Chapter 127: Recovered memories? (1)
Translator: miraclerifle
“That bastard didn't clear one of the 7 Great Tombs.”
“......Excuse me?!”
Even Irene's eyes opened wide this time. Yoo Jaeha's jaw dropped in shock.
“It’s not one of the 7 Great Tombs? That old fart didn’t clear one of the 7 Great Tombs?”
But the news and Pandora were talking about how the tomb in Syria was the third of the 7 Great Tombs.
In fact, the news was going on about it.
[Jean Richard used his abilities and went into a region of conflict that even Pandora found difficult to enter. He used his abilities to go through the tomb entrance and...]
[He seemed to have used his excellent senses to clear this Tomb...]
[We can now say that the most influential Tomb Excavation teams in the world have now become a total of 15 teams...]
“They’re praising him so much...”
They sounded as if they were at a festival or something. They probably wouldn't even be this happy to find that someone from their country won the Nobel Prize.
Pandora was praising him and so were the western countries.
They all seemed to have been quite angry at the fact that they lost two of the very important 7 Great Tombs to an Asian who made Pandora eat shit. At least that was how the news made it sound.
That was why they were publicizing Excavation team leader Jean Richard so much. There were no other excavation teams that had done what he had done, something about how a genius artist is different from others no matter what he does, they were saying all sorts of positive things about him.
But none of it mattered.
“That tomb is fake.”
It was fake.
Irene and Jaeha were shocked to hear that.
"Then what the hell did Jean Richard clear?”
“A copy tomb that the true tomb created.”
It was a trap to make people eat shit. It was only as difficult as a C-Grade or B-Grade tomb to clear. He had wasted manpower and an astronomical amount of money for such a tomb.
"What a fucking retard.”
"Then what about the artifact he brought out?”
“It’s probably C or B-Grade. They won't know at first because of the trap and because the artifact is cleverly disguising itself.”
“......”
Yoo Jaeha started to sneer in relief.
“Then you mean... That old man... Is acting like that after clearing a fake tomb? He’s going to look so stupid once he finds out!”
“Anyway, the real tomb is farther underground. It’s probably still there.”
Ju-Heon pointed to the map of the tomb that the news was showing.
‘It’s much farther down than that.'
That was the truth.
People had thought they had cleared this tomb in the past as well, but they realized the true tomb was still there once people started to go missing. He had already been thinking about it ever since he came out of the Tomb of Lust.
His roommate, who had been listening to him, urgently asked.
“Then shouldn't you hurry over? What if someone else takes it?”
Ju-Heon didn’t seem to care.
"Just let it be. I'm not going over there.”
“Huh?”
Yoo Jaeha's eyes opened wide.
The greatest under heaven Ju-Heon was giving up on a tomb?
Especially one of the 7 Great Tombs at that? Had he gone crazy?
What was wrong with this artifactphile?
“Ah, Captain-nim, did the Post-coital Tristesse finally arri......ahh!”
“Your problem is that you talk too much.”
Yoo Jaeha groaned after being beaten up again.
Of course, Ju-Heon had a reason he didn’t want to go to the Tomb of Envy.
‘There’s no point to go there.’
It was common for the 7 Great Tombs to be open for a couple of years in his past life.
Why?
It was because they were scary.
The Tomb of < Envy > was one that had a 100% chance of death upon entering.
He didn’t know the reason behind it. Nobody managed to come back alive to talk about it.
They had sent a team to investigate it, but the information they managed to gather from a record-type artifact they got back was that everybody, men and women alike, died once they took a step into the tomb.
The survival rate was 0%.
Cause of death? Unknown.
The Tomb of < Envy > being like this made people become wary of the other 7 Great Tombs as well.
There were some of these tombs that weren't cleared for almost 10 years, and they were the tombs of < Avarice >, < Envy >, and < Pride >.
Well, he ended up putting his life on the line and clearing the Tomb of Avarice to gain the Archaeologist's Artifact.
As for the Tomb of Pride......
After it created a trap so that people couldn't come inside, it started to shout ‘Why are no human bastards coming inside?! Are you all ignoring this great and mighty artifact?!’
And came out on its own huffing and puffing.
