Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 862

“What is this?”

“It’s a smartphone?”

“Hey, this looks like a new model?”

What Joo-gang saw upon entering the main building was a long line. No, the expression ‘line’ was a bit strange. It wasn’t just a single line, but rather dozens of lines.

It was like an airport security checkpoint, with dozens of lines stretching out.

And at the front of each line, the General Assembly staff were handing out cell phones.

“Are they just giving these away?”

“That’s awesome.”

Judging by the fact that they were filling out something at the front, it seemed they were recording personal information before handing out the phones.

“Hey, hey.”

Joo-gang grabbed someone who was coming out after receiving a phone.

“Are they just giving those away?”

“Yeah, they’re just giving them out?”

“What, on installment?”

“No. They just gave it to me. I just wrote down my name and came out.”

“What’s that thing in your hand?”

“It’s a phone number. They said I can use this.”

“Huh…”

Joo-gang let out a hollow laugh.

– The Demonic Lord is rich.

It was a popular saying for a while. Kang Jin-ho was truly rich. Of course, he wasn’t as rich as those who were talked about in the world solely for their wealth…

‘Or is he?’

Joo-gang shook his head.

Anyway, he was rich. He didn’t know exactly how rich the Demonic Lord was, but it was certain that he had a lot of money. And this General Assembly also had a lot of money.

It was on a different level from the Demonic Cult, which couldn’t even properly pay the elders’ salaries despite having nearly ten thousand followers.

Even now, they were giving away these expensive smartphones for free.

‘It must be at least 3,000 yuan [approximately $420 USD].’ In Korean money, that’s about 500,000 won [approximately $380 USD]?

They wouldn’t be crazy enough to give out the latest models, so it was probably around that price. But even that amount of money was outrageous.

How many Demonic Cult members were there? And they were giving phones to all of them?

While he was pondering how to take this situation, the lines were quickly shortening. Before he knew it, Joo-gang was at the very front of the line.

“Please fill this out here.”

The paper the staff member handed him had blanks for personal information.

“Why do I have to write this?”

“So we know who has which number.”

“Ah…”

Why do they need to know that?

He had a slight question, but Joo-gang quickly erased it from his mind. What did it matter? They were giving out free phones.

After filling out the blanks, he was given a phone.

“The number is here. Even if you forget the number, you can check it on your phone. We’ve included a manual with instructions on how to set the pattern and check the number, so please be sure to read it.”

“Ah… Yes.”

Joo-gang nodded, listening to the fluent Chinese.

‘But why are they giving these out?’

It was a well-known fact that the Demonic Lord was more interested in welfare than he appeared. But the Demonic Lord’s welfare wasn’t about just giving things away.

It was about giving fair compensation to those who worked or made an effort. That was the Demonic Lord’s welfare as Joo-gang understood it. But this was different.

“This, it’s like that thing, isn’t it?”

“What?”

“Those Korean guys are learning from videos these days, I heard.”

“Learning what?”

“What else? Martial arts, of course.”

“What? Learning martial arts from videos?”

“That’s what I heard.”

“Wow…”

What kind of crazy idea was this? Learning martial arts from videos, that was just absurd…

“Are they out of their minds?”

“Why wouldn’t it work?”

“No, of course it wouldn’t work! If you learn from videos…”

Joo-gang closed his mouth.

He thought it was obviously impossible. He felt a sense of rejection as soon as he heard it. But when he thought about it carefully, there was no reason why it wouldn’t work.

‘They might learn it poorly, or learn it wrong…’

That’s why the Demonic Lord was making the elders work, wasn’t he?

If the overall learning was replaced with videos, and the elders were in charge of after-sales service, there wouldn’t be any particular problem.

“…Should I call this groundbreaking?”

Or should I call it insane?

What was certain was that this was something unimaginable in China. Of course, it wasn’t possible just because this was Korea. If the Demonic Lord hadn’t taken hold of the Demonic Cult and shaken it up, this kind of thing wouldn’t have happened for another hundred years, he could guarantee it.

“I don’t know about anything else, but his drive is just unbelievable.”

“Right?”

Joo-gang nodded and looked at the smartphone.

“Then, from here…”

That’s when it happened.

“Hey.”

Joo-gang turned his head at the voice that seemed to be calling him. Then he saw a familiar face.

“Jang Da-jing?”

Jang Da-jing, whom he had a connection with since China, was calling him.

“What’s going on?”

“Joo-gang, the Lord is looking for you.”

“The Demonic Lord?”

“Yes. Follow me.”

Jang Da-jing gestured, and Joo-gang nodded and followed Jang Da-jing.

He didn’t know what was going on, but he had to go since he was being called.

“I’ve brought him.”

“Welcome.”

Joo-gang tensed up.

Inside the conference room, Kang Jin-ho, Lee Hyun-soo, and Elder Jang Min were sitting. From his perspective, it was a situation where the three most awkward people in the world were gathered.

So, he couldn’t help but be nervous.

“Sit down.”

Lee Hyun-soo pointed to a chair. Joo-gang carefully walked over and sat down.

“Is everything alright?”

“Yes. I’m doing well.”

“That’s good then.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled lightly.

Joo-gang felt a strange feeling looking at Kang Jin-ho.

‘He seems to have become softer…’

Of course, Kang Jin-ho had never intimidated them. In the past, after showing his abilities once at the gathering place, Kang Jin-ho hadn’t tried to control them.

But still, there was such a thing as an impression.

