Tomb Raider King

The Monarch of Fate turned pale as soon as he saw Ju-Heon. Maybe it was to be expected.

“How long do you plan on keeping a person imprisoned here…! You just wait until I manage to contact my subordinates! They won't let you……. ugh!”

"Have you not considered the fact that I might kill you first?”

‘This motherfucking bastard!’

The Monarch of Fate was grinding his teeth while being kicked away by Ju-Heon's foot.

He was only in his early twenties. He was someone who had been treated with respect by the leaders of the world despite his young age.

Nobody dared to lay their hands on him and these so-called leaders had bowed down to him, asking him to see into their future.

But this bastard!

“Does he not have anything else to take?”

“Huh? Should I take his underwear off too? This son of a bitch’s underwear was a name brand one as well.”

‘Are these bastards not satisfied with looting tombs?!’

Ju-Heon walked closer to the Monarch of Fate.

“Oh, but you were a good boy and stayed in here while I was gone.”

‘A good boy?! Fuck, how the hell could I do anything suspicious when that Dan guy was here?!’

As the Monarch of Fate was about to object…

“Do I just need to take care of him now?”

“!”

The Monarch of Fate gasped after seeing Ilya walk into the restroom. The Monarch of Fate knew Ilya very well.

‘Holy shit, isn’t he the leader of that aftermath clean-up crew?’

This was the first time they had met in person, but he was sure. This man was the leader praised by those people who took care of his requests quickly and efficiently.

The Monarch of Fate's mind turned into a mess after seeing this unexpected individual show up.

‘That’s weird, I’m sure this guy was Kwon Hyuk Soo's subordinate. Why is he with Seo Ju-Heon?’

But Ju-Heon was calmly chatting with him.

“Yeah, modify it. Ah, take out all the futures this bastard might have seen before you do that.”

Ju-Heon started to smile.

That was right. It didn't matter to Ju-Heon whether the Monarch of Fate lived or not. Unlike the other monopolizers, he had at least a decent idea about what would happen in the future.

It was just a little better if he was alive.

There was just one reason he was interested in the Monarch of Fate’s prophecies.

‘He said that the Crow's tomb would appear when the Heirlooms appear?’

That was something that had not happened in the past. It was no wonder he was curious.

Ilya asked at that moment.

“Oh, should I just modify this punk’s memories? I can modify his personality as well.”

The Monarch of Fate almost fainted after hearing that.

‘What did he just say?!’

“Hey! Are you crazy?!”

“No. I'm not.”

Ilya put on a black leather glove and clenched the Monarch of Fate's head.

"Captain, tell me what you want. Should I just turn this punk into our lackey?”

The Monarch of Fate started to sweat bullets as he heard Ilya laugh.

‘Why is this bastard acting like this?! He’s supposed to be Kwon Hyuk Soo's subordinate!’

His face lit up as if he realized something.

‘Ah, right! He’s here under Kwon Hyuk Soo's orders!’

He must be here to save him.

He thought Ilya was being extremely cautious to approach him because of who they were up against.

Oops, he was wrong.

Flash!

Ilya activated Freud’s artifact and his grey eyes started to glow gold.

The Monarch of Fate started to foam at the mouth and flail after seeing the light.

“Hold on, why are you doing this?! Didn't you come here to rescue me?! Your act is too good! Even I'm about to be fooled!”

Ilya looked at the shower head then sneered viciously, wondering what bullshit he was hearing right now.

“It’s okay to use this to knock this son of a bitch out right?”

He needed to put him to ‘sleep’ to modify his memories.

Ju-Heon clicked his tongue as Ilya was about to use this weapon(?) to knock Joshua out.

“No. His value will go down if he is damaged. Don't even hit him with a flower.”

“Tsk.”

Ju-Heon called Chloe over instead.

“Chloe, put him to sleep.”

Chloe sighed before activating a surgery artifact.

It looked like an oxygen mask at first glance. It seemed to be an anesthesia used in surgery.

