Chương 8: Earplugs

Quest: - Superpowers: A gift or a curse Life's Last Hope was established to research the immortality drug. So, why are they treating children here? What are these superpowers they are trying to treat? How are they actually researching the drug? Why do they have the support of every government? Goal: Find the answers Reward: Rift Card A quest? Did this rift have one? Rifts have a simple structure; they randomly pop up anywhere in the world.

Every rift has a different setting, according to which they have monsters and NPCs inside. You slay the monsters, get loot, loot the rift and get out. If monsters are not regularly cleared out, a rift break takes place. There are also boss monsters which give rarer loot, and quests which we can complete to get special rewards. But, they are in higher ranked rifts and Life's Last Hope is not supposed to have a quest.

So what is this quest I see in front of me, and an even bigger question is, why does it share its name with j. m. k67's fiction? Now that I think about it, why did j. m. k67 named his fiction Superpowers: A Gift or a Curse when the word superpower had never been used to describe anything related to this rift? This can't be a coincidence. Does the author know something about this? Has he encountered this quest?

"I will," I patted Pyiari's head. I put aside what I can't find right now and focused on what I can. The quest's goal is to find answers. The first and third questions are essentially the same, and I can already guess the answer to both. They are experimenting on the children to make the immortality drug. This, I am sure about, why else would they keep them here? Superpowers can't be an actual disease, and even if they were, why would they bring them to a facility especially made for research?

The other two questions were something I needed to find the answer to. Then comes the quest reward. Rift card, a term I have never heard. A typical quest reward is treasure, artifacts and skillcards. What could Rift card mean? A card of the rift, a card for the rift? It's hard to guess just by its name. Now, the biggest questions? How do I clear this quest? How do I give Pyiari the ending she deserves? I can't just take her out of the rift; others have tried that before, albeit forcefully. It doesn't work.

NPCs vanish after getting pushed through the exit, respawning back inside with their memories erased.

"So, how do I actually take you out of here?"

"Mister, you didn't just say all that while you don't even have a plan." I could see the redness in her eyes while she glared at me.

"Haha, I do have a plan. I was just joking," I don't have any idea what I need to do after this. My only hint is this quest, which shares the same name with j. m. k67's fiction. Can the actual story also be the same? I doubt that. j. m. k67's story followed the life of a kid here, who successfully escaped. Wait, if j. m. k67 really completed this quest, and left that story as a guide for anyone else attempting this quest in the future. Then the method mentioned in it might work.

I was about to tell Pyiari my plan, but she spoke up first.

"I can't leave alone,""Huh?"

"I have a friend here, I don't want to leave her." That's so sweet of her.

"Of course, we won't leave without your friend. So, why don't you take me to her?" She bobbed her head when suddenly footsteps started echoing in the hallways. Someone was walking towards us. Is it another walker?

"Mister, we need to hide."

"Why?"

"It's Mr. Moark, his job is to find any kid wandering outside and punish them." This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"That isn't good." Another thing I have never heard of. According to the wiki, there were no monsters in the maze, so why is one here right now?

"It isn't, let's go now." She was already running in the opposite direction. I ran behind her, but maybe that was a mistake, because Moark started chasing us after hearing the echo of our footsteps. I could hear him running on the floor, the walls and the ceiling. Was it the echo, or was he actually moving like that? I couldn't tell, but one thing was certain. He will catch us if we keep running like this.

"Pyiari, can't you just make him sleep with your singing. I even brought earplugs this time," I took out a pair of earplugs from my pocket, showing it to her.

"Mister, my superpower isn't that weak to get blocked by your earplugs, besides it doesn't work on Mr. Moark."

"How do you know that?"

"I might or might not have tried it the last time he caught me." Well, that plan is out. Earplugs wasted, now what do we do, think, think. Should I separate from Pyiari and make it follow me by making a lot of noise, then use Ghost Laugh to distract it even more and quietly escape? Yeah, that should work.

