Tomb Raider King

Tick, tock.

In the dark and small office…

[Special Excavation Business Department]

Ju-Heon jumped up from his seat in this familiar office.

The office was full of so many books that it looked like a small library. There were also piles of documents along with the books. The blueprints and clearing methods stuck on the board…all of these were just too familiar to him.

The only thing he could hear in this empty office was the sound of the clock. Ju-Heon frowned the moment the angel-shaped artifact clock rang at 7pm.

‘The Cradle is here?’

Ju-Heon urgently put his hand into his pockets.

He could feel his cellphone in his suit pocket.

His eyes scrunched together after quickly reading through it.

‘As expected.’

He was sure now. The current date and the texts showed that it was not the world he had been in.

‘This is the past where I used to live.’

It was the time before he regressed. This future should have disappeared with him changing the past, however……

‘Is this like a split timeline or something?’

Did his going back to the past split it into two?

Was there a new projected timeline from when he went back in time and before he went back in time? One timeline would be where he became the Majesty. The other timeline would be where he would die in the tomb in the future. That seemed to be the only explanation.

‘Well, I guess it doesn't change the fact that it is an artifact’s power.’

The important thing was that he was back in the world he used to be in prior to his death and regression. He seemed to be right around thirty years old. In addition, that Cradle that was so hard to find was apparently here.

Those bastards seemed to have sent him here to kill him, but…

‘There’s no way they would have purposely sent me here knowing the only thing that could stop them was here.’

They must have sent him here without knowing that the Cradle was here.

‘Either that or something happened in the middle.’

Ju-Heon viciously smiled.

How dare those artifacts throw him to this place.

‘I will find the Cradle here and go back.’

He needed to read a newspaper or something to know whether this really was his past, but he could kind of tell without even moving.

How?

‘Man, I look like shit.’

He just laughed while looking at the mirror on the wall. He looked extremely haggard.

He must be in his early thirties. He had a TKBM ID around his neck, as most office workers had. The dark circles under his eyes seemed to go all the way down to his cheeks. His face was pale. His skin was rough. His hair looked extremely messy.

People might confuse him for a corpse if he was sleeping. He was familiar with this body that had suffered from tomb syndrome for so long.

That wasn’t all.

“Ugh…!”

Ju-Heon groaned after feeling a chilling pain in his chest.

Clench.

Ju-Heon bit down on his lips and clenched his fists at this pain he had not felt in a while. His breaths became shorter and it was extremely hard to breathe. Most importantly, his head felt as if it was going to break.

‘Damn it.’

He had been able to barely hold on using medicine at this time. By the time he died in his mid-thirties, he had been unable to live a normal life because the tomb syndrome had progressed to the end stages.

But it still hurt like hell. Ju-Heon frowned and quickly rummaged through his pockets.

“I should have some medicine…!”

He was sure he had some. He had a medicine that would allow him to be okay for about half a day if he took it.

This was the temporary medicine that the old bastard gave him as a reward.

Ju-Heon clicked his tongue after taking out the pill container. The pill container he worked so hard to find was empty.

‘Fuck, it's great that I came to the place with the Cradle, but why…!’

As Ju-Heon started grinding his teeth…

‘!’

His breathing suddenly became easier.

And then…

[The Tolerance skill is being activated.]

[It is stopping the invasion of the artifact virus in your body.]

The pain in Ju-Heon’s body slowly subsided along with those messages.

Aura was the cause of tomb syndrome. This disease was caused by an artifact’s aura infiltrating the human body and causing it serious pain and complications. That was why the Tolerance skill that suppresses artifact aura being activated was making the pain subside.

That wasn't all.

[SS-Grade Tolerance skills extra buff ability is being activated.]

[The extra buff is allowing your body to slightly recover.]

It was even healing him a bit!

Ju-Heon sat down with a relaxed expression on his face.

‘The pain is gone.’

