Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 402

The situation changed dramatically.

Kids started experiencing things similar to what Han Jin-sung had gone through. In fact, Han Jin-sung was worried that the kids might become disillusioned with humanity due to the rapidly changing reactions around them.

Fortunately, the situation was settling down, with Han Jin-sung realizing that he was quite the negative energy magnet.

Whether it was because the other kids were younger or because they had fewer expectations of people to begin with, they didn’t take the changing reactions around them too seriously.

“I think hyung [older brother or male friend] just has a case of middle school syndrome.”

The response to his concern about the kids being depressed completely knocked Han Jin-sung out.

The issue that Han Jin-sung was most worried about was also resolved neatly. According to Han Jin-sung’s common sense, he didn’t think it was possible to solve the girls’ problems in this way…

‘Why are the girls so much cleaner?’

Han Jin-sung realized that when comparing a male senior and a female older sister, the female older sisters were much scarier. He had heard that the scary older sisters of the old days used to stick razor blades to gum and spit them out…

As he began to accept all of this, a fundamental question started to arise.

Where on earth!

From where!

Did all these people come from?

Isn’t it strange that all the people in each school who used to spit gum are now listening to the hyungs [older brothers or male friends] and moving around?

And there was an even bigger problem happening.

“…This isn’t right, is it?”

Han Jin-sung looked around with a worried expression.

But there were no positive answers to his question.

“Why are you going so far?”

“Hyung.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s easier if you give up.”

Han Jin-sung shuddered as he saw Bang Jin-hoon’s face approaching them with a sly smile. That man really didn’t need to use his fists.

He could make a fortune as a loan shark or a debt collector.

Who would dare say they didn’t have money in front of that face?

“Hehehe, you little punks, you’ve had a good rest, haven’t you?”

“…We rested for two days?”

“Two days is more than enough time for an exhausted body to fully recover. That’s enough. Yes, it’s more than enough.”

He really would be good as a loan shark.

There was no reasoning with him. No matter what excuse you made, he wouldn’t even pretend to listen, so that kind of job would be perfect for him.

“Now, are you ready to roll around energetically again today?”

“Wait!”

Han Jin-sung raised his arm.

“I’m not taking questions.”

“Could you please just take this one? It’s a very fundamental question.”

“Okay, I’ll take one. But know that the question time will be taken out of your workout time.”

“Yes…”

“What?”

“No matter how much I think about it, it seems like the situation with the kids around us has been resolved, so I’m wondering if there’s a reason to keep doing this exercise.”

“Tsk, tsk.”

Bang Jin-hoon clicked his tongue with an openly contemptuous look. Han Jin-sung, feeling like he had done something seriously wrong, shrank back.

“Resolved? What exactly has been resolved? If something like this happens again in the future, are you going to ask the people around you to step in and solve it for you again?”

“…No.”

“Shouldn’t you guys protect yourselves? You all saw the guys who went to the school this time, right?”

“Yes.”

“How did they look to you?”

How did they look?

What should he say?

They were excellent thugs?

Or they showed signs of becoming violent offenders?

“They’re all my disciples.”

“They’re not fully mature yet, but at least a man should be at that level.

At least!”

At least…

If just appearing is enough to turn the school upside down, and the bullies who thought they ruled the world become well-behaved dogs, then what kind of world do these people live in?

“What you guys should be more honored about is that they have never been directly trained by me. They’re just underlings of underlings of underlings of underlings of mine.”

Bang Jin-hoon shouted with a face full of pride.

“But I’m going to personally take care of you guys! Do you understand what that means?”

“Yeeees.”

The answer was there, but there was no strength in it.

“If you’re a man, you should have the strength to protect yourself. This is a truth that has been passed down since the beginning of time!”

And it’s also a logic that was discarded with modernization.

“I’m the kind of person who can’t stand seeing the guys I know getting beaten up by others. If we didn’t have a connection, I wouldn’t care, but since we’re connected like this, I’ll make you into healthy young men of Korea.”

It seemed like he had revealed his true feelings a little, but that wasn’t important.

The important thing was that Bang Jin-hoon had no intention of letting them go just because the situation was resolved, and that the minimum that Bang Jin-hoon wanted was far from the minimum that they thought.

“Okay, let’s start! Shall we warm up first?”

Han Jin-sung’s face began to rot.

“Oh my…”

“We’re going to die.”

“Hyung~, we’re really going to die like this.”

Han Jin-sung began to seriously contemplate what had changed.

‘This doesn’t seem that different from what Jin-ho hyung [older brother or male friend] did?’

Of course, it was different.

If he had to put it into words, Kang Jin-ho was like this. He would put a huge wall in front of you and tell you to jump over it. But that wall was over 10 meters high.

He was the type to half-threaten you by saying, ‘If you get over this, you’ll live a better life,’ after putting up a wall that you could never get over no matter how much you climbed, crawled, or did whatever you could.

But Bang Jin-hoon was completely different.

