Chapter 781: Captured (1)

“That’s strange...?”

Baek Hyeon-Jeong stared a little weirdly at the closed doorway to her son's room.

Ever since his trip to China, Kang Jin-Ho seemed a little down, maybe a little too listless. His moppy attitude played a big part in Baek Hyeon-Jeong trying harder to talk to her son even if her efforts came off as incessant nagging.

But today, Kang Jin-Ho seemed a little... better? He could be heard humming away in the shower. And his humming continued as he finished his shower and strode back to his room.

‘He rarely acts like that, though...?’

Still, her son looked happier, which in turn, improved Baek Hyeon-Jeong’s mood as well.

Soon, the doorway opened, and the fully dressed Kang Jin-Ho emerged outside.

Baek Hyeon-Jeong tilted her head. “Are you going somewhere, son? Even though it’s still early in the morning?”

“Yes, Mother.”

“Will you have some breakfast before leaving?”

“Yes, I will. Thank you.”

“Okay. I only need to warm up your soup, so take a seat. It won’t take long.”

“Thank you.” Kang Jin-Ho took his seat by the dining table. Just as he began his waiting, Kang Eun-Yeong opened the door to her room and drowsily dragged herself out.

“Yawwwwwwn...” She grandly yawned while stretching her arms before spotting her older brother by the dining table. The corners of her lips curled up suspiciously. “Oppa...? Going somewhere again?”

“Yeah,” Kang Jin-Ho coolly nodded.

“Oh? And when will you come home this time?”

“None of your business, kid.”

“N-ng?” Kang Eun-Yeong subtly flinched at her older brother’s unperturbed counterattack. She urgently shifted her attention to her mother for reinforcement, but Baek Hyeon-Jeong expertly ignored her daughter’s gaze and headed to the kitchen.

‘Huh? This is not how it’s supposed to go down, though?’

Kang Jin-Ho tutted. “Forget all that for now, and... You, come sit over here.”

“...Eh?”

“I said, take a seat.”

Kang Eun-Yeong instinctively realized something ominous was about to happen. Having sensed that the situation was not in her favor, the youngest of the Kang family got ready to flee, but... Where could she even hide in this house?

“Over here,” Kang Jin-Ho pointed to an empty chair on the other side of the dining table.

Kang Eun-Yeong dragged herself toward the indicated chair while making the face of a young cow entering the abattoir. Once seated, she brought her knees to her chest, then while hugging them, Kang Eun-Yeong stared at her older brother with tearful puppy-dog eyes.

Unfortunately, Kang Jin-Ho’s forged steel-like mind easily filtered out his little sister’s underhanded tactic.

“So, Eun-Yeong. You said you were preparing a new album?”

“Yessir.”

“And that’s why your schedule is free these days?”

“Yessir. The touring season is also over, so I figured I’d recharge my batteries by getting some rest at home.”

“Recharge, you say?” Kang Jin-Ho’s head cocked ever-so-slightly to the side. “Of course, people do need to recharge themselves sometimes. That much I accept.”

“Y-yes, that’s right, oppa.”

“However, I don’t think that applies to you.”

“...!”

Kang Jin-Ho furrowed his brow. “The act of recharging refers to a person recovering from their exhaustion. If we go even further than that, we could also say recharging your batteries involves the process of adding what you sorely lack. In that case... Since when did lounging around hoovering up snacks nonstop qualify as recharging your batteries?”

“B-but, I wasn’t just lounging around doing nothing, though...”

“Really? Is that true?”

“...Yessir. I was just lounging around sucking on my thumbs.”

When Kang Eun-Yeong willingly waved the white flag of surrender with her arms and even legs, Kang Jin-Ho kindly decided to consider her circumstances.

“I understand your desire to get some rest. However, due to the unique nature of your job, how you spend your 20s will decide what the rest of your career will look like. Or am I wrong?”

“No, you’re right, sir.”

“I want you to remember your resolution when you first stepped on this road. If the ‘you’ back then saw you now, what would she say?”

Kang Eun-Yeong pondered something for a bit, then replied unreservedly, “A fat pig who got way too full of herself after getting a bit famous.”

“...Oh.”

“...”

That was a bit harsh, wasn't it? Until now, Kang Jin-Ho foolishly believed his little sister was still a kind, innocent little kid, but now... The vague, baseless fantasy he held about Kang Eun-Yeong was utterly shattered into pieces before scattering on the floor.

‘Still, a second-hand toy shop, of all places...?’

If his Zoom Zoom had ears, it’d shed mechanical tears of blood. To think his mother threatened to sell a supercar created by master Italian craftspeople to a toy shop, of all places...!

‘Then again, it kind of looks like a toy, doesn’t it?’

Kang Jin-Ho continued to respect the speed limit and cautiously drove the car up the mountain road leading to the Martial Assembly.

Vrooooom...

