Descent Of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 346

Kang Jin-ho, having left the hospital, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth in front of the main gate.

Smoking when you’re feeling frustrated doesn’t actually make you feel better. Yet, when feeling frustrated, why do people reach for a cigarette?

It was ridiculous to smoke these cigarettes, which had no calming effect, as if they were tranquilizers. But it wasn’t just Kang Jin-ho; countless others did the same ridiculous thing.

And another ridiculous person walked up to Kang Jin-ho.

Click!

Bang Jin-hoon, who had lit the cigarette in Kang Jin-ho’s mouth, frowned and said,

“Smoking is prohibited in front of the hospital, Kang Jin-ho! Let’s be reasonable.”

“…I didn’t light it myself.”

“Tsk, tsk, you’re something else.”

Bang Jin-hoon chuckled and pulled Kang Jin-ho to the side.

“There’s a smoking area over there, let’s move quickly. Don’t be a shameless person who smokes on the street.”

‘This is what street smoking is, this is.’

Kang Jin-ho rubbed the lit cigarette out with his finger and followed Bang Jin-hoon to the smoking area. Sitting on a wide bench, Kang Jin-ho lit another cigarette with a subtle expression.

“It’s so nice to see your face again. I thought I was going to end up as part of a remains excavation team.”

It wasn’t a joke, but Bang Jin-hoon laughed as if it was genuinely funny.

“Thank you for saving me.”

“What are you talking about? I’m sorry for being so incompetent. If I had been trapped there and you were outside, you would have gotten me out in a day. I’m sorry for making you suffer for so long because I’m weak.”

“It’s nothing.”

Bang Jin-hoon shrugged.

“Anyway, it’s a relief. It was really dangerous this time. You know that, right?”

“Yes.”

Kang Jin-ho thought so too.

If his strength to endure had been just a little weaker at the moment the tunnel collapsed, Kang Jin-ho and Choi Yeon-ha would have been helplessly buried under piles of dirt and rocks.

They would have died.

They would have been instantly killed without a doubt. Or, as a result of having a life force several times greater than that of an ordinary person, they would have slowly died, feeling the dirt filling their stomachs without air.

The thought alone made his body tense up.

“What about them?”

“The Yeongnam Association guys don’t seem to know that you escaped yet. They seem to have pulled everyone out of the area.”

“No surveillance either?”

“They seem to be sure you’re dead. They probably thought it would be a pain to get involved if they hung around. If they had known you were alive down there, they would have tried a second explosion. They could have easily finished it by just getting a grenade and throwing it, but they didn’t, so it’s obvious.”

The thought alone was terrifying.

“So, what are you going to do now?”

“Are you asking what I’m going to do?” Bang Jin-hoon shut his mouth.

‘That was a stupid question.’

What he was going to do was obvious now.

Given Kang Jin-ho’s personality, he wouldn’t just let this go. Kang Jin-ho was someone who massacred people even in battles that had nothing to do with him.

There was no way he would stay still after being hit like this.

Considering his personality, it was a miracle that he had endured this long.

He thought he would storm into the Yeongnam Association as soon as he had recovered, but he had been quiet for two whole days.

“There are several ways to hit the Yeongnam Association from behind, would you be willing to wait if I asked you to?”

Kang Jin-ho exhaled cigarette smoke without answering.

“I thought so.”

He looked fine on the outside, but he was probably seething inside right now.

‘Should I prepare an eye patch?’

Bang Jin-hoon was already feeling nauseous at the thought of Kang Jin-ho going berserk in this fight. It was a relief that this guy knew how to separate everyday life from fighting.

If he had been radiating killing intent already, they wouldn’t have been able to talk so comfortably.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes.”

Kang Jin-ho, having put out his cigarette, followed Bang Jin-hoon.

This wasn’t a suitable place to talk. Kang Jin-ho followed Bang Jin-hoon to the parking lot and got into Bang Jin-hoon’s new car.

“Looks like you got a new one.”

“I sent my old car off with tears.”

Bang Jin-hoon covered his face with both hands.

“Those bastards, I’m going to beat them to a pulp first, and then I’m going to get the car money back no matter what.”

Kang Jin-ho chuckled.

“I hope you can.”

As he sat down, Bang Jin-hoon quietly started the car.

Bang Jin-hoon, who hadn’t said anything until they were on the road, opened his mouth once the car was on track.

“I understand how you feel, but this isn’t such a simple problem.”

“Yes.”

“Now, all that’s left is an all-out war. The rift in emotions is too deep to resolve it any other way.”

“I know.”

“But the problem is that an all-out war will inevitably lead to exposure. We can suppress the media and everything else. Half of the General Assembly and Yeongnam Association’s forces are dedicated to controlling that. But in this day and age, it’s not easy to completely avoid the eyes of the public.”

“Hmm…”

Bang Jin-hoon sighed.

“Those kids all look like gangsters, and if a few of them move around on a chartered bus, people report them to the police thinking it’s a gangster riot. We’ve even been surrounded by riot police on the way to a company outing. They all look so menacing.”

Bang Jin-hoon kept wanting to say that he wasn’t one to talk. Kang Jin-ho swallowed his words with superhuman patience.

