Obtaining Heavenly Demon Martial Arts in the Magic Era - Chapter 27

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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27
The space that Gae-bang had lent was somewhere in Gangbuk, on the second floor of a shabby commercial building. Beneath flickering fluorescent lights, two laptops lay precariously open on a chipped folding table.
Kim Seung-yeon gazed at the screen like a gourmand contemplating a feast, her lips moving silently as if she could taste what lay before her. Each time files from the USB Drive materialized beneath her fingertips, a pale glow swept across her face.
Inside the USB Drive lay the sordid truths that Jang Ki-han had carefully concealed, dormant in the borrowed form of digital files.
“You look happy.”
Cheon Do-hyeon asked with a faint smile.
“Of course I do. The truth about the so-called noble Madomyeongga is about to come undone—why wouldn’t I be excited?”
Seung-yeon scrolled through the file list, scanning each entry across the screen.
“Some of them are encrypted, others aren’t.”
Kim Jun-pyo wordlessly held out a pack of chocolate milk.
“Oh, thanks.”
Seung-yeon inserted the straw and took a long drink.
The violently sweet taste seemed to breathe new vitality into her brain, weary from sleepless nights.
Cheon Do-hyeon, leaning against the wall, asked a question.
“Anything useful?”
Seung-yeon pointed at the screen.
“Fund transfer records. Looking at the dates, we’re talking at least four years’ worth. We could inflict real damage with this alone, but… the real ammunition is probably in the encrypted files.”
Then she paused mid-sentence.
Her mouth curved upward in a smile.
“There are names of celebrities and politicians everywhere.”
The room fell silent for a moment.
“How many?”
“Just from what’s visible, over thirty names. Now I’m really curious what’s hidden in those encrypted files.”
Jang Ki-han’s ambitions extended far beyond simply peddling drugs for profit.
“How long to crack the encryption?”
“No idea until I start, but it shouldn’t take more than a few days.”
Through the organization Hwanggeumryun, Jang Ki-han manufactured vast quantities of Blue Dust, distributed it through Club Babylon as his front, and wielded the celebrity information he’d gleaned as a weapon. Though he carried the name of the Cheolhyeol Jang Family on his back, he’d clearly been building his own independent power and influence.
In one hand, the power of his family. In the other, politicians and entertainers in his grasp.
Had he succeeded, a truly invincible monster would have been born.
And his plan had nearly worked—had it not all unraveled in Cheon Do-hyeon’s hands.
#
Meanwhile, the fact that Club Babylon’s servers had been compromised was already confirmed internally. But because everyone feared the consequences, the report had been delayed, trickling to Hwanggeumryun only much later.
Beep-beep-beep—
“What is it?”
An executive of Hwanggeumryun picked up the call.
The man from Club Babylon spoke in a trembling voice.
“We’ve confirmed unauthorized external access to our server. I need to file a report——”
“Wait, wait!”
The Hwanggeumryun executive cut the man off.
“External access confirmed? Are you telling me the server’s been breached right now? Speak clearly.”
“…Yes, it appears to have been compromised.”
“It appears? Either it’s breached or it isn’t—what do you mean ‘appears’? Say it plainly.”
“It’s been breached.”
At those words, the Hwanggeumryun executive pressed his forehead and exhaled heavily. Jang Ki-han had already issued orders to wind down all operations. If word of this crisis leaked now, his life—and the lives of everyone involved—would be forfeit.
The Hwanggeumryun executive sank into thought.
“Have you reported this upstairs?”
“Not yet…”
“Why not?”
Silence stretched across the line. The man on the other end seemed to be choosing his words.
“If I report it now, I think I’ll be the first one eliminated.”
It was honest. The executive paused.
The moment this news reached his superiors, everyone connected would be marked for death. In other words, as long as the report remained delayed, they could stay alive.
He needed time to flee if he wanted to survive.
“…All right. Understood. Don’t report this to anyone else. We’ll handle it on our end. What’s your name?”
The Club Babylon employee on the other end fell silent for a moment.
He had reported many things to the Hwanggeumryun executive before, but this was the first time he’d ever asked for his name directly.
“Jeong Gyeong-jo.”
“All right, Gyeong-jo. Settle things as quickly as you can and leave South Korea. That’s how you survive.”
“…Thank you.”
The line went dead.
The executive of Hwanggeumryun leaned back in his chair, gazing up at the ceiling with a bitter smile.
“Who’s worrying about whom?”
He muttered the words aloud, then set his phone down in silence.
By the very next day, one executive from Hwanggeumryun and one field manager from Club Babylon had vanished without a trace. And the report they’d last shared about the Club Babylon data breach never reached Jang Ki-han.
#
On the third day.
Kim Seung-yeon arrived at school with bloodshot eyes, her voice hollowed by exhaustion.
“I… cracked the cipher….”
