Tomb Raider King

Abe was shocked after hearing Ju-Heon’s comments.

He was not very happy to be here in the first place because of a prophecy.

The prophecies told to them by that stupid thug was annoying, he had no idea who the Korean person that took the < Gold axe Silver axe > was, and now there was an annoying Korean in front of him.

Ju-Heon just ended up the target as a result of all of those things. He said what was on his mind, thinking that there was no way a Korean person would understand Japanese.

But what did this person say?

“N, Nippo?”

Furthermore, Ju-Heon’s Japanese was fluent. Listening to his enunciation would make people mistake him as a native. However, there were no Japanese people who would use such derogatory term toward their own.

That was why Abe who had been confused for a moment said the following.

“Hold on. You're Korean, right?”

Ju-Heon just scoffed at that question.

‘Am I Korean?’

“Can't you tell? Hey moron, are your eyes just for show?”
“W, what?”

Ju-Heon was speaking in Korean this time. Ju-Heon grabbed a can of beer and passed it back and forth between his hands before heading to the register.

“You must be as blind as a bat.”
“Ho.”

Abe let out a scoff. He was not used to the Korean words Ju-Heon was using, but he could not believe it.

It made sense. Although he could not understand completely, he could tell the following.

‘This bastard is mocking me right now!’

“Hey! Stop right there!”

Abe followed Ju-Heon but Ju-Heon pretended not to hear him.

Honestly speaking, Ju-Heon didn’t have any negative feelings toward the Japanese people nor did he hate them. In fact, he had worked with a Japanese person before, and it was always just a small minority that caused the issues. It was always the stupid bastards like Abe here.

That was why he would not care about a bastard like this who used derogatory terms at the level of chink or nippo toward Koreans if he was not part of the Japanese excavation team.

However.

‘The fact that this bastard is here means that a tomb will appear here.’

He probably came here after hearing a prophecy. This bastard wasn’t the type to tour around for no reason. Ju-Heon smiled after having that thought. This bastard helped him become certain about things he had not for sure.

That wasn’t the only thing.

‘This stupid idiot. He's carrying artifacts around so openly!’

Ju-Heon was laughing on the inside.

Abe seemed to have hidden them as best as he could, but Ju-Heon could feel the artifacts on him.

It was because of the aura, energy that artifacts released. That was why Ju-Heon could not help but find it to be funny.

‘This idiot isn’t even hiding the artifacts’ auras.’

People with artifacts became targets. This was the reason all veterans knew they must dominate their artifacts and make them hide their aura. However, Abe had only physically hidden the items and left their aura as is. A good comparison to this would be walking around holding 10 million won in cash in front of a pickpocket.

The only disappointing thing was that Ju-Heon could not confirm what artifacts Abe had in his possession.

‘I would be able to tell if I had an x-ray vision artifact.’

Ju-Heon was shaking the can of beer he purchased as he left the convenience store. Abe who chased after Ju-Heon did not know anything as he grabbed Ju-Heon’s shoulder.

“Hey! I told you to wait! Don’t pretend like you didn’t……ugh!”

Abe ended up screaming because of the carbonated bubbles that landed in his eyes.

“Damn it! What the hell is this?”

What else would it be? It was the bubbles from the beer that Ju-Heon vigorously shook. Abe took off his leather jacket to wipe the bubbles away.

“Damn it, you bastard, you really! Pay up so I can get it cleaned!”

However, Ju-Heon just roughly patted Abe's jacket as he responded.

“It’s not even real leather. You just have to wipe it off.”
“What? Hey!”

Ju-Heon was shaking an ID card as Abe was about to shout in anger.

“Anyway, you dropped this.”
“!”

The item in Ju-Heon’s hand was his JSDF identification card.

Abe’s expression changed while looking at that.

‘Wait, how did something that was attached to my pocket fall off?’ Abe touched his empty pocket in reflex.

Ju-Heon was enjoying watching Abe looking for confused.

‘There are at least two artifacts in his pocket.’

He didn’t steal the artifacts because Abe would suspect him, but he was able to confirm the types of artifacts. There was one that was an accessory and one larger artifact.

Abe, who didn't know that information about his artifacts were discovered swiped the ID card from Ju-Heon’s hand.

“You damn Korean! What the hell are you looking at?!”

Abe thought it was a dangerous moment just now.

‘That ID card has information about the excavation team.’

It would be bad for a Korean who had no idea about tombs to get information on his identity and the excavation team.

Ju-Heon had seen his ID but it had only been for a few seconds.

‘It’s fine. Nobody should be able to remember that.’

Abe let out a sigh of relief before shoving his ID into his pocket. It wasn't time to pay attention to this stupid Korean right now.

‘The bastard who took the gold axe silver axe artifact will definitely come here.’

That bastard needed to be taken care of first. He could not let a bastard who could put Japan in danger live peacefully in Korea.

‘There’s always the method of shutting him up for good inside the tomb.’

Abe touched this hidden gun in his pocket. Unfortunately, as he stood there not realizing that the person he was looking for was right there…

Boom!

A sound that resembled an explosion filled the time-square plaza. The people who were shopping or on dates started to whisper.

"W, what was that noise?”
“Ay, I'm sure someone just dropped something.”

