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Last Embryo Volume 6 Chapter 2 Part 7

Heracles: the strongest of all the Greek Demigods, a fierce warrior who is said to have been unmatched in combat with any kind of weaponry. . . . . .and an undisputable hero who was like a role model for every aspiring hero who came after him. There are even times where hie is being described as the strongest of heroes not only in Greece, but in the entire Europe as well, and there is nothing wrong or exaggerated about such a statement. So he was the mysterious person whom the 2nd war for the Sun’s Authority’s Organizational Committee has sent to be a part of the War’s first Gift Game. . . and yet, now they were informed that not only was he attacked by someone before {The Lost Continent of Atlantis} Gift Game could start for good, but that same assailant managed to injure him to the point where it became impossible for him to fulfill the duty that he was being tasked with?!

「That is. . . . . uhm, well. . . . . 」

「Ah, OK, OK, it is fine, you do not have to answer if you do not want to, but just know that this reaction of yours basically told us everything that we needed to know. And, you know, are you for real? Like, seriously? I thought that the only ones who could ever hope to fight Heracles on an equal footing were the ones like Vithar and other Gods like him. . . .  So, who was the one who defeated him, I wonder?」

She asked while looking around. For a brief moment, Asuka felt as if her gaze stopped on her specifically, but in the very next second the woman moved on and returned her gaze to Lalah. Apparently her interest in Asuka was not all that big after all.
「You said that Heracles was supposed to be waiting for us in the underground Labyrinth, correct? And since you originally wanted him to take care of your monster problem, then I guess we can also assume that we would be the ones doing the exterminating in cooperation with him, right? I do not know what kind of a super-beast you are keeping down there, but do you not think that wanting us to face that thing alone when we were supposed to fight against it together with one of the strongest heroes known to mankind is just a little bit rude? 」

「. . . . . 」

「Oh, is it another one that you cannot answer? I am sorry, let me just change the question to some other one again. If my hypothesis about you wanting us to fight against some kind super-beast by ourselves, without anyone to back us up, then I think that instead of a lot of people jumping at the opportunity, what you are going to see instead is people bailing out on you because they value their lives more than they value yours, so if you do not want to see that particular scenario coming to fruition, then how about giving us some kind of extra reward that would motivate us to go through with this quest of yours?」

For a moment, Lalah looked as if she was in genuine awe at what the Chinese woman said because she had to wink a few times to realize that she wanted to know if now that the situation has changed for much worse there will be additional rewards offered to them for their efforts. So when her expression finally relaxed and she regained her composure, she easily brought herself back into the flow of things.

「Of course, we were not planning to have your efforts go unrewarded. This underground Labyrinth actually holds valuable information in regards the Game’s Victory Conditionds.」

「Ohhh, so aside from just having to fight against the hordes of monsters, it can also serve a practical purpose? Well then, in that case I guess it is abundantly clear what we have to do. So, if we want to gain an edge over the other Players participating in the War, then we basically Have no choice but to enter the Labyrinth, do we?」

「Yes, that assessment can be called a generally correct one.」

So the information on how to achieve victory in the {Lost Continent of Atlantis} Gift Game are waiting for the Players in the underground Labyrinth. When they heard that, the eyes of some of the Players lit up with a renewed determination, and as for the Chinese woman in casual clothes, she made an O letter with her fingers and laughed heartily.

「OK, then the next question is going to be the last one that you are going to hear from me. Does that information on how to win the first stage of the War comes from the person that you wanted us to meet, or perhaps we are going to obtain that knowledge from something that we are going to find inside the Labyrinth once we get there?」

「If you really are the heroes that we seek, the you are going to know that when you enter the Labyrinth.」

Seemingly satisfied with that answer, the Chinese woman nodded her head lightly at Lalah and then she took a step back, mixing in with the rest of the crowd again, after which she made her way towards the boy with two spears over his shoulders, shrugged her shoulders and whispered to him:

「Rejoice, Connla. It looks like there are still more enemies around who can satisfy your. . . .」

「You have no idea how many times I have heard these words before, only to end up disappointed every single time. But I really hope for this time to be different.」

The dual spear-wielding boy who was named Connla by the Chinese woman laughed in an extremely unmotivated manner, and the woman laughed back at him and gave him a light pat on the back. It took some time, but it looks like she really was finished with asking all of the questions that she had in mind.

Now that they have heard the same things as the other Players, Asuka and You looked at each other.

「That person must be an incredibly talented Game Maker. It is more than likely that she knows about the mystery of this Gift Game and the relationship between 「Stone Pillars」 and 「Stone Monuments」.」

「Yes, so we should definitely remain as vigilant about her as possible. On the other hand though, I wonder if we could simply ignore all of the Players who are not aware of their relation at this point because they are not going to get very far without that knowledge anyway?」

At the very least, that extremely short Q & A session they had just now was useful to Asuka and You, because it allowed them to make a rough distinction between the Players whom thy should be wary of and those whom they could simply ignore, because judging by their reactions right now, most of the Players who are here with them have yet to figure out the relationship between「Stone Pillars」 and 「Stone Monuments」.

「I think it is safe to say that our most troublesome opponent for the time being. . . . is definitely going to be her.」

Asuka and the others glanced at the Chinese woman in casual clothing who was asking all of those questions earlier. She wore a pair of torn jeans and a patterned t-shirt, had a large bell hanging from her waist and she also wore sunglasses that were effectively covering almost half of her face. All of these clothes and accessories were clearly made from materials that could not be normally found in Little Garden, which probably meant that all of them have been made or bought in the Outer World, so she must have been one of the Players who came to take part in the War from there.