Joseph and Hana arrived at the towering building bearing the emblem of the Seven Seas Corporation. Its glass façade rose in the middle of the city like a modern castle, reflecting in its lights the ghostly silhouettes of the scattered clouds above. They entered through the main gate with steady steps.
At the reception desk, Joseph approached the employee and said in a calm voice:
"We would like to meet with Vice President Mr. Lee Sojun."
The employee lifted his head and looked at them for a few seconds, as if Joseph's features were familiar to him. Then he bent slightly toward the computer screen and made a brief internal call. His words were quick and concise, but he soon ended the call with a faint smile:
"Mr. Sojun is expecting you. You may head up to his office."
They took the elevator, and silence prevailed during their ascent. When the elevator doors opened, they found Lee Sojun waiting for them at the entrance of his office.
He extended his hand to Joseph, then to Hana, saying:
"I'm glad to see you both safe."
He motioned for them to sit behind the luxurious desk, then took a seat facing them and leaned back into the leather chair. The pleasantries didn't last long, as he jumped straight to the point with a sharp yet formal tone:
"Joseph… we need an explanation. Why didn't you join the team at the scheduled time? And why was your phone off the entire time?"
Joseph looked directly into Sojun's eyes, then replied with calm deliberation:
"My phone died because the battery ran out… and since I couldn't use the digital map, I made a mistake locating the labyrinth's gate. That's why I arrived late."
Silence hung for a few seconds before Lee Sojun gave a slight nod, as if Joseph's answer didn't fully convince him, but he chose to remain silent for the moment. The atmosphere in the office wasn't tense, but beneath it flowed undercurrents of doubt and unanswered questions.
Lee Sojun straightened in his seat and cast a quick glance at Joseph, then Hana, before speaking in a tone less sharp and more sympathetic—or so it seemed on the surface:
"I'm sorry for what you two went through… especially since it was your first day on the job."
He paused for a moment, as if giving extra weight to his words, then continued:
"But we don't have the luxury of stopping. Tomorrow, you'll be entering a new labyrinth. I'll send you all the available information about it, along with the names of the members you'll be working with this time."
At that moment, Joseph felt something strange. It didn't show on his face, but inside, he was tense.
He said to himself:
"Is he planning something? Is this another trap? Will he send his men to finish what they failed to do before?"
He stared at Lee Sojun's face for a few moments, trying to read beyond his calm features, but there was nothing to uncover.
Everything seemed normal… polished… perfectly arranged—and that's precisely what made it suspicious.
They had no choice. Neither Joseph nor Hana.
They had to swallow their doubts and pretend to trust.
Joseph stood up first, followed silently by Hana.
The vice president gave them a slight bow, which Joseph returned with a simple nod. Then, the two of them left the office without exchanging a single word.
At the building's gate, they parted silently.
Each went in his own direction, to his solitude, to the stillness of his home…
But the silence wasn't peace; it was a battlefield for inner voices howling like hungry wolves.
And Joseph?
Deep inside, he wasn't eagerly awaiting tomorrow… but with anxiety, and a watchful caution.
Because tomorrow might just be another trap… with a different face.
At his home, as the sun began to set, Joseph sat in the living room, his eyes fixed on the television screen displaying meaningless moving images. The orange light creeping in from the horizon filtered through the window, casting long shadows on the walls, as if the evening itself was watching in silence.
Amidst the quiet of the house, his younger sister came in, a fleeting smile on her face, and said as she held her bag:
"I'm going out with my friends for a while."
He turned his face toward her slowly, then replied calmly:
"Alright, be careful."
She nodded in agreement, then left, closing the door behind her. He remained there, alone, sitting in his place without moving. His eyes were still on the TV, but his thoughts were far removed from everything being shown.
Coldness settled on his features, but the storm inside him had never calmed.
A faint voice echoed within him, sneaking in like an old whisper he knew all too well:
"Will he send stronger men this time to kill me?"
"I don't know… but my heart is not at ease."
He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed softly. He had faced Li Lian, Si Hon, and Sok Won. He thought to himself: "They were strong compared to my old self, but facing them now made me realize how much my strength has grown. But these three are nothing but weaklings in the world of the guardians."
He whispered to himself, as if it were both comfort and a warning.
And suddenly… it appeared before him, in the still air of the room, a gray card with edges glowing in the color of blood.
