Descent of the Demon Master

lunk! Clunk!

Unlike the much larger multi-personnel scaffold used in the morning, this two-person scaffold was already shaking and rocking about as it descended noisily.

“Don ’t freeze up, okay?” said Jo Sang-Pil.

“I ’m sorry?” Kang Jin-Ho tilted his head.

“And don ’t get too scared, too.”

“Understood,” Kang Jin-Ho replied with a cool nod of his head.

But that only resulted in Jo Sang-Pil furrowing his brow deeply.

’What the hell? Is this guy really fearless? Did he auction off his fear somewhere or something?! ’

Since Jo Sang-Pil had gone to such trouble to prepare the stage, shouldn ’t Kang Jin-Ho at least pretend to get scared out of courtesy or something?

‘What the hell? He ’s even leaning back as if it ’s nice up here? Did he forget that we ’re two hundred meters up in the air?’

Jo Sang-Pil cleared his throat and asked, “So? How does it feel like to be in here?”

’

Kang Jin-Ho pondered his reply for a bit.
“Mm, well.
It ’s…”

“It ’s?”

“It’s more refreshing than I thought.”

“…Huh.”

At this point, Jo Sang-Pil had no choice but to admit that his definition of a ’human being ’ didn ’t fit Kang Jin-Ho.
Like, none at all! This young man had to be suffering from a congenital lack of fear.
Jo Sang-Pil was half-convinced about it now.

“…Fine, fine.
Let ’s just get on with our job.”

“Alright.”

The two men sprayed water from the nozzle onto the glass, applied detergent, then scrubbed them clean.
Just one wipe was enough to bring out the natural clearness of the previously-murky glasses.
It was as if they were saying, ’this is how we originally look like, you know! ’

Kang Jin-Ho muttered, “They are surprisingly dirty, aren ’t they?”

“Yup.
It ’s not like you can clean the sides this high up every day, after all.
The schedules need to work out, and there aren ’t all that many people willing to take on this type of job lately as well.
Although, that ’s good for us since we can charge more for our hourly rates.”

“I see.” Kang Jin-Ho nodded contemplatively.

Workers doing this kind of job were usually inconspicuous, but they were absolutely essential to modern society.
Kang Jin-Ho thought that their presence was what helped the world function as well as it could.

While cleaning the windows, Kang Jin-Ho noticed the office workers on the other side staring back at him as if they had seen something weird or mysterious.

Whoooosh-!

Suddenly, a powerful gust of wind whipped through, causing the firmly-secured ’tray ’ to rock up and down.

“Get down!” Jo Sang-Pil cried out.

“Understood.” Kang Jin-Ho imitated Jo Sang-Pil and crouched into the tray.
The scaffold continued to rock for a while before finally stabilizing.
Kang Jin-Ho stood back up and muttered in surprise, “That shook around a lot more than I thought.”

“Don ’t get too impressed by that, fella.
Next time when you ’re out and about, take a closer look at the buildings.
You ’ll spot some folks dangling on a single rope and working away by themselves.
Did you know that winds can push them up to ten meters away from the building ’s surface? ”

“Huh…”

“We aren’t the only ones in this line of work, fella.
Even those folks painting the walls of new apartment buildings have to gear up like us.”

Kang Jin-Ho slowly nodded away.
Now that he thought about it, all those apartments should have been painted by human beings.
It seemed that people ’s touch could be found in many facets of society he had previously failed to notice.
This was something he should ponder more carefully from now on.

Clunk!

Suddenly, the tray began to shake once again.

“Eiii, why is it so windy today…
Hang on a sec.
There are no winds, so why is it shaking around?” Jo Sang-Pil tilted his head in puzzlement before checking the safety wires out one by one.
“…Huh?”

He eventually discovered that one of the wires supporting the right side of the tray was not as taut as the others.
He quickly picked up his walkie-talkie.
“Jeong-Hyeon hyung, the wire on this side is too loose.
Looks like you gotta pull it up from your side.”

