Chapter 231: What happened in the past? 3

"This son of a bitch.”

They had arrived at New York’s Time Square.

They were somehow able to find Yoo Jaeha in this crowded area.

Even if Jaeha was hiding his aura, they were all Ju-Heon's subordinates.

It wasn’t hard for them to do something like this.

However…

“I've been feeling that something was weird the closer we got, but…”

"……This son of a bitch.”

They grabbed the back of the neck of the item in front of them.

There was a well-crafted corpse in front of Julian, Seol-A and Chloe.

Of course, people around them were screaming that someone was murdered.

“S, someone is dead!”

“No! It’s not a person! Kyaaaa! Look at it!”

The corpse that had fallen down while spewing blood had jumped up and started to rampage.

It was as if it was telling the people who had followed it, ‘you retards, you were tricked. You were tricked.’

It was making fun of them.

Julian started to shake as he watched.

“This bastard is dead once I find him.”

Of course, even Seol-A who had tracked Yoo Jaeha looked as if she had not expected this.

Maybe that was to be expected.

Why?

“Unbelievable. Jaeha went somewhere without Leonardo da Vinci's artifact.”

That was right.

Yoo Jaeha's fake corpse had Leonardo da Vinci's artifact with it. He would never leave this artifact behind for a scam.

That was the reason Seol-A had focused her search on this artifact.

However…

“Why did he leave da Vinci's artifact behind?”

He would definitely need this artifact to run.

This was unbelievable even if he was trying to get away from their tracking.

Da Vinci's artifact was the greatest artifact for the Monarch of Fraud. This could be compared to a soldier going out into the battlefield leaving his gun behind.

“How can he leave such a precious artifact behind……”

It felt as if he left it behind on purpose, knowing that they would recover it.

Maybe that was the reason.

Julian, who had recovered da Vinci's artifact, looked anxious.

‘Da Vinci's artifact is the reason we were always tricked by him.’

Yoo Jaeha was just a toothless tiger who only had his restoration abilities without this artifact.

He had even given up his ownership of it.

‘Why?’

It happened at that moment.

Seol-A's eyes flashed as she looked at her radar.

“I found the real Yoo Jaeha!”

Julian and Chloe focused on her.

“Really? Where is he?”

“Umm, that………”

Seol-A looked at the map of the United States.

Florida.

It said Jaeha was at the Monarch of Fate's house where Ju-Heon was right now.

"Did you betray us too?”

He couldn't help but shake.

It made sense.

The person he had killed was standing in front of him.

Of course, Ju-Heon was viciously smiling. He didn’t sound angry.

But Yoo Jaeha couldn’t help but gulp because of Ju-Heon’s gaze.

‘I'm certain.’

Ju-Heon's gaze was saying that he would really kill Jaeha if he tried anything funny.

In that sense, Ju-Heon was really like a sword.

Every member of his tomb raiding team knew how Ju-Heon became when he got angry.

His recovered memories clearly remembered the vicious side of Ju-Heon.

Ju-Heon especially never forgave his enemies.

He would never forgive someone for betraying him either.

Yoo Jaeha clenched his eyes shut after having those thoughts.

‘Damn it.’

However, the Monarch of Fraud was not someone who would be scared by just this.

He was someone who always said, ‘the fault lies with the fools who were tricked, the fools who were smacked in the back.’

That was kind of his motto.

He just needed to say the same thing this time.

He confidently started to speak.

“That…… that’s right. I killed you and the others just like Yang Chen did.”

“………”

So what?

Who told you to get on Chairman Kwon's bad side? You’re the idiot for getting screwed over.

Yoo Jaeha was about to say something like that as he usually would.

However…

“………”

He couldn’t open his mouth to speak.

Yoo Jaeha clenched his eyes shut after recalling the memories of his team members deaths.

And…

“I'm sorry……!”

Yoo Jaeha unexpectedly got down on his knees and lowered his head to the ground.

This was something that would never happen in the past life since the Monarch of Fraud never knelt down for anyone.

He was banging his forehead on the ground as he cried.

They were not fake tears; he was not acting.

“I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. I wasn’t trying… I wasn’t trying to do that. It really was my fault! I got you and the others killed. It was because of me……”

Yoo Jaeha bit down on his lips while recalling the incidents of the past.

“At that time……I swiped the information about our team members and handed it over to the bosses.”

