‘Did the Monarch of Evangelism steal it from this bastard?’

No, that wasn’t it.

The Monarch of Evangelism was someone who had received an artifact right from the beginning similar to Chairman Kwon. He did not steal it from anyone nor have it stolen.

‘Then did the future change a bit?’

Ju-Heon shamelessly smiled.

Now it made sense. This was why he didn't remember an ability user at Austin’s level.

Did a bastard like this who wasn’t in his memories appear because the future changed?

It was possible since he returned to the past and caused a shitshow, no no, slowly changed the future. It was obvious that the future would change if the past changed.

Ju-Heon had seen some precursors of that being the case already.

‘I'm already checking the news and the stock market frequently.’

The bigger things were going as Ju-Heon remembered but there were quite a lot of things that were changing as well.

But he was not very scared.

‘It’s not like I got Chairman Kwon to the top in the past because I could see the future.’

The only issue with the future changing was that he might suddenly run into an unexpected danger. That was especially true because Ju-Heon was aiming for a higher spot than in the past.

‘Irene and Edward are fine because they had artifacts from the beginning.’

As for Yoo Jaeha, he just needed to get him Leonardo da Vinci's artifact that he used in the past. Ju-Heon had those thoughts before looking at Austin Rockefeller in front of him.

“But your artifact is first.”

‘Damn, for it to be The Avesta of Zoroastrianism (Sacred Text)!’

Ju-Heon started to laugh.

He didn’t expect such an opportunity to come to him with the future changing. He felt extremely lucky!

There were only 15 monopolizers, the Monarch-grade majesties in the entire world!

The Four Emperors were the ones among the majesties with the most artifacts and strongest power.

Keira, the Monarch of War; Kwon Tae Joon, the Monarch of Conquest; the third was a crazy lunatic; and the final one was the Monarch of Evangelism who used to have The Avesta of Zoroastrianism in front of him right now.

‘This is an extremely useful artifact.’

Why?

Do you know the power of religion and its believers?

The Monarch of Evangelism had used the fact that he was an Islamic believer to get over 1.5 billion Islamic believers to be his congregation.

Basically, all artifacts those people found were delivered to the Monarch of Evangelism.

He was overgeared thanks to this large number of people!

His troops would overwhelm the enemies with an overbearing amount of supplies!

‘There’s another reason he ended up one of the Four Emperors.’

There was more.

‘Supplies are critical to gain artifacts.’

Excavations required significant manpower.

You needed to enter with a large number of artifacts to clear the tests of the tombs that people could never know before entering and the monopolizers couldn’t even go into the tombs because they cherished their lives so much.

Of course, he had swept a tomb on his own.

That was why he wouldn’t do a shitty thing like gathering people and throwing them into a tomb, but there were a lot of things he could do with a higher headcount.

For example…

‘I can use that for viral marketing (word of mouth marketing, larger numbers are advantageous).’

Ju-Heon was thinking about using this holy religious leader’s artifact for something like marketing, but he was a shameless person.

“Alright, so hand it over. That thing.”

Austin Rockefeller scoffed after seeing Ju-Heon who was wearing a nice suit pound his fists together.

“He’s a wicked thief!”

“Shut up. Are you going to hand it over or not?”

Ju-Heon smiled and the rope that had jumped out after smelling the scent of battle threatened Austin from behind Ju-Heon as well.

[#

$#

$!]

‘Raaaaawr, my master said hand it over! He said hand it over!’

It seemed to want to look scary as it was squirming like an anaconda.

Unfortunately, it was just a rope no matter how hard it tried.

However, it was at that moment.

“You want me to hand this over? You really think I would do that, you dumbass?!”

The women around them started to charge at Ju-Heon as soon as Austin scoffed.

“Ugh!”

The women in dresses hung onto Ju-Heon's arms and legs as they growled at him.

“What are you doing to Austin!”

“That’s our idol!”

"We won't let you harm him!”

It was not just one or two people, the numerous people inside the party hall were baring their teeth at Ju-Heon. The party hall couldn't help but turn into pandemonium almost instantly. Ju-Heon whose arms and legs were being held down by the women started to frown.

‘Hypnosis?’

No, it was not hypnosis.

However, Ju-Heon had seen this crazed look somewhere before.

Yes, it was…

‘At an idol concert hall.’

That was it.

The numerous people inside the party hall all started to praise Austin. There was a higher number of women but even the men were praising Austin.

They then started to steal artifacts from the artifact users inside the party hall. Even Chairman Kwon, Richard, and other Monarch-Grade and Expert-Grade users were affected by this.

A message window popped up as Ju-Heon wondered what it could be.

[The Avesta owner’s fame and popularity have made people become fanatical and become his believers.]

[The Avesta owner’s religious leader abilities are rising.]

[The religious leader's shouts will increase the religious fanatics’ powers by 10%.]

[They are starting to steal artifacts from the nonbelievers.]

Ju-Heon scoffed as the women slowly became stronger.

He was thinking it was unfamiliar as it was being activated differently than he remembered.

‘This bastard was using this holy sacred text like this.’

As mentioned, he had so easily turned the people in the party hall into his religious fanatics. Austin seemed to be some crappy bestseller novel, famous singer, actor or whatever.

