Descent of the Demon Master-Chapter 1268. Investigating (3)

At a port somewhere...

As the bone-chilling night winds blew in, a trio of men stepped into a port filled with shipping containers.

“Blooming hell, it’s freezing here.”

The trio shuddered at the unforgiving winds and continued to whine while walking deeper into the rows of shipping containers.

“Goddamn it. It’s already so bloody cold, you know? Do we really have to do this sh*t in the middle of the night?”

“Then what do you suggest? Should we come here in the middle of the day?” Goh Min-Seong shot back at his colleague, then shoved his hands into his pockets. “Besides, you’re a martial artist, so why are you complaining about some cold? Where’s your pride, man?”

“Pride, my ass. Get stabbed, and you’ll know, too. The spot where the f*cking Jap stabbed me still hurts like hell, man. And when it’s cold like this? It feels like I’m getting stabbed again, dude!”

“Isn’t that because you’re weak?”

“You wanna get beaten up?”

“Stop yapping, and let’s hurry up. We gotta wrap this sh*t up today.”

“Tsk...”

Goh Min-Seong quickly scanned his surroundings.

The port at this hour was usually deserted. There were several security guards roaming around, of course, but those people would never discover Goh Min-Seong and his colleagues in a million years.

However, he still couldn’t relax, even though he had done this multiple times by now. Sharing a meaningless banter like this was one of the ways for them to relax.

“Hey, I think it’s over there,” said Jo Yeong-Hwa. He was holding a document while pointing to a distant spot.

Goh Min-Seong nodded and followed Jo Yeong-Hwa.

“Gee whiz. Do we have to jump through all these hoops every single time?”

When Jo Yeong-Hwa grumbled again, Goh Min-Seong cocked an eyebrow and asked back. “Then, what?”

“Can’t we, like, tell them to bring the stuff over?”

“Hey.”

“What?”

“Why do you even breathe, you f*cking moron? If you’re too damn lazy to live, just hold your breath and save us the f*cking trouble, will ya?”

“This and that ain’t the same.”

“Stop spewing bullsh*t, or I’ll make sure you never talk again, got that? If you like your teeth where they are, you better shut the hell up.” 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

“...Eii, f*ck.”

Jo Yeong-Hwa grumbled while striding forward quickly.

The trio briskly walked to reach the specific row of containers. They spotted security guards wielding flash lights roaming around here and there, but the trio of martial artists slipped into the darkness to avoid being spotted.

“Damn, it’s this again.”

Jo Yeong-Hwa muttered while narrowing his eyes. He scanned the stacked containers before walking to one of them.

“Hey, it’s this one.”

Jo Yeong-Hwa pointed at the container at the bottom of the stack.

“At least we won’t have to climb around like a bunch of monkeys tonight. Why did the heavens put the container at the bottom this time, I wonder?”

“It’s probably their way of telling us to finish up quickly and get the hell outta here.”

Goh Min-Seong inwardly sighed in relief.

Of course, their container being somewhere higher in the stack wouldn’t have stopped the trio. Climbing up and opening the container doors would’ve been as easy as taking candy from a baby for these three, after all. However, taking out the product from the container without being seen was another matter altogether.

If they were unlucky, they might even have to climb up as high as the fifth floor to carry down the products with their bare hands!

But it seemed Lady Luck was on their side tonight. Their container just so happened to be at the bottom of the stack.

“Open it, man,” said Goh Min-Seong.

Jo Yeong-Hwa tutted softly. “Hold on, make sure there’s no one around us first.”

“I already did that. Still... Hey, Gyeong-Ho. Be on the lookout, just in case.”

“Understood,” said Bak Gyeong-Ho.

Jo Yeong-Hwa sneakily scanned the area behind him, then cautiously approached the container. He took out a set of keys from his pocket, then undid the large lock.

Click!

After taking the lock out, Jo Yeong-Hwa tried to open the container door while making as little noise as possible.

Sccccreeeeaak!

Unfortunately, the noise of rusted metal rubbing against each other dug into their hearing.

Goh Min-Seong grimaced. “Can’t you be more quiet?”

“What can I do when it’s the goddamn door?!”

“Fine, fine! You dumbass. Calm the f*ck down, will ya?”

“Tsk...!”

Jo Yeong-Hwa opened the door fully, allowing Goh Min-Seong to step inside.

Now that they were here, what they needed was speed, not stealth.

Goh Min-Seong spotted several large wooden boxes deeper inside the container. He unhesitantly ripped open the lid of the closest box. Smaller boxes wrapped in vinyl entered his view, and he scowled deeply in unhappiness.

