Descent of the Demon Master-Chapter 1278. Cooperating (3)

Inside a fancy Japanese restaurant in Jong-ro, Seoul...

Four individuals sat in a quiet but luxurious room inside this establishment. Some time had passed since they had settled down, yet the only thing these stern-looking men had exchanged so far were sharp, silent glares.

Du-ru-ruk!

The sliding doors slid open to the side, and the servers entered while carrying plates of food. Their movements were delicate and very cautious. In fact, it felt like they were being careful despite performing familiar actions.

After putting all the food down, the servers courteously bowed to the four occupants and silently exited the room.

Tap!

Just as the sound of the door closing echoed in the room, one of the four sighed deeply.

“This is getting tedious. Gents, let’s have a drink first.”

This man pulled out a sake bottle from the ice and scanned his companions. However, despite waiting for a while, no one bothered to offer their cups.

“What the...”

Before the man could speak, another man sitting across the table growled. “We’re not chummy enough to share booze with you.”

“...”

“Take a sip, and you’ll be sent to the nearest ER. Put that bottle down if you don’t want that to happen. Don’t act like you’re a big man here.”

“What the f*ck, you have a death wish or something?!”

The man with the sake bottle shot up to his feet. However, he soon sat back down while groaning loudly.

“F*cking trash.”

“Hah? Don’t run your mouth off here, punk. If you don’t want to get shanked by this trash and end up in a trash heap to smell the f*cking roses. Get my drift?”

That was a clear provocation, but the man didn’t react angrily this time. “Oii. Don’t push your luck.”

“Oho? Why not? Because you might get angry?”

The man put the bottle down and groaned while leaning against his chair.

These people and their temper! The man wasn’t holding himself back because he was scared of his opponents. Although these fools were no pushovers, it wasn’t to the extent of scaring the man.

After all, the man offering the drink was none other than Bak Jong-Gu, the second-in-command of the Isu faction, which was one of the two powerful criminal organizations in control of half of Seoul’s underground.

“Bak Jong-Gu, it’s been a while since I last saw your ugly mug, and it’s gotten even uglier than before. If I’d run into you somewhere else, I might have rearranged your face a bit more to make it less palatable, though.”

“Hah...”

Despite his rival’s provocation, Bak Jong-Gu had to keep his anger in check. Because this occasion definitely did not allow any of them to blow their top.

“You better keep a lid on it, or else. Or I might get the red mist and take you all to hell with me!”

“Uh-whew, so scary~! This is why you mustn’t play nice with a local hoodlum!”

“What the f*ck?! You wanna have a go?!”

“Come on, now. Keep it down, you two.”

Drip...

Yu Beom-Yeong from the Shinguk faction muttered disinterestedly while pouring sake into his cup.

“If you don’t know why we’re here, then sure. Go ahead. I ain’t gonna stop you. I have no desire to save your hides after you cause a ruckus and get killed for it.”

Bak Jong-Gu glared sharply at Yu Beom-Yeong.

The latter ignored that glare and continued to speak, but he sounded not as disinterested as before. “However, don’t drag other people into your mess, okay? I’d like to go home in one piece today, after all. Dying here is no better than a dog’s death, don’t you think?”

“...”

Bak Jong-Gu groaned deeply. All the tension in his muscles abandoned him in droves. It was the same story for the others, too.

It might look like Bak Jong-Gu was the one with a problem here, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Besides, problems were bound to rear their ugly heads in this meeting sooner or later, anyway.

Why? Because these four shouldn’t even be in one room, never mind breathe the same air!

These four were the movers and shakers of the four largest organizations in the capital and its surrounding areas. And such people were crammed into one room. With all the antagonistic history shared between them, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see them knifing each other to death by now, were it not for the why of this meeting keeping them in line.

These people always said that without their pride, they were no better than corpses. Yet, in a gathering of such prideful gangsters, all they could do was snarkily insult each other. They didn’t dare throw fists or pull out their knives.

The reason for their behavior was pretty simple, though.

Du-ru-ru-ruk!

The sliding door was powerfully pushed open, and another man strode inside.

He scanned the room, then muttered sarcastically. “Aigoo~, thank you for coming all this way, you bunch of criminal trash. Hey, you. Open the windows. It’s smelly in here with all the trash inside.”

Bak Jong-Gu didn’t say a word and got up to open the windows, but...

The newcomer groaned. “I was kidding, you fool. Sit back down.”

“Yes... sir.”

Bak Jong-Gu obediently returned to his seat.

Not many people in South Korea could speak to these four men like this and get away with it. Heck, not even the top prosecutors or the Prosecutor General would dare. Because the potential retaliation scared them to bits.

