Murim Login - Chapter 39

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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 39
“Ah.”
I blinked my eyes. Hot and humid. As I exhaled, my vision blurred with condensation. When I touched my head, something hard met my fingertips.
‘The VR helmet.’
I removed it, and the dusty interior of the capsule came into view.
Sitting in the worn capsule chair with its deflated cushion, I tried to calm my pounding heart.
‘Reality? Is this really reality?’
My first logout in thirty days. Suddenly, fear surged through me.
Was this truly reality? When I pressed that button and the capsule opened, what if too much had changed? I opened my mouth with trembling anticipation.
“Status window open.”
Silence fell.
The familiar notifications and system window did not respond.
Only then did I truly realize it. I had successfully logged out.
“Huff.”
I took a deep breath and pressed the button. With a click, the capsule door opened. Stale air greeted me.
“…Sigh.”
A dark, cramped room. A small TV on the desk and a single bed. And one person sleeping, reeking of alcohol.
“Krrgh. Krrgh-ugh.”
I never thought that bizarre snoring would be so welcome.
‘I’m back. Back to reality.’
Everything was exactly as I remembered it. The past thirty days felt like a dream.
After staring blankly around the room for a while, I approached Elder Brother Jin-ho. Then I struck his throat with the edge of my hand.
Smack!
“Krrgh… Hack!”
If it weren’t for that bastard’s snoring, I would never have had to crawl into that capsule. I grabbed the flailing Elder Brother Jin-ho firmly.
“Just one more hit. No, two more.”
Smack! Smack!
“Hack! Krrgh-ack!”
* * *
“Everyone in the Gosiwon knows about it. And from the administrator, no less.”
“…I apologize.”
“Let’s not make this embarrassing, shall we?”
Bang.
As the door closed, Elder Brother Jin-ho sighed and turned around.
“Are you insane?”
I struck first before he could say anything harsher.
“I’m telling you now—it was self-defense.”
“What nonsense. Have you lost your mind?”
“I’m perfectly sane.”
“Then why the hell did you strike a sleeping man’s throat…!”
Thump, thump, thump.
The man in the next room was knocking on the wall. Based on the rhythm and force, it clearly meant “I want to kill you.” My Elder Brother lowered his voice.
“What the hell are you doing? At this ungodly hour, no less.”
“Ungodly hour?”
“Yeah, you crazy bastard. It’s only three in the morning.”
My Elder Brother held out his phone with an exasperated expression.
July 25th. 3:02 AM. After confirming the date and time, my jaw dropped.
‘Only three hours have passed?’
I’d spent a month in Murim—exactly thirty days—yet only three hours had elapsed in reality.
“…Elder Brother.”
“Don’t make me talk. My throat hurts.”
“What’s the typical time ratio for game capsules?”
“You’re like Hong Gildong, jumping from topic to topic. Seriously.”
“Just tell me the ratio.”
“Huh?”
When I asked with a stern expression, my Elder Brother, who’d been momentarily flustered, answered.
“The latest model that came out last month? Five to one, I think.”
“What exactly does five to one mean?”
“What do you think? If five hours pass in the game, one hour passes in reality.”
This is insane.
“Anything higher than that?”
“No. With current technology, that’s the limit… But why are you asking about this?”
Because something impossible just happened.
‘How am I supposed to process this?’
Looking at it again, that decrepit capsule—over twenty years old—had far surpassed current technological capabilities.
Thirty days in just three hours. In terms of time ratio, what exactly was it? My mind was too scrambled to even do the math.
“This is messed up.”
“What is?”
My mind simply couldn’t comprehend what had happened. Maybe my Elder Brother could make sense of it. I hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“A month ago—or three hours ago—I entered that capsule…”
Since I’d experienced so much, there was plenty to tell. Even after hearing everything, my Elder Brother remained silent for a long time.
Then he dropped a single remark.
“This is messed up.”
“Exactly. How does this make sense? That capsule isn’t some illegal modification or something?”
“No, not the capsule. You.”
“Huh?”
My Elder Brother spoke with a serious expression.
“Just apologize cleanly. I’m sorry, your snoring was too loud so I hit you. Be cool about it, you bastard.”
“…”
“What, you couldn’t log out and survived for a month risking your life? Write a novel, why don’t you.”
Right, things seemed to be going well for once. I let out a sigh.
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“Look, Tae-kyung. Let’s think about this rationally.”
My brother Jin Ho spoke in a serious tone.
“Some guy hits a sleeping person’s throat to wake them up, they’re trapped in a game for a month, but the clock says only three hours have passed? The capsule is ancient junk that belongs in a museum?”
“I know it sounds insane. I understand. But….”
“Yeah, so understand me too. My head hurts from the hangover, my throat hurts, and my heart hurts looking at you.”
“No, just listen to what I’m saying!”
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
I lowered my voice before the neighbor in the next room could pound the wall down.
“Then try it yourself.”
“What?”
“If you experience it yourself, you’ll believe me.”
Nothing beats firsthand experience. If I pull you out after about ten minutes, you’ll have no choice but to believe me.
Jin Ho stared at me intently before opening his mouth.
