Descent of the Demon Master

Chapter 242: Snatched (2)

Rumble, vroooooom!

Twelve cylinders furiously chugged away like raging bulls to propel the car forward. Kang Jin-Ho evaded other vehicles on the road rapidly closing in on him as he continued to stomp on the accelerator.

He wanted to physically run to Sokcho at full tilt by utilizing the Body Lightening Technique, but that didn't seem like a wise move. For one, he couldn't exhaust his strength without knowing where his sister was located. Besides, there was no guarantee that he would reach his destination sooner on foot compared to a car since the distance was rather considerable.

Vroom!

Kang Jin-Ho's Lamborghini sleekly evaded another car blocking its way and accelerated forward.

“Holy sh*t?! What the hell was that?!” The driver of that car freaked out when a red Lamborghini suddenly sped past him like a bolt of lightning. He hurriedly looked at his speedometer and...

It said 130 kilometers per hour. Since this section of the road didn't have speed cameras, the driver was going a little faster than usual. However, he seemed to be standing still compared to that red car!

“Just how fast is that crazy guy?”

Judging from how low the car was when it sped past him, it had to be some kind of a sportscar. However, this was in the middle of the night, and regardless of that sportscar driver’s skills, driving that fast right now was simply asking to be killed.

The car wasn’t driving itself, but the human behind the wheel was driving it. If an unexpected situation suddenly presented itself and the driver lost control, it would be tantamount to instant death.

“Yup, people like that will only learn after getting killed.”

Almost everyone who had witnessed Kang Jin-Ho's vehicle had roughly the same sentiment. Of course, Kang Jin-Ho didn't have the mental leeway to care. His head space was fully occupied with Kang Eun-Yeong's safety, after all.

As he drove forward, his phone suddenly started ringing.

“Hello?” Kang Jin-Ho replied without checking the screen and heard a familiar voice.

- Mister Jin-Ho, it's me.

“Mister Gyu-Min.”

- I heard that something happening to Miss Eun-Yeong, and that's why I'm calling you.

“...I see.”

***

Jo Gyu-Min nervously gulped his sticky saliva when Kang Jin-Ho's low and cold voice reached his ears.

'Oh no, this is serious trouble!'

Hadn’t he spent so many years next to Kang Jin-Ho? Obviously, Jo Gyu-Min wasn’t so dumb he couldn’t figure out what this young man held close to his heart. And it was none other than his family.

Kang Jin-Ho was in the middle of trying to view the world from various angles and adapt to the best of his abilities, and at the center of his efforts was his family. That much was easy enough to guess when Kang Jin-Ho had obeyed his father's words without question, even though he didn't give a flying rat's butt about someone like Chairman Hwang Jeong-Hu!

But now, someone actually dared to threaten Kang Jin-Ho's family. Thinking back to all the scary things Kang Jin-Ho had done to the would-be attacker who had dared to threaten his mother and sister during a shopping trip, Jo Gyu-Min could easily guess how enraged the young man had to be right now.

'Those insane bastards...!'

In this world, some things were okay to be toyed with. However, some were definitely off-limits. Jo Gyu-Min had no idea who would even dare to harm Kang Eun-Yeong; however, this event would not see a peaceful resolution—that much was certain.

Jo Gyu-Min continued speaking while trying to moisten his lips, which kept on drying out. “After what happened last time, I installed a GPS tracker in her vehicle just in case. I have already asked for cooperation from the telecommunication company, and I managed to locate Miss Eun-Yeong.”

- Where is she?

“It's difficult to explain to you verbally, and it would be hard to understand even if I do. So I'll send the address and the map to get there to your phone.”

- Please.

Kang Jin-Ho’s voice sounded so—calm. His voice coming from the phone's speaker was as calm and composed as humanly possible. If only he were yelling in rage, Kang Jin-Ho wouldn't have sounded this sinister and terrifying.

Despite knowing full well how enraged this young man was, Jo Gyu-Min still shuddered from fright at Kang Jin-Ho's preternatural calmness over the phone.

'Yup, it won't end peacefully...'

For a moment there, Jo Gyu-Min pitied those about to bear the full brunt of Kang Jin-Ho's fury.

- I got the data.

“Understood, Mister Jin-Ho. If the situation changes, I'll give you another call right away.”

- Thank you.

Drop...

The call ended there, and Jo Gyu-Min sighed deeply while wiping the cold sweat off of his forehead.

