Descent of the Demon Master-Chapter 1340. Executing (5)

“Well, uh...”

The NIS agent’s expression was indescribable as he stared at Kang Jin-Ho and Lee Hyeon-Su sitting across from him in the same diner as the last time.

Kang Jin-Ho sat there with his legs crossed and a lit cigarette dangling between his lips, while Lee Hyeon-Su was sagging lazily in his chair as if this whole thing bored him to death.

Looking at their attitudes triggered a moment of clarity that the agent had never experienced in his lengthy career as a spy.

“What, why...” The NIS agent tried to say something repeatedly, but what left his lips in the end was a long groan. “Gentlemen, do you not have any awareness of how dangerous this mission is?”

Lee Hyeon-Su casually shrugged. “Well, sure.”

“Mister Lee? Do you really?”

Lee Hyeon-Su dismissively waved his hand. “We always are involved in something dangerous, so talking about being aware of the dangers is a moot point for us. You can say we’re people who constantly walk on a knife’s edge.”

“Sorry? A knife’s edge? What?”

The NIS agent’s cheeks began twitching ominously.

Lee Hyeon-Su tutted. “Please don’t make a face like that. It’s giving me the creeps. Since that feels a bit off, I’m gonna assume the magic of plastic surgery is involved here?”

“Of course it is plastic surgery. Do you think this is my original appearance?!”

“Well, if it was, I was thinking of offering you my sympathy. Being born that way must’ve been difficult for you, after all.”

“Urgh...!”

The agent spat out a lengthy groan again. Just where did people like these two pop out from?!

The agent felt his blood pressure spike while his innards began twisting into knots.

This mission’s success depended on its participants staying under the radar. No one must know that these two had entered China. But Kang Jin-Ho and Lee Hyeon-Su, they... They...!

Never mind staying under the radar, they carelessly moved around to cause a scene. And not only that, but they even rented out a popular restaurant brimming full with people, too! What kind of hair-brained behavior was this?!

At this rate, uninterested parties might stop being uninterested anymore!

“Sirs! Shouldn’t you at least try to stay under the radar?!”

Lee Hyeon-Su tutted. “Why should we?”

“Sorry?”

“When they already know?”

“...Huh?” The agent gasped, his irises powerfully quaking. “They know? Who knows what exactly?”

“They know we’re already in the country, okay? And I’m talking about high-ranking Chinese officials.”

“B-but that doesn’t make sense. That’s impossible...”

“It is possible. Since they came to see us first.” Lee Hyeon-Su grunted, his somewhat icy glare locking on the NIS agent. “They said the information had reached their side even before we left South Korea. Apparently, they used Korea’s CCTV network to keep an eye out on our movements for a while. You understand what that means, don’t you?”

The NIS agent hurriedly clamped his mouth shut. But his quaking eyes amply conveyed the existential shock resonating deep within his heart. He must’ve received intense training to suppress his emotions, yet he still couldn’t hide his agitation from showing up on his face.

“T-there must be some kind of mistake...?”

Lee Hyeon-Su wordlessly picked up a cup of cold water, emptied it in one go, then noisily put the cup down on the table.

TAP!

The noise of the cup hitting the solid surface of the table sobered the agent up instantly, and he sat up straight.

Lee Hyeon-Su narrowed his eyes. “Name?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Your name, mister.”

“Do you want to know my real name?”

“I don’t really care either way.”

The NIS agent nervously swallowed his saliva. “You can call me Chang Piljae.”

“Very well. Mister Chang Piljae.”

Lee Hyeon-Su’s glare sharpened.

“I get why you don’t want to accept the truth. And I also get that you want to deny reality. But that’s not what you should be doing right now. Isn’t that right?”

“...!”

Yes, Lee Hyeon-Su was right. Chang Piljae could only bite his lip in silence.

If this information could be trusted, it meant the Korean government had a serious leak of information somewhere. The leak didn’t have to have come from someone within the NIS. Someone with access to the Korean government’s CCTV network could have created backdoor access to its database for the Chinese.

Either way, this was a massive crisis. After all, South Korea had an abundance of CCTV cameras installed seemingly everywhere.

Having unrestricted access to this network meant the Chinese could keep tabs on the people coming in and out of South Korea. Of course, monitoring every single person would be impossible as the Chinese wouldn’t have enough manpower or the tech to do so. Even so, one could glean a lot of important information by monitoring a select few individuals.

But didn’t that mean...

Are you saying these two men are important enough for China to invest that much resources into monitoring them?

Seriously? These two?

That was when Chang Piljae suddenly realized he knew next to nothing about Kang Jin-Ho and Lee Hyeon-Su. Other than acting as a courier delivering information on behalf of his boss back in South Korea, he had not been too interested in learning about who these two men were.

