Tales of the Labyrinth

Translated by: il0vecats

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Chapter 2: Deep Forest

When Hwanin secured a job at a large conglomerate, only to be left alone in the world after his parents died in an accident, life took a solemn turn. Relatives and alleged cousins appeared, eyeing his parents’ inheritance, but legal proceedings made them vanish just as silently as they had come, cursing as they left.

Their attempts didn’t scar him—Hwanin had no interest in human relationships. To him, people outside his immediate circle were no different from ants on the street.

The death of his parents, who had provided direction and purpose to his life, further numbed him. At 26, he hadn’t yet found anything he particularly wanted to achieve or pursue. His sole aim had been to look after his parents who had raised him without expecting anything in return. But they had died in a car accident, leaving him void of purpose, direction, and goals.

For a short while, he wandered aimlessly but decided to live a normal life, as his parents had wished during their lifetime. It wasn’t difficult; Hwanin had learned from a young age that acting reserved while listening attentively and occasionally smiling would earn him goodwill from most people. Mimicking his parents’ behavior and following their teachings kept him out of trouble.

Occasionally, he would do something that shocked people, leading close acquaintances to joke, “Wow, aren’t you a psychopath?” Despite this, he was generally well-regarded.

On his third year at the company, Hwanin reflected on himself, viewing himself as an empty shell—a man living without interest or passion, just not dead yet. Thus, he wasn’t afraid of death. If it came, he would simply accept it and die. He was indifferent to the concept of death.

Yet, after somehow ending up in a strange place and killing unfamiliar monsters, Hwanin experienced an intense elevation of emotions for the first time. The cessation of life beneath his feet and the lightness of life fading through his hands awakened something within him.

“…Hmm.”

Accepting that this wasn’t Earth, Hwanin set his primary goal as returning to Earth. Logical reasoning prompted this decision; in his state of heightened emotion after killing the green monsters, the word “return” surfaced in his mind, linking to the concept of having a goal.

He had no family or friends to return to and no pressing reason to go back to Earth. Yet, for the first time, he thought he understood the nostalgia his father had spoken about, giving him a reason to aim for home.

Despite the seemingly impossible nature of this goal, Hwanin felt a slight lift in his spirits as he fingered the gold coin in his pocket.

‘Teleportation? Or transmission?’

Being a reader of many genres, including global fantasy novels, he recalled stories like “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Wizard of Oz.” Picking up the gold coin and being transported to a strange world made the coin a potential dimensional gateway. Also, a gold coin was typically a form of currency, implying the presence of civilization. If civilizations existed and dimensional travel was possible, perhaps there would be magicians in this world.

If he could find a magician and inquire about the gold coin, he might learn his next steps.

The grand goal was returning to Earth. The immediate goal was finding a magician. The current objective was survival in this jungle. These goals didn’t seem too bad.

Shifting away from the green monsters, Hwanin focused on finding a safe place.

Despite having goals, Hwanin’s situation was dire.

‘Worrying about mountains is quite fitting here.’

The forest floor was piled high with leaves and humus, making walking difficult. The underbrush grew chest-high, sapping both his visibility and strength. Though the weather was a bit warm, it posed no problem. Nightfall would bring cooler temperatures, but he had rags from the monsters, and he could gather leaves to create a makeshift bed to ward off the cold. However, starting a fire might be unwise; while it could repel predators, it might also attract curious ones.

Homelessness wasn’t new to him. He had gone on multiple bivouac trips with his father, so the idea didn’t unsettle him. There were countless other minor issues, but the most pressing problems were securing food and water, and dealing with the unknown monsters and predators of the jungle.

Grrrrk—

His stomach growled loudly. It had been five hours since he fell into this strange place. He had only consumed a few drinks, some ion beverages, and a small chocolate bar prior, meaning he hadn’t eaten in about 10 hours since lunch.

On Earth, acquiring food and water wouldn’t have been immediately urgent. Morning dew could moisten his lips, and he could find fruits to eat, even resorting to bark and roots in extreme cases. But this wasn’t Earth.

Kiyaaa—

Hwanin gazed upward and saw a purple bird with a spiral horn making strange noises as it flew overhead. This confirmed it wasn’t Earth. While horned birds like hornbills and hoopoes existed on Earth, nothing matched the purple bird with drill-like spiral horns in his memory.

Therefore, he had to assume that Earth’s knowledge and common sense wouldn’t apply here. Diseases arising from different environments were unavoidable, but he might handle the risk of animal or monster attacks during sleep. However, he had no idea what was safe to consume.

“Roasting over fire doesn’t guarantee safety…”

He muttered, examining a round, spiky orange fruit the size of a coin with his stone axe. Yet, he quickly shook his head, realizing roasting might cause unknown chemical reactions producing toxins.

Water posed a similar problem. Even if he found a water source, it might be unsafe due to unknown microorganisms.

Travelers often got stomachaches from drinking local water, but if the entire world was different?

Physics seemed similar to Earth’s, so he might be able to create a makeshift filtration system or boil the water. With his survival skills learned from his father, he could filter muddy water or make earthenware. However, bushcrafting in a monster-inhabited forest seemed suicidal.

