Murim Login - Chapter 29

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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 29
Some people, once they make a decision, never hesitate. Jo Pil was precisely that type.
“Let me see what you’re made of.”
Jo Pil uttered those words and kicked off the ground. The distance of a dozen paces vanished in two strides. A flash of light erupted from his waist.
Whoosh!
‘What in the—’
My body moved before my mind could process. The moment my extended spear shaft met that brilliant flash.
Boom!
The deafening impact sent me flying backward. My body, propelled like a cannonball, hurtled toward the Scout Unit members. Shields, formations—none of it mattered as the first few soldiers crumpled under my weight.
“Ugh!”
“Captain! Are you alright?!”
…How could I be?
‘Damn it.’
I gripped the spear shaft tightly, still trembling with residual vibrations.
That flash was Jo Pil’s blade. And it was the fastest, most devastating strike I’d encountered in my twenty-seven years of existence.
‘I blocked it, and this is what happened?’
Had my reaction been even a moment slower, I’d be taking a permanent trip to Beimang Mountain. I steadied my racing heartbeat and pushed myself up.
Jo Pil was smiling.
“Disappointing. Is that all you’ve got?”
It was only because I managed “that much” that I’d blocked the attack at all. If I hadn’t swept through twenty men and leveled up beforehand, I’d already be dead.
‘Damn, I’ve gotten myself into something terrible.’
My realm was second-rate. Yet until now, I’d effortlessly defeated two first-rate masters. Through the martial arts and stats the system granted me, and through the combat experience I’d accumulated.
But a single strike revealed the truth.
‘This man is different.’
I was overwhelmed in every aspect. Jo Pil existed on an entirely different tier from Lee So-gun or Heuk San-do. The very word “death” came to mind.
“You’re afraid.”
Afraid? Me?
I looked down at my hands. The spear’s vibrations had ceased, yet my fingers trembled like aspen leaves. My heartbeat was so loud I feared everyone could hear it.
“How do you expect to survive in the turbulent Murim with such a cowardly heart?”
Jo Pil clicked his tongue.
“This won’t do. Let me stoke your spirit a bit.”
“What?”
“Anger always conquers fear.”
Before I could even comprehend his words, Jo Pil flicked his sleeve. Simultaneously, multiple streaks of light erupted forth.
‘Danger!’
The moment the red alert blazed in my mind, I swung my spear. With a sharp metallic ring, several throwing blades were deflected away.
But I couldn’t block them all.
“Gack.”
One of the Scout Unit members clutched at his throat. Beyond his fingers, blood spurted profusely, and a throwing blade protruded from the wound.
“Ugh… C-Captain… Urgh…”
With the sound of blood boiling in his throat, he collapsed to his knees. His youthful face was twisted in terror at the approach of death.
“P-please… spare me…”
Shwick, thud!
No one had ever survived a hidden blade driven through both the throat and the space between the eyebrows. He was no exception.
Metal striking earth. His face crashed into the ground that had only just begun to thaw, and he never rose again.
It had all happened in a single instant.
“I chose him because he looked the youngest… was he someone you valued?”
Jo Pil shook his head at the question.
“No.”
“That’s unfortunate then.”
“Truth is, I didn’t even know his name.”
“But he was your subordinate?”
“He’s an NPC. No need to know his name or age.”
“What?”
I rolled the corpse onto its back. I brushed away the dirt clinging to his face and the leaves, then gently closed his wide-open eyes.
Then, like a confession, I spoke to Jo Pil, whose face still bore confusion.
“Truth is, I’d only known him for four days.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“Yet you…”
Jo Pil continued with a laugh.
“Why are you angry?”
He was right. Something churned violently in my gut. My head and chest burned with heat, demanding that I say something—anything.
‘What was that bastard’s name again.’
He was called Number Seven in the Scout Unit. I’d forced a shield into the hands of someone who resisted, training him whenever I had the chance. Being young, he’d grin widely whenever I offered him a few words of praise.
‘What was his name.’
I couldn’t remember it in the end.
