Chapter 1. Tomb Raider King (1)
That vicious bastard.
Those were the words Dohyun had heard more than anything else over the past two years.
“I've seriously never met a bastard as vicious as you!”
Of course, he knew exactly why people said that.
It was because of those damn tombs.
In 2025, mysterious tombs suddenly began appearing all over the world.
Myths.
Great historical figures.
Legends.
Folktales.
Popular novels.
They said stories remembered by people for a long time carried power.
And those stories suddenly took the form of tombs and appeared in the modern world.
The real problem, however, was what came out of those tombs.
Artifacts.
Just as Prometheus had given fire to mankind, Artifacts granted humans supernatural abilities and enormous wealth.
Anyone could rise above their station.
It was truly an age where even a dragon could rise from a tiny stream.
But that age of opportunity didn't last long.
Once the Artifact management organization known as <Pandora> was established, Artifact Users began to be controlled.
Powerful and wealthy people became members of Pandora, and soon, almost every Artifact belonged to those already in power.
People believed Pandora when it claimed it was protecting world peace and public safety.
Even when they suffered injustice, no one dared rebel because they feared the power of Artifacts.
Yes.
Everyone except one man.
[Seo Jooheon sweeps up Pandora's Artifacts once again.]
[<Artifacts> were never divine gifts meant to advance mankind.]
[The true objective of the Artifacts was humanity's destruction. They were cooperating with <Pandora> to kill humans.]
[<Pandora> knew the truth but remained silent for profit.]
[Evidence discovered that <Pandora> conducted human experimentation to obtain powerful Artifacts.]
[Seo Jooheon saves the world from <Pandora>'s conspiracy.]
[Seo Jooheon becomes Majesty, the King of Artifacts and their supreme administrator.]
Seo Jooheon.
The hero who had saved the world.
The King of Artifacts.
Majesty.
Dohyun had seen those headlines countless times.
On the news.
On giant street displays.
Even on televisions inside bars.
To put it simply, Seo Jooheon became Majesty, the King of Artifacts, during an age of chaos and restored order to the world.
But...
Damn that Seo Jooheon!
Seo Jooheon had saved the world.
Unfortunately, there were people who hadn't wanted to be saved.
“Damn it! Seo Jooheon ruined our business!”
“We were making a fortune selling Artifacts!”
“Things were better when there were no laws! What the hell is this Artifact Law bullshit?!”
Illegal Artifact dealers and those who had worked with monopolists absolutely hated Seo Jooheon.
Dohyun was one of them.
He had survived by stabbing people in the back whenever necessary and made money stealing Artifacts.
People called him one vicious bastard.
But that ended today.
“Damn it! That fucking bastard!”
Dohyun was dying.
“That son of a bitch! He used us as bait and ran away?!”
Huge serpents slithered around him.
This was an unidentified highest-grade tomb that his team leader had discovered.
At first, everyone had entered with shining eyes, believing they'd hit the jackpot.
But after encountering a deadly trap, they ended up like this.
Realizing that he was going to die, Dohyun burst into mad laughter.
“You sons of bitches! I'll never trust another bastard who owns an Artifact! I'll become a ghost and haunt every last one of you!”
His desperate scream echoed throughout the labyrinth.
Then he heard an unexpected voice.
“God, you're noisy as hell.”
Huh?
Dohyun raised his head at the pleasant, low voice.
A tall figure stood there.
Sharp, well-defined features.
A man so handsome that it almost made Dohyun stare in disbelief.
Wait.
A man?
An actual person?
Is he a rescuer?
And then...
Pow!
Dohyun was kicked.
The hooded man who had kicked him without hesitation casually scratched his ear.
“Hey. Why are you making such a damn fuss in a lousy tomb like this? Are you going to take responsibility if the Artifact runs away?”
“????”
W-Who the hell was this guy?
Dohyun was completely confused.
Seo Jooheon himself had internationally prohibited entry into this tomb.
Nobody should have been able to enter...
“Move. You're in the way.”
“Argh!”
Dohyun screamed.
“Stop! I'm injured! Can't you see my leg's been torn off?!”
“Oh. Really?”
The hooded man casually took something out.
[Qin Shi Huang's Fruit of Immortality
(S-Grade / Consumable Artifact)]
Uses Remaining: (1/1)
At first glance, it looked like nothing more than a red fruit.
The man shoved it straight into Dohyun's mouth.
“You're throwing this much of a tantrum just because you lost one leg?”
“Guh! You bastard, what the hell did you just feed me... Huh?!”
Something unbelievable happened.
Light flashed from Dohyun's body.
His missing leg regenerated.
This level of regeneration should be impossible without a Divine-Grade Artifact.
Artifacts were ranked from F-Grade, which were essentially antiques, all the way to SS-Grade, known as Divine Grade.
Something capable of this much regeneration had to be at least SS-Grade.
It was an item that couldn't be purchased even for tens of billions.
Yet this man had used it as casually as if it were a piece of candy.
“I'll only charge you ten billion won.”
“W-What?!”
But Dohyun didn't even have time to be shocked by the price.
He pointed behind the man.
“Behind you! Look behind you!”
He suddenly remembered that this place was a serpent nest.
“Those things ate my teammates!”
A giant serpent opened its mouth and rushed toward them.
The hooded man smoothly pulled out another Artifact.
“Really? Then I'll deal with it.”
[Egyptian Undertaker's Possessed Knife
(C-Grade / Common Grade / Consumable Artifact)]
Uses Remaining: (44/100)
Dohyun nearly despaired when he saw the weapon.
He was an experienced Artifact User himself.
He could recognize its level at a glance.
“C-Grade?! Damn it! You're a complete amateur! Even an S-Grade Artifact didn't work on that thing! There's a reason my teammates got eaten!”
“Ha. Just watch.”
The man vanished.
In the next instant, he struck the serpent's weak points with perfect accuracy.
Stab.
Slash.
Cut.
Hack.
It was as if the weak points were clearly visible to him.
Crunch!
Finally, the enormous serpent collapsed.
The hooded man grinned.
“Your teammates got eaten?”
He climbed onto the serpent's mouth.
“Then we should take them back out.”
He fed the serpent something.
[Medicine That Made Cronus Vomit
(S-Grade / Consumable Artifact)]
The serpent immediately vomited everything inside its stomach.
Dohyun's teammates were among the contents.
“G-Guys!”
“B-Boss!”
Dohyun's eyes filled with tears when he saw his teammates alive.
He looked toward the mysterious man.
“Th-Thank y—”
“One hundred billion won for saving your teammates.”
“What?!”
“Enough. Follow me.”
“W-What?!”
