“You’re fired. You are all insincere and have neglected your duties. Oh, and ask them if they’ve completed their tasks before playing around like this.”

Click.

[………?!]

The enemies as well as the scheming Monarchs were all flabbergasted at the suddenly ended call.

‘W, wait, that’s not right!’

Ilya's team members dropped their jaws in shock while looking at the disconnected phone.

They were checking that Ju-Heon had really hung up. They even tried calling back thinking that they might have made a mistake.

However…

Riiiiiing…

[I told you, they're fired. I’m hanging up.]

Click.

The enemies became angry once Ju-Heon hung up again.

"Damn it! We haven’t even said anything yet!”

“Hey, call him back!”

Riiiiiing…

[The person you are trying to reach is unavailable right now. Please leave a voicemail……]

“This crazy son of a bitch!”

It looked as if Ju-Heon had taken the batteries out of his phone.

The abductors started to pound their chests in anger now that they were unable to contact the bastard they needed to draw out.

“Fuck, what do we do?”

“Captain Ilya should be waiting for him at the intersection!”

“Do you think that this bastard is crazy?”

“Exactly! Does he not care if his team members die?!”

The team members inside the belly of the serpent were going crazy as well.

They might be in the belly but they were still able to hear everything because the call had been on speaker phone.

That was probably the reason. Yoo Jaeha and Julian were foaming at the mouth.

“Hey. What the hell did I just hear?”

“F……fired.”

“Seo Ju-Heon, that bastard!”

There was no way that that bastard did not realize that they had run into trouble! He should have noticed that his team members were in danger!

But what?!

Fired?!

The two Monarchs looked as if they would soon start shooting lasers out of their eyes.

“How can that shithead call himself our leader?!”

“Wow, I didn't think the Captain-nim was that kind of person!”

They were furious.

It was not because he had not saved them. They were tearing up at the fact that their cold-hearted Captain had hung up the phone even after hearing that his team members were in danger.

“What the hell?! How can he do that to his friend who was with him until his death?!”

“What the hell?! I might not have been there when he died but how could he do this?!”

Lee Seol-A became anxious after seeing them ready to spew out fire.

“U, umm. Both of you, please calm down for now. I'm sure that the Captain-nim has a plan……kyaaa!”

Seol-A covered her eyes and plopped down on the ground.

They were all hiding behind things because their clothes had melted away from the gastric juices.

Seol-A was covering herself with just a t-shirt but the men did not seem to care much.

She ended up seeing some things she didn't want to see as they jumped up in anger.

She might have enjoyed it if it was the Captain-nim’s, but unfortunately, the naked men in front of her were not Ju-Heon.

“Please cover yourselves!”

‘I don’t want to know the sizes of you two!’

They finally realized what was going on and quickly tried to gather scraps of clothes that were still intact.

But the two of them still seemed angry even as they gathered the scraps.

"What the hell, how can he throw away his team members like this?!”

“I know, right? I guess the Captain-nim doesn't know how important we are at all!”

“I think we became his team members too easily once we got our memories back.”

“I know, right? It’s not like we’d be pushed around regardless of where we went. Kongming, you were the captain of your own excavation team!”

“Yeah. You can succeed without this tomb raiding team too.”

“Wow, our nerdy bastard. No, no, our Vice Captain-nim. You're quite smart, sir.”

Was their relationship with each other good or bad?

“I can't handle it. It’s time to go on strike. I need to get out of here to show the Captain-nim how important all of his team members are!”

“How rare. We have the same thought.”

The two of them looked at each other with smiles on their faces but Seol-A started to shout.

"Whatever, just cover yourselves!”

“Is it really okay not to do anything?”

Chloe was shocked to see Ju-Heon’s reaction.

It would be one thing if Yoo Jaeha was the only one who was captured, but……

“It sounds like the Vice Captain-nim is captured as well.”

“Didn't you hear Seol-A too?”

“It doesn’t matter whether she is there or not.”

Ju-Heon started to laugh after seeing Chloe start to pout.

Why were all of his team members like this?

“Anyway, Captain-nim. Is it okay to just stay here like this? It didn't sound like they were acting……”

“Yeah, I'm sure it wasn’t an act.”

Ju-Heon peeked around. He did feel a gaze observing him.

[A mirror artifact is reflecting your image.]

[The enemies are currently observing you.]