“So, it’s not an easy task. So, could you give us a little time to prepare? I don’t intend to end it like this either. However, starting a fight recklessly like this could also be a problem for you, Kang Jin-ho.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded as if he fully understood Bang Jin-hoon’s words.

Then he replied,

“It’s good to pick a time.”

“…Yes?”

“It’s also good to consider the conditions. But if you get too caught up in that, things will keep getting delayed.”

“Ummm.”

Bang Jin-hoon’s face darkened. It was clear that Kang Jin-ho had no intention of listening to him.

“The perfect time and conditions that will satisfy everyone will never come. If you wait for that time, you’ll end up missing the right opportunity. What we need to do is not wait for the right time, but make now the right time.”

“It’s easier said than done…”

“More than anything…”

Kang Jin-ho smiled.

Bang Jin-hoon couldn’t bring himself to turn his head. Kang Jin-ho had been smiling more often recently than when he first met him, but Bang Jin-hoon didn’t want to see that particular smile.

Every time he saw Kang Jin-ho with that smile, Bang Jin-hoon wondered if he had made a deal with the devil.

“It’ll cool down if time passes.”

There was no need to ask what would cool down.

Anger.

Kang Jin-ho was saying that he would punish them before his anger cooled down.

‘It’s impossible to stop him.’

He hadn’t expected it from the start. Still, he had hoped he could delay it even a little, but he had only confirmed that it was impossible.

“And don’t try to solve it only within the General Assembly anymore.”

“Yes?”

“Jo Gyu-min will take care of the external matters.”

“…Ah!”

Bang Jin-hoon nodded.

Come to think of it, he hadn’t thought of getting help from that side.

‘If it’s Jae-kyung, it’s different.’

If the external power of Jae-kyung and the internal power of the General Assembly were combined, there would be nothing they couldn’t do. The problem was whether Jo Gyu-min had enough power to mobilize the power of Jae-kyung.

‘I’ll know from this incident.’

To prevent the Kang Jin-ho rescue operation from being known to the outside world, Jo Gyu-min shifted the blame for the tunnel collapse accident, which had nothing to do with it, to Jae-kyung, and made a deal with the authorities to gain control.

Interest in the accident, which had no casualties, quickly faded, and the government, which was wondering how to deal with this, agreed to let Jae-kyung take over the tunnel construction at half price in exchange for control over the surrounding area.

The government, which had no reason to object to the reduced budget, ordered Jae-kyung to fully cooperate, and after that, everything went smoothly.

‘If he’s someone who can wield that much power, this is nothing.’

“He’s reliable externally, even if not internally.”

“…Why not internally?”

Bang Jin-hoon, who thought Jo Gyu-min was a very capable person, tilted his head as if he didn’t understand.

“…He’s incompetent.”

“Yes?”

“It’s nothing.”

Bang Jin-hoon took out his phone with a puzzled expression and called Jo Gyu-min.

“So, you’re saying that people need to move to attack the Yeongnam Association, and if we clash with the Yeongnam Association, the surrounding area will become a battlefield, is that right?”

“That’s right.”

“And you have to conceal that from other people?”

“Yes.”

“You want to do that?”

“Yes.”

Jo Gyu-min laughed at Bang Jin-hoon’s words.

It’s easy to say you’ll fly in the sky. If you swing your arms with all your might to gain lift, you can fly in the sky.

However, whether you can actually do it is a completely different matter!

“Is that even possible in this day and age? Where is the Yeongnam Association located?”

“In Yeongnam.”

“…Well, that’s good information.”

Jo Gyu-min sighed and tilted his head back, and Bang Jin-hoon laughed and replied.

“Well, it’s a martial arts center in the mountains, so you don’t have to worry. However, if you think about it the other way around, there are some issues. Because it’s in the mountains, it’s difficult to control people, and if a lot of people go inside, it’ll be noticeable.”

“That’s true, but how many people can the General Assembly mobilize?”

“At most, we can mobilize up to two thousand.”

“Two thousand?”

Bang Jin-hoon asked back as if wondering why he was surprised.

“The General Assembly is the largest martial arts organization in Korea. The people affiliated with the General Assembly make up about 40% of the martial artists in Korea. Did you think there would be less than ten thousand martial artists out of fifty million Koreans?”

“…Wow, that’s a lot. How did I live without knowing that?”

“That’s…”

Bang Jin-hoon replied with an awkward smile.

“We can mobilize two thousand, but about a thousand of them are no different from thugs.”

“Thugs?”

“Yes. Well, they’ve learned some martial arts, but if they’re unlucky, they’re about as good as a regular person who’s learned mixed martial arts.”

“What? What kind of martial artist is that?”

“It takes some time to use internal energy [a concept in martial arts referring to the energy within the body]. What should I say, martial arts are made on the premise of using internal energy, so martial arts without internal energy are worse than just fighting. From their point of view, it probably looks like a dance.”

“Like Tai Chi or something?”

“Exactly.”

It seemed like he was starting to understand.

“Hmm, then there might be a way…”

Jo Gyu-min sighed deeply and turned to look at Kang Jin-ho.

“Huh?”

Jo Gyu-min, seeing Kang Jin-ho’s very sullen face, tilted his head and asked.

“Is something wrong?”

“…Jo Gyu-min.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s handle things a little more cleanly.”

“…Yes?”