“Urgh...”

His body was still shivering. There was another incident in the past involving Kang Eun-Yeong's welfare, but the culprits back then hadn’t directly targeted her. Even so, those who had dared to harm her still ended up utterly and completely broken, unable to make a comeback even now.

But the current incident wasn't as... light as that event.

'Seriously, though... What on Earth is going on here?'

Jo Gyu-Min couldn't predict how things would unfold from this moment on. It could be possible to predict how some people might respond to a given situation, but Kang Jin-Ho was the exception.

The 'Kang Jin-Ho' Jo Gyu-Min knew brazenly strode the boundary between common sense and preposterous. To make matters worse, he was willing to step beyond the boundaries set by the rules and regulations, plus the accepted norms, that governed the society if he felt the need to do so.

So, what would happen if someone like that was genuinely angry?

Jo Gyu-Min shot up to his feet. This was as far as his role extended. From this moment on, he should not try to deal with the situation by himself. He quickly rushed outside his office and headed to the chairman's office as fast as he could.

***

“Hey, listen. No need to be that scared, okay?” The balaclava-wearing man chuckled in a weird voice.

On one hand, he sounded creepy, but on the other hand, his voice sounded similar to an immature little kid. Kang Eun-Yeong gritted her teeth and glared at the group of men standing before her.

“The one we want to see ain't you, but your oppa, after all.”

“Hang on a sec. I wanted to meet Kang Se-Ah, dude. And now that someone I used to see on TV is in front of my eyes, it kinda feels weird, right?”

“You're right. It does feel that way.”

The men cackling away while glancing at Kang Eun-Yeong had their faces hidden behind black balaclavas.

Kang Eun-Yeong bit her lower lip to calm herself and growled at the men. “Are you all insane?”

“Nope. We're all perfectly sane.”

“You think you can get away scot-free after kidnapping someone like this?!”

“That's something we'll worry about, not you.”

“...!” And that was when Kang Eun-Yeong felt her heart grow cold from a chilling realization. These men were… too relaxed.

These kidnappers were so laid-back and relaxed as if their only crime was picking up some random stray off the street. That could mean one of two things—either they didn't think much about kidnapping someone, or they were way too experienced in this sort of thing to care. In addition, what they said also made her shudder.

“W-what about my oppa?”

It made sense if these people were after her. For one thing, they could demand ransom. They could also be crazed stalkers. The situation Kang Eun-Yeong found herself in was certainly despair-inducing, but it still fell within the realm of logically understandable.

However, everything would change if these kidnappers weren't after her but Kang Jin-Ho. Why would they go after her oppa?

Kang Eun-Yeong bit down on her lip hard enough to draw blood and chewed on it.

'Don't be scared, Kang Eun-Yeong!'

It was not hard to guess that these men were not 'normal' in the head from how they had rammed a van minding its own business off the road and brazenly kidnapped someone in public. However, that didn't mean she could afford to let them know how scared she was. In this kind of situation, showing weakness would only make them feel more triumphant, anyway.

'And I hate being in this position, too!'

Kang Eun-Yeong was short-tempered enough to yell in irritation at a rude character in a movie she was watching. So, to think she would find herself in this kind of situation...!

“Urgh…” Kang Eun-Yeong's manager, who got kidnapped alongside her, finally regained consciousness.

“Oppa, are you okay?” Kang Eun-Yeong urgently asked her manager.

Jeong Seok-Su barely managed to crack open his eyelids, and he scanned his surroundings before his jaw slowly fell.

One of the balaclava-wearing men pointed at the manager. “Why did you bring that dude with you?”

“Well, I couldn't leave him behind.”

“Huh? Why didn't you off him, then?”

“Why don't you do that, you dumbass? It's too freaking annoying...”

“Tsk.”

.

The balaclava-wearing men glanced at Kang Eun-Yeong and her manager, but that was all they did for now. It was as if their role was to keep monitoring her so she wouldn’t escape.

Manager Jeong Seok-Su blinked. “W-where are we?”

“I think we’re in an abandoned factory,” said Kang Eun-Yeong.

“An… abandoned factory?”

“Yes…”

The manager's voice trembled even more. “W-why did they even kidnap us?”

Kang Eun-Yeong couldn't reply to that.

