Descent of the Demon Master-Chapter 1266. Investigating (1)

“Huff, huff...!”

Bodies were gyrating and vibing under the blinding spotlights. Sweltering heat filled the dance floor.

“Huff, huff...!”

A man wandered among the dancing bodies. Judging from how he desperately scanned the surroundings, with his shoulder shivering strangely, it seemed he wasn’t here to have a good time.

He took a step forward, but his ankle almost gave in. He staggered unsteadily.

Thud!

“Hey, what gives!”

“Go home if you’re drunk!”

The man staggered and collided with other people before crashing into a nearby table. Bottles and glasses of booze resting on the table fell to the floor and shattered noisily.

“What the hell, man! Huh...? What’s wrong with this guy?”

“Huff, huff!”

The man pushed down hard on the table while standing up, his eyes burning in coldly sizzling flames. That display of bizarre strength was enough to shut the whiners down, however. The man resumed walking away on his unsteady feet.

“What’s up with him?”

“...Who cares? Maybe he’s gone insane.”

People talked about the man behind his back, but their voices didn’t register in the man’s hearing. However, even if they had, his response wouldn’t have differed much. The man simply didn’t have the leeway to care about such stuff right now, after all.

The man’s shivering hands grabbed at his face. He hugged himself and shrank down while squeezing his eyes shut. The noisy music and loud yells of people clattered and slammed into his eardrums.

A skull-shattering migraine assaulted him.

‘Where? Where are they?’

The man urgently scanned the surroundings again.

His eyes were too unfocused, and the current location wasn’t illuminated brightly enough, making it so much harder to spot the faces he was looking for. However, the man desperately searched, his eyes getting more and more bloodshot.

“...! Ah!”

He staggered toward a far corner as if he had finally found his target. Eventually, he arrived at the destination, where two men were wordlessly smoking away while staring at the dance floor.

The man huffed and panted while addressing the duo. “I... I brought the money.”

The men, who had been smoking with expressionless faces until then, glanced at the panting man.

“T-the stuff, I...”

“Shh.”

One of the men placed his index finger before his lips, then pointed to the exit with his chin.

“Follow us.”

“Y-yes!”

The three of them left the club without saying anything else.

After exiting through the front entrance, they went around the corner to enter a dimly-lit alleyway. Then, one of the smoking men pushed the back entrance of a shabby-looking building and stepped inside. Others followed him inside.

They entered a small space, which used to be some kind of store in the past.

The front of the shop was all glass, but with all the shutters down, passersby had no way of knowing what was going on inside.

One of the men sat on a chair in the center of the derelict store, while the other man stood by the entrance as if that was where he belonged. However, it was more like he wanted to prevent the panting man from escaping.

The man on the chair casually asked, “So? Did you bring the money?”

“Yes! Yes! I have it here!”

The panting man shoved his trembling hand inside his jacket before pulling out a wad of money.

“How much?”

“It’s, it’s... one million won.”[1]

The man in the chair scowled slightly. “Oii. One million ain’t gonna cut it. One and a half mil. That’s the minimum.”

“B-but, you said one million last time... And, and! I’ve been buying the stuff for one million until now, haven’t I?”

“Haaah... Will you listen to this little crackhead? Don’t you know how the free market economy works? It’s the principle of supply and demand, okay? The price will obviously go up if lots of people want our stuff, but we don’t have enough supply. Don’t you get that?”

“...!”

“Bring us more money. Or you ain’t getting sh*t.”

“B-but! This is all I can get right now!”

“Then you ain’t getting any.”

Just as the man in the chair got up to leave, the junkie reached out with his trembling hands to cling to the sleeves of his would-be savior.

“P-please! I beg you! I’ll die without the stuff!”

“...Let go, or else.”

“Please! Please! It was so hard getting this money together, you know? Please! Help me out this once!”

“Haaah...”

The dealer stared at the junkie in obvious displeasure before groaning loudly. “Fine, fine. You’re a regular customer, after all. Just for you, it’ll be a million today. But from next time? You better bring us one and a half mil. Or you ain’t even getting a sniff from us, okay?”

