Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1475

“Hoo…”

Lee Jong-wook took his hands off the keyboard and stretched out with a big yawn.

‘Finally done.’

The files organized on the monitor screen were sprawling. Lee Hyun-soo was making Lee Jong-wook work like a dog, just as he had confidently declared.

‘In terms of workload, I’m doing three days’ worth of work from the National Intelligence Service in just one day here.’

Lee Jong-wook was known as a workaholic at the National Intelligence Service. But here, he had to handle at least twice the workload he used to handle there.

Of course, the tasks here weren’t as critical as the ones he handled at the National Intelligence Service, so the mental stress wasn’t as high.

But mental stress or whatever, this amount of work was enough to make him feel like he was going to die from overwork.

Yet, the reason Lee Jong-wook couldn’t say anything was…

Tap! Tap tap tap tap! Tap tap tap tap tap tap!

It was because Lee Hyun-soo, sitting in front of him, was processing work with terrifying momentum.

‘Is that even human?’

Lee Jong-wook slyly turned on the server.

Looking at the speed at which Lee Hyun-soo was uploading the documents he had processed, it was hard to tell if he was a human or a macro [a programmed sequence of commands].

Of course…

There was a difference: Lee Jong-wook had to process work according to his superior’s opinions and get approval, while Lee Hyun-soo could just process documents based on his own judgment.

But even considering that, Lee Hyun-soo’s work processing speed was phenomenal.

‘Should I learn martial arts too?’

Even though Lee Hyun-soo was called a half-baked martial artist at the General Assembly, a martial artist was still a martial artist. His stamina, concentration, and brain processing speed were at a level that ordinary people couldn’t even imagine.

All of this wasn’t just because he had learned martial arts, but Lee Jong-wook, who wanted to borrow even a cat’s paw for work right now, couldn’t help but be tempted.

“Ugh…”

Finally, Lee Hyun-soo seemed to have finished his morning work, as he took his hands off the keyboard and rested his chin on his hand. Then, with a face that showed he was not satisfied, he slightly shook his head.

“Tell the department heads to gather in the conference room.”

“Yes?”

“Tell the department heads to gather!”

“Yes!”

A person in front of him quickly rushed out. Lee Hyun-soo clicked his tongue slightly, leaned back in his chair, and put his feet on the desk.

“These bastards are slacking off.”

Lee Jong-wook cautiously glanced at Lee Hyun-soo before speaking.

“Is there a problem?”

“It hasn’t been long since I went to the US, and they’ve already been doing a sloppy job on more than one or two things.”

*Sir, not everyone can work like you.*

*If we were to process work according to your standards, we’d have to bring a La-Z-Boy bed to the office and camp out, you bastard!* [La-Z-Boy is a brand of recliner chair, implying they’d need to live at the office to keep up with Lee Hyun-soo’s pace]

Lee Jong-wook had a lot to say, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud.

Before joining the General Assembly, Lee Hyun-soo had the image of a sycophant who stuck by Kang Jin-ho’s side and annoyed people, but the Lee Hyun-soo he saw inside the General Assembly was a tyrant and a devil who pushed people to hell.

Especially for office workers, it was no exaggeration to say that Lee Hyun-soo held the power of life and death over them.

When it came to power or authority, there was no way Lee Hyun-soo could challenge Kang Jin-ho, but from the perspective of office workers, Kang Jin-ho was someone from another world who they never met or discussed work with.

But Lee Hyun-soo was different.

For office workers, Lee Hyun-soo was the final reporting target and a superior who knew all their work inside and out.

He had a terrible personality, was picky, good at his job, and diligent, so it was no exaggeration to say he was the worst of the worst.

“Lee Jong-wook.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Is it manageable?”

Lee Jong-wook scratched the back of his head.

What should he answer?

“Well, um… I’m not sure yet.”

Lee Hyun-soo chuckled and said,

“Want to grab a coffee?”

“…Didn’t you just tell the department heads to gather?”

“What’s the big deal if those who don’t do their jobs wait a bit? Let’s go.”

*If you say so, then that must be the case.*

“How is it?”

It was a question without context. But Lee Jong-wook quickly understood what Lee Hyun-soo was asking.

*Ugh…*

…•

How should he explain it?

“It’s hard to put into words….”

Lee Jong-wook scratched his head, sighed slightly, and opened his mouth.

“It’s a bit inefficient, and I think there’s no system, but it’s working well enough, so I don’t know how to take it.”

Lee Hyun-soo smiled knowingly.

Lee Jong-wook’s words accurately described the current state of the General Assembly.

“It’s because it changed too rapidly in a short amount of time. And it’s also because the staff was recently divided into two groups.”

“I think so.”

To be blunt, it was hard to say that the office workers at the General Assembly were doing a good job. They had already been to a training session at the Finance Department, and if this was their level after going through the notoriously difficult training for new employees at the Finance Department, he couldn’t even imagine what they were like before.

‘And they grew that place to this level.’

Lee Jong-wook was once again deeply aware of how amazing Lee Hyun-soo was.

“How should we fix it?”

“Yes?”

“It’s about time we shake things up, and as you know, I’ve been here too long.”

To be precise, he hadn’t been working at the General Assembly for that long, but the way things worked at the Yeongnam Association and the General Assembly were similar. The problem was that Lee Hyun-soo had become too accustomed to this way of doing things.

Lee Jong-wook understood what Lee Hyun-soo was saying.

“Are you saying I should change it?”

“Don’t think of it as something grand. Just think of it as giving an opinion on changing the department system.”