“What the f*ck, man...? Look at this sh*t. Didn’t they put all kinds of stuff on top of the products to cover everything up when we started this whole thing? But now they don’t even bother to do that?”

Jo Yeong-Hwa offered his take on the matter. “Well, they didn’t get caught the last few times, that’s why.”

“Don’t they know everything will go down the crapper if we get caught like this? Insane sons of b*tches...!”

“But the blowback won’t reach them, anyway.”

“And that’s what pisses me off so much.”

Goh Min-Seong frowned while scanning the drugs. Even if the port authorities on this side of the ocean discovered the drugs, this container was en route to another country, anyway. The ‘senders’ had nothing to worry about, since cops would never find them, no matter what.

But that still didn’t change the fact that the cops would confiscate the products after finding them.

‘Crazy sons of b*tches. Don’t they know how much each container is worth?’

Goh Min-Seong shook his head and rid himself of the distracting thoughts.

“Let’s hurry and get the products outta here. Things will get tricky for us if we waste any more time.”

“Roger that.”

Jo Yeong-Hwa and Bak Gyeong-Ho slipped inside and picked up the wooden boxes. Each box was so heavy that even a strapping young man would’ve had trouble picking one up, but these men were martial artists. They could pick up five or six boxes with ease, and then some.

Two trips to and fro should be enough to empty out this container.

“Okay, let’s...”

Just as Goh Min-Seong was about to say, ‘let’s go!’, he clamped his mouth shut. That was because he noticed a lengthy shadow extending into the container just then.

That shadow of a person loomed over the square-shaped light cast through the container’s entrance. Goh Min-Seong’s eyes chased after the shadow, and eventually, he saw a silhouette of a person standing by the entrance, with the bright lights shining behind him.

“...!”

Goh Min-Seong could only stare, unable to say anything. The dazzling light made it impossible to confirm the silhouette’s facial features, but he didn’t seem to be a security guard. His attire was obviously not a security guard’s, after all!

“Hey, what’s the hold... up... Huh?”

Jo Yeong-Hwa clamped his mouth shut, too, as if to say he had figured the situation out as well.

All kinds of thoughts entered Goh Min-Seong’s head just then.

What should he do?

Could he run away?

‘No, we can’t do that!’

Running away now was out of the question, since that would mean leaving the products behind. Even if they pushed their luck and ran away with the boxes on their shoulders, over half of the product would still get left behind.

One large wooden box contained one hundred smaller boxes. And each of those smaller boxes contained ten ampoules of TOD. In short, there were one thousand ampoules in one wooden box.

‘That’s at least a billion won per box!’

Leaving fifteen boxes behind would be the same as throwing away fifteen billion won.[1]

Goh Min-Seong’s hesitation didn’t last for long. He slowly put the boxes down, then clenched his fists tightly while stepping forward. Although he didn’t know who this individual blocking the exit was, the worth of this man’s life couldn’t have been over fifteen billion won.

Goh Min-Seong growled menacingly. “Don’t resent me for this, okay?”

“Oh? You want to kill me now?”

Goh Min-Seong’s steps came to an abrupt halt just then. And no, he didn’t do that out of his own volition. His feet disobeyed his will and stopped on their own when he heard the calm, nay, nonchalant voice of the individual.

‘What was that?’

Goh Min-Seong’s expression stiffened for a moment at this inexplicable phenomenon.

“Better give that up, fella. Or someone will get hurt,” said the individual in an icy voice. He leisurely walked toward the container until stepping out of the light. And that was when Goh Min-Seong finally saw the face of this individual.

“That someone will be me, though. So, let’s be civil and talk about this, okay? Instead of throwing punches around like savages.”

Goh Min-Seong’s complexion grew paler and paler.

What this individual said was definitely correct. If a fight broke out now, Goh Min-Seong would only need ten seconds to rip the head off the individual before his eyes. No, ten seconds would still be too long for that.

Subjectively or objectively, it didn’t matter. That man would never survive Goh Min-Seong’s attacks.

Even then, Goh Min-Seong was still terrified beyond words because this man had never relied on his meager martial prowess to survive on this side of the world.

Click...!

The man, Lee Hyeon-Su, casually lit up a cigarette. And then, his icier-than-ice glare locked on Goh Min-Seong.

“You know, humans can be such funny animals sometimes.”

After muttering that, Lee Hyeon-Su lazily exhaled cigarette smoke. Meanwhile, the trio inside the container dared not meet his icy glare.

