Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 482

“This time, it’s something I can’t do anything about.”

Joo Young-gi spoke with a very regretful expression.

“Me neither.”

Park Yu-min also felt completely helpless.

“……”

Joo Young-gi was someone who had always been distant from studying. Recently, he was proving with his whole body that success in society had little to do with academics.

Park Yu-min was the same. He could talk all day about how to be good at games, but when it came to studying, he was at a loss for words.

“Hey, Park Yu-min.”

Slightly embarrassed, Joo Young-gi shifted the blame.

“You’re supposed to be managing the kids, but what have you been doing if not teaching them? Is cooking and doing laundry all you do?”

“I, I can only do what I’m capable of.”

“Still, you went to college.”

“I got in through a special admissions program. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have even stepped foot on a college campus.”

Of course, it wasn’t that extreme, but it was true that Park Yu-min didn’t have much interest in studying. Games also require a good mind, and if someone who was that good at games had put their energy into studying, they wouldn’t have failed… but that was a story from their student days, and now there was no answer.

“So what? Are we just giving up?”

“No. I’m not saying we should give up, but that we need to find another way.”

“You too, man.”

Joo Young-gi glared at Kang Jin-ho.

“Hey, you’re a Jae-kyung University student. You’re asking us, a high school graduate and a pseudo-college student, about studying? What can we do for you?”

Kang Jin-ho had nothing to say.

Of course, in terms of academic background, Kang Jin-ho was the most superior. Kang Jin-ho was someone who had once achieved a near-perfect score on the college entrance exam.

However, there was one problem…

‘I need to know something first.’

Kang Jin-ho was a case of forcibly obtaining good grades.

He didn’t know how to study; he had broken through the college entrance exam with enhanced concentration, brain power, and calculation skills. In other words, Kang Jin-ho’s method was of no help to ordinary people.

“Can’t you just teach them?”

“Impossible.”

Kang Jin-ho cleanly waved his hand.

Even Kang Jin-ho himself thought he was a typical good player but not a good coach.

He had no talent for teaching people. He could only be a good teacher when the students were willing to risk their lives and accept any kind of abuse.

But he couldn’t tell kids studying to risk their lives.

Moreover, unlike Mu-hak, who accurately understood the process and goals, studying was a distant world for Kang Jin-ho as well.

Just because someone is a top student doesn’t mean they are always a model student.

“What do you mean impossible?”

“I don’t know how to teach people.”

Joo Young-gi looked at Kang Jin-ho as if he couldn’t believe it.

“No, you’re a Jae-kyung University student, and you can’t even teach kids how to study?”

“What are you even good at?”

He was very wronged, but there was no way to argue. While he was feeling wronged, Joo Young-gi was also stressed because of these hopeless friends.

“These crazy guys, they’re college students, and they’re asking a high school graduate how to make kids study. I’m already so busy. If I knew that, I would have graduated high school.”

“You’re a high school graduate?”

“Huh? Uh, um… never mind, you punk.” The more he talked, the lower Joo Young-gi’s academic background seemed to become.

“So what should we do?”

“Don’t ask me, you crazy bastards!”

Joo Young-gi jumped up from his seat as if he was about to breathe fire.

What kind of situation was this?

“What kind of crazy college student asks a middle school graduate about studying?”

“A society that discriminates based on education is bad.”

“We need to discriminate a little here, you punk!”

Joo Young-gi was advocating for a discriminatory society.

Joo Young-gi looked at his two friends sitting blankly and then clutched his head.

“Meeting you guys in my life is both a great blessing and a disaster, a disaster!”

“It seems like your appearance in our lives is a great blessing.”

“Agreed.”

“Ughhh.”

Joo Young-gi, who had suddenly become the brain who had to teach college students about studying, sighed deeply.

“Let’s organize the situation first. So, right now… the kids want to study, but they can’t study properly.”

“That’s right.”

“I think I need to understand what that nonsense means first. Isn’t studying just something you do?”

Kang Jin-ho also nodded.

Studying is something you just do, so what does it mean to not be able to do it properly?

Park Yu-min explained the situation to Joo Young-gi and Kang Jin-ho, who had no understanding of school life.

“So, it seems like these days, you can’t keep up with the pace just by looking at textbooks or workbooks.”

“What?”

“Huh?”

Seeing the two people’s wide eyes as if they couldn’t understand what he was saying, Park Yu-min sighed deeply.

‘I’d get cursed out if I went anywhere and talked about studying.’

It was understandable for Joo Young-gi, who said that the only memories he had of his school days were beating up kids, lunchtime, and sleeping, but what was he supposed to do if even Kang Jin-ho was like this?

“These days, kids go to academies [private after-school learning centers], so the usual pace is set to that. They can’t explain what the kids have already learned at the academies over and over again. They usually teach with the assumption that the kids know this much, so it’s hard for kids who don’t go to academies to keep up.”

“What nonsense is that? School is something you have to go to, and academies are optional, so shouldn’t the school be adjusted to the academies?”

“It’s been a long time since schools became places to prepare for the college entrance exam.”

