Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 119

Life in the military was no different. Especially for Kang Jin-ho, it was truly no different.

“Rise and shine!”

As soon as the reveille sounded, Kang Jin-ho shot straight up, and within 30 seconds, he had his bedding neatly arranged and was starting to change. He didn’t seem particularly fast, but strangely, he was incredibly quick.

Before the other senior soldiers could even finish putting on their uniforms, Kang Jin-ho, already in his combat boots, neatly organized the shoes that had been scattered overnight.

“Hey, are you not moving faster?”

Thanks to him, the squad members on the opposite bunk were having a hard time.

‘Ah, that crazy bastard. Seriously.’

‘Did he install a motor?’

‘It was so comfortable when that guy was on leave.’

When someone moves at lightning speed, it’s natural to compare. While the sergeants hadn’t even shown signs of waking up, the corporals were clearly displeased that their squad’s juniors were moving at less than half the speed of Kang Jin-ho, and they were relentlessly berating them.

“Hurry up!”

“Can’t you see how Jin-ho is doing it?”

It was a problem whether they saw it or not.

After the chaos of the morning assembly and the morning run, the official daily schedule began. Cleaning time was one of the times when Kang Jin-ho shone the most.

“Jin-ho.”

“Private, Kang Jin-ho.”

“Well…”

Jeon Hyuk-soo spoke cautiously.

“Keeping the bunks clean is a good thing, but I don’t think you need to scrub them with toothpaste from the morning, do you?”

The bunks were so shiny that it was almost embarrassing to sit on them. Jeon Hyuk-soo considered himself quite tidy, but he couldn’t compare to Kang Jin-ho, the human steam cleaner.

“I had some time left, so I thought I might as well do a thorough job.”

“Yeah, that’s a good thought, but…”

Jeon Hyuk-soo sighed.

They had heard countless stories about the hardships of taking in new recruits, but they were probably the only ones suffering like this.

“Did you do the daily equipment check?”

“Yes.”

“Right, I asked a silly question. You must have finished the reward cleaning, so I don’t even need to ask, right?”

“Yes.”

“…Okay.”

It wasn’t fun.

It was seriously not fun.

In the past, there was at least the fun of teasing Sung Tae-ho, but since Kang Jin-ho came and started doing most of Sung Tae-ho’s work, it became difficult to even nag at Sung Tae-ho. However, they couldn’t complain because Kang Jin-ho was gradually taking over the work that he was supposed to do.

“Hey, have you ever thought about making a career out of this?”

“No, sir.”

“No matter how I think about it, losing you would be a great loss for the Republic of Korea Armed Forces. Think about it carefully.”

“I’m fine, sir.”

“…Okay.”

Once the daily schedule started, Kang Jin-ho was, literally, a force of nature.

“…Jin-ho.”

“Private, Kang Jin-ho!”

“Um, you know that today’s task is digging foxholes, right?”

“Yes, sir, I know.”

“Then you also know that our task this morning is to dig one foxhole here, right?”

“Yes, sir, I know.”

“Um, then…”

Jo Won-gu looked at the foxhole with a strange expression.

“If you dig this entire foxhole by yourself in 30 minutes after the start of the work, what are we supposed to do?”

“I will correct it.”

“…Is this something to correct?” Jo Won-gu was dumbfounded.

‘Is this guy a Terminator or something?’

They weren’t digging foxholes at the training ground right now. They weren’t even repairing foxholes that had collapsed due to rain. They were digging new foxholes because the guidelines had changed, and after telling them to dig a foxhole here and going for a cigarette, Kang Jin-ho had already dug half of it.

‘Is this a sandpit instead of a mountain?’

In reality, digging a hole in a mountain is not an easy task. People who haven’t dug a foxhole might think that there’s only dirt in the mountains, but if you actually dig a foxhole in the mountains, you’ll realize that half of the ground we’re standing on is intertwined with gravel, stones, and tree roots. Usually, you break up the soil with a pickaxe, clear it, and cut the tree roots as you dig…

“It’s like your shovel is an electric chainsaw… No, even if it was an electric chainsaw, breaking rocks is too much!”

After digging halfway, a large rock popped out, and they were thinking of digging somewhere else, but Kang Jin-ho suddenly lifted his shovel and struck the rock.

Usually, the shovel would break or his hand would get torn, but that rock, despite its large size, didn’t seem to have any pride, and it just broke with a ‘thud’!

With a blank expression, Kang Jin-ho broke the rock, threw the large pieces out of the foxhole, and neatly cleared the remaining space.

All of this happened in just 30 minutes.

“Even after seeing it with my own eyes, I don’t know what I just saw.”

If there was a world foxhole digging competition, the winner was practically decided.

“…He’s like a god of shoveling, sir.”

“That’s a subtle nuance…”

“That guy handles a shovel like it’s a spoon, sir.”

“I know.”

They finished their morning quota in just 30 minutes, but they couldn’t go down the mountain, and they couldn’t ask for more work, so the 3rd squad spent the morning just hanging around and chatting. After lunch, they were assigned an even bigger task.

“…It’s like we’re lumberjacks or something.”

Jo Won-gu’s face was not good as he climbed the mountain with a saw. Usually, if they had a tough job in the morning, they would get an easier job in the afternoon, but they were always assigned tough jobs because they were the standard squad.

“This is why the military is messed up.”

If a good worker does a good job, they should be given some consideration, but in the military, if there’s a good worker, the hard work always goes to that person.

They did the work that other squads avoided, digging foxholes in the mountains, and now they were told to go to the mountain and cut down five logs.

“Are they going to take responsibility if we get hurt?”

