Murim Login - Chapter 431
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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 431
– What a vicious human. Who is that bastard?
There are humans without fear like that.
Inwardly cursing, I slowly surveyed my surroundings.
Far from the city center, in the desolate outskirts where people rarely ventured. A place where even the brilliant light that illuminated the city like daylight couldn’t quite penetrate.
And from between the ruins, a single figure emerged, casting a shadow.
“It seems we’re fated to keep running into each other.”
Seok Go-jun responded to my greeting with a cold voice.
“Not fate, but misfortune.”
“Then what would you call meeting in a place like this? Coincidence?”
The response came like a blade.
“Inevitability.”
“Clear and simple. So you’ve been tailing me like a stray dog this whole time?”
“When did you realize?”
“Since the Stone Age, you bastard. I thought your stare would bore holes through my face.”
I’d felt the covert surveillance the moment I left after checking the magic circle.
Not the curious and admiring gazes others cast, but an unpleasant, sticky stare.
And in a situation like this, only a handful of people would show hostility toward me.
“Either you or those Crown Prince Faction bastards. But the latter are too busy cleaning up the shit they’ve scattered everywhere… it’s obvious, isn’t it?”
It should have been a remark that struck home, but Seok Go-jun showed no sign of confusion.
“As expected.”
“As expected?”
“I thought you’d figure it out. If you hadn’t, there’d be no reason for you to come here alone without Magic Johnson.”
Look at this guy.
Only then did I understand why Seok Go-jun wasn’t flustered. He’d been signaling me. A signal to follow.
This wasn’t surveillance or a trap. It was the picture both Seok Go-jun and I wanted.
Of course, the outcome of this meeting would be quite different.
“I have something I want to ask.”
Seok Go-jun didn’t wait for an answer. He simply stared directly at me and continued with what he had to say.
“Was it you?”
The question was short and concise, but it contained more than enough meaning. Still, I tilted my head innocently and asked in return.
“What?”
“You should know.”
“Are you seriously thinking right now that I killed Lee Jung-yong?”
At the mention of Lee Jung-yong, Seok Go-jun’s eyes wavered with turbulence. Without waiting for his answer, I covered my mouth with both hands.
“Good heavens, how could you think something so terrible? Are you serious?”
“Drop the pathetic act. Do you really seem like you don’t know what I’m asking?”
“Then why are you asking? Didn’t you watch the press conference?”
“I did. From beginning to end, nothing but nonsense and lies.”
Tap, tap tap.
Blood dripped from my clenched fist, my knuckles white with tension. Seok Go-jun glared at me with eyes ablaze with fury.
“There are only two of us in this place. Speak the truth from your own mouth.”
– Tch! How dare you overlook me, Stone King, born and raised in Atlanta!
That makes one monster to add to the count.
More precisely, two people and one monster. Though I’m not sure I can still call Skeleton King a monster anymore.
“Hmm.”
I scratched the back of my head while regarding Seok Go-jun, then opened my mouth.
“That’s right. I killed them.”
“…!”
“Lee Jung-yong, Wu Hei-xing—I disposed of them all. Those lunatics came up with an absurd scenario. They planned to kill only me and leave the Arch Lich untouched. And the result is… you already know, don’t you?”
Speculation and truth are fundamentally different things.
Even if it was something I’d already suspected, hearing a definitive answer from my enemy’s own lips was an entirely different matter.
I drove the final wedge into the trembling Seok Go-jun.
“Since they were that kind of people, what could I do? I bought them both tickets to the United States. Oh, and I made sure to get Lee Jung-yong a First Class ticket.”
“You dare, you dare lay a hand on That Person…!”
Whoooosh!
The killing intent erupting from Seok Go-jun’s entire body froze the air itself.
I watched his fingers twitch toward the sword hilt, then suddenly spoke.
“What are you doing right now?”
“…!”
Seok Go-jun’s eyes widened. At the same moment, the killing intent swirling around us vanished without a trace.
No—it was crushed beneath the qi wave flowing from me.
In the space where dominance had instantly reversed, I took a slow step forward.
“Your strength has certainly improved dramatically. If I’m being honest, far more than Wu Hei-xing’s. You’re worthy of being a disciple raised by Lee Jung-yong’s side.”
Step.
“But….”
Step.
With each footfall, Seok Go-jun’s complexion grew increasingly pallid.
An overwhelming disparity in power. A rabbit cannot defeat a tiger. The moment he moves even slightly to draw his blade, my fangs will sink into his throat.
“You should measure the space before you lie down. What happens if you claim a grave as your bed?”
Boom-!
Compressed air burst forth from the tip of my leisurely raised finger.
A sharp cutting sound accompanied a streak of finger wind that shot toward Seok Go-jun, now rigid as a statue. And….
Clang!
His sword, bound at his waist, flew far away.
Watching Seok Go-jun’s expression contort while his eyes remained wide and frozen, I chuckled softly.
“What, did you think I’d kill you?”
“…Why?”
“If you’re so eager to die, come back with more subtlety and genuine resolve. Don’t set half-hearted traps like today.”
I reached out like lightning. Seok Go-jun had no time to react.
Bang! Three streaks of wind blades pierced through the thick darkness once more, and in that instant.
Puff, puff, puff!
From far away, accompanied by faint impact sounds, three unconscious black shadows tumbled down from the empty air.
