CH 340

Kang Yu-Hwan asked in a weak voice. “...Are there still no word from the police, Yu-Min?”

“No, not yet, Uncle.”

Baek Hyeong-Jeong looked like not every part of her mind was with her at the moment. Even Kang Eun-Yeong, who would usually torment Park Yu-Min and Ju Yeong-Gi with unstoppable energy, looked depressed as she stared blankly at the empty air. Kang Yu-Hwan seemed to be still holding on, for now at least, but his voice also didn't sound too good either.

Park Yu-Min and Ju Yeong-Gi sitting in front of the Kang family also felt like they were sitting on beds of nails right now.

“I'm sure Jin-Ho is fine, Uncle,” Park Yu-Min spoke in a confident-sounding voice.

Kang Yu-Hwan forced himself to smile and nodded. “Yes, Yu-Min. I also believe he's fine.”

Everyone here knew how... empty those words were. It had been three days already, yet no news of Kang Jin-Ho's whereabouts had reached them. That could only mean something very serious must've happened to him.

Kang Yu-Hwan rubbed his tired-looking eyes. “The... folks at Jaegyeong still haven't told you anything yet?”

“They keep saying they're still looking for him.”

“I see,” Kang Yu-Hwan sighed, unable to hide his bitter expression.

Park Yu-Min cautiously spoke up again. “You know, Uncle…”

“Mm?”

“Jin-Ho has never caused any problems until now, right?”

“Mm, sure. He hasn’t.” Kang Yu-Hwan nodded. It might seem like he was boasting about his own child, but Kang Jin-Ho really had grown up into a fine, upright young man. No matter who he was compared to, Kang Yu-Hwan's son still filled him with endless pride.

“The truth is, Jin-Ho isn't as well-behaved as you think, you see?”

“Ehng?” Kang Yu-Hwan was going to ask Park Yu-Min what he was on about, only to notice that Ju Yeong-Gi was nodding along while making a dead-serious face.

Ju Yeong-Gi even began muttering, 'Yup, his personality is absolutely the worst,' prompting Kang Yu-Hwan to wonder what his precious son had been up to while his family wasn't looking.

“W-what are you talking about, Yu-Min?”

“I know it's difficult to understand, Uncle, but... Well, to us, it's weirder to see how Jin-Ho has been behaving himself all this time.”

“Huh?”

“...So, uhm, I was thinking that it was about time Jin-Ho caused a big mess somewhere. That's why you shouldn't be too worried, Uncle. It's not that he's involved in a big incident, but more like he's busy causing one, you see?”

Kang Yu-Hwan's jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Did... Did this punk think he could comfort anyone with those words? “What are you trying to say here, Yu-Min?”

Park Yu-Min's expression suddenly became weird. “...You see, we learned something strange yesterday.”

“Okay?”

“It's not just Jin-Ho who's gone missing, but... Miss Choi Yeon-Ha is also nowhere to be found, you see?”

“Choi... Choi Yeon-Ha?”

“Say what?!”

The shocked responses came not from Kang Yu-Hwan, but from Baek Hyeon-Jeong and Kang Eun-Yeong, instead.

“Yu-Min oppa! Are you telling us the truth?!” Kang Eun-Yeong hurriedly asked.

“Well, you can confirm it yourself, can't you?”

“Ah, that's right!” Kang Eun-Yeong's eyebrows shot up super-high as she continued to grill Park Yu-Min. “Are you saying the two of them are together right now?!”

“The thing is, well…” Park Yu-Min scratched his head. “We thought a car parked near the pizzeria without anyone coming to get it looked familiar, you see? And when we took a closer look, it turned out to be Miss Yeon-Ha's ride. Her manager showed up at our store yesterday and raised a huge fuss about how she has gone missing.”

“Heol?!” Kang Eun-Yeong grabbed and pulled at her hair as if confusion was too much to bear. “W-what does that mean? C-could it be?!”

“Uh, well…” Park Yu-Min smiled awkwardly. “I'm sure it's not really 'that', but, you know. They might be, uh, eloping together right now. That's why I don't think we should be too worried.”

“E-e-eloping?!”

“I mean, they could be at the island of Boracay or Cebu for all we know.” [1]

“Huuuuuh?!”

The atmosphere in the Kang residence instantly descended into a chaotic mess.

Park Yu-Min smirked and continued to reassure the Kang family. “That's why, please don't be worried, everyone. Instead of something terrible happening to Jin-Ho, it's more likely he's doing something naughty right now.”

Kang Jin-Ho's family couldn't say anything and simply stared at Park Yu-Min in flabbergast.

***

“...Come on, man.” Ju Yeong-Gi muttered in dissatisfaction at Park Yu-Min. He glanced behind to confirm that Kang Jin-Ho's family had finished bidding them goodbye and stepped back inside the house. Then, while frowning deeply, he spoke in an irritated voice. “How could you be that thoughtless, dude? What if something happens later after you said all those things?”

“When that time comes, I'll have to apologize. That's all.”

