Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1499

There are people deliberately causing trouble at the stores.

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Absolutely do not engage aggressively; respond politely. If they are completely unreasonable, call the police.

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There will also be people who put foreign substances in the food or cause trouble related to it, so be careful. Absolutely do not apologize or admit fault. Check the CCTV and call the police.

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It seems someone is trying to tarnish our company’s image from somewhere.

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Anyone who can’t control their temper and causes trouble will have a private three-night, four-day consultation with me, so go ahead and try it.

“…What is this now?”

Sung Joo-chan trembled as he looked at the KakaoTalk message.

Everything else aside, Lee Hyun-soo’s private three-night, three-day consultation was terrifying.

‘Is this hell?’

It would be better to die.

And at that moment, a new message popped up.

– If the troublemaker leaves the store, leave the store to the part-timer and secretly follow them. There will be accomplices in the cafe, so watch for when they get up.

“What is this supposed to mean?”

Sung Joo-chan scratched his head vigorously.

Not fully understanding the situation, Sung Joo-chan entered the KakaoTalk group chat for store owners.

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What is this nonsense?

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Last time, at the Bucheon branch, Young-chul punched a customer in the jaw, right?

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That’s right.

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It seems like someone is trying to stir things up? Deliberately provoking people to cause trouble.

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No, what kind of crazy bastard would do that?

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Are they trying to get money?

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We don’t know. But it means that something like that could happen to us, so we should be careful, right?

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If they’re trying to extort money, I’ll break their backs!

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They’re saying your back will break! Yours, you idiot!

Messages flooded the chat room. After roughly grasping the situation from the chat, Sung Joo-chan began to set up his own response system.

“Hey guys, film all the ingredients with your phones now! Film the store’s hygiene conditions too! And film every time food goes out!”

“Huh? That’ll take a lot of time.”

“It can’t be helped! We’re giving up on sales today! Just accept customer complaints.”

“…Yes, I understand.”

Sung Joo-chan posted the same message in the group chat.

‘Seriously, what kind of crazy bastards…’

They’re doing this when someone is just trying to make a living.

‘Just let me catch one of them.’

Sung Joo-chan gritted his teeth and slapped himself on the cheek.

“Huh?”

“What’s wrong, manager?”

“…No, it’s nothing.” Sung Joo-chan sighed.

‘I am Buddha, I am Buddha.’

With a ‘just let me catch one of them’ mindset, he would only cause an accident. What they needed to do now was not to catch the culprit, but to get through this crisis without causing any trouble.

Everyone could suffer from one person’s mistake. Sung Joo-chan had no intention of being blamed for it.

‘I absolutely won’t be caught! Absolutely!’

“Did you contact everyone?”

“Yes. I’ve checked the precautions several times. Lee Hyun-joo is calling each store individually to reconfirm the precautions.”

«Ugh…»

M…•

Judging that the situation had become serious, even the board members, including Hwang Min-soo, were called in.

“What do you think?”

“Hmm, it’s quite possible.”

Hwang Min-soo gave a bitter smile.

“The industry is like that. On the surface, they pretend to compete fairly, but behind the scenes, they do all sorts of dirty things. It’s easier to pull someone down than to climb up yourself.”

“Is it that likely?”

“…It’s excessively likely.”

Hwang Min-soo scratched his head vigorously.

He couldn’t understand why he hadn’t thought of this beforehand. Hwang Min-soo looked at Lee Hyun-soo with a renewed gaze.

‘That guy is no joke.’

Even Hwang Min-soo, who had a lot of experience in the industry, hadn’t thought of this. Even if it wasn’t to this extent, hiring people to post bad comments about competitors or doing media manipulation was very common.

So, he should have thought more about it, but he hadn’t thought deeply due to the sense of crisis that had arisen from the problems in the successful business.

“Then who did this?”

“I don’t know.”

Hwang Min-soo sighed.

“There are so many companies. Especially in the cafe business, there are so many similar franchises that everyone is trying to cut each other’s throats to do business. The competition is excessive. Everyone has a reason to do it.”

“Hmm…”

Kang Jin-ho nodded heavily.

“Let’s discuss countermeasures first. Even if no problems arise from now on, a damaged image won’t recover easily.”

“Yes. And…”

Lee Hyun-soo said with a slightly bitter tone.

“Even if we’ve taken these precautions, there’s no guarantee that problems won’t arise. At least in this field, offense is several times easier than defense. No matter how thoroughly we block, there will be gaps.”

“We should expect a couple more incidents to happen.”

“That’s likely.”

Kang Jin-ho sighed deeply.

Kang Jin-ho had no fear when fighting with a sword, but every time he had to deal with this kind of fight, he felt like a stone was weighing down his chest.

‘If only the enemy was clear.’

That would be too much to ask for.

“So, what’s the countermeasure?”

Lee Hyun-soo smiled slightly.

“The damaged image can’t be recovered anyway. No matter how much we explain, people won’t listen. Negative events always have a greater impact than positive ones.”

“Hmm.”

Kang Jin-ho’s face darkened slightly.

Every time he heard these words, he felt frustrated.

Why do negative events have a greater impact than positive ones?

Lee Hyun-soo and Lee Hyun-joo both said so, so he had to accept it, but deep down, he found it hard to understand.

“So, there’s no solution?”

“No, there is.”

“Huh?”

Lee Hyun-soo smiled brightly.

“I told you, negative events always have a greater impact than positive ones.”

“Yeah? So?”

“Then, we just need a more negative event.”

“…What does that mean?”

Lee Hyun-soo curled up the corners of his mouth. In the most wicked way.

“A certain company released people to sabotage a new company that is working to coexist with store owners. Isn’t that a more interesting and negative event?”

“We just need to catch them. If we just get a hold of their tail, those bastards will take all the blame and go straight to hell. From then on, we can just sit back and enjoy the show. The advertising effect will be amazing too.”

Kang Jin-ho shook his head.

No one could keep up with Lee Hyun-soo when it came to using his head in this way.

“They might not get caught.”

“We have to make sure they get caught.”

Lee Hyun-soo slightly curled up the corners of his mouth.

“Actually, it’s as good as catching them already. You know the guy who caused trouble and went to the police this time?”

“Um, yeah.”

“If we dig into that guy, it’ll come out.”

Kang Jin-ho narrowed his brows.

“Background checks aren’t something just anyone can do.”

“That’s right. We’re good at background checks too, but if they’re smart, they’ll have cleaned up their tracks very well. But… fortunately, we have a connection with the best background check team in Korea.”

“Huh?”

“We made them a favor once, so we should use them. They’ll probably find out the names of their ancestors from seven generations ago.”

“Who are they?”

“The National Intelligence Service.”

“…Where?”

Lee Hyun-soo answered casually.

“The National Intelligence Service.”

This guy seems a bit crazy.

“No, I asked for whipped cream!”

“Sir, you clearly asked for no whipped cream earlier… It’s also written on the order form here that you asked for no whipped cream.”

“So, are you saying I’m lying now?”

Sung Joo-chan smiled brightly.

“Of course not. I must have misheard. Please give it to me. I’ll make it again.”

The person causing trouble looked slightly flustered.

“No! This is your mistake, why should I return it?”

“Ah, then you can have that too. I’ll make a new one with whipped cream right away.”

His hand holding the drink tightened slightly.

Sung Joo-chan didn’t miss that change.

‘This guy is probably the one?’

His eyes subtly checked the inside of the store. Sure enough, there were people filming this with their phones. The phones were placed on their laps, so they weren’t easily visible, but they couldn’t escape Sung Joo-chan’s eyes.

“No, are you messing with me right now! What about the time I wasted because you made a mistake?”

Now he was just being stubborn.

“Then how can we compensate you?”

“What?”

“Sir, I asked how we can compensate you for the time we took from you. First of all, I would like to apologize.”

“Uh…”

He was flustered.

He was causing trouble, but they were responding with a bright smile, so he must be frustrated. They needed to respond to him, but…

‘Sorry, but I absolutely don’t want to have a one-on-one with that guy.’

He would probably try to grind people into dust. No, it would be better to be ground into dust.

“You can’t understand what I’m saying! Hey, you. How old are you?”

“Thirty-two.”

“…What?”

“I said I’m thirty-two, sir.”

Sung Joo-chan smiled brightly.

“Eek! Eek!”

The troublemaker twitched a bit, then threw the frappuccino in his hand at Sung Joo-chan in an awkward motion.

Thud.

The flying frappuccino was caught by Sung Joo-chan’s hand.

“Are you returning it? Would you like whipped cream on this?”

“Ah, I’m not eating it, you bastard!”

The troublemaker shouted and turned to leave.

The people watching applauded.

“Wow! That was an amazing response!”

“If it were me, I would have hit him. Manager, you’re amazing!”

Sung Joo-chan smiled wryly at the reaction.

‘If it were the usual me, that bastard would already be dead, everyone.’

It wasn’t something to laugh about.

This made it clear. There were definitely people going around these stores looking for trouble. Someone was pulling tricks.

And…

Slurp, slurp.

The people who were filming with their cameras finished their remaining coffee, got up from their seats, and returned their drink cups. Then, without a word, they went outside.

Sung Joo-chan glanced at them and took off his apron.

“Hyun-kyung.”

“Yes, manager.”

“I’m going out for a bit, so watch the store. There might be another troublemaker today, so absolutely don’t get angry and respond calmly. Got it?”

“Yes. But where are you going?”

“I’ll be right back.”

Just as soon as he stepped on the tails of those rats.

Sung Joo-chan walked outside and posted a message in the group chat.

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A troublemaker appeared at our store. All his accomplices left, so I’m following them now.

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Hey! Share your location. I’m coming too!

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Those bastards, they’re caught now.

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Ah! There were troublemakers at my store earlier, but I couldn’t follow them because the store was too busy. Hey, Sung Joo-chan! Make sure you catch them!

Sung Joo-chan turned off the group chat and made a call. Even then, his eyes didn’t leave the people walking far away.

“Manager, this is Sung Joo-chan. I’m following some suspicious bastards right now. Location…

It was the moment MK’s counterattack began.