Ju-Heon’s tomb raiding team was overbearing.

They were able to clear any and all tombs without any issues, causing jealousy and envy from the others.

‘Ah, Seo Ju-Heon’s tomb raiding is so lucky. They always end up with the easy tombs.’

‘I know, right? Well, I guess they’re only given easy tombs since they are an unofficial excavation team.’

They wanted to give a bad name to Ju-Heon's team no matter what it took.

That was why Yoo Jaeha, who had gotten upset at their slander, had responded back.

‘Those retards. Look at them acting like buffoons. It’s obviously because they suck.’

They responded to him.

‘Then go clear a tomb we would approve of. Then we will accept your skills.’

‘Ho! Get lost. You’re not even worth talking to.’

‘Why? Make sure to give us the correct information about your team members as well! We will pick a difficulty using those files as our foundation!'

Pandora was able to pretty accurately determine the danger level of a tomb at that time and they wanted to use that.

Of course, Yoo Jaeha just ignored their bullshit. But Chairman Kwon seemed to have been amused by it.

‘Fine. We will test the strength of our team members.’

Yang Chen had asked Yoo Jaeha for the team’s charts. Yoo Jaeha didn't want to do it but this was what Yang Chen had said to him.

‘I want to show them our true strength during this test. It makes me angry seeing the Captain-nim being looked down upon like this.’

That was the reason Yang Chen wanted him to swipe the team members’ files.

‘They will use the information as foundation to assign a tomb with the right difficulty. That's the only way to make sure nobody claims we got another easy tomb.’

Yang Chen had said that this was an opportunity for their tomb raiding team to become an official excavation team.

‘Hey Jaeha. Don’t you want to proudly come up to the sun rather than continuing on as a ghost team?’

‘I don't really care.’

He was Chairman Kwon’s personal restorer and a Monarch so he was treated pretty well.

But he knew how the rest of his team members were treated in TKBM.

They were an unofficial excavation team on paper and were part of a ghost branch that didn’t even come up on the organization chart.

The Accounting team used that as an excuse to not give them any funds or artifacts and their salary was a third of everybody else's as well.

It was like this even though Ju-Heon's team was the one who had raised Chairman Kwon to the Four Emperors position and brought in 80% of all of TKBM's profits.

‘That’s all because we’re an unofficial excavation team. To be honest with you, I want to be accepted by everyone and proudly stand with my head up high through this chance.’

After hearing that from Yang Chen who was one of his team members, Yoo Jaeha had rummaged through Chloe’s examination records and swiped the team members’ files.

He did it hoping that his team members who were working so hard could finally come out of the shadows and into the sun.

They were annoying, frustrating, and aggravating bastards, but he had received a lot from them during their time together.

‘Let’s help them.’

Of course, all of this was done in secret.

The team members knowing this was a test would not make it as effective.

But he had no idea that this was Chairman Kwon's scheme to delete Ju-Heon's team from this world.

There was even that stupid argument with his team members the day before the test.

‘Ah whatever, I don’t care. They’ll only know about how important I am to the team if their artifacts don't work properly inside the tomb.’

He was tired and upset.

That was why Yoo Jaeha had done something out of anger.

‘I'll make it so that they will say sorry and that they can’t do anything without me once they get out of the test.’

That was why he had not fully restored their artifacts. He had received information about the tomb in advance and it did not seem that dangerous anyway.

‘Plus, it’s just a test.’

He had received an extremely sweet order as well.

[We are going to be conducting the test for the team members so do not enter the tomb in order to keep it a secret.]

That made him think, ‘great, it’s my first break in a long time.’

He then went out and had some fun with women and booze.

He would be able to see the others in the office after fooling around for a few days.

However…

‘Excuse me? What did you say?’

He then heard that all of them had died.

Yoo Jaeha was flustered.

This was what Chairman Kwon had also said.

‘You did very well. Yoo Jaeha. The information you swiped for us allowed us to take care of them. I will give you a promotion.’

He was fuming with anger when he went to find Yang Chen and grabbed him by the collar.

‘You said it was a test! Why would people die during a test?!’

‘Who knows? They were just unlucky. Who could have expected history's worst Tomb Appearance to happen in that area?’

‘………You son of a… Why would you not know that?! What happened to all that shitty technology those sons of bitches at Pandora are so proud of?!’