Hwanin felt an invisible blade at his throat—an unfamiliar sensation in his 26 years.

Night descended quickly in the forest.

With so many thoughts filling his mind, Hwanin scanned his surroundings, prioritizing immediate survival needs as darkness spread through the forest.

His wristwatch showed 1:17 AM. His watch had shown 5 PM when he first arrived. Given that spring sunsets around 7 PM in Korea and estimating an 8-hour time difference, the local time was likely around 7 PM.

Accounting for an 8-hour time difference from Korea places the location at longitude 0°, along the Prime Meridian—a line stretching vertically down through the United Kingdom and Africa.

‘Considering the current temperature…’

The surroundings could be a jungle in Central Africa, or a primeval forest in countries like the UK, France, or Spain.

Unlikely.

Even if, by some astronomical chance, he assumed that the green monsters were undiscovered indigenous people, the distance Hwanin had traveled in the past several hours exceeded 20 kilometers. To his knowledge, there was no forest in Europe with trees tall enough to cover a 20-kilometer radius.

Although he had no experience or interest in Africa, he had heard that temperatures in Africa during April and May exceeded 30 degrees Celsius, sometimes reaching 40 degrees based on location.

It wasn’t that hot here. It seemed relatively humid, as well.

‘This further supports the hypothesis that this place isn’t Earth.’

While searching for a suitable spot to spend the night, Hwanin sighed. The current location offered no good sites for camping.

Within an hour, the forest would be shrouded in pitch-black darkness. The likelihood of nocturnal predators appearing made finding a safe place a top priority.

Gambling on proceeding further into the forest was foolhardy and underestimated the dangers it posed.

‘I should head back.’

Remembering the locations he observed earlier, Hwanin retraced his steps to a spot he had noted about 20 minutes ago, all the while surveying the teeming forest.

The forest was brimming with life.

The elements making up the forest—plants, small animals, and insects—were fundamentally similar to those on Earth.

Digging a little bit into the soil revealed golden-scaled worms and mole-like creatures. Prodding the underbrush with his stone axe sent swarms of strange glowing flies and flickering bugs that resembled fireflies flitting away, almost as if teleporting.

It was fortunate, yet ominous, that he hadn’t encountered other monsters or predators since his encounter with the green monsters. This absence suggested that those tool-using, bipedal green monsters had expelled or hunted the beasts, claiming the territory.

‘All three of those monsters were male.’

They had unsightly, yet obvious, genitalia. Based on their behavior and tool usage, the females were likely breeding in a secure location.

The more he deduced, the more unsettling thoughts crowded his mind.

Perhaps rubbing soil and leaves on his clothes to hide his urban scent offered some consolation.

“Hoo.”

Reaching his chosen spot, Hwanin sighed softly and grasped a tree root thicker than his own body. He hadn’t stopped moving for nearly nine hours and could feel the fatigue creeping up on him.

He’d lost track of how many times he wished he were wearing sneakers instead of dress shoes and workout clothes instead of a suit.

Leaving discreet markers periodically had allowed Hwanin to easily find the large tree he had previously earmarked. Once there, he immediately began preparing a place to rest.

The tree was enormous—so large it would take twenty adults to encircle it with their arms. The exposed roots, as thick as a person, created spaces large enough for an adult to curl up in.

Hwanin padded one such space with leafy branches, then laid the green monster hides atop them. Although he had scrubbed the hides with dirt and grass, they still emitted a foul, pungent stench that assailed his throat and nose.

Combined with the fresh scent of leaves and wood—

“My parents’ home was a paradise.”

Suppressing the urge to cough, he undressed from his suit coat, shoved himself into the crevice, and sat down. Comfort was a luxury; survival was his priority.

He hugged the stone axe to his chest and covered himself with his gray coat, feeling a semblance of warmth.

……

Had he been tense all this time? As he settled down, the events of the day replayed in his mind, driving all fatigue to the forefront.

Hunger and thirst soon became more pronounced.

Ripping the cuff of his sleeve, he sucked on a clean part of his shirt, generating a bit of saliva.

‘This is just emergency treatment…’

With nothing to eat or drink, even if he tried to endure, he figured two days would be his limit. He considered taking the risk while he still had the strength to move.

The coin-sized fruits scattered throughout the forest came to mind. Their juiciness could potentially sate both hunger and thirst.

But…

“……”

Faced with the dilemma of starving or risking consumption of unknown fruits, he would have to choose the latter. Starvation led to certain death; the fruits might hold a slim chance of survival.

While he could make choices about what to eat, he was powerless against any toxic elements in the air.

Hadn’t smallpox, brought by invaders, killed more indigenous people during colonial times than the invaders themselves?

With monsters living here, there was always the risk of being killed by them.

“Keuk-keuk.”

Hwanin chuckled to himself.

When was the last time he laughed? Perhaps when his mother hugged him tightly during elementary school.

Standing in this battleground of uncertainties didn’t feel bad.

Despite the many life-threatening challenges, he determined to fight for survival until the end.

Stifling his laughter by burying his face in his coat, Hwanin tried to get some sleep.