They were high-ranking Hunters who had cultivated concealment traits and hidden their forms with various spells, but they couldn’t escape my ki sense, which had grown sharper through the intermediate stage of Gae-bang.
“Were you secretly recording? You creepy voyeur.”
Tap, tap.
I clicked my tongue and tapped Seok Go-jun’s cheek. Between his gritted teeth, a voice strained with humiliation escaped.
“And you think you’ll walk away from this unscathed?”
“You?”
“We are the Ares Guild. We will not fall. We will surely avenge That Person’s death…”
Crack!
Blood sprayed along with teeth. I gripped Seok Go-jun’s collar firmly and delivered another ear strike.
Crack!
Once more.
Crack!
And again.
Crack!
Internal Heavy Palm Technique.
The force channeled through my palm didn’t tear his bones and flesh; instead, it burrowed deep into Seok Go-jun’s body, shaking his brain.
I seized his throat as he swayed unsteadily, unable to maintain his balance like a drunk man.
“Listen carefully to what I’m about to say.”
“Ugh…”
Bloody foam erupted with his groans, splattering across my face. In his unfocused eyes, a stranger’s reflection stared back with an emotionless expression as I continued.
“You started this, but I’m the one who will finish it.”
In the end, the modern world is also governed by the logic of power.
Hunters—these superhuman beings with their abilities, or those wielding equivalent authority—set rules to suit their tastes and commit fouls without hesitation. No matter what they do, they receive neither yellow cards nor red cards.
Lee Jung-yong severing Kkokjeong’s arm as a precaution was something natural to them. But…
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
Now that a new judge has taken the bench, the rules must change. And the content of the new rules is very simple.
I pressed Seok Go-jun’s dumb acupoint and chuckled softly.
“An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth.”
As if wringing out laundry, I twisted both his arms while pulling with all my strength.
Crack, crack, crack!
With a horrific tearing sound, both arms separated from his body.
An enormous amount of blood gushed out, and the whites of his wide-open eyes became visible. From his mouth, sealed by the acupoint, came silent screams.
“It’s not over yet.”
I jammed my fingers into the severed stumps of his dangling arms. The heat energy channeled through my hands seared his flesh, inflicting even greater pain. I pressed down on his writhing body and grabbed his ankles.
“This won’t be enough. Not for someone like you.”
Crunch!
With strength capable of grinding stone to powder, the bones forming both legs shattered instantly, splintering into hundreds of pieces.
“…!”
A silent convulsion.
I forced my inner energy into Seok Go-jun’s body as he lost consciousness from unimaginable agony.
Once light returned to his dimming eyes, I brought my fists down on his shattered legs.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
When I finally stopped, what lay sprawled across the ground was no longer a human—merely a massive hunk of flesh.
The shallow breath escaping through his nose and mouth was the only evidence that he still lived.
From within my inventory, Skeleton King spoke in a trembling voice.
– H-human.
I answered in a parched voice.
“What?”
– N-no. I mean….
He trailed off, but I already knew what Skeleton King was trying to say.
“Yes, it’s cruel.”
– ….
“But it was necessary.”
The helplessness of being unable to do anything. Pain so profound that death would be a hundred, a thousand times preferable.
And the terror of knowing that the opponent could inflict the same fate upon him whenever they wished.
All of this had to be etched into my enemy’s heart and carved into his very bones.
Of course, there was one method that left no loose ends.
‘Death.’
My fingertips twitched without my realizing it.
With just a little more force, I could kill Seok Go-jun.
This was the perfect opportunity to eliminate even the slightest possibility of future threat.
But….
‘The timing isn’t right.’
Suspicion surrounding the truth never disappears.
Humanity’s first moon landing, conspiracy theories about famous historical figures still being alive—all of it follows the same logic.
If Lee Jung-yong, followed by Wu Hei-xing, and then Seok Go-jun all vanished. If it were revealed that I had ‘coincidentally’ been present at this location, the rumors surrounding me would cease to be mere conspiracy theories. So I had to end this here.
Right now, with the overwhelming gap in power and the fear I’d instilled in him.
“I’ll say this one last time.”
“…!”
Seok Go-jun’s body convulsed. I spoke each word with a voice lower and more emotionless than ever before.
“Let Lee Jung-yong be the end of it.”
As my breath, hot as molten lava, touched him, his prone body began to spasm.
Like a rabbit that had felt the fangs of a tiger tearing into its throat.
“Hide your fangs, conceal your claws. If you do that… nothing will happen.”
If you had intended to kill, you should have been prepared to die.
Lee Jung-yong had been my greatest enemy and obstacle, and in the end, he paid the price for what he had done.
What I was offering now was a recommendation for peace. No—a demand.
And Seok Go-jun had only one choice left.
Whoosh.
His head nodded ever so slightly. Staring into those two eyes drenched in fear and terror, I pressed the sleep acupoint on Seok Go-jun’s body and pulled out several high-grade potions from my inventory, pouring them over his form.
Sizzzzle.
Watching him heal rapidly, I suddenly turned my head.
“So… that’s roughly how it came to this.”
In that moment, space peeled back like a layer, and a massive Black man materialized. Magic Johnson, regarding me with complicated eyes, opened his mouth.
「Seems like you have quite a story to tell.」
“I was thinking the same thing.”
To our exchange, Skeleton King muttered softly.
– The club?
That’s a gay bar, you idiot.
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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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