“Yes! Okay! Thank you!”

The dealer rummaged through his inner pocket, then took out a small ampule.

“Money first.”

The junkie hurriedly handed over the wad of money. The dealer didn’t even count the money before shoving it in his inner pocket, then lightly tossed the ampule at the junkie.

The junkie’s shaky hands rummaged through his pockets before pulling something out. It was a syringe.

Even though its packaging was untouched, the syringe inside was already broken in half. That must’ve happened when he fell down earlier. The junkie began panicking, but the dealer chuckled hollowly.

“What the f*ck... Hey, you moron. You couldn’t even take care of your syringe? And you were raising so much ruckus just now, too.”

“Ahhh...!”

“Tsk, tsk... Oh, well. I guess it’s kinda our fault, too. So... Hey, man. Do we have any extra syringes lying around?”

“Yeah, we do,” said the man guarding the exit.

“Give one to this fool. Or he’s gonna pass out here.”

The guard took out a syringe from his jacket pocket and tossed it to the junkie. The junkie barely managed to catch the syringe, then bowed several times at the guard and the dealer.

“Thank you! Thank you!”

“No need to thank us,” the dealer smirked. “We should’ve made it edible for the sake of our customers’ convenience, but... But what can we do? We’re sorry about our low standards and only having our products as injections instead. When it costs as much as it does, too. Forgive us, okay? The thing is, it’s getting even harder to get the stuff into the country, you see?”

The junkie didn’t seem to be listening as he was too busy trying to insert the syringe’s needle into the ampule.

“Oh, hey, man. Take it easy. Gently, will ya? It’s not like we’ll have visitors here, anyway.”

As soon as the dealer said that, though...!

Knock, knock!

Someone knocked on the back door.

The syringe stabbing into the ampule froze mid-action. At the same time, all three men’s gazes shifted toward the exit. They could see that the door was firmly shut.

“What was that?”

“Sounds like someone’s outside?”

The guard and the dealer whispered to each other, their expressions stiffening.

Someone showing up was not something to be alarmed about, however. This empty store was known as their spot, after all. In other words, their regular ‘customers’ knew this place’s existence and came to get their drugs fairly often.

When the customers couldn’t spot the duo in the dance club next door, they would often come here. Although the duo warned them not to do that, junkies desperate for their next hit weren’t exactly known for their patience and understanding.

“Go take a look,” said the dealer.

“Okay, hang on a sec,” said the guard. He approached the doorway and leaned closer to listen.

The door itself was made of thick steel. Unless it was opened from the inside, no one could force it open from the outside.

Knock, knock!

The guard frowned slightly at the second round of knocking.

Unfortunately, the back of this store didn’t have any windows, so checking who was out there was impossible. The duo had entertained the idea of installing CCTV cameras, but doing a conspicuous job of it would only attract suspicion instead. So they didn’t do it in the end.

Just as the guard began wondering what to do, his hearing caught a calm but threatening voice coming from the outside.

“We know you’re in there.”

“...!”

“Open up.”

The duo’s eyes powerfully quaked.

‘Cops?!’

‘Nah, can’t be the cops.’

‘Then what? What should we do?’

Their dilemma didn’t last for long. Even before they could decide what to do, a bizarre noise interrupted their discussion.

Crunch...!

The attention of everyone in the store snapped toward the source of that noise.

CRUNCH!

The door... was twisting?

The metal around the doorknob let out metallic noise before the whole panel began twisting and distorting strangely.

“...?!”

All three men clamped their mouths shut at this bizarre sight.

Almost at the same time...!

Craaack, crunch!

The doorknob completely got crushed. With how crushed and twisted the doorknob area was now, the lock obviously wouldn’t be able to perform its function anymore.

Creaaak...

The door began creaking and slowly opened wider.

Gulp!