Humans told it to come on over to them and easily swept it up.
As for the Tomb of < Envy >?
It stayed inside like a hikikomori before disappearing without anybody being able to clear it. That was why even Ju-Heon didn't know which artifact was inside.
He was curious about what it was and wanted it because there was even a prophecy about how it was an extremely powerful item, but...
‘It’s too dangerous.’
There were over 10,000 people who had died before there was a 30km restricted area order placed.
He also had no information about it.
‘I'd have to be crazy to go in there.’
“I want to go in there as well, but I don't know how. Maybe if there was a way to survive once you went in, but... I'll pass since I don’t know.”
Yoo Jaeha's body started to shake in response. It was a tomb that even Ju-Heon was scared to enter.
‘I won't go even if he told me to come.’
But at that moment...
There was suddenly an earthquake. A message popped up at the same time.
[A cunning someone is attempting an abduction.]
[They are trying to abduct you.]
‘An abduction?’
The desk and cabinets started to shake wildly along with the urgent message.
Boom boom boom!
This was definitely not a natural earthquake. The ground was shaking as if someone was using the ground as a drum.
The vicious aura shooting up from the ground trampled on Ju-Heon's old mansion.
“Kyaaaa!”
“Come here!”
Ju-Heon quickly pulled Irene by the arm and tightly held her in his arms.
Clang clang!
The desk, lamp, decorations, everything fell to the floor.
Ju-Heon then hugged Irene's head as if he was protecting it.
That abnormal earthquake continued for about ten minutes.
[The aura has disappeared.]
[The aura has disappeared.]
Once the terrible pandemonium had passed by...
Ju-Heon stood up once everything became quiet.
“Are you okay?”
Someone started to grumble from underneath the desk after seeing Ju-Heon checking on Irene first.
“Damn it, you bastard......”
His roommate groaned as he crawled out from underneath the desk.
“Take care of me too! You damn bastard!
“But you’re fine.”
"Huh? I was scared to death too!”
Ju-Heon scoffed and looked around.
Now then, there should be one more grumbling person......
“Hmm?”
Ju-Heon's eyes opened wide.
Yoo Jaeha had disappeared.
“!”
The rope and some other artifacts had disappeared as well!
‘Where the hell did they go? Are they hiding?’
No, that wasn’t it. He couldn’t feel the rope’s aura and there was no way that bastard Yoo Jaeha could stay quiet for this long.
‘What the hell happened?’
But at that moment...
[They have been abducted by a hungry panhandling artifact.]
[They’ve been abducted.]
‘Ah, so that’s what happened.’
It seemed Yoo Jaeha who had been restoring the rope and some other artifacts had been abducted by someone.
“Tsk, how dare they abduct my slave bastard.”
No matter what, Jaeha was his subordinate. He could pick on him but he would not forgive anybody else for picking on him.
It was romance if he did it but infidelity if anybody else did it!
As Ju-Heon started to get worried...
Buzzzz.
He received a call. It was from an unexpected person.
[Jean Richard]
“Oh, if it isn’t the man who cleared one of the 7 Great Tombs and became Pandora’s husband. Was it your doing? Huh, you old bastard?”
The person on the phone started to laugh.
[Huh what? Am I an old bastard now too?]
“Enough, just get to the point. Did you abduct my subordinate?”
[......I did, but you sound too calm after what just happened.]
Well, he would have been quite angry if Irene had disappeared, but it was fine since it was that punk Yoo Jaeha.
He should be together with the rope since it disappeared as well.
And their reason for it was obvious.
‘They just want to get their stupid revenge.’
They must have used an artifact that could summon people.
Basically, they sent him flying somewhere in this world.
“So, where did you send him?”
[Even I don’t know that. They could have ended up wherever.]
“Oh.”
[Basically, that means that you've lost your restorer, Seo Ju-Heon. And Pandora has monopolized all the other restorers. You know what I mean right?]
It seemed that they were trying to make it so that Ju-Heon could not use any artifacts because they found it too difficult to stop him.
There were indeed talks about how an artifact user was only at half-strength without a restorer.
‘But that abduction artifact and this method, I've seen it before...’
