“Please follow me.”

Ju-Heon said that before going to receive the items they won in the auction.

He then took Irene to the auction house’s cocktail bar.

‘Now I just need to take the Monarch of Destitution's artifact.’

The artifacts continued to complain but that was none of Ju-Heon’s business.

[Your tolerance is increasing.]

[Your tolerance is increasing.]

The results were great for him.

The people around the bar all stared at them once Ju-Heon and Irene sat down. It was only natural since Irene’s beauty stood out no matter where she went.

That made people interested in Ju-Heon who was with her as well, but Irene was the Monarch of Destitution.

Maybe that was the reason, but Ju-Heon who had no desire to prolong the conversation got right to the point.

“I will be honest with you.”

“Excuse me?”

“You said you want to buy my luck but I have no plans on selling my luck to you.”

“E, excuse me?”

“No, I think it is more accurate to say that I don't have the item you are looking for.”

That was the truth.

Irene's Destitution ability was not something a lucky artifact would be able to handle.

He could give the gold axe to her, but it was only a B-Grade artifact.

It would be sad to hand over an artifact, but the more important point was that the gold axe would be destroyed in front of the Monarch of Destitution’s artifact.

That was why his answer was simple.

“I have nothing to give you.”

Irene was shocked at Ju-Heon’s brazen attitude.

She had purchased the Herb of Eternal Youth because she trusted him but what was he saying?!

“Saying that you have nothing to give me……then did you scam me……?!”

“No.”

Ju-Heon was smiling.

“There is definitely a way for you to get your luck back.”

“!”

“It will be resolved if you hand something in your possession over to me.”

That was the case. Irene was unlucky because of the artifact of destitution.

Then there was a simple solution.

She just had to hand over her artifact.

‘Then it's a win-win for both of us.’

“Don't tell me you don't have it. I'm sure there is a suspicious item that is following you around. Please give me that item. Then your misfortunes will disappear.”

The artifact of destitution that scared even the monopolizers was quite tempting.

‘Irene would be out of her misery and I would earn an artifact.’

Ju-Heon's gaze looked greedy. However, Irene gave an unexpected response.

“I wish I could give it to you, but there are no suspicious items following me around.”

Ju-Heon clicked his tongue as if he was annoyed.

“Then get rid of everything around you. There’s going to be something that keeps popping up even if you throw everything away.”

“I already tried doing that! But the misfortunes keep continuing……!”

Ju-Heon started to frown.

‘There’s no item following her?’

What could be going on? There was no way that was the case.

Ju-Heon debated for a moment before saying something.

“Take off your clothes.”

Irene blankly stared at Ju-Heon for a moment.

“E, excuse me?”

“Take off the rags your wearing.”

Irene peeked down at her clothes.

All Irene was wearing right now was a low-cut evening dress that barely covered her body.

Calling this fancy dress a rag was one thing, but telling her to take it off…

Irene would basically be naked without this dress. She looked toward Ju-Heon in shock.

“U, umm, wait……”

Ju-Heon went, ‘ah’ and added on in a tired voice.

“I'm not interested in your body so stop making weird assumptions.”

“……?”

Ju-Heon was not interested in Irene’s body at all.

He was interested in a woman’s body, but he was selective about his partner.

‘I've seen too many guys who fell for the Monarch of Destitution and ended up in ruins.’

Ju-Heon knew this well, which was why he explained himself.

“I'm sure it’s somewhere on your body. There’s a tattoo that appeared along with the misfortune.”

“Tattoo……”

The suspicious tattoo had been on Sasaki’s arm as well.

Artifacts are divided into < Possession > and < Consumable >, with the tattoos being unique to the < Possession > artifacts. They didn't have durability like the < Consumable > artifacts, but they were items that could only be used by the contracted user.

Ju-Heon knew that most monopolizers had possession type artifacts.

Ju-Heon started to frown after seeing Irene hesitate after hearing the word, ‘tattoo.’

“Why? Do you not have one?”

“N, no! I do. ……It’s by my breasts.”

