Chapter 132: Remember the runner-up too! (2)
Translator: miraclerifle
Ju-Heon started to grind his teeth.
This was clearly third party interference. An artifact should not be able to interfere with how a different artifact’s tomb is cleared.
There are just certain things that were not allowed. But this artifact made that possible.
Ju-Heon scrunched his eyes.
‘It definitely said Supreme Leader.’
The crow had said something similar when it had appeared on the Holtens’ ship.
‘There are leaders among the artifacts. They are the ones who imprisoned me.’
He was certain. That leader b.a.s.t.a.r.d was interfering with this tomb. It was normally impossible, but it seemed to be possible because it was the Supreme Leader of the artifacts.
It was a higher-ranking b.a.s.t.a.r.d telling a lower-ranking b.a.s.t.a.r.d, ‘hand over control of your tomb.’
Which low-ranking b.a.s.t.a.r.d would be able to say no to that?
And this aura was definitely Zhen Cai Yuan’s artifact. Ju-Heon scoffed once he figured that out.
‘Then that woman is the one who has the Supreme Leader artifact?’
It wasn’t weird once he thought about it. That woman had shown overwhelming strength even amongst the Four Emperors.
‘No wonder all artifacts submitted to her artifact.’
This was the case even for possession-type artifacts that had masters.
That woman seemed to have no weaknesses whatsoever. It all made sense if that woman’s artifact was the Supreme Leader artifact.
Which artifact would not submit to the Supreme Leader?
‘But it’s quite the headache if that is really the case.’
Ju-Heon shook his head.
He first needed to worry about getting out of this tomb.
It was at that moment.
“!”
A threat started to appear on the wall in blood.
[I will give you a special chance. Hand over all of your artifacts.]
Ju-Heon scoffed in response.
“What f.u.c.king bulls.h.i.t, do you think I am crazy?”
The opponent’s decision was swift.
[Warning. The Supreme Leader artifact is starting to attack you.]
[A strong sense of jealousy is being activated.]
Boom!
It was the Tomb of Envy"s < envy > trap.
Once that trap was activated...
Ju-Heon, Yoo Jaeha, and Lee Seol-A felt their minds starting to zone out.
“Ugh!”
It was similar to how everybody became lazy at the Tomb of Sloth. A strong sense of envy that any human was bound to have started to seep into their minds.
It was quite a strong power. This was probably the case because it touched on a human"s natural instinct as it attacked.
[Warning. You are feeling the desire to kill the people around you due to a strong sense of envy.]
[You are forcibly starting to become envious of everything the other person has.]
It was so strong that even Ju-Heon, who had the Tolerance skill, couldn"t help but flinch.
‘It’s dangerous.’
Even Ju-Heon was starting to get envious of his subordinates’ talented abilities.
Yoo Jaeha"s restoration ability and Lee Seol-A"s detection ability.
He suddenly became envious of them.
‘How much easier would it be to clear tombs if all of those abilities became mine?’
Of course, Ju-Heon was much better than them when it came to clearing tombs. However, his subordinates specialties were both things that could not be bought with money.
Ju-Heon shook his head at that moment.
‘Oops. I almost fell for it.’
The b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who entered this tomb in the past probably killed each other because of this reason as well.
Ju-Heon then suddenly realized something.
‘This is strong enough for the two of them to try to kill each other as well.’
That was why Ju-Heon urgently looked toward his subordinates.
"The two of you stop...!”
However...
“d.a.m.n it! Yoo Jaeha! You’ve been stuck to the Captain-nim like glue this whole time! I"m so jealous!”
“What did you say? Then what about you? Why are you whispering with the Captain-nim as if you guys have been close for a long time?!"
"Huh?!”
They were already fighting. But their fighting looked pretty cute as they were just pulling at each other’s hairs.
Ju-Heon was amazed by them.
‘As expected of my subordinates.’
It was amazing. He couldn’t believe those were the things they were envious about.
It happened at that moment.
[The Supreme Leader is raising the strength of the trap.]
[A different form of envy is being felt.]
[You are starting to become envious of yourself.]
“!”
Ju-Heon felt a reaction in his hand as soon as he saw that.
“Ugh!”
Both Ju-Heon and Lee Seol-A were in pain as they pushed their hands that were moving on their own with their other hand.
It was because one of their hands was holding a blade and trying to kill them.
It was obvious. Envious of oneself. It was a trap that brainwashed people to have split personalities and make them kill themselves. That was why even Ju-Heon gulped this time.