Cutting down trees wasn’t difficult. They were just given a rusty saw, but they had the guts and determination, so cutting down a few trees was nothing. The problem was that they had to move those large logs down the mountain.

One wrong move could be fatal.

“Ugh, damn it.”

They were annoyed, and curses came out of their mouths, but the military was a place where you did what you were told.

“Is this enough, sir?”

“Yeah, let’s cut that one.”

Jo Won-gu stood next to the tree with the saw. He left the heavy work to the kids, but he had to take on the dangerous work. He was the squad leader, after all.

“Push it well. So the saw doesn’t get stuck.”

“Yes, sir.”

As the squad members pushed the top of the tree, Jo Won-gu put all his strength into cutting the bottom of the tree. After cutting halfway, he felt his strength draining.

“Let’s switch.”

“I’ll do it, sir.”

Jeon Hyuk-soo took the saw. Jo Won-gu stepped back and looked up, tilting his head with a slightly ambiguous expression.

‘It might get caught?’

The most dangerous moment when cutting down a tree is when it falls. Usually, you decide the direction the tree will fall in advance and push the tree in that direction while sawing, but sometimes, the branches of trees get tangled, and the tree falls in an unexpected direction.

That’s usually how accidents happen.

“Hey, be careful. It might get caught.”

“Yes, sir.”

Strength went into the arms pushing the tree.

Jo Won-gu started to get nervous from the moment the saw had cut almost 2/3 of the tree.

“Try pushing it.”

“It’s not even close yet, sir.”

“Try to work while pushing as much as possible.”

“Yes, sir.”

They were following the instructions, but the tree showed no signs of falling even when they had almost finished cutting it.

‘That looks like it’s caught…’

Jo Won-gu started to wonder if he should give up and cut down another tree.

It was a shame to give up on what they had done so far, but it was a hundred times better to suffer more than to have the kids get hurt.

“Hey, anyw…”

“It’s falling!”

The moment Jo Won-gu was about to stop the work, the tree started to tilt in the direction they had decided.

“Oh, thank…”

At that moment, the tree, with its branches tangled, spun around and started to fall sideways.

“Run, you bastards!”

Jo Won-gu shouted in horror, but the squad members, seeing the tree falling over their heads, were momentarily unable to react and just stared blankly at the scene.

“Oh, crap!”

The moment Jo Won-gu was about to throw himself, a loud crash erupted.

Thud!

Then, the falling tree seemed to float into the air before landing on the ground.

“…What?”

What did I just see?

Jo Won-gu rubbed his eyes.

Did I just see that tree float into the air?

That tree?

Even if they had chosen a tree that was easy to carry, and it wasn’t a weight that a person couldn’t handle, that one tree must have weighed at least 200kg, but that tree flew into the air?

Jo Won-gu turned his head with a dazed look and saw Kang Jin-ho slowly lowering his outstretched leg.

“…Did you kick it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You kicked it?”

“Yes, sir.”

Ah, I see.

That’s a good method.

I should kick the tree if it falls in the future. Then the tree will fly and fall to the ground.

“You son of a bitch! You have to say something that makes sense!”

I can’t believe it, and I can’t not believe it!

“Wow, that was close.”

“If it hadn’t gotten caught on that branch, we’d all be in the infirmary right now, sir.” Jo Won-gu asked blankly.

“It got caught on a branch?”

“Yes, sir. It got caught on that branch up there, and then it floated, sir.”

Jo Won-gu laughed.

Did these guys not learn physics? There’s no way a falling tree would shoot back up into the air just because the branches got tangled!

“You must have seen it wrong.”

It was his delusion that he felt the tree float, and in reality, the tree got caught on a branch and fell sideways.

In the meantime, that fearless guy kicked the tree, and it just happened to match the timing of the tree turning.

“…I know it doesn’t make any sense.”

“Sir?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

Jo Won-gu sighed deeply.

‘Am I losing it?’

Did he see something that wasn’t there, or did he want to believe that he saw something that wasn’t there?

“Anyway, let’s finish cutting, sir. There are five trees, right?”

“Yeah.”

Do whatever you want.

Jo Won-gu lost his motivation and sat down at the base of a tree, taking out a cigarette.

“…That guy doesn’t seem human, sir.”

“Right?”

“If he was human, he’d have a conscience, sir.”

“Right?”

Jo Won-gu and Jeon Hyuk-soo looked at the logs being dragged in front of them and were speechless.

Usually, when carrying logs down a mountain, you have no choice but to drag the front end. Some people might ask why not roll them, but rolling logs on a mountain where trees grow densely and the ground is uneven is practically impossible.

So, usually, one person lifts the front end, and the back end is dragged on the ground.

The problem is that even that task is not easy and accidents can easily happen, so it’s a task that you do while taking turns with someone watching from the side…

“…That guy is a bit strange, sir.”

“Right?”

If you saw someone carrying three logs on one side and two logs on the other side, leisurely walking down the mountain, you would usually think that way.

“That must be 1 ton in total.”

Of course, since one side is touching the ground, that much weight wouldn’t be on him, but still, that shouldn’t be a weight that a person can carry.

That was Jo Won-gu’s common sense until now.

When the senior soldiers were struggling, getting caught on the rocks and almost falling while dragging the logs, Kang Jin-ho suddenly took the logs, put them all on his sides, and started dragging all five logs.

And he was doing it as casually as if he was taking a walk.

“Hyuk-soo.”

“Corporal, Jeon Hyuk-soo.”

“Heat up some frozen food for him tonight…”

“Tell the infirmary to admit me. I’m seeing things.”

“…I’ll go with you, sir.” It was the day that Jo Won-gu had one more reason to get discharged as soon as possible.