Descent of the Demon Master

p>The cops in the area charged ahead and quickly grabbed the killer.
They finally managed to subdue him.

“You son of a bi*ch!”

“It's the end of the line for you!”

Kang Jin-Ho left the killer to the detectives.
He picked up the girl and walked out of there.
After putting the girl down someplace away from the crowd, he quietly asked her, “Are you hurt?”

The girl's shock was so great that she even forgot to cry.
A nearby doctor hurriedly rushed up to the girl and asked her, “Ji-Eun, Ji-Eun! Are you alright?”

“Nng.”

“How about your chest? Does it hurt?”

“Just a little.”

The doctor cried out urgently at a nurse next to him.
“Hurry, take her to her ward! And prepare an echocardiogram right away!”

While this was happening, one of the detectives walked over and stopped the doctor.
“We still have to take statements, so can't you wait for a bit first?”

The doctor rewarded the police officer with a yell. “This child has a heart condition! We're cutting it close even if we test her right now, yet you want to delay that?! Will you take responsibility if her condition worsens?!”

The detective sheepishly backed off.
“…I-is that so?”

“What are you all doing?! Hurry up and take her to the ward!”

The nurses quickly replied, “Yes, Doc!”

But the girl sneaked up to Kang Jin-Ho's side and tightly held his hand instead. “…Oppa from outer space.” Kang Jin-Ho wordlessly stared at her as she continued. “Thank you.”

The nurse butted in right then. “Ji-Eun, we can't waste any more time.
Let's go with the doctor and return to your ward, okay?”

“Okay.”

The nurse picked Ji-Eun up in an embrace and headed to the ward in urgent steps.
Kang Jin-Ho watched them leave without saying anything before glancing at his own hand.

That warm feeling…
It didn't feel bad at all.

“…Mm?” That was also when he noticed a streak of blood trickling down his forearm.
He must have gotten injured while trying to block the killer's arm that swung the knife around.
Kang Jin-Ho deeply frowned. 

'To a trash like him, I…?'

In gangho's standard, that killer would have been around third-rate? Around there? No, never mind third-rate, he was easily worse than commoners getting kicked to the curbs in gangho.
Despite never getting a chance to learn martial arts, those people still possessed superior physical abilities compared to the serial killer.
That was what the world of gangho was like, however…

Kang Jin-Ho was injured by someone like that? Such a thing would have been unthinkable in the past.

'I see.
It doesn't match up.'

If Kang Jin-Ho still possessed his former physique, some random punk like that serial killer could never even scratch him.
The story would have been the same even if he didn't possess any internal energy.
But starting from the length of his arms to the range of his joints' movements, his current body was completely different from his past self who had trained in deadly martial arts.

His physique had changed, but his brain was still stuck in the past, and he also couldn't move as accurately as he wished.
Of course, time would take care of this soon enough.
Besides, he also had the option of forcibly exerting himself to speed up the acclimatization process if all else failed.

His pride was somewhat wounded by the fact that a punk, who was not even good enough to be evaluated as third-rate in gangho, managed to injure him. But he knew that it was pointless to be proud of one's physical strength in this world.
This world was not ruled by violence, after all.

While Kang Jin-Ho stood there, Detective Yi Jong-In yelled at him and walked over.
“Hey, you!”

Kang Jin-Ho wordlessly stared at the detective as the latter began scolding him. “What were you thinking, kid?! If you got hurt earlier, who do you think would've taken responsibility for that?! Sure, things worked out fine in the end, but do you really think that your life is that cheap?! Do you really think that someone will speak highly of you if you died while playing the hero? I'm telling you, kids these days watch too many shows on those damned TVs!”

Even though Kang Jin-Ho managed to capture the criminal, the detective was throwing a hissy fit instead of showing his gratitude.
However, Kang Jin-Ho thought that he could understand where this cop was coming from.
His brain wasn't the one that could understand him, though.
Instead, it was his senses that managed to pick up the hints of concern contained in the detective's voice.

And that was why Kang Jin-Ho obediently apologized.
“I'm sorry.”

Even in the past, he didn't let his useless pride get in the way of apologizing if he thought that it was necessary.
In fact, he believed that not apologizing out of pride when it was necessary was far more shameful.

“Next time, you… Argh, dammit.
It's no good if something like this happens again, right?! And it won't happen again, either! In any case, you mustn't do that again! What do you think will happen if you lose your life like that?! People might write some nice little comments on the news articles online to say how great you were, and then lose a tiny bit of sleep over you, but that's all! Come the next day, they would have forgotten all about you.
But your family will have to live on with the pain for the rest of their lives. Do you get what I'm saying?” The detective's words now contained traces of pent-up anger that seemingly stemmed from his personal experience.

Kang Jin-Ho replied quietly, “I do.”

“It's good that the hostage was unscathed, but still… If something bad happened to you, I'd be the one to…” The detective's expression crumpled after noticing all the blood trickling down Kang Jin-Ho's hand.
“You got hurt? Arrrrgh. Dear Lord, give me strength…
What am I supposed to say in my report now? Gimme a freaking break!”

Kang Jin-Ho calmly replied, “It's nothing serious.”

“Nothing serious? Can't you see all the blood?”

“Don't worry about it.”

“I'll be the judge of that.
Besides, what a relief that we're in the ER.
Go and quickly get that treated, okay? We'll pay for the cost.”

“No, there's no need.”

“Oh, are you the one earning the money for yourself, then?”

The detective continued to chide Kang Jin-Ho. “You're still a kid living off the money your parents worked hard to earn, so how dare you act big and say that there's no need? You don't have the right until you get a job and start making money on your own!”

The detective was right.
Of course, what Kang Jin-Ho meant to say was that he didn't need the treatment. But naturally, no hospital in existence would let a bleeding patient in the middle of their ER wander around unattended.

Kang Jin-Ho basically got dragged by Detective Yi Jong-In into the ER.
A young doctor, probably an intern, walked up and began cleaning the blood on Kang Jin-Ho's arm.

“You were amazing back there.” The young doctor began talking to Kang Jin-Ho, his face was still abuzz with excitement.
He also sounded impressed.
“How were you able to charge straight into that guy? I was so impressed, you know.”

Kang Jin-Ho calmly replied, “It just kind of happened.”

“Actually, I was also thinking of making a move earlier. I was waiting for my chance, but you charged in before I could.
If you had been slower by a few seconds, I would have captured that criminal myself!”

Kang Jin-Ho faintly smiled at the young doctor.