Chapter 15: Unexpected Reward (1)

Translator: miraclerifle

Abe started to shout with urgency.

“Please let me out! I’ll recommend you to the Japanese government if you let me out!”

“What?”

That was the case.

It wasn’t important whether he liked this guy or not. He needed to find a way to save himself first.

Furthermore, this bastard was someone the Future Diary warned them about. How amazing would such a person be?

They needed to get rid of him.

But this modern man was no idiot. He knew that phrases like ‘the prophecy said he was a bad omen so get rid of him!’ were old fashioned.

So what if he's dangerous?

‘Then it's best if we make him one of our allies.’

Actually, he needed to make that happen. Only then would he be able to cover up the fact that this bastard stole his artifacts and Muramasa.

His superiors were smart enough to show such leniency.

“So 100 million yen!”

“?”

“I lose. You're a really amazing Korean person. If you will use your wisdom for our Japanese excavation team, 100 million yen, no, we can promise you a yearly salary of 1 billion won!”

“Ho, 1 billion won?”

Ju-Heon seemed interested in Abe's offer. However, that made Abe’s expression turned cold.

‘He really is a normal person.’

“Are you interested?”

“Exactly what is it that I'll need to do?”

“Just excavating artifacts from tombs. We'll even let you use the Future Diary if you want.”

Ju-Heon started to frown at that offer.

“You’ll let me use the Future Diary? I thought that artifact was something only it’s master could use.”

“That is true but there is a company that can help us resolve that issue. Anyway, I won’t hold anything back to push you forward. The only condition is that you don't tell other countries about tombs and artifacts.”

“Oho.”

Ju-Heon was quite amused.

“So, you are saying you'll treat me well so team up with the Japanese. However, please don't tell Korea about the artifacts in the process?”

“Exactly.”

That made Ju-Heon who was hanging on the rope start to laugh.

“It's not a bad offer. Let me hear more information.”

Ju-Heon unexpectedly offering his hand made Abe subconsciously start to smile.

‘I can get out of here.’

Abe who was floating up by holding Ju-Heon’s hand started to speak with excitement.

“I was wrong about you, you’re a Korean who has some sense. I'll introduce you to Colonel Mouri as soon as we get out. You're making the right decision.”

"Ah, one thing before that.”

“What?”

“What is the name of the company that is helping the Japanese excavation team? I don’t want to get tangled up with a weird company.”

That was indeed the case. Getting in without knowing anything could make him get tangled up with multi-level organization.

Abe seemed to have noticed as he let out a chuckle.

“Ah, you don't need to worry about that. It is the TKBM Group.”

“Is that so?”

It happened as soon as he said that.

“Huh?

Ju-Heon had let go of Abe's hand without any hesitation.

“Hol......!”

Abe looked toward Ju-Heon in shock. However, Abe instantly fell from the air to the ground.

Boom!

Abe who fell into the crumbling tomb started to scream.

“Aaaah, my legs!”

He had fallen at least 6 meters. The shock from the impact felt as if he had been beaten by a hammer.

‘Damn it, this stupid bastard!’

“Hey! What are you doing, you accidentally let go of me! How can a guy be so weak......huh?”

However, Abe could not help but shake as he looked at the disappearing Ju-Heon's gaze. The way Ju-Heon was glaring at Abe was quite serious.

That was the case.

He had not accidentally let go.

He had let go on purpose!

The proof of that came from the fact that Ju-Heon started to speak while smiling like a sly fox.

“You moron.”

Abe's jaws dropped.

‘T, this son of a bitch!’

Lo and behold, Ju-Heon started to laugh out loud as if this was his plan from the beginning.

“You idiot! Thanks for providing me with useful information! Best of luck getting out on your own!”

Abe who understood the meaning behind those words turned pale. The pain from his broken bones was nothing compared to this shock.

“You, you, what the hell?! Weren’t you going to partner with us? We will give you 100 million yen!”

However, Ju-Heon started to scoff.

“Just 100 million yen?”

His smile was extremely cold.

“Do you want to die? Who is only worth 100 million yen?”

“Hey, but you! Earlier, you!”

“I was never going to join you guys. You are just bastards who are willing to kill people to keep them quiet. You guys are animals that are even worse than the artifacts.”

“Hey!”

The tomb crumbled at that moment.

Abe who realized everything started to dodge the falling stones as he continued to shout.

“W, wait! Are you really going to do this? Are you planning on burying someone alive?!”

All he heard back was a sneering shout

“Who was the one that first talking about killing the rest of us?”

“T, that......!”

“Mouri or Mogi or whatever his name is, I'll make sure to let your superior know. Abe Kyoshi was rushing things in Korea relying just on the seer and ended up dying!”

“Hey, don't be like this, I'm sor......ah! That damn bastard!”

Once Ju-Heon completely disappeared in a moment, Abe’s screaming echoed along with the crumbling tomb.

‘Damn it, to die such a dog’s death, fuck!’

He even teared up as he regretted his actions from today.

Why had he entered into a tomb alone without any fear? Why had he tried to take care of that bastard relying on the Future Diary alone?

He even wondered if things would have been different if he never tried to harm the civilians and had been nicer to that bastard.

He would go back in time by just a few hours if that was possible.

Well, this is probably why it is called regret, as things cannot be reversed.

