Murim Login - Chapter 220

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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 220
Won Myung-hun left. As I recalled his image—teeth gritted at my attitude yet unable to charge forward—a faint laugh escaped me.
‘If he had, I would have made him regret it.’
A hyena of a man.
Show weakness and he bares his fangs; show strength and he hides them away.
Reflecting on what he’d revealed so far, that incident eight years ago was likely no exception to his nature.
‘Count yourself lucky.’
No matter how much a hyena flaps and crawls, it’s still just a beast.
One that knows to tuck its tail can be driven off with a scare—nothing more.
I had neither reason nor inclination to stain my hands with blood before he could sink his teeth into my shoulder. Especially not before facing the real monsters.
– Kyaaaaaaagh!
A black speck drawing steadily closer.
A roar thick with rage echoed from the horizon’s edge.
Just as I recognized its identity, it recognized mine.
‘Yes, you remember me too.’
That was all that mattered. I was about to face a half-crazed Named Monster, yet felt neither fear nor excitement.
Only one thing gnawed at me like a thorn in my throat.
“Why didn’t you leave?”
Choi Team Leader, arms loosely crossed, stared directly at me.
What came back wasn’t an answer, but a question.
“Who are you asking?”
“All of you.”
I swept my gaze across the surroundings. Four figures stood against the backdrop of endless wasteland, sparse boulders and trees scattered about.
Choi Team Leader and Kim Butler. And Lim Hyuk-jun and Song Song-i.
Not a single one of them had left.
“You do realize what’s coming is a Named Monster, right?”
“We’re all well aware.”
“Then this should be simple. It’s dangerous, so please evacuate now.”
“Evacuate where?”
“Where else? The exit we came through.”
“Star Guild isn’t exactly a reliable partner for running away. Especially not if you’ve made an enemy of their Guild Master.”
Well, I thought differently.
Though still unknown to the world, Kim Butler was an A-rank Mage. One who had lived through the Cataclysm—an unprecedented war—with his entire body.
Numbers alone meant nothing. Even excluding me, we wouldn’t lose against the Star Guild led by Won Myung-hun.
“That’s a convenient excuse.”
Choi Team Leader stared intently at me as I smiled faintly.
“Jin Tae-kyung.”
“No.”
I cut him off cleanly before the words could fully form, but Choi Team Leader wasn’t the type to back down so easily.
“Since we’re now stuck in a situation where we can neither advance nor retreat, I think we have the right to ask a few questions.”
Damn it, so that’s how it is.
I answered reluctantly.
“…But make it brief.”
“Is that monster approaching us connected to what happened three years ago?”
I hesitated before nodding.
“So you won’t back down.”
“…”
Silence was affirmation.
Choi Team Leader exhaled a low sigh.
“Jin Tae-kyung, that’s a Named Monster.”
“That’s news to me. To my eyes, it’s just something that needs to die.”
“This is a matter that requires rational judgment.”
“Do I look that unstable to you right now?”
“That’s…”
Choi Team Leader fell silent.
Right now, I’m more composed than ever. Despite my heart pounding wildly like a madman swinging a bat, my mind is churning through countless ways to face that creature.
“Choi Team Leader.”
“…?”
“I’ve mentioned my life motto to you before, haven’t I?”
Lim Hyuk-jun, who had been watching silently, answered instead.
“Thin and long.”
“You remember it too.”
“You were an odd one. Most young people would harbor some grand ambition at least once…but you didn’t.”
“I’ve never been fond of a turbulent life.”
This time, Kim Butler answered with a smile on his face.
“Yet it seems you’ve come quite far despite that.”
“So I changed it.”
“Thick and long. Is that correct?”
“Yes. It’s too late to live thinly now, so I’ve decided to live as thick and long as possible from here on.”
“That’s admirable. If you wish…”
I think I know what he’s about to say.
I quietly shook my head. Kim Butler is someone who needs to be entrusted with more important tasks.
