Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 813

“There are so many damn people.”

Cho Kyu-min frowned without realizing it. When he, dressed in a black suit and black sunglasses, frowned, the people around him subtly moved away.

“Ah, I, I’m sorry. I’m not that kind of person.”

Cho Kyu-min awkwardly bowed his head to those around him. But that didn’t change the glares he was receiving.

With looks as if they were seeing a gangster, Cho Kyu-min hurriedly took off his sunglasses and put them in his front pocket. Then the glares softened a little.

‘This is killing me.’

Cho Kyu-min was uncomfortable in crowded places.

It wasn’t to the point of discussing a condition like social anxiety disorder, but the more eyes that met his, the more exponentially his discomfort grew.

Cho Kyu-min took a deep breath and looked around. Spotting a smoking booth in the corner, Cho Kyu-min scurried into it.

‘This is killing me too.’

Escaping the pouring gazes was a good thing, but the smoking booth was just as suffocating. The smoking booth, unable to handle the crowd, was filled with acrid cigarette smoke.

Everyone inside was a smoker, but they were all frowning with faces that showed they were bothered by the smoke.

‘A sad reality.’

Cho Kyu-min felt heartbroken by the reality that even though he was paying taxes by burning his lungs, there weren’t enough smoking booths.

But what could he do? If he was so upset, he should quit.

Since he couldn’t, he was in this badger hole, shortening his lifespan again today. Cho Kyu-min despaired at his own lack of willpower and finally lit a cigarette.

“Phew.”

Taking a deep drag of the cigarette made him feel a little calmer.

‘I can’t live like this, really.’

He couldn’t object to doing good work, could he?

He was, after all, the person leading the establishment of the welfare foundation. He couldn’t say no to doing something for the children, whether it was the weekend or at night.

Even if that place was full of people, which Cho Kyu-min hated the most.

Cho Kyu-min quickly finished his cigarette, threw the butt into the ashtray, and quickly stepped out of the smoking booth. He could handle the smoke he inhaled through his nose and mouth, but he refused to let the smell get on his clothes.

He had to meet the kids now, and they wouldn’t like it if he smelled like cigarettes.

Cho Kyu-min sprayed the portable deodorizer he had prepared in advance to get rid of the cigarette smell and took a deep breath as he looked at the entrance.

Looking at the crowd of people at the entrance made his heart sink.

But there was no retreat.

He could kill some time outside and then proceed with the next schedule after seeing Kang Jin-ho and the others come out. But that went against Cho Kyu-min’s principles.

The first step back is easy.

It’s only difficult at first to delegate a small task that you don’t like or that doesn’t suit you. Once you do it once, it’s not that hard the second time, and from the third time, it becomes a matter of course.

‘There’s no such thing as a job that can be done half-heartedly.’

He had to clearly distinguish between things that couldn’t be done due to time, schedule, and manpower limitations, and things that weren’t done because he didn’t want to put in a little more effort.

Of course, this was the latter.

Just because something doesn’t seem very important doesn’t mean he doesn’t have to check it himself. If there’s even a slight chance that him seeing it with his own eyes would be better than not seeing it, there’s no need to hesitate.

“Let’s go.”

Cho Kyu-min bought a ticket and entered the aquarium.

The ticket office employee kept asking if it was just one ticket, which made him flinch a little, but Cho Kyu-min, with 10 years of solo dining experience, couldn’t be deterred. He watched movies alone, ate alone, and went to the aquarium alone.

Isn’t this the way of a solo?

Cho Kyu-min steadfastly adhered to the path he had walked so far. He felt a few pitying glances behind him, but he completely ignored them, looking straight ahead.

The crowd of people gathered at the entrance was making Cho Kyu-min tired.

‘They’re doing really good business?’

He heard it hadn’t been open long, but it was overflowing with people.

‘How much is this?’

Since his job was to live by begging, Cho Kyu-min naturally started calculating the aquarium’s sales. After roughly dividing the number of people coming in by time and estimating the sales, Cho Kyu-min’s mouth dropped open.

‘That’s insane?’

The sales were enormous.

‘So that’s why big companies run amusement parks and theaters.’

Large companies of similar size were running several entertainment facilities. Some companies had even directly entered the entertainment business. In contrast, Jae-kyung was stubbornly all-in on manufacturing.

To put it nicely, it was steadfast, and to put it badly, it was old-fashioned. When the world changes, new things are needed, and new things make money.

The aquarium he was seeing now couldn’t be called a new field, but it was definitely a field that Jae-kyung had never tried before.

‘Should I submit a proposal?’

Cho Kyu-min moved his feet along with the flow of people.

The entrance was crowded, but once inside, it didn’t feel as crowded as he had thought. That meant the interior was that large.

‘Let’s see, if the location is here, the land price would have been enormous, and considering that land price and including the construction costs…’

While others were admiring the fish and mesmerized by the fantastic interior, Cho Kyu-min was mesmerized by the prices of the fish and the interior that were forming in his head.

