Murim Login - Chapter 225

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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 225
Crack!
With a chilling sound, white teeth shot up into the air.
They gleamed so brightly in the darkness, a testament to how meticulously they’d been maintained. Though all that care had become utterly meaningless now.
“Gaaahhhhh!”
Thud!
Won Myung-hun, sent flying several meters, slammed his back against a tree and coughed violently.
The remaining teeth in his mouth mixed with blood and clattered to the ground. When he lifted his head, his face was contorted with shock.
“This… how is this possible…?”
It had all happened in a single instant.
Not just Won Myung-hun, but all the Star Guild Members stared at me with expressions of disbelief.
“How? Because I’m stronger than you, that’s how.”
“This can’t be real.”
“Yeah, it can.”
With that straightforward answer, I took a step forward, and Won Myung-hun’s body trembled violently.
“Don’t come any closer!”
“Did I come to you? You were the ones waiting here.”
It was too late to back down now. I intended to teach him exactly what the price was for baring his teeth at me.
Sensing the ominous shift, Won Myung-hun cried out in a frenzy.
“What are you doing, you bastards!”
“Y-yes, Guild Master.”
“It’s just two of them! If we retreat now, we all die!”
The hesitant Star Guild Members raised their weapons at his command. Won Myung-hun gritted what few teeth remained.
“I’ll handle this one. Take down the old man first!”
I stopped in my tracks.
“What did you just say?”
“What, did I hit a nerve?”
Won Myung-hun sneered, his eyes blazing as he glared at me.
“Jin Tae-kyung, you bastard. I don’t know what kind of trick you pulled, but it ends here.”
“A trick?”
“Don’t play dumb. You obviously got your hands on some high-performance acceleration gear and equipped it…”
“Oh, that’s what you meant?”
I widened my eyes in surprise.
Won Myung-hun’s imagination in rationalizing his defeat was truly remarkable.
“That’s actually a pretty creative theory. But compared to that, isn’t taking hostages a bit too clichéd?”
“Clichéd or not, it always works.”
“I suppose…”
I trailed off.
While Won Myung-hun and I exchanged words, the Star Guild Members with their tank leading the charge were rushing toward Kim Butler.
“This time, things might be different.”
“What?”
The moment Won Myung-hun questioned it, Driver Kim, who had been tapping his waist, struck his elongated staff against the ground.
A light motion. Yet the force flowing from the staff’s tip shook the very earth beneath us.
The weighty voice that followed was no different from flipping the final switch on a bomb.
“Overturn it. Earthquake.”
Boom!
The Primordial Forest, cradling nature itself, trembled violently.
As cracks spider-webbed across the solid ground, soil and boulders erupted skyward, and the trunks of deeply rooted trees were laid bare. Countless winged creatures took flight in panicked flocks.
– Screeeech!
That was as far as anyone could escape the earthquake.
Unfortunately, the Star Guild Members had no wings, and the fractured, shattered earth became a triangular wave that swallowed them whole.
“Everyone, dodge—gack!”
“Aaaahhhhh!”
Crash!
In the wake of the wave’s passage, only groans and screams lingered sporadically.
The Star Guild Members, crushed beneath an enormous weight of earth and stone, gasped for breath with only their heads protruding.
With a single spell, Driver Kim had rendered over a dozen B-rank veteran hunters completely incapacitated, yet remained utterly composed.
“You young people lack respect for your seniors. All of you, relax your strength and close your eyes. Unless you’d prefer to be buried alive like this.”
A chilling voice unlike anything I had ever heard before.
Only then did the Star Guild Members, finally recognizing Driver Kim’s true power, lower their heads with ashen, terrified faces.
Well, all except one.
“An A-rank Mage…!”
A-rank hunters were rare, but among them, those specializing in magic and healing were even more exceptional. Won Myung-hun likely never imagined that Driver Kim, who had always stood with his hands behind his back wearing that carefree smile, was an A-rank Mage.
I smirked as I watched Won Myung-hun trembling uncontrollably.
“Your hostage gambit failed. What now?”
“…”
“I told you so. Don’t bare your fangs.”
Won Myung-hun, standing vacant-eyed like a man possessed, barely managed to open his mouth.
“Who are you? What are you people?”
“You already know—Peace Guild. We’re just trying to live up to our guild’s name, but nobody around here seems willing to cooperate.”
Won Myung-hun bit his lip.