“You dumbass, that ain't gonna be…”

“No one knows anything yet, so instead of them waiting full of worries until they start getting ill... I figured it could be a little bit better for them to know there is another possibility. Even if it turns out to be false in the end.”

“...What if something terrible happens later? What then?”

“What terrible thing are you talking about?” Park Yu-Min stopped walking and shot a glare full of venom at Ju Yeong-Gi.

Ju Yeong-Gi clamped his mouth shut after spotting that glare.

'This crazy son of a...'

Right after Park Yu-Min realized that Kang Jin-Ho could be in serious trouble, he suddenly developed a disability called Anger Management Impairment Syndrome. That glare was so sharp and murderous that even Ju Yeong-Gi found it hard to say something.

Park Yu-Min curtly responded. “There will not be such a thing.”

“...”

“And, even if something bad did happen, we only need a bit of time to deal with it, that's all. There's nothing on Earth that can stop Jin-Ho from coming back home. As such, it's our duty as friends to put his parents' minds at ease until he's back home.”

“Yes, yes, I got it. You dummy…”

That was indeed what friends were supposed to do... as long as Kang Jin-Ho could come home healthy and unhurt. It seemed that Park Yu-Min not once thought about the possibility of Kang Jin-Ho never returning home.

Ju Yeong-Gi licked his lips. “By the way, it's true that Miss Yeon-Ha is also missing, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Doesn't that mean what you said just now is also a possibility?”

“...Are you seriously telling me the 'Kang Jin-Ho' we know went on a trip somewhere with a woman without calling anyone?”

“...Listen here, you dumbass. You could've just said no, so what's up with you glaring at me like some kinda ax murderer?”

“Do it in moderation, okay?”

“Yes, yes. Got it.”

Unsurprisingly, not just Park Yu-Min but Ju Yeong-Gi was also on edge, ready to explode at a moment's notice. As the duo walked further away from the Kang residence, Ju Yeong-Gi deeply sighed under his breath.

'And they say you don't notice the void until the one filling it is gone...'

All that had happened was Kang Jin-Ho going missing from their lives, yet it felt like everything that could go wrong was going wrong right now.

***

“Yeah, this is insane…” Jo Gyu-Min loudly groaned.

Certain things in this world looked worse and worse the more one tried to analyze and question them. And Jo Gyu-Min currently found himself in one such predicament.

Even the act of explaining what he wanted to achieve to the explosives experts and getting their opinions proved to be full of hurdles. What Jo Gyu-Min asked them to do was to find a way to make the whole tunnel rock up and down while minimizing the ripples reaching the central point as much as possible. Rather unsurprisingly, the experts all reacted in the same way that implied, 'What is this moron even talking about here?'

What saddened Jo Gyu-Min even more was that... He had no way of retorting back to them. All he could say to the experts was to not question him and just find the way as he asked them.

South Korea's top experts could only make unwilling expressions that said, 'Am I dealing with a crazy son of a gun here?' and start providing their opinions.

If Jo Gyu-Min had been acting alone, he wouldn't have received a single scrap of blueprint, but the name of Jaegyeong had this mysterious power to summon forth all these lazy-ass experts to the field in no time at all.

So, the preparation was going swimmingly, which was great from his point of view. Now that the preparations were reaching the final stage, though... Powerful tsunami waves of anxiety began crashing into Jo Gyu-Min.

'Are we really doing the right thing?'

Of course, he knew that there was no other way. There were two people trapped down there, and the odds of the unknown person beside Kang Jin-Ho being Choi Yeon-Ha were uncomfortably high. What would Kang Jin-Ho choose to do when Choi Yeon-Ha was slowly dying in front of his eyes?

“It's bloody obvious, isn't it...?”

Kang Jin-Ho, who always pretended to be cold and level-headed but was secretly a busybody, would most likely do whatever possible to keep Choi Yeon-Ha alive. That much was blindingly obvious.

Although Jo Gyu-Min didn't want to admit it, Bang Jin-Hun really did have the perfect grasp on Kang Jin-Ho's thought process. Way too perfect, in fact. If Kang Jin-Ho were alone down there, they wouldn't be rushing with the preparations to bring Bang Jin-Hun's plan to reality.

However, Jo Gyu-Min instinctively knew that they were fighting against the clock right now.

'Damn it... How about not pretending to be kind or something, then!'

They wouldn't be rushing like this if only Kang Jin-Ho were the type to give up and abandon the person dying in front of his eyes. He'd be able to survive for ten days minimum, which would've given the rescuers enough time to find a safe way to dig through the earth to reach him.

However, Kang Jin-Ho wasn't someone like that, and that was one of the main reasons why Jo Gyu-Min decided to throw his lot with Kang Jin-Ho. But in times like this, Jo Gyu-Min wanted to curse and resent that side of Kang Jin-Ho.

“Are the preparations finished?” Bang Jin-Hun asked while strutting toward where Jo Gyu-Min was. Even his face was starting to get on Jo Gyu-Min's nerves.

“They are almost finished,” said Jo Gyu-Min in irritation.