They must be bigshots, then. Maybe much bigger than Chang Piljae had bargained for!

The NIS agent sneakily glanced at Kang Jin-Ho, hoping to gauge the latter’s mood. He didn’t have to ask who was the “superior officer” between the two men here. Besides, Manager Yi Jong-Wuk was also clearly more nervous about Kang Jin-Ho, anyway.

This young man is such a big shot that even the high-ranking Chinese officials want to keep an eye on him...

That was when Kang Jin-Ho’s expression grew slightly cramped, his gaze shifting to the waiting food on the table. The bowls of beef noodles had gotten soggy and lukewarm from all the waiting.

Lee Hyeon-Su grimaced a little. “How about, uh, we continue while eating?”

“Mm...!”

Kang Jin-Ho subtly grinned as if he liked that suggestion and picked up his chopsticks. “Well, the noodles won’t be as good when they get cold, after all.”

“...”

Lee Hyeon-Su sighed when his boss eagerly tucked into the noodles and picked up his own chopsticks. He stirred the noodles in the broth while glancing at Chang Piljae.

“Let’s continue while eating. We’re all doing this to put the food on the table, anyway.”

“...”

What the hell?! We came here to avoid being seen, not to fill up our stomachs!

...That was what Chang Piljae screamed in his mind.

If this was in the past, he might have said something out of frustration, although it wouldn’t have been as aggressive as his current thoughts. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that today. For one, he was deeply embarrassed about crucial information leaking out from his side. And Kang Jin-Ho being a far bigger fish than he had bargained for played on his mind, too.

Damn it, boss! At least you could’ve given me a heads-up, you know?!

What if Chang Piljae had a slip of the tongue here?!

This proved it; those damn paper-pushers back in the NIS HQ really did take the field agents for granted. How could they not even hand over a necessary piece of info like this to him?

Lee Hyeon-Su glanced at Chang Piljae. “Go on.”

“O-oh, of course.”

Chang Piljae sneakily gauged his companions’ moods while picking some noodles with his chopsticks. While mindlessly chewing on the beef noodles, he couldn’t help but wonder just what the hell he was doing here.

Hold on a sec...?

As his chaotic mind began settling down somewhat, Chang Piljae finally realized how absurd this situation really was.

He looked at Lee Hyeon-Su. “Uh, by the way...?”

“Yes?” Lee Hyeon-Su looked away from his bowl of noodles.

“If information has already leaked to the other side... Doesn’t that mean they also know why you’re in the country?”

“Damnf impt sho,” said Lee Hyeon-Su while slurping the noodles. “Oops, excuse me. No, that isn’t so. They know we’re in the country, yes. But they shouldn’t know why we’re here.”

“Why would you... Mm?” Chang Piljae tilted his head this way and that in confusion. But then, he began nodding after realizing something.

Right. Since the Chinese weren’t trying to stop Kang Jin-Ho but merely keeping an eye on him, it’s possible that they don’t know why he’s in Beijing.

Although that idea seemed absurd on paper, it also made some sense.

Chang Piljae sighed deeply again. “Then... Will you carry out the mission as intended?”

“That’s obvious,” said Lee Hyeon-Su while staring at Chang Piljae. “Even if the target knows we’re coming, we’ll still go ahead with the mission. This is not something we can just back out of because the situation has gotten a bit trickier.”

Far too many things were on the line for them to blame the unfavorable situation. They simply had to succeed, even if that meant they risked losing so much in the process.

“However...” Lee Hyeon-Su slowly wagged his finger. “It’s your side’s fault that this situation has gotten trickier, so we should handle it as logically as possible.”

“When you say logically...?”

“Tell your superiors to cough up additional compensation.”

“...” Chang Piljae’s eyes opened wider. “W-when you said additional compensation, did you mean...?”

“Of course I meant money. What else could be there?”

Lee Hyeon-Su’s unwavering gaze clashed with Chang Piljae’s dazed gaze mid-air.

Sluuuurp...

Meanwhile, Kang Jin-Ho was diligently hoovering up the beef noodles in silence.

“M-money, Mister Lee?”

Lee Hyeon-Su cocked an eyebrow. “Yes, money. Why? Is there something wrong?”

“N-no, it’s not that, but...”

Chang Piljae couldn’t just spit out what was on his mind. But the fate of South Korea and its citizens was on the line here. Knowing this, how could Lee Hyeon-Su bring up money in this conversation? The NIS agent just couldn’t understand it.

Lee Hyeon-Su dismissively flicked his hand. “Money is a great medium. Because you can substitute millions of different items in existence with it. Heck, you can even quantify most human emotions with money, too. I’d say money is the greatest invention of the human race.”

