Chapter 200: It is always darkest underneath the lamp (2)
Translator: miraclerifle
‘This bastard!’
He truly deserved the title of Monarch of Plunder.
Julian was starting to get a headache.
It couldn’t be helped.
‘That bastard always had a bad habit of using his hands like this. We used them quite effectively for each mission. Was it the Archaeologist's Artifact? That artifact should have given an ability related to < Dexterity >.’
Ju-Heon had always done bad things with his hands but getting that ability had turned him to a master.
‘He used that ability to steal things, pick locks, it was quite useful.’
But Ju-Heon had not enjoyed stealing things; he only used the ability when he needed it.
But now......
“Aaah! Where did my artifact go?!”
“Hey. Look for it again!”
‘Aigoo, I'm going crazy.’
Should he be praising this ghost-like ability?
Julian couldn’t help but sigh.
Even if they seem to be declining, TKBM was still one of the largest excavation teams. Their members should have a lot of rare and unique artifacts compared to the small excavation teams.
‘No wonder he’s excited.’
Julian quickly headed over to Ju-Heon.
“Hey...Seo!”
Julian was about to call out ‘Seo Ju-Heon,’ before looking around and touching one of the buttons on his jacket.
[The Assistant for Chivalrous Fighter's to hide their conversation from others (C-Grade:General-Grade - Consumable Artifact)]
- Remaining Uses: 986/1000
It was a C-Grade artifact, but it was quite useful when around enemies.
And...
[Seo Ju-Heon, what the hell are you doing?!]
He started to scream at Ju-Heon.
It was a sound of the mind so others couldn't hear it, but Ju-Heon put his hand to his ear as if he was hearing a speaker screech.
He then responded while frowning.
[What the hell, you son of a bitch. I was having so much fun.]
‘Fun my ass.’
[We can't go into the tomb if you're caught here! You’ll be fucked! You know that!]
[I won't get caught. I really won't get caught.]
‘Won't get caught my ass!'
“Team leader-nim! Something bad has happened!”
“What the hell? What is it?”
“People’s artifacts are starting to disappear. Do you think it is a result of the Tomb Appearance, or if not that, maybe.........”
Julian became urgent after seeing the TKBM employee's gazes turn sharp.
[You idiot. I know your dexterity is amazing, but you'll still get caught if you cause this mess! How many did you steal in that short time? Huh?]
[What’s wrong with you? ......I only stole 100 of them.]
[......What, 100?!]
[And only about two of them are useful.]
Julian couldn't believe Ju-Heon's grumbling.
‘Whether it is two or 20...’
[Are you out of your mind? You’re going to get caught if you have 100 of them on you!]
[What do you take me for?]
Ju-Heon started to smile instead of responding.
Ju-Heon then pointed at Yoon Shi Woo, one of TKBM’s captains.
He was tilting his head in confusion in this chaotic situation.
“What the hell? What is it?”
“Ah Captain Yoon Shi Woo. Other teams seem to have lost their artifacts. They seem to be looking for them......will things be okay?”
“Don’t pay them any attention. It’s fine as long as it doesn’t happen to our team.”
But at that moment...
“Ah! I found one! Isn't this one of the artifacts that disappeared?”
“What?”
Julian freaked out after hearing that shout. It was because Ju-Heon had been the one to shout.
“Captain-nim! I found the missing artifacts in team 3's bag!”
“What?!”
The members of team 4, the team Ju-Heon was on, rushed over. They foamed at the mouth after seeing the bag that Ju-Heon handed them.
“Hey, Team 3! What the fuck, man?! Do you guys want to die?!”
"What, what happened?”
The other employees, as well as Chairman Kwon's eldest son and second son, rushed over at this sudden chaos.
Yang Chen, the captain of TKBM's Team 1 and the Vice Captain of all teams, was there as well.
Julian screamed internally as more people rushed over.
‘Seo Ju-Heon, you motherfuckeeeeeeeeeeeer! Why do you keep causing issues?!’
Ju-Heon feigned ignorance and started to shout, probably without any knowledge of the concerns going through his Vice Captain's mind.
“They really are the items that disappeared from our team! I believe Team Leader Yoon Shi Woo's Team 3 is the culprit!”