However, Kang Jin-Ho's red supercar didn't head straight to the HQ but slipped into a side road instead. After traveling on it for a little bit longer, Kang Jin-Ho was greeted by the sight of flattened ground and structures of steel and concrete being raised up by an army of hard-hat-wearing workers.

Kang Jin-Ho parked a car by the entrance to the construction site, then leisurely climbed outside. He didn't have to walk too deeply into the construction site, though, as the site manager, Bak Sang-Cheol, hurriedly rushed toward him from a distance instead.

“You’re already here, sir!”

Kang Jin-Ho frowned slightly at the site manager’s flustered attitude.

‘Looks like someone must’ve said something weird to him.’

Jo Gyu-Min must've done something because Bak Sang-Cheol's attitude when speaking to Kang Jin-Ho had changed noticeably compared to the day before.

“Manager Bak. How are things looking? Any problems so far?”

“No problems at all, sir! Everything is going according to the plan!”

“I see. What about the manpower, though? Like, do you need additional workers?”

“No, sir!” Bak Sang-Cheol urgently shook his head. “Having more people won't help us at this stage, sir! Actually, having too many workers will only make the personnel management that much harder, and their jobs will overlap, as well. We've already assigned people tasks that best suit their abilities, so please trust us and leave everything to us!”

Kang Jin-Ho was impressed by Bak Sang-Cheol asking him to trust him. “I see. I’ll do that, then. Are the workers pulling their weight, though?”

“Yes, sir! Everyone is physically strong, so that's been a great help for us. Not just physical strength, but many of them seemed to have picked up quite a few skills from somewhere, so we're not lacking in the 'technician' department, either.”

Kang Jin-Ho nodded contemplatively. As far as the intensity of the construction boom was concerned, China was obviously far more livelier compared to South Korea. Even if the demonic cultivators were specialized in cleaning off the scenes and the disposal of evidence, such jobs didn't happen every day. Which meant many of these men had to throw themselves into the manual labor market to put food on their tables. Skills they had picked up in those places were now coming in handy here.

Even so...

Kang Jin-Ho asked another question. “When is the estimated time of completion?”

“Even though we’ve been working 24 hours a day, it’s still projected to end in half a year, sir.”

“Half a year...?” Kang Jin-Ho sighed and scratched his cheek. “Is there another way to reduce the time even further?”

Bak Sang-Cheol also sighed loudly. “Unfortunately, no, sir. We've already reduced the time from the schedule as much as possible. We're building too many residential houses at the same time. If I'm being honest, constructing apartment buildings with a total of a thousand units would've been quicker, but such structures are not viable in this type of terrain, you see?”

“Mm...”

“Besides, building houses and letting people move in won’t be the end of the story, sir. Having this many people will turn this place into a town, so we gotta have proper roads and a functioning water supply, too. And that’s not as easy as it sounds, sir...”

Kang Jin-Ho slowly nodded. “Yes, you’re right.”

“Thank you for your understanding, sir!”

“However, we won’t be able to keep relying on this workforce forever, Manager Bak. Within one, no, two months, you will have to find other people to replace these guys.”

“I see. It should be possible to find enough replacements within your time frame.”

“Good to hear that. Well, then...” Kang Jin-Ho bowed slightly, then turned around to leave, his eyes scanning the demonic cultivators diligently carrying construction material.

‘They are too valuable to be wasted in this place.’

Kang Jin-Ho had no reason to dither about anymore. If his strength wasn’t enough, he should just nurture everyone else until they were strong enough to help him. And these demonic cultivators were meant to play the most important role in the growth Kang Jin-Ho was thinking about.

While heading to the Martial Assembly in his Zoom Zoom, Kang Jin-Ho's brain was operating at a higher clock speed than usual.

‘We most likely don’t have a lot of time.’

Even though the two sides signed a treaty, such a thing was nothing more than a piece of paper. Kang Jin-Ho knew better than anyone how often such treaties were ripped up in the pursuit of self-interest.

What he should place his faith in wasn't the duration and signatures on the treaty but 'strength'. As long as Kang Jin-Ho's side possessed considerable strength, the other party wouldn't dare carelessly invade South Korea.

‘Our method until now won’t work.’

That method was, of course, Kang Jin-Ho leading from the front and suitable enough people following from behind. Doing things that way would no longer suffice. Kang Jin-Ho had to learn another method to forcibly pull everyone lagging behind somehow.

The misfortune of the demonic cultivators was that they had to serve as lab rats to Kang Jin-Ho’s learning process!

While thinking about this and that, Kang Jin-Ho parked his car by the Assembly's parking lot. He walked up to his office only for his steps to suddenly come to a halt.

‘What’s going on?’

It felt like things were lively inside his office. His office seemed to have become a lot rowdier recently for some reason, but the commotion seemed especially more pronounced today.

Kang Jin-Ho unhesitantly pushed the door open to peek inside; then, a deep smile floated up on his face. “Oh, you're home already?”

“Yes, sir! We’re home, Assembly Master!”

Yi Myeong-Hwan smiled brightly while looking back at Kang Jin-Ho.