The three men gulped their saliva nervously while staring at the gradually opening doorway. The exit finally opened up, and the figure of a man kitted out in a smart business suit standing there with his hands in his pocket entered their view.

The business suit was all black, while the shoes were clean and stylish. And his hair was slicked back with the aid of pomade.

“...???”

It was as if that man came straight out of a movie depicting the Italian mob. Although there was one significant difference here. While the movie’s depiction of Italian gangsters had this... hint of friendliness, this man before the trio’s eyes lacked any semblance of warmth.

What a bizarre feeling this was. It was as if they were looking at an ice sculpture coming to life!

“Who...?”

The man in the business suit leisurely stepped inside the derelict store. And then, more well-built men kitted out in similar business suits rushed inside to block off the exit.

The man in the business suit pulled his hand out from his pocket. He was holding a red packet of cigarettes.

When he mouthed a cigarette, one of the burly men next to him took out a lighter and lit it up for him.

The man in the business suit lazily inhaled the cigarette smoke before exhaling it in the air.

“Fuu-woo...”

He slowly shook his head a couple of times, then glared at the trio coldly.

“You.”

“...!”

The dealer in a tracksuit flinched when the man in the business suit pointed at him.

“Come here.”

“...”

Even though the man beckoned at him, the dealer didn’t display any response, other than fidgeting around and hesitating.

The man in the business suit scowled slightly. “If I repeat myself, things won’t end well for you. Come here.”

“...Who are you, mister?”

Irritation finally invaded the expression of the man in the business suit as he glared at the dealer. “You’re slow on the uptake, aren’t you?”

The man in the business suddenly walked toward the dealer.

“W-wait a minute...”

Even before the dealer could say something, the man in the business suit kicked him in the shin.

“Aaaaahk?!”

The dealer collapsed to the ground while clutching at his shin. His life had been pretty turbulent up until now, giving him enough opportunity to experience beatings of varying severity. But this kick felt different. Even though it looked like a casual little kick, the pain he felt was beyond description.

The man in the business suit coldly glared at the writhing dealer on the floor before trampling on him. Each time he stomped on his victim, a dull, painful noise echoed inside the store.

“C-Chief!”

“Sir, you’re gonna kill him at this rate!”

The man in the business suit heard his men trying to dissuade him. However, he continued to kick the dealer several more times. After he was done, he dusted his sleeves and turned around to face his men.

“Bring me a chair.”

“Yes, sir!”

One of the men rushed further inside the store and took the chair in the middle before bringing it to this man called ‘Chief’.

The Chief sat on the chair and crossed his legs, then mouthed a fresh cigarette.

“Urgh... Euh...”

The dealer remained curled up on the floor while moaning in pain.

“Get up,” said the Chief in an icy voice.

The dealer whimpered and moaned while staggering back to his feet. He was in no shape to stand up, of course. However, he was also too scared to disobey the Chief’s orders.

The dealer knew that they were in a very bad situation right now. Having instinctively understood that their opponent tonight boasted an incomparably higher status than them, the dealer and the guard realized that it was pointless to resist.

“Come over here,” said the Chief.

The dealer staggered toward the Chief before kneeling down in front of the chair. Even though no one had told him to!

The Chief sucked on the cigarette while studying the dealer. “Answer all my questions truthfully, and you’ll walk out of here in one piece. Understand?”

“Y-yes, sir...”

“Good.”

The Chief chuckled affably. Of course, everyone in this store knew that laughter was not genuine.

“What I want to know is pretty simple. The product you’re selling. Where did you get it?”

“...”

“What’s your answer?”

“I... I can’t... tell you that, sir. Our suppliers are... very scary... You see?”

“Is that right?” The Chief casually shrugged before glancing at his men. “Boys?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Cut off this punk’s fingers, one by one. Let’s see if losing a few fingers will make him more cooperative.”

“Understood, sir!”

The Chief, Lee Hyeon-Su, smiled brightly at the sight of the dealer’s complexion turning pale-white.

1. Around $680 US at the time of TLing. ☜