We ran down the passage with the ant monsters trailing behind us.
Passages and stone chambers flashed past.
Because of the flickering torches, the surroundings looked different from when we had come down.
It was hard to tell where we were running.
Without a guide, we would undoubtedly have taken the wrong path at a fork.
Fortunately, the exploration team had an excellent guide.
“Left at the next fork, then straight ahead!”
At my words, the others immediately plunged into the path on the left.
That excellent guide was me.
Even I found it difficult to get my bearings by sight, but my senses told me which way to go.
“Huff, huff. You really are an indispensable member for exploring ruins. Let’s keep going together from now on.”
As my precise directions continued, the macho middle-aged man panted and gave me a thumbs-up.
Until yesterday, he had completely ignored me for being Asian, but now his treatment of me had changed.
The others followed my words well, too.
With a swarm of ant monsters following behind us, they could hardly afford not to listen.
Amusingly, the person running the hardest was the businessman who had stolen the relic.
After being told that he would not be killed immediately, he ran as if his life depended on it, tears streaming down his face.
“What do I do? I’m not going to die. There has to be a way.”
Even as he ran, he desperately searched for a way to survive, but Magreta and David did not seem inclined to forgive him.
Everyone’s breathing grew rougher and rougher.
Their running speed gradually slowed as well.
Just because they had felt dark energy did not mean they had become superhumans or gained stamina that never ran out.
They had merely obtained stamina and strength superior to ordinary people.
In the end, they were bound to get tired.
While we had been running at full speed, the distance between us and the ant monsters had not narrowed.
But as our speed dropped, I could feel the distance between us and the ant monsters shrinking.
We could not sprint all the way to the surface.
Even so, the reason we had run like mad was because our destination was not the surface.
Our destination was the trap we had encountered yesterday.
The first still-functioning trap we had come across—the stone chamber where lightning had struck.
“We’re almost there! Just five hundred meters more.”
“Uaaah! My legs! Push a little harder!”
At my words, the macho middle-aged man shouted almost like a scream and charged forward.
“Huff, huff. Huff.”
The others seemed to have no strength left to speak and simply ran as if they would die otherwise.
Even the Latin man, whose ability was speed, was having a hard time.
‘As expected, it only works over short distances.’
It was not easy for me either.
To avoid falling behind, I had to use up every bit of stamina I had built up in the army.
A short while later, we were able to reach our destination, the stone chamber.
The others passed through the chamber and collapsed in the passage on the opposite side.
Three people stopped inside the stone chamber.
David, Benedict, and me.
“We’ve come to this stone chamber, just as you said. Can it be done according to your plan?”
David gripped his spear tightly as he asked me.
The spear was clearly aimed at Benedict, but David’s eyes were looking at me.
‘If I say it won’t work now, he might kill me.’
With my life on the line, there was no way I would say that.
Fortunately, the stone chamber had not changed.
The trap was also exactly as I had broken it yesterday.
The reason I had made this stone chamber our destination instead of the surface was because of my suggestion.
No matter how hard we ran, we were bound to be caught by the ant monsters before reaching the surface.
Fighting nearly a hundred ant monsters was impossible as well.
And tossing away our one and only lure relic just anywhere and pinning our hopes on vague expectations was something one would only do right before death.
If we had had time, other opinions might have come up, but after hearing my plan, David had decided immediately.
The operation was to use the relic to lure the ant monsters into this stone chamber’s trap.
There was still an issue that had to be confirmed here before we could carry out the operation, but even so, I was the only one who had presented anything resembling a plan.
The reason David was glaring at me now was to confirm whether I could solve that issue.
The plan itself was an ordinary tactic I had used before when going out on operations.
Lure the enemy in with bait, then boom with a booby trap or explosives!
This time, we were using the relic as bait and catching ant monsters instead of people, but it was not that different from back then.
There was one problem: the trap was broken.
And I was the one who had broken it.
Even now, the ant monsters were rapidly approaching.
Instead of explaining to David, I stood in front of the stone chamber wall I had smashed.
A stone wall had been broken, exposing the inside.
Within the broken wall was an earthen wall covered in patterns.
At the center of the earthen wall was a small recess filled with intricate patterns.
Yesterday, there had been a large black stone inside this recess.
The black stone I had shattered was the key that activated this stone chamber’s trap.
“Can you really reactivate a broken trap? Even the researchers haven’t properly grasped the principle behind them yet.”
According to David, the United States had failed to reproduce the ruin traps they had discovered.
Since they could not understand the principles behind them, their repairs were haphazard as well.
Sometimes they would activate, and sometimes they would not budge at all.
It seemed David was worried this trap would turn out the same way.
I did not know how this trap worked either.
Thanks to my senses, I could see more than others, but I had no knowledge whatsoever about patterns and dark energy.
It was no different from a primitive man taking apart an electronic device.
If it had not been a trap I had broken myself, I would not have volunteered to try fixing it.
The reason I thought I could make the trap move again was because I had destroyed only the black stone with precision.
‘If the patterns had been damaged, I would have given up long ago.’
Since only the black stone had been broken, inserting another black stone should activate the trap.
Of course, it could not be a perfect replacement.
After all, an electronic device with a broken charger would not work properly just because you shoved any battery into it.