He recovered enough that he didn't need the medicine.

But it was odd.

‘The Crow activated?’

He had not met the Crow at this time.

Ju-Heon tried to summon his other artifacts as well. He needed to see if he could summon the Majesty’s Treasures or the other artifacts contracted to him.

However…

[The artifacts are unable to come out as they are being held back by an invisible force.]

[The environmental conditions are not right to activate the Majesty’s Authority.]

[They cannot respond to your summons due to the current situation.]

It probably meant that they could not pass through time and space to get here.

The artifacts would only be able to get here by using an artifact that allowed them to teleport through dimensions.

‘But I'm glad the contracts don't seem to have been broken.’

Ju-Heon smiled while looking at the tattoos that symbolized the contracts on his body.

‘It’s fine as long as I am connected to the damn Crow.’

He needed his message windows, Tolerance and other useful skills.

It was disappointing that the rope that always followed him around wasn't here…

But at that moment…

[#$&$#*!]

You were looking for me? Looking for me?

“?!”

Ju-Heon gasped.

He almost fainted after seeing the squirming stitches on his clothes. It was on the knitted cardigan around his neck. Air-conditioningitis was an issue since it was the summer, but as a patient(?) he got cold very easily.

That was why it wasn't weird that he had this grey cardigan on, but……!

[$&#$!]

This is sort of uncomfortable! Very uncomfortable!

The stitches were whining and trying to move around. And at that moment!

Ptttttt!

“?!”

The threads started to move on their own and slowly unraveled itself.

“No wai…!”

The anxious Ju-Heon had to watch the cardigan unravel itself and disappear.

The cardigan he had on had been knitted. Once it started unraveling, it would only be moments before it unraveled completely! The threads did indeed unravel themselves and made the cardigan disappear.

Ju-Heon frowned, since someone must have spent so much time to knit this for him, but…!

“……Ho!”

The threads didn't care and seemed happy that it could finally move freely.

[#$#&!]

It’s more comfortable now! Very comfortable!

The threads rubbed against Ju-Heon’s leg with joy.

He could tell what it was now.

“This little punk is the rope……!”

He could tell based on its actions, voice, and tone(?). He still couldn't really tell what it was saying, but it was definitely the rope.

That was why Ju-Heon was anxious.

“How did this little punk…?!”

It must have possessed the threads in his cardigan or its artifact core must have been transplanted…it must be something like that, but…

‘What the hell happened?’

A message popped up at that moment.

[It followed you here.]

“Wait, something like that is possible?”

[It is impossible to tell.]

“Man, why couldn’t a more useful one follow me…haaaaa, no, it’s fine.”

As Ju-Heon was about to move…

“Hey, did you hear about Seo Ju-Heon’s excavation team? Is their financial support just 10 percent again?”

“Apparently. That office is so old. They only use really terrible artifacts too.”

“It suits them perfectly. Hahaha!”

He could hear the voices of other teams outside the office. This office was indeed very old.

‘The other teams have everything, including their tables, furnished with A-Grade artifacts.’

The support team treated them as nonexistent, never gave them supplies, and took care of their paperwork the slowest, completely ignoring them in every way.

As he had that thought…

Knock knock.

“?”

A woman just walked right into the office without waiting for his response.

“Department Head Seo. Please immediately return the artifacts borrowed by your Unsanctioned Excavation Team."

It was a woman from the support team.

“You can’t borrow it yesterday and still not return it. Why does your Unsanctioned Excavation Team always…”

Ju-Heon just sneered at her.

“Return the one we borrowed yesterday? The artifact rental period is a minimum of a week.”

The woman scoffed at him with disgust.

“What the hell? You should feel thankful that we even let your Unsanctioned team even borrow the artifacts.”

It was at that moment.

Bang!

“Ahhhhhh!”

The woman freaked out as an artifact dagger was thrown at her. Ju-Heon calmly smiled as he spoke.