Stuff like a fiery detective who didn’t hesitate to beat up hooligans to uncover the truth or a passionate prosecutor who demanded speedy investigations to cleanse the criminal scum from society... Only happened in TV shows and movies.

Even if a detective or a prosecutor was filled with a sense of justice and had all the abilities to fulfill their mandate, they would still keep their mouth shut like a good little school kid in a gathering like this.

But this geeky-looking man treated these four powerful gangsters like a bunch of local bums!

The man glanced at the table’s contents. “Huh. So you ordered only for yourselves?”

“No, sir. We told the staff to bring yours in when you arrived.”

“At least you are sensible enough to do that. Still, why are you criminals if you’re that sensible? Useless.”

Bak Jong-Gu squeezed his eyes shut as he began thinking, Argh...! Gimme a break! This son of a b*tch!

It wasn’t only him, however. The other three were thinking roughly the same thing, such as, Bloody hell, if I could just wring his little neck! Or, Dammit, this is so f*cking embarrassing! Good thing my boys aren’t here to see this sh*t.

The man cocked an eyebrow. “Oho? What’s with all these frowning faces? Oii, you, Jong-Gu.”

“Y-yes, sir?”

Bak Jong-Gu flinched nastily when he was pointed out.

The man smirked. “What’s the matter? You pissed?”

“No, sir. Definitely not.”

The man’s smirk deepened. “If you’re pissed and want to complain, don’t hesitate, okay? Because I’ll help you destress. I’m pretty good at such things, you see?”

“I’m definitely not pissed, sir. Please believe me.”

“That’s good to hear, then.”

Bak Jong-Gu sighed under his breath. Although it was shameful to admit this, he did not want to get on this man’s bad side. So much so that he’d rather kick down the door to the Prosecutor General’s home with a sashimi knife in one hand instead!

He could still vividly recall the fate of those who pissed off this man, after all!

Anyone who rose through the ranks in this cutthroat world would inevitably learn about one name. And the man with this name was treated the same as a demon from Hell who abducted people and tortured them for fun. Well, at least in this industry, that was!

“Uhm, uh... Excuse me, but... My apologies, but we are not sure how to address you these days, so...”

The man casually shrugged. “Call me Chief Lee. You know I’ve changed my affiliation a long time ago.”

“Y-yes, sir. Chief Lee,” Bak Jong-Gu replied while swallowing his saliva down his dried-up throat. “B-before we start, congratulations.”

Chief Lee cocked an eyebrow. “For what?”

“For, uh, your new affiliation.”

“Hah...”

Chief Lee, his full name Lee Hyeon-Su, chuckled loudly.

“Not sure if you’re supposed to congratulate me or feel pity for me, but whatever. Thanks for the gesture, at least. I never knew I’d get a gangster to congratulate me like this one day.”

“Haha... ha...”

“Okay. Enough horsing around,” said Lee Hyeon-Su, then he sat up straight and scanned the four gangsters in the room. “Be grateful, you bastards. I was originally going to tell your bosses to show up today. But I considered your positions and said it’s fine to send someone suitable instead.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Yes, thank you, hyung-nim!”

“Hyung-nim, my ass,” Lee Hyeon-Su scowled deeply. “Don’t call me your hyung-nim, okay? I’ve never been your friend, and I’ll never be.”

“My apologies, sir.”

That was when the door slid open again, and servers entered carrying new plates of food. However, when they froze up with hints of fear on their faces, Lee Hyeon-Su scowled again.

“Hey, you bastards! Stop frowning, will ya! Can’t you see that you’re inconveniencing these hard-working people?! You lot already look like escapees from the Samchung re-education camp[1], so how dare you frown like that? Smile!”

“Y-yes, sir.”

The gangsters tried hard to straighten their cramped expressions into something that vaguely resembled a smile.

Lee Hyeon-Su groaned theatrically at this spectacle and apologized to a nearby server. “Sorry about this. I assure you, even though these bastards look like scary thugs, they can’t even harm a fly. So don’t worry about them.”

“E-excuse me, sir? Oh... Understood.”

Of course, there was no way Lee Hyeon-Su’s reassurance would work. After all, wasn’t this like a general ordering a private to insult their superior officer to their face?

Lee Hyeon-Su quickly realized what he had done and sighed deeply.

“Let’s do it this way. After putting the food down, please don’t interrupt us until we specifically call for you.”

The server cautiously asked. “Will that be fine, sir? We still have other dishes in the course ready to serve.”

“Yes, we’ll be fine.”

“Then... Please call us by pressing this bell if you need anything.”

“Thank you,” Lee Hyeon-Su smiled brightly and bade the servers goodbye.

However, once the doors slid shut, the look of sheer irritation returned to his face instantly. “I don’t get why you gangsters all like to book a place like this. Can’t we just hang around in a bar or some deserted construction sites like usual? Why come all the way to a Japanese restaurant full of regular people? Your mugs will give people indigestion!”

