Translator: miraclerifle
“Huff. Professor, Professor Zhen Cai Yuan, get your ass out!”
Hawaii.
There was a man with a terrible stench in this beautiful state with blue water all around.
This man was none other than the Monarch of Gossip who had been in the Middle East. Unfortunately, his healthy body was gone and he was barely moving around looking extremely thin as he made his way to the villa.
This luxurious villa belonged to Zhen Cai Yuan, one of the Four Emperors from China.
The white administrators in charge of maintaining this villa with an ocean view was shocked after seeing this unfamiliar man enter.
“Get the hell out before I call the cops!”
“Eek... Get lost!”
The Monarch of Gossip glared at the administrators. The administrators tried to drag him out, but someone stopped them.
“It’s fine, let him be.”
“!”
This bikini-clad woman was Zhen Cai Yuan. This woman, who was once the genius who had become the youngest professor of Washington University's Biotechnology, had recently moved to a famous university in China. She was only 28 years old.
She had a skinny body that was voluptuous in all the right places. She started to smile while wiping water off her body.
“I thought you were dead.”
The Monarch of Gossip started to grind his teeth while looking at her. It wouldn't have been weird if he had died because of Ju-Heon. That was the reason Ju-Heon had used artifacts with high rates of fatality against him.
The reason he was still alive was because he had eaten a healing artifact out of caution prior to entering the tomb.
It was something he received from a healing artifact user who was still not very well known, but her consumable healing artifacts were quite effective.
But they were still worthless if hit by an attack that was stronger than the medicine. He was halfway through the doors of death because of the gushing diarrhea inside him.
“Ugh... a healing artifact, give me a healing artifact!”
Zhen Cai Yuan sat down on the sun bed with a disappointed expression.
“You’re acting like you're in so much pain because you were hit by a mere disease artifact. Seo Ju-Heon is fine even after drinking multiple disease artifacts.”
“......!”
“Oh well, I guess there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Then...!”
As the Monarch of Gossip started to smile...
“Ugh!”
The Monarch of Gossip’s body suddenly ripped apart and he was killed. Something that had jumped out of her shadow had ripped the Monarch of Gossip apart. She immediately motioned to her administrators.
"Get rid of this. It stinks.”
She sighed as if looking at his bloody corpse was annoying. She had no use for failed artifact users.
She had been hopeful that she could create an artifact user like Hitler since she managed to run into this idiot who had Goebbels' artifact...
‘Looks like Seo Ju-Heon took Goebbels' artifact as well.’
Seo Ju-Heon was the problem. The people they believed would be talented artifact users were disappearing one by one as if they were bewitched by Seo Ju-Heon.
Who did she have to approach to get near Seo Ju-Heon this time?
She looked through the list of individuals on her phone with a bored expression.
However...
‘No.’
She stopped moving her hand and started to smile.
“I don’t think it'll be a bad idea to personally meet him this time.”
“Listen carefully. This is a breach of contract.”
Monarch of Gossip, Wade Haarmann. No, a man claiming to be the envoy of the Monarch of Gossip was calling someone.
But he seemed extremely angry.
It was because of the sharp voice of the woman on the phone.
[A breach of contract? There’s no point to even hear you out.]
“What?”
[I'm sorry, but I don’t remember ever signing such a contract. I'm hanging up if you have nothing else to say.]
Click.
She hung up. She had ruthlessly hung up without giving him a chance to say anything!
Guinness, the Monarch of Gossip’s envoy, looked at his phone with a blank expression before he started to shout.
“Monarch of Plunder! You son of a bitch!”
‘Do you not even train your subordinates properly?!’
The woman who had hung up on him as if she was squashing a bug was Lee Seol-A.
Ju-Heon turned around to look at her after seeing that she was grinding her teeth.
“What is it? What happened?”
Ju-Heon was still in the middle of an auction.
He was wearing a perfectly fitted suit and his hair was handsomely styled. The way he looked while sitting there with his legs crossed made it look as if he was the star in a commercial.
The problem was that the bastard who looked as if he should be biting on a cigar was sucking on a lollipop.
Ju-Heon, who had bought a bunch of lollipops after a kid on the street asked him to buy one from him, was eating them one by one as he asked.
