Chapter 285: That’s my prey, you little punk (1)
Chapter 285: That’s my prey, you little punk (1)
Translator: miraclerifle
“You changed the profits to 10:0 for the Captain-nim saying that you were thankful enough to be able to have an exhibition.”
“!”
Although it was impossible to know what Jaeha had been thinking at that time...
Jaeha turned pale after remembering that fact.
‘I sort of remember doing that while I was drunk......’
Ju-Heon mischievously acted shocked.
“Oh my, then all that money is mine? Then I guess the profits from the brochure sales for the next few days are all mine as well.”
“No, wait!”
“Awesome. I’ll bet again tomorrow with that money.”
‘Ahhh, I'm screwed!’
“W, wait, Captain-nim! Let’s modify the contract. Please be generous and give me 8:2, no, even 9:1 is fine......! Captain-niiiiiiiim!"
While Ju-Heon was messing with Jaeha...
Bang!
Jaeha’s sunbae Julien was huffing as he threw a brochure.
Facing such indignity on the first day was one thing, but there was something that angered him more than anything else.
“He... Heard such praises from Master Andrew.”
Julien respected and looked up to Master Andrew.
He had even switched schools to be able to learn from Andrew.
But even he had been ruthlessly ripped apart by Andrew!
“That inferior bastard who was always ranked last......!”
He took out his evil god artifact and Michelangelo’s artifact and started heading somewhere.
“I didn't want to use this method as fellow artists, but I have no choice.”
Yoo Jaeha had da Vinci's artifact.
But even the great Leonardo da Vinci was said to possibly be jealous of the young Michelangelo in his twenties.
Although they lived in the same time period, their styles, personalities, and generations were different.
The point was that rival artifacts are scary.
They could make each other go berserk to trouble the user.
“This should be able to get rid of your artistic talents as well.”
Jaeha would lose the title of greatest restorer.
‘Taste my evil god artifact first.’
He activated his artifact. The effects were about to show right away.
“!”
Jaeha, who was signing things for fans he had met at the restaurant, felt a pain on his hand.
“Ugh.”
The rope tilted its head in confusion once Jaeha dropped a pen.
[$#&$#]
What is it? What is it?
Yoo Jaeha tilted his head.
‘Is it because I stayed up all night because I was nervous?’
Yoo Jaeha started chatting with people again once the pain disappeared but Julien was smiling.
“That was just a taste.”
As he was about to use the artifact for real...
Puuk!
Someone ruthlessly stabbed Julien’s heart.
“U, ugh!”
It was a sharp blade.
A Holy Knight wearing armor had pierced right through Julien's heart.
This was no ordinary Holy Knight.
‘It’s a painting......!’
It was a Holy Knight who had been a painting but had now materialized. Julien was coughing up blood as he noticed the person who had created this knight.
That person was across from him.
‘T, that bastard......!’
Julien fell over.
An unexpected person appeared in front of him.
“Sorry, but you can't do it.”
It was Louie.
“I'm the one who will take care of Yoo Jaeha and the others.”
Louie calmly grabbed Julien’s artifacts. One of them was Michelangelo’s artifact. Julien could see that Louie had the other artists’ artifacts as well.
Julien’s bloodshot eyes glared at Louie.
“You, you son of a bitch!”
Louie smiled brightly at him.
“What the hell? You’re still not dead even though your heart was pierced? I guess these fake Heirlooms still make you superhuman.”
Louie motioned with his hand as he said that.
"Well, superhumans aren't immortal. You’ll die at some point.”
The Holy Knights raised his blade high into the air.
“How stupid.”
“What? Julien is dead? His corpse was found at the art gallery?”
Ju-Heon tilted his head after hearing this unexpected story.
It was now the third day of Yoo Jaeha's exhibition. He had looked around the exhibition hall for a few days and was heading there to do the same today.
It wasn't because he was concerned about his subordinate’s exhibition.
It was because that place was said to be where the third change would occur. Looking back at his past experiences, this should be where the artifact appears.
The way to summon that tomb was through a fight where winner and loser were already guaranteed.
Ju-Heon had done the bet with the Heirlooms in advance because he had full faith that Jaeha would win. He wanted that condition to be fulfilled prior to his punky subordinate’s exhibition so that there would be no bloodshed there.
It seemed to have worked out as he planned as there were signs of a Tomb Appearance happening all around the exhibition hall.
‘It should happen by the end of the exhibition at this rate.’
He didn't know what would happen but it was guaranteed to be a big issue.
The third change had happened in a special artifact battle arena in the past. The Monarch of Evangelism's subordinates and Chairman Kwon's TKBM subordinates had fought a long battle there.
Ju-Heon’s team had not participated.
‘Chairman-nim, there will be a Tomb Appearance at that battle arena.’
Ju-Heon had read the Toombglyph and informed Chairman Kwon about it. His team just waited until the Tomb Appearance happened and immediately aimed for the artifact.
They made it through the terrible traps and grabbed the artifact but he had no idea what it was.
Why?
‘Only someone with a Heirloom could touch it.’
It was an artifact that only Monarchs could use. Yoo Jaeha had transported it and Chairman Kwon took it away before Ju-Heon could even find out what it was.
What he did know was that Chairman Kwon gained significant power after that incident and earned the Four Emperors title while absorbing numerous other excavation teams. He also rapidly traversed down the path of the Monarch among Monarchs.
But that was all in the past. As for this life... A corpse was found in the art gallery.
Ju-Heon, who had bought a boxed lunch for Jaeha and was eating lunch with the others, couldn't help but frown.
‘Is there another bastard who knows the condition to awaken this tomb?’