“I’m fine. Please protect the others.”
“Understood. Even without you saying so, I’ll do what I must and give it my all.”
At Kim Butler’s refreshing response, Song-i asked with a bewildered expression.
“Fighting a Named Monster alone? Is everyone out of their minds? We’ll all die if something goes wrong!”
“Then why didn’t you leave, Song-i?”
“…Right. Why am I even here?”
I watched her lost in thought for a moment before opening my mouth.
“Song-i.”
“I can’t allow it.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Jin Tae-kyung, please.”
What kind of reaction was this?
I’d barely broached the subject when Song-i, followed by Choi Team Leader and Kim Butler, shut me down without hesitation.
“Tae-kyung, it’s fine.”
So Lim Hyuk-jun was my only ally here.
I turned to the three of them with an aggrieved expression and muttered.
“I haven’t even said anything yet.”
Song-i replied.
“That’s exactly why it’s not happening.”
“How did you know what I was going to say?”
“Hmm. A confession?”
My head suddenly felt heavy.
As if someone had struck the back of my skull with a hammer, a dull ache spread through it.
“How did you—”
“How could you possibly hide something like that?”
“Was it… that obvious?”
“Yes. Very much so.”
“Then…”
She shook her head without hesitation.
“I’m sorry. I’m not the kind of person who flips her attitude like a coin depending on money or fame.”
“I see.”
“Honestly, someone like you would be quite the catch, but given my personality, once I fall for someone, I reel them in completely. I don’t do fishing ponds.”
She spoke without reservation, then blinked her eyes.
“Wait, I didn’t just say something too harsh to someone about to fight a Named Monster, did I?”
I, who had been gaping like a goldfish, let out a small laugh.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Just… I find you refreshingly straightforward.”
At my response, she narrowed her eyes.
“Huh? Since when are you speaking casually?”
“You said you’re twenty-seven, right? We’re the same age, so being friends should be fine.”
“Hmm, there’s no such thing as friendship between men and women.”
“We can figure that out when we get there.”
I added one more thing to the hesitant Song Song-i.
“We’re guildmates, after all.”
“…When you put it that way, I can’t refuse.”
I smiled at her.
In the end, I’d been cleanly rejected, but I felt no regret whatsoever—in fact, I felt oddly at peace.
If someone were to ask me now whether I truly loved Song Song-i, the answer would be yes. That much was undeniable.
But even I find it difficult to give a certain answer about my current emotions.
I simply spoke words I’d long kept bottled up, and regardless of the response, my heart felt lighter for it.
Isn’t this enough for now?
“Let’s grab a drink after this is over.”
“Our family rule is that men and women don’t sit together before age seven.”
“All of us together.”
“…Uh, yeah.”
I turned around with a light step.
At the same moment, I felt an enormous surge of mana flowing from behind me. Though I didn’t see it directly, I could sense that Kim Butler was layering protective barriers upon protective barriers.
‘Please.’
That meant combat was imminent, and indeed, the creature that had been nothing but a speck was now close enough to be visible to the naked eye of an ordinary person.
“You’ve grown quite a bit, you bastard.”
A body easily exceeding fifty meters and wings even more massive than that.
Black scales covered its entire form without a gap, gleaming as they caught the light of the setting sun.
Compared to the last time I saw it three years ago, it had grown two to three times larger.
‘Is that even possible?’
I’d never heard of such a case until now.
But there was no doubt. The one eye clouded over in a milky white hue was proof of that.
The creature’s other eye, stained crimson, was fixed directly upon me.
– Kraaaaaaaa!
Screeeeeech!
A single roar unleashed a tremendous gust of wind. Dust and stones scattered across the Wasteland swirled up in thick clouds.
As the curtain of dust settled, a colossal shadow came into view, standing upright on a nearby Hillside.
‘Massive.’
And powerful. With my senses fully open, I felt its rage and strength wash over me.