“That’s incredible, Seung-yeon.”
“You did good work. Class president.”
Seung-yeon, Jun-pyo, and Cheon Do-hyeon immediately combed through the decrypted files, searching for the sharpest blade they could use against Jang Ki-han’s throat.
“If we leak information about celebrities or politicians, there’s a risk the public’s attention will scatter in the wrong direction.”
Cheon Do-hyeon spoke first.
Jun-pyo nodded carefully.
“R-right. It’d be better to frame them as victims and paint the real owner behind Club Babylon as the ultimate puppet master.”
Seung-yeon tapped Jun-pyo’s shoulder in admiration.
“…Jun-pyo. You’ve got a real eye for this YouTube angle, don’t you?”
With Jun-pyo’s idea settled, the direction of the report was fixed, and they rearranged their materials accordingly.
“Perfect.”
Once the script was finished, they drew up a list of media outlets to contact.
“Five major outlets, three new media channels. Let’s start with these.”
Thirty minutes to draft the email, an hour to select the attachments. Finally, Seung-yeon’s finger pressed send.
They didn’t realize it then, but a single email could become a bomb—or nothing—depending on what it contained.
“Chief, we’ve got a tip coming in by email—I think you should see it.”
“Team lead…! An email just arrived…”
“Call an emergency meeting!”
“Q-quickly, report this to the director!”
The newsrooms that received the email panicked as if they’d been handed a time bomb with no countdown visible.
“The Madomyeongga family is involved!”
“The Cheolhyeol Jang family….”
“Do you know how much annual advertising budget the Jang family companies spend with our newspaper?”
“….If you don’t want to see the company shut down, bury this.”
Their reactions differed, but the result was the same. There was no news outlet in existence that could touch the Madomyeongga family and survive.
Kim Seung-yeon could only receive the same response from every outlet she’d contacted.
[We’ll get back to you after review.]
[We need more time to examine the materials.]
[This matter requires legal review.]
Cheon Do-hyeon watched the screen of Seung-yeon’s laptop and spoke.
“It’s all rejections.”
“They’re not refusing. They can’t do it.”
Do-hyeon pushed off from the wall.
“Did Jang Ki-han block it? Or the Cheolhyeol Jang family?”
“No—the fact that we got responses back this fast means the media outlets killed the story themselves. They don’t dare touch the Madomyeongga family, so they’re covering their tracks.”
Seung-yeon bit her lip in frustration.
“We need a different approach.”
Cheon Do-hyeon offered an idea.
“It’s not like media outlets are the only channel we have.”
A video was playing on his phone—some famous ex-fighter turned YouTuber.
“And you’re watching that while we’re dealing with this?”
Kim Seung-yeon shook her head in exasperation.
That’s when Jun-pyo carefully raised his hand and spoke.
“I… know a YouTuber.”
Both of them turned to look at him.
“Who?”
Jun-pyo shrank a little but pushed forward with his words.
“M-my older brother. He’s got about three hundred thousand subscribers. He covers current affairs topics, and I think it’d be a good fit…”
“The channel address.”
Seung-yeon immediately extended her hand, phone ready.
Jun-pyo took her phone and searched for the YouTube channel run by his older brother.
“Whoa, your brother runs that channel? He’s seriously famous!”
Kim Seung-yeon seemed familiar with the person as well. Cheon Do-hyeon scrolled through Kim Jun-pyo’s older brother’s channel alongside her.
The average view count on recent videos was exceeding one million views as a baseline.
The comment reactions were explosive.
“This is so good. Actually, more than good—it’s amazing!”
Kim Seung-yeon bounced excitedly, linking her arm through Kim Jun-pyo’s and jumping up and down.
Then she stopped abruptly, as if someone had dumped cold water over her head.
“Wait a second. But if you expose this, won’t your brother… be in danger?”
It was a reasonable concern.
Jang Ki-han had a history of sending contract killers after Cheon Do-hyeon when he’d raided the Hwanggeumryun branch.
What about a content creator bent on destroying his reputation?
If things went wrong, his brother might have to live under constant threat for the rest of his life.
“I heard before that the people sponsoring our brother are connected to the Madomyeongga too. So Jang Ki-han won’t be able to touch him carelessly.”
Kim Jun-pyo spoke without hesitation, his voice steady with conviction, and both Cheon Do-hyeon and Kim Seung-yeon chose to trust his words.
“Okay. Thanks, Jun-pyo.”
Jun-pyo nodded and picked up his phone. His hand trembled slightly, but his fingers found the numbers with precision.
The call didn’t take long.
From the other end of the line came a voice that sounded pleased, suggesting his brother liked the subject matter well enough. With the script and materials already prepared flawlessly, it didn’t take long for them to be transformed into a YouTube video and uploaded. And so the first crack began to form in Jang Ki-han’s seemingly impregnable empire.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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