Had it been a coincidence or was it intentional?
Ju-Heon thought for a moment before asking.
“And? The person who died was Julien?”
“Yes, I think he was murdered. I think an artifact user killed him.”
Ju-Heon's expression turned serious after hearing that hypothesis.
Julian was shocked to see Ju-Heon like this.
‘I’ve never seen him thinking so hard.’
Had Julien been that important of a person?
An anxious Julian quickly apologized.
“Sorry. I would have paid more attention if I knew you were concerned about him......”
Ju-Heon looked confused.
“No. Who the hell is Julien?”
“......!”
‘That’s what he was thinking about?!’
“You really don't know who that is?”
“Why do I have to remember a guy's name?”
“Hey, you!”
“No, I'm joking. I wouldn’t forget about the bastard who messed with our pushover. But who the hell was he? I only know his name.”
Ilya shared the information.
“Julien. Age 29, graduated from an Ivy League Art Department and is the top official restorer. He is the oldest son of 3 with two younger sisters. His parents are financial executives, he changes girlfriends every three months, is left-handed, and has a peanut allergy.”
Julian opened his eyes wide after hearing Ilya rattle off these pieces of information.
The fact that their operative Ilya knew so much about a person was never good news.
“Ilya, did you......?!”
Ilya seemed extremely upset about this accusation.
“How rude. I wouldn’t leave evidence behind like some amateur. I heard that the killer looted all of his artifacts, isn't there a more suspicious person?”
An anxious Julian turned toward Ju-Heon.
“Then Seo Ju-Heon, did you...ugh!”
Ju-Heon kicked Julian.
“Hey. I may be a terrible person but I wouldn’t kill someone for artifacts.”
‘Well, that’s true.’
“...Just to confirm, it was neither of you?”
“I don’t like killing in the first place. It’s too easy of an ending for them.”
“I wanted to make him crash his car but the Captain said not to do that because the poor lamp post did nothing wrong.”
“Yes. You should throw him down the Himalayan mountains instead.”
‘These guys both need to go to prison.’
Julian grabbed the back of his neck at these two who were joking but still saying such vicious things as if it was nothing.
“Anyway, we can’t just brush it aside.”
“I know.”
“Even if he was a fake king, he was still a Monarch with an evil god artifact. It shouldn't have been that easy...”
“That’s one thing, but also...”
Ju-Heon started to frown as he got down to the main point.
‘I need to know whether it was a coincidence or there is a bastard who knows about the conditions of this tomb...”
Something happened at that moment.
[You want to know about that?]
“!”
Ju-Heon heard a voice under the chair he was sitting on.
They all inspected the chair in shock.
However, there was nothing underneath the chair. They anxiously looked around but they didn’t see anything either.
But they could still hear the voice.
[I'm the one who killed that artist.]
It was a voice that they recognized.
“Isn’t that Louie’s voice?”
It definitely was.
This was Yoo Jaeha’s fake son, Louie Martin’s voice.
Ju-Heon snorted after hearing the familiar voice.
“I thought you ran away and decided to stick with that old moron.”
They found out after the exhibition yesterday.
They wondered where he had run off to but they had laughed while seeing him smirking with the other artists.
“But you killed your own ally?”
[You should thank me. That bastard was aiming for your restorer. He could have lost his restoration ability.]
“!”
Artistic talent was required to use restoration artifacts. As a result, not being able to draw would mean that he would not be able to restore artifacts.
Ju-Heon responded to Louie.
"I guess you developed some love for your daddy while you guys were together?”
Louie stopped talking for a moment before sneering at them.
[Not at all. It’s because there’s someone else who needs to take care of you guys.]
“Someone else?”
[Chairman Kwon didn’t get involved with this.]
Louie seemed to be informing them about something.
[That man is looking for a restorer.]
“You're a mediocre artist too so you should be able to restore things. Why don’t you do it?”
[..........]
"Well, I guess there’s no way that you would be capable of doing that.”
[......!]
Louie was silent for a moment before he shouted as if he had made up his mind.
[Hurry over. Otherwise, all of the restorers here will die!]
“!”
Seol-A felt something at that moment and urgently warned Ju-Heon.
“Captain-nim! There’s a strong aura!”
It was the aura of something that was about to explode.
"Fuck, where the hell is the artifact?!”
There was a bright light while they struggled to locate it. The impact of the explosion would be strong enough to blow away the whole restaurant!
‘It’s too late to use a defense-type artifact!’
Flash!
They clenched their eyes as the artifact exploded.
But at that moment...
“.......”
They peeked after not hearing anything or being blown away.
“Uhh, uhh?”
The restaurant had not blown away. Nothing was broken either. All they could see in front of them was Ju-Heon's chaotic Crow's aura.
Ju-Heon was sticking his tongue out as if he ate something bad.
“Damn it, that tasted so bad.”
The team members gasped as they watched.
‘Did he absorb that before it exploded?!’
Ju-Heon was extremely agitated right now.
"What kind of artifact tastes so shitty?”
‘I wonder what it tastes like.’
Well, it didn’t matter. They quickly headed toward the exhibit. Once they could see the art gallery building...
"Captain-nim, the Tomb Appearance signs!”
Seol-A urgently turned toward Ju-Heon. Ju-Heon could see the messages popping up as well.
[The precursors of the Tomb Appearance are appearing at the Art Gallery.]
[The precursors of the Tomb Appearance are appearing at the Art Gallery.]
[A stronger condition than the originally met condition has been fulfilled, accelerating the Tomb Appearance.]
[An SSS-Grade artifact is about to show itself.]
Ju-Heon frowned and made a call.