Chapter 354: The dismantling of the strongholds (3)

Translator: miraclerifle

Ilya had to question his hearing for a moment.

‘I'm pretty sure I heard a different voice just now.’

Once he realized that the voice was one he was very familiar with... Ilya felt a terrible fear.

It was like one of those scenes in horror movies. He felt like a character who felt a strong grudge behind him.

Those characters usually feel like they would die if they turn around but still do it anyway and end up dying......

“So you're going to take that for yourself? Then...I guess you're my enemy?”

‘Aww fuck! I shouldn't have looked back!’

Ilya foamed at the mouth and tried to run for his life.

But it didn’t matter.

Bang!

“Aaaaaaaaaak!”

A bookshelf split in half and blocked his path.

Ju-Heon laughed.

“But to aim for one of the Majesty's Treasures, as expected of my subordinate. You got quite the balls.”

Ilya gasped.

‘What did he say? That is one of the Majesty's Treasures? Holy shit! I'm really fucked!’

A desperate Ilya quickly shouted.

“C, Captain! No, y, you see! That's not it!”

He wondered why this guy was here, but he didn't need to ask after seeing Gungnir in his hand. He must have set the target to Ilya and flown over.

Why?

The risk was too much for the current Ju-Heon to set the target as the Akashic records.

It was a Major God-Grade artifact for a reason. Although Gungnir was omnipotent, the risk went up depending on the difficulty of the target.

As long as humans used artifacts, they had to deal with the risks.

‘Well, I do remember hearing that the Majesty can use artifacts without worrying about the risks.’

Anyway, it was fine that Ju-Heon had come to find the Treasure, but...

“Yes, I'm sorry. I do tend to monopolize everything for myself.”

This Captain was trying to kill his team member!

Ju-Heon soon made a comment.

“You guys must have wanted artifacts as well. How could I not have realized that? Fine, I'll give you this artifact.”

“......R, really?”

“Yeah! We’ll follow the proper rules of a tomb!”

Ilya screamed as soon as Ju-Heon said that.

He felt some of the hair on the front of his head being sliced off. His silver hair scattered in the wind.

Ilya started wailing in shock and fear.

“Fuck, I knew it would be like this!”

Furthermore, this was not the way Ju-Heon usually attacked his team members. This was how he moved when he was being serious!

‘Did he just say the proper rules of a tomb?!’

That was referring to a deathmatch where the last man standing took the artifact!

That was probably the reason.

“Captain, joke. It was a joke! You know that! I don’t need the artifact!”

“No. I've been ignoring you guys too much for being my team members. You are all proud excavators. Now that I think about it, I was too rude to you guys in the other tombs.”

“U, umm...!”

“As a token of my apology, I properly request a death match.”

‘No, I don’t need that! It’d be better if you just ignore me!’

It was at that moment.

Bang!

“Get out of there right now!”

The high-ranking clergy rushed into the secret library.

“Where do you think you're entering right now?!”

“Especially you, Ilya! How can a former Vatican priest do such a thing?!”

“Does it feel good to betray your brothers?! You had received a blessing and had even earned the qualifications to be an exorcism priest...! But you threw away your divine purpose!”

"And you stuck with a bastard like Seo Ju-Heon of all people!”

They looked around the area and their eyes flashed.

But at that moment...

"Shut up! I owe the Captain big time! I can't go!”

They heard the noise from a corner. Ilya urgently burst out shouting.

"Fuck, but I want to go back to the Vatican right now!”

“?!”

The priests gasped after hearing a loud explosion. There was an intense flame that shot out from where Ilya had jumped out.

Baaaaaang!

“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The heat was unbearable. Ju-Heon's eyes flashed as he leisurely walked out with that fire behind him.

His gaze headed toward the Cardinal and the Bishops.

“Oh, there are more competitors now? I guess good artifacts really are different.”

“Eek......!”

The terrible screams of the priests soon echoed through the area.

While all of that chaos was going on...

[Aaaaaaaaaaaah!]

Jaeha was shaking in fear while hearing the screams on the phone.

His call with Ilya had not been disconnected.

