Murim Login - Chapter 207
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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 207
Whiiiiiish.
An unidentified black sphere plummeted with a terrifying sound of air being torn asunder.
Beneath the shadow cast over the vehicle, Taxi Driver Park sensed death approaching.
‘So this is how it ends.’
The faces of his daughter, who had just entered high school this year, and his beloved wife flashed before his eyes. He had planned to grab a bowl of ox bone soup after work, never knowing it would become a harbinger of his fate.
‘The luck wasn’t on my side today either.’
The question of what that thing even was never crossed his mind. Knowing wouldn’t change the fact that he was about to die anyway.
All he could do was stand frozen like a statue, watching death inch ever closer with each passing moment—and that helplessness was unbearable.
Whoooosh!
Now it was time to depart for the afterlife.
Park, his eyes squeezed shut beneath the sphere’s shadow that now completely engulfed the driver’s seat, finally let out a scream.
“Aaaaaaahhhhh!”
Crunch! Screeeech!
The metal frame crumpled like tissue paper, and shattered glass fragments scattered in all directions. And then, the next instant.
“Oof, my ears are ringing. You’ve got quite the set of lungs there.”
“Aaaahhh… what?”
A voice pierced through the ringing in his ears. Park blinked, his scream cut short.
“Huh? Huh huh?”
He couldn’t tell if this was a dream or reality.
Just a second ago—no, half a second ago—he had been sitting in the driver’s seat, yet now he found himself crouched on the roadside about five meters away.
“What… what is this?”
Park, who had been staring blankly at his taxi now flattened like a pancake, lifted his head.
Standing before him was the savior who had pulled him back from the brink of death.
“Y-you, sir?”
Jin Tae-kyung, a solidly built young man, did not respond. His brow furrowed, his gaze fixed on something ahead as he opened his mouth to speak.
“Listen, mister.”
Park’s heart pounded violently. He had already grasped it instinctively—something catastrophic was unfolding, and his survival depended on following this Hunter’s instructions.
“Run back the way you came. Don’t look back. Just keep going.”
“Y-yes!”
“And don’t forget to tell other people.”
“Tell them what, sir?”
Jin Tae-kyung’s finger pointed forward.
While brilliant morning sunlight poured from the sky ahead, darkness was gathering in the direction his finger indicated.
Calm words followed, directed at Park, whose mouth hung open in shock.
“A Gate has opened.”
At that very moment, from the distant end of the road, a roar that made one’s hair stand on end erupted.
– Grrrrroooaaarrr!
* * *
The monster’s roar proved far more effective than any loudspeaker.
Those who grasped the situation were seized by shock and terror, abandoning their vehicles and fleeing in panic.
“A Gate! A Gate has opened!”
“Run!”
“Seok-jun! Honey!”
The congested highway descended into chaos in an instant.
Piercing screams and urgent voices echoed from all directions.
As I sprinted across car roofs to evade the masses fleeing for their lives, a system notification chimed in my ear.
Ding.
– Sudden Quest,
[Gate Suppression]
has been generated.
– You cannot refuse this Quest.
– Quest has been forcibly accepted!
‘Now they’re not even giving me a choice.’
Still, shouldn’t they at least ask?
I clicked my tongue inwardly and opened the Quest window. A translucent holographic panel materialized in the air before me.
Quest
[Gate Suppression]
An unexpected Gate has manifested!
The monsters that have set foot upon Earth are ravenous for blood, and delectable prey surrounds them in abundance.
Minimize casualties and eliminate the monsters to suppress the Gate.
Rank
: Peak
Restrictions
: None
Objective
: Monster Elimination (Incomplete)
Reward
: ???
Failure
: ???
Damn it all.
Of all places—not the ocean, not a mountain—the Gate had to open on a congested commute road.
The real problem was that the monster wasn’t some run-of-the-mill goblin or orc.
– Grrrraaaaaahhh!
Crash! Boom!
A frame larger than a cargo truck, tusks sharper and more massive than industrial saw blades. Each swing of the grimy iron club it wielded shattered concrete and automobiles alike.
In terms of raw power and appearance, it was a true monster.
To think I’d encounter creatures I’d only ever seen in monster encyclopedias on my way to work.
I muttered softly to myself.
“Ogres…”
Classified as B-rank monsters, but their raw power and destructive instincts far exceed that rating.
For instance, in the early days of the Cataclysm, it was the ogres who led the monster legions and razed countless cities.
‘So they’d be considered among the very top tier of B-rank monsters.’
And those very creatures had just appeared here.
Since the Gate hadn’t fully opened yet, there were only five or six of them, but that alone posed an enormous threat.
‘I have to stop them before the casualties mount any further.’
I wasn’t the only one thinking that. About eight hundred meters ahead, I could see roughly twenty figures rushing toward the ogres, which were swinging their weapons in all directions.
“Hold the line!”
Clang clang clang!
Their identities were hunters—armed with gleaming armor, shields, and an array of weapons.
* * *
B-rank hunter Hwang Chul-soo broke into a cold sweat.
‘A, a Gate opening?’
What were the odds of a Gate appearing? He didn’t know the exact figures, but he’d heard it was lower than most natural disasters.
When the Cataclysm ended with the death of Demon King Asmodeus, the number of Gates that had been spawning by the dozens daily across the world dropped dramatically, and scholars rushed to publish papers on the phenomenon.
[Humanity’s Victory, the End of Gates.]
[The Connection Between Demon King Asmodeus and Gates.]
[Complete Peace Within Ten Years.]
But they were all wrong. Gates that had appeared once or twice a year, two years ago, had now appeared four times domestically this year alone.
The bigger problem was that this fourth Gate had opened at the Toll Gate under Hwang Chul-soo’s jurisdiction.