She lowered her voice and took out her phone. She hesitated for a moment but soon shook her head.

‘Mr. Ju-Heon is the only one I can rely on now.’

She showed him a picture of her naked body that she had only shown female doctors before. Unfortunately, her breasts were not clearly visible, but it was there.

The Toombglyph that nobody else could read was under her breast.

However, Ju-Heon started to grind his teeth after he decoded the Toombglyph.

‘Damn it. No wonder there’s no item following her around!’

That was the case.

Irene’s artifact was a < Parasite > type artifact that lived inside the body.

An example of the parasite type artifact would be the clairvoyance artifact that takes control of your eye.

It was an extremely rare type of artifact.

‘I didn't expect there to be another one other than Chairman Kwon’s.’

Ju-Heon clicked his tongue as if he did not expect this.

‘What a mess. You can’t easily remove the parasitic artifacts.’

Why?

He would need to cut through Irene's body to take out a parasitic artifact.

In simple terms, it was not something she could destroy her contract and hand over to him easily.

He had no plans on taking it, but there was no sane person who would let someone else cut through their body.

‘Then I need to change my plan.’

Ju-Heon had thought the artifact of destitution would be something like Eris's Golden Apple.

But it was a parasitic artifact related to wealth?

Ju-Heon's eyes sparkled with anticipation.

‘Is it perhaps the Hand of Midas?’

It was the hand from Greek mythology where everything Midas touched turned to gold.

He had no way to be certain.

If that was the truth, this woman should be called the Monarch of Wealth instead of the Monarch of Destitution.

However, this was a big deal if he was correct.

The Hand of Midas that was said to turn everything it touched into gold. It was an ability that represented significant wealth and luck.

‘The only thing I'm certain of right now is that it would be a shame to end our meeting here.’

After thinking about it, partnering with Irene was better than taking the artifact from her.

‘Since it is parasitic, she may be able to draw out its strengths better than I can.’

Irene’s artifact had the con of putting everyone around her into misfortune and he also had no certainty that he could dominate a Divine-Grade artifact with his current strength.

Irene became desperate seeing Ju-Heon deep in thought as she had no idea what he was thinking.

“Umm, is it very difficult? You don't need to return the almond tree to me. Please help me.”

Irene grabbed Ju-Heon's hand in desperation and Ju-Heon started to smile as if he came up with a good idea.

‘Yes. It’s better to have some super rich people owe me a favor.’

That would be beneficial to Ju-Heon in many ways in the future. That was why he shamelessly started to trick Irene.

“Please don’t worry. I'm an archaeologist who collects and research those artifacts. I will contact you when I find a way to cure you.”

“R, really?”

Ju-Heon handed her his number and smiled.

“I don't tell lies.”

Irene Holten.

This woman was someone who would be extremely helpful as Ju-Heon became one of the new monopolizers.

‘I'm now connected to the Monarch of Destitution.’

He never expected to become connected to the goddess of disaster whom even the monopolizers feared like this.

Ju-Heon was smiling internally as he said goodbye to Irene and headed back to the auction house.

‘Now that I have everything I need, let’s leave.’

The Oh Seung Woo group was smiling as they came over toward Ju-Heon at that moment.

“Ju-Heon! Tada! Look at this! We brought a ton of them because they said it was a souvenir!”

They had six bottles of 1 million dollar whiskey that the auction house was giving out as souvenirs in their inner pocket.

“They said it’s free! They told us to take all of it!”

“An auction for the wealthy is really different!”

They were smiling giddily while saying that they grabbed some for Ju-Heon as well. However, Ju-Heon didn’t care and clicked his tongue.

“Shut up and let’s go. There’s no benefit to staying here any longer.”

He actually had an ominous feeling. The way that he was feeling a prickling aura made him feel as if he might get dragged into a Tomb Appearance at any moment.

However, the Oh Seung Woo group who had no way of knowing that were shocked.

“What? Why?! Why are we already leaving when they are having an after party after this?”

“They said there will be beauties there!”

They grumbled but Ju-Heon who did not want to explain was stern.