“Fine, let’s give it a try then.”
With that, he climbed into the capsule and put on the VR helmet. I told my brother, who was complaining about a stale smell coming from inside the helmet.
“I’ll pull you out soon. You’ll be at Honghwa House.”
“Honghwa House? Just close the capsule door.”
I’m curious what expression Jin Ho will have when we meet again soon. I closed the capsule door and pulled out my phone to activate the stopwatch function.
The numbers climbed rapidly as soon as I pressed start.
‘One second, two seconds… ten seconds.’
Ten seconds in reality would be minutes or hours in the game.
By now, everyone at Honghwa House would be too busy figuring out what happened….
Click.
“Huh?”
The door opened. What? Why is he coming out already? How is he coming out?
Jin Ho sighed as he watched my bewildered face.
“What are you doing right now?”
“Uh, what?”
“The power isn’t even on. What game are you talking about?”
What is he talking about?
“The power isn’t on?”
“Move aside.”
Before I could say anything, Jin Ho opened the door and stepped out, bending down beneath the capsule. Then he picked something up.
“What does this look like to you?”
A cord. An unplugged electrical cord.
I rubbed my eyes vigorously, wondering if I was seeing things, but nothing changed.
“Why is this….”
“Tae-kyung. Jin Tae-kyung. You poor, pitiful thing.”
Jin-ho spoke with a distant expression on his face.
“Go to a psychiatric hospital as soon as it gets light. I’m going to my room.”
I stared blankly at Jin-ho’s retreating figure as he tossed down the power cord and left. The power cord hadn’t even been plugged in.
‘Then what game was I playing?’
I felt as though I’d been possessed by a ghost. Goosebumps covered my entire body.
* * *
I lay in bed, thinking.
‘Am I insane?’
I’d played a game for thirty days in a capsule that wasn’t even plugged in.
I understood Jin-ho’s reaction. But everything that happened there….
‘It was all real.’
Jin Wi-kyung, Wol-hwa, Hyuk Moo-jin, and the Grand Elder. I remember each of the NPCs’ faces, their speech patterns, their actions. It was never just my delusion alone.
‘Then what’s the problem?’
There’s only one answer. A game capsule made twenty-seven years ago. That piece of junk should have been retired long ago and sitting in a museum.
And the manufacturing date is suspicious too. January 1st, 2020.
The day the Demon King Asmodeus fell to humanity’s hands.
‘Where would the people making capsules have been back then?’
It was an era when hundreds of millions of people died from five years of great warfare, and monsters roamed the cities.
The moment the news broke that the Demon King had fallen, those bastards who fired up their factories saying, ‘Well, let’s start making game capsules now!’ should be brought to court, if you ask me.
‘I thought it was a printing error back then.’
My body suddenly went rigid. A printing error?
‘The product manual!’
How could I have forgotten something so important? What an idiot.
I jumped up and began tearing my room apart. Finally, I found a familiar small booklet under the bed.
[Product Manual]
Product Name: Virtual Reality Access Device
Model Name: Ark – 2020
Manufacturer: H Soft
Manufacturing Date: January 1st, 2020
And the next page.
[Warnings]
– Players cannot log out at will.
– If the player dies during play, they cannot be revived.
A month ago—no, three hours ago—I threw this booklet away.
But this time was different. With trembling hands, I turned to the last page.
[Key Features]
– A customized capsule for one person only! Upon user registration, the capsule becomes permanently bound to you, valid until your death.
– Time ratio adjustment for comfortable play! Upon login, time flows very slowly in reality. The opposite is also true.
– Character synchronization system! Users experience greater immersion by synchronizing with their character.
“What is this?”
My eyes read the characters, but my brain refused to accept them. I started reading from the beginning again.
‘First, permanent ownership.’
It meant it was mine until death. Once I resolved my questions, I decided I’d smash that damned capsule to pieces.
‘Next, time acceleration.’
This was the part I’d been most curious about. But instead of precise numbers, only a vague phrase—’flows very slowly’—was written there.
Since the reverse case applied as well, time within the game must be flowing very slowly too.
‘Then the war continues?’
Jin Wi-kyung suddenly came to mind. The Grand Elder’s betrayal was already a foregone conclusion; he would stab me in the back at a critical moment. Had Hyuk Moo-jin and the Scout Unit informed Jin Wi-kyung of this?
‘Ah, that’s still far away. The time acceleration is reversed, after all.’
More pressing was my immediate situation. I examined the last major function. But unlike what was written before, I couldn’t understand this no matter how many times I read it.
‘Synchronize with the character?’
I even searched a Korean dictionary just to be sure. The meaning I knew was correct. Which made it sound even more insane.
‘How am I supposed to synchronize with a game character?’
This made no sense. In the end, I’d only gained one more question.
What was certain was that I wasn’t crazy. I flopped onto the bed and read the front page of the booklet again.
“Manufacturer. H Soft.”
In the end, there was only one path forward. If I investigated these bastards, something would turn up. I searched the internet for H Soft, but all I found was the fact that there was a pornography production company with the same name.
“….”
First, I needed to lock the door and think this through.

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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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