This was actually an artifact to knock someone out!

Chloe pulled the Monarch of Fate by his hair since he tried to run away. His mind started to get groggy as she forced the oxygen mask on him. Ilya then activated Freud’s artifact.

An aura that was stronger than when he had used Freud’s artifact on Ju-Heon descended in the bathroom.

Flash!

This was not the second level memory modification he had used on Ju-Heon.

This was a much stronger memory modification!

This third level was one where Ilya would invade into the person's dream.

Freud believed dreams represented a disguised fulfillment of a repressed wish.

Basically, Ilya was going directly into the person's subconscious and changing it as he pleased. It allowed him to change a person's personality, memory, disposition, and even their desires.

It was in essence an artifact to change the Monarch of Fate's personality to be a well-trained dog for them.

That was probably the reason.

‘Damn it, it can’t go on like this.’

The Monarch of Fate tried to grab onto the last ounce of consciousness he had remaining.

‘I would rather die than become Seo Ju-Heon’s lap dog!’

As he focused on that strong sense of will…

Clang!

“Kyaaaa!”

“Chloe!”

A strong power destroyed the anesthesia artifact Chloe was using.

Maybe it was because its master was in danger.

Or maybe his will had reached his artifact. His possession-type artifact, Nostradamus’s artifact, flashed and activated.

To be more specific, the power of its aura was strong enough to destroy Chloe’s artifact.

He wasn't a Monarch for nothing.

The Monarch of Fate who got away from the anesthesia artifact started to laugh out loud.

“Do you understand? You are wrong if you think I would become your servant like that……”

It was at that moment.

Pow!

“U, uuuuuuuugh!”

The Monarch of Fate foamed at the mouth as he fell backward.

Ju-Heon had punched him in the stomach. It felt as if his bones were being broken by a hammer!

That wasn't all.

Pow! Pow! Crack! Crack! Ju-Heon ruthlessly beat the Monarch of Fate to a pulp. He seemed to want to turn him into a squid as there were even sounds of bones breaking.

He punched the same spots over and over and really turned him into a mess.

“Ugh!”

The team members dropped their jaws in shock.

Their opponent was a Monarch and had a strong artifact so something like this was probably necessary to knock him out, but…

“D, didn't he just say that the value would drop……”

He had just told them not to hit him even with a flower!

A few moments later, Ju-Heon threw the now squid-like Monarch of Fate toward Ilya.

“Get to work. He should sleep well now.”

Ju-Heon then said he was hungry before casually walking out of the bathroom.

A shocked Ilya prayed for Joshua’s survival. At his current state, Joshua probably didn't even need his memories modified. He would probably be suffering from amnesia.

‘Hitting him with the shower head would have been more humane.’

As for Yoo Jaeha who had been peeking into the bathroom……

“Ah, I'm so glad I'm not enemies with the Captain-nim.”

He truly meant it.

[The Monarch’s Heirlooms will appear in three different locations early morning on November 26th.]

[Oh, so it is appearing 10 days from now. That seems to be later than originally prophesized, what do you have to say about that part?]

[What I had originally prophesized was the appearance of the precursors. The precursors will happen three times and the first precursor will be an earthquake in the Atlantic Ocean tomorrow night. One of the 7 Great Tombs will appear there within the next 10 days.]

[You are saying that the artifacts of the 7 Great Tombs are the keys to open the Monarch’s tomb.]

The entire world was in shock. The Monarch of Fate, whom they had believed was gone, had suddenly reappeared.

He had appeared as a guest on a news broadcast.

[Mr. Monarch of Fate, you are saying you had been abducted by some unknown assailants until now?]

[Yes, he was.]

The one to answer the announcer’s question was surprisingly Ju-Heon.

[The culprits had already escaped by the time we found the Monarch of Fate.]

[My goodness, you are saying that the culprits tossed Mr. Joshua in the desert and ran? Things could have been terrible if you didn’t find him, Mr. Seo Ju-Heon.]

