[You have satisfied the requirement.]

The message that came after that was very good news for Ju-Heon.

[The rope has earned the potential to level up once again from this event.]

‘The potential to level up again?’

Ju-Heon started to smile. But there was more.

[You have earned the title of < One who knows pleasures > and now give off a special aura.]

[Midas’s < Wealth ability > was influenced by that aura and dragged out. You have successfully drawn out the Wealth ability.]

[You now give off yang energy that artifacts like.]

Ju-Heon ended up laughing out loud after seeing that last message.

‘My goodness, the rope is one thing, but…

I was wondering how I could awaken the Wealth ability.’

Ju-Heon had not been able to release the Wealth ability no matter how hard he tried. But he was able to figure something out after seeing that message.

‘Midas's artifact might have two personalities.’

Irene’s artifact came with two different abilities.

Destitution and wealth.

So, if there were different personalities that controlled the Destitution and the Wealth?

‘There’s a good chance that is the case.’

They were split in the tomb from the beginning. Maybe the personality that deals with Wealth was drawn out by his scent or whatever.

‘Either way, it means she can use the Wealth ability now.’

There must have been a reaction as he heard a scream from the room at that moment.

It was Irene. Yoo Jaeha and Ju-Heon's roommate were shocked after hearing her scream.

“What is that? What the?”

"Captain-nim, did you do something to Irene?”

‘Uhh……I did do something, but…’

Ju-Heon quickly ran into the room where he heard the screaming.

"What’s wrong?”

Ju-Heon started to laugh once he entered the room.

Of course, the people who came behind him almost fainted.

“Holy shit, what the hell is this?!”

“Gold?!”

"What are those items?”

It really was gold. The room had turned into the world’s most expensive storage room.

Everything in Ju-Heon's room from the bed, the walls, and even the floor had turned into gold and the room was full of items they had never seen before.

It started with pieces of gold, money, jewels, ores, limited edition bags, alcohol, truffles, watches, bonsai plants, insects, old books, elephants, instruments, fish splashing around…and even large dogs that were panting on top of Irene.

Ju-Heon started to laugh after taking a look.

‘The Wealth ability really did activate.’

His roommate and Yoo Jaeha almost fainted while looking through the items though.

“H, hold on! Isn’t this Russian President Putin's dog?!”

“I've seen this collar in the newspaper before!”

Ju-Heon calmly started to speak to Irene without caring about the fact that they were shouting.

“You're up?”

“Mr. Ju-Heon!”

Irene hugged the puppy and looked nervous as she thought she caused some trouble again.

"Did I cause another accident…!”

Ju-Heon started to laugh.

‘Well, there was an 'accident’ if you want to call it that, but……'

“Do you remember what happened last night?”

He didn't ask that question for any special reason. It was just so that he could explain why this had happened.

But the shocked Irene started to stutter unlike her usual self.

“Umm, uhh that……”

Ju-Heon tilted his head in confusion.

‘Hmm? Does she not remember?’

That was possible. She never remembered her actions whenever her risk had activated in the past.

And Ju-Heon had some partners every so often in the past who would not remember what happened the night before.

“Umm, Mr. Ju-Heon…. that…”

Irene tried to gather the courage to say something, but she missed the timing to do so.

“Mm, okay. I'm sorry. You might not be able to remember what happened.”

“Huh? E, excuse me?”

Ju-Heon seemed to have misunderstood something.

Irene’s eyes opened wide. Ju-Heon answered as if it was nothing.

“Then I’ll tell you about it later because it might shock you. Anyway, you must be hungry. Let's eat first.”

Ju-Heon was being nice and trying to take care of her, but Irene was getting anxious thinking that he was misunderstanding the situation.

‘N, no, that’s not it!’

She was just trying to say that she was happy because she felt as if she managed to get closer to Ju-Heon!

Irene became very sad.

[Even the Pandora members’ entourages are involved in the corruption]

[More people have been indicted for Pandora’s corruption]

[Pandora and their corruption regarding artifacts has been revealed one by one]

"Damn it, Seo Ju-Heon, that bastard.”

A young man was grinding his teeth after seeing what was going on.

How did their plan to get rid of Seo Ju-Heon end up like this?

‘80% of my allies were swept out.’

Not only that, Pandora’s image was shot down…

“Mr. Joshua, sir, it is the same even after checking it again. The prices of the land you own have plummeted down.”

“……”

“Your stocks have turned into toilet paper as well.”

“……”

“The paintings and sculptures you were storing have turned into ashes as well.”

“……Stop.”

“Your artifacts have been seriously damaged too.”

“I told you to stop.”

“The excavation team members have gone on strike asking for pay raises…”

“Stop it! I know about all of that!”

Joshua threw the celadon sculpture on his desk.