[The presence of a memory modification artifact can be felt.]

Even Pandora could not accurately determine Ju-Heon’s location.

Other people shook in fear at Pandora’s power play and agreed to have their locations tracked, but…

Ju-Heon looked at Pandora the same way he looked at dog shit.

But the fact that these people were able to locate him…

“They really seem to have been captured by the enemies. These enemies are probably some kind of aftermath clean-up crew?”

That shocked Chloe even more.

“Then it’s even bigger of an issue! An aftermath clean-up crew would be able to read their memories as well! If information about the past life is seen……!”

But Ju-Heon just snorted.

"Why are you so worried? All of them know how to deal with it.”

“But……”

Dragging out someone’s memories was done the same way as forcibly lowering someone’s Dominance.

It required shaking their mental fortitude.

Basically, people could be tortured, embarrassed or threatened to shake their mental fortitude, but……

“What could they do to scare people who have already experienced death?”

“……I guess that is true.”

Death was the greatest fear for humans.

Unfortunately, even death could not threaten his team members.

“Most things would probably just get them to laugh.”

That was why he didn’t really need to be worried.

What was annoying Ju-Heon was the fact that…

“These punks were caught by a stupid aftermath clean-up crew?”

‘These supposed Monarchs really want me to kill them.’

That wasn't all.

Ding.

It seemed as if they decided to contact Chloe because Ju-Heon turned his phone off.

She received a voicemail and a video.

The contents were astonishing.

[Ahhhhhh!]

[You idiot! Don’t get any closer!]

[Aaaaaaah!]

Chloe was shocked after watching the video.

It was because the video showed Yoo Jaeha, Lee Seol-A, and Julian all being gobbled up by the snake.

That wasn’t all.

[Ahhhhh!]

[Kyaaaaaa!]

They seemed to have filmed the inside of the snake as there was even a video of them being attacked by the gastric juices.

She rubbed her eyes and looked again but the video had not been fabricated.

Ilya’s team members were laughing after having sent those videos.

‘This should make Seo Ju-Heon burst out in anger!’

But forget bursting out…

"What do you want for dinner?”

“?!”

Ilya’s team members who were observing Ju-Heon gasped in shock after hearing him calmly ask that question.

“How can that bastard not even blink an eye after seeing that?!”

“Is he crazy?!”

"Fuck, Seo Ju-Heon… Weren’t his team members supposed to be his weakness?”

They started to shout as if they couldn’t handle it any longer.

“Hey! Tell him we’re going to spread that video all around the world! Tell him we’re going to broadcast them!”

“Yeah! Even that bastard should care about the reaction of the world!”

They sent another video to Ju-Heon.

The contents were shocking.

[Hand over all of your artifacts while I'm asking nicely.]

[Aaah! Please don’t kill me!]

It was a video of Yoo Jaeha, Lee Seol-A, and Julian threatening other excavation team members.

It was obviously a fake video, but it was such a high quality fake that even Yoo Jaeha would praise it.

Their threat was simple.

[Come out to the intersection if you don’t want your subordinates being caught up in rumors.]

Ju-Heon just clicked his tongue.

“Ah, they're so annoying. Block their number.”

“Uhh………they said they would broadcast the video. Won’t that make things annoying?”

“Who cares? It's not like I’m the one in the video.”

Ju-Heon really looked as if he had no plans on going to rescue his team members.

Ilya’s team members’ asses were on fire after seeing his lack of reaction.

“The plan will fail at this rate.”

"Captain Ilya. What should we do?”

Ilya started to frown after hearing his subordinates shouting on the phone.

‘I need to lure him to the trap.’

Ilya looked at the barrier he had cast in between buildings.

It was invisible to the naked eye but this was a barrier created on the intersection by devils.

‘All I need to do is lure him here.’

Ilya thought for a moment before he seemed to have come up with an idea.

“I remember hearing that Seo Ju-Heon had a girlfriend.”

[Girlfriend…… Are you talking about Irene Holten?!]

[You're not talking about the… Monarch of Destitution, are you?]

“Yes. Let’s abduct his girlfriend……”

[Ahh! I'm submitting my letter of resignation! We have no connections to you from now on, Captain!]

[Thank you for everything until now, sir!]

‘These bastards?’

As Ilya was about to swear…

[Aaah!]