Hiss, crackle…

His message should have been transmitted with no issues, but only static came from the walkie-talkie ’s speaker.

’

“What the heck?! Even though I told him so many times to be on standby next to his walkie-talkie!” Jo Sang-Pil grumbled in irritation.

Once aboard the ’tray,’ the workers couldn ’t do much other than dangle in the air.
Of course, they could lower or raise the scaffold, but other activities, such as maintenance, could only be performed by those on standby next to the crane on the rooftop.

That was why everyone had to hold on to their walkie-talkies even during their toilet breaks.
That was the rule, but this person named Jeong-Hyeon seemed to have vacated his position while leaving behind his walkie-talkie.

“I ’m telling you, that hyung can be so brain-dead sometimes!” Jo Sang-Pil continued to grumble while taking his phone out.
He dialed a number and waited, only to tilt his head and stare at the phone ’s screen to confirm that he hadn ’t made a mistake.

“That ’s…
weird? Why isn ’t he answering the call?”

People might not carry their walkie-talkies around all the time, but they wouldn ’t be able to live without their phones in this day and age.
In that case, why was Jeong-Hyeon not picking up the call?

“What ’s gotten into that dude? Gimme a freaking—”

Clunk!

That was when the tray suddenly rocked so much more violently than before.

“W-what was that?!” Jo Sang-Pil freaked out and hurriedly grabbed the nearby grab handle.
He looked up and saw something slender and long fall from the rooftop.
“…Son of a b*tch!”

A tray was supported by wires connected to its four corners.
And one of them was falling toward the ground!

“D-did it come loose or something?” Jo Sang-Pil sucked in a deep breath, then squeezed Kang Jin-Ho ’s shoulder.
“Calm down, Jin-Ho.
No need to panic, okay?”

“Understood.” Kang Jin-Ho nodded, then looked up while narrowing his eyes.

Jo Sang-Pil tried to sound reassuring.
“L-looks like one of the wires came loose.
Things like this can happen sometimes, no matter how thoroughly we check everything.
Still, the other three corners are fine, so all we gotta do is go back up and change the wiring.
That ’s why you don ’t have to be scared, Jin-Ho.”

“Okay…”

Jo Sang-Pil bit his lower lip.
He did his best to sound unconcerned, but this was actually his first time experiencing a faulty wire during work.
As this matter was directly related to the lives of the workers, the wires used were all rated for over a ton of load capacity instead of matching the maximum weight of the tray.
With such tough wires securing the scaffolds, Jo Sang-Pil had never experienced an event like this—until now.

’I ’ve heard about it a few times before, though! ’

Indeed, Jo Sang-Pil had heard about other people experiencing faulty wires during their work.
He sucked in a few quick breaths, then shouted into the walkie-talkie once again, “Jeong-Hyeon hyung! Can you hear me? Are you there? We are experiencing a faulty wire! It came loose! Damn it…
Is it okay to go up, or should we just be on standby?”

Only the eerie static could be heard from the walkie-talkie.

“Hey, you stupid motherf*cker! Just where the hell are you?! Stop pissing me off, will you!”

It seemed that the people inside the building had realized one of the wires holding up the tray had come loose, as they were now crowding near the windows to look.

“Bloody hell, don ’t they have better things to do?” Jo Sang-Pil grumbled in dissatisfaction.
If these people came closer to the windows out of concern, he wouldn ’t be this unhappy.
However, how could he not deeply scowl when these onlookers whipped out their phones and began filming the situation instead of helping them?

“Goddamn it! Just where could he have gone to?” Jo Sang-Pil raised his head and looked up at the rooftop.
“…Eh?”

That was when confusion filled his face.
He could see someone peeking over the side of the rooftop.
However, that person was definitely not Jeong-Hyeon.

“W-who’s that?”

Clunk!!!

At that moment—

Another wire came loose, and the tray began to shake and rock like crazy.