Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1972

“So, what I’m saying is…”

“Ah, no, but…”

“Huh?”

Park Yu-min asked, “Hey, are things going well with what you’re doing these days?”

“Me?”

Park Yu-min hummed, then scratched his head.

‘He dodged it!’

Kang Jin-ho has improved.

Excellent, Kang Jin-ho.

Now, he even knows how to smoothly change the subject while being attacked.

“Well, I…”

Park Yu-min opened his mouth with an awkward smile.

“I’m just working hard. I’m also slowly preparing to be a coach.”

“Coach?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm.”

“…How old are you to be a coach?”

“It’s a bit faster in this field. Athletes usually play until their mid-thirties, but we have to start preparing for retirement by our mid-twenties.”

Joo Young-gi widened his eyes as if he couldn’t understand.

“What’s so fast about that?”

“There are some things that can’t be overcome with effort.”

“Hey, you can still play for a few more years. Aren’t you a world champion?”

“…That’s a really old-fashioned expression.”

Park Yu-min laughed.

“It’s not like I’m retiring right away. I’ll probably play as a player for a few more years. When I say I’m preparing to be a coach, it just means I’m observing how the coaches do things and thinking about how I would do it.”

Kang Jin-ho looked at Park Yu-min with renewed admiration.

It’s easy to say, but for someone who is focused on one thing to think about and prepare for the future is not as easy as it sounds.

Kang Jin-ho also always tries to prepare for the future, but in reality, he is struggling to deal with the immediate tasks at hand.

“Aren’t you tired?”

“Huh? Of what?”

Kang Jin-ho looked at Park Yu-min with serious eyes.

“I don’t know much about your field, but even if it’s the same industry, being a player and a coach are completely different jobs.”

“Hmm, that’s true.”

“No. That’s the wrong question.” Kang Jin-ho asked.

“Aren’t you scared?”

“…Jin-ho, you’re asking a lot of strange questions today. Scared?”

“You’ve achieved so much as a player.”

“Yeah. Park Yu-min might seem a bit weak outside, but he’s a beast in the game.”

“…That sounds like an insult, like a keyboard warrior?”

“It’s not wrong. Seeing how nasty he gets when he grabs a mouse and keyboard.”

These guys use the same words with different meanings.

“Anyway, you’re amazing as a player.”

“Why do you keep making me embarrassed?”

“But a good player doesn’t necessarily become a good coach, so aren’t you afraid of starting something new?”

Park Yu-min tilted his head and looked at Kang Jin-ho.

“Afraid?”

“Yeah.”

Park Yu-min frowned slightly. Since Park Yu-min rarely shows negative emotions on his face, that frown looks unfamiliar.

“I thought you said you weren’t, but it seems like Jin-ho has a lot on his mind these days.”

“Huh?”

“Saying strange things.”

Park Yu-min stared intently at Kang Jin-ho. Kang Jin-ho flinched at the honest gaze.

“The old Jin-ho would never have said such a thing.”

“Hmm.”

Park Yu-min scrutinizes Kang Jin-ho as if trying to figure out what’s on his mind.

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know.”

Park Yu-min smiled.

“I am scared. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Kang Jin-ho looked at Park Yu-min, who was smiling.

“But just because I’m scared doesn’t mean I can’t do it. Right?”

“…Right.”

“It’s not just me, is it?”

Park Yu-min said calmly.

“That’s how life is. When an ordinary man goes to the military, he’s scared, and when he starts a new job, he’s scared too. Wouldn’t he be scared when he leaves his job after decades of working and starts something new again?”

Kang Jin-ho nodded quietly.

“I’m not old enough to talk about life, but that’s what it seems like. We always want things to stay the same, but eventually, we have to prepare for something different.”

“You have to overcome it?”

“Hmm… I don’t think you necessarily have to ‘overcome’ it.”

“Huh?”

Park Yu-min shook his head at the bewildered Kang Jin-ho.

“It’s more like ‘adapting’ than ‘overcoming.’ Adapting to a new life, a new system, something new.”

Adaptation…

Somehow, that word feels like it’s stuck in my mind.

Joo Young-gi chuckled.

“He says something right sometimes. It’s the same for me. A few years ago, would I have ever imagined that I’d be running a pizza place? If someone had told me in the army, ‘You’ll be running a pizza place later,’ I would have kicked them and told them not to talk nonsense.”

“…That’s true.”

“But we all adapt and live well.”

“You’ve adapted a bit too much.” Kang Jin-ho has changed, and Park Yu-min has changed.

But the person who has changed the most is Joo Young-gi.

Even in the army, Joo Young-gi was like a semi-gangster, but these days, he bows ninety degrees to every customer.

Neither Kang Jin-ho nor Park Yu-min ever imagined that Joo Young-gi would greet customers so politely.

“Jin-ho.”

“Yeah?”

Park Yu-min smiled at Kang Jin-ho.

“I know from experience…”

Joo Young-gi’s eyes widened.

“I’m always terrified when this guy says something like that.”

“…It doesn’t really suit you.”

“Ahem, just listen.”

Park Yu-min cleared his throat and opened his mouth with serious eyes.

“I was always scared.”

“As you know, I have a limp.” Joo Young-gi snorted.

“That’s nothing. There are guys walking around with bullet holes in their heads.”