He could never have imagined that a single moment of poor judgment would lead to a situation like this.
But it was already too late to turn back. A cornered hyena had only two options left.
‘Flee or surrender.’
Won Myung-hun chose the latter.
Clatter!
The spear slipped from his grip and rolled across the ground.
“…I surrender.”
“Surrender?”
I approached Won Myung-hun. As I kicked the fallen spear far away, he lowered his head in resignation.
“So suddenly?”
“….”
Despite standing right in front of me, he made no move. I spoke to him as he kept his head bowed, refusing to answer.
“If you leave, you’re looking at life imprisonment at minimum. You know how serious such actions are within a Gate, don’t you?”
Won Myung-hun, who had been hesitating, finally opened his mouth.
“It’s better than dying.”
“Better than dying… Yes, that’s true.”
If one survives, there is always hope. But death means absolute finality. What lies beyond that, one discovers only after crossing that threshold.
Those with much to lose fear death most. That was exactly Won Myung-hun’s situation now.
“Raise your head.”
“…Understood.”
I stared directly into his eyes. Within that pair of pupils, dark as an abyss, an inexplicable light swirled and eddied.
Fear of the future unfolding before him. Anxiety about death itself.
And….
Thud!
“Tae-kyung. Please.”
“….”
“Just once more. Give me one last chance. Killing someone like me will only leave you with regret.”
“Regret perhaps, but you won’t face punishment. Self-defense is recognized when threatened with death inside a Gate. You know that well.”
“Still…”
Won Myung-hun swallowed hard.
“If you kill me, it’s murder. The fact that you become a murderer doesn’t change.”
Murderer. That word rolling across my tongue felt bitter.
I watched Won Myung-hun kneeling there, begging for his life in a pathetic voice, then spoke.
“I trust you.”
“Tae-kyung!”
“Please don’t betray my trust.”
The moment I threw him a rope, telling him to bind himself, and turned away.
“Hahahaha! You stupid bastard!”
With a cry of exultation came the killing intent from behind my back.
I turned my head to see Won Myung-hun rushing toward me. In his hand was a dagger wreathed in aura.
“Die!”
Whoosh! Splurt!
A short sound of air being cut, followed by a fountain of blood. Confusion flickered across Won Myung-hun’s face, which had been bright with joy just moments before.
“…What?”
Thud.
A moment too late, something fell to the ground.
With a clean, severed edge—it was Won Myung-hun’s wrist, still gripping the aura-less dagger.
“You should have been twice as fast.”
I flicked the blood from the hidden blade in my hand. In that instant, I had drawn a weapon from my inventory, and the outcome was decided in a flash.
A brief silence, yet it stretched like an eternity.
Then Won Myung-hun’s mouth slowly opened, and a terrible scream tore from his throat.
“Krraaaaaaagh!”
As I watched him writhe in agony, my heart remained as still and serene as a tranquil lake.
I felt no sense of betrayal at having trusted someone unworthy of trust, nor even a shred of regret.
Because….
“Thank you. For moving exactly as I expected.”
I had never trusted Won Myung-hun from the start.
From the moment I received the Yeti’s necklace, from the instant he ignored my warning and bared his fangs once more.
“You were only ever that caliber of a man.”
“Ugh, aaaagh!”
“If I let you live, you’ll bare your fangs again someday. Like a thorn lodged in my throat, if you survive, you’ll find a way to return.”
Scrape, scrape!
The dagger severed the tendons in his calf. Blood sprayed as his knee buckled, and I pressed the razor-sharp blade against his throat.
“Hunter Jin Tae-kyung, sir!”
Dozens of meters away, Kim Butler watched with eyes full of restraint.
“There is no need to go that far.”
“That’s right. Which is why I let him live once already.”
“But killing a monster and murder are different things. Rather, allow me to—”
I replied in a composed voice.
“I understand.”
“…Yes?”
“I already know this well.”
How many had I killed so far? Dozens? Or perhaps a hundred?
The world I had lived in was never forgiving. In the Gates, I had to kill monsters, and in the Murim, I had to kill people.
I am no lofty sage or virtuous gentleman. I am a Hunter and a martial artist with family, with people I must protect. If it means survival, if it means growing stronger, I am willing to stain my hands with blood.
To me, there is little difference between a monster and Won Myung-hun before my eyes.
‘Because they are enemies.’
Whoever the opponent may be, if they are enemies capable of bringing harm to me and my people, the threat must be eliminated.
