Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1331

The agent stared at Kang Jin-ho and Lee Hyun-soo, who were sitting across from him, his expression unreadable.

Kang Jin-ho was casually smoking a cigarette with his legs crossed, while Lee Hyun-soo was slouched back as if he couldn’t be bothered. Looking at them, the agent felt a sense of existential weariness he hadn’t experienced even during his long career as a spy.

“Well…”

The agent opened and closed his mouth several times before letting out a deep sigh.

“…Are you aware that you’re here for a dangerous mission?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“I’m asking if you are aware!”

Lee Hyun-soo waved his hand dismissively.

“We’re the kind of people who always deal with dangerous stuff, so we don’t really need to be aware of it. You could say we live on the edge every day.”

“Huh? The edge? What?”

The agent’s face twitched.

“Hey, don’t make that face. It’s kind of unsettling. Is that… did you get plastic surgery?”

“Do you think this is my original face?”

“Then I was going to offer my condolences. That’s really unfortunate.”

“Ugh…”

The agent sighed deeply.

‘Seriously, where did these people suddenly come from!’

He was burning up inside, his insides rotting away.

This whole operation was supposed to be about secrecy. No one was supposed to know they had entered the country.

But these guys were doing the opposite of being discreet, moving around carelessly, causing trouble, and even renting out a huge restaurant full of people for their own use.

At this point, they were practically begging for attention.

“At least try to not be so conspicuous, can’t you?”

“Why would we?”

“Huh?”

“They already know anyway.”

“…Huh?”

The agent’s eyes widened.

“Know? What do you mean, know?”

“The Chinese higher-ups already know we’ve entered China.”

“W-what are you talking about? That’s absurd…”

“It’s not absurd. They came looking for us themselves.”

Lee Hyun-soo glared at the agent with slightly cold eyes.

“The information was leaked before we even entered China. They’ve already secured our travel routes through CCTV [Closed-Circuit Television]. Do you understand what that means?”

The agent closed his mouth.

But his trembling eyes showed how shocked he was. Despite being trained to hide his emotions, he couldn’t conceal his agitation.

“There must be some mistake…”

Lee Hyun-soo silently grabbed a glass on the table and gulped down the cold water. Then, he slammed it back down on the table.

Clack!

The sound of the cup hitting the table startled everyone, and the agent straightened his back.

“What’s your name?”

“Huh?”

“What’s your name?”

“Are you asking for my real name?”

“Whatever.”

The agent swallowed hard.

“Please call me Jang Pil-jae.”

“Alright, Mr. Jang Pil-jae.”

Lee Hyun-soo narrowed his eyes.

“I understand it’s hard to accept, and I understand you want to deny it. But isn’t there something else you should be doing right now?”

He was right.

Jang Pil-jae bit his lip.

If what Lee Hyun-soo said was true, it meant that information was leaking from the inside. Even if it wasn’t the National Intelligence Service, it meant someone had found a way to access the government’s CCTV database.

This was a huge deal.

How many CCTVs were there in South Korea?

If someone could control the CCTVs, they could track the routes of everyone coming and going from Korea. Of course, it would be impossible to monitor everyone due to system and manpower limitations, but even monitoring a few key figures would provide a massive amount of information.

Which meant?

‘Are these people so important that they need to be monitored by the Chinese with that much investment?’

These people?

Jang Pil-jae suddenly realized that he knew nothing about Kang Jin-ho and Lee Hyun-soo. He was just following orders from his superiors, delivering information and providing guidance. He hadn’t paid much attention to what these people actually did.

‘They’re more important than I thought…’

Jang Pil-jae glanced at Kang Jin-ho.

There was no need to ask who was in charge. Section Chief Lee Jong-wook was clearly more concerned about Kang Jin-ho.

‘This young man is so important that the Chinese higher-ups need to monitor him…’

At that moment, Kang Jin-ho frowned and looked down slightly.

“…Let’s eat while we talk.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled slightly, looking satisfied, and picked up his chopsticks.

“It won’t taste good if it gets cold.”

As Kang Jin-ho picked up his chopsticks, Lee Hyun-soo sighed and picked up his own.

“Let’s talk while we eat. We’re doing this to make a living, after all.”

No, we came here to avoid attention, not to eat!

…Jang Pil-jae thought to himself.

Before, he might have said something, but today he felt a bit guilty. The fact that information had leaked from their side bothered him, and so did the fact that Kang Jin-ho was more important than he had thought.

‘Seriously, they should have told me this!’

What if Jang Pil-jae had made a mistake?

Those desk jockeys always take the people in the field for granted. They don’t even bother to pass on the information they should be giving.

“Eat up.”

“Ah, yes.”

Jang Pil-jae glanced around and brought a mouthful of beef noodle soup to his mouth. As he chewed the noodles without thinking, he wondered what he was doing.

‘Wait a minute.’

As his confused mind began to clear, he realized how absurd the situation was.

“Um, but…”

“Yes?”

Lee Hyun-soo, who was slurping his noodles, looked up at Jang Pil-jae’s words.

“If the information was leaked as you said… doesn’t that mean they also know what Mr. Kang Jin-ho and Mr. Lee Hyun-soo are planning to do here?”