‘I can tell what is going on even without asking.’

He couldn’t even hear Ilya, who had aimed(?) for Ju-Heon's Treasure. He couldn’t hear Ilya’s voice after a terrible scream, so Ilya probably was not okay.

‘This pitiful and stupid bastard.’

“Who told you to aim for the Akashic records of all things? It’s one of the Majesty's Treasures.”

“But I didn’t know that Ilya used to be a priest for the Vatican.”

“That’s true.”

Who would ever think that the bastard was a priest? He didn't have an ounce of religious belief and he handled devils.

“Only the Captain-nim knows what everybody did before joining the team.”

That was true. They made their rules to not ask each other about their pasts or try to find out.

“But for a priest to handle devils, what kind of shitty Fit is that?”

But Seol-A had a different thought.

“Isn't that why his Fit is so high? He would have been close to devils if he was an exorcism priest.”

“What exactly is an exorcism priest? Is it like in the Exorcist? Did he chant some things and spray holy water on people possessed by evil spirits?”

“Anyway, now I understand why the Captain-nim always says that the son of a bitch has a lot of negative karma. If you think about it, that son of a bitch was a priest but had a girlfriend.”

Jaeha was saying that that was completely immoral as he wickedly added on.

“And that guy looks like a total playboy but he might still be a virgin. He was a priest. That girlfriend might not be real too.”

Jaeha chuckled in joy.

He probably felt that he won(?) because he once had a girlfriend.

But Seol-A was thinking that it wasn't a complete lie.

Why?

‘He doesn’t know it but the conditions for handling devils is probably something like that.’

The conditions for her to handle ghosts was to see a close family member die or to experience a near-death experience.

It was at that moment.

“Oh my, I guess we are the last ones.”

Chloe and Dan arrived to meet up with the rest of the team. Their hands were full of items the others had never seen before.

These were all new evidence they had swiped from Pandora.

What had they been up to? While Ju-Heon was at the Vatican, the rest of the team members had received orders to loot other Pandora facilities.

‘It is to completely dismantle Pandora.’

It was an era where people without artifacts ended up as stragglers. They were going to completely destroy the foundation that the monopolizers, the people who were responsible for making the regular people suffer, relied on to do their bad deeds.

Of course, attacking Pandora facilities was something they couldn't even imagine until now.

But things were different now. Everything Ju-Heon had done until now, the fact that they were all Monarchs now, and the keys that Joy had made for them... Changing the future little by little had made the impossible become possible.

And today, in this moment...

‘The monopolizer system that existed in the past will be completely dismantled.’

All of their eyes were sparkling.

It was as they had expected.

[Pandora knew about the existence of artifacts long before they admitted to it.]

[They were researching things before artifacts first appeared.]

[A report about the existence of artifacts has been found. “It is from 15 years ago.”]

[They've known about the existence of tomb syndrome for over ten years as well...]

[Who all knew about this?]

[Their supposed reason they kept the existence of artifacts a secret? “We didn't want to cause chaos in society.”]

[However, a letter sent to a general in the past shows that they were lying. “Announcing it will only increase the number of competitors.”

“There will be less competitors if people cannot prepare for tomb syndrome.”]

"What is all this?!”

“Why do these articles keep popping up?!”

It was quite the shitshow. Where were these documents that even they had forgotten about coming from?

They all shouted in anger.

“Fuck, how do these bastards know where to loot?!”

"Anyway, claim that these are all forged documents! Say that these are fakes made by the Monarch of Pushoverness!”

“Do you think they will believe us right now?”

Pandora was in uproar.

Information like this was not something people could find overnight.

“I'm certain of it. Someone must have sold us out.”

“But who......?!”

But at that moment...

“Who else would it be? It was me.”

“!”

At the Pandora HQ where everybody was busier than ever...

A familiar person appeared in front of the Round Table artifact at the Druid’s Clocktower.

“You are?!”

The person who appeared at the Round Table was actually Kwon Hyuk Soo. He was a member of the Round Table.

Pandora’s Executive Board smiled brightly at his appearance.

“Thank goodness you're here! Please help us resolve this situation! Every second counts!”

