Descent of the Demon Master-Chapter 1384. Unfolding (4)

Chang Min didn’t need long to prove that his claim of hacking into the Korean government system was no mere claim at all!

“Of course, I don’t have the requisite skills to hack them. But I can certainly get in touch with the people who do.”

When Kang Jin-Ho asked him how or when he created such connections, Chang Min’s reply was... simple enough.

“The cult has been responsible for burying countless crimes others have committed. And we were also tasked with clean-up operations. In other words, we the believers of the cult know about the dark underbelly of Chinese society better than the most, my liege. Getting in touch with the professionals who can hack a government’s computer systems to profit off their secrets is as easy as taking candy from a child.”

As Wiggins had been saying all along... As a matter of fact, he had been saying this for so long and so often that Kang Jin-Ho was getting a bit sick and tired of hearing it, but...!

It seemed the Martial Assembly still had not fully analyzed the depths of the Demon Cult’s capabilities.

“Should I get in touch with them, my liege?”

When Chang Min expectantly asked that, Kang Jin-Ho was freshly reminded of what it felt like to be speechless for the first time in a long while.

He turned around to face the others in the room. “So, uh... What should we do?”

“For now, I think it’s worth a shot, my lord...?”

“Uh, mm... Eh...”

Wiggins and Lee Hyeon-Su couldn’t respond as usual to this remarkable development.

Lee Hyeon-Su urgently asked Chang Min. “First of all, is this even possible?”

“Huh? Do not underestimate the Chinese hackers, brat. These people have even infiltrated the Pentagon, too.”

“Didn’t that happen a long time ago?”

“Indeed. However, people skilled enough to hack the Pentagon a long time ago should still have the skill set to hack South Korea’s NIS, wouldn’t you say?”

“Uh... Huh.”

Lee Hyeon-Su wasn’t sure what to say here. The obvious response in this case was to say, Yes, you’re indeed correct, Elder Chang. However, something unexplainable welled up from deep inside his chest and prevented him from readily admitting to Chang Min, who just so happened to be a Chinese!

“I think this is an avenue worth pursuing,” said Wiggins while rubbing his chin. “As long as there won’t be any lasting harm... We might learn something by doing so. Although I’m rather skeptical about finding anything useful even after taking a peek under the NIS’s bonnet, it should be better than nothing, in my opinion.”

“N-no, hold on, master!” Lee Hyeon-Su hurriedly waved both hands to garner the attention of Wiggins and Chang Min. “Hold on! Are you seriously suggesting we employ foreign hackers to hack into the NIS’s database?!”

Wiggins cocked an eyebrow. “Is there a problem with that, Mister Lee?”

Lee Hyeon-Su stammered a little in dismay. “W-wait! I might have never viewed myself as a good guy, but even then! I am a Korean bad guy, master! The idea of Chinese hackers gaining access to the Korean government database just does not sit well with me.”

It was now Wiggins’ turn to look dismayed. “A man who thinks so little of taking human lives now worries about morality and the rule of the law? I’m genuinely tempted to start researching what your perspective on morality is.”

Lee Hyeon-Su deeply frowned. “Yes, I know I deserve that, but... Even so, this idea doesn’t sit well with me.”

Kang Jin-Ho and Bang Jin-Hun stared openly at Lee Hyeon-Su, prompting him to ruefully smack his lips. Did these two men not have any sense of patriotism? A sense of obligation to their mother nation?

Especially Kang Jin-Ho! How could a man who went through his mandatory military service be so casual about this idea?

“In any case, I’m against this idea,” said Lee Hyeon-Su.

Chang Min curiously tilted his head. “Really? What’s your reason? Patriotism?”

“Well, there is an element of that, yes. However, I’m more worried about what it means for the Chinese hackers to gain access to the NIS’s database. Since those bastards don’t have any morals and will do anything for money, what guarantees do we have that they won’t sell the information to, say, the Chinese government?

“That means we’ll be spending our own dime to gift the Chinese the important national data belonging to South Korea. Doesn’t that sound like something only an idiot would do?”

“Ohhh~!” Chang Min nodded, evidently impressed by Lee Hyeon-Su’s argument. “I see, I see. Yes, that’s also a possibility. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“Well, uh...”

