Chapter 123: Affection is thicker than blood (4)
Chapter 123: Affection is thicker than blood (4)
Translator: miraclerifle
“You can run to the exit over there. Or you can sell me information about Pandora.”
They really only had one choice.
“I'll sell you information!”
“No, I'll do it!”
The members started to rush forward like a pack of dogs trying to save their own lives.
It looked as if the department sale was having a special sale.
Of course, this was an expected reaction.
‘I'll really die if I go through there.’
This maze was not a joke, it really was a place to go to die.
The golden Opera House had instantly turned into a garden maze, but it was actually just a fancy name for hell.
There were pillars of fire shooting up from multiple places and there were man-eating plants with their jaws open as well.
There was also more.
There was also the hydrochloric acid river and monsters that had blood dripping from their mouths.
Furthermore, money kept going out of their bank accounts for some reason.
All of their expensive jewelry, bags, and even shoes were all gone!
Prior to them disappearing, their phones were blowing up with family members texting that money was being donated somewhere for some reason.’
Everybody was going crazy.
[Items in your possession are being donated.]
[Your artifacts are being donated.]
[Your wealth is being donated.]
[Everything will be used in a more useful way.]
“Holy shit, what the hell is this?!”
"Fuck, my money!”
“Do you know how hard I had to work for that?!”
They started to become desperate. They felt as if they would really become penniless like this.
That was why they could only shout like this.
“I'll sell you all the information I know!”
“I'll sell it to you so please stop!”
The members fought each other to get to Ju-Heon first.
Ju-Heon chuckled as if he was telling them to get in line.
“Alright, it is already up to 200 billion dollars. Hurry up and speak.”
“Me, me! This is top secret information that only a few members know about. I’ll let you know the location of the land that will soon shoot up in value!”
Ju-Heon started to frown in response.
“Are you joking with me? Next.”
“J, joking? This is precious information!”
“Hey retard. The most meaningless thing since tombs started to appear is the price of land. Get lost.”
The member dropped his jaw but it was the truth. Who was crazy enough to buy land when tombs coming up would destroy the land and any buildings on top of it?
They didn't seem to understand the reality of the situation yet because only cute little Grade 1 and Grade 2 tombs have mainly come out.
“Get lost before I destroy all of those pieces of land.”
“!”
“Move, he said to get lost! I'm next! I'll introduce you to a Pandora member’s daughter! She’s a student at Harvard and her wealth and network are amazing!”
“Is she pretty?”
“Uhh...”
“Dismissed.”
“What?!”
“I'll let you all know that it needs to be information that is useful to me.”
Ju-Heon was being serious. But Ju-Heon was starting to get annoyed at this point.
“Looks like you guys are useless.”
Ju-Heon stood up from his seat. The members’ screams filled the area at that moment.
The floor had suddenly disappeared and they had all ended up in that gloomy gaze.
“Alright, crawl to the exit since none of you seem to have any useful information.”
“Ahhhhh!”
The members foamed at the mouth after looking at the man-eating plants and monsters before starting to run.
They started to blurt out information that might satisfy Ju-Heon after seeing that he was not joking.
“I’ll introduce you to my beautiful cousin! She’s an idol-in-training!”
“Artifacts, I'll tell you every artifact in Pandora's possession!”
“I'll tell you about that guy's corruption! Vunderson over there has stolen money from Pandora! He stole about 30 billion!”
Some of the members started to cough up blood after hearing these things.
What kind of information were they trying to sell?!
But Ju-Heon was extremely satisfied.
“Ohh, good, good. Wonderful. I’ll take 100 million off for you.”
The members’ gazes changed as soon as he said that.
“Hey! You swindled 20 billion too!”
“W, what did you say?”
“I know about it! Wilson over there said that we shouldn’t send cops to the slums this time!”
“H, hey!”
“There are better chances of a good tomb coming out in places with more crime! He wanted to make the tombs gather in the slums to save our properties...!”
“H, hey!”
The situation had quickly turned into pandemonium.
The attacked members started to shout as they didn't want to lose and also wanted to get out of here.
“Damn it, Smith, you are racist!”
“W, what? Why are you picking on me when I’ve been silent?!”