I didn’t even know the names of my fellow Gosiwon residents—what reason did I have to remember some NPC I’d seen for mere days? There was no need.
‘Yet…’
I was irritated. Furious. I thought it would be different in a game, but here too, I had failed to protect my team member.
All the effort I’d invested in training him, all the work of these past few days—it had all vanished like bubbles. I opened my mouth and exhaled hot breath.
“Bastard. You’re dead.”
I chewed and swallowed the last remaining Qi-Gathering Pill. A System Message confirmed my vitality had been restored.
Boom—
I kicked off the ground and launched myself forward.
* * *
Jo Pil deflected the spear blade that erupted from the blind spot.
Clang! Clang-clang-clang.
Fast and powerful. His fundamentals were solid, and his combat instincts were sharp.
He was not someone that the rabble from the Hengshan Sword Sect or a rootless rogue like Heuk San-do could handle.
‘The Taewon Jin Family… even rotten fish still has some value, I suppose?’
Jo Pil evaded the spear blade with ease, his thoughts drifting.
The decline of the Taewon Jin Family was no recent occurrence. The authority that once commanded all of Shanxi Province had long since vanished, leaving behind only the faded glory of the past and talents that appeared as rarely as beans in a drought.
Like Jin Tae-kyung standing before me.
‘They’ve raised an interesting one.’
At such a young age, to possess this level of skill. He couldn’t match Jin Cheon-geom, already renowned as Shanxi Province’s greatest master, but he was certainly intriguing.
Setting aside his age, his inner energy and martial prowess were mediocre at best—yet he knew how to fight. He understood precisely when to retreat and when to advance, and when opportunity struck, he charged forward like a demon.
Just as he was doing now.
“Hah!”
Shwik—Pang!
The spear blade flashed toward my face, piercing through empty air. With a sharp crack, my hair scattered in the wind.
‘Well, well.’
The series of movements—raising the spear, thrusting—flowed with concise elegance, smooth as water. And more than that, the way he twisted his entire body to unleash explosive power was unmistakably the Wrapping Silk Technique. Still crude, but unmistakable.
‘The Wrapping Silk Technique at such a young age?’
Innate instinct coupled with combat experience reminiscent of a seasoned warrior. And talent.
Terrifying potential. That was what I thought in that moment.
Jin Tae-kyung muttered with a hardened expression.
“Damn, what is this.”
“….”
My foot caught. In that instant of carelessness, Jin Tae-kyung’s spear burrowed in like a serpent. I leaped back to create distance, but the inner energy channeled through the spear was extraordinary.
Screeeech!
My first permitted wound. My upper garment tore open lengthwise, my chest laid bare.
“Ah, what a shame. I could have ended it.”
“….”
A shame? Ended it? Against me, Jo Pil of One Sword, One Life?
Watching Jin Tae-kyung lick his lips, I felt a fierce fury ignite within me.
“You insolent brat!”
My roar, infused with inner energy, made the forest tremble. My eyes rolled back as I charged toward Jin Tae-kyung.
* * *
The moment I sliced through Jo Pil’s garment, a system notification chimed.
Ding.
–
[Lv.??? Jo Pil]
has entered
[Berserk State]
!
– Strength and Agility increase for the duration!
Damn. Now too?
“Graaaah!”
Boom—Crash!
Blow after blow crashed down with deafening force. The ground split open, and trees were uprooted from their foundations. Jo Pil, his eyes rolled back white, thrashed about like a madman possessed.
‘The problem is, he’s not just any madman.’
He’s a madman at the peak of mastery. Without the [Gambler] title—which boosted combat ability by 10% in one-on-one duels—I wouldn’t have lasted this long.
Crash!
This wasn’t martial arts. This was bombardment.
Yet Jo Pil showed no finesse now. His movements were simple and swift, but the excessive force from [Frenzy] made his motions wide and full of openings.
‘All I need is one opening…’
The problem was that opening never came. He spun like a top, laying waste to everything around him. I could only dodge; blocking was out of the question.
If I stepped into his range, I’d be torn to shreds.
“Captain!”
“We’re coming to help!”