“Unfortunately for you, you’re too naïve. The Chinese military’s specialized network warfare forces easily surpass the hackers in terms of skills and equipment, after all. Make no mistake, it’s not the case of them not having infiltrated the NIS yet because they can’t. No, it’s more than possible that they already have and left without leaving any traces behind.”

Steam began arising from Lee Hyeon-Su’s head just then.

Dammit! One of these days, I’m gonna study more about IT-related subjects!

Since he was totally illiterate in things like this, Lee Hyeon-Su couldn’t be sure if Chang Min was telling him the truth or not.

“Still, I’m against it,” said Lee Hyeon-Su with a firm shake of his hand. “I might have risked it if we could learn something big, sirs. But my gut instincts say we won’t find anything useful at all. In that case, isn’t it stupid to risk our country’s security like this?”

Kang Jin-Ho slowly nodded. “Yeah. I’m also not sure about this.”

Wiggins frowned slightly. “But, my lord...”

“I’m not saying no out of patriotism. It’s just that I don’t think a man like Kim Myeong-Chan would be stupid enough to leave behind a trail of information that leads right back to him.”

“Mm...” Wiggins mumbled before shaking his head. From his experience, such information could usually be found with ease.

Humans could get very meticulous about their activities, but they could also be surprisingly sloppy about themselves.

The world-rocking scandals or ripples that send the entire country into shock often began from unexpectedly poor secret-keeping by the people involved. Knowing this, Wiggins thought it’d be worth pursuing this avenue, but...

My lord has rejected his idea. Meaning, there’s no need to keep arguing about it at this stage.

Wiggins finished organizing his thoughts, then promptly gave up on the whole hacking thing. “Understood. Still, I believe we need to continue with our investigation. As Mister Lee has suggested earlier, please allow us to utilize the knowledge base of the former NIS agent, Mister Chang Piljae, and get closer to the information we seek, my lord.”

“Sure. Do what you think is for the best,” Kang Jin-Ho nodded. He wasn’t going to oppose that move. “Then, is that all we need to discuss?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Any movements from the enemy?”

“No, my lord. We have not detected any threatening movements from their side yet.”

Kang Jin-Ho furrowed his brow a little. “Does that mean they don’t know I’m back in Korea?”

“No, they know,” Wiggins firmly replied. “My lord, do you remember what that man said?”

“Who?”

“That man named Park... Park... What was it again? That North Korean soldier, sir.”

“It’s Park Sang-Chul.”

“Yes, him. He said that he had earned their keep, didn’t he?”

Kang Jin-Ho’s expression instantly grew somber.

Wiggins studied Kang Jin-Ho’s response for a bit before continuing with his explanation. “That implies he, or the North Korean army, was paid to attack you, my lord.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then, who could have paid them? You do have quite a lot of enemies who would love to see you die, after all.”

Kang Jin-Ho cocked an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Those at the top are bound to have plenty of enemies, my lord.”

“I see... Continue.”

“Of course,” Wiggins fake-coughed a little. “Kuh-hum. However, only two enemies can quickly contact the North Korean regime. One is, of course, China. As for the other one...”

“It’s the South Korean government.”

“Indeed, my lord.”

Kang Jin-Ho mouthed a fresh cigarette. Even though he already knew, listening to someone explain it still awakened a slight heartburn in his chest.

He had experienced what it was like to be branded as an enemy by the country plenty of times before back in Zhongyuan, but this and that felt different.

“But China doesn’t have to compensate North Korea monetarily for making it do its bidding. Especially in this particular matter. That leaves only the South Korean government as the potential suspect.”

“Okay, so...”

Kang Jin-Ho lit up his cigarette, then took a deep puff before exhaling the smoke into the office’s air.

“...The Korean government paid the North to kill me? Is that what you think?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“How is that even possible, though?”

Wiggins silently glanced at Lee Hyeon-Su, prompting the latter to sigh deeply. “Sir, finding a reason why it’s impossible should be harder, in my opinion. Also, this wouldn’t be the first time the Korean government has done something like this, anyway. For instance, it has paid the North to attack the South during election seasons, and... Well, there have been many cases like that over the years.”

“...”

“Besides, it doesn’t matter whether they got paid or not in this case, sir. No, what’s important is that Park Sang-Chul chose to tell us about what happened. It was as if he wanted us to know.”