It probably would not charge like before, and it might even completely destroy the trap.
But that did not matter.
‘It only has to hold out once.’
All we had to do was stop the ant monsters chasing us now.
“Please give me the black stone you took out yesterday.”
“…Here.”
David took a black stone from his breast and handed it to me.
It was the black stone vomited out by the ant monster we had killed in this stone chamber yesterday.
The largest black stone we had obtained during this exploration.
I intended to use this black stone to replace the broken one.
After activating my senses, I brought the black stone right up to the recess.
Wuuung.
As it approached the recess, I could feel the energy of the black stone trying to flow into it.
I immediately pulled the black stone away.
“It can be used.”
I had not directly confirmed that the trap would activate, but this was enough to know that the trap was still intact.
Actually activating the trap would have been more certain, but I did not know if that would become the trap’s final use.
If we used this black stone, the remaining ones were all small, so I could not say what would happen.
But those were not the main reasons I did not activate the trap directly.
To activate the trap, someone had to insert the black stone into the recess by hand.
This trap was designed to activate automatically when a living creature entered the stone chamber.
The person who put the black stone into the recess would inevitably be struck by lightning as well.
“If we tell him to put the black stone in here when the ant monsters arrive, he won’t do as he’s told, will he?”
When I said that while looking at Benedict, everyone realized what I meant.
“A traitor would never do it.”
David shook his head as well, and Benedict, who had been trembling as he looked at us, went into hysterics.
“What do you mean by that…? My God. Please spare me! I’ll tell you everything. I’ll tell you which company hired me! I’ll tell you the name of the person in charge right now!”
It had been a pointless question that only made noise.
Still, if that was the case, this man was no longer of any use.
Why had David brought him along?
“I only did what an American company told me to do. People don’t know this, but I heard there are spies sent by other countries within the expedition, too. I’ll find them for you.”
Perhaps my question had been the trigger, because even with a spear right in front of his eyes, he began babbling wildly.
His words seemed to get on Magreta’s nerves.
She had been resting in the passage, but as soon as Benedict finished speaking, she said in a loud voice,
“That company is only an intermediary, too. It will be connected to another country anyway. Don’t worry. Whether it’s China, Russia, or some other country, we’ll be able to find out soon enough.”
We, who would find the spies dispatched by other countries…
I felt like I had a rough idea of where she belonged.
“If he won’t do it, then we’ll have to use him as bait as planned.”
The moment Benedict’s nonsense stopped at Magreta’s words, David moved his spear.
The spear moved like lightning.
It looked as though he had thrust it only once, but when the spear stopped, blood spurted from Benedict’s arms and legs.
“Aaaagh!”
With a scream, Benedict fell backward.
“And he has the relic nicely on him, too.”
David shoved the metal rod into Benedict’s chest as he writhed on the floor.
Then, rising to his feet, he asked me with a grave expression,
“Does one person have to be sacrificed to trigger the trap?”
His words sounded as if he would sacrifice someone if necessary.
At the thought that they themselves might become that sacrifice, everyone hurriedly began throwing out ideas.
“If we throw the black stone… That won’t work, will it?”
“What about tying it to a spear shaft? Remove the spearhead, tie the black stone in its place, then extend it from here… No, that distance is too far as well.”
The suggestions hastily offered by the Black youth and the macho middle-aged man were immediately rejected.
“I’m sorry. I can move a rope itself, but I can’t manipulate it delicately enough to put the black stone into that recess.”
“No matter how fast I move, I’m not faster than lightning.”
Magreta’s ability and the Latin man’s ability were not the answer either.
Heewon did not seem to have any ideas at all.
When she looked at me with a tearful expression, I raised my hand and pointed at the macho middle-aged man.
“Let’s do as he said.”
“You mean tie it to the tip of the spear? But it’s not long enough.”
The Black youth was right.
The recess where the black stone had to be inserted was on the opposite side from the passage where the group was resting.
Between the passage leading underground and the forked passage.
It was not strange for the recess to be here.
The trap had been installed to block enemies from outside.
Naturally, the trap’s weak point would be hidden on the inside.
“If we thrust the spear from that passage, it won’t reach, but from another passage, it will be possible.”
“But… in that case, you’ll be facing the monsters alone.”
At the youth’s words, I pointed to another passage beside us.
“If it’s the passage leading farther underground, I’d encounter the ant monsters, but if it’s the passage on the blocked fork side, I might be able to avoid them.”
“But that would still be incredibly dangerous.”
At Magreta’s words, I said as I loosened the spearhead,
“I’ll stay behind.”
Everyone stared at me in surprise.
Magreta was not wrong to say it was dangerous.
Even if I hid on the forked-path side, there was no guarantee I would not be found.
The bigger problem was being left behind alone in these ruins.
After trapping the ant monsters with the trap, the exploration team would have to escape the ruins.
They might even have to keep fleeing all the way back to the base.
To be left alone in ruins swarming with ants in that situation…
It might be no different from dying.
But I was confident I could survive.
While making the plan, I had already found a few methods.
Besides, I could not simply return.
Ever since I had entered these ruins, someone from down below had been calling to me.
A voice calling me through my senses.
I could not help but go.