Tomb Raider King Chapter 23

Chapter 23: The Blacklist of Legends (2)

Translator: miraclerifle

“Wow, is this real money or fake money?”

The Oh Seung Woo group looked out of it as they stared at the pile of money in front of Ju-Heon.

Ju-Heon had won a total of $59,805,040. This was about 70,839,069,880 won. [1]

'Ah, is it a total of 70.9 billion won if I add the money I started with?'

“W, we're rich! Rich!!”

“Jackpot! I've never seen such money in my life! Isn't this enough to live luxuriously for the rest of our lives?!”

Ju-Heon started to smile after hearing their shouts. He did have a pile of money now.

'It does feel great.'

Most of the money went into his bank account, but there were $300,000 (300 million won) in cash. It was for the auction house entrance fee.

The Oh Seung Woo group started to shout in joy at that moment.

“Awesome! Our life is a success now!”

Ju-Heon scoffed at Oh Seung Woo who seemed extremely happy.

“You seem to have the wrong idea since earlier. This isn't your money.”

The Oh Seung Woo group whimpered after seeing his gaze.

“O, of course we know that!”

“Good.”

But for them to shake in joy after seeing 300 million won.

Ju-Heon who had touched many artifacts that were worth over 100 billions won chuckled after seeing them going crazy over this low amount.

But he understood how they were feeling.

'I used to be the same way.'

It must have been when he first went to work for Chairman Kwon. He would be lying if he said his eyes didn't roll after seeing a large amount of money in front of him.

The reason Ju-Heon became unresponsive to large amounts of money was because he got used to it, but also because he realized that none of it was his.

'Even as the captain of the tomb raiding team, I only took home about 1 million won a month.'

It was close to being paid nothing now that he thought about it. Especially when you considered the large amounts of benefits Ju-Heon brought to Chairman Kwon while working with no weekends or holidays and putting his life on the line every time. That was during a time when even a rookie employee of a large corporation would earn at least 5 million won to start.

'Well, it was because I received healing artifacts in place of money.'

However, they were all one time use healing artifacts that temporarily reduced the pain instead of fixing the issue.

That was how Chairman Kwon used people as his slaves.

Ju-Heon clicked his tongue thinking about that time.

'If that bastard didn't monopolize all the healing artifacts in the beginning and abused the system.'

Ju-Heon clicked his tongue.

The casino employee who was putting the $300,000 into a 007-style briefcase peeked toward Ju-Heon.

He was probably looking at Ju-Heon as if he was a monster because of his scam-like luck. That was why Ju-Heon started to smile.

He could have looted them completely, but he was controlling himself.

Ju-Heon was someone who had that much conscience. Well, the real reason was that he didn't really want to end up on the blacklist. Even the godly Las Vegas would be wary of someone who went against human logic and he couldn't let them go bankrupt when he needed to take more money from them in the future.

'There is an auction every month.'

That was why Ju-Heon had an evil smile on his face.

He would be nice and hit jackpots only every so often.

Furthermore...

'There's no need to increase my affinity with a damn artifact for no reason.'

Places such as battlefields or casinos where humans suffered and fell to ruin were places artifacts loved so much that they would shake in joy. His affinity would go up similar to Chairman Kwon's had done the more he bothered other people.

Ju-Heon didn't want to do anything these damn artifacts would like.

However.

'It should be okay to win a bit more, right?'

And lo and behold.

Ju-Heon looked at his watch as if he was thinking about something.

It was currently 7pm.

There was about an hour left before the start of the auction at 8pm. He wasn't that hungry.

That was why Ju-Heon started to mumble to himself.

“I have some time left, should I go for another round......”

The casino employees' faces instantly turned pale.

'W, what did he say?

What, he's not satisfied with this amount?!

What is this devil scammer thinking about doing now?!'

That was what their faces seemed to be saying, but Ju-Heon did not notice this as he got up from his seat.

“I have some time so why not?”

'No, don't do that!'

The casino employees wanted to shriek.