Someone had used a similar method in the past.
‘Who was it, who was it...’
Ju-Heon debated for a moment before he remembered.
'The Monarch of Fate and the Monarch of Panhandling.’
Australia had lost all their restorers at the two monarch's combination. It was retaliation after they said they would leave Pandora.
The Monarch-Grade users in Australia who had lost their restorers were utterly defeated in a material war and raised the white flag.
Now that the same thing had happened to Ju-Heon, Jean Richard sounded triumphant as if he had won.
[It’ll be difficult for you to excavate tombs now. An artifact’s durability will last a month at max. Anyway, time to talk business.]
"Business?”
[Let’s make a deal.]
“A deal?”
[Hand over your artifacts and your know-how of Tomb Excavation.]
Ju-Heon snorted.
It seemed that these bastards were curious about how Ju-Heon was clearing tombs on his own.
[I'll call that stupid student of mine back if you hand them over.]
‘What the hell is this idiot saying? I can do that much too.’
Ju-Heon wrote something on a piece of paper and showed it to Irene.
[How did it go?]
Irene was looking intensely at Zheng He’s map.
She was using this map-type artifact in Ju-Heon's place to find the missing Yoo Jaeha and Ju-Heon's artifacts.
Irene was shocked by the results.
“Take a look!”
Ju-Heon was shocked while looking at the map as well.
‘Huh? This location is...’
He couldn't help but be shocked.
Yoo Jaeha and the artifacts were located none other than......
‘The inside of the Tomb of Envy?’
They were inside this terrible tomb that he had just talked about!
The same tomb that people died in the moment they entered!
‘Shit.’
Ju-Heon became anxious after seeing that this was the case.
‘Is he dead?’
Ju-Heon tried to summon the rope that was a possession- type artifact but it did not appear.
[It is in an area where you cannot summon it.]
[The attribute of envy that does not like to have things taken away is too strong.]
Those messages just kept popping up.
‘I guess they really are in the Tomb of Envy.’
Richard started to laugh as if he thought Ju-Heon was nervous because of what he told him.
[Now then, why don't we start talking about that deal again...]
It was at that moment.
[Ohhhh! Human! I saw the preview for your new work! When will you release it?!]
‘Huh?’
Ju-Heon's eyes opened wide at Nero who suddenly appeared with sparkling eyes.
‘What does he mean by the prologue for my new work?’
Nero continued to speak while showing him a piece of paper.
[The story seemed quite unique, but when is it releasing?]
Ju-Heon quickly took the paper away from Nero in confusion.
Ju-Heon scoffed as soon as he read it.
‘Would you look at that.’
[Title: Author Seo Ju-Heon's superexpress start!]
[Content: Captain-nim, please save me. My chastity is in danger. This unni is too scary. Look forward to it. The new superexpress female secretary novel will come out soon!]
Just reading it made it sound like a PR stunt with some content from the novel.
However, this post was going viral in the artifact network and reaching the top rankings of most viewed post.
Ju-Heon, the person mentioned in that viral post, asked Nero a question.
"When did this come up?”
[Hmm? Just now. I ran over as soon as I saw it.]
He was certain. This was a message the rope was sending him. It made it look like a PR stunt on purpose to hide the message.
They had used the artifact network to spread Ju-Heon’s novel the first time, so it was using the same method again.
They knew that Nero would go crazy hearing about Ju-Heon's new novel and run over to Ju-Heon to ask about it. That was how they were trying to communicate with him.
And most importantly...
‘These bastards are still alive.’
They were still alive in that impossible to enter Tomb of Envy.
Ju-Heon's mind started to quickly move.
They seemed to be captured in some unique way, but...
‘Either way, that means there is a way to survive inside that tomb.’
It wouldn’t be a problem to loot that tomb if that was the case!
Was that the reason? Ju-Heon's eyes started to sparkle. He then said the following into the phone.
"Thank you.”
[......What?]
“Thank you very much for abducting that bastard of a subordinate.”
[Huh...? W, what did you say?]
"Thanks to you, I think I can clear one of the 7 Great Tombs. Then, goodbye.”
Click.
Ju-Heon rudely hung up the phone.