Bak Jong-Gu meekly replied, “But that’s why we booked a private room, sir.”

“What did you say?”

“...My apologies, sir.”

Yu Beom-Yeong, who had been silently observing the situation, cautiously spoke up. “Chief Lee.”

Lee Hyeon-Su glanced at him next. “What is it?”

“My apologies, but... Can you tell us why you summoned us all here?”

Lee Hyeon-Su glared at Yu Beom-Yeong, forcing the latter to sneakily avert his gaze.

“...Fine. Let’s get to the main topic, shall we?”

Lee Hyeon-Su took out a packet of cigarettes from his pocket. However, when he mouthed a cigarette and lit it up, Bak Jong-Gu also rummaged through his pocket to pull out his own cigarette.

Lee Hyeon-Su cocked an eyebrow. “Huh. So you want to smoke, too?”

“I... was trying to light up yours, sir.”

“Go and open the windows, you punk.”

“Yes, sir.”

Since this room was located deeper in the restaurant, smoking was tacitly allowed. Even so, the gangsters didn’t dare smoke in Lee Hyeon-Su’s presence.

Once he finished opening the windows, Bak Jong-Gu returned to his seat, allowing Lee Hyeon-Su to resume the proceedings with a loud groan. “So. You all know about the latest drug problem making a mess of things lately, don’t you?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Don’t even mention it, sir. This whole thing has put us on edge, as well.”

“Cops are suddenly showing up at our places for inspections and whatnot. We tell them we have nothing to do with those drugs, yet they still suspect us... Sure, they might be cops, but is it okay for them to abuse their authority like this and hassle us?”

Lee Hyeon-Su tutted. “Of course it’s okay.”

“...”

“Why didn’t you live a law-abiding life, then?”

Bak Jong-Gu and others clamped their mouths shut. Stupidly saying something only made them look like idiots instead.

Lee Hyeon-Su continued, “In any case. Looks like your side will have to step up and clean this mess up. You all know who’s been selling these drugs, right?”

“Yes, we do.”

“Good. Then, you lot wipe them out.”

Yu Beom-Yeong cautiously glanced at Lee Hyeon-Su. “But, uh, this thing was related to your...”

“Yeah, some of our boys were involved. But we’ve already dealt with them, so you finish off the idiots on your side who did their bidding. I’ll make sure there won’t be any blowbacks coming your way.”

Yu Beom-Yeong sheepishly scratched his head. “I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, sir, but... The culprits are from the Chilsung faction. Those bastards are some of the toughest nuts around.”

“What are you saying, then? You can’t handle them?”

“No, Chief Lee. There are four of us here, after all. Just one of us can easily erase them off the map.”

“So? What’s the problem?”

“I mean, the era being what it is... Nowadays, cops will show up and arrest us for acts of violence if us gangsters start a fight on the street, you see? We ain’t talking about one or two fools here, but an entire organization, so if we crush that... If things go wrong, every one of us will be eating prison food for the rest of our lives.”

“Aha, so you won’t do it? Is that your final answer?”

“N-no...”

Yu Beom-Yeong lowered his head after noticing Lee Hyeon-Su’s glare.

“It, it’s not that, but... This is very tricky and all, and...”

Lee Hyeon-Su tutted loudly. “If I can stop the cops from interfering, can you wipe them out?”

Yu Beom-Yeong hurriedly raised his head. “Can you do that, sir?”

“Answer me first, you sh*thead. Who gave you permission to question me?!”

“M-my apologies! As long as the cops stay out of the way, wiping out the Chilsung bastards shouldn’t even be a problem for us. Since our group is closest, let us handle them!”

Bak Jong-Gu shot up to his feet. “What did you say?! Hey! Are you trying to punk us or something?! F*cking hell? You dare take over their territory for yourself?! You motherfu...”

POW!

Out of nowhere, the noise of a baseball bat hitting something rocked the room, followed by Bak Jong-Gu’s figure flying away in a straight line before slamming into a distant wall.

“Kkeu-ruk!?”

Bak Jong-Gu landed painfully on the floor before crawling on all fours, his head shaking around unsteadily.

Sizzle...

Lee Hyeon-Su stubbed his cigarette in an ashtray. Almost at the same time, the atmosphere in the room grew icy-cold.

“You goddamn insects. You dare forget your place just because I’ve been treating you like human beings?”

Lee Hyeon-Su coldly muttered, his glare now more withdrawn.

“If you want to spare your people from a massacre, go and bring your bosses here before the sunrise.”

1. Samchung re-education camp was a South Korean concentration camp set up during the early 1980s under the rule of military dictator, Chun Doo-Hwan. ☜