They were all so pathetic. Weak.

When judged on the standard of physical strength, these three should view Lee Hyeon-Su as an ordinary person who couldn’t even break a chicken’s neck. Even then, they still dared not break their silence against someone so much weaker than them.

“Anyone would’ve thought the same way, right? Maybe because I’m also human, I hoped for the best against my better judgment while on my way here. I thought that maybe, this was all a misunderstanding. That we got our information mixed up or something. Heh, looks like things have been pretty cushy for me lately, seeing how I ended up thinking that way. Don’t you agree, boys?”

Lee Hyeon-Su spoke in a calm, nay, gentle-sounding voice just then. However, his glare was definitely not gentle. As a matter of fact, that glare was reminiscent of the days when people feared him as the Yeongnam Group’s devil!

Since he had no need to hate someone anymore, and as he didn’t have to thrust some poor bastard into a living hell, Lee Hyeon-Su had mostly forgotten about this side of him. But now, this side was waking up once more.

Goh Min-Seong tightly clenched his teeth. As a former member of the Yeongnam Group, he was well acquainted with Lee Hyeon-Su’s terrifying reputation.

Once upon a time, the members of the Yeongnam Group respected but also ostracized Lee Hyeon-Su. Even though he was their superior, and even though everyone knew how much he had benefited their organization, they just couldn’t bring themselves to get closer to Lee Hyeon-Su, all thanks to his reputation.

Although he acted like a man with a screw loose these days, Lee Hyeon-Su was still Lee Hyeon-Su. If someone asked Goh Min-Seong to pick the most goosebumps-inducing person he had ever met, he’d still unhesitantly point his finger at Lee Hyeon-Su!

And now, that Lee Hyeon-Su was glaring murderously at Goh Min-Seong and his colleagues while speaking in an emotionless voice!

‘I... We need to kill him!’

By now, Goh Min-Seong had discarded any thoughts of running away. Turning Lee Hyeon-Su into his enemy by escaping from here was pretty much the same as living the rest of his life in constant fear. That was why he must kill Lee Hyeon-Su here.

Only by doing so, they...

Before his thoughts could fully form, however...!

Clomp, clomp, clomp...!

Still footsteps quietly echoed among the containers, and eventually, a large group of martial artists in black business suits stood next to Lee Hyeon-Su.

“...!”

The entrance of the container in Goh Min-Seong’s view was now completely blocked off by a wall of martial artists.

“Oh. Don’t misunderstand, okay?” Lee Hyeon-Su calmly spoke. “I’m not as dumb as you. Don’t ever think you can escape through the ceiling or side walls.”

Goh Min-Seong sneakily looked up. Even through the container’s metal ceiling, which could be seen as pathetically thin or extra thick depending on the situation, he could sense heavy killing intent. That could only mean the martial artists he could see weren’t everyone.

Without a doubt, this entire area must’ve been cordoned off.

‘That... makes sense.’

Since Lee Hyeon-Su decided to get involved personally, he wouldn’t have done things in half-measures.

Goh Min-Seong couldn’t help but chuckle hollowly at himself. How could he delude himself for a moment like that? When he knew how Lee Hyeon-Su operated?

Lee Hyeon-Su issued a new command to his men. “Boys. Get them.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Retrieve the drugs. And we’re taking these bastards alive with us. If they resist, you can crush them. But...!” Lee Hyeon-Su chewed his words out. “Make sure they live. The one killing them will be me.”

“Yes, sir!”

The Assembly’s martial artists flooded inside the container.

As if he had resigned himself to his fate, Goh Min-Seong didn’t fight back and let the martial artists capture him. Then again, what could he even do here? Each of these martial artists rivaled him in strength, after all! And there were dozens of them here, to boot!

As he got dragged away, Goh Min-Seong stared forlornly at Lee Hyeon-Su. But all he got in return was Lee Hyeon-Su’s emotionless eyes staring back at him.

“Get a move on, you piece of sh*t!”

One of the martial artists roared while dragging Goh Min-Seong away.

Lee Hyeon-Su watched the trio get dragged away, then entered the container himself. He scanned the wooden boxes half-filling the container and grimaced.

He stared at them in silence for a long time before clenching his teeth and kicking the nearest box in anger.

BANG!

The box slammed into the container’s wall and shattered into pieces.

“...F*ck!”

After spitting out a short cuss, Lee Hyeon-Su took one deep puff of his cigarette before tossing it on the floor and roughly trampling on it.

1. At the time of TLing, that’s around $10.17 million US. ☜