Translator: miraclerifle
Something was weird.
The village complex that should be here was not visible. All Ju-Heon could see was a large and round hill. It looked like an abnormally large tomb at first glance.
Of course, it was not a hill that had gobbled up eight five-story villas.
‘That’s definitely a tomb.’
But a Tomb Appearance at his house?
Ju-Heon who tried to recall what was going on at this time realized something.
He remembered something that had happened around this time. His roommate had called him while he could not go home because he was working under those damn thugs.
His roommate had said that their apartment had disappeared. Ju-Heon had not put much thought into it before. It was because the tomb disappeared soon enough.
If a tomb disappeared, that meant that...
‘Does that mean someone had cleared the tomb?’
Ju-Heon determined that had to be the case as he started to walk again. He could not let this tomb that appeared be taken by someone else.
However, Ju-Heon could hear people arguing as he got closer to the villa complex.
‘It’s definitely around there.’
Once he got to the problem location, Ju-Heon could see about 100 people fighting with each other.
“Who are you to ignore me? Huh? Are you some kind of money-making machine?”
“Hey, you bastards! Are you looking down on us security guards? Who are you to fire us?! Huh?”
“Kyaaaa! Where do you think you are touching? Let go of me!”
“Hey bastard, I told you not to play your guitar at night!”
“Who stole my backpack?!”
Over a hundred residents, and even the cops and soldiers trying to stop them could not control their emotions and were going wild.
There could be no greater chaos than this.
“Damn it! Hey bastards, I told you not to fight!”
“What? You bastards who just eat on country dime just swore at me? Die, you bastard!”
People were responding more excessively than usual. They were showing extreme anger for even the slightest touch.
This incomprehensible reaction was normal in places with Tomb Appearances.
One of the effects of Tomb Appearances was to release control on human desire and emotions. These desires that they would normally suppress were exploding out at once.
Ju-Heon tried to find his roommate in the midst of all the irrational people.
‘Did he get gobbled up by the tomb?’
Ju-Heon heard a familiar voice in the chaos as he walked around while calling his roommate.
“Ay, fuck! Because of all of you! Because of all you bastards!”
“P, please don't do this! Please put the gun away!”
The voice was coming from behind him. There was a man being threatened by a soldier. The young man looked ready to get beaten up even though he had a decent physique.
‘Kim Dong Hyun?’
He didn't need to check to be certain. One of the people in the skirmish was definitely his roommate.
‘Sigh, he's never been able to live up to his physique.’
Ju-Heon walked over to them without greeting Dong Hyun as it was not the time for greetings right now. Once the soldier started to point his rifle at his friend!
Pow!
“Aaaaah!”
Ju-Heon’s kick sent the soldier and the rifle flying. The upset soldier tried to grab another weapon but Ju-Heon chopped his hand down at the soldier like an expert.
Dong Hyun was extremely happy to see Ju-Heon but seemed nervous about Ju-Heon’s fighting abilities.
“Ju, Ju-Heon?”
On the other hand, Ju-Heon was talking to the soldier he sent flying.
“Hey, snap out of it. You’re supposed to be protecting the people, so what the hell are you doing, you bastard?”
“U, ugh, I’m sorry!”
The man returned to his senses while coughing like he was about to die.
“...S, suddenly, I could not hold back my anger and I didn't even realize! It looks like I went crazy for a moment......!”
The reason for it was understandable. This guy just went crazy because of the Tomb Appearance as well.
It got to the point where they called Tomb Appearances ill omens.
But Ju-Heon had no plans on treating them that way.
“If you know what you did wrong then hurry up and resolve this mess and tell me what orders you were given. What did your superiors tell you to do?”
“E, excuse me?”
The soldier who seemed to be around Ju-Heon's age looked flustered. His confused state made him look exactly like a private who just went in.
Handling this chaotic situation was one thing, but a civilian wanted to know the orders from his superiors?
However, there was a reason Ju-Heon asked that question. The fact that the tomb here disappeared in the past meant that someone must have cleared the tomb. That meant that someone had taken the artifact from here in the past.
‘Was it these bastards?’
He was planning on digging for information to see how much they knew about tombs.
Although he didn’t know what was inside, Ju-Heon would not throw away this opportunity to gain an artifact.
“Are you guys planning on going in to search inside the tomb?”
“I, I can’t tell you!”
Ju-Heon started to smile wickedly in response.
“I see. Then I guess I need to report you to the authorities. A soldier was planning on using violence against a civilian.”
The private who started to apologize again contemplated for a while before having no choice but to quietly whisper in Ju-Heon’s ear after seeing his gaze. He seemed to have determined that it was okay to give this much information.
“To be honest with you, we plan on blowing up the bomb to search through it soon.”
“Blow it up?”
Tombs will not be destroyed with such actions. There was no way such an action would have cleared the tomb in the past. The private then said something unexpected.
“There are foreign experts here right now for that reason.”
Ju-Heon who realized something started to laugh.
‘Wow, foreign expert bastards, huh?’
Weird tombs started to appear throughout the world. However, nobody could tell the identity of these tombs or the artifacts inside.
Of course, it meant that the general population did not know about it. Certain people around the world started to catch on to the existence of artifacts.