People didn’t make much of it. And as they were about to go back to minding their own business…
Beeeeeeep-

The microphone and speakers on the stage started to malfunction. People were first annoyed at the screeching noise before becoming scared as they saw the equipment on stage fall one by one.

“Damn it! What the hell is going on?!”
“Ack! My coffee!”

The nearby cafe was turning into chaos as well. The coffee mugs and tables were suddenly splitting into two.

“What the, what is going on?”

Abe and Ju-Heon both responded at the same time. Abe’s phone was going off while a message popped up in front of Ju-Heon.

Abe quickly picked up the phone.

“もしもし (Hello?)”

Ju-Heon checked the message once Abe turned around.
The message was simple.

[Spy skill activated.]
[The aura of a violent tomb is coming from nearby.]

Ju-Heon scoffed as he read that message. That weird phenomenon just now was not a natural occurrence.

‘It is the result of a Tomb Appearance.’

It happened as Ju-Heon looked around. Abe, who had been talking on the phone started to shout in anger.

“Excuse me? What do you mean?”

Abe was talking to his superior. The person was saying that Prince Shotoku’s artifact user had read a new prophecy.

However, the issue was the contents of that prophecy.

“Hold on! You're saying that Korean bastard is nearby?! Are you sure it is the same bastard who took the gold axe silver axe artifact?”

[Yes. And I don’t know what this means, but she said you should be wary of alcohol. You might end up running into that Korean.]

“Alcohol……”

Abe’s gaze changed after he thought for a moment.

‘The beer!’

He thought about the guy who sprayed him with beer. Abe quickly turned around after going crazy with that thought.

“Hey, you!”

However, Ju-Heon was already gone by the time he turned around.

[Major? What is going on! Major?]

Abe clenched his phone so hard as he looked at the empty area that he almost broke it.

“……..Ay, fuck!

In the end, Abe swore before running through the group of people in the time-square plaza.

[Major Abe!]

“I believe I found that bastard.”

[What?!]

“So please quickly decipher the next prophecy and send it over! I need to know where he went!

---

However, Ju-Heon who had moved away not caring whether Abe's eyes were on fire or not, was looking around.

It was because of the odd aura around time-square.

‘The aura is more vicious than I expected.’

He could feel the chaotic energy artifacts always gave off in the Tomb Appearance areas.

It was just that it was quite violent.

‘It's definitely not a calm artifact.’

It was different than the gold axe silver axe artifact. That one was actually one of the calmer artifacts. It did gobble up some apartments, but that was just child’s play.

Everybody had been outside and nobody had been hurt.

As for this bastard here……

Ju-Heon noticed something at that moment. It was on the window of the cafe where everything had been sliced in half.

Red bloody text was slowly appearing on the window.

That was the Toombglyphs.

It was the text used by ruins to provide information. Ju-Heon’s eyes focused after reading the information.

‘Now I'm certain. The Tomb Appearance will happen around here.’

The size was an issue as well.

‘This is an < Evacuation-Grade > sized tomb.’

There were disaster grades assigned to all tombs created by artifacts. In the future, the government would divide tombs into four levels based on size and potential damage, and the tomb that would appear here would fall under the < Evacuation-Grade > which was on the third level.

A tomb at this level would cause damage equivalent to at least a 6.0-magnitude earthquake plowing through. A tomb that dangerous would mean that the artifact inside was strong as well.

It could be a violent B-Grade (Rare-Grade) artifact, but it could also be an A-Grade (Treasure-Grade) artifact as well.

There were greater chances of a high-grade artifacts being inside disaster-creating tombs.

‘But I don't know when the Tomb Appearance will happen.’

But at that moment…

[0 : 6 minutes]

A blue hologram appeared on top of the plaza stage. It was a message from the Spy skill.

Ju-Heon was a bit shocked.

‘6 minutes?

‘Is that perhaps?’

Ju-Heon heard a familiar voice in the distance as he was about to walk that way.

“Hey, you!”

The speaker was surprisingly Abe who had been looking for Ju-Heon. He put his hand on the gun inside his pocket as soon as he saw Ju-Heon.

“Stand there and don't move while I'm being nice to you.”

However, Ju-Heon just smirked while looking at him.

‘Look at him walking over on his own accord with artifacts on him.’

And the moment the hologram changed to [0:5 minutes]!

Boom!

The ground suddenly started to shake.

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

An urgent message popped up in front of Ju-Heon as well.

[A violent force is exploding through the ground.]

But the warning was only for a moment.

Boom!!

A violent earthquake started to shake the ground without giving people any time to evacuate. The ground split open, buildings crumbled down, many things that should not normally happen were starting to happen.

Abe had not expected anything like this either.

“Shi, what the hell?!”
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
“Ahhh! Someone save me!”

Boom! Clang!

The lights went out and it was chaotic, as if the world was ending and hell surfaced to the ground. However, there was one person who was calm unlike everyone else.

It was Ju-Heon.

Ju-Heon was calm while other people were screaming about how they were going to die.

‘It’s coming.’

A bright light flashed through the crack in the ground.

And lo and behold. The people who got caught up in that light disappeared. Ju-Heon was no exception.

A too familiar sight appeared in front of Ju-Heon.

The dark and clammy feeling. The fishy smell of mold. The tomb with grey walls covered in rotten vines.

He had been here before.

Ju-Heon knew very well about the artifact inside this tomb.

Everything was the same as in his memories.

Everything except one thing.

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