Descent of the Demon Master

“What is there to be nervous about, anyway?”

Choi Yeon-Ha muttered in displeasure while entering her hotel room. She put her bag down while feeling somewhat weirded out. It seemed Han Eun-Sol's scare tactic had worked.

She was in a hotel room, not some random reed house, so the odds of anything untoward happening to her should be minimal. Still, Choi Yeon-Ha paid much greater attention to securing all the locks. It didn't hurt to be cautious, after all.

“It's not like I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere, though. This is supposed to be a secure hotel room, isn't it!”

Besides, would anyone force their way into a hotel and commit a crime? If such a thing was allowed to happen, the hotel would have to immediately close its doors since no one, tourists or otherwise, would want to stay in such a place.

Besides, Choi Yeon-Ha was a popular actress in South Korea. If someone like her encountered a problem in this hotel, the incident would most likely be covered by major news networks, and this establishment would be destroyed in the proverbial instant.

“Geez, I'm feeling restless for no reason...!”

Choi Yeon-Ha pressed her hand against her pounding heart. Being unable to stop thinking about this matter had to be a sign of how nervous she was.

“Ah?! Oh my god?!” Choi Yeon-Ha jumped in fright when her phone suddenly went off. She angrily snatched it up and answered it. “What is it?!”

-Did you secure your locks, noona?

“You think I'm a child?! Of course I did.”

-Still, we don't know what might happen today, so I'm gonna frequently walk around the corridors, okay? And I also told the hotel management to beef up the security. Oh, and the bodyguards will stand by in front of your hotel doorway, too. Don't get frightened by unfamiliar people standing there, okay?

“Okay, got it.” Choi Yeon-Ha curtly replied and ended the call, but listening to Han Eun-Sol did put her mind at ease. Just a little.

Han Eun-Sol always aired his grievances like an insolent kid whenever Choi Yeon-Ha said something. If any other manager dared to be so cheeky to her, they'd be gone from her sight before the day was over.

However, Han Eun-Sol was allowed to do that. After all, he possessed the delicate meticulousness and sensitivity that other managers lacked. Besides, Choi Yeon-Ha thought his whining was a little adorable, too.

“If only you hadn't said anything, I could've gotten some rest feeling totally refreshed, you know... Why did you have to go and say those things and make me worried?”

Choi Yeon-Ha tutted softly. It seemed a hot shower was just the ticket to wash away this uncomfortable feeling. Even her appetite had disappeared now.

“Besides all that... Just when are you arriving, you idiot?!”

Choi Yeon-Ha suddenly pointed her arrow of blame at Kang Jin-Ho for no reason, then tightly clenched her phone. Should she... give him a call?

Doing so would give the impression that she's too clingy.

“Just who am I, anyway!”

Her pride had hit rock bottom after shouting at the top of her lungs during the last time she talked to Kang Jin-Ho on the phone. If she called and whined about him not arriving yet, her mind might really crumble into tiny little pieces, never to recover!

Something like that didn't suit Choi Yeon-Ha's persona of a strong, empowered woman who didn't give two hoots about men. Even then...

“Yup, I'm a lost cause, aren't I?”

Choi Yeon-Ha groaned loudly. She wouldn't be behaving this way if she was in Korea. Even though she pretended to be fine on the surface... The truth was that Choi Yeon-Ha had been feeling quite lonely during this lengthy stay in a foreign land.

Which was rather strange considering her personality.

Choi Yeon-Ha had never been the type to actively go out and meet up with people. On her off days, she'd stay home to watch TV or exercise. Then, she'd cook food for herself. And if she got stressed about something... Her usual method was to surround herself with a truckload of snacks and laugh herself silly while reading comics online.

In that sense, her current lifestyle was almost the same as how it used to be back in Korea. So, why did she feel so lonely? Lots of the agency's staff members had followed her here too, so it wasn't like she had no one to converse with in Korean, either.

Choi Yeon-Ha just couldn't figure it out. Although, she was certain of one thing. She really, seriously wanted to see a person, but that idiot didn't seem all that interested in humoring her!

“I'm gonna rip him a new one later!”

If Kang Jin-Ho really failed to show up before she finished filming and went home to Korea... Choi Yeon-Ha swore she'd bite his head. Maybe even literally, too!