Maybe that ominous feeling from earlier was correct. Ju-Heon seemed to come loot Las Vegas whenever he had time in the future.

This was why they should have put him on the blacklist earlier.

'He might win enough to put us in financial trouble!'

It was fine until now, but if this weird man stuck around Las Vegas 365 days a year?

Their bodies started to shiver in fear.

'Just thinking about it is terrible.'

It would be impossible within human logic, but Ju-Heon was a lucky man who transcended that logic.

Jackpot winners were usually useful for the casino's publicity, but this person was such a scam that people might think the casinos were working together to trick the public.

'So please don't come back, you monster.'

They were crying internally.

Some of them started to shout once Ju-Heon casually disappeared.

“I, is it okay to let him be? He might really end up sending a portion of Las Vegas to ruin in a few years!”

That could happen if Ju-Heon chose to act with malice. However, the employees started to laugh as if something like that could not happen.

“You're exaggerating too much. Something like that won't happen.”

On the other hand, some of the employees had serious expressions on their faces.

“This is no laughing matter. Did you already forget about, 'that woman' from a few months ago?”

The employees started to shake after hearing a familiar term.

There was another woman who was a candidate to be on the blacklist for a different reason than Ju-Heon.

'T, that woman.'

It happened about three months ago.

There was a guest who brought the rain to this desert city where it did not rain much.

The woman had struck without warning similar to how Ju-Heon had done. Terrible news had come with her.

There was that incident where the shocked casino operators finally decided to put that woman on the blacklist.

'If the same thing happens like when that woman was here......!'

It happened at that moment.

“W, w, we have a situation!”

A female employee ran in as if she had seen a ghost.

“What is it, what's wrong?”

“T, that woman is here! That crazy woman on the blacklist!”

"What did you say?!”

However, there was something that was even more shocking.

“And that woman is at < Goodbye World >!”

“Aigoo, why did she have to go to Las Vegas's number one casino......looks like that owner is ruined.”

They were already praying for that owner for some reason. However, the female employee who said that suddenly shouted as if she realized something.

“Huh? Hold on. That guest who left just now was heading there too!”

She looked toward the direction Ju-Heon left.

Ju-Heon left the $300,000 with the auction house before arriving at Goodbye World where he hit the first jackpot.

He wasn't planning on staying here long because the auction would start in an hour.

However.

'It wouldn't hurt to have some extra money in case I need to bet against Chairman Kwon.'

He didn't know whether Chairman Kwon would already recognize artifacts and try to win the ones that showed up in the auction, but it would not be bad to prepare.

However, it was at that moment.

“Ack! I was doing so well but I lost everything!”

“W, what the hell?! Someone came from behind to beat me!”

“Damn it! The money on the counter disappeared!”

The customers at the table games, slot machines and even the employees who were working all started to scream.

Ju-Heon looked around after noticing this odd situation.

It felt a bit chaotic inside the casino. It happened as he was thinking that something bad was about to happen.

Flash.

There was a change to the gold axe silver axe knife Ju-Heon had in his pocket.

'This?'

The gold axe that had been shining brightly became faint before it disappeared and an excited silver axe appeared in its place.

[Gold axe Silver axe - Silver Axe (B-Grade:Rare-Grade/Consumable Artifact)]

- Remaining Uses (939/1000)

The gold axe was one that pinpointed places to bring wealth for the user while the silver axe was the opposite.

The silver axe pinpointed enemies who threatened its master's wealth to help the master avoid those situations. In simple terms, it was a detector that would warn the master of anyone aiming for their master's wealth.

However.

'Why is the silver axe reacting?'

It could seem like a good artifact that helps the user at first glance, but the silver axe was still an evil artifact.

Humans were creatures who hated to lose their things. How many people would be nice to enemies who came aiming for their wealth?

'Stab the enemies that are aiming for your wealth to death!' That was what the silver axe was aiming for.'

'But for it to respond like this......'

Ju-Heon quickly looked around.

The situation was getting worse.

Almost everybody in the casino started to scream or cry.

