Murim Login - Chapter 108

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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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Chapter 108
‘Slave traders?’
Wol-hwa’s guess was only half right. They were indeed hunters of a sort, but these uninvited guests possessed a far more sinister and specialized nature.
“Move faster, you wretches.”
“What good are men if they’re this pathetic and weak?”
Ten of them in total. Every face bore the marks of brutality, and each was armed with weapons. Before their ranks, prisoners bound with rope like dried fish staggered forward helplessly.
Crack! Crack crack!
“Ow, my back!”
“We’re moving, we’re moving—please, just stop…”
“Stop? These fools still haven’t come to their senses.”
“Easy now, don’t break anything. A fracture drops the price. These scrawny ones won’t fetch much as it is.”
“We’ll sell them to the Acrobat Troupe and make decent coin. Then we can head inside and enjoy a drink.”
“Ah, just thinking about it makes my mouth water… But what’s that?”
The slave traders’ footsteps halted abruptly. Their eyes, which had been fixed on the four-horse carriage standing before the Ancestral Shrine, slowly shifted sideways.
At the end of their gaze stood Wol-hwa and me.
“…Who are you?”
I stepped forward to answer the question from what appeared to be their leader.
“A passing traveler.”
“A traveler, you say? These days, wandering about is dangerous.”
His gleaming eyes betrayed that he himself was the danger.
Of course, at merely level 25, he posed no real threat to me.
“Well now, a four-horse carriage and a stunning beauty besides. You must be a young master from a wealthy house?”
Had he approached closer, he might have discerned the Taewon Jin Family crest carved into the carriage, but the night was pitch black, and he was no man blessed with exceptional vision.
“Not from a poor one, at least.”
“Quite reserved with your words, aren’t you?”
The leader licked his cracked lips. Heat was rising in him, yet he still maintained his caution toward me.
“Well then. We’ve been staying in this place for several days now… so what will you do?”
“Do about what?”
“If you show a little goodwill, we might be willing to let you pass.”
“Anyone listening would think this Ancestral Shrine belongs to you.”
“An abandoned place belongs to whoever claims it first, doesn’t it?”
“Then bring me a property deed certificate.”
“What?”
The leader turned to his subordinates with a bewildered expression. It was a term he’d never heard before, and naturally, none of his men would know it either.
I clicked my tongue at the men muttering among themselves about property deed certificates.
“If you can’t prove it, leave quietly. And release those people you’re holding.”
“…You’re overstepping. Are you waiting for some escort?”
“There is none.”
“Then what are you relying on?”
“Myself.”
The leader’s gaze fixed on my empty hands.
“No weapons?”
“You’re not worth drawing steel for. My fists will suffice.”
“It seems the young master learned something somewhere… but aren’t you underestimating the Murim?”
“I don’t underestimate the Murim. You’re just pathetic.”
The moment I stepped toward the torches blazing brightly, the prisoners who’d been docile suddenly erupted in anguished cries.
“Wh-wh-what?!”
“Aaaaahhh! Elder Brother! Elder Brother!”
“Are these bastards insane? All of you, shut your mouths!”
At the prisoners’ violent reaction, the men behind them drew daggers and pressed them to their throats. The leader’s eyes narrowed with suspicion as he studied me.
“You know them?”
“No, I’ve never seen them before in my life.”
Their reaction was so sudden it caught me off guard. And suddenly calling me Elder Brother?
“Elder Brother! We surrender! We yield!”
“These ones seem to know you, though?”
“They’re just asking for help… wait, what?”
I studied the prisoners carefully. Small frames like children, all with hideous faces. I’d seen them somewhere before.
‘Their body shape resembles goblins… is that why they seem familiar?’
Wait. Goblins?
A distant memory surfaced. Actually, not so distant—only a few months ago during the Tutorial Quest.
“Could these be the ones who were with the Cheonryeok Bandits?”
The prisoners—no, the Five Color Ghosts who’d served under Jang Sam of the Cheonryeok Bandits—nodded frantically.