"Why? Because you're racist! You said we can’t have brown or black people handling artifacts! You tried to make that into a law!”
“What the? What about you?! You tried to do the same thing!”
They were just pots calling the kettle black.
Richard was extremely frustrated at this point.
‘These idiots!’
Jean Richard started to grind his teeth. Richard had seen the most of what Chairman Kwon and Keira had done.
But the members who were busy saving their own asses continued to share information without knowing how Richard was feeling.
"There, it should be fine now that I gave you some information, right?!”
‘Fine my ass!’
“Please don't fall for it! This is obviously that bastard’s plot! We need to think about a way for us to get out of this together! There’s no way that bastard will let us out even if we sell him information......!”
However...
“Seo Ju-Heon-nim! That bastard over there! I know all of Jean Richard's corrupt affairs!”
“Me too!”
“Me three!”
“What?!”
A shocked Richard started to shout after all of them turned away from him.
“Damn it, Chairman Kwon used Pandora money to......!”
[That bastard swindled 20 billion!]
[That bastard said brown and black people are not qualified to use artifacts!]
[What did you say? You son of a bitch!]
[Hey! This is how you repay me for keeping quiet about how you had an affair with Walter’s wife?!]
[What?! Why would you bring that up right now?!]
The entire world was in shock.
This scene of Pandora members arguing with each other was being broadcast throughout the world!
These people who had a chip on their shoulders for being Pandora members were busy sharing each other's personal and business corruptions.
Their illegal acts, and even their infidelities...!
These were all things that Ju-Heon had personally filmed.
"T, those crazy bastards.”
"We've been paying taxes to those shitheads?”
"Shit, why aren’t they arresting these bastards?!”
The entire world was angry and it was obvious that people started to protest.
Each country started to investigate and punish the problematic Pandora members.
There was too much evidence to sweep it under the rug, but more importantly, the people who had been looking after these problematic members started to become sick with an unknown illness as a group.
[The 268 Pandora members involved with corruption have all resigned and had everything seized]
[Pandora’s Jamie Cruger has resigned]
[Lee Hyung Shik has resigned]
[Julia Albagene has resigned]
[Korea branch's Chu Yeh-Rhim has resigned]
[Tom Smith, fortunes seized]
[Pandora's Secretary General Jean Richard placed on probation.]
There was more.
[Unknown source of destitution for Pandora’s corrupt members]
[Land and buildings in their possession evaporated, such a bizarre disaster.]
[Was it the work of an artifact?]
[Pandora’s financier, Austin Rockefeller, had two-thirds of his personal wealth evaporate into nothing.]
[Austin Rockefeller transported to the hospital after fainting.]
[NGOs worldwide are thankful for the donations they received]
George Holten who had read through all these incidents started to laugh.
[What the hell did you do?]
Ju-Heon had said there will be openings in Pandora and it truly happened.
Ju-Heon started to laugh as they video-chatted. He didn’t think he did much.
“Anyway, there are a lot of openings now so run for those spots with some interested people.”
[Why do you keep trying to put me in there?]
Why?
Honestly speaking, he had swept a good amount of cancer from Pandora this time.
However, similar people would end up filling those spots if he didn't do something.
Furthermore...
“Austin Rockefeller is still a part of Pandora. Don’t you have a grudge against him for what he did to your parents?”
He had gotten rid of all the rotten teeth but there were still some cavities left.
George responded to Ju-Heon's statement.
[The issue with my parents is something I can deal with even without going into Pandora. Furthermore, I’m not interested in the work Pandora is doing at all. Why do I...]
Why else?
There were some bastards who have not done anything corrupt yet but could turn into cancer in the future.
Most importantly, Austin Rockefeller.
‘Some of the higher-ranking artifact users are hiding some things within Pandora.’
For example, Pandora’s detection artifacts.
He had left them alone to figure out where those artifacts are located and to steal them.
‘But it’s annoying to keep my eye on them.’
That was why he was going to put George Holten there to serve as his eyes.
‘This bastard knows how to act and has a good sense for business.’
That was why Ju-Heon started to say things to make George, who had no desire to do it, get fired up.
“I didn't tell you this before, but Irene was sexually harassed at Pandora’s party. Austin Rockefeller was the one who did it.”