The oppressive feeling that he felt just by looking at him in the past was gone. What was even stranger was that his dignity hadn’t disappeared at all. It was as if the oppressive pressure had been transformed into a dignity that made people naturally look up to him.

‘What am I thinking right now?’

How could he think like this just because he had seen Kang Jin-ho up close a few times?

Joo-gang shook his head slightly.

“It’s not that I have anything else to say, but I called you because there are a few things I want to confirm.”

“Yes, please ask. I will answer to the best of my ability.”

The oppressive feeling wasn’t coming from Kang Jin-ho, but from somewhere else.

Flames were flickering in the eyes of Jang Min, who was sitting next to Kang Jin-ho. It was a look that said he would tear them apart if they made a mistake or did anything rude in front of the Demonic Lord.

Joo-gang instinctively shrank back.

“Jang Min.”

“Yes! My Lord!”

“Do you want to go out?”

“How can they answer properly with you looking at them like that? Either go out, or take the power out of your eyes. I’d appreciate it if you did one of the two.”

“I was short-sighted.” Jang Min lowered his head slightly.

Watching that, Joo-gang once again realized Kang Jin-ho’s power. Jang Min was like a cult leader to them.

If he hadn’t refused the position because he didn’t have the qualifications to sit above the cult leader… No, if he hadn’t been furious at the thought of trying to put someone like him in the position of cult leader, Jang Min would have been in the position of cult leader.

In reality, he hadn’t taken the position, but all the Demonic Cult members thought of Jang Min as the cult leader. Such a person was now lowering his eyes at a single word from Kang Jin-ho.

It was a sight that others might find dissatisfying. No matter how much power, dignity, and ability Kang Jin-ho possessed, Jang Min’s contributions to the Demonic Cult should also be evaluated.

Even a cult leader couldn’t ignore Jang Min like that.

But…

‘What can I do if he likes it?’

There was no feeling of pain or injustice in Jang Min’s lowered eyes.

It might sound a bit funny to say this, but Jang Min was the happiest when he was being scolded by the Demonic Lord. It was as if he was overjoyed by the fact that someone had finally appeared who could give him orders.

Well, anyway, it wasn’t normal.

“You’ve heard the story, but…”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to try to change the training method a little more efficiently this time.”

“Are you talking about the videos?”

“It seems you’ve heard. Yes.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded calmly.

“The General Assembly is already implementing it. There are some problems, but nothing major. If we gradually reduce the trial and error, it will settle down.”

“Yes.”

“However, what I’m worried about is that the cult members are different from the general martial artists of the General Assembly. I want to hear your opinion on whether it’s possible to apply this as it is.”

“Wait a minute.”

Joo-gang waved his hand.

And before he could even continue, a fiery shout came down.

“You, you like a mudfish! How dare you use such words in front of the Demonic Lord! Should I pull out your tongue to make you come to your senses? My Lord! Please punish me for not teaching the children properly! I should bang my head on the ground and die to atone for this sin…”

“Stop… Please stop… Please.”

Kang Jin-ho looked very distressed.

‘It’s not a one-sided relationship.’

Kang Jin-ho had the lead in the relationship, but Jang Min looked happy, and Kang Jin-ho looked distressed. The more he looked at it, the stranger the relationship was.

“But my Lord!”

“Jang Min.”

“Yes!”

“Let’s just keep our mouths shut for five minutes.”

“Ooh…”

“Even if you have something to say, let’s wait five minutes. That way, we can have a conversation. If you keep interrupting like this, we’ll just waste time.”

“I will keep that in mind, my Lord.”

Kang Jin-ho sighed and looked at Joo-gang.

“So… what were you trying to say?”

Joo-gang organized his thoughts and opened his mouth.

“First of all, I don’t know what kind of process the martial artists of the General Assembly are going through.”

“I’ve only heard a little bit about it. I think I’ll be able to analyze it after I see how it’s going.”

“Hmm, okay.”

Kang Jin-ho turned his head and looked at Lee Hyun-soo.

Then, Lee Hyun-soo took out his smartphone and started explaining to Joo-gang. Only after confirming the general explanation and the videos did Joo-gang nod.

“It’s roughly like this.”

“Hmm, it’s definitely…”

Efficient.

It wasn’t a great advancement. There were things to gain, but also things to lose. But in Joo-gang’s view, the benefits far outweighed the losses.

Just being able to educate the number of people that could fill the central training ground and still have room to spare at the same time was enough to blow away all the other disadvantages.

“It definitely looks good.”

“There are no problems?”

“Huh? There are countless problems.”

“Huh?”

Kang Jin-ho looked at Joo-gang with a puzzled expression.

“It’s good, but there are many problems?”

“Yes. The concept itself looks good, but it’s difficult to apply it as it is. First of all, the site is in Korean, so how are they going to use it?”

“That’s not all. What if this gets leaked?”

“Even if it gets leaked, they won’t be able to learn it properly.”

“Isn’t that more of a problem? Because of the crude demonic arts that were leaked into the world, criminals who learned demonic arts appeared, and they became murderous demons as they fell into demonic possession. That’s why the image of the Demonic Cult has plummeted.”

“…Ah!”

“Demonic arts that they can’t learn properly are more dangerous. It’s something that should be considered first.”

“Is that so?”

Kang Jin-ho raised his head and looked at Lee Hyun-soo. Lee Hyun-soo nodded as if he understood Kang Jin-ho’s thoughts.

“Tell Chun Tae-hoon to come.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled and added a word.

“We have a new team member here.”

It was the moment when the first team member was created in Chun Tae-hoon’s video education department.