“…The country is in a fine state.” Joo Young-gi clicked his tongue.

Having been eliminated from the national education system early on, he had a firm distrust of public education.

But he was also realistic.

“Well, if that’s the reality, there’s nothing we can do. Then, shouldn’t we just send the kids to academies?”

“According to Ji-hye, even if they go to academies now, the gap between them and the kids who have already been going is too big, so there’s nothing they can do.”

“What were you doing until it got to that point?”

“…Don’t hit me with facts all of a sudden.”

“Pathetic humans.”

Joo Young-gi clicked his tongue.

“In my opinion, this is not a problem that can be solved by us racking our brains. If we worry about it, will we find an answer? We’re all hopeless.”

“…That’s right.”

“Agreed.”

“So, we need to call someone who has the answer.”

“Then, we have no choice.”

“I’ll call.”

Everything was being handled quickly.

A black sedan entered the orphanage yard.

The driver’s seat of the slowly stopping sedan opened, and a man slowly got out.

A black designer suit.

The cuffs of a white shirt peeking out from the end of the suit, a neatly tied necktie.

A neatly styled pompadour and black sunglasses.

The man looked around slightly and then put a cigarette in his mouth with a meaningful expression.

Click.

As he lit the cigarette with a lighter, the end of the cigarette burned and sparks flew.

The man slowly inhaled the cigarette and then leisurely exhaled the smoke. The scene felt like a scene from a noir film.

“Hehehehehe.”

The man, who let out a low laugh, put the cigarette, which he had barely smoked, into a portable ashtray and closed the lid. Then, he walked into the orphanage with light steps.

The man walked into the orphanage’s common room with familiar movements, and as he opened the door, a warm welcome poured out from inside.

“Manager Jo!”

“Manager!”

“We’ve been waiting for you!”

“Hehehehehe.”

Jo Gyu-min, who stylishly took off his glasses, smiled, revealing his pearly white gums.

“You were looking for me?”

It was the moment the savior arrived.

“Uh…”

Jo Gyu-min nodded after hearing all the explanations.

“It’s not an easy situation.”

“Is it serious?”

“Basically, education is a process that follows steps. It’s like an escalator that takes people up just by riding it. The problem is that when people fall behind a few steps due to mistakes or illnesses, there is no educational process to guide them separately. If they have the determination and the circumstances, they can catch up by going to academies or other methods, but the children here have fallen behind by several steps, and now there is a difference of several floors.”

“Hmm…”

Kang Jin-ho’s expression became a little serious.

“But, well, it’s okay. Nothing is impossible in this world.”

“Oh!”

“If it’s impossible, we make it possible. Isn’t that what a salaryman is?”

Park Yu-min muttered quietly.

“That’s not something a salaryman should do, but a salaryman or a unicorn [a startup company valued at over $1 billion], right?”

The lives of most office workers are tough because there are people like that who have the perception that salarymen can do anything if they are told to.

“Hehe, isn’t creating a way when there isn’t one the way to live in this era?”

“It seems like you live in a slightly different era than I do. I feel a time difference.”

“That’s right. You’re not wrong. But…”

Jo Gyu-min looked at Park Yu-min quietly and then smiled.

“If Park Yu-min fails as a pro gamer and has to get a job somewhere, wouldn’t you enter the same time difference as me?”

Park Yu-min vowed to practice really hard at that voice full of advice and threats.

“It’s not an easy task, but it’s not that difficult either. In fact, there are only three things a student needs to get good grades.”

“Three things?”

“Yes. Passion for studying, an efficient study system, and finally!”

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

“Support that allows them to focus solely on studying.”

“…I will do it.”

Jo Gyu-min gave a soft smile at Kang Jin-ho’s answer.

“Then, shall we gather the kids? It’s always fun to see who is willing to study.”

Joo Young-gi asked quietly as he watched Jo Gyu-min shrug his shoulders and walk outside.

“Where did that guy go to college?”

“College? As far as I know, he went to Korea University…”

“Ha, Korea University?”

“Yeah.”

Joo Young-gi looked at Jo Gyu-min’s back with respectful eyes. Korea University was the best university in Korea.

“And he used to be the acting chairman of our school, and for about half a year, he was the chief secretary or something at Jae-kyung University.

When Manager Jo was the acting chairman at our school, our school changed a lot, and now the kids are fighting to go to our school.”

“That guy is good at everything.”

“Right?”

“He’s the complete opposite of you guys, man.”

Park Yu-min got up from his seat weakly as he received a scathing diss from his friend.

Gathering the kids was something he had to do.

‘It’s a strange feeling.’

Park Yu-min glanced back.

Originally, it was something he should have done, but Kang Jin-ho noticed what he had been neglecting, and Jo Gyu-min was going to solve it.

When did this kind of relationship start?

‘I think I’m a very lucky person. I have such good people around me.’

And the children of this orphanage too.

Park Yu-min smiled slightly at the feeling that kept getting better.

“What are you grinning about like you did something good?”

“……”

It seems like I need to think a little more about Joo Young-gi.