"Pyiari—""Mister duck," Two years of raiding rifts have wired my body to instinctively react to calls like that. I ducked, and something passed above my head. If I'd still been standing, I wouldn't have a head right now. It wasn't just the echo; Moark was actually on the walls right now. Moark the Stern Moark was born in a military family. Discipline was the utmost thing that held them, but Moark made them look lenient. He was disciplined in everything and demanded the same of others.

He was sent to Life's Last Hope as the chief of security, and when he was given the opportunity to make people disciplined for an eternity, he did not decline. Recorded in the Akashic system in the year 13675 His body was covered in the same black sludge as Orand. His arms and legs were stretched wide, sticking to the walls, his neck twisted to his back. He had no mouth, eyes or ears. His face was devoid of any features; black sludge swirled on it. Is it because he has no ears that Pyiari's singing won't work?

Then how did he hear our footsteps? Moark shook as if screaming, but no sound came out. He then lunged at Pyiari. I kicked him in the head before he could reach her. He was so fucking hard that I felt a jolt travel up my leg. Moark tumbled back. I caught Pyiari's hand and started to run. Behind us, Moark had already recovered.

"Pyiari, we separate. You go to the left, and I go right and distract him."

"No, no, no. Mister, I am scared, I don't wanna be caught by him. He is the worst there is. He will whip me with a stick, starve me and take my teddy away from me. Mister, I am scared."

"That's why I am gonna distract him, you run."

"No, no, no. She clenched my hands hard, not letting them go. She was too scared and wouldn't let go. What do I do now? Moark's footsteps started echoing, so did ours. Wait, why are our footsteps echoing? I don't remember it happening before, and why isn't our voice echoing?

"Pyiari, does Moark have a superpower too?"

"He does, everyone in this facility has one. But I don't know what it is." Our voice was really not echoing; only footsteps were.

"I think I just guessed what it is. We should stop running."

"Then he will catch us,""Just listen to me, take that left turn and muffle your steps""Ah.. umm," We turned left and stopped. As expected, Moark slowed down, but was still moving towards us. I motioned Pyiari to move with silent steps. Moark's superpower was making his own and others' footsteps echo. A good superpower to have when your task is to patrol these hallways. If someone heard him approaching, their first instinct would be to run away. Doing that, they doom themselves. But how does he listen?

He doesn't have any ears, and he lunged at Pyiari when she was standing, which means he has vision. This is so confusing. Why have no eyes and ears, and when you can see and listen? And if you can listen, just go to sleep after listening to her song. We moved silently, making distance between Moark and us. We did not talk either, fearing that I might have guessed his powers wrong. Moark was getting confused; I could hear his footsteps echo. He would take a wrong path, check it, then come back and repeat.

Because we were trying not to make any sounds, we weren't making any significant distance between us either. He was always just a few steps away from catching us.

"Pyiari," I whispered into her ear.

"How far are we from an exit?" I moved my ear towards her mouth so I could hear her.

"We can get out in fifteen minutes if we run at full speed."

"Will Moark follow us out of this maze?"

"He won't," Good, as expected, Moark's territory is only this maze. But if we keep moving like this, he will surely find us. We need to run, and for that, we need to be out of the range of his powers. The best I can do is guess it from our initial encounter; it must be around one hundred fifty meters by the amount of time he took to run towards us. I hope my guess is correct. I decided to use Ghost Laugh. I created one echo, of five seconds, which gave me the maximum delay of six minutes.

I gathered my magika, focused on Ghost Laugh, recorded a laugh, then started moving. Three minutes later, Moark had already passed it once. The distance between us was approximately seventy meters. At the five-minute mark, the distance between us had reduced to just forty meters, but the distance between us and my recorded laugh was a hundred meters. 5 minutes & 59 seconds, Moark was just around the corner, and the distance between us and my recorded laugh was one hundred forty meters.

"HAHAHA," the laugh played, loud enough to be heard this far. I had done it as loudly as I could, which had made my throat sore. Moark ran towards it, and we took light steps far from him. The final distance between Moark and us was one hundred fifty meters.

"Run," I said, which Pyiari followed, and our footsteps did not echo.

"Run, Pyiari run. Before he catches us,""I am as fast as I can," We did not hear echoing footsteps after that. But that had been the easiest part because something far worse was waiting for us ahead in this story.