As Ju-Heon shook his head in disbelief and was about to push the women away…

“Aaaaaaaaaah! What are you trying to do to our precious writer-nim!”

Yoo Jaeha was almost crying as he jumped on Ju-Heon’s back.

“!”

Ju-Heon looked at him in shock but Yoo Jaeha became angry as if he was a soldier who had gone crazy while looking at a girl group.

“You bastard! Rockefeller writer-nim needs to write the sequel to < Clandestine Housekeeper >! Don't touch him! You damn artifactphile!”

The veins on Ju-Heon’s head started to pop out.

‘This stupid moron.’

Pow!

Ju-Heon's steel-like fists ruthlessly punched Yoo Jaeha's face. His wide movements made the women hanging on him fall off as Ju-Heon continued to punch the dazed Jaeha with his fists of punishment.

“U, ugh!”

Yoo Jaeha was clutching his stomach and groaning at the unbearable pain but he seemed to have snapped out of it unlike the others.

“Ugh…ugh… My writer-nim…”

"Are you still out of it? Do I need to give you some more mental training?”

“N…no, I'm good sir!”

"And what did you say? Artifactphile?”

“Wait, that’s tru… N, no, I mean, Captain-nim! I've committed a terrible sin!”

That was how it was.

Rockefeller was a prominent figure in the literary, music, and film world whether that was thanks to using an artifact or through his own abilities. And that was just part of his evangelism to use the Avesta.

He was raising people’s awareness of him to create fans and turning those fans into believers!

All those who become his fan would end up his prisoners.

Rather than calling it mind control, it was using the believers’ burning devotion, faith, and affection to make them only do the religious leader’s biddings.

It relied purely on fanship and had nothing to do with Dominance, which was why even the Monarch-Grade users were easily swayed.

But even if that was the case…

‘How dare my subordinate praise someone else.’

It did not feel good.

That was why Ju-Heon looked at Austin and took out a scary sword thinking he was going to not think about mental training this time.

“I’ve made up my mind. I will let you feel the terror of losing your neck.”

Austin Rockefeller scoffed in disbelief.

"A bastard without a Divine-Grade artifact is going to do that to me? Is a dog bark…”

But as he was saying that…

“!”

Austin got the chills looking at the sword pointed at him. Ju-Heon who had been 20m away had instantly appeared in front of him.

Ju-Heon was looking at him with a frightening gaze as he held the sword at Austin's neck.

‘T, this bastard.’

And at that moment…

Ju-Heon smiled viciously as the sharp sword shined in the air.

“Gasp!”

The sword that shot up from the bottom then slashed Austin's neck.

“Aaaah!”

Austin had clearly felt it.

He felt the terrible sensation of the sword cutting through his skin and breaking his neck bones!

He had clearly seen it as well.

He had seen his body fall to the ground while spurting blood!

Austin screamed at the terrible sight of his neck separating from his body.

However, at that moment…

“Gasp!”

He snapped out of it.

‘Was it an illusion?’

He opened his eyes to see Ju-Heon standing at a distance smiling with Hwarang’s Sword across his shoulder.

Hwarang's Sword was the artifact of warriors who blazed past death on the battlefield and could cause the enemy to see an illusion of their death if the sword’s abilities were used at a high level.

However, that wasn't important to Austin right now.

The thing in one of his hands is!

‘My Avesta!’

It was the book artifact that had been in his hand.

‘That bastard!”

Austin tried to jump up but ended up vomiting after feeling nauseous.

[The other party's Dominance has been severely shaken.]

Ju-Heon laughed out loud after seeing that.

“Thanks for the Avesta.”

However…

[This artifact cannot be used as it is a Possession-type artifact that still has an owner.]

[You must lower the opponent’s Dominance even more.]

Ju-Heon looked toward Austin at this unexpected situation.

It made sense as most humans would not be able to maintain their clarity after experiencing their death.

The fear of death was the scariest thing for humans. It was obvious that Dominance that was called mental fortitude would be strongly shaken.

Then his contract with the possession-type artifact should have been released.

‘His mental fortitude is quite strong.’

Ju-Heon was not a thoughtless fool who would shed blood in front of so many people. That was why he was trying to take it using a different method, but…

Austin Rockefeller soon wiped his mouth and channeled his Dominance.

“Return! Aves….!”

It was possible to summon possession-type artifacts.

That was why he was trying to call back the item Ju-Heon took, but at that moment!

“Ugh!”

He didn't know when it appeared, but the rope was choking Rockefeller's neck.

[#

$#

$&*!]

Don't bother my master! Don’t bother him!

Rockefeller couldn't help but foam at the mouth and cough as it choked his neck like an anaconda.

“Uggggggh! This rope…bastard! Ugh!”

The reaction came quickly as he started to lack oxygen in his brain.

[The opponent’s Dominance is falling.]

[The opponent’s Dominance is falling.]

[The opponent’s Dominance is falling to A-Grade.]

[The opponent’s Dominance is falling.]

[The opponent’s Dominance is falling.]

[The opponent’s Dominance has fallen to B-Grade.]

[The opponent's contract with the Avesta is about to be released.]

Ju-Heon's expression brightened after seeing that.

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter