Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1957

“What the….”

Lee Myung-hwan stared at his phone screen, his eyes wide with disbelief. Or rather, his eyes were fixed on the screen, while his ears strained to catch the Demonic Cult member’s translation of the Black King’s words.

The moment the video ended, Lee Myung-hwan turned to the Demonic Cult member, his face pale.

“This was broadcast all over China?”

“It seems so.”

“…Those damn Chinese are known for their control. And they couldn’t stop this?”

“I don’t know the specifics. I just heard that it was like that.”

“Crazy.”

Lee Myung-hwan rubbed his face, his mind a whirlwind of thoughts.

‘What’s going to happen now?’

His thoughts were a jumbled mess.

“Then now….”

One of the Demonic Flames [a member of the Demonic Cult known for their fiery temper] gathered around him muttered, his voice trembling.

“Does this mean everyone in the world knows about our existence?”

“No way….”

“No. Look, this is a video uploaded on a public video site. It already has over a million views.”

At that moment, the Demonic Cult member corrected him.

“It’s not a million.”

“Huh? What? I saw it with my own eyes?”

“From what I know, this video has been deleted and re-uploaded with different accounts more than five times already. It’s probably several dozen times more than that.”

“And it’s not like they’re uploading one at a time. It’s being uploaded simultaneously on all sorts of accounts, and not just on video sites, but also on various social media platforms.”

“…It must be over a hundred million then.”

“Probably.”

A strange tension filled the air.

No one knew what to say. This was an unprecedented situation, and they had no idea what would happen next. At the very least, they needed some kind of prediction about the changes to come so they could react accordingly.

“Why the hell did that crazy bastard do this?”

“…What?”

“Why did he do something so unnecessary….”

“Isn’t it a good thing?”

“What?”

One of the Demonic Flames tilted his head, puzzled.

“The method is definitely extreme, and that bastard dared to mess with our Guild Leader, so he deserves to have his head cut off, but if you just look at the words, he’s not wrong.”

“…Not wrong?”

“Let’s be honest, what did we do wrong?”

“We just learned martial arts. So why should we live in hiding like criminals?”

“We did commit crimes, you idiot.”

“No. The cause and effect are reversed. It’s not that we learned martial arts because we committed crimes, but that we ended up living in hiding because we learned martial arts.”

“It’s the same thing, you damn fool, stop making excuses.”

“What, you bastard?”

As the Demonic Flames began to growl at each other, Lee Myung-hwan said in an annoyed voice.

“Shut up! You bastards!”

Lee Myung-hwan let out a deep sigh.

It was true that the Demonic Flames were fundamentally violent and quick-tempered. They had developed an explosive temperament due to the influence of demonic energy. However, it was rare for that explosive temperament to be directed at each other.

That meant they were just as confused.

‘It’s going to be a mess.’

The Guild was an excessively tight-knit group.

This wasn’t just because he belonged to the Guild. Basically, groups with as many members as the Guild were bound to split into factions and oppose each other.

In the past, the Guild itself had factions with the Guild Leader and each director opposing each other.

But the current Guild had no factions. There was a subtle sense of competition due to different affiliations, but they didn’t avoid or fight each other because of those differences.

Even the Guild was momentarily getting emotional over this issue. Then, it was obvious what would happen in places other than the Guild.

Perhaps the martial artists would be divided into two groups, arguing over who was right and wrong.

As if knowing his thoughts, Gong Young-gil casually asked.

“What do you think?”

“About what?”

“This situation.”

Lee Myung-hwan frowned.

“What is there to think about? It’s not like anything will change just because I think about it. Once things have escalated this far, isn’t it already a problem beyond our control?”

“That’s true.”

Lee Myung-hwan looked at the Black King on his phone and let out a hollow laugh.

“Even though this place is a place where the strong do as they please… I never thought such a thing would happen because of one crazy bastard.”

There was a vague sense of unease.

Just fifty years ago, it wasn’t that difficult for martial artists to live hidden from the eyes of the world. But now, it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain such a life.

Even here, it was like that.

They put up barbed wire under the guise of private property and assigned surveillance personnel to completely block external access.

But they could no longer block the gaze from above.

In the past, those who launched satellites were all state agencies, so they could pretend they didn’t exist through international cooperation, but now, private companies were launching more satellites than state agencies.

No, there was no need to even talk about satellites.

How could they stop the drones flying in the sky right now?

Right now, there weren’t many of them, so if a drone approached, they could just knock it down, but eventually, there would be drones flying over their heads that they couldn’t avoid.

‘It was bound to be revealed someday.’

Everyone had been turning a blind eye to that fact.

Because there was no solution, and they weren’t confident in handling the aftermath when things went wrong.

But at this moment, that Black King had lit the fuse of all those bombs.

Someone who was watching the video again with a frown asked, as if puzzled.

“But if it’s such a big deal, shouldn’t the media be reporting it?”

“…How can they report this?”

“It’s not like they can hide it by not reporting it. It’s not like they can just cover their eyes and pretend it’s not happening. So they’ll report it.”

Lee Myung-hwan closed his mouth.

It wasn’t wrong, but….

‘Will this really be reported?’

Even if the reporters were the kind of people who would reveal the number of spoons in their own homes if it became a hot topic, this had too much of an impact.

“No. I heard earlier that it’s already being reported in Europe?”

“…What? Europe? Who did you hear that from?”

“The Cavalier guys said so?”

Lee Myung-hwan closed his mouth.

“I heard it too earlier. The American soldiers were asking if we knew anything about something strange that was being reported in the media in the US. I was on the phone with them while planning training.”

“Geez.”

Gong Young-gil laughed at those words.

“What the hell, Europeans, Americans… it’s so global. Since when did the Guild play on such an international stage? Hey, you Chinese bastard.”

“Don’t call me a Chinese bastard, you Korean bastard.”

“You’re doing it yourself. So, is it not being reported in China?”

The Demonic Cult member shook his head.

“It seems that it’s not being reported in China yet. The government seems to be blocking all the sites where the video is being uploaded, but it’s not something that can be stopped by doing that.”

“Why can’t it be stopped? If they block it, can’t people access it?”

“Have you ever heard of something called a VPN [Virtual Private Network]?”

“What? V… V, what?”

“…Never mind.”

“What’s with that look, you bastard?”

Gong Young-gil was fuming, but the Demonic Cult member shook his head as if he didn’t want to talk anymore.

He had no idea where to start explaining.

“It’s being reported overseas….”

Lee Myung-hwan rubbed his mouth with one hand.

“Then eventually, Korea will have to report it too. They won’t be able to block foreign news.”

“It’ll probably be like that soon.”

He was dumbfounded.

Lee Myung-hwan turned his head and looked at the road leading down from the Guild.

It was a road he usually used without much thought when he went home from work, but today, that road felt incredibly burdensome.

The ordinary people he would meet on the road would now know of their existence.

Then, how would they look at them?

“Young-gil.”

“Yeah?”

“Call all the team leaders. We need to issue a no-going-out order for all the guys starting today.”

“No going out?”

“…There will be problems if they go outside carelessly now. We need to cut off contact until things calm down.”

Gong Young-gil frowned.

“Hey, you bastard. How can we do that….”

“The directors aren’t here, so we have no choice. The chief isn’t here either.”

The Guild’s command system was ambiguous. Usually, one of the directors would be guarding the Guild, so there was no need to worry about the command system, but now, all the directors were absent.

To be precise, there were directors other than the Bators [a powerful faction within the Guild], but they had all lost their power and stepped down from the front lines.

In this situation, it wasn’t wrong to say that the people with the authority to give orders were Lee Myung-hwan and Gong Young-gil, the leaders of each martial force.

“Still, it won’t work, you bastard.”

“No, right now….”

“I know, it’s an urgent situation. That’s why it won’t work even more. Even normally, there are complaints when we give orders, and if the guys are confused and we step in, what will they say? We’ll end up poking a hornet’s nest.”

Lee Myung-hwan closed his mouth. He had to admit that Gong Young-gil was right.

After thinking for a moment, Lee Myung-hwan nodded.

“Where is Chun Tae-hoon, the senior?”

“The Deputy Chief? He’s probably… in the main building.”

“Then let’s go talk to the Deputy Chief. He’ll be better than us.”

Gong Young-gil nodded as if that made sense.

Since Chun Tae-hoon was the number two of the Bang Jin-hoon faction, which could be said to be the largest faction in the Guild, he would be better at controlling them than they would be.

“I’ll talk to the Demonic Cult and the Demonic Flames. You take care of your guys.”

“Okay.”

“And… it seems like it’ll be difficult for Senior Chun Tae-hoon to handle it alone, so we should contact MK too. If Director Lee helps us out, it’ll be good.”

“MK’s Director Lee Hyun-joo?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm, I don’t know if it’ll help. Anyway, I understand. We have to do everything we can.”

“There will definitely be someone who goes crazy. There were more than a few guys who were tired of living in hiding and only training. The Guild Leader’s presence has been suppressing them until now….”

“And the Guild Leader isn’t here right now.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

Lee Myung-hwan said firmly.

“Let’s restrict the guys’ living areas and patrol. So that no one sneaks out carelessly.”

“That’s… a really dangerous thing to do, you know?”

“I know.”

No one would feel good about being treated like a criminal out of nowhere.

“But we have no choice. If someone causes an accident in this situation, public opinion will become irreversible. Then, no one will be able to handle the aftermath.”

“…Okay. I’ll move right away.”

Lee Myung-hwan sighed as he watched Gong Young-gil head towards the main building.

The temperature was rising.

They were trying their best to stop it, but eventually, they wouldn’t be able to stop the water from boiling over. And this wasn’t the only place where the water was boiling.

‘Guild Leader.’

He wanted to see Kang Jin-ho.

He wanted to know what to do from now on. The ship without a captain was too helpless to withstand this rough storm.

“Hoo…”

Lee Myung-hwan shook his head, thinking that he wanted to smoke, and then took a step.

It was time for him to move busily as well.