A monster that transcended the A-rank threshold. It bore the presence of a true Named Monster.
“So we finally meet.”
Now that I faced it, my heart trembled. Three years ago on that day, I lost my comrades, and it lost an eye.
A truly persistent curse binding us together. Now it had to end.
I gripped the cold spear shaft firmly and advanced toward it with measured steps.
“It’s been a while. Do you remember me?”
The Wyvern was undoubtedly a higher intelligence.
Given that it had been cunning and cruel in the past, it was only natural that now, as a Named Monster, it possessed even greater power and superior intellect.
– Krrrrr….
“You remember, I see. So, how’s that eye treating you?”
Crimson flames blazed from its remaining eye. Watching the creature bristle every scale across its body, I let out a low chuckle.
“You dare bare your fangs at me, you wretched creature?”
– Krrrgh!
One step, two steps.
My heart pounds and my mind spins with sharp clarity. Hundreds of combat techniques to shred its body and sever its life unfold before my eyes.
“There are names I’ve wanted to tell you about ever since I first laid eyes on you. Open your ears and listen well.”
Step, step.
As the distance between us narrowed, something scorching surged from deep within my abdomen.
Like a miniature sun, it had long since transcended a single measure of heat—it was rage that had accumulated and solidified into a tangible mass.
“Kim Hyun-su.”
The face of the studious boy in horn-rimmed glasses materialized before my eyes.
He had been my first casualty, a hunter for barely four months before that creature’s tail crushed his entire body.
Though his body was slow, his enthusiasm overflowed, and he would seek me out whenever he had the chance to ask questions.
‘Vice Team Leader, how should I handle this?’
‘Vice Team Leader, I don’t understand this part.’
‘Vice Team Leader….’
I found myself thinking about him from time to time.
If only I had explained things more thoroughly back then, if only I hadn’t grown annoyed with someone who asked me dozens of questions a day—perhaps he would still be alive.
But regret always comes too late. Kim Hyun-su’s age froze at twenty, and his parents wept throughout the funeral for their only son.
‘Perhaps they still do, even now, three years later.’
There were nine more just like him.
Each of them had their own families and dreams.
“Lee Hye-rim. Song Dong-hyuk, Park Sang-ho, Kim Han-ung, Park Gwang-hyun….”
With each name, I took a step, and with each step, memories of that person bloomed like heat shimmer.
My vision blurred because of this. That’s what I told myself.
After ten steps, only one name remained.
“…and Hong Cheon-su.”
The round face of a man in his thirties flashed before my eyes.
When I first met him, I was a fresh twenty-year-old novice hunter, and he was a veteran with ten years of experience.
After he saved me from being surrounded by goblins and nearly killed, I called him Elder Brother.
One day, no different from any other, he suddenly asked me something.
‘Why are you so kind to me?’
He answered like this.
‘Watching a young kid struggle gets to me. I had a youngest brother just like you.’
I learned at his funeral that he had been an orphan with no relatives at all.
I laughed at the absurdity and ridiculousness of it all, but eventually I wept. It was because I remembered his final words.
‘You cocky bastard. Tae-kyung, go on ahead.’
That’s how he died. That’s how Elder Brother Cheon-su died.
Leaving behind an excellent companion and three children.
And now, in this moment, I stand before that creature. My eyes fixed on its massive crimson pupils, I opened my mouth.
“Listen well. You goddamned lizard bastard.”
I had overcome countless crises just to speak these words.
After three years and ninety-two days, I had finally prepared to tear those wings apart and drive a spear through its heart.
“This time, you’re not going anywhere.”
Qi surged from my core, spreading through every limb and meridian of my body.
The heat-infused creatures surged forward without hesitation, converging upon the frigid spear blade. The ceaseless flow of power, tangled like threads of yarn, transformed into a new configuration.
Tssssssss!
Aura, spear energy.
It didn’t matter what I called it. I leveled the blazing blue spear blade toward him.
“You’re dying today.”

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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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