“Seo Ju-Heon, you son of a bitch! And damn you, Irene Holten!”

This was none other than the important man who would be known as the < Monarch of Fate > in the future. He was Pandora’s seer who uses Nostradamus’s prophecy artifact and would end up killing Sasaki for having the Future Diary.

He was the puppeteer controlling things behind the wealthy people and the politicians while earning wealth, fame, and influence by reading their futures for them.

He was also a part of Pandora’s Elite, but it was okay because he was not summoned to the golden palace. But he had lost quite a bit of money from it.

This was too scam of an ability for modern society!

‘That shitty artifact of destitution.’

He should have known about it from the moment she was ranked 4th on the dangerous individuals list with a single artifact.

The seer started to frown.

‘Seo Ju-Heon's existence itself is a bit weird.’

He was a seer who could prophesize the future. Naturally, he tried to read Ju-Heon’s future as well.

But for some odd reason, he was unable to see anything about Ju-Heon's future.

‘I feel like I might be able to see it if I try a little more, but…’

His ability couldn't touch it as if there was a curtain placed over it. All he could see was a mysterious and violent crow.

‘Damn it, we’re going to lose every artifact to Seo Ju-Heon if it continues like this.’

He already knew that there would be 15 monarchs. They will be the people who will dominate the artifacts.

But he couldn't allow Seo Ju-Heon to be among those 15 people.

'If only that bastard didn’t save the Holtens.’

Actually, the Holten household was one of the households the Pandora system artifact tried to designate as a sponsor household along with the Rockefeller household. But the Holtens were stubborn fools focused on noblesse oblige.

He had joined hands with Austin Rockefeller and tried to get rid of them because he didn’t think he could get through to them.

Basically, he was one of the culprits who got the Holten couple sick.

That was why he couldn’t help but hate Irene who was taking Seo Ju-Heon’s side.

“It looks like she wasn't satisfied with having her parents almost die.”

“Mr. Joshua?”

“Contact the executive office. Let’s completely destroy the Holten family this time. We’ll take care of Seo Ju-Heon as well.”

But at that moment…

“So, you really were responsible for the issue with my parents?”

“!”

He heard the voice coming from below. A shocked Joshua leaned over the ledge to look down to find a broad-shouldered man on the lower floor.

"And what did you say? Who is going to destroy who?”

Joshua's jaw dropped in disbelief.

That man was none other than George Holten.

‘Why is that bastard in Pandora’s HQ?!’

A shocked employee whispered to Joshua.

“There were many candidates for the open positions in Pandora. George Holten was one of those people……”

But Joshua couldn't hear anything he was saying.

It was because George Holten was looking at him with an extremely violent gaze.

“I heard that our precious benefactor harmed you quite a bit.”

“……W, what?!”

“Well, please take good care of me as I am part of Pandora now. Director Joshua.”

The vicious gaze suppressed the Monarch of Fate.

< Monarch of Torture >

This was also the moment a new monarch was born to help Ju-Heon.

“What? I did what with Pandora's money?”

“No… that's not it……”

Jean Richard was placed in an awkward position.

He could only look at the ceiling and the floor right now.

But Chairman Kwon's eyes were shooting fire regardless of how awkward Richard was feeling.

“Why don’t you say it again?! I used Pandora's money for personal gain?!”

Bang!

Jean Richard clenched his eyes shut at Chairman Kwon's anger.

‘Ah.’

He had expected this, but he didn't know he would have to feel this way when he was over fifty years old.

“No, Chairman-nim. Please calm down.”

“What? Calm down?”

Did he really think Chairman Kwon could calm down right now?

Chairman Kwon started to grind his teeth. He was one of the people who were most worried because Jean Richard was caught up with this incident.

But it was different now that the confession(?) of the Pandora members was broadcast around the world thanks to Ju-Heon.

“What the hell were you spewing?! I swindled Pandora's money to TKBM? I took care of things for members in the dark? What kind of bullshit is that?!”

“Please listen to me……”

“Shut up!”

Chairman Kwon still seemed extremely angry as his eyebrows were shaking.

He felt a bit guilty to say it was 100% false, but it was not something Richard should have discussed.

"Are you still one of my people after saying shit like that?! You're supposed to be my restorer! How dare you sell me out!”

Richard found this to be unfair.

“My goodness, you're being too dramatic! It’s not like I sold him real information! I had no choice! I had to at least tell him a lie to get out of that golden palace!”

‘This bastard knows how to talk.’

“It seems I should have taken your student as my restorer instead of you.”

Richard became upset and glared at Chairman Kwon.

“Hey, Chairman Kwon Tae Joon. Are you really going to act this way because of this small issue?”

“Who was the one that started it?!”

The two partners growled and glared at each other.

“I'm going to have to reconsider being your restorer if you're going to keep acting like this!”