Kang Jin-Ho furrowed his brow. Although he was fairly sharper than most people, sometimes he still struggled to decipher what Wiggins or Lee Hyeon-Su was saying.

“Are you saying he did that deliberately?”

“Yes, sir. He wanted us to know that the Korean government has put him up to this. Of course, we don’t know if he’s telling the truth or not.”

“And why would he do that?”

“So that we can rip each other apart, of course.”

“...”

“If that really is their end game, nothing is stopping the North from informing the South about your escape. I’m fairly certain that everyone who needs to know already knows, sir.”

The tip of Kang Jin-Ho’s cigarette sizzled. After sucking in another lungful of the unhealthy smoke, Kang Jin-Ho lazily exhaled, then shook his head. “They know, but still no response...?”

The role of answering that question belonged to Lee Hyeon-Su.

“There isn’t much the government can do against you now, realistically speaking.”

Kang Jin-Ho shifted his gaze and met Lee Hyeon-Su’s firm eyes.

“With you back on Korean soil, the government doesn’t have a way to stop you. Obviously, mobilizing its army in the middle of a city is out of the question. But dispatching the army here would be just as impossible, too. Considering our strength, the government would have to deploy at least a mechanized division.

“However, can you imagine what will happen if a division of that size suddenly mobilizes without a good reason to attack a location outside the capital? The entire country will be in an uproar. Our country suffers from a serious trauma regarding such a thing, after all.”

“Mm...”

Wiggins added his thoughts next.

“This war is as good as over, my lord. They can no longer physically hurt you. However, it’s possible that they could negotiate with the Three Kings and summon one of them to Korea. Of course, we all know that won’t happen. None of the Three Kings can’t vacate China, since doing so would expose their backs to the other remaining Kings.”

Kang Jin-Ho furrowed his brow again while listening.

“They should’ve stopped you before entering Korea if they had been serious about winning. But now that you’re back home...”

Wiggins gently pinched the empty air and put an imaginary chess piece down.

“It’s a checkmate for them.”

“...”

“The war is effectively over, my lord. What remains is the aftermath. But dealing with this aftermath can get more complicated and uglier than you’d think. Those who obviously started the war will brazenly ask for the proof of their involvement. And then, they would find some scapegoat for what happened and weasel themselves out of the predicament. Such a thing happens all the time.”

Wiggins helplessly shrugged.

“Of course, we still don’t know if Kim Myeong-Chan was the mastermind. Even then, he must be racking his brain to figure out how to avoid taking responsibilities for this situation. Or, if he’s a meticulous type, he could be following a plan devised well ahead of time.”

Kang Jin-Ho’s expression grew somber. He agreed that Wiggins’ opinion sounded right. However, he was still unconvinced.

The war was over?

Wiggins was working under the premise that Kim Myeong-Chan would acknowledge his defeat. And he’d be right if the Prime Minister genuinely believed there wasn’t a whole lot he could do to harm Kang Jin-Ho. However...!

Someone who instigated an event of this scale would back down so easily?

A subtle smirk formed on Kang Jin-Ho’s face.

Malice in people’s hearts had this capacity to easily shatter common sense and all semblance of rational thinking. Worse still, human malice was unstoppable. It didn’t know when to give up.

Kim Myeong-Chan probably wasn’t a driven monster at the beginning. However, he must’ve been gradually taken over by malice as Kang Jin-Ho kept rendering his efforts into a waste of time and resources.

So, what about now?

He must’ve morphed into a monster, and then some!

Kang Jin-Ho suddenly grew curious. Here was a type of enemy he had never encountered before. He wondered how an enemy who didn’t possess physical strength or clever schemes but enjoyed political power would try to bring him down.

He took a deep drag of his cigarette. The unhealthy smoke circulated his lungs again before lazily escaping into the air.

“Keep your eyes on Kim Myeong-Chan,” said Kang Jin-Ho.

“Yes, my lord.”

“Let’s wait, then. Wait and see how they will respond.”

Regardless of what, though, he must teach the enemy something.

That we will be the one doing the hunt!

Kim Myeong-Chan must learn that, regardless of what he tried, he was still nothing more than a struggling prey!

Kang Jin-Ho bared his fangs in a ferocious, chill-inducing smirk.