Ugh…

Lee Jong-wook scratched his cheek.

Well, he had also felt a lot of things while Lee Hyun-soo was in the US, so giving an opinion wasn’t that difficult.

“Okay, so…”

“Yes.”

“How’s life at the General Assembly?”

Lee Jong-wook smiled wryly.

How was it?

“It’s a mess.”

Lee Hyun-soo laughed.

That was to be expected.

Basically, the General Assembly was a world of martial artists. Strength was the measure, and martial power was the ability. It wasn’t easy for Lee Jong-wook, who hadn’t learned martial arts, to live in such a place.

“If you give up now, I can let you go.”

“Hey, don’t say that. Even if you roll around in a pile of dog poop, this world is better. If I leave the shadow of the General Assembly now, I don’t know what will happen. I don’t want to become chicken feed.”

Lee Hyun-soo smiled knowingly.

“I’d protect you to that extent. If not, I could send you to MK. There are quite a few ordinary people there, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to adapt.”

“Thank you for the offer, but…”

Lee Jong-wook trailed off slightly.

“I want to try a little longer here.”

“Hmm.”

Lee Hyun-soo looked at Lee Jong-wook with an interested gaze.

Indeed.

He was the same Lee Jong-wook who had tried to negotiate with Kang Jin-ho no matter what, even under that pressure. Putting aside his abilities, Lee Hyun-soo acknowledged his mental strength and tenacity.

“It won’t be easy?”

“I don’t think it will be easy. But… isn’t it when you accomplish something difficult that you gain a foothold?”

Lee Hyun-soo chuckled.

“Are you trying to build a foothold to take my position?”

“You must be joking.”

Lee Jong-wook waved his hand.

He was a reasonable person. He didn’t even need to calculate whether it was possible or impossible to aim for Lee Hyun-soo’s position in the General Assembly to know the answer.

What about Lee Hyun-soo’s achievements so far?

That was a secondary issue.

The biggest problem was that there was no way to surpass Lee Hyun-soo’s abilities right now. Unless Lee Hyun-soo suddenly had a burnout and left the General Assembly in search of freedom and happiness, Lee Jong-wook wouldn’t have a chance.

‘I’m not aiming for that anyway.’

The position Lee Jong-wook was aiming for was right below Lee Hyun-soo. A position to oversee overall operations instead of Lee Hyun-soo, who often had to leave the General Assembly to accompany Kang Jin-ho.

In his opinion, the General Assembly definitely needed someone to do that job.

“To be honest…”

Lee Hyun-soo said with a grin.

“I don’t trust you very much.”

Lee Jong-wook looked at Lee Hyun-soo without saying anything.

“Of course, I believe in your abilities to some extent. No, to be honest, in the General Assembly, you’re more than qualified to be called an S-class. You’re at a level where we should be bowing down and bringing you in. But I don’t have a rapport with you.”

Lee Hyun-soo said indifferently.

Lee Jong-wook couldn’t really refute that.

Rapport.

That was a very critical word for Lee Jong-wook.

Lee Hyun-soo was also a case of someone who had been affiliated with the Yeongnam Association, which was hostile to the General Assembly, and then came over to this side, but there was a crucial difference between him and Lee Jong-wook. That was… Lee Jong-wook was not a martial artist in the first place.

Even if they were hostile and fought each other, martial artists had a strange rapport that they were walking the same path. That was why Heungwang and Kang Jin-ho could have a meal together and talk.

But Lee Jong-wook was from a civilian background.

He had no rapport with martial artists. That was why the fact that he had been affiliated with the National Intelligence Service and was hostile to the General Assembly was so critical.

“That’s why I didn’t want to accept you. You probably won’t be treated the same as other martial artists in the future. And if a martial artist with similar work abilities as you appears, they will be given more importance. Are you still going to continue?”

Lee Jong-wook took a slight breath. Then, he said with a determined look.

“Of course.”

“The fact that a martial artist with the same work abilities as me appears means that someone younger than me with similar skills will appear. Then, I’ll be pushed out anyway. It’s not a matter of background.”

Lee Hyun-soo nodded as if he was satisfied.

That was true.

“And isn’t it the same for you, sir, that you started with a handicap? There’s someone who overcame their handicap right in front of me and climbed all the way up there, so I can’t complain.”

“Hmm.”

It didn’t seem like flattery.

Lee Hyun-soo nodded as if he was satisfied and got up from his seat.

“Then, work hard.”

“Are you leaving?”

“I have to go wake up the department heads I called. I have to shake things up once in a while to make them more alert. It’s not like I enjoy doing it.”

*It seems like you enjoy it?*

*You should at least wipe that smile off your face when you say that.*

Lee Hyun-soo left his seat without any regrets and walked away. Lee Jong-wook silently stared at Lee Hyun-soo’s back.

‘He’s an amazing person.’

There wasn’t much of an age difference. But the difference in their abilities was severe. Lee Jong-wook, who prided himself on having only walked the elite path in South Korea, sometimes felt like he had become a child when he looked at Lee Hyun-soo.

‘And even if he’s half-baked, a martial artist is still a martial artist.’

Every time, he felt extreme alienation.

In a world where only martial artists exist, a world where only martial artists can be recognized, could he really do well?

He had spoken loudly in front of Lee Hyun-soo, but honestly, he was worried.

That was when it happened.

Lee Jong-wook’s phone started ringing. Lee Jong-wook, who had taken out his phone, saw the name on the screen and unconsciously hardened his expression.