Even then, she still couldn't bring herself to choose the option of never seeing him again. After shaking her head a little, Choi Yeon-Ha shuffled toward the bathroom.

***

“Is that the hotel?”

Guo Liqin looked up at the hotel before his eyes.

“What an annoying bastard...”

Since he was ordered by the higher-ups, Guo Liqin had no choice but to do as told. That didn't mean he felt happy about wiping the butt of a detestable bastard like Liu Wei, though. Even if he was doing the same thing, who he was doing it for obviously would affect his overall mood, after all!

And Guo Liqin was rather particular about things like that. If this was an order from his higher-ups, he would have zero complaints while carrying out his mission. However, it wasn't. What they told him to do was as vague as looking after that detestable actor bastard's needs. That was it.

Not even bothering with this kind of sundry chore was usually the right thing to do, but...

“Tsk... Just how much of that bastard's needs am I supposed to take care of?”

Guo Liqin unhappily puffed away at the cigarette dangling between his lips.

To become a beloved underling, one had to decipher their boss's intention first and act accordingly ahead of time. A subordinate who always asked whether it was fine to do this and that might be evaluated as meticulous at the beginning. However, their evaluation would gradually worsen to the point where people saw them as unreliable and indecisive. Obviously, Guo Liqin didn't want that.

Ultimately, what the higher-ups wanted from that gigolo-like actor bastard was to make money. Most young in-demand actors raked in so much money these days that they put average corporations to shame. As Guo Liqin's bosses had successfully stuck a straw into that milkshake, shouldn't he do his best to ensure they could slurp on the sweet liquid whenever they wanted without any obstruction?

Nothing would be worse than that detestable prick's love life not going well, and his movies coming out as utter flops as a result!

If this matter involved two parties of Chinese nationality, Guo Liqin might have had second thoughts about taking on this request. Any actress famous enough to star opposite Liu Wei in a big-budget epic must've enjoyed a powerful backing, after all!

If he carelessly went after such an actress and soured the delicate relationship between different factions, the first thing to go flying would be his own head. It was far more pragmatic to sacrifice the fool in question to set an example and wipe their hands clean than escalate the situation further, after all!

However, the woman Liu Wei had the hots for was a Korean. Doing something to her shouldn't lead to a massive backlash. That was why Guo Liqin accepted this job, thinking it'd not lead to future trouble for himself.

“Right. So, the question is how to deal with this without it biting me back later...”

It seemed that that actress was famous in South Korea. Doing his job wasn't going to be difficult, but the real problem was after the deed was done. Even if that woman decided to blab her mouth to someone in China, no one would give her the time of the day. However, things might become more troublesome if she went back to her home country and raised a fuss there.

However... So what if she did?

There were several ways to handle this matter. Going with the simplest, most convenient method might not be such a bad idea, either. It might become a hot topic in town, too. Besides, Guo Liqin could worry about that after the deed was done, anyway.

Guo Liqin pulled out his phone. Then, he scrolled through the list of contacts to find the one labeled 'Loser' and tapped the green call button.

-I was waiting for your call.

“Where are you now?”

-You told me to stay somewhere nearby, so that's what I'm doing.

“Sure. So, where is that somewhere nearby?”

-The building right next to the hotel.

Guo Liqin turned his head and scanned the building in question. “Got it. I'll call you again later, so do your best to cover yourself up while entering the place, okay? I can solve most things for you, but you getting found out while sneaking in is not something I can fix, okay?”

-You don't need to worry about that. However, make sure that no one finds out what happened!

“Hah. Don't worry about it and just relax, okay?” Guo Liqin ended the call there. “What a moron...”

Make sure no one finds out? Did that loser think Guo Liqin was a cat burglar or something? Besides, CCTV cameras were installed everywhere. How was he supposed to evade all those things?

To think that a so-called celebrity didn't even know how the world operated...!

“Urgh, let's forget about that guy...”

The more Guo Liqin insulted that loser, the more pitiful his life seemed. After all, he had to wipe that loser's butt, didn't he! Wasn't he someone acknowledged for his abilities back in his organization? So, to think he'd be doing stuff like this one day...