“We didn't come here to enjoy a party. Do as you're told.”

“Damn it! I don’t want to…!”

“Come on Ju-Heon, don't be like that, let's stay a little longer. Please?”

Ju-Heon started to frown.

‘These bastards truly are problems.’

Why?

The problem was that they were trying to be at the same level as him.

He was temporarily bossing them around because it was annoying to find new people and they were useful in different ways, but if it is going to be like this…

‘It’ll get even more annoying later if I don't thoroughly show them who is the boss right now.’

Of course, he was not someone who liked the old-fashioned style of hierarchy or authoritarianism, but he could not forget that he was in a world where he could lose his life at any moment.

‘An uncertain superior-subordinate relationship in such a dangerous world would only bring forth dangerous results.’

So he needed to do something about it.

‘Proper discipline training.’

Either that, or a test.

Ju-Heon smirked while looking at the time.

‘I have some time.’

Was it because he had such a thought?

Ju-Heon handed them the key to his item locker.

“You guys. Go get my stuff as well while you're at it.”

“When you say your stuff do you mean the 200 million you left with the front desk?”

“Correct.”

Ju-Heon had given the entrance fee of 100 million and left the 200 million in reserve with Midas. That would be the disciplinary training and a good test for them.

“Come back quickly.”

Ju-Heon said that before slipping the bracelet-shaped rope artifact into Oh Seung Woo’s suit pocket.

His hands moved as if it was a ghost’s hand that the clueless Oh Seung Woo group did not notice it.

“Damn it, Ju-Heon that damn bastard.”

The Oh Seung Woo group were making duck faces right now.

They did get Ju-Heon's stuff like he told them to, but…

“Are we his servants or something?!”

“That damn child doesn't know what a social hierarchy is!”

“We’re at max at the same level as each other if anything!”

The Oh Seung Woo group had picked on Ju-Heon but never hated him. The one who hated Ju-Heon was Park Kyung Tae and they just did as their hyung-nim and noonim told them to do.

But for some reason, they were grinding their teeth toward Ju-Heon right now.

It was because of the rope artifact in his pocket.

The aura coming out of artifacts always touched human nature for destruction and people like them whose dominance level was weak could not help but easily be twisted because of it.

“Ow! So annoying!”

“Damn it, how do make him eat shit?”

“How can we do that? The three of us together still can't take him down!”

It was at that moment.

[It's easy, just take his money and run.]

[Human, show your true instincts now! Hurry! I will help you!]

The rope artifact got excited and started to tempt the Oh Seung Woo group as soon as Ju-Heon disappeared.

It was even saying it would help them. This was not normal.

And lo and behold.

Oh Seung Woo's dongsaengs’ eyes changed for a moment after being affected by the artifact's aura.

“Hyu, hyung-nim.”

“Hmm?”

“There were 200 million in this bag, right?”

“Y, yes?”

“How much is it per person if we divide the 200 million into three?”

“Probably a little less than 70 million won each.”

“Isn’t that enough to live a good life?”

“W, what?”

They gulped at that moment. For people like them who barely earned 800,000 won a month, millions of won was a significantly large amount.

“Won’t this be enough to at least open a small franchise cafe?”

Their hands started to shake.

“Hyu, hyung.”

Then Oh Seung Woo whose eyes looked dazed started to smile.

“S, should we make a run for it?”

“B, but!”

“Hyu, hyung! Do you think we can run away from Ju-Heon?”

The rope that was slowly climbing out of Oh Seung Woo’s suit pocket excitedly started to send signals to them.

[Yes human! Run! That guy only has two legs too!]

They started to speak as if they were influenced by the artifact.

“That’s right. He's only human and has two feet. He’ll be slower than us if we run for our lives……”

However, at that moment…

“Then do you guys have four legs or something?”

They heard a chilling laughter.

“?!”

The voice seemed to have expected this situation.

They, as well as the rope that had been tempting the humans fell to the ground in shock.

Standing behind them was Ju-Heon who was smiling cruelly as if he found this situation to be entertaining.

“What are you guys doing without me?”

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