“…At least that’s not visible on the outside.”

Park Yu-min continued with a smile.

“I was always scared. Even when I went to college. Jin-ho was there, but I wondered how people who didn’t know I had a limp would look at me.”

“It was the same when I first became a pro gamer. Could I really do well? Would I be discriminated against because I’m disabled?”

“Hey, you idiot. It’s a game you play with your hands, what does your limp have to do with it?”

“It doesn’t. It has nothing to do with it. But… looking back, it’s funny, but I was seriously scared back then.”

“And when I became a pro gamer again in another game, I was so scared. Is this the right thing to do? If I can’t perform as well as I did before, will my old fans be disappointed? Would it be better to just fade away quietly?”

Park Yu-min shrugged.

“Looking back, it was nothing. I just had to do it. But back then, I was really scared. I was nervous.”

Joo Young-gi and Kang Jin-ho looked at Park Yu-min silently.

“It’s the same now. Not yet, but soon I’ll be thinking about it again. Would it be better to just retire as a player? If I fail as a coach, wouldn’t I just ruin what I’ve built up as a player?”

Park Yu-min smiled faintly.

“Or, given my personality, will I be able to lead the kids well? Well, those kinds of worries. Yes, I’ll be scared. I know my personality well. But…”

Park Yu-min’s gaze looked directly at Kang Jin-ho.

“Well, what can I do? I have to do it, right?”

“I can’t just sit around doing nothing and spend the money I’ve earned.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“…I didn’t earn that much.”

“Bullshit! There were articles saying your salary this year was higher than a baseball player’s! You’re paying for the drinks here! You have to pay, you bastard!”

“…You’re opening another branch of your store, right?”

“Hey! Does opening a branch make you money? I’m just investing all the money I earned because I opened a branch! I’m dying of poverty.”

“…Young-gi, if you say that somewhere else, you’ll get stoned. You need to watch your mouth.”

“That’s what I should be saying, you jerk!”

Park Yu-min smiled awkwardly.

“Anyway, that’s what I think. In the end, things that are nothing after they pass are scary and frightening when they happen. But you still have to do it. That’s what life is, right?”

Kang Jin-ho looked at Park Yu-min with a slightly dazed expression.

“That’s what it is…”

“Hehe, it’s awkward for me to say this in front of you.”

“No, it’s not.”

Kang Jin-ho shook his head.

“No, it’s really not. Thank you for telling me.”

“…Why are you being so awkward all of a sudden, friends?”

“Really.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled.

Friends are people who are fun to be with, but they are also people you can rely on when things are tough.

In that sense, Kang Jin-ho was truly grateful that Park Yu-min was his friend.

“Yeah, man. We all adapt and live. I also… adapt and live.”

“What adaptation? The store?”

“No!”

Joo Young-gi said with a sulky face.

“I didn’t know my wife would be so fierce. She used to be like an angel.”

“What time is it? If you drink too late, you’ll get killed…”

Kang Jin-ho and Park Yu-min sighed in unison.

“…You have to adapt to that.”

“Yeah, there’s no other way.”

Kang Jin-ho silently picked up his beer glass, watching Joo Young-gi and Park Yu-min start bickering.

‘It’s nothing after it passes… Can that be true?

Will this confusion also seem like nothing when I look back on it later?

I hope so.

Because that would mean I overcame it.

Someday, not now, but someday, a world will come where people and warriors live together as if it’s natural. No, I have to make it happen.

“Jin-ho, so…”

“Yeah?”

“Cheer up.”

It was an unexpected remark.

Park Yu-min smiled calmly at Kang Jin-ho.

“You’ll do well. You’re the one who taught me all this.”

“…Kang Jin-ho is a bit of a man, though.”

Kang Jin-ho laughed.

It was true that he felt burdened by this kind of attention. But this wasn’t a word of expectation. It was just a word of faith. Words of trust from a friend.

“Let’s drink.”

“Yeah.”

“Ugh, I’m going to get nagged today.”

“Then go home.”

“Hey, a man isn’t afraid of nagging! Let her nag!”

“Hey, you have a call.”

“What? Really?”

Joo Young-gi, startled, looked down at the table with fire in his eyes.

“It’s not ringing, you bastard!”

“…You said you were a man?”

“Even a man is afraid of his wife. Hey, that guy who fished, he got nagged by his wife his whole life.”

“…Kang Tae-gong. Young-gi, Kang Tae-gong [a famous historical figure known for his fishing skills and wisdom].”

“Yeah, that guy! The one who was good at fishing!”

“…Okay, just drink.”

Glasses clink in the air.

Kang Jin-ho smiled faintly, looking at the foam filling the beer glasses.

Deep thoughts?

Worrying about the future?

These are things that can’t be completely shaken off.

But at least for this moment, I want to put them aside a little. There isn’t enough time just to fully feel the faces I’m facing.

‘It’s fun.’

Even if we’re just exchanging silly jokes, I’m just happy and peaceful.

That’s why it’s even more so.

‘I wish it would stop.’

I wish time wouldn’t pass like this.

But day after day.

Time flows mercilessly.

The time remaining since the Black King’s declaration is not long.

Time, which is so fast and therefore so precious, time that cannot be grasped or stopped, was flowing indifferently.