Chapter 120: Affection is thicker than blood (1)
Chapter 120: Affection is thicker than blood (1)
Translator: miraclerifle
It was a young woman who seemed to be about Ju-Heon's age.
“What do you think? Doesn’t she look like you?”
Yoo Jaeha slowly crawled over after becoming curious at Irene’s statement.
"What is it? What is it? Who looks like our Captain-nim?”
“Ah, this person who is being interviewed......”
It seemed to be news of the Middle East.
It was the interview of an NGO that was out helping people in a refugee camp.
The news was one thing, but Yoo Jaeha started to clap like a seal after seeing the woman being interviewed.
“Wow, jackpot. She's totally my type! She’s a hot babe!”
But it only lasted for a moment as Yoo Jaeha started to peek toward Ju-Heon.
“But she really does look like you, Captain-nim. Is she one of the doctors for the NGO?”
“Probably. Ah, apparently there was a Tomb Appearance where she is being interviewed.”
“Really?”
"Based on the information, it seems to be the Tomb of Pride, one of the 7 Great Tombs...”
Yoo Jaeha gasped and looked toward Ju-Heon.
“Captain-nim, she said it’s one of the 7 Great Tombs.”
But Ju-Heon didn’t even seem to care. In fact, his gaze was focused on the woman being interviewed.
[Please tell us something. What was it like at that time?]
[Umm...It was different from the Tomb Appearances I've seen on the news. There were no signs that it was going to happen and we were suddenly swept into it so we didn't really know what was going on...]
Yoo Jaeha and Irene were looking at Ju-Heon with confusion.
“Captain-nim?”
Yoo Jaeha even waved his hand in front of Ju-Heon's face after not hearing a response.
“Hey, Captain-nim.”
“......”
“Hello, Captain-nim?”
“......”
“Hehe, you stupid dumbass vir......ugh!”
“I can hear everything, you bastard.”
“#$&#!”
Yoo Jaeha who was beaten up silently screamed.
“...Ugh, sir, I am just asking, but is she someone you know?”
Ju-Heon just nonchalantly responded.
“No. I don’t know who she is.”
“But she looks really similar to you.”
“There are many similar looking people in the world. My face is actually a common face.”
‘Ho, what nonsense. He should have said Irene has a common look instead.’
But Yoo Jaeha soon just brushed it off.
'Nothing I can do when he says no.’
That was what they were all thinking, but honestly speaking, Ju-Heon knew the woman on the screen too well. There was no way he wouldn’t know who she was.
‘Seo Ju-Won.’
As for the reason they look so similar?
She was Ju-Heon's sibling. She was his twin sibling.
But none of it mattered.
‘That punk doesn’t know that I'm alive.’
He had no intentions of letting her know either.
‘It's fine as long as she’s living well somewhere.’
It wasn’t time just yet. However...
‘I hope she can push that Chinese lunatic out of the way and get the Nobel Prize this time.’
Ju-Heon stared at the screen for a while before starting to speak.
“Anyway, send that NGO some information not to go into tombs if they don’t need to do so.”
“Ah, yes sir.”
“And don’t worry about that tomb. No humans will be able to clear that tomb.”
“Excuse me? Is it similar to the Tomb of Lust?”
“No. In fact, it’s a tomb that we benefit from by not entering at all.”
“Why? Just what kind of tomb is it?”
But at that moment...
“Aaaaah! W, who are you?!”
They heard a scream from the door.
His roommate had opened the door and walked in.
“Wow, this is so crazy.”
The Pandora employee was sighing as he was carrying files to the meeting room.
“Two of the 7 Great Tombs that are said to lay golden eggs have already been cleared......!”
“Nostradamus had said that it was a dangerous tomb that would take at least 1 year to clear...”
But that wasn’t important.
“The problem is that a single person cleared both of those tombs! What the hell are Pandora’s excavators doing?!”
“Shh!”
The employees carrying files stopped talking. It was because they spotted Austin Rockefeller, Pandora’s financier, nearby.
Austin glared at the employees and started to frown.
“You guys will be fired if you keep blabbing like that. Do you understand?”
"Ah, ah, sorry sir!”
Austin walked into the meeting room after saying that.
‘Annoying me even more when my sister is probably going to beat me up when I get home.’
