Chapter 192: Shut up and hand it over (4)

Translator: miraclerifle

It was a piece of paper.

The rope's eyes were sparkling while looking at it as it asked.

[#$&#!]

Is this it, is this it?

Was this the item that could turn it into a human?!

The rope opened the paper with a look full of expectations.

But the rope soon stiffened up.

It made sense since......

[Artifacts are banned from using human transformation artifacts. Those who go against this restriction will be punished. Both the seller and the buyer will be punished.]

It was not the artifact to turn it into a human but an announcement. The worm mischievously smiled at the frozen rope.

[What can I do? I saw that there was such an announcement!]

[.......]

[You know how busy I am. I didn't know we received such notice and agreed to sell you the artifact.]

[..........]

[Ah, I can't give the 100 million dollars back to you. You already paid it. Sorry.]

[.............]

[I really wanted to get the item for you, but what can I do? Orders are orders. I need to survive as well. Ah, should I give you a chocolate bar instead? It’s deli...]

The rope's anger burst out.

[#$#&!]

Shut up and hand it over! Hand it over!

The now violent rope was choking the worm and shaking it around.

Even the innocent rope knew that this bastard worm was trying to scam it.

[#$&$#!]

Hand it over! Hand it over!

The worm that was about to be choked to death started to shout.

[That, what do you expect me to do?! Both you and I are done for if I sell that artifact to you!]

The rope flinched after hearing that.

It didn’t care whether it died but it didn’t want the worm to end up in trouble because of its actions.

[&&#]

...Then I guess I have no choice.

The rope became upset. The worm wickedly smiled thinking that the rope was too innocent.

[Yes, yes, I'm sorry. Ah, since things ended up like this, I’ll give you something else. How about alcohol?]

[#&&*! $]

I don’t need alcohol...

[Give it to Seo Ju-Heon! He likes liquor!]

The rope’s eyes flashed after hearing that.

The rope’s expression had brightened after hearing that Ju-Heon likes it.

The worm was laughing while looking at the happy rope.

‘I sold a 100,000 won whiskey for 100 billion won! This was a totally profitable sale!’

However, at that moment...

[There should be a limit to your scam.]

[?!]

Set had appeared. The worm foamed from the mouth at Set’s appearance.

[C, Commander of the Corps-niiiiiiim!]

[Furthermore, there has never been such an announcement.]

The worm started to cry after seeing Set rip the announcement up.

[C, Commander-nim! This is an obstruction of business......!]

As a result...

[.............]

The rope was extremely angry. The fact that it was holding a rock with its tail made it obvious it would not just let this go.

[N, no... that’s not the case.]

The worm gave up after seeing the angry rope starting to charge toward it.

[Okay, here! This is it! Take you! You punk!]

[!]

The worm threw an item to the rope.

[The Korean wormwood and garlic given by Hwanwoong (SS-Grade:Divine-Grade - Consumable Artifact)]

- Immediate Effect

It was none other than Korean wormwood and garlic!

The rope had seen Irene using it to cook for Ju-Heon.

The worm started to explain.

[You’ll turn into a human if you eat it.]

[............!]

The rope's eyes started to sparkle. It recalled hearing something like this in the past.

It heard a story about a bear that ate these things for 100 days and turned into a human!

[#$&#&!]

Then I just need to eat this for 100 days?

[No? This might not look like much, but it is a Divine-Grade artifact! You just need to eat it once. It will have an immediate effect.]

[!!]

The rope's face lit up after hearing that. It just needed to eat it once to turn into a human!

The rope that was full of expectations was jumping up and down in joy while holding the box.

It was extremely happy. Although these things didn’t look tasty, it just needed to suck it up and eat it once!

‘Finally, I...!’

It could turn into a human like the others that Ju-Heon likes.

It could confidently stand next to Ju-Heon! Daji wouldn’t be able to ignore it anymore! It might even be able to stop being envious of Seol-A and Irene!

The rope's eyes were sparkling as it tried to eat the Korean wormwood and garlic.

It was at that moment.

[.........!]

The rope dropped the item after realizing a shocking fact.

Set tilted its head and observed the rope.

[What is it?]

The rope just plopped down on the ground without caring for Set.

It realized that it didn't have it!

It didn’t have a mouth.