"What did you just say? I couldn't hear you properly.”

“Excuse me? N, no… umm!”

“Yeah, I really can't hear you. Do I need to rip that damn mouth of yours open some more?”

The woman became extremely anxious after seeing this unfamiliar side of Ju-Heon.

The Ju-Heon she knew would usually still return it despite being angry…!

“U, umm, nevermind. I'm really sorry. I must have made a mistake with the rental period…! I'm sorry!”

The woman ran out in fear of her life and Ju-Heon lightly sighed.

‘Nothing’s changed based on how they treat our department as pushovers.’

It was understandable. He had held back as much as possible in the past because he couldn't cause any problems.

That was why Jaeha called him the retarded captain and ignored anything he said and the company treated them as pushovers.

It didn’t matter. He would only be in this world for a few moments. He didn't need to pay much attention to being ignored.

That was why Ju-Heon just dealt with this situation as he pleased.

“Well, it’s fine. I should go out and get some information on the Cradle…”

It was at that moment.

[$&#!]

Here! Here!

The rope that was now a pile of threads grabbed Ju-Heon’s hand and dragged him to a cabinet.

Ju-Heon's eyes opened wide.

‘This is my artifact cabinet.’

An unexpected message popped up as Ju-Heon got closer.

[The aura of a strong artifact can be felt.]

[The Cradle's aura can be felt.]

Ju-Heon's face lit up.

‘That’s right. I put all sorts of artifacts in here back then.’

There must be a reason for the Cradle to be in this era.

‘Maybe…!’

That was probably the reason. Ju-Heon quickly pulled the cabinet open.

Clunk!

However…

“Huh?”

It wasn't there.

Forget the Cradle, the cabinet was completely empty!

“……?!”

There were no artifacts in there at all.

‘What the hell happened?’

His main artifacts should be here as well.

Ju-Heon felt that it was odd and made a call.

He was calling the tomb raiding team’s supporter and last team member, June.

“Hey, June. You usually clean the office, right? Have you seen my artifacts in the cabinet? Why is it empty?”

June anxiously responded.

[Captain, don't you remember? The artifacts in the cabinet, Section Chief Yoo was cleaning and supposedly destroyed them all by accident two days ago. He said that the cores were cracked so they couldn't be restored… You said that it was okay and just brushed it off……]

Ju-Heon frowned.

Section Chief Yoo that she was mentioning was Jaeha.

But what? Accidentally destroyed them? Can’t be restored because the cores are cracked?

‘It’s obvious he’s trying to sell them off.’

The Jaeha of this time would easily do something like that. That was why Ju-Heon had a headache.

‘Fuck, the Cradle might be among those artifacts…!’

He calmed himself down. Jaeha was still his subordinate. He might not have sold them off yet if it was two days ago. So he should just go convince him to……

But at that moment…

Ding.

[Captain-nim. Are you really going to ignore the fact that Jaeha swiped your bonus?]

Ju-Heon's eyebrows twitched.

‘Yes. The me of this time was very patient…’

He walked out of the office and into the parking garage.

As he was about to get into his car…

"Are you Seo Ju-Heon?”

Ju-Heon frowned as some suspicious men approached him.

“Who are you? Who the fuck are you guys?”

“Ah, whatever. You know that bastard Yoo Jaeha, right? That bastard borrowed money from us and ran off.”

“Really? So what?”

“So what?! You need to pay it as the guarantor! Guarantor, Seo Ju-Heon!”

Ju-Heon’s eyebrows twitched.

‘Did this son of a bitch…’

He would be right.

“Look here! We saw you signing the document!”

The document the men were holding up definitely had his signature.

But there was no way he would have signed such a thing!

But Ju-Heon could tell.

[That is a forged signature.]

[He created a clone of you to have it sign it.]

“Ah yes, the Cradle. I need to find the Cradle.”

‘Let’s kill some bastards before I do though.’