[I'm relieved to know that he is safe. We were finally able to escort him here today.]

[Then, the reason you did the Seostradamus broadcast until now was all for the Monarch of Fate?]

[Yes, the Monarch of Fate was not there when I went to his house in Florida. He had disappeared and dropped the prophecy artifact along the way.]

[Then you did the Seostradamus prophecy broadcast in order to provoke the culprits?]

[Yes ma’am. The culprits would show up on their own if they knew that I was using the Monarch of Fate's prophecy artifact. I was able to use that to my advantage in order to rescue the Monarch of Fate.]

That was his story. They had been scamming the whole world. It was all a plan to rescue the abducted Monarch of Fate.

Yoo Jaeha, the former Monarch of Fraud, looked disgusted at how Ju-Heon could say such things so nonchalantly while the monopolizers were in disbelief.

However, the world wide live broadcast continued on.

[Then who do you think was the culprit?]

The Monarch of Fate, who was sitting next to Ju-Heon, said something that almost made people faint.

[I believe the culprits were my clients. This is the list of potential suspects.]

The excavation team that was on the top of this list became extremely angry.

“What fucking bullshit is this?!”

“How dare he say our team is the culprits?!”

The Monarch of Fate had gone with a team kill.

“Stop the broadcast right now!”

“Wow, how could the abductor become the person who saved the Monarch of Fate?!”

“You were the one who abducted him, YOU!”

The members of the Jordan excavation team that had been the most annoying to Ju-Heon recently and even framed him for murder were grinding their teeth in anger.

“He’s trying to frame us for this…!”

“It’s not like he’s getting revenge…!”

“I'm sure of it! The Monarch of Fate has been messed with! Either that or that’s a fake!”

But they were unfortunately dragged out. There was proof of the abduction they had not even committed.

The leader of the aftermath clean-up crew was very talented.

[Anyway, the Monarch's Heirlooms will now appear. I hereby announce that Mr. Seo Ju-Heon and I are happily forming a partnership to excavate them.]

[Is that true?]

[Yes, but we agreed to share the details of the tomb with everybody else as well.]

[Then……!]

[Yes, the location of the fifteen tombs where the Monarch’s Heirlooms will appear are…]

And that was how the locations of the tombs were revealed to the world.

Of course, many people thought that they were providing false information.

“I told you, that’s Seo Ju-Heon controlling the Monarch of Fate!”

“But what if it is true? The fact that the Monarch of Fate is casually contacting Pandora must mean that he’s fine.”

“In fact, they heard that the Monarch of Fate was planning on using Seo Ju-Heon.”

That was why they were going crazy. They needed to gain the Heirlooms. But they couldn't tell whether the information was real or not.

“Anyway, the Heirlooms are the priority! We can't become Monarchs without them!”

“He said there will be precursors so send people to all fifteen locations even if it breaks our teams down in number!”

“No! Seo Ju-Heon is going to make a move anyway. Just chase Seo Ju-Heon wherever he goes!”

Yoo Jaeha was laughing in the hotel at that moment.

“Now everybody will think that there are 15 Monarch's Tombs. But in reality, there is only one.”

They were pulling the wool over the world while preparing to head out for the Monarch’s tomb.

The most advantageous time would be when the other excavation teams all left the location of the Monarch’ tomb.

“Continue to spread false information and create the precursors as needed. Make them split up their forces.”

Julian could only sigh in response.

This was the work of someone who couldn't even stand up because of Osiris's artifact's risk (paralysis) at one point.

“You truly are going to be the downfall of mankind.”

It had not been easy to mess with the Monarch of Fate's memories.

‘Damn it. This bastard is living up to his name as a Monarch and making it damn hard. Hey, look right into my eyes.’

Ilya had to work his ass off to bother the Monarch of Fate over and over with devils to achieve this result.

That was how the bruise on the Monarch of Fate's face had appeared as well, but Ju-Heon casually pushed the blame onto these ‘true culprits.’