“Who called?”
“Heineken. It was the Monarch of Delicacies.”
Ju-Heon's eyes opened wide after hearing that name. He wondered why that alcohol king had called, but then realized something.
That man was a Michelin chef and an alcohol business man. This man would go on to become the Monarch of Delicacies who made a name in the world’s food industry through a consumable artifact in the future. But he was just the Monarch of Gossip's sponsor at this point in time.
He recalled hearing about how this man had funded the Monarch of Gossip's excavation this time as well.
“Ah, that bastard. I knew that he would call at some point. What did he want? Did he try to put a claim on us?”
“Ah, please don't worry about it. I will take care of it.”
Seol-A smiled beautifully as if she had never growled in the first place.
‘This damn annoying bastard.’
The Captain-nim paying any attention to this bastard was making her angry.
But Ju-Heon's phone started to ring at that moment. It was from the same number.
Seol-A clicked her tongue.
‘What a persistent bastard.’
Ju-Heon flicked his finger as Seol-A tried to turn it off.
“Give it to me.”
“But...”
Ju-Heon picked up, regardless of Seol-A's expression that seemed to be saying that it would just annoy him if he picked up.
“Why do you keep calling me? What do you want, Monarch of Delicacies?”
He heard an extremely angry Heineken's voice.
[You finally picked up. Seo Ju-Heon.]
"What do you want?”
The Monarch of Delicacies scoffed.
[Do you really need to ask? Why the hell are you selling my artifact away?!]
“Your artifact?”
What bullshit was this?
“I didn’t steal your artifact this time.”
‘What? This time?’
[......You shameless bastard. You stole it and are selling it off right now! My artifact!]
‘What the hell did I steal?’
“I'm not interested in your artifacts right now.”
That was the truth. None of the Monarch of Delicacies’s artifacts were Ju-Heon’s style right now.
Well, the fact that a chef who was famous for being a gentleman was calling him so rudely like this showed how angry he was.
“Do you understand? Call me back after you gather some better artifacts.”
Heineken was flabbergasted as Ju-Heon tried to hang up.
[Wait a minute! That tomb is one that I reported to excavate. You naturally need to hand over the artifact you gained from there!]
Now this was a ton of bullshit.
“I'm hanging up. Bye quick shot.”
Click.
The call ended once again.
Heineken was probably swearing like a sailor on the other end of the line.
“Bothering me for no reason.”
Ju-Heon started to grumble.
Of course, Heineken’s logic was understandable.
The Pandora initiated < Excavation Reporting >. According to that shitty rule, he needed to give the Monarch of Gossip the artifact he gained.
The whole reason for the Excavation Reporting was to deal with the dispute in rights to an artifact.
Basically, reporting an excavation meant that the person would pay a set fee to receive reinforcements and monopolize the tomb first.
‘However, should they fail their excavation... The chance goes to the next person on the list.’
This was why there was a lot of merits to the Excavation Reporting. There were no needs for unnecessary fighting.
Because of that... Yoo Jaeha, who had also dressed stylishly but was being buried by Ju-Heon's overwhelming style, asked a question.
“Captain-nim. Wouldn’t it be beneficial for us to do some Excavation Reporting as well?”
They would get the rights to the tomb and receive some equipment for support. He wanted to know why this wasn’t beneficial.
Ju-Heon sneered at him.
“Do you want to lose 60% of everything after reporting it?”
“Huh?”
“If you report an excavation, they’ll give you information on the tomb, an Entrance Pass, good equipment, and even manpower. But do you know that they can take up to 60% of everything you find?”
He was not talking about taxes. Excavation Reporting was going into the tomb with a pre-set partnership of sorts with Pandora. They would provide support, so the people would go and excavate the tomb. Once they came out, they divided the gains. That would be a simple explanation of it.
Basically, Pandora was offering a business deal to the excavators and artifact users.
They were doing this under the justification that all of Pandora’s gains were used for World Peace, recovery for people and places that were damaged by tombs and artifacts, research, etc.
“Then the Monarch of Delicacies paid a shit ton of money to Pandora to monopolize this time?”
“Yeah.”