Boom!

The tomb underground became completely sealed.

Ju-Heon had been able to climb out the hole that was the exit after sending Abe off for good. Abe would probably never see the light of day ever again.

And then...

‘Where is the exit this time?’

He soon saw a male urinal. Ju-Heon started to laugh after realizing where this exit was connected.

“This time the exit is in a restroom.”

First it was a manhole and now it was a restroom. Ju-Heon sighed thinking that he could smell the stench now that he knew where he was. These were the times that made him despise going into the tombs every so often.

‘It was the best when the exit was connected to the women’s bath.’

Of course he had cried because only the elderly were there at the time.

It happened at that moment.

“Please let us in! We want to confirm that it is an exit connected to a tomb!”

“No! this is a restricted area!”

“Ah, please! Let us in!”

Ju-Heon realized it was quite loud outside as he was about to exit out of the restroom.

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

“We are here from KBN!”

“We are here from YTM!”

Ju-Heon sighed after hearing those noises.

‘Ah, they came as expected.’

There were tons of reporters outside the restroom. It would be weirder if reporters did not gather at the scene of an accident.

‘Well, they can’t get in because the tomb is already sealed.’

Ju-Heon debated whether he should use mass communication to reveal the existence of tombs and artifacts for a moment before deciding to hold back.

It was good to spread the information but not at the price of revealing his face.

‘I have no choice.’

He was going to quietly climb out through one of the windows.

However, it was at that moment.

Boom boom boom.

“!”

Muramasa that was in his backpack suddenly started to go wild.

Muramasa started to scream as if it was a maiden in distress being kidnapped by a villain.

Ju-Heon was slightly flustered.

‘This bastard!’

Muramasa must have found it extremely shameful to submit to a bastard who had not passed its test.

Boom boom boom.

It flailed so much that it started to hit the stuff around it. The reporters outside heard the noises.

“Don’t you hear something coming from the restroom?”

‘Damn this bastard!’

Ju-Heon grinded his teeth as he glared at the backpack. However, Muramasa started to flail even more after hearing the people outside, as if he was trying to pull a prank on Ju-Heon.

Boom boom!

“Head inside!”

“Who is in there?!”

‘Tsk.’

The door soon opened and Ju-Heon quickly covered his face with his hood. He then ran out of the restroom.

“Hey, you!”

“Please wait! Hey!”

Ju-Heon did not even look back.

“This damn troublemaker.”

Ju-Heon clicked his tongue after hiding in an empty restroom.

Muramasa was rambling on in some alien language inside the backpack.

He could not understand him, but it was probably protesting about how Ju-Heon had placed it in a backpack.

Ju-Heon covered one of his ears at the constant rambling. Of course, other people would not be able to hear this artifact’s rambling.

Honestly speaking, there was only one chance for a person to hear the voice of an artifact.

It was when the artifact was giving its test.

Just like the mountain spirit snake from last time or Muramasa this time, people could only talk to artifacts when they were trying to complete its test.

However.

‘It really is annoying to be able to hear artifacts.’

Whether it was because of Ju-Heon’s archeology ability from the past or the Tomb Raider skill in the present, he could hear the artifacts.

‘I'm sure I will understand more of what they are saying once my Linguistics skills goes up in rank.’

‘Well, I don’t need this useless ability, I wish all artifacts to just shut up.’

That was Ju-Heon’s thought on this ability.

Ju-Heon seemed to be annoyed at the constant rambling as he took Muramasa out of the backpack and shoved it inside a toilet and flushed.

Muramasa started to scream. Although he didn’t get flushed, the taste of the toilet shower must have been terrible.

Ju-Heon sighed as if he was a bit tired after Muramasa finally quieted down a bit.

It’s only this much because it is a B-Grade(Rare-Grade) artifact, an A-Grade or higher would probably not even listen to me.

Of course, it would work out if he increased his dominance.

The problem was...

“These damn bastards are the reason I have no uninjured spot on my body.”

Ju-Heon pulled up his sleeve to reveal his arm that was covered in an injury that resembled a burn.

‘The cost of forcefully dominating an artifact is quite painful.’

That was the case.

The test needed to be passed in order to earn an artifact.

However, Ju-Heon had completely ignored the test and force it into submission using his dominance. It was because he knew he would die an unnatural death if he showed any openings to an artifact.

Sadly, the cost of such actions was the injury.

Ju-Heon started to frown.

Forcefully dominating artifacts was a must because he knew the future. However, it will be problematic if it was like this in the future.

‘Do I just handle the pain and continue to forcefully dominate the artifacts?’

That was honestly not possible. He was already in quite a lot of pain.

‘It would be fine as long as I can get my hands on a healing artifact, but it is too early for any healing artifacts to show up.’

It must be related to the fact that all artifacts were evil because the necessary healing artifacts all showed up too late. They only showed up after people were already sick.

Anyway, Ju-Heon was not confident that he could continue to pay the price to forcefully dominate an artifact.

He would probably die from a different illness at this rate.

‘Tsk, I don't want to submit to the artifacts though.’

It was at that moment.

An unexpected message appeared in front of the contemplating Ju-Heon.

[You have made it out of the tomb.]

[The delayed reward for completing the < Tomb Raider Basic Skill Awakening > quest is being distributed.]

It was as if someone had expected this situation.