Ju-Heon started to smile.

All they had left to do was to stealthily get out of New York without people knowing.

‘We will now grab all of the Heirlooms for ourselves.’

And if he could determine who the Monarchs were, how would the tables turn?

There were two people envious of the fact that the two beautiful female members were concerned about Ju-Heon.

“Ah, I'm so damn jealous of that bastard Captain.”

“I know, right?”

They were Yoo Jaeha and Ilya.

Yoo Jaeha looked toward Ilya with a serious gaze.

“Hey. Should we steal the harem artifact without him knowing about it?”

“Get lost, you won’t be popular even if you use that. You retard.”

Yoo Jaeha grabbed Ilya by the collar after hearing that.

“Hey! I am pretty popular too! What the hell?! I’m popular!”

“You sure are good at bluffing.”

They then started to get into a fight again.

Ju-Heon started to frown once their ruckus started to get louder.

“Hey, quiet down……”

It was at that moment.

[#$&#!]

Both of you, stop fighting! Stop fighting!

The rope slithered over to stop the two of them but the fight had gotten worse where they were channeling their Affinity and Fit against each other.

“Hey! You’re really going to get fired like this!”

“Pfft, you’re the one who is going to get fired! Do you know how hard I work?!”

“Bullshit, you’re going to be fired!”

Booboboboooooooooom!

The impact sent the rope flying and it crashed into the wall while Ju-Heon's cellphone broke as well.

That wasn’t all. All of the artifacts in the restoration room were damaged as well.

As a result…

“These sons of bitches.”

Some terrible screams echoed through the hotel.

The two fighting 'beagles’ were kicked out of the hotel.

Ju-Heon had only one thing to say to them.

“Both of you are fired.”

Yoo Jaeha and Ilya both looked as if they had been wronged.

Even if they had slightly done something wrong, how could he fire them like this?

“Damn it, it’s all your fault!”

“No, it's your fault!”

As Yoo Jaeha and Ilya were fighting outside…

“I don’t think you’ll ever be allowed back in if you continue to fight outside.”

Dan, who was on his way to pick up his daughter, smiled as he walked toward them. He was treating them as if they had just met because he still had not gotten his memories back.

"Well, I guess Mr. Ju-Heon was a bit harsh. How could he fire you for this?”

Both Ilya and Yoo Jaeha started to grumble.

"Right? The Captain-nim's personality is totally trash.”

“We’re very precious commodities! Do you know how hard we worked?! How can he do this because we broke a couple artifacts?!”

“He even gave Dan a slave contract. We feel your pain. Dan.”

Dan started to laugh.

“Excuse me? A slave contract? I didn't sign anything like that.”

“Huh? You signed an employment contract too.”

“That wasn't an employment contract. It was for a house. Mr. Ju-Heon got me a house to enjoy the fresh air with my daughter now that everything is resolved.”

The two of them gasped after hearing that.

“Wait, then you’re not joining our team?”

“No wait, that damn Captain didn't drag Dan back in?!”

“Uhh… I said that I would help, but…… Mr. Ju-Heon said to just live happily with my daughter without getting involved with these things.”

“Ho……”

“But I will rush over if anything happens. I owe him everything.”

They blankly said goodbye to Dan who said bye and started to walk away.

They had never expected their Captain to do such a thing.

“Well, this might be for the better.”

“Ah, does that mean we need to recruit a new Hunter?”

“Aww, I don’t want anybody other than Dan.”

But at that moment…

[Ilya.]

“!”

Ilya became anxious after hearing a familiar voice.

A voice echoed in his mind as if it was coming through telepathy.

Most importantly, this voice was……

‘Kwon Hyuk Soo!

I thought this bastard fell to the afterlife but he's still alive?’

[Ilya. I'll forgive you. So do as I say.]

He then continued to speak.

[Take care of that man named Dan and his daughter.]

‘This bastard.’