“By the way, my men discovered something yesterday…”

“Yes?”

“I had my men search all the tunnels found on the routes between Mister Jin-Ho's home and his pizzeria, both the direct and indirect ones, just in case, and... They discovered holes just big enough for a child's fist to fit in all of them.”

“...Holes for dynamites?”

“In other words, those motherf*ckers had laid out their 'preparations' in practically every part of the town. It didn't matter which route Mister Jin-Ho took, it'd been the exact same result.”

“Can you do me a favor, Mister Bang?”

“Yes?”

“When you finally catch that son of a b*tch named Kim Seok-Il later, let me have a good look at his mug first. I don't think I can die in peace if I never get a chance to kick that man's teeth in at least once.”

Bang Jin-Hun nodded. “I give you my word.”

Just before Jo Gyu-Min could say something else as his follow-up, a man in a high-vis jacket and a hard hat jogged toward him. “Chief Jo! We've finished with the preparations!”

“...I see. Thank you.” Jo Gyu-Min nodded. He suddenly shuddered as if a deathly chill was running down his spine.

He... was scared. Honestly speaking, he dearly wanted to cancel this whole thing and start digging that hole instead.

“Goddamn it...!”

This... insane plan was definitely not his usual style. Even if humans couldn't always do what they wanted, this really was...

“Mister Gyu-Min,” Bang Jin-Hun patted Jo Gyu-Min on the shoulder.

“...Yes?”

“Even if things do go wrong, remember, it's not your fault.”

“...”

“Believe in Mister Jin-Ho, not your judgment.”

Jo Gyu-Min's expression stiffened, and he slowly nodded.

'Yeah, he's right.'

The person they were trying to rescue was Kang Jin-Ho. No, wait... It was not them trying to rescue him but merely assisting him with his attempt at escaping from the underground. That was it.

Jo Gyu-Min gritted his teeth and addressed the man in the hard hat. “Okay. Evacuate all personnel, then... Get ready to detonate!”

***

Kang Jin-Ho was keeping his eyes closed. A silent space bathed in nothing but pure darkness was, in a way, the most optimal place to cultivate. Although not being able to move in this cramped space was unfortunate, what he was trying to do right now didn't need him to move around a lot, anyway.

Kang Jin-Ho was currently meditating, observing the state of his body, then gradually accumulating internal energy, after all. And for the first time since his return to the modern era, he got a chance to truly analyze his physical body in minute detail.

'It's... different.'

He was reminded of this fact again. Kang Jin-Ho's physique was starkly different from that of Heavenly Crimson Demon Emperor. The soul might be the same, but the body was not. And no, it wasn't as one-dimensional in nature as the heights being different or the arms being longer or shorter. The locations of qi meridians, and even the method of qi flow, were different.

Kang Jin-Ho was well aware of minute differences existing in every human being, but these differences were now causing a massive variable in his calculations.

Kang Jin-Ho finally opened his eyes.

'Have I recovered around eighty percent of my internal energy?'

That was not going to be enough. Kang Jin-Ho required a lot more energy if he were to push aside all the mountain of dirt above and escape. Maybe, doing so would still be impossible even if Kang Jin-Ho was at his peak condition.

However, he no longer had the luxury of choice. Choi Yeon-Ha's condition had deteriorated too much. He wasn't sure how long it had been since they were trapped down here, but for quite some time now, Choi Yeon-Ha had not regained consciousness. Even her breathing was alarmingly weak.

If he wasted any more time, he would end up holding a corpse, not Choi Yeon-Ha! And that was something he could never allow to happen under his watch.

In that case, what should he do now? Kang Jin-Ho closed his eyes again and focused his hearing. His extremely-heightened hearing and other senses scanned the surroundings. He could 'feel' the movements of people on the surface of all the soil on top of him. Some people were busily moving about, seemingly preparing something.

It had been a few days since Kang Jin-Ho went missing. The 'Jo Gyu-Min' he knew should have figured out where Kang Jin-Ho was by now. After all, Jo Gyu-Min was like the embodiment of 'Competency' in Kang Jin-Ho's mind. So, that man would've definitely found a way. And not too tardy with the task, too.

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Kang Jin-Ho never had to entrust his life to someone else, nor did he willingly seek others' help. But, right at this moment, he was getting ready to escape while solely placing his trust in the man named Jo Gyu-Min.

And... right at that moment!

RUUUUMBLE!

The surroundings began rumbling as if an earthquake had broken out.

'I get only one chance!'

Failure meant a certain death. Kang Jin-Ho quickly erased the word 'failure' from his mind, then quickly pulled Choi Yeon-Ha's briefly-flinching body close. And then... He rapidly roused up all of his internal energy.

Waves of crimson aura gushed out of Kang Jin-Ho's figure and began explosively extending all around him like scary tendrils.

1. Boracay is a well-known resort island in the Philippines. Cebu is also in the Philippines, but it's a city, or the entire province depending on what you're looking at. Not sure why the author chose those two specifically, though. ☜