“Yes, that’s us! That’s us!”
“Elder Brother! Please save us!”
I never expected to see them here. As I stood bewildered, Wol-hwa, who’d been observing from behind, asked.
“Do you know these people, Jin Moo-kyung?”
“We’ve met before, I suppose.”
Human traffickers and bandits—a combination with no clear victor.
I’d been ready to save them moments ago, but now I hesitated.
“Elder Broooother!”
“Are you abandoning us?!”
“We stopped banditry after that day and lived righteously!”
“…”
Their instincts were supernatural. Well, they’d surrendered immediately when the Cheonryeok Bandits fell, so what could I expect?
“Will you save them?”
“Sigh… I suppose I have to.”
They claimed to have turned over a new leaf since then, and I couldn’t just abandon them. Besides, reformed bandits were far preferable to active human traffickers.
Hearing our exchange, the leader interjected with a growling voice.
“Save them? You?”
“You’ve heard everything—why ask again? You must live an exhausting life.”
“This little bastard keeps asking for it…”
Whoosh! Clang!
The moment the leader leveled his spear, his subordinates drew their weapons. Wol-hwa pressed against my side with a deliberately frightened expression.
“Oh my, I’m so scared. You’ll protect me, won’t you?”
Those glistening eyes, brimming with protective appeal. A desperate, pleading face.
Knowing Wol-hwa’s true nature, I found the sight utterly ridiculous—but these fools swallowed hard.
“You’ve just given me one more reason to kill you.”
At the leader’s slimy gaze, Wol-hwa let out a sharp cry.
“What do I do, what do I do! I’m so frightened!”
“Heh heh, don’t be so afraid now. Though I’ve lived a rough life, my heart is as fine as silk—you’ll see. Let’s have a more intimate conversation with our bodies in a moment.”
“Hey, before that, look at me.”
I’d tear that filthy mouth apart so he’d never spout such garbage again.
I strode toward him with purpose, then suddenly stopped. The leader laughed at my hesitation.
“What, getting cold feet now that it’s time to fight? But it’s already too late.”
“Yeah, you’re really in for it now.”
“…What?”
I flashed him a brilliant smile.
“You’re screwed, buddy.”
The instant those words left my mouth, the earth trembled and a violent gust of wind tore through the inn.
Boom! Screeeech!
In what amounted to a mere blink of an eye.
Moving at terrifying speed, it passed by Wol-hwa and me, and was already standing before the leader.
“Say that again.”
Jin Moo-kyung. The overwhelming aura radiating from his entire body crushed the atmosphere of the inn. The leader’s face went pale as his hands trembled violently.
“I-I’m sorry. Please…”
A cold voice answered.
“Far too late.”
* * *
Perhaps Jin Moo-kyung was the greatest pacifist among us. In merely ten seconds, he’d ended every unnecessary fight that would have followed.
“W-we surrender! We surrender!”
“Please spare us! Please, just let us live…”
Faces twisted in terror. They all collapsed where they stood, their legs giving out, and someone’s urine streamed down the hillside.
Five Color Ghosts was no different.
“Silence.”
Jin Moo-kyung wiped the blood from his face and uttered those words so casually that a deathly silence fell over the room. Hyuk Moo-jin, one eye swollen dark with bruises, whispered to me.
“Am I actually alive right now?”
“Yeah, and your breath on my ear is giving me chills—back off a bit.”
“Just moments ago I was thinking there’s no way someone could get beaten like a dog like that, but now…”
Hyuk Moo-jin swallowed hard, his gaze fixed on the fallen leader.
“Ugh… uuugh…”
With his limbs shattered and his dantian destroyed, he gasped for breath with tremendous effort. With proper care, he might walk again someday, but his life as a martial artist was finished.
The level window I perceived through my ki sense was proof of that.
[Lv.2 Lee Sam]
The dung flies the watchers used as familiars were level 1, probably.