I frantically waved my hand at the Scout Unit members rushing toward us.
“No! Don’t come! Fall back!”
Were these fools insane? What were they doing here? We’d already lost one man pointlessly. A total wipeout of the Scout Unit wasn’t an outcome I wanted.
And…
‘If they come, the Gambler title effect disappears!’
[Gambler] only worked in one-on-one duels.
I was barely holding on as it was. If I lost the title’s effect, I had no idea how much longer I could endure.
“Get back, you idiots!”
I shouted and quickly rolled to the side. Right on cue, Jo Pil’s blade shattered the ground where I’d been standing.
Crack!
“Captain!”
A beat too late, Hyuk Moo-jin’s voice rang out. My warning fell on deaf ears—he was already charging forward. Han Yeop followed close behind, his face set with determination.
“No, don’t—!”
“Jo Pil, you vicious bastard!”
“Get away from the captain!”
But they were a step too slow. Hyuk Moo-jin and Han Yeop, having rushed with all their strength, drove their weapons toward Jo Pil, who was focused on me.
“Die!”
Sword and spear. Spear and sword. The timing was perfect, the coordination flawless—as if they’d rehearsed it. But there was one fatal problem: their opponent was terrible to face.
“Dare you, you little rats!”
Jo Pil’s response was instantaneous. He planted his blade and spun, striking both weapons with his bare hands in one fluid motion.
Meeting sword and spear with bare hands was suicide. But in the Murim, it was different. More precisely, for a peak master like Jo Pil, it was different.
Crack—Shatter!
His palm barely grazed the side of the weapons, yet before even touching Jo Pil, Hyuk Moo-jin’s sword shattered into fragments. Han Yeop’s face twisted in horror as he watched the spearhead cleanly severed from the shaft.
It was the result of Jo Pil’s rigid hand-blade strike.
“What is this…”
“Impossible…”
Before they could finish speaking, Jo Pil’s hands struck both men’s chests. They erupted in sprays of blood and crashed into the trees behind them.
“I’ll kill you.”
The whites of his eyes had vanished from his grinning face. The frenzy had broken, and sanity had returned.
“Damn it….”
Worse and worse. Surrounded on all sides. Trapped like a rat. Jo Pil, you bastard.
The situation was spiraling into catastrophe. I had to step in to stop it.
“Jo Pil-!”
I drew upon my full reserves of inner force, channeling it explosively through my entire body. I kicked off the ground and launched myself toward him. Jo Pil grinned widely and opened his mouth.
“Yes, let me kill you first.”
But I had something I believed in.
‘Right now, he’s unarmed.’
A critical mistake made in his frenzy. And I was confident I could end everything before he could draw and wield the sword on his back.
In the next instant, I drew upon every ounce of inner force from my dantian. I concentrated all my power into a single point—the tip of my spear—and unleashed it.
“Die!”
Heavenly Piercing—the final technique of the Jin Family Spear Method. If it could pierce the heavens, surely it could pierce Jo Pil’s heart. I was certain.
‘This will… end it.’
In the slowed world, I saw Jo Pil’s face. He was smiling. The moment I saw that smile, I understood.
Something was wrong.
Clang clang clang.
Jo Pil’s sword was faster than my spear. The blood-stained crimson blade pushed against the spear shaft, driving inward. Just as my empowered spear point pierced empty air.
Squelch.
A chilling sound, and my chest opened up. Blood sprayed forth in a wave of agony. Fortunately, I’d twisted my body at the last moment, avoiding a fatal wound.
‘Damn it.’
What had happened? As I staggered backward, Jo Pil rushed at me.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
A torrent of crimson sword light. Each strike was so fast and powerful I could barely track them. I gritted my teeth and swung my spear, but in both momentum and martial skill, Jo Pil was superior.
Squelch. Thud. Crack.
Lightning tore across my entire body. The blade pierced my shoulder, knee, and ribs, then withdrew trailing blood.
“Cough.”
“You didn’t drop your weapon. I’ll give you credit for that.”
Jo Pil added.
“If you can endure this too.”
In the next moment, his fist slammed into my chest.

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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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