‘And it’s a B-rank Gate at that.’
That alone was horrifying, but the creatures that emerged from the Gate were ogres—classified among the very top tier of B-rank monsters.
Boom! Crash!
“Ugh!”
“Healer!”
“Archers keep firing! Tanks draw aggro!”
Crash!
The Toll Gate team—composed of two B-rank hunters and fifteen C-rank hunters—was being pushed back helplessly.
With just a couple of swings of its iron club, the ogre shattered the tower shield and sent the tanks flying backward.
‘What am I even looking at?’
Hwang Chul-soo was only thirty years old.
Without any particular combat sense or leadership ability, he was merely a civil servant hunter who had secured a comfortable position and a generous pension thanks to his high rank.
‘How… how do I handle this…’
The vice-team leader shouted at Hwang Chul-soo, who stood frozen like a statue.
“Team Leader! Snap out of it! We have to hold on until reinforcements arrive, no matter what!”
“Y, yes. That’s right. Just five more minutes.”
“Once the Special Forces Unit and nearby hunters arrive, we can take it down. So…”
Thud! Boom!
Hwang Chul-soo stared blankly at the vice-team leader, who had been crushed against the refrigerated truck. A massive chunk of concrete that had come from somewhere had struck him down.
“Healer!”
Hwang Chul-soo realized it the moment he cried out.
There were only two healers on the team, and the vice team leader was the last one remaining.
Of the seventeen team members including himself, fewer than half could still stand on their own feet.
“What… what is this?”
Only one minute had passed since the battle began.
Yet the outcome was already decided.
The gap between a high-tier B-rank monster and hunters who had grown complacent playing mobile games at the Toll Gate was catastrophic.
But the ordeal was far from over.
“Team Leader!”
“The Gate, the Gate!”
Grrrriiiiip—
As the team members cried out, the rift in the air began to widen further.
From the pitch-black darkness, demonic energy churned and vomited forth massive bodies.
– Guooooaaaah!
– Kauwwww!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ogres landed on the ground with savage roars, and gasps of despair erupted from all around.
“This is fucking insane…”
“Ah… ahhh.”
Even with three times their numbers, they would have faced overwhelming disadvantage.
As the number of ogres swelled to ten, despair settled heavily over the hunters.
“T-Team Leader.”
“W-What do we do now?”
“…”
Hwang Chul-soo swallowed hard. The power gap was already overwhelming, and victory was no longer even a consideration.
Only one thought consumed his mind.
‘Can I survive this?’
It was a question everyone here shared.
And they waited for their commander to speak the answer they desperately wanted to hear.
“Team Leader!”
“I… I…”
Before he could finish speaking, Hwang Chul-soo’s feet were already backing away.
Once, he had sworn to be humanity’s shield, to protect the people from the threat of monsters. But he would not accept such a meaningless death.
‘Even if reinforcements come, we can’t kill those things.’
Then there was only one path left.
“A… a strategic withdrawal based on the commander’s judgment…”
The moment Hwang Chul-soo opened his mouth with a trembling voice.
Whiiiiiing! Boom!
A beam of light shot forth.
It passed directly over the heads of the Hunters who were slowly backing away, piercing its target with perfect accuracy before detonating.
Splooooosh.
What fell scattered through the air wasn’t rain—it was blood. Moments later, putrid flesh rained down like hail.
“…What?”
Thud.
With someone’s vacant cry, the Ogre’s massive body crumbled like rotten deadwood.
– What the hell?
“What is this….”
It was then that humans and monsters alike stood frozen, staring blankly at that surreal sight.
“Wow, what destructive power?”
A cheerful voice that didn’t match the situation at all.
Hwang Chul-soo spun around urgently to find the source of that voice, and his entire body went rigid with dread.
“Gasp.”
I hadn’t sensed any presence. Even now, looking directly at it, the same held true.
Yet the figure standing atop the tour bus roof was neither ghost nor monster. Between strands of disheveled dark-brown hair, eyes curved like crescents gleamed.
“Hello there.”
“W-who are you?”
“Just someone heading to work.”
“Y-yes?”
“So, uh, mind if I skip the pleasantries and get straight to the point?”
That was exactly what they wanted. The Ogres, having recovered from their brief confusion, were already approaching while scraping the ground with their iron clubs.
At the sight of the Hunters nodding frantically, the young man Jin Tae-kyung smiled faintly.
“If you’re not going to fight, all of you just crumple yourselves into a corner.”
“…!”
“Oh, and if I catch anyone stealing experience points, I’ll flip you inside out.”
Experience points? Stealing?
Before they could even process the meaning of those words, the spear in Jin Tae-kyung’s hand transformed into light and shot forth.
Shrieeeeeeek!
* * *
Shwiiip! Crack!
The spearhead pierces through the thick jaw. It tears through skin, flesh, tongue, and palate in succession before protruding from the crown of the head.
Without missing that opening, iron clubs came hurtling from both sides.
Shwiiiiik!
A terrifying sound of air being rent. But I’m already gone from that spot.
I slide into the creature’s embrace and drive a short blade from my inventory directly into the Perineum Acupoint.
Thud!
– Guuuuuuuuaaaaaahhhhh!
“Congratulations on opening your Conception Vessel.”
The difference between piercing and opening is vast. With a soul-wrenching howl, the creature drops to its knees.
Without giving it time to feel further agony, I slit its throat with the blade.
Pshhh!
Monster blood and screams. Between them, that sweet chime continues to ring, tickling my ears.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
–
[Lv.84 Ogre]
has been defeated!
– Substantial experience gained!
–
[Lv.83 Ogre]
has been defeated!
– Substantial experience gained!
‘Haaah.’
Ah, I’m stuffed.
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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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