It didn't have a mouth to eat the Korean wormwood and garlic!

“What’s wrong with the rope?”

Ju-Heon was looking at the rope as if something was off as he headed into a nearby hotel.

The rope had been doing weird part-time jobs to gather money for a while. It should normally be looking around to see if there were any jobs to do.

“I don’t know, but it looks very sad.”

The rope that was following behind Ju-Heon would start moving, stop, move, stop, move, stop, until it stopped at a transparent wall to look at its reflection.

The rope then started to sniffle.

[#$$#&!]

Why don’t I have a mouth?! Why not?!

It would actually be weirder if it had a mouth, but...

Anyway, the important thing right now...

‘I can't be with master like this.’

Ju-Heon called the rope that looked depressed.

The rope slowly crawled over like a dog and rubbed its face on Ju-Heon’s leg.

“It really seems depressed.”

It liked being caressed by Ju-Heon, but it looked sad while looking at him.

But at that moment...

Poke poke.

Someone poked the rope.

[Hey. You can have this.]

[!]

Set was the one who was poking the rope.

Set, who was poking the rope with his nose, had something in his mouth.

It looked like a rock at first glance.

[You can turn into a human if you use this.]

[!!!]

Set coolly dropped something on the ground and walked away. It was obvious it ripped the worm to shreds and got this item.

Of course, the worm that had instantly been robbed(?) by Set was probably crying right now saying this item was expensive.

Anyway, it was a different artifact than the Korean wormwood and garlic. It was a different artifact to turn it into a human.

That was why the rope was extremely happy.

[#$#&!]

Thank you. Thank you.

Was it thinking the rope was a cute little sibling for helping him get the best chicken menus?

The rope that had realized that Set was a nice artifact(?) Started to move up and down with joy in front of Ju-Heon.

[#$&*!]

I'm heading out for a bit! I'm heading out for a bit!

It then quickly ran off.

Ju-Heon was relieved to see that it was energetic again, but...

“What’s up with the rope?”

“Who knows?”

As they opened the door to their hotel room and walked in...

“Apparently Chairman Kwon fainted!”

Yoo Jaeha, who was searching something on his phone, urgently ran over.

It was breaking news that Chairman Kwon fainted after realizing the state of things in the world.

“There are a lot of doctors around him, but... The sequelae from being stuck in the coffin is no joke and his artifact's risk is quite severe as well.

“Oho.”

Ju-Heon and Seol-A looked through the article as well.

[Chairman Kwon Tae Joon, who survived for approximately three weeks without any food or water “I survived thanks to my undershirt of immortality.”]

[Extreme hunger. “Looked like a mummy.”]

[He was recovering in the hospital until his artifact’s risk struck, making it impossible to heal him. “In serious condition.”]

[“Suffering from bulimia as a result of the shock from being unable to eat.”]

[The artifact’s risk is making it impossible to inject nutrients and liquids into his body as they are all being expelled.]

[Difficult to heal him with current medical knowledge.]

[TKBM “He needs to be healed with an artifact.”]

[TKBM “We need to find an artifact user with at least an S-Grade healing artifact......”]

[Chairman Kwon's people are planning on meeting with a mysterious doctor who is offering to give them a healing artifact.]

[It is believed to be a woman.]

Chairman Kwon seemed to be in quite the pickle right now. Yoo Jaeha started to wickedly smile while looking at the article.

“Can’t you fix this with the Herb of Eternal Youth?”

He was thinking this was a chance to make a deal with the fruits from the Herb of Eternal Youth.

“The domain is different. What he needs is surgery and not medicine.”

"Aha.”

“Hua Tuo, Hippocrates, Asclepius, Heo Jun, Nightingale. Only people using those kinds of healing artifacts will be able to heal him.”

Ju-Heon then started to laugh.

"But it’ll be difficult to heal this old bastard.”

“Excuse me? Why?”

“Healing artifacts are rare. Since artifacts’ true natures are for killing humans, it would be annoying if there were many artifacts to save humans. There are also only a few healing artifacts that humans can handle.”

“Then......”

“I'll say this. In 15 years.... There will still be less than 10 artifact users who can use S-Grade or higher healing artifacts.”

“What the... that’s even rarer than restorers!”

That was the truth.

And...

