navigational route logged on his internal map, Hyun guided Ain straight toward the target coordinates.

「This is the first high-probability location on our checklist.」

「There’s nothing here, though?」

「Yeah… looks like this spot is a bust.」

Arriving at a vast, cavernous clearing, they were met not with an NPC shelter, but with a massive nest housing several hundred giant, serpent-type monsters.

*SSSHHHAA!*

The serpent mobs instantly hissed and slithered forward in a dense horde to eliminate the intruders. Hyun swiftly executed a retreat vector to clear the aggro zone.

*‘Honestly, this location was way too exposed to begin with. It’s far too close to the NPC outpost.’*

It had held the lowest probability among his candidate coordinates from the start anyway. Without letting the setback affect him, Hyun smoothly transitioned to the next navigational route.

「By the way, Hyun-nim… are the monster spawn density levels on the 20th floor usually this low?」 Ain asked suddenly as they sprinted through the corridor.

「No, it’s usually overflowing with dense mob clusters.」

「Then why is the path completely empty?」

It was an anomaly Hyun had been quietly tracking for the past several minutes.

The 20th floor marked the functional entry layer of the lower tiers—a graveyard domain where low-tier monsters pushed out by territorial fights packed into every corridor. Under standard instance rules, stepping onto the 20th floor meant engaging in a non-stop, continuous combat loop.

Hyun’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Where on earth had all those mob spawns gone?

「It looks like this entire path was cleared out recently.」

「Ah, I spotted a mob over there!」 Ain called out.

The monsters hadn’t vanished from the floor entirely; occasionally, small clusters of mobs could be spotted huddled together in distant, far-off corners of the map architecture.

「That vector doesn’t align with our destination route.」

「Where are we heading right now?」

「The 21st floor.」

Yet, along their direct progression vector leading to the next floor, there wasn’t a single living monster spawn in sight.

In *Asrian*, dungeon mobs automatically respawned over set time intervals. A completely vacant corridor meant another player had swept through this exact pathing line mere minutes ago.

「Hmm?」

As they continued along the corridor, Hyun picked up on a fresh environmental detail.

Traces of destruction carved deep into the Labyrinth architecture—endless hairline fractures and deep gouges spider-webbing across the stone walls and floorboards.

Terrain regeneration in dungeons processed at a vastly faster rate than monster respawn timers. The operational implication of these fresh structural scars was crystal clear.

「We might run into them any second now.」

「Should we initiate combat?!」

「No… there’s zero reason to engage recklessly without intel—Whoa, wait…!」

In that micro-second, a blinding streak of light came tearing through the dark. Hyun’s reflexes kicked in instantly.

*CRACK!*

The *Armor of Darkness* instantly wrapped around Ain’s entire form just as—

*CLANG! KA-RUMBLE!*

A heavy metallic object struck the barrier at a sharp angle before deflecting wildly off into the dark.

「What was that? A boomerang? A chakram?」

「It’s a Ring!」

Even after being deflected, the Ring maintained its hyper-speed rotation, grinding deep into the stone wall of the corridor.

Simultaneously, identical structural scars to the ones they had been tracking all along were carved deep into the masonry.

*‘That impact force was massive…!’*

Hyun quickly analyzed the barrier depletion logs on the *Armor of Darkness* to calculate the raw damage scaling behind the strike.

*‘Eighteen thousand… off a indirect grazing hit?!’*

It was a staggering damage value capable of causing instant structural dismemberment if a player took a direct hit off-guard.

Realizing he had been foolish to dismiss Ain’s aggressive combat warning, Hyun instantly shifted their stance into full battle readiness.

「Ain, take full control and engage!」

「See?! I told you so!」

*CLACK!*

*Ifrit’s Claws* instantly ignited across both of Ain’s hands.

Hyun kept his neural focus razor-sharp. Lacking intelligence on how formidable the target was, he was fully prepared to trigger *Possession* the moment the combat loop turned sour.

As they charged straight toward the vector where the projectile had originated…

“Ah, my bad.”

Standing in the dim corridor with both hands raised in an awkward gesture of apology was a woman.

Smiling sheepishly—while wearing dark sunglasses inside the pitch-black depth of the Labyrinth.

“I totally thought you were a high-tier mob spawn… I mean, expecting to run into an actual player down here would be crazy, right?”