Yoon Shi Woo, who had instantly been cast as the culprit, dropped his jaw in shock.
“Hold... hey! Who the hell are you?! I've never seen your face before...”
Yoon Shi Woo tried to grab Ju-Heon's collar but Chairman Kwon’s eldest son, Kwon Seung Woo, grabbed his collar first.
“You bastard, I knew you would do something like this!”
“Director-nim!”
“I thought that your gaze changed ever since my father disappeared! How dare you try to steal your fellow teammates’ artifacts like this?!”
“No sir! This is all just a misunderstanding!”
"Then what are all these things in your subordinates’ bags?!”
‘What else? It’s all the artifacts you guys lost!’
A frustrated Yoon Shi Woo started to shout.
“Please hold on a minute. Director-nim. There really must be a misunderstanding...!”
“Director-nim! We found some with the other teams as well!”
“According to our investigation, it seems that all members of the Yoon Shi Woo faction were involved!”
Yoon Shi Woo grabbed the back of his neck.
However, it didn't end there.
“Hold on! Isn't this the Chairman-nim's artifact?!”
“!”
Ju-Heon was the one who shouted again. Ju-Heon took something out of Yoon Shi Woo's bag and showed it to everyone.
“I remember seeing this on TV. Is this the Chairman-nim's?”
The eldest son's eyes opened wide.
“That! That's the artifact I brought!”
Yoon Shi Woo was instantly beaten up by the eldest son.
“You damn trash who is trying to steal my father’s inheritance!”
‘No, it’s not true!’
But Yoon Shi Woo's faction had no chance to say anything.
Yang Chen’s subordinates, who had a bad relationship with people from Yoon Shi Woo's faction, rushed in as well.
“I got you now. You guys have always been annoying me anyway!”
“How dare you take our artifacts!”
Pow, pow! Poooooow!
TKBM's base camp ended up turning into the Colosseum with a fight between factions.
Julian showed a look of disbelief as he watched.
He didn’t know whether to say it looked familiar or if it felt new.
Similar to how there were internal conflicts in any company, TKBM had its factions as well. The different teams did not have good relationships with each other.
Ju-Heon had used that to his advantage. He knew exactly which teams didn’t like each other.
‘He’s a fish in water, a fish in water indeed.’
These people were not regular people; they were people who had received training for fighting and freely using artifacts.
The scale of this conflict was beyond what anybody could imagine.
As a result...
Bang! Babababang!
The materials they brought were destroyed, the durability of artifacts went down... They were losing supplies and strength before they even entered the tomb.
But Julian was thinking that this was good.
‘It’s better for us if there are a lot of internal conflicts.’
Why?
TKBM had lost a lot of personnel, but their core personnel was still intact.
TKBM’s excavation team had a total of ten teams but each of those teams were strong enough to go up against an Expert-Grade artifact user's excavation team.
As for their tomb raiding team, they were an 11th team separate from those officially recognized 10 teams.
They were the hidden 11th team.
In addition, they only had 10 members unlike the official teams that had hundreds or even thousands of members.
‘Either way, each team’s captain is the problem.’
The captains of each team... These captains were the core members of TKBM's excavation team.
‘Those bastards are all Expert-Grade artifacts users who could become Monarchs at any moment.’
It was beneficial to create internal conflict and make them fight against each other.
Of course, Ju-Heon’s abilities at that time were the greatest even compared to the other ten teams.
They talked shit about him and pulled some crap because of his superiority quite often.
‘Well, Seo Ju-Heon was treated like a hunting dog and couldn't spread his wings back then because Chairman Kwon had his weakness in his hands, but......’
It was different now that there were no restrictions whatsoever.
‘He will push aside all Monarchs and become one of the Four Emperors.’
Once that happened, he would be able to get rid of all of those monopolizer bastards who tried to hoard the artifacts for themselves.
Julian was looking forward to it quite a bit.
‘I can't let Seo Ju-Heon’s talents go to waste.’
Of course.........
“Aaah! I really didn't do it!”
“Fuck, you motherfucking bitch!”
“Haha. Those retards.”
Ju-Heon was just chuckling while watching them fight each other to the point they were bleeding without knowing what was going through Julian's mind.
