At another location.

  The explorer group, formed from teams A, B, and C, finally arrived in front of the desert temple.

  “Madaraka! Finally here! It better be worth it! If I find out there’s nothing here—”

  Baldie Tae cut the man off, “Oi, shut up! Don’t jinx it!”

  “Madaraka! If you dare to tell me to shut up one more time—!” Park Insu was about to flare up, but the pot-bellied Kim Sungho quickly jumped in between to smooth things out.

  “Ohoho~ Instead of arguing out here in this hot sun, why don’t we head inside? I’m sure we all want to cool off and none of us wants to miss out on the good stuff, am I right?”

  “Hurhur, I’ll settle scores with you later, baldie!”

  “Che! Who’s afraid of who!”

  Park Insu scoffed but said no more and simply hurried forward with the rest.

  When it came to treasure-hunting, ya don’t want to be the late bird!

  Since the main entrance wasn’t buried here, everybody simply filed in.

  Inside the sunlit atrium, the temperature didn’t get any cooler, but the much-needed shade from the sun finally allowed them to relax.

  But once they relaxed, they finally started noticing something odd.

  “Hmm? Why are there so much broken bones scattered around?”

  Four-eyes Kwan Minhwoo was the first to bring it up, but Park Insu kicked a skull away and shrugged dismissively. “Who cares. Probably just the remains left over from what those monsters ate.”

  This time, his scout partner Han Duri didn’t stand on his side. “Doesn’t look like it. It looks more like…”

  He exchanged a glance with the four-eyes. Both shared the same thought: somebody had been here!

  They didn’t announce that though.

  The pot-bellied Kim Sungho secretly noticed this, but said nothing. He simply stuck closer to the buff baldie’s back and searched around together.

  Soon, the team discovered the opened entrance of the secret passage leading down.

  “Hurhur, well that was easy to find.”

  “Bullshit! It wasn’t even you that found it!”

  “Says who?!”

  Seeing Baldie Tae and Park Insu butting heads again, Kim Sungho was really feeling a headache.

  Fortunately, Kwan Minhwoo actually chose to help smooth things out this time.

  “You two… instead of wasting time here, we might as well go down to see what we can find. Remember. There’s still a long journey back and we don’t want to be stuck out here after dark.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  That cooled the two aggressive men down somewhat. Then, both wanted to head down, but Kwan Minhwoo quickly stopped them. “Wait!”

  “Madaraka! What is it now?!” Park Insu glared at the annoying schemer, and so did Baldie Tae. “Four-eyes, don’t tell me... you want to block our way?”

  The two bickering rivals suddenly looked like they were standing on the same side!

  But facing the pair of strong men, Kwan Minhwoo wasn’t scared at all. “No, no… please don’t misunderstand. If you want to go, then be my guest, but…”

  “I just think it’s not very… safe if we send everybody down there. What if somebody triggers a trap and the entire army gets wiped out?”

  That warning cooled off the two fighter’s impatience.

  Right! Almost forgot there might be TNT down there!

  The system might’ve gifted them superpowers, but that doesn’t mean they can be reckless!

  So, the two finally took this four-eyes seriously. “Hurhur, then Mr. Kwan, what do you suggest?”

  The four-eyes calmly nudged his glasses that glinted ominously and glanced at the other half of their party.

  The smart immediately knew what bad idea was going through his brain.

  Kim Sungho patted his pot-belly and chuckled. “Ohoho… Mr. Kwan, I believe that risks should be borne equally and we shouldn’t push the unwilling too hard, lest everybody becomes unhappy.”

  “Indeed.” Han Duri stood on Kim Sungho’s side this time. “I’ve done the scouting. I don’t get paid enough. So don’t expect me to do more.”

  “Haha…” Kwan Minhwoo knew these two would drag their feet, but he wasn’t too worried. Instead, he smiled and looked at his own lackey.

  “Minho, you’ll volunteer to go down and collect the loot for us, won’t you?”

  “Un?!” Lackey B was stunned by the sudden betrayal, but his mind wasn’t slow and quickly reacted. “Boss Kwan, leave it to me!”

  Looking at that excited man that clearly can’t wait to go down, the others finally realized something was wrong!

  If they agree to go down themselves, then they’ll put their own lives at risk!

  But if they let him be the only one that goes down, then who knows how much of the loot gets pocketed by the other team!

  Both Baldie Tae and Park Insu definitely won’t allow this to happen! And if the powerful combatants aren’t willing to go down… then the only ones left will be them two!

  This four-eyes left them no choice at all! How sinister!

  But they can’t think of any way to solve such a sinister scheme!

  If they don’t want to ruin the relationship within their own teams, they can only “volunteer” for tribute.

  Thus, the three team leads—Kwan Minhwoo, Park Insu, and Baldie Tae—stayed to guard the entrance to prevent unwarranted “accidents” while their team representatives went down the flight of dark stairs.

  Around and around they went while their future seemed to grow darker every second…

  Even when they reached the foot of the stairs, what greeted them was pure darkness.

  “Damn. There’s not even a torch around! This game really wants us to trigger the pressure plate, doesn’t it?”

  “Quit yapping. Just watch your step. Both of you! And don’t randomly touch things!”

  “Ohoho… don’t worry, Mr. Han. I’m pretty confident regarding the layout of this temple and won’t make any wrong steps…”

  “You better not. You too, lapdog.”

  “Who are you calling a lapdog?!”

  “You. Who else? Okay, enough nonsense. I’ll take right.”

  “Ohoho, then I’ll go left.”

  After calling out their own roles, the pair of clever minds hugged the walls and left behind the third leg.

  Both shortest and safest routes to treasure chests got claimed.

  Even a dummy knew: following behind others will earn nothing but leftovers. Hence, Lackey B could only go straight.

  It was dark and there was no road signs in the dark. Minho didn’t care about dignity and even got down on his knees to grope his way forward.

  It didn’t take long for him to bump into something in the dark.

  His heart jumped, but he didn’t make a single peep.

  Instead, he did his best to not alert the other two and quietly checked around...

  There was a strangely cold surface that felt more like a wall rather than any pressure plate… and next to it was a... box?

  This... should be the chest, right?! Did he cross to other side already?!

  How lucky! If he could quietly loot this chest...

  Lackey B dreamed big, but he forgot something very important.

  When the chest opens, there’s a sound effect…

  Creaaaaak~

  Like magic, everybody became alert.

  Upstairs, Kwan Minhwoo, who was studying the nearby mural of creatures burning under a giant sun, suddenly snapped his gaze towards the darker parts of the pyramid.

  “Hmm? What’s that sound?”