But the TKBM employees patted Yoo Jaeha's shoulders, as if they had all known about this in advance.

‘Forget about them. You’ll do much better now too. The shitty tomb raiding team that was holding you back is gone.’

‘Hey, you damn sons of bitches……’

Yoo Jaeha had been grinding his teeth. He was about to grab these bastards who were worse than animals to object.

However…

‘If not, then are you going to say you weren’t involved at all?’

‘What?’

‘We used the information you swiped about the tomb raiding team to find that tomb. We set the traps accordingly as well.’

‘……….’

‘You also said that you didn't fully restore their artifacts. It sounds like you had a good idea about what was going to happen.’

‘Hey Monarch of Fraud, I respect you. You even scammed your own team members to their deaths. You truly are at a different level than the rest of us.’

‘Let’s work together well from now on. The cancer aiming for the Chairman-nim is now gone.’

The only thing he figured out was that he had killed his team members.

‘Hey Jaeha, did you hear? The Captain-nim gathered all of your paintings that he's bought until now and asked a cafe to display them. It’s not big, but it's still an exhibition!’

‘People were asking who painted them!’

Yoo Jaeha had cried.

He cried out of guilt as he sat in the empty office where nobody would come anymore.

‘Why is nobody coming? Why? That bookworm retarded captain should be reading over there… The stockfish should be nagging me… the pushover should be watching her while sighing……’

Yoo Jaeha started to plan his revenge now that he knew that TKBM had planned this from the beginning.

It took a long time to do it.

It took about one year to pull it off.

Even though he called it revenge, he didn’t know if it would end up causing only a small impact and not matter in the long run.

His opponent was TKBM's Chairman, someone who could be compared to the Emperor of an Empire.

In contrast, he was just a worker ant in that organization.

How much damage could a puny little ant cause?

But he still used the best method he could to get his revenge.

Of course, he had no idea what happened to TKBM after that.

Why?

It was because he didn’t know what happened in the future after that.

‘Fuck! Yoo Jaeha, that son of a bitch is dead! The only restorer left in the entire world committed suicide!’

‘The artifacts’ durabilities are at 0 too!’

But his team members didn't return.

Even if it had not been his intentions, his actions had led to his team members’ deaths.

And now…

“I'm very sorry. I'm so sorry…… I did something wrong.”

Yoo Jaeha was apologizing to Ju-Heon.

He didn't try to make any excuses.

While that was going on…

‘I don’t know what the hell is up with them, but……’

The Monarch of Fate, who was still captured by Ju-Heon, thought that this was his best chance to escape.

‘This is my chance while Seo Ju-Heon is distracted.’

As he was about to use an escape-type artifact!

Stomp!

“Aaaaaaaaaak!”

Ju-Heon nonchalantly stomped on the Monarch of Fate's hand.

It was his way of saying there was no way he would let the Monarch of Fate escape.

“Don’t try anything funny and stay right there. There's something you need to do.”

Yoo Jaeha continued to speak.

“I won't ask you for your forgiveness. You can punish me with death right now. I am the traitor. But Captain-nim, there is something I must tell you before that……”

It was at that moment.

“You’re finally telling the truth.”

“!”

Yoo Jaeha heard an angry voice.

Yoo Jaeha turned his head to see Julian, Chloe, and Seol-A, who had chased him here.

The other team members had used an artifact to fly here while Ju-Heon was busy destroying the residence once they realized that they had chased a fake.

Julian was shaking while looking at Yoo Jaeha.

“Captain. Don’t pay him any attention. He’s going to say whatever he can to stay alive.”

Yoo Jaeha clenched his eyes shut after sensing Julian’s anger.

“All criminals will apologize for their actions before they receive their sentences. They’ll beg and say that what they did was wrong.”

Julian said that those tears could not be considered true tears.

Those criminals were only apologizing with their mouths even if they didn't mean it.

They were doing it so that it could help them reduce their sentences.

This bastard would be the same.

“Yang Chen is one thing, but because of this bastard……!”

Julian had a lot to say because of his fellow team members who had died wrongful deaths.

But Julian sighed and didn’t go on.

He knew that there was no point in getting emotional right now.

The important thing was what happened from here.

“I'm sure you are already aware even if I don’t say anything else. This bastard……”

“Yes.”