The culprit who’d turned a level 25 martial artist—once nearly first-rate—into a living corpse kept glancing in my direction.
“Boss, please save him. It seems Master needs more blood.”
“Stop spouting nonsense and move him somewhere appropriate. He’s going to die at this rate.”
“Isn’t he someone who deserves to die? These are the bastards who were selling innocent civilians.”
“Move him anyway. He’s still alive.”
One of the greatest contradictions I’d felt moving between Murim and the modern world was precisely the matter of killing.
For 27 years, I’d lived in a society where law and order existed.
I’d trained in the ways of killing enemies with blades, but those targets were monsters—not living human beings.
‘It was definitely like that back then….’
Now I couldn’t even remember how many I’d killed. When I realized that the enemies who’d died by my hand might be real people rather than NPCs, I felt no great guilt.
‘They were enemies. They tried to kill me too.’
Whether it was because I’d lived as a hunter or because I’d grown accustomed to Murim’s ways, I wasn’t sure. I was simply surprised at my own indifference and simplistic self-justification.
‘This much should be fine for now.’
I was living in two entirely different worlds. This wasn’t a situation where I could afford to play at being some half-hearted Buddhist monk.
Shaking off the clinging thoughts, I approached the ones cowering on the ground.
“Eek!”
“Ahhh, please spare us, boss!”
“These bastards cause a fuss even when you try to save them. Just stay still.”
As I untied the rope, Five Color Ghosts rose unsteadily on trembling legs, now free.
“Th-thank you.”
“We’ll serve you as our savior for life!”
“Savior my ass. How did you end up getting caught by these bastards anyway? All five of you at once?”
The Five Color Ghosts were small in stature, but they were grown men nonetheless. They were skilled enough to follow the Cheonryeok Bandits in banditry.
“Well, you see…”
“…?”
What’s with these guys?
Sensing something odd in their hesitation, I grabbed the collar of the nearest human trafficker and hauled him up.
“How did you catch these bastards?”
“W-we caught them trying to pickpocket our money pouch at Market Street.”
“….”
These Five Color Ghosts—I thought they’d quit banditry and taken up farming, but they’d just changed professions?
“Explain yourselves.”
Under my sharp gaze, all five of them rolled their eyes nervously.
“W-well, you see…”
“Boss, guys like us only know how to do this kind of thing.”
“W-we only just started, though!”
“I was trying to work honestly, but things just weren’t panning out. So I thought, let’s just pull one quick job and get out. That’s all it was.”
“If I’d known they were Horse Bandits, I never would’ve touched them. We’re victims too, Elder Brother. Please, just forgive us this once!”
As I pondered what to do with these wretches, a familiar word made me pause.
“What did you say?”
“I swear, just one more chance and I’ll live an honest life!”
“No, not that. What did those bastards say?”
“Ah, you mean the Horse Bandits, sir?”
“Yeah, that.”
“We only found out after we were caught. Some gang of ruffians was throwing money around in Giru, so we followed them. Turns out they were the Red Wind Gang—notorious even among bandits for their brutality.”
“The Red Wind Gang? You’re certain?”
“Yes. I heard it clearly with my own ears. Right?”
The others began chiming in one after another.
“They said they’d leave as soon as dawn broke.”
“They said they’d have to ride without stopping to reach San-eum. They were even worried about arriving late and getting their necks on the line.”
“Is that so.”
Yesterday and today—I’d encountered Horse Bandits two days in a row, and by sheer coincidence they belonged to the Red Wind Gang. San-eum lay close to Eung-hyeon, where the Hangsan Inspection Bureau had its headquarters.
“Is everything these bastards are saying true?”
The human trafficker—no, the Red Wind Gang bandit—dangling from my right hand’s grip nodded frantically, trembling.
Screee!
A hawk descended before the Ancestral Shrine with a sharp cry. A small cylinder bound to its leg caught my eye.
‘A carrier hawk.’
The situation was taking an oddly interesting turn.

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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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