However, Austin Rockefeller almost forgot how to breathe the moment he walked into the room. There was a simple reason for it.
“Why are you the last one to get here after gathering all these busy people?”
“Sis.”
There were high-grade artifact users and the eldest daughter of the Rockefeller household, Eve Rockefeller.
She was the power player behind the family that was creating Monarch-Grade users and the Four Emperors. She had a buff-type artifact that could raise a person's Dominance up to the Monarch-Grade level.
But she was just a thorn in Austin’s eye, the person Austin was fighting with over the position of heir.
That was why Austin's voice became harsh.
“What the hell, why is Pandora's Executive Board here?!”
"Why else? Because you are a stupid idiot who keeps failing. I personally made the trip here. I wanted to see if the people you gathered would be useful to Pandora at all.”
“!”
"I sent most of them back because they were undisciplined idiots. You should really work on your ability to notice talent.”
"What did you say?!”
She looked toward the artifact users she had called. Religion, crime, environment, food, healing, art, technology, economy, resources, prophecy, the fields these people were famous in were numerous.
They were Ju-Heon’s enemies, the monopolizers of the past. They were the people who would become Monarch-Grade users in the future. Some of them would end up in the Monarch-Grade thanks to the Rockefellers as well.
“Austin, you don’t seem to have any talent, so shut up and leave Pandora. That is an order from the Executive Board.”
"What did you say?!”
Austin was dragged out by people his sister had called over.
‘Damn it, do you really think I will lose my position to my sister and Pandora like this?’
Who cared if Pandora was in the west? There were the Arab terrorist factions in Central Asia. China had Zhen Cai Yuan who led a large excavation team. These two places were where the Monarch of Evangelism and the Monarch of Gluttony had appeared in the past.
‘I’ll drag them in and create another Monarch among Monarchs like Keira.’
“You just wait and see!”
“Okay, bye Austin.”
Austin was huffing as he walked out while being sneered at, but they didn't care. They were busy looking at a video of Ju-Heon from the party as they frowned.
“Enough, who the hell is Seo Ju-Heon?”
"We thought he was some rando who wanted to join Pandora when he caused a ruckus at the party last time.”
“My friend’s excavation team was defeated by him at the Tomb of Sloth.”
“He is the hidden first place user that the Pandora system warned us about?”
They seemed extremely upset.
“We will go to the next tomb as well.”
“We can't let him monopolize everything.”
A Pandora employee started to speak as if he suddenly remembered something.
“Pandora’s executive office is actually looking into that right now. Secretary General Richard is personally preparing an international artifact law which should definitely be able to stop Seo Ju-Heon. Please use that opening to aim for the 7 Great Tombs.”
“Oh. What kind of law is it?”
“Please take a look. It is already being tested in countries such as Korea. We are thinking about expanding it world-wide.”
They then started to smile while looking at the law that appeared on the screen.
At the same time, Ju-Heon's roommate Kim Dong Hyun seemed to be completely shocked while looking at Irene who walked over to the door. She was then followed by Lee Seol-A who was beautiful enough to slap an idol over 1,000 times.
“Umm, umm, umm, I don’t know who you are, Miss, but if I came to the wrong place...”
“No, you came to the right place.”
“J, Ju-Heon?!”
Ju-Heon's friend gasped after seeing Ju-Heon waving toward him from the couch while wearing a sweat suit.
“You bastard, I didn’t know whether you were dead or alive because you never contacted me! No wait, before that, who are these beautiful ladies......?! Are they your financiers?”
"No, my friends.”
“Wow, please give me their numbers!”
He didn't even seem to notice Yoo Jaeha at all.
“Enough. I just stopped by for a moment. I could get a new house, but I don't plan on being in Korea for very long.”
“......Not be in Korea very long? Have you been out of the country this whole time?”
“Yes.”
His roommate seemed extremely upset after hearing that.
“Wow, you cruel bastard, you didn't even let me know you were going out of the country. And instead of bringing a present back, you bring a weird homeless guy with you.”
Yoo Jaeha who was taking a sausage out of the fridge felt this was unfair.
“Hey! Why am I a homeless guy?!”
Why else?