It sounded as if the phone was breaking after George heard that.
[What?! Sexual harassment?!]
“Attempted sexual harassment to be more accurate.”
Well, the truth was that he had not placed a finger on her.
[Whether it is attempted or not, it means that that bastard tried to put his hands on Irene!]
That seemed to have lit a fire in George properly as he started huffing and puffing.
[But Pandora didn't say anything about it? They didn’t impose any sanctions? That bastard got away without any issues?]
“That’s right. Aren't they terrible?”
[Just wait, I'm going to gather people and destroy Pandora from the inside. I'm also going to fuck that bastard Rockefeller up!]
‘Good good. That's what I wanted to see. Hyung-nim.’
“Anyway, I said everything I needed to say. Use the money donated by the members for the damage restoration business. And create a tomb manual properly like I told you. I'm hanging up now because I am busy.”
[Okay.]
Ju-Heon hung up and started to remove the artifact from the faucet.
Inspector Kim's wife Eun Ji-Yoon asked Ju-Heon a question.
“Is it going okay?”
“Mm, not bad.”
Of course, the artifact that seemed to have contracted with Inspector Kim on its own accord was screaming and rejecting Ju-Heon.
[#$#$!]
Let go of me, you bastard! Call our oppa home! Oppaaaa!
‘Oppa my ass.’
“You shouldn’t hit on a married man, you bitch.”
But this artifact didn't want to accept(?) and started to cry while talking about how its love was going to end like this.
Apparently, it had fallen for the man who had slapped it with a head of napa cabbage.
Ju-Heon finally managed to remove a marble-sized piece of gold.
[The gold thrown in the story of the gold the brothers threw into the water (C-Grade:General-grade - Consumable Artifact)]
It was a story about how two close brothers found some gold and split it between them but ended up becoming greedy and hating each other because of it.
This artifact had originated from a Korean tale about how those brothers threw the pieces of gold into the river for their brotherly love.
Basically, it created gold whenever it was placed.
‘It has a lot of impurities and isn't as good as Irene’s artifact, but still.’
It was still a lot of money.
Anyway, the faucet started to pour out regular water again now that the artifact was removed.
“It’s done now. But you said you took a loan to open your shop, did you not receive the money I sent over?”
"Ah, we did get it, but my husband said we can’t use that money.”
“Excuse me? Why?”
“He said you were working your butt off in a foreign country to make the money. He said we should use it for your wedding later.”
“......”
Ju-Heon started to get a headache.
‘He'll probably faint on the spot if I bought him a porsche or something.’
But at that moment...
“By the way, I've been thinking about it since earlier......”
“Yes?”
"Did you not sleep properly?”
Yoo Jaeha who was next to him was trying so hard to hold in his laughter after hearing that.
It was because Ju-Heon had a pain relief patch on his neck.
Yoo Jaeha who knew the real reason for the patch was covering his mouth and laughing while Ju-Heon covered his neck as if he had forgotten about it.
'Damn it.’
The real reason for the patch was that his neck was covered in red marks underneath it. Basically, they were hickeys.
That pretty much sums it up.
‘Man, that risk......’
It was fine that he worked with Irene this time but then... she suddenly attacked his neck.
Normally he wouldn’t have cared that people saw it, but he wanted to act like a good boy in front of his sister-in-law.
That was why he smiled innocently that Jaeha wondered if this really was Seo Ju-Heon.
“Uhh, I might have. Please don't worry about it.”
Yoo Jaeha seemed to have found his acting to be despicable as he sneered before starting to laugh while clutching his stomach.
“......Ke, keke. I know about it, I know...”
Pow!
“Ugh!”
Ju-Heon kicked his annoying subordinate’s calf.
He then started to speak in his usual vicious voice as if he had never acted like a good boy in the first place.
“You're starting to act up.”
Yoo Jaeha started to shake.
‘I'm just glad the risk ended at that level.’
Ju-Heon had seriously wondered if he would need to create a reverse harem with the world’s most handsome men or something.’
‘So this much is just child’s play.’
Ju-Heon thought that things were easily handled this time.
However, he was completely wrong.
Irene’s real risk struck in the middle of the night.
It was an extremely serious risk!