Bang Jin-hoon would put a 2-meter wall in front of you and make you jump over it. After you jumped over it, he would let you rest enough, teach you some tricks, and then bring a 3-meter wall. Then, he would sell you on the idea that you could jump over this one too if you just followed the tricks he had taught you.

What was even more annoying was… that you could actually jump over it. He would only give you trials that you could somehow overcome if you screamed your head off, and then he would give you rest and rewards when you did, and then he would push you again.

“In the end, we’re still exhausted after it’s all over!”

He had switched over here because Kang Jin-ho’s training was too hard, not because it wasn’t effective, but if it was this hard here too, what was the point?

What made Han Jin-sung even more angry was the ‘haha hoho’ sounds coming from the girls’ room.

“They’re having the time of their lives.”

Han Jin-sung’s face contorted.

If Bang Jin-hoon… no, if it was Chun Tae-hoon, Bang Jin-hoon’s assistant, who was controlling the boys, then it was Choi Yeon-ha who was leading the girls.

And under Choi Yeon-ha’s guidance, the girls were learning how to dress up, how to look prettier, and how to get prettier by spending money.

It was only natural that the girls were more comfortable than them, who had to suffer physically, and moreover, the results over there seemed more certain than over here.

“The world is so unfair.”

“More complaints. You’re such a pathetic human.”

Han Jin-sung’s face contorted as he saw Choi Yeon-ha kicking the door open and coming inside.

‘Does that woman think this is her house now?’

It wasn’t visiting hours, and it wasn’t volunteer hours, so he wanted to say ‘come in’ at the right time, but… if he did, he would have to give up on sleeping tonight.

The high school girls would curse at him, the middle school girls would try to tear him apart with their eyes…

‘The elementary school girls would cry ‘Bbaek!”

Oh Lord…

Why did you give that woman the ability to capture people’s hearts?

It wasn’t just the kids she had captured. Choi Yeon-ha had already replaced all the old and outdated appliances during her last visit, and this time, she had performed the miracle of installing air conditioners in every room, capturing the hearts of the teachers and volunteers as well.

So much so that she had even been registered on the fingerprint door lock installed on the front door.

In other words, she had been issued a free pass to come in here whenever she wanted.

Meanwhile, Han Jin-sung was fighting alone, and all he got in return was cold treatment.

Moreover…

“Noona [older sister or female friend], you’re here.”

“Noona, I brought you cold water.”

“Oh my, unnie [older sister or female friend]! Get that water away. I bought coffee for unnie.”

“Unnie, you’re here! Why are you so late today? I had so much to tell you.”

‘You rotten things.’

Although Han Jin-sung had no siblings or family, he had lived with the children of the orphanage as if they were his siblings and family. He was confident that their friendship and family love would never waver.

But that was just his thought.

Seeing the children get up from their seats and move around busily like vassals welcoming a queen at the appearance of Choi Yeon-ha, he wondered if these were really the brave warriors of Seongsim Orphanage that he knew.

‘They’re like traitors.’

“Hey, you look displeased?”

“…No, I’m not.”

“Do you have a problem?”

“Ah, no.”

Han Jin-sung, who had knelt before reality, opened his mouth with tears in his eyes.

“But…”

“What?”

“Why don’t you do that for us?”

“What?”

Han Jin-sung pointed at the girls. Then, Choi Yeon-ha, who understood what he meant, snorted.

“So, you’re saying why aren’t we dressing you up?”

“Yes.”

“Hahahaha!”

Choi Yeon-ha laughed, bending over backward, and then looked at Han Jin-sung with a serious face.

“I know how to dress people up, but I don’t know how to prepare squid?”

Han Jin-sung began to tremble.

“S, squid! Where is there any squid here!”

“Don’t you look in the mirror? When I came in, I thought this was a seafood market. Hey, hey, stop it. You’re better off just making money. It’s not a problem that can be solved by dressing up. A squid is still a squid even if you dress it up.”

Han Jin-sung, who had successfully evolved into an invertebrate, shouted with tears in his eyes.

“It might be a little better if we dressed up!”

“It’s still a squid.”

Finally, Han Jin-sung, bursting with resentment, shouted.

“No! I admit it! I admit that I’m a squid! But I’m not saying that I’m going to become Won Bin [a famous Korean actor] by dressing up. I’m saying that I want to compete with other squids and become a slightly better squid! Even so, a prepared squid will look better than a just-caught squid!”

For the first time, a pitiful expression appeared on Choi Yeon-ha’s face.

“…If you put it that way, I have nothing to say. Okay. I’ll help you out, so stop putting yourself down like that. It’s not your fault that you’re ugly…”

Choi Yeon-ha said with a slightly embarrassed face.

“I didn’t know you’d be so hurt. I’m sorry.”

“D, don’t apologize!”

How far are you going to make me miserable!

Han Jin-sung’s eyes began to flow with hot tears. And the eyes of the other squids who sympathized with the representative squid also began to moisten.

The sky cried, and the earth cried.

Choi Yeon-ha, as if she had made up her mind, reached out her hand to the squids.

“But there’s a condition…”

“A condition?”

The children’s eyes were fixed on Choi Yeon-ha.