“Uh, no.”

Lee Hyun-soo slurped his noodles and wiped his mouth.

“That’s not it. They know we’re here, but they don’t know what we’re going to do.”

“But on their side…”

Jang Pil-jae tilted his head, looking unconvinced. Then, he nodded as if he understood.

‘No, if the goal wasn’t to stop the mission but to monitor them, they could track their entry into China, but they wouldn’t know what they were planning to do.’

It was a pretty absurd situation, but it made sense.

Jang Pil-jae sighed.

“Then, will you proceed with the mission as planned?”

“Of course.”

Lee Hyun-soo stared at Jang Pil-jae.

“Even if they know our goal, we’ll proceed. This isn’t something we can cancel just because the situation has become difficult.”

There was too much at stake to blame the situation.

Even if the losses were great, they had to succeed.

“However…”

Lee Hyun-soo raised a finger and shook it lightly.

“Since your side’s problem has caused a setback, we need to handle this reasonably.”

“Reasonably, as in?”

“Tell them to pay us extra.”

Jang Pil-jae’s eyes widened.

“Extra payment, you mean?”

“Money. What else would it be?”

Lee Hyun-soo’s firm gaze met Jang Pil-jae’s blank stare.

Slurp, slurp, slurp.

And next to them, Kang Jin-ho was diligently slurping his beef noodle soup.

“Money?”

“Yeah. Why? Is there something strange about that?”

“Ah, no. It’s not that…”

He couldn’t say what he really wanted to say.

But this was a matter of national and public destiny. Jang Pil-jae couldn’t understand Lee Hyun-soo’s way of thinking, bringing money into such a situation.

“Money is a good thing. You can measure most of the millions of things in the world, even human emotions, with money. It’s one of the greatest things humans have created.”

“It’s always hard to find a suitable reward. The easiest thing to do is adjust the monetary value.”

Lee Hyun-soo smiled.

“Isn’t that right?”

“…Ah, of course. That’s right.”

“Go back and tell Lee Jong-wook clearly. Since the risk has increased, the previous conditions are no longer acceptable.

There doesn’t seem to be any additional benefit, so just tell them to decide how much to compensate us and get in touch. Do you understand?”

Jang Pil-jae nodded.

There was no point in arguing whether Lee Hyun-soo was right or wrong. He didn’t have the authority to negotiate with Lee Hyun-soo anyway. He was just a messenger.

“If we don’t hear from you by tonight, we’ll call this off. Tomorrow is the day.”

“B-but that’s so sudden… Even if I report it, the higher-ups will need to have a meeting.”

“Mr. Jang Pil-jae.”

“Yes?”

“Why should we be the only ones dealing with that urgency?”

Lee Hyun-soo growled in a low voice.

“If this is such an important matter, then your side should move with the same level of importance. You emphasize how important this is to us, but you’re going to follow all the procedures and stick to the rules?”

He had nothing to say.

Lee Hyun-soo was right.

“Anyway, we have nothing more to say. Then.”

“W-wait a minute…”

Jang Pil-jae urgently grabbed Lee Hyun-soo.

“What is it?”

“Could you at least give me a rough estimate of the amount you’re asking for? It seems so open-ended…”

“That’s for the country to decide.”

Lee Hyun-soo said with a smile.

“We’ll see how important the country thinks this is. If they don’t think it’s that important, then it wouldn’t be a problem for us to withdraw, would it? If this is such an important matter, that is.”

Cold sweat dripped down Jang Pil-jae’s forehead.

This was a problem caused by their incompetence.

But it was a mistake, not intentional. Yet, Lee Hyun-soo was taking advantage of that mistake, making it hurt and rubbing salt into the wound.

“Mr. Jang Pil-jae.”

“…Yes.”

“Don’t overthink it. You’re not the decision-maker either, are you? You just need to convey our proposal. The decision will be made…”

Lee Hyun-soo raised his finger and pointed to the ceiling.

“Up there.”

“I understand.”

Jang Pil-jae sighed deeply. Then, he took out a smart pad from his pocket and handed it to Lee Hyun-soo.

“This is the device containing your information.”

“…You’re just giving this to us like this?”

“This is safer. If we transferred the data carelessly, there might be traces left on the device, and we could be wiretapped during transmission.”

“Okay.”

“Please make sure to physically destroy it after use. I’ve heard you’re experts, so I won’t tell you how to do it.”

Experts?

…Well, they were experts at breaking and smashing things. If they were experts, they were experts.

“I’ll get going first.”

Lee Hyun-soo got up from his seat, then turned his head as if he had forgotten something.

Slurp.

Kang Jin-ho was drinking the beef noodle soup straight from the bowl. He was literally drinking it.

Clack!

Kang Jin-ho put the bowl down with a satisfied expression and got up from his seat.

“Let’s go.”

“Ah, yes.”

“And…”

Kang Jin-ho glanced at Jang Pil-jae and said,

“It would be best for you to return to Korea.”

“…Yes?”

“You’ve probably been exposed too.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded lightly and walked out. Then, Lee Hyun-soo shrugged and followed him.

“How kind of him.”

Lee Hyun-soo joked as he walked out, but Jang Pil-jae, left alone, couldn’t move for a while.