His roommate, who was ragging on Yoo Jaeha who seemed to be the easiest to pick on, started to speak as if he suddenly thought of something.
“Ah, you probably don't know what happened to Gun Woo hyung if you've been out of the country?”
“What? Gun Woo hyung? What happened to him?”
Kim Gun Woo was the young inspector who was pretty much a family member to Ju-Heon who grew up as an orphan.
They were his parent’s friends and he had been the one who rescued him from the station when he first returned to the past as well.
He had paid for Ju-Heon's tuition and gave him money to pay for necessities, the person who had disciplined him and kept him on a straight path even when he was about to go astray.
That was why Ju-Heon had contacted him frequently while he was abroad and kept sending money.
But something had happened?
“That’s weird. Hyung never mentioned anything.”
“Oh, so I'm the only one you didn't contact? You traitor. Anyway, go to Gun Woo hyung’s house right now. There’s a big issue.”
‘What the hell could it be?’
‘What else would it be?'
Inspector Kim seemed to have gotten entangled with a tomb and artifact issue in the few months Ju-Heon was gone.
But he had not received any injuries as it was a low-level Tomb Appearance.
However...
“Like I said, why the hell are we criminals?! We are victims who were affected by a tomb!”
“I'm sorry, but based on the criteria, you are not victims and you actually need to pay a penalty fee and an artifact income tax.”
“Ho, are you crazy? It’s not like we got rid of the artifact because we wanted to do so! How can we sit still when our child was about to die?”
“Who knows? You have no proof. That’s just your side of the story. According to the information from Pandora, a level 1 tomb is unable to harm humans.”
“What did you say?”
Ju-Heon started to frown as he watched what was going on.
“Sister-in-law, what is going on?”
“Huh? My goodness, Ju-Heon!”
Inspector Kim's wife Eun Ji-Yoon was holding back, but she was sighing and looked as if she was about to cry.
‘Something's wrong.’
“You ended up being affected by a tomb? Hyung didn't say anything about it.”
“That...he probably didn't tell you on purpose. We got rid of it without any issues.”
Ju-Heon then glared at the public servant.
“What is this?”
“What else? There was a Tomb Appearance in this house but the man of the house cleared it on his own without reporting it.”
“So what?”
“Excuse me? What do you mean, ‘so what?’?’
Pandora’s employee glared at Ju-Heon in disbelief.
“It is currently illegal in Korea for civilians to destroy tombs or excavate them! Both excavating and using artifacts are causes for arrest!”
It seemed as if a shitty law had appeared in Korea while he was gone. The public servant walked into the house and turned on the faucet in the kitchen.
What started to pour out was not regular water.
“I, isn't that gold? Golden water?!”
Yoo Jaeha became shocked and the Pandora employee started to sneer.
“You must be very happy to have golden water. I heard that you opened up a new shop recently, did you use this to pay for it?”
“Hold on...! We haven't even touched that water because it looked suspicious! We opened the shop with our savings and a loan......!”
“Either way, there is a pretty steep fine or imprisonment so that we can prevent civilians from randomly excavating tombs.
“Hey, hold on.”
"The country should have warned you multiple times already. Artifacts are very dangerous items.”
“But......!”
“People not approved by the country are subjects of restriction for excavation and people who use artifacts must pay an artifact tax. Mr. Kim Gun Woo falls under both categories, so he will have to pay a fine.”
“H, how much is it?”
The public servant started to look through the document after Yoo Jaeha asked.
“Mr. Kim Gun Woo has continued to ignore our warnings as well. I went to his workplace before I came here to speak to the madam.”
“Like I said, it ended up that way after we tried to save our child. Who would pay a fine that makes no sense?! Who came up with such stupid laws?!”
The employee pretended not to hear and just said what he wanted to say.
“The fine is 50 million won for an illegal Tomb Excavation. There’s another fine of 50 million won because he did not report it after gaining the artifact. There’s also an illegal usage fee of 50 million won. You can choose between paying the 150 million won fine or choosing an imprisonment of 10 years or less.”
“Where would we come up with that money when we are full of debt?!”
“Either way, you broke the law. I ask for your cooperation as the country and Pandora have come up with this law to protect the citizens.”
Ju-Heon viciously laughed in response.
‘Oh really, did they all go crazy?’