It was at that moment.
Yoon Shi Woo glared at Ju-Heon.
‘That bastard really is suspicious.’
He was quite sharp and felt that something was off with this situation.
Yoon Shi Woo grabbed Ju-Heon by the collar.
“Hey you. Look at me. You’ve been quite suspicious since earlier.........!”
“Excuse me? M, my apologies! I'm sorry team leader-nim!”
Someone rushed over after Ju-Heon quickly shouted, as if he had been waiting for this moment.
“Hey, are you crazy? He’s a part of my team!”
It was the team leader for the team Ju-Heon was on.
“Stop provoking him and get lost!”
“Ho, hey! You damn arrogant son of a bitch!”
Ju-Heon swung his leg and tripped Yoon Shi Woo who was trying to charge toward his team leader.
Boom!
“Ugh!”
Yoon Shi Woo glared at Ju-Heon after falling down.
“Hey, look where you're going!”
But that innocent face this man had until just now had disappeared as Ju-Heon quietly whispered in Yoon Shi Woo's ear.
“You look where you're going, you retard.”
He quickly released his overbearing Dominance.
Yoon Shi Woo started to shake in fear at that overbearing Dominance.
‘This feeling.......!’
“......You, are you?!”
He quickly started to shout.
“Seo Ju-Heon. You’re Seo Ju-Heon!”
That made everybody stop what they were doing and look toward them, but they just looked at Yoon Shi Woo as if he was crazy.
It made sense since......
“Seo Ju-Heon? Are your eyes just for show?”
“You think this kid is giving off the Dominance of a Monarch?”
"Seo Ju-Heon might not look like it, but he’s still a Monarch. You'd be able to tell if you saw him. Fuck.”
“No, just now......!”
“Shut up! You’ll be sent to a hearing! You damn artifact thief!”
Yoon Shi Woo felt wronged while Ju-Heon, who had hidden his aura back as quickly as a ghost, wanted to roll on the ground laughing.
Julian put a hand against his forehead.
‘Please stop wasting your talents in such weird ways.’
His heart was beating crazily in fear of getting caught.
At the same time...
“Something seems weird.”
“Is there no chance that Seo Ju-Heon is hiding here?”
A weird rumor started to come out of TKBM.
“You think that Seo Ju-Heon might have infiltrated into our teams? Really?”
“Yes. Artifacts suddenly disappearing......he’s the only bastard who could have such ghost-like skills.”
“But.........!”
Artifacts suddenly disappearing...
That could be brushed off as something that happened because they are in a Tomb Appearance area.
But Seo Ju-Heon was known for being a thief.
And now that there were rumors about how he might have infiltrated into a TKBM team...
It was only right to be suspicious.
The TKBM team leaders started to get riled up after hearing these rumors.
"Seo Ju-Heon is hiding in here? That dog-like son of a bitch is here?!”
“Find him! Do whatever it takes to find him! Find him and kill him!”
Julian gulped after hearing the shouts around him.
‘It makes sense, TKBM people aren't dumb.’
It was normal for them to be suspicious.
‘It’s dangerous like this.’
It would become complicated if they caused any more ruckus.
However..........
“Mr. Han Ji-Sang. We’re told to report up if we see any suspicious individuals. Pandora has provided some information, so please use it as reference. You’ll be able to spot him immediately because his Dominance is high.”
“Yes sir, I understand.”
None of the employees recognized that this was Ju-Heon.
Was it that Yoo Jaeha's skin was superb or that Ju-Heon was such a genius that he could even trick these elite artifact users?
‘Anyway, this is a relief.’
The people who had been fighting started to move.
They could now see the tomb entrance. All that was left was for them to go into the tomb.
Julian and Seol-A started to smile while looking at the tomb entrance.
‘Now that we have excavation rights, we can easily loot the tomb if we go in with this group.’
But at that moment...
Whisper whisper.
The teams up front had stopped and were talking.
“What the hell? Why is that person over here?”
"We never heard anything about him being here.”
Ju-Heon also started to frown as he looked forward.
Standing up there was.......
“I'm sorry, but I'm here because I want to search through TKBM.”
It was the Monarch of Detection.
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