[The Unknown Labyrinth]
Joseph furrowed his brows, sighed in annoyance, and muttered with a muffled intensity:
"Why now… at this exact moment?"
He stood up from his seat, then pulled out his phone and called his sister.
He waited a few moments until she answered, then said in a calm yet serious voice:
"I'm leaving… I might be a little late."
He ended the call and left the house.
Joseph stepped out of his home under the night sky, which had begun to cloak itself in its black garment, walking steadily through the streets, heading toward an abandoned side alley that smelled of dampness and decay.
He stopped in the middle of the alley, took the mission card from his pocket. It was cold in his hand, emitting a faint white glow, and then it began to glow more intensely, transforming before him into a white gate, emitting a soft sound, almost like the whisper of the wind.
Without hesitation, Joseph crossed the gate, finding himself suddenly inside a dark cave, the air heavy, and the smell of damp rocks filling his nose. As soon as he entered, the gate closed silently behind him.
He moved slowly, scanning the place with his cautious eyes. The darkness was thick, but he was used to such environments. He drew his daggers, gripped them tightly, and began walking quietly, venturing deeper and deeper into the heart of the cave.
The silence was eerie… no sound of dripping water, no whisper of wind… not even the rustle of a crawler.
"Where is the beast?"
A question echoed in his mind, and with each step he took, his certainty grew that something unnatural was at play.
Then suddenly, from the heart of the darkness, something shot out at lightning speed. He didn't see it at first, but he felt it.
A long, sticky tongue wrapped around his body, before being violently pulled backward!
Joseph screamed inside, but his body didn't freeze.
In a critical moment, just before being swallowed, he twisted his body mid-air and stabbed the tongue with his right dagger.
A monstrous scream echoed through the place, and his body was freed from its grasp, falling to the ground and rolling before he instantly jumped back to his feet.
He lifted his eyes, and there it was, now clearly in front of him…
A massive chameleon…
Yellow eyes glowing in the dark, a long, hanging tongue, and a huge body covered in dark scales.
It looked at him with cold eyes, then lunged at him without warning.
It started firing its tongue at him at lightning speed, trying to strike him,
but Joseph was jumping, barely dodging the strikes,
each time pulling away from the tongue's path by a hair's breadth.
But it was fast.
So fast that his eyes could barely keep up with the movement of the tongue.
Joseph kept jumping and dodging the rapid tongue strikes that shot like arrows from the mouth of the giant chameleon. Every attempt he made to attack was met with a sudden slap or a violent recoil from that cursed tongue, as if the beast anticipated his movement before he made it.
But Joseph was not one to succumb to monotony.
He started moving left and right, shifting with precision, testing the chameleon's responses, observing.
And in a moment of focus, his eyes gleamed.
He noticed something…
Despite the insane speed of its tongue, the chameleon couldn't track in curved or twisting directions… it was fast only in a straight line.
He gave a slight smile, not of joy, but of acknowledgment.
In a moment of explosion, Joseph darted to the right with a swift, unexpected move.
The tongue shot towards him immediately like a bullet, but he was ready.
He dodged the first strike, then the second, and smoothly leaped over the third before charging with all his strength towards one of the chameleon's front legs.
He struck it hard with his dagger, causing the chameleon to scream and stagger, but Joseph didn't stop. He quickly jumped towards the second leg and stabbed it with decisive precision.
The giant chameleon stumbled, screaming with a sound that pierced the walls of the cave, before crashing to the ground with force, dust scattering around it, and small rocks shattering under its weight.
In a swift moment, Joseph leapt over its head,
plunging his dagger into its skull
until the blade sank deep into its flesh,
and it stopped moving… forever.
The cave fell silent once more, but this time it carried the scent of death.
Joseph breathed deeply, standing still as he gazed at the massive corpse, before bending down and extracting the energy core, which began to glow with a faint green hue in his hands.
Moments later, two cards appeared before him, floating in the air:
• A card labeled "Speed"
• A card labeled "Enhanced Instinct"
He reached out and took the two cards, panting in exhaustion, sweat dripping from his brow, dust covering his back.
But before he could make a move to leave…
He paused.
The exit gate didn't appear.
He froze for a moment, looking around with suspicion.
"Why hasn't the gate opened?"
A question pierced deep within him like a nail.
The answer was clear…
This chameleon was not the labyrinth's leader.