“Ho! Do whatever you want! I'll let the world know that you plagiarized your student’s painting if you do that!”

“H, hey!”

“Anyway, you’ve been placed on probation so just quietly lie low and restore my artifacts for the time being.”

Chairman Kwon then walked out of the room.

Richard was at a loss of words from being shocked.

Even if he was in the wrong for this incident…

"That bastard!”

As he was slamming the poor table since he had nowhere else to vent his anger…

“This is not the time for the two of you to be fighting!”

Vicious looking soldiers pushed Chairman Kwon back into the room and walked in.

Chairman Kwon and Richard both started to get angry after seeing these soldiers barge in without permission.

“What the hell are you…!”

The soldiers handed them a cellphone instead of responding.

“……?”

It was a number they didn’t recognize. But they were certain it was another annoying news media.

Richard was shouting as he picked up the phone as he was upset that they were now using Pandora soldiers as well.

“Hey! I'm going to have you all fired if you keep acting like this! We are not doing any interviews!”

However, he heard someone respond in a tone that was different than the reporters.

[It's been a while. Hello Professor Jean.]

That sneering tone made Richard realize who it was.

‘Nostradamus.’

Why was this hikikomori game addict who was not interested in outside affairs calling him?

A seer like him was scary.

‘The rumors said he might create a prophecy.’

Joshua had another Divine-Grade artifact in addition to Nostradamus’s artifact to make that happen.

The seer just sneered at him.

[I heard that our Pandora's Secretary General has been placed on probation and is struggling a lot because of Seo Ju-Heon.]

“……What are you trying to say?”

[I will do you a favor and help you out this time.]

Joshua’s soldier subordinates brought over a map at that moment.

[I'll tell you how to deal with Seo Ju-Heon. So join this operation to get rid of Seo Ju-Heon.]

It was quite a tempting story.

“Umm, Captain-nim?”

“What is it?”

“Captain-nim whom I respect and love so much that I want to smack every so often?”

“Get to the point.”

"What is this?”

"What else? It’s a saw.”

“No, I can tell it’s a saw.”

Yoo Jaeha was looking at Ju-Heon who was giving him the saw.

“Captain-nim, you're not……”

Ju-Heon smiled after seeing the gourds behind him.

"Do you know how to saw a gourd?”

“Why a gourd all of a sudden?”

Yoo Jaeha's jaw dropped after looking at the gourds.

Was it when they were going through the Pacific Ocean on a cruise after saving the Holten couple?

These were Heungbu and Nolbu's gourds that a crow randomly dropped off.

Ju-Heon had said they were like a type of random item boxes.

“I thought you said you had no intentions of opening those yet!”

“I have a reason to do so now.”

Ju-Heon smiled while looking at the gourds that filled up his house. He had worked hard to awaken Irene's Wealth ability.

‘It’s the perfect chance to test it out.’

These gourds were things that could give really good items or bring terrible disasters. That was why he had wondered when he might be able to open them.

But there was another reason Ju-Heon took these gourds out right now.

[Breaking news. There is another serious Tomb Appearance starting.]

[Multiple tombs are popping up at the same time…]

It was the appearance of the third of the 7 Great Tombs. Based on the precursors, it seemed as if the fourth and fifth tombs were appearing one after another.

That was all fine, but he kept getting these messages.

[Someone is trying to spy on you.]

[Someone is trying to detect the artifacts in your possession. They are trying to sneak a peek at their abilities.]

[Someone is trying to use a tracking artifact on you.]

…

[Someone is trying to use a seduction artifact on you.]

[A power that is trying to change your future is approaching.]

My goodness, being too popular was a problem too.

He had some crazy fans after doing such a good job looting a few tombs.

‘There’s so many I can’t even tell which country or which excavation team it is coming from.’

People all over the place were trying to track him and scan him and what not. He would have taken longer to notice it if it wasn't for the system, but whatever.

‘This is at the level I need to use a defense-type artifact to block them.’

He wouldn’t be caught easily because his base level of Dominance was high, but the problem was when he was asleep.

‘It is a bit dangerous because my guard could be lowered while I am sleeping.’

That was why he needed a defense-type artifact, but…

Artifacts were despicable items and artifacts that were beneficial to humans didn't appear a lot.

Defensive and healing artifacts only appeared extremely late in the Era of Artifacts once a lot of people had already died. There were so few of them that it was easy to monopolize them as well.

‘But there is a chance one could come out of this random box.’

Heungbu and Nolbu’s gourds were either jackpots or disasters. Rare artifacts that were difficult to find had appeared in the past for jackpots as well.

He's had a terrible life where even fortunes he would pull were always terrible, but…

‘Wouldn’t it be guaranteed to be a jackpot if I use the Wealth ability?’

The cheating artifact user picked up the saw and smiled wickedly.

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter