Tomb Raider King Chapter 53: Sorry, but you picked the wrong opponent (4)

"It's a total jackpot. There's a total of twenty artifacts, twenty!"

Ju-Heon chuckled while looking at Yoo Jaeha who was jumping up and down in joy.

He seemed to be the one who was more excited even though he was saying 'how can an adult steal from a child,' just moments ago.

Ju-Heon asked him a question.

"What about the artifacts' conditions?"

Yoo Jaeha seemed to think the artifacts were extremely cute as he smiled widely and responded.

"I think they used it roughly so they require some restoration but they are still usable."
"Good. Then we can just leave a few of them and sell the rest to Edward."
"Eek, you're going to sell them?"
"All of them except one or two are useless."

That made Yoo Jaeha look at Ju-Heon in shock. It made sense since Ju-Heon had only glanced at the artifacts that the rope had gathered and brought over.

That was why Yoo Jaeha gave him a suspicious look.

"Captain-nim, it's not that I'm suspicious or anything, but can you really say that?"
"Say what?"
"You haven't even used them. How can you say that they are useless…"
"I don't need to use such crap to know."

'Huh, what? What did he just say?'

Yoo Jaeha scoffed and picked up an artifact.

"Then what does this one do?"
"Venus's clam. It bubbles a lot so it is good for doing laundry."
"Then this one?"
"Brothers' sweet potato. Fabulous for chronic constipation."
"……Uhh…uhh? T,then this one?"
"A Chinese Queen's flower petal. It turns an ugly girl into a beautiful girl."
"………This one?"
"The Water of Youth. One gulp turns you one hour younger and one bottle turns you about five years younger."
"Then this one!"
"Great for getting rid of bad breath."

'Damn it?' Yoo Jaeha was truly shocked. He didn't know if this man was making things up as he went or if he really knew about all these artifacts.

He must be an excellent scammer if it was the former and he must be following a monster if it was the latter.

However, this was not difficult for Ju-Heon to do. He was happy to see these items that he had seen on the artifact trade market in the past.

'Anyway, I'll get a decent amount of money for them if I sell them to Edward.'

Yoo Jaeha gave up on asking Ju-Heon and just decided to accept it as is. It was true that Ju-Heon's knowledge of artifacts was high anyway.

However…

"Is it really going to be okay? It's fine that we took the artifacts but that child was hired by the US government. Isn't this like provoking the US?"

Ju-Heon chuckled after hearing what this punk had to say.

"Who knows? To be precise, it was self-defense. They were the ones who stole my artifacts first. In addition."
"In addition?"
"They're just CIA chumps anyway."

Ju-Heon started to laugh.

That was indeed the case.

Ju-Heon had led the greatest and most infamous tomb raiding team among the numerous excavation teams. The CIA had realized the dangers Ju-Heon's tomb raiding team brought and had tried many things to disband his team. However, it was all for naught.

Ju-Heon had been someone with the skills to be a Monarch but could not extend his wings because Chairman Kwon was using his weakness against him. It was impossible for something like the CIA to destroy his tomb raiding team.

'Although the Monarch of War is a bit cumbersome.'

The < Monarch of War > was a strong individual who caused all sorts of Currency Wars, Wars of Religion, Biological Warfare, and war crimes with her artifacts.

One thing he was certain about was that she, as well as Chairman Kwon and the other monopolizers, caused the inequalities and the discord in the world.

Furthermore, the artifacts in the world were screaming in joy once World War III started as well.

It gave the artifacts strength and they spread the terrible diseases to destroy human population and rule over humans. The monopolizers then used that to their advantage.

That was how many people ended up being sacrificed. This was the case for people Ju-Heon loved as well.

'Damn bastards.'

But it was impossible to get rid of all artifacts and their users. He had no plans on doing that either.

That was why he needed to take the position of overlord and prevent the artifacts from trying to rule over humans. It was great to take a monarch position but it was meaningless if humanity was destroyed.

'Then those people should be able to live happy lives this time too.'

His blood relatives who should be living in the US right now without knowing about Ju-Heon's existence as well as Inspector Kim's family who had looked after him since he was young.

Ju-Heon was planning on finding his own happiness outside of Chairman Kwon's oppression, but he wanted his loved ones and benefactors to be happy as well.

This War of Artifacts was for that.

Artifacts were useful tools that could be disastrous or prosperous depending on how they were used.

It was at that moment.

"Uhh, Captain-nim. Over there."

Yoo Jaeha pointed to an area covered in fog. The fog made it difficult to see even though it was the middle of the day.

"I think we're almost there."

That was indeed the case. They were currently on a large ship with other people and headed toward Taipa Island.

Why?

The Macao tomb's entrance was on this island. They would usually be able to get here by bridge, but the Tomb Appearance made it so that they could only cross by ship.

'The Tomb Appearance turned this entire area into water.'

In simple terms, this above ground tomb was not reachable by land.

The land was split and only ships could cross through there. China had tried to enter a few times but had gathered this excavation team because everybody they sent in went missing.

It was at that moment.

Yoo Jaeha who had been looking at the island through binoculars started to shout.

"Wow, jackpot. Look at all the snakes and insects on the ground. They look like monsters from a RPG game! Will we die if they bite us?"

Ju-Heon chuckled as he listened to him.

'I guess this map-type artifact is related to the Age of Discovery.'

That was why the tomb looked like this. The conditions to go in was to have 60 ships go in at once.

But he was certain about one thing.

'It's not Columbus.'

That was supposedly in the Monarch of War's hands already.

A message popped up as they entered the area around the entrance.