It was no wonder the Monarch of Delicacies was angry.
He had spent a shit ton of money only to have a thief steal from that tomb!
He got another call as the auction continued.
Ju-Heon picked up the call.
“What do you want, siscon?”
[Who the hell is a siscon?]
George Holten was the one who called.
He seemed to have received quite the tiring complaint.
[Benefactor. Did you loot a tomb that the Monarch of Gossip reported?]
‘Oh? They put it through Pandora because they couldn't handle it anymore?’
[Benefactor. The Monarch of Delicacies threw a fit at Pandora. The Monarch of Delicacies was part of the team that did the Excavation Reporting for that tomb so he was going off about how a thieving bastard ran off with his artifact.]
Ju-Heon started to laugh.
[You know that you are treated as a thief without an Excavation Reporting form?]
“I know very well.”
How could he not know?
‘That old bastard put my team together in order to avoid Excavation Reporting.’
This was true. This was how the Tomb Raiding Team that would do the dirty work for Chairman Kwon had been created. Well, many people would claim that Excavation Reporting was for World Peace and the safety of excavators, but...
‘They're just talking shit because they don't know the truth.’
In reality, it was an easy way for Pandora to maintain and control all artifacts and artifact users. Money wasn’t the only thing they took when someone submitted an Excavation Reporting form. They gave away their personal information and the Pandora system artifact would spy on them in real time.
But most people felt that there were too many political issues with Pandora and the C-R Alliance to not go through with the Excavation Reporting.
Chairman Kwon’s response was to create this shadow brigade that was TKBM's special team. In other words, Ju-Heon's Tomb raiding team.
‘He used a loophole in the rule.’
The loophole was that teams of less than 10 people did not need to complete Excavation Reporting. As the goal of tombs was to kill as many people as possible, they believed there was no way to clear tombs with such a small team.
But Ju-Heon and his Tomb raiding team were different. They could clear tombs with just two or three people. They were a peerless excavation team.
Of course, thinking about it made him want to throw up. He had vomited so much blood and worked his ass off to meet the conditions Chairman Kwon desired.
Of course, all that it resulted in was killing the dog after the hunt was over.
‘But it’s different now.’
Ju-Heon smiled sharply as he had that thought.
“Anyway, tell Pandora’s Executive Board to get their act straight first if they want to complain. I know they’re playing favorites when giving out Entrance Passes.”
[......I, I apologize about that part. I don’t have any influence on that.]
Pandora’s Executive Board. Basically, they were the people who contracted with Pandora’s system artifact. They were people who could spy on artifact users using that artifact. They were the ones at the top of Pandora who had ignored the fact that civilians were dying.
But they were people Ju-Heon couldn't touch right now.
Those bastards were strong. The future Era of Artifacts controlled by the monopolizers would not change if he did not face them head on. It would just return to how things were in the past.
‘That’s why I need to earn an Heirloom and properly become a Monarch.’
It was better for nobody to be able to monopolize artifacts rather than to let those bastards gobble up the artifacts.
Ju-Heon soon started to speak.
“The Executive Board... based on your personality, you probably made Rockefeller shut up, so, I guess the annoying one is the Monarch of Fate?”
[That bastard is an issue, but I can't tell what the hell the entire Executive Board is there to do. I can't even tell who is a part of it.]
‘Makes sense. Even I don't know much about those bastards. I do remember those bastards did like Chairman Kwon a bit though...’
Of course, Chairman Kwon may have lost a lot of points with them now because of him.
[Austin Rockefeller was trashed by Pandora as well. He then went and partnered with the Monarch of Evangelism, this weird terrorist in the Middle East, and ended up a Monarch himself, but......]
George’s voice sounded a bit odd.
It was understandable.
The Monarch of Surplus.
[That bastard was given such a stupid name. I can't tell whether I need to pay any attention to him or not.]
Ju-Heon started to laugh.
“Fine. Thanks for the information. I got it......”
It was at that moment.
“Yes, it has been sold! The artifact version of an aphrodisiac! This warm miracle drug Mr. Seo Ju-Heon brought over from the Middle East!”
“It has no side effects! Drinking just a little bit will help you restore the relationship between spouses that has cooled off! It is definitely a Fever of sorts! The Drug of Love!”