“So do not try to stop me.”
“…!”
Kim Butler was a man who had weathered countless battlefields.
From our brief exchange alone, he would have understood. What kind of person I am and what resolve I have made.
He gazed at me with darkened eyes, then gave a slight nod.
“Ugh… p-please…”
“You want to live?”
I looked down at Won Myung-hun, who was groaning.
An idol I had admired in childhood. Among countless stars, he had shone with particular brilliance.
But those old memories of him, I would now seal away in a time capsule and bury them deep.
I whispered in a soft voice.
“If you were going to kill someone, you should have been prepared to die.”
“Tae, Tae-kyung. Please….”
Scritch!
The dagger carved deep into Won Myung-hun’s throat. His eyes, which had been looking up at me with desperate pleading, snapped wide open.
With his one remaining wrist, he tried to stem the flow, but there was no stopping the torrent of blood and life draining away.
Grrrrgh. Thud.
As his body crumpled with the sound of blood bubbling in his throat.
Ding.
–
[Lv.80 Won Myung-hun]
has been defeated!
– You have acquired a substantial amount of experience!
The system announced the enemy’s death.
“Let us depart.”
Kim Butler, who had been watching me with an enigmatic gaze, nodded.
“Our cargo has increased, it seems.”
As he waved his staff, the buried Star Guild Members floated upward effortlessly.
I watched as magical ropes summoned by his magic bound them tightly like dried pollack, and I suddenly opened my mouth.
“One moment, Kim Butler.”
“…?”
“We need to add one more person.”
Shortly after, following the direction Gi-gam indicated, I discovered a man with a gag stuffed in his mouth.
For some reason, he was bound tightly to a tree, and he was a face I recognized.
“Star Guild Team 1 Captain?”
* * *
Most of the reporters who had flocked to the cooperative Raid between Peace Guild and Star Guild—or rather, the Raid of Jin Tae-kyung and Won Myung-hun—had long since departed.
But there were exceptions. A young man wearing thick horn-rimmed glasses while eating instant ramen was one of them.
“Being the youngest is so pitiful, so pitiful.”
At the young man’s lament, his fellow Reporter colleague chuckled while picking up instant kimchi.
“For someone only two months in, you sure have a lot to say.”
“But senior, you haven’t been here that long either.”
“Well. Back in my day, I just kept my mouth shut. If they said stay, I stayed; if they said dig, I dug.”
“Still, isn’t this too much? Why are we waiting for days just to cover one Hunter?”
“You haven’t changed since university. If you’re frustrated, just put in your time.”
The young man stared at his cup ramen with a dejected expression, oil floating on the surface.
“An A-rank Gate takes at least four days to clear….”
“Four days? We’ll be lucky if it doesn’t take a full week.”
“A full week?”
“It’s an A-rank Gate. Once you’re in, you might as well squeeze out every bit of profit.”
“…Ugh.”
The young man shuddered at the mere thought of it, his body trembling involuntarily.
Watching the junior reporters around him in similar circumstances huddling together to grab a quick meal only deepened his melancholy.
“I wish we could get out of here sooner.”
“At the earliest, not today. Like you said, even if we get out quickly, it’ll take at least three days. Get some rest. Want to hit up the sauna with me? We could shoot some pool too.”
“Pool?”
“Yeah. There’s plenty to do around here. The vendors just overcharge like crazy.”
“Well, a game or two of pool wouldn’t hurt….”
It was the moment the young reporter, tempted by his senior’s offer, was about to stand up from his seat.
Shuuuuuck.
The massive gate standing before them emitted an eerie sound.
As the mana that had been as still as a lake’s surface began to swirl violently, urgent shouts erupted from all around.
“The Gate! The Gate is opening!”
“Already? What’s going on!”
“Camera! Get it ready, now!”
The venue descended into chaos in an instant. The press corps, who had been idly passing time, scrambled to their feet and crowded the Gate Entrance.
The young reporter and his senior were no exception. They seized the front positions faster than anyone else, their minds racing.
“What? Why are they coming out already?”
“How should I know? Set up the equipment, quick!”
Cameras rolling, flashes erupting without pause.
The press corps’ instinct that something had happened proved exactly right.
Whoooosh!
About a dozen people burst forth from the swirling mana.
Those who caught sight of them gasped, their jaws dropping.
“…W-what happened in there?”

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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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