Some of them lost money, some got caught up in a fight, some had their stuff stolen, some lost a game they were seconds away from winning, and there were dealers who kept making mistakes as well. There was even a situation of someone getting injured because a machine toppled over.

There were many different issues and reactions.

The aftershock of that was about to reach Ju-Heon as well.

“Kyaaaa! Sir!”

Someone shouted urgently but Ju-Heon didn't even look back before swinging his fist at the person behind him. The dealer who was trying to attack Ju-Heon couldn't do anything as he fainted with a bloody nose.

Yes, the person who tried to attack Ju-Heon was a casino dealer.

Ju-Heon clicked his tongue while looking at them.

Where in the world would it make sense for a casino employee to attack a customer?

That was why this was an extremely odd situation.

However, this type of weird reaction was different than the reaction caused by a Tomb Appearance.

Ju-Heon headed toward a direction he found suspicious.

There were no signs of any precursors for a Tomb Appearance nearby.

However.

'As expected.'

He smelled the scent of a familiar artifact nearby.

It was coming from a woman who seemed to be the only one not affected by all the bad luck in the casino.

That was the case.

There was an extremely beautiful woman standing at the corner of the casino roulette.

That Caucasian woman was a perfect ten with long blonde hair. Both her skinny yet voluptuous body underneath the red evening dress she was wearing as well as the sculpture-like face was so perfect that it looked as if the goddess of beauty had taken human form.

And lo and behold.

The Oh Seung Woo group who were following Ju-Heon blanked out after seeing the blonde woman.

“W, w, who is that goddess?”

“Are they filming a movie here or something?”

It was to the point that everyone's eyes were opening wide after looking at her. People seemed to be bewitched by her beauty or something as they stopped what they were doing and started to walk toward her.

There was only one person who was not acting that way. Ju-Heon was the only one who was different.

In fact, Ju-Heon's face stiffened a bit as soon he saw her, as if he had seen some scary shit.

Why?

It was because Ju-Heon knew her quite well.

That was why he said the following.

“We are heading toward the auction house right away.”

His voice was stiff and urgent unlike his usual self. That was why the Oh Seung Woo group became shocked.

“W, what? I thought you said you were going to win some more money?”

“Ah, no, cancel that plan.”

Ju-Heon's attitude quickly changed as if he had never said that in the first place. He just coolly turned away from this heavenly beauty who looked like a gift from the gods.

He was actually frowning a bit.

'I need to quickly get out of here.'

He was walking quicker than before as well.

He was certain.

That woman was one of the < monopolizers > Ju-Heon knew about.

< Monopolizers. >

This term did not reference only the greedy bastards who gathered as many artifacts as possible. This was the term used for anyone who possessed a Divine-Grade artifact, the elite whose dominance and affinity levels were higher than regular people.

The monopolizers were majesties who stood above all artifact users, receiving titles such as the Monarch of Fate, Monarch of Calamity, Monarch of Conquest, Monarch of War, Monarch of Fraud, Monarch of Abundance, etc. They received the titles of < Monarch of __ > based on the effects of their artifacts since they would not share the identities of their artifacts.

This woman was someone that all artifact users would scream and run away from in the past as well. Parties that just started and even international competitions would become canceled as soon as she arrived.

No matter how strong, influential, or powerful someone was, they would scurry away like a scared little mice whenever she appeared.

This was the same for Ju-Heon.

Of course, it wasn't that Ju-Heon was avoiding her because he lacked abilities.

In fact, the main reason he needed to avoid her was because of his abilities.

She was a nice person who was intelligent and extremely beautiful with a voluptuous body, but she had no friends around her.

Why?

The name of this beautiful goddess was Irene Holten.

Just being around her would make anyone, it didn't matter whether they were male or female, young or old, fall to bankruptcy, disaster or ruin. Even the mighty Chairman Kwon had a change in his expression whenever she appeared.

She was a cursed goddess who took the luck away from everyone around her and drove them to ruin!

That was the case. She was the one who was called the < Monarch of Destitution >!

1. This is more in line with the 10 million to 12 billion in the last chapter

Chapter end