[Warning. Creatures with critical poison are threatening you and the others.]
[The artifact is trying to mess with you.]

The ship started to shake and the people on board started to scream.

Boom!

The people quickly fell into chaos as this was happening out on the water where they could not see anything.

"Ack! "What, what is going on?!"
"Ahhh! A snake flew on board!"
"Shoot it! Shoot it to death!"

Tang tang!

"Ahhh! My gun exploded!"

The ship instantly turned into pandemonium. This seemed to be the case not just on Ju-Heon's ship but all other ships as well.

"Kill them! Kill them now!"

The people who were bitten by the white snakes lost consciousness and fell or became violent and started to attack the others.

"Aaah!"

There were armed Chinese soldiers inside the ship as well. Thanks to that, guns were fired and led to some terrible accidents in the process. That danger soon reached Ju-Heon's group as well.

"Hand over your artifacts!"
"Aaaaaah!"

Yoo Jaeha was the first to scream. Ju-Heon kicked the soldier as if he was annoyed as Yoo Jaeha was being threatened with a knife. A white snake soon slid out of the fallen soldier's body.

Yoo Jaeha screamed again as the snake came toward him.

"Captain-nim! Snake, a snake!"
"Don't be such a wuss."

Ju-Heon stomped the snake to death before starting to frown.

"This damn artifact……"

The artifact's attacks were not done with that.

"Die, die, all human bastards must die!"
"Kill all human bastards! Kekeke!"

Tang tang tang!

Ships full of hypnotized idiots had appeared. These ships consisted 80 percent of Chinese soldiers who came here to excavate the tomb.

Yoo Jaeha screamed and started to tear up as the soldiers on the ships started to fire. Weapons usually could not be used in tombs but this artifact bastard seemed to have created this situation on purpose.

Yoo Jaeha then started to shout.

"Damn it, Captain-nim!"
"Damn it!"

There were so many of them probably because they were Chinese.

Ju-Heon had no choice but to reach his hand out.

"Number 1. Hand over the pen."
"Excuse me? That's still being restored…."
"Shut up and hand it over."
"Yes sir."

Ju-Heon who received Shakespeare's pen from Yoo Jaeha started to write on the ship's floor.

[The idiots being controlled by the artifact will all lament their stupidity and slam their heads.]

A bright light flashed and they started to hear people banging their heads from all around them.

Surprisingly, they did not hear anybody's voice anymore.
All of them had fainted.

Ju-Heon clicked his tongue after realizing what happened.

"They were all idiots."

It was at that moment.

[You're not bad, human bastard.]

Ju-Heon turned his head after suddenly hearing a voice inside the fog while Yoo Jaeha became shocked again.

"Damn it, what the hell is it now?!"

This might have been his first time hearing the voice of an artifact as he had never been inside a tomb before. The artifact continued to speak.

[But a mere human……]

"Shut up. How dare a damn item try to talk."

The owner of the tomb seemed to be shocked to hear that. He enjoyed seeing how most human bastards freaked out and screamed about how he was a ghost.

But Ju-Heon was not interested in what an artifact had to say. He had never been interested in what they had to say.

However…

[You truly seem like the bastard the crow bastard is trying to choose.]

This time was an exception.

'Crow?'

Ju-Heon started to frown. Ju-Heon had been curious about the story of the crow he heard during the Great Tomb Appearance. It would be a lie to say he was not interested at all in the crow since that bastard was the one to bring him back in time and give him the Tomb Raider abilities. He was just trying not to care about it.

However, there was something else that caught Ju-Heon's attention.

'How does he know about the crow even though he isn't one of the Egyptian artifacts from that time?'

The Egyptian artifact trio that had caused the Great Tomb Appearance had personally seen the crow. However, the bastard in this tomb should not have any relations to that incident.

That was why the concerned Ju-Heon asked a question.

"Hey, how do you know about the crow?"

However, the artifact just laughed as if he had been waiting for this.

[Human! You finally seem interested in what I have to say!]

"Shut up and answer my question."

[Haha! Rumors about you have already spread among the artifacts!]

"Rumors about me have spread?"

[That's right! We all heard that motherf*cking crow has started to move and that you are the bastard that the crow has chosen!]

"Oho."

Something seemed to have happened among the artifacts since the Great Tomb Appearance. Lo and behold, that artifact continued to laugh as he shouted.

[That is why all artifacts are looking for you. You'll soon be gobbled up by artifacts. Why don't you beg for your life with that cute face of yours, you arrogant human!]

The artifact laughed out loud as if telling Ju-Heon to be afraid, but forget being afraid, Ju-Heon was smiling.

"And?"

[What?]

"Tell me more."

[W, what?]

"Is there a problem?"

The artifact was flabbergasted.

[W, wait, why are you not afraid? They're looking for you. They're trying to eat you. They want to get rid of potential danger early………]

Yoo Jaeha who had been listening sighed. He didn't know what the crow was or what not, but…

What this artifact was saying was…

"Isn't it saying the artifacts are going to come rolling over to you on their own?"
"Yes. Exactly that."

The artifact was so shocked as if someone had smacked it from behind that it could not keep talking.

It might be something that none of them had considered.

That wasn't all.

Ju-Heon started to chuckle.

"Are you all idiots? You should stealthily attack me if you are aiming for me, not blab about your plans like that."

"I know, right? They're so nice to warn you in advance."

The artifact fell into a state of panic and could not say anything. Ju-Heon who wouldn't be nice to any artifact started to smile as if it was his turn now.

"Now then, you artifact with loose lips. There's something else I want you to tell me since you've said so much already."

He started to squint as he asked.

"Tell me the true identity of that crow."

Chapter end