‘This one is really dangerous.’
It was extremely strong. An urgent Ju-Heon tried to use a different artifact. But the artifacts’ conditions were much worse than his condition.
The artifacts that had amazing abilities were becoming extremely envious of themselves and starting to harm themselves.
[#$#&!]
Aaaaaaaaaaaah! Why is this b.a.s.t.a.r.d so talented?!
[#$*#(!]
I"m so annoyed that this b.a.s.t.a.r.d is so talented! Die! I must die!
‘These fools.’ It was more effective on these artifacts because they were all arrogant to start.
But Ju-Heon could not blame the artifacts right now.
Was it because his self-confidence was high? It was true that people with high self-confidence would have strong Dominance. But that was more like poison in this situation.
He was considering himself to be a different person as if he had split personalities and becoming envious of himself! It didn"t matter that these split personalities shared the same body and the abilities!
‘d.a.m.n it, this must have been it.’
This must be why everybody who had entered this Tomb of Envy in the past had died. Their artifacts would not have been working properly and they would have ended up killing themselves no matter how hard they tried to escape it.
Even if they cleared the tomb, n.o.body would have made it back alive as there was no way to leave.
As Ju-Heon"s blade was about to cut his neck...
Something happened.
Slap, slap.
“!”
Someone slapped Ju-Heon’s hand and took the blade away.
It was none other than Yoo Jaeha.
“Bad boy, snap out of it!”
“!”
Yoo Jaeha somehow seemed to be fine at this strong level of envy.
"Bad girl, you snap out of it too!”
Yoo Jaeha took Lee Seol-A’s blade away as well. He also tied her up so that she could not choke herself.
Ju-Heon quickly returned to his senses but he was shocked.
“How are you fine?”
Now that he thought about it, Yoo Jaeha had been fine even after falling into this Tomb of Envy in the first place.
Salieri rubbed his bushy face on Yoo Jaeha"s face as if to respond to that question.
[Soooooooooooob! You truly are a poor soul! You have nothing you are envious about within yourself! That’s how low your self-confidence is!]
“Aaaaaaaaah! Get away!”
Ju-Heon"s jaw dropped.
‘This loser. Is that why he didn"t fall for the trap?’
“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, there"s a limit to how much you can belittle yourself!”
Yoo Jaeha looked as if he was being unfairly a.s.sessed.
“It’s not like that! You try being around someone like you, Captain-nim! How can I have any self-confidence?!”
‘Sure, I"m really sorry about that.’
Well, it was understandable. Yoo Jaeha was giving this excuse, but his self-confidence must have been crawling on the ground at this time because he was scammed by Jean Richard and buried in his field.
While he was already down in the dumps because of that, Ju-Heon showed up and one-upped him in restoration that Jaeha thought was the one thing he was very good at.
Ju-Heon crushed his self-confidence even more by making it look so easy. He had done more things to lower Jaeha’s self-confidence and keep him in check because Jaeha had been quite a troublemaker when he was the Monarch of Fraud.
‘Then does that make me the instigator...? No, that can’t be it.’
But those were the reasons Jaeha’s Dominance was low right now.
‘This is bad. Monarchs need to have at least a base level of Dominance.’
Did he need to take special action? It happened as Ju-Heon"s eyes were sparkling.
“Captain-nim, it’s this way!”
She must have been extremely angry that she was defeated by Yoo Jaeha in something as Lee Seol-A, who had managed to prevent herself from committing suicide, pointed in a direction.
“I found the path that is closest to the exit!”
“Wonderful. Good job.”
Ju-Heon continued to speak to both of them.
"Seol-A, you keep looking up which path to take, Jaeha, you......”
"What are you thinking about doing?”
‘What else?’
Ju-Heon looked toward Salieri.
“First, talk to Medici and have her contract with me. You should be able to convince her since she is your sponsor. And tell me the spot in this tomb with the weakest defense.”
[Why should I listen to you?]
Ju-Heon calmly pointed to Yoo Jaeha.
“I’ll let you have him for 24 hours if you listen to me. Actually, I"ll just make it more certain and help you complete a possession contract with him. I just need Medici.”
"W, what......?!”
‘This motherf.u.c.king Captain!’
“Hey mister, I don’t need an artifact like this even if it is an artifact from one of the 7 Great To...”
[The weakest spot is the ceiling.]
“Hey! Don’t tell him!”
Ju-Heon started to stretch.
“Alright, now then, how about I respond clearly to that s.h.i.tty Supreme Leader or whatever?”