Seemingly trapped inside a dark, dingy factory, surrounded by balaclava-wearing men monitoring their every movement... These two factors were enough to make Jeong Seok-Su shudder from fright, as his mind couldn’t accept his new reality. But what he said, despite his crippling fear, far exceeded Kang Eun-Yeong's expectations.

“M-Miss Se-Ah, don't be afraid. Everything will be fine. Since they bothered to kidnap us, they won't harm us that easily. I'm sure of it.”

“...Got it.”

Those words should mean little, but just hearing them seemed to have a calming effect on Kang Eun-Yeong's heart.

The group of men chatted noisily among themselves, but a phone call disrupted them. After the call came to an end, they started whispering, and one of them walked up to Kang Eun-Yeong with a phone in tow. “Hey, you…”

Kang Eun-Yeong didn't say anything and simply glared back.

“Call your oppa. Tell him to come here.”

Her eyes quivered powerfully just then. It seemed these men were really after Kang Jin-Ho rather than her! Kang Eun-Yeong clenched her teeth before growling back at the man.

“Don't wanna.”

“Hah?”

“You think I'm mad? You think I'll do as you say?”

The balaclava-wearing man looked at her in dismay. “Holy cow, this kid’s really a piece of work, ain't she?”

One of his colleagues loudly replied, “Yeah. I thought she was just this naive, pure kid from TV, but it sounds like she's got some grit in her now, doesn't she?”

The balaclava-wearing man wordlessly walked closer, then used his index finger to poke Kang Eun-Yeong's head. “Listen here, Miss Kang Se-Ah. Looks like you don't understand the situation you're in, so let me help you with that. Do you honestly think you're in any position to say no? Do you wanna see how scary we can be?”

“Do what you want. We'll see if I'll call my oppa.”

“Did this little bi*ch really lose her mind or something?” The balaclava-wearing man groaned before suddenly slapping Kang Eun-Yeong in the face.

Slap!

Kang Eun-Yeong's lips burst, and blood splattered in the air. The impact was so sudden, and it caught her off-guard, but Kang Eun-Yeong simply glared right back at her attacker with eyes burning in fury with nary a trace of fear visible on her expression.

The balaclava-wearing man grunted. “Huh, she's tougher than she looks.”

The one to lose his cool first wasn't Kang Eun-Yeong but her manager. “Don't hurt Miss Se-Ah, you son of a b*tch!”

“...Gee whiz, are we shooting a movie here or something?” The balaclava-wearing man chuckled in dismay. “You think we're playing around here? Is that it? Should I skin you alive instead? Fine, then! Let's see if you'll call your oppa or not. Goddamn it!”

Just before the balaclava-wearing man's agitation could get any higher, though, someone's voice coming from behind stopped him. “Hey. Stop wasting time and take her phone away. The target's number is definitely saved on it.”

“But this b*tch...!”

“If you waste time and mess this task up, the chairman will want to have a private chat with you.”

“M-mm…”

“Besides, Mister Hyeon-Su is also on the way. Don't make things any worse than it is.”

“...Got it.” The balaclava-wearing man groaned, then extended his hand at Kang Eun-Yeong. “Hand over your phone.”

“My phone?” Kang Eun-Yeong pulled out her smartphone and dangled it in front of her captor. “You mean this one?”

And then...

Smack!

She slammed her phone as hard as possible on the floor, and then she mercilessly stepped on the device with her high heel.

Crack! Crack!

Her sharp heel dug into the fragile screen, utterly ruining the phone in the process. Kang Eun-Yeong stared at the phone, which seemed to have been destroyed beyond repair and smirked deeply. “There. A present for you.”

The balaclava-wearing man slowly pulled his balaclava up. And by doing so, he revealed his deeply-contorted face. “You stinking little b*tch! You think I'm some kind of a joke?!”

Kang Eun-Yeong shivered from this outpour of anger in her direction, but she remained firm and held on.

'I'll be too embarrassed to look at my orabi in the face if I get scared by these losers!'

No matter what they did to her here, Kang Eun-Yeong swore that no harm would fall upon Kang Jin-Ho—no matter what! Just as she resolved herself and gritted her teeth, the man took his balaclava off and slapped her across her face again.

Slap!

“Aaaahk!”

A scream leaped out of her mouth despite her best efforts. She fell to the floor, but she still shot a murderous glare at her attacker. But then...

“W-what the hell?!”

A burst of bright light suddenly came through the building's windows from the outside.