“It has been sold for $80,000,000!”
Ju-Heon was quite satisfied as he heard the people cheer.
He thought it would be useless, but it had fetched such a good price.
But Ju-Heon’s group couldn’t help but gasp. It was because they heard the name of the person who made the winning bid.
“Thank you for your purchase, Miss Irene Holten!”
‘Huh? Wait a minute. Who? Irene?’
It was indeed the familiar beauty who was being applauded.
Standing there with the long blonde hair and her low-cut red dress...
‘It really is Irene!’
Yoo Jaeha started to laugh.
“Hahaha, Irene bought the Drug of Love that the Captain-nim put out?!”
But Ju-Heon turned serious. It was fine that Irene purchased it, but......
“......Who is she going to use that on?”
Yoo Jaeha clutched his stomach and started to laugh crazily after hearing his slightly anxious Captain mumbling.
“It’s a boomerang, a boomerang!”
As for Seol-A, she was shaking. It was obvious why Irene was buying this thing!
“Is she really going to use it on the Captain-nim......!”
‘Damn it, I could have bought it too if I had the money......!’
Of course, there was nobody who noticed that the rope’s eyes had sparkled after hearing that.
On the other hand, George Holten's expression was quite odd after hanging up the phone.
“......Fever? The Drug of Love?”
He seemed to hear that Irene was the one who had won the bidding for that item...
‘...I must have heard wrong, right?’
One of George Holten’s close subordinates was stomping his foot at that moment.
"H, hold on, sir! Mister Holten! You hung up without mentioning the important thing!”
“Which is?”
“You were supposed to tell Seo Ju-Heon not to fuck... No, to be careful!”
The employee had an awkward expression on his face, as if wondering if it was okay to just hang up like that.
“The Monarch of Delicacies is outside right now! They want us to punish the thieving bastard! He seems to have contacted the Monarch of Fate in the Executive Board as well... They’re going to cause issues from above as well!”
George Holten started to smile.
“Why would we punish him?”
“Excuse me?”
“Teams of less than 20 people don’t need Excavation Reporting. Based on what I heard, Seo Ju-Heon did that. His team only consisted of three people.”
“Excuse me?”
“That is why he didn’t break the rule at all. That rule was something that the so-called Executive Board that is going to cause issues agreed on. What’s the problem?”
The employee foamed at the mouth after hearing that response.
“Sir! Pandora can’t save face like this!”
“Face?”
“Yes sir! The Monarch of Delicacies properly submitted his Excavation Reporting form and we have gained a lot of profits from these forms, so if we do this...”
The employee seemed to look outside before he shouted.
“People are going to ask what the hell Pandora is doing while taking their money!”
"What else are we doing other than working our asses off?”
“Sir! Are you taking Seo Ju-Heon's side? If you are going to act like this, you should withdraw......”
"Why are you acting like this? I'm a proper member who was voted in.”
“But everybody is going to do this illegal excavation if we don’t set an example! Who would want to share the profits with us?!”
“Who cares? They can revise it if they want to. We can change the International Constitution if they want.”
“Sir!”
George started to laugh.
The Monarch of Delicacies.
He was a bastard who was working with the Monarch of Gossip to use the press and control Pandora's core individuals. There was no way that George Holten would like him.
"Anyway, we can’t leave the Monarch of Delicacies with nothing after taking his money......”
“Mm. Did we receive about $800,000 from the Monarch of Delicacies so far?”
“Yes sir! But Seo Ju-Heon...!”
“$80,000,000.”
“E......excuse me?”
“That's the donation Seo Ju-Heon gave to the International Artifact Foundation. He told us to use it for damage restoration or whatever we want. Anyway, we have a ton of money right now.”
“......”
George Holten put his chin in his hands as he warned his subordinate with a wild beast-like stare.
“Maria. Let’s not shake for a mere $800,000. It makes us look uncool.”
“......”
“Respond to the Monarch of Delicacies if you understand.”
George Holten furiously ripped the Monarch of Delicacies’s complaint as soon as he said that.
“Tell him to excavate a tomb with just three people himself if he has any issues.”