But that indicated how much money this damn loser made for Guo Liqin's bosses. Of course people needed money to survive in this day and age. Even if Guo Liqin was a martial artist, he couldn't live off drinking morning dew, now could he! If he thought it was unfair... Well, he could always become a hermit living on a mountain somewhere!

Guo Liqin raised his head and scanned the hotel's exterior before frowning slightly. Climbing the building's outer wall to reach the room of that Choi Yeon-Ha or whatever her name was didn't seem like a bad idea. However, the odds of people witnessing his feat were uncomfortably high.

Not only that, but there were noises of glass breaking and the resulting debris to think about. Guo Liqin quickly discarded that idea as it no longer appealed to him. He might have been tempted to try this method if the time had been much later in the day, though.

He could wait until early dawn, but that would decrease the time he had to clean up the scene.

“Hah... I guess there's no other choice.”

So, Guo Liqin decided to stick to the standard way of handling a situation like this. He leisurely headed to the hotel's front door, then unhesitantly stepped inside. He waltzed over to the reception desk, then smiled brightly at the clerk. “Where's your manager?”

***ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ Noᴠᴇꜰɪre.nᴇt

“...” The manager silently stared at Guo Liqin sitting on his office couch, leisurely puffing away at his cigarette. He finally broke the heavy silence and asked a question. “...Are you from the Public Security Bureau, sir?”

“You don't need to know. Here,” Guo Liqin muttered disinterestedly while pushing a business card at the manager.

The manager's complexion paled as he saw the contents of the card. “What... can we do for you, sir?”

“There is a woman named Choi Yeon-Ha staying in one of your rooms, right? A Korean?”

“Yes. We do have a guest named like that.”

“Restrict access to that floor. And gimme her room key.”

“B-But, sir...”

“Oii,” Guo Liqin smirked and leaned forward. The gray cigarette smoke whooshed out of his mouth and lightly hit the manager in the face. “But, what?”

“N-no, it's not...”

“I prefer handling things in a civilized manner. However, I also understand that civilized manners don't work sometimes. So, let me ask you. Is there something wrong with me requesting you for your cooperation?”

“...No, sir.”

“Good. Then, do as you're told, okay?”

The manager hurriedly nodded, clearly scared.

Guaranteeing the safety of all the guests staying in its premises was one of the most important jobs of a hotel. Unfortunately, going against the so-called request of a man carrying this card meant this hotel would be wiped out in the proverbial blink of an eye. The manager knew this only too well.

“S-sir, should we evacuate other guests on the floor?”

Guo Liqin tutted loudly. “Huh. How did you become a manager with a brain like yours?”

“I'm sorry?”

“If you chase people out of their rooms for no reason, you're bound to get someone who thinks something's not quite right. Isn't it?”

“...My apologies.”

“I'll take care of everything, so just shut up and hand me the key, okay?”

The manager's expression was briefly dyed in the colors of intense dilemma. Was it really okay to hand this key over?

Any human being with morals would have hesitated and wondered if this was the right choice to make. However, the conclusion to this dilemma was still inevitable.

The manager sighed deeply, then got up from his spot on the couch to head to where the spare keys were stored. After confirming the room number, he took out the spare card key and handed it over to Guo Liqin.

“Nice work~! That's more like it. So obedient like a well-trained dog and all.”

The manager couldn't do anything to Guo Liqin's sneering remark other than meekly raise his voice. “...The guest's companions are staying on the same floor.”

“Oh, that? I already know,” Guo Liqin chuckled cheerfully at the manager. “If problems rear their heads, I want you to handle them for me. Hey now, don't make that face. Something like this happens all the time, right? If you keep acting like that, like you've neeeever dealt with something unsavory before until today, I'm gonna feel sad here.”

“...”

“You know what? Why don't you come to the corridor after a while? You might get to hear some stimulating noises for free. Consider it as your reward for being such a cooperative person. Hahahah!”

Guo Liqin got up from the couch and waltzed outside the room while cackling away. And the only thing the hotel manager could do was squeeze his eyes shut.

The hidden world was several times darker and muckier than the surface world. And for a person with half a foot in such a world, patience was an absolute prerequisite for their continued survival.