Money was floating in the water, and money was embedded in the ceiling.

‘How much is this?’

Thinking about the money that went into making this facility and then thinking about the money they would earn today, his forehead felt hot.

They were making a lot of money, but the investment itself was so enormous that it felt like scooping seawater with a bucket. At this rate, they would have to operate for 20 years without any problems to recoup the investment.

‘Later, the land and facilities can be sold off at a reasonable price, so it won’t take 20 years, but if the initial hype dies down and you think about maintenance and labor costs…’

Cho Kyu-min shook his head.

Of course, it was still profitable, so places like this were popping up everywhere, but it didn’t fit Jae-kyung’s style. Jae-kyung wasn’t a place that shied away from big investments, but it also wasn’t a style that continuously recovered investments through long-term operations.

‘It’s a bit of a shame, though.’

Cho Kyu-min clicked his tongue.

Whether it was profitable or not wasn’t that important of a factor. People might think that companies would go to hell if it made money, but that wasn’t the case.

An oil company wouldn’t jump into the restaurant business just because it was profitable. The first thing to consider was whether it was related to the company’s motto and the fields it was fostering.

It wasn’t because they were lazy, but because in order to proceed with a business in one field, the reallocation of personnel and departments had to be done first.

Unless Jae-kyung decided to enter the entertainment and leisure facilities business in earnest and make a large investment, creating a department to eat up this much profit would be a waste of manpower.

‘It’s not even that much of a profit, though.’

It was well-made.

Even to Cho Kyu-min, who had no interest in this kind of thing, the aquarium was so well-made that he couldn’t help but exclaim, ‘Wow!’

‘But this place… I don’t think it’s run by a big company?’

To build a facility of this size, an enormous amount of investment would be required.

This wasn’t something an individual could handle. If an individual had this much money, they wouldn’t bother building an aquarium like this.

They could just buy a couple of buildings in Gangnam [a wealthy district in Seoul] and not have to worry for the rest of their lives, so why would they jump into something risky?

‘They must have gotten a lot of investment.’

The picture was roughly drawn.

The actual operator of this aquarium would be separate. They probably put up a figurehead president, established a suitable corporation, and then poured in the investment.

Most of the money coming from here would go into the investor’s pockets.

‘The president must be having a headache.’

A company that is operated in such a non-transparent way is bound to have problems.

Since they can’t invest their own money, problems arise even in the process of establishing the company. Most construction projects exceed the initial construction cost. It’s almost a given.

There are bound to be variables in what people do. Most of the time, the construction cost is set by taking those variables into account, but when the greed and enthusiasm of the site meet with variables, unexpected additional expenses follow.

In the case of apartment construction, there are many experiences, so such things are rare, but in the case of special construction like this, the amount of money consumed is often more than expected.

If a company directly invests, they would reluctantly inject additional capital, but if a figurehead president is running the project with investment, the situation is different. The investor doesn’t want additional investment, and the president doesn’t want to bow his head and beg them.

And then….

‘It’s shoddy.’

Cho Kyu-min looked around sharply.

Each and every interior material was high-end. It made him wonder if it was really necessary to go this far.

After looking around for a while, Cho Kyu-min chuckled.

‘I can’t help my occupational hazard.’

He had been living as a Jae-kyung man for too long.

Now, even when he came to the aquarium, he was checking for any management problems.

Cho Kyu-min shook his head, realizing that he had become a company man to the bone.

What did it matter to Cho Kyu-min whether this place was in the red or had shoddy construction? It wasn’t like he was the one who had to run it.

Cho Kyu-min shook his head.

It felt like he had come to do a field survey in a place where others came to play. Cho Kyu-min shook his head to clear away the useless thoughts and closed and opened his eyes. After doing that, the things that had looked like money now looked like fish.

“It’s kind of amazing.”

The sight of fish swimming smoothly in a large fish tank was a spectacle that couldn’t be seen anywhere else. There were also huge, monster-like things that didn’t seem like fish in between.

If he lived nearby, it wouldn’t be bad to stop by once in a while to change his mood. Although the entrance fee was a bit expensive….

‘It seems like a good date spot.’

Cho Kyu-min would probably never come again.

Realizing that fact, Cho Kyu-min felt somehow sad.

That’s when it happened.

Murmuring.

The front was a bit noisy.

‘Are they doing some kind of show?’

Aquariums aren’t just places to observe. They provide things to see with various shows. But this murmuring didn’t sound like it was filled with such joy.

People were gathered at the front, which led to a narrow passage. Cho Kyu-min frowned and approached the place where people were gathered. He had a constitution that made him have to resolve his curiosity right away.

“What…”

Just as he was about to ask what was going on, a familiar voice reached his ears.

“Are you okay?”

‘Jin-sung?’

When he heard Han Jin-sung’s high-pitched voice, Cho Kyu-min moved closer. Cho Kyu-min, with a tense face, listened carefully.