Kwon Hyuk Soo patted the Round Table artifact with seats for 150 people as he laughed.

“Sorry, but Pandora has no merits whatsoever anymore.”

"What?!”

“I never liked you guys from the beginning. Regular bastards who weren’t even Monarchs playing god because they had power. You guys pretty much get immortality for free.”

137 people could sit at the Round Table along with the 13 Knights of the Round Table. Anybody who has a seat at this table would be able to live peacefully without getting sick.

It wasn't as good as an Immortality artifact, the Herb of Eternal Youth artifact, or Divine-Grade artifacts, but still...

They were able to get the benefits of multiple artifacts without doing anything. Their physical appearance would get better, they would live long lives, their health and even their sexual stamina would go up...!

Famous people, rich people, and government leaders throughout the world were doing anything and everything to be a member of the Round Table.

“I didn't like seeing pigs who couldn't even use C-Grade artifacts use their money to get a position here and look down on the Monarchs.”

He thought that they should know their place.

“Who is going to select whom? You guys are going to select the Majesty?”

Kwon Hyuk Soo, a man at the Four Emperors-Grace, started laughing. The members of the Round Table... Pandora's Executive Board members became anxious after seeing his scary gaze.

“Hey, why are you acting like this? Aren’t we fellow members of the Round Table?”

Kwon Hyuk Soo started to laugh out loud.

The reason he had been helping the Round Table was to gain benefits with artifacts.

He could have become the Majesty to gain the benefits but that was pretty much committing suicide.

Why?

‘Artifacts hate having a Human King.’

He had heard that the last Majesty had been murdered by the artifacts. That strong King of the Artifacts had been murdered.

Kwon Hyuk Soo didn't want to experience something like that. That was why he was helping Pandora while picking up the benefits that fell to his lap like candy. No matter what, Pandora had an artifact Supreme Leader like Prometheus as well.

But things were different now. Prometheus was dead and...

“Ju-Heon is different.”

The artifacts were scared of Ju-Heon. And unlike the past, he had the abilities to back it up as well. It was a risk worth taking.

He might be able to earn some benefits from Ju-Heon once he became the Majesty if he stayed on Ju-Heon's good side.

“That is why Pandora is useless now.”

The veins on the faces of the executives were visible as they shouted in anger.

“Immediately! Remove this bastard from the Round Table immediately!”

“Do whatever you want. I don't really care about the Round Table.”

“Ho!”

Their eyes were open wide with anger.

“Kwon Hyuk Soo! Do you really think that you bastards would be able to bring us down?! No matter how much you dogs and pigs cause a ruckus, we are immortal as long as we are sitting at the Round Table. You can’t do shit!”

“We will make a comeback really soon!”

“People will realize that they cannot do anything to immortals!”

Kwon Hyuk Soo laughed while picking up his belongings from the Round Table. It was candy he enjoyed eating.

“Your fancy Round Table artifact might become useless soon too.”

The Akashic records.

It was the Grand Library with records of humans, artifacts, and everything in the world.

Most importantly, the Akashic records could be used to change a person's past, personality, and even abilities. It was the same for artifacts as well.

“I pray that the Round Table can maintain its function.”

That artifact was the greatest artifact. That artifact could probably change not just an artifact’s abilities, but get rid of its risks as well.

Ju-Heon would be unstoppable if he could handle that artifact.

Around that same time...

“Ah, I'm done organizing things.”

Ju-Heon, who had caused a rampage in the secret library, was brushing his hands off.

He had gotten rid of all of the priests trying to kill them and Ilya was dying in a corner as well.

“U, ugh......!”

‘So this is what it feels like to taste blood.’

Ilya had not tasted blood like this in a long time. He was extremely thankful that Ju-Heon wasn’t really serious when attacking his team members.

Ju-Heon looked around the library before heading toward a shining artifact.

It was a sparkling book on a bookshelf.

‘Is this the Akashic records?’

This secret library seemed too small of a place for it to lay its roots, but......

It didn’t matter.

‘Time to contract it.’

A message popped up once Ju-Heon channeled his strong Dominance.