The call suddenly ended. Ilya was shocked and started to shout.

"What the… hey! What’s wrong?! What is going on?!”

What else would it be?

“Haa, he’s really terrible.”

“The more I hear…”

The 'Lee Seol-A, Julian, and Yoo Jaeha' trio had forced them to hang up.

A pitiful looking snake that was ripped to shreds was behind them. They had ripped the snake from the inside to get out.

But oddly enough, they were angrier at someone else instead of the people who had imprisoned them.

“Seo Ju-Heon, you bastard.”

“I'm really submitting my letter of resignation. How can he say he treats us like family? He just treats us like dogs!”

“Uhh……over there.”

They looked quite comical just having a coat or a jacket to cover themselves, but they were angry.

It was because of the cellphone they had taken from Ilya's subordinates.

“See! He ignored all of them! That damn Captain ignored all of them! How can he act like this?!”

Yoo Jaeha could not hold back any longer and made a call.

“Ah, Stockfish? Hey! Why the hell is the Captain-nim not picking up his phone?! What? He turned it off because it was annoying?! Actually, forget that, what does he mean we’re fired?! Did he really fire us?!”

Chloe seemed to be trying to calm Yoo Jaeha over the phone.

[There’s no way the Captain-nim would really fire you guys. He just said that to motivate you guys.]

"Motivate my ass! He doesn't care if we die! What is the Captain-nim doing right now?!”

[Looking at a menu for dinner.]

Yoo Jaeha, who was crouching on the ground, started to scream.

“What did you say?! He’s thinking about dinner when his team members are on the brink of death?!”

Ilya’s team members started to groan and stand up.

“G……grab those bastards!”

“Modify their memories first!”

“Change their memories of Seo Ju-Heon!”

However…

Craaaaaack!

“Ahhhhh!”

Forget modifying the trio's memories, the trio just stomped on them.

“Wow, these bastards seem to have some nice clothes. Aren't they brand names?”

“Thanks for the clothes.”

The trio even looted them of their clothes.

The enemies who had instantly turned into the victims were flabbergasted.

"W……wait, why is the artifact not working?! Why can't we modify their memories?”

Seol-A sighed after hearing that.

"There’s no need for you guys to know why.”

Seol-A calmly looted their wallets.

"All of our wallets melted in there. We're going to take these to pay for a cab.”

She even took their company credit cards.

The men who had all of their clothes taken except their underwear started to shout and call them thieves.

Yoo Jaeha, who went into a different room for a moment, took something out of his work clothes.

“Hey Seol-A. Catch!”

He threw a letter of resignation at her.

A shocked Seol-A looked at Yoo Jaeha.

“U, umm… Why do you have this?”

Yoo Jaeha responded with venomous intent in his eyes.

“An employee always has a letter of resignation on him!”

He seemed to always carry this with him.

He handed one to Julian as well.

Jaeha really seemed upset this time.

Seol-A was not sure about what to do.

"Wait, a letter of resignation?! Are you crazy?”

"Why not?! He was the one who said he would fire us first! I'm going to quit before he can fire me!”

“Wait, hey! Vice Captain-nim, please try to stop him……”

“It’s a very good idea.”

“Excuse me?!”

Seol-A became flustered but an angry Julian started to draft his letter of resignation as well.

Seol-A's jaw dropped in shock.

“A, are you both really going to leave the Captain-nim?!”

“Are you crazy?! I'm just scaring him. But maybe we’ll get to see the Captain-nim cry and beg us to say now. Right, Kongming?”

“Ho, we are very important people. We would be scouted by numerous teams around the world.”

“Yeah, we went under the Captain-nim way too easily if I'm being honest.”

“Wait, excuse me. Please calm down…”

"Why?! Seol-A, you have issues with the Captain-nim because of Irene. Don’t you?”

"Well, that and this are…….”

Seol-A started to groan and Yoo Jaeha smirked before secretly drafting Seol-A's letter of resignation as well.

They then sent the letters of resignation over with excitement.

"Good, I sent it! He should finally feel our importance.”

“Hey!”

“Ha, Captain-nim. You won't be able to find talented people like us anywhere else…….”

But the response he received was quite the spectacle.

[OK. I’ve accepted all of your resignations.]

[PS. There will be no severance pay.]

‘Huh, huh? T, this wasn’t what I expected?’

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