‘Most importantly, there should be nobody right now who can use S-Grade or higher healing artifacts.’

Those bastards won't appear until a few years later.

Most of the healing artifacts aside from the Herb of Eternal Youth didn't come out until the mid to late years of the Era of Artifacts.

Most of the healing artifacts available at this time were for simple injuries. There were only a few of them as well.

"Anyway, we shouldn't need to worry......”

It was at that moment.

“No, something annoying might actually happen.”

“Hmm?”

“You see... I think I saw Chloe.”

“What? Are you sure it was Chloe?”

“I think, no... I'm certain.”

Yoo Jaeha sounded excited after hearing a woman’s name.

"Chloe? Who is Chloe? Is she pretty?”

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

“The same Chloe Laurent that I know of?”

“Yes sir.”

"Damn it, who is she? Is she pretty?”

“I was wondering who you were looking for, I guess it was her.”

“I'm sorry... I thought I saw wrong because she was wearing a terrorist outfit...”

‘Terrorist? Did the future change?’

“Anyway, did she have Nightingale's artifact?”

“I don’t know but... She did know how to use healing artifacts.”

Ju-Heon patted the gloomy Seol-A's head.

He then finally called Julian, from whom he had 459 missed calls.

Riiiiiing...

Julian started to scream as soon as he picked up unlike his usual calm self.

- Hey! Seo Ju-Heon! You should have called me to tell me you were alive! I saw in the newspaper that you died from a plane accident and I couldn't contact you. You made me worry...!"

“Ah, get lost, I don’t need you to worry about me. I need you to find someone.”

[You should listen when people are talk......huh? You finally call me and what?!]

"Chloe. Find her.”

[Hey! Chloe or Floe... what? Chloe?!]

“You saw the news about Chairman Kwon, right?”

[Ah, I did see it. But Chloe doesn't awaken as a healing artifact user until much later in the future...]

Ju-Heon started to frown.

“No. It is just my hypothesis, but the female doctor making healing artifacts for the monopolizers might be Chloe.”

[......What? It could be the Monarch of Healing at this time!]

“It's fine if it is the Monarch of Healing as well. I need to meet with that person too anyway.”

Either way, that Chairman would not leave such talent alone. He would use his artifact to keep them as his slave if he had to do so.

‘Just like he did in the past.’

“That’s why you need to quickly find Chloe. It’ll be annoying if Chairman Kwon notices her and she lands in that bastard’s hand first.”

Julian agreed with Ju-Heon.

At the same time...

"Chloe? That's the name of the doctor who is giving healing artifacts to Monarchs?”

Yang Chen's eyes opened wide after hearing his subordinate’s report.

“Either way, you’re sure that she uses an S-Grade healing artifact?”

“Yes sir, I believe she was on the plane with us as well.”

“Fuck.”

"Ah, but there is a problem......”

"A problem?”

“There is a rumor that she is in that NGO......”

“!”

There were a lot of rumors about a mysterious NGO right now. They looked like an organization that did research and healed civilians who had ended up being injured by tombs, but...

The truth was......

‘They are people who oppose artifacts.’

< Anti Terrorists > had started to appear as the number of artifact users using artifact for evil had increased. Basically, they were people who believed that all artifacts and artifact users had to disappear.

In fact, TKBM's excavation team had been attacked by them as well. But this wasn't the time to discuss that right now.

"We need to heal the Chairman-nim. Go find that Chloe woman. Do it now!”

They were TKBM’s excavation team after all. It wouldn't be hard to find a person.

And...

“If that woman was in the plane, she should be in northern Canada right now.”

He quickly called the TKBM employee who was with the passengers.

Around that same time...

[#$&$#!]

The rope that had left with the artifact it had received from Set was looking around with an excited expression.

It seemed to be planning on using the artifact somewhere without Ju-Heon as it didn't know how things would go.

But as it was about to try the artifact...

[#$&!]

No! No!

The artifact Set gave it had slipped out of its grasp.

[#$&*!]

Wow! It’s the outside! It’s the outside!

The stone artifact said that as it jumped and ran away.

The stone then crossed the street. As the rope was whining and chasing after it...

“Is this yours?”

There was a beautiful woman smiling and gently handing the artifact to the sniffling rope.

It was Chloe.