Murim Login - Chapter 458

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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 458