[The Korean government still doesn’t know about the tombs, right?]
Linda Walker, an American CIA agent, sent a text message. She received a simple response back.
[YES]
Linda Walker started to smile after seeing the response. Linda Walker had entered into Korea as a Geologist and not a CIA agent. There was a simple reason she came in hiding her identity.
It was to go into the tombs.
‘There are artifacts in tombs.’
That was the case. The people of the world thought tombs were simply weird geological phenomena, but some countries were already aware of what tombs really were.
The United States (US) was one of the countries.
It had already been nine months since tombs started to appear randomly in the world.
Artifact users had appeared in some countries. Those were the people whom artifacts stealthily selected their masters. However, the countries who learned about artifacts did not announce the information to the public, covering them up in their investigations.
Linda Walker was one of the agents sent to different countries under disguise for that reason.
‘Our goal is to investigate tombs and grab the artifacts if possible.’
It was also top priority that the Korean government did not learn about artifacts.
Korea, as well as a large number of other countries simply considered tombs to be disasters, giving her a chance to go in and swipe the artifact.
‘The US needs to take the artifact to research on it.’
History books and the world could change with a single invention. So what would happen if they revealed the existence of these magical artifacts? The world would fall into extreme chaos.
That was why the president wanted the CIA to gather information and send it to the US research team.
Of course, she did feel iffy about stealing artifacts from other countries while keeping the information a secret.
‘It feels like I've become a tomb raider.’
However, there were some people greedily and openly aiming for artifacts as well.
“Linda, we meet again.”
The smiling man was Abe Kyoshi from the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). This man who seemed to be in his mid-thirties had hindered Linda many times.
He looked like a damn chopstick but he was still someone from the investigation team sent by the Japanese government. The difference with the US would be that Japan was already stealthily creating artifact excavation teams.
Abe Kyoshi was in charge of that.
“Looks like the US is extremely greedy. We are a neighboring country but you flew 12 hours to get here.”
“Ho.”
“Why didn’t you go somewhere like Alaska? I guess you have a lot of time on your hands.”
Linda Walker was about to respond before looking around.
Abe started to laugh after seeing her reaction.
“You're so cautious. There’s nobody around. We don't want the Koreans to know about artifacts either.”
Linda quickly chirped back.
"The US is trying to take artifacts as the Global policeman. We are only focused on research and investigation in the name of peace.” [1]
“Ho, I won't believe such nonsense from a CIA agent who works for the benefit of the US. Let’s be honest, you just know the value of artifacts and don't want them taken by others.”
“That!”
“What, am I wrong? Then will you give artifacts to another country if they want to research it too?”
“......”
“See, I told you.”
Abe seemed satisfied as he finally started to console her.
“Let’s not point the blade at fellow allied nations. Our enemy is China. Ah, I still don’t plan on giving you the artifacts because our Prime Minister is looking forward to them with anticipation.”
“That’s fine. Just don't flap your mouth too much so that the Koreans find out about artifacts.”
“Haha. There’s no way I’ll do that. Japan needs to take all of the artifacts from this tiny country.”
One could wonder how Abe could speak with such confidence, but Linda knew why Japan could be so confident.
Japan had an artifact user who received the ‘prophecy’ ability. The US was going crazy trying to determine whose artifact it was, but what they knew for certain was that Japan was artifact-hunting based on information from that seer.
But Linda wasn't planning on sitting back and letting Abe do whatever he wants.
‘Korea does not have the abilities to take the artifact. We only need to be cautious of Japan in the East until China finds out.’
The two of them then quickly started to move.
Neither of them knew that there was an unexpected rival in this location.
‘Aha, I get it now. I know who took this artifact in the past.’
Ju-Heon had snorted after finding Linda and Abe once the violence started to be suppressed.
Ju-Heon didn’t know who they were, but he knew about their organizations.
‘The sly CIA and the stupid JSDF excavation team.’
Even Ju-Heon knew that there were countries that knew about artifacts and tombs during this time.
The US had gained Medusa’s artifact user during the precursor era and Japan had Prince Shotoku’s << Future Diary: Records of Japan’s Future >> artifact user.
Honestly speaking, they were lucky to have artifacts that sought out their own owners rather than clearing tombs.
‘But the Medusa artifact user is a little kid who can’t use it properly and the Future Diary’s artifact user......’
Ju-Heon chuckled after thinking about that person for a moment.
‘There’s no one stupider than that person.’
The countries that found out about artifacts first were looking for any and all opportunities to secretly raid the artifacts. They were trying to keep the information to themselves so that they could monopolize the artifacts.
‘But it is all meaningless.’
This was all just the precursor. The < Great Tomb Appearance > incident that happens in a few months would inform the entire world about tombs and artifacts, creating an era of artifacts where even the civilians could use artifacts.
Honestly speaking, Ju-Heon didn’t care who originally took the artifact from the tomb. The ones who took it first were the victors and took possession.
‘But I still don't like the thought of those Japanese morons taking it.’
Not that he liked the US either.
Ju-Heon then quickly started to move.
1. Global policeman is an informal term for a state which seeks or claims global hegemony. It has been used, firstly for the United Kingdom and, since 1945, of the United States.