Yoo Jaeha turned pale after seeing Ju-Heon"s gaze. It was because he had seen this gaze on Ju-Heon"s face a couple times before.
“C, Captain-nim, you"re not...”
Ju-Heon took an artifact out of his pocket.
Yoo Jaeha and Lee Seol-A were shocked for different reasons as they looked at it.
“That!”
“Zhen Cai Yuan"s spy artifact that was in Pandora......!”
It looked like a simple badge. But Ju-Heon had seen her with this in the past.
That was why he was able to recognize it right away. This was a Divine-Grade memory artifact. He knew that there were important data in this artifact.
Lee Seol-A was shocked.
“That woman has been desperately looking for that!”
"Captain-nim, didn"t you say you were going to make a deal with that?”
He did say that, however...
“There’s no need to make a deal anymore.”
Ju-Heon sighed with a cold expression.
The Supreme Leader b.a.s.t.a.r.d that the crow had warned him about...
‘Tombs that go beyond your expectations will start to appear in the world. It’ll be good for you to train the Tomb Raiding skill properly.’
Was that what it had said? He presumed that this was the leader of the artifacts and that it loathed humans. That was fine. He didn"t care about what an artifact thought about humans.
But the thing he could not forgive...
‘A d.a.m.n artifact dared to interfere with my tomb clearing?’
Whether it was the Supreme Leader or not...
‘You c.o.c.ky b.a.s.t.a.r.d. I"ll destroy you.’
He’ll use the Tomb raiding skill the crow gave him to do that.
An angry Ju-Heon chuckled as he channeled a lot of Dominance into the badge artifact. This Divine-Grade artifact seemed shocked.
[#$#&!]
Hold on, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d. My body is being destroyed! What are you doing?!
"What else, changing you into a bomb.”
The artifact found this to be upsetting.
[#$*#(!]
You said you’ll send me back home!
[#($*#(!]
You told me you"ll let me read the sequel to The s.l.u.tty Secretary before anybody else if I was good and didn"t escape! That was why I was ignoring the Supreme Leader and staying put......!
It blurted all of that out in a state of urgency. Ju-Heon didn"t even pretend to listen.
“Well, I’ll restore you if I feel like it.”
He just didn’t know when that would be.
The artifact started to scream in response.
[#%&(#(&()*!]
Hey hey hey hey, you d.a.m.n human b.a.s.t.a.r.d! I"ll let you use me if you leave me alone! You must be curious about the information I have, yeah?
You stupid b.a.s.t.a.r.d!
“Get lost. I"m not curious because I already know.”
[#$!]
!!!!!!!
The < Tomb Destruction > skill was soon activated. The artifact that Zhen Cai Yuan had wanted had self-destructed as well.
The two of those things combined together to create a beautiful explosion that would end up in the Guinness Book of Records in the future.
“Now then, please say something! Mr. Richard!”
“You cleared one of the 7 Great Tombs and stopped Seo Ju-Heon"s solo race.”
Richard was about to die from joy.
He was getting the most attention in the world right now.
Praises pouring toward him! The respectful gazes!
And Yoo Jaeha, that d.a.m.n thorn in his eye, was dead!
He even had an artifact from one of the 7 Great Tombs!
“Presidents from all over the world want to treat you as a VIP and meet with you.”
“Please come to our country...”
“Please show us the artifact from the tomb!”
“Haha, please wait.”
“You have now received the t.i.tle of 7 Great Tombs Clearer......”
But at that moment...
“W, what did you say?”
The reporters interviewing Richard started to get rowdy.
The reason was revealed quickly.
It was because the electronic displays were busy describing the incident even as they were interviewing Richard.
[Notice. A mysterious explosion has occurred from the tomb that Mr. Jean Richard has cleared.]
[Pandora believes that there was a hidden tomb underneath the tomb that Mr. Richard has cleared...]
[They seem shocked at this......]
[The entire world is looking into this incident.]
[What could have...kyaa!]
It was at that moment.
[You want to know what happened?! Richard! What you got is a fake, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!]
Richard’s face turned pale after hearing the voice on the screen.
‘T, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d!’
It was because the men who interrupted the live broadcast were some extremely familiar people.
‘S, Seo Ju-Heon.’
And...
[You got that?! You d.a.m.n thief who plagiarized my work!]
Richard’s jaw dropped.
‘Y, Yoo Jaeha, did that b.a.s.t.a.r.d go crazy to say that on a live broadcast?!’