“...”

“It’s never an easy task to find the most appropriate compensation. Hence, the simplest method is adjusting the amount of money you pay,” said Lee Hyeon-Su, a bright grin now etched on his face. “Don’t you agree, Mister Chang?”

“Yes... of course.”

“When you return, please pass our message as clearly and loudly as possible to Mister Yi Jong-Wuk. Since the risk factors have gone through the proverbial roof, our previously agreed-upon compensation won’t cut it anymore. There isn’t anything particularly interesting we can ask the government for, so tell him to offer us an appropriate monetary sum instead. Do you understand?”

Chang Piljae slowly nodded. He wasn’t here to argue whether Lee Hyeon-Su was morally right or wrong here, anyway. He never had the authority to negotiate on behalf of the Korean government, after all!

Indeed, he was nothing more than a glorified messenger boy.

“Mister Chang. If we don’t get any replies by tonight, we’ll have to cancel this whole mission. Tomorrow is the so-called judgment day, after all.”

“B-but? Why the urgency...? Even if I report this in right away, the higher-ups will still have to hold a meeting first to discuss it. That will take time.”

“Mister Chang Piljae?”

“Yes?”

“Why should we be the only ones under the pressure of time?”

“...”

Lee Hyeon-Su began growling quietly. “You keep saying this mission is of grave national importance, so it’s about time your side acts like it. Or were you thinking of doing everything by the book while telling us to sacrifice ourselves and break the rules?”

Chang Piljae didn’t know what to say. Because Lee Hyeon-Su was right once again.

“In any case, that’s all we want to say to you. Well, then. We’ll take our leave.”

“H-hold on!”

Chang Piljae urgently reached out and grabbed Lee Hyeon-Su’s arm.

“What is it?”

“C-can you maybe tell us the rough amount you’re thinking of? I mean, just saying you want monetary compensation is too vague for us to...”

“That’s up to the government to decide,” Lee Hyeon-Su smirked weirdly. “That amount will tell us just how much the government thinks of this mission. If it thinks the mission isn’t all that important and offers us a pittance, we can just close up shop and go home, no? Well, I’m sure the government will prove to us that they believe this matter is of grave importance.”

Cold sweat began forming on Chang Piljae’s forehead.

Yes, it was true that this situation only came about because of the government’s incompetence. However, this mistake wasn’t intentional or done out of maliciousness.

Even then, Lee Hyeon-Su obviously wanted to go for a kill. He was digging his knife into this painful wound to make it wider and even sprinkled a liberal amount of salt to worsen the pain!

“Mister Chang.”

“...Yes?”

“You don’t have to think about this. It’s not like you have the final say in the matter, anyway. All you gotta do is deliver our message. The final decision will...”

Lee Hyeon-Su pointed at the ceiling.

“...Be made by the higher-ups, anyway.”

“Understood,” Chang Piljae groaned deeply once more, then pulled out a tablet from under his jacket. He handed it over to Lee Hyeon-Su. “This contains information on our target.”

“...Is it okay to give us this?”

“Doing things this way is actually more secure. Trying to exchange digital files on, say a thumb drive, could leave behind a digital footprint. And someone might intercept our data transmission.”

“Mm?”

“After you’re done with perusing the information, please destroy this tablet. As thoroughly as possible. I heard that your side is an expert at stuff like that, so I won’t nag you with what I believe is the safest method.”

An expert? At what?

Then again, Lee Hyeon-Su had to admit that Chang Piljae was technically correct. The people on his side were the best of the best when it came to wrecking stuff and human bodies, after all! Calling them experts would be rather appropriate, then.

“Then, we’ll go ahead first,” said Lee Hyeon-Su while trying to get up. But he remembered that he wasn’t alone and hurriedly turned his head to look.

Sluuuurp~!

Kang Jin-Ho was drinking the broth while raising the bowl. And yes, he was literally drinking the whole thing!

Tap!

While looking refreshed, Kang Jin-Ho put the empty noodle bowl down, then got up to leave. “Okay, let’s go.”

“A-ah, yes, sir.”

“One more thing...” Kang Jin-Ho glanced at Chang Piljae. “I recommend that you return to Korea as soon as possible.”

“What... do you mean, sir?”

“Because they most likely know about you, too.”

Kang Jin-Ho briefly nodded, then headed to the diner’s exit. Lee Hyeon-Su casually shrugged, then followed his boss outside. “Sir, you’re being too nice to that guy.”

Even as Lee Hyeon-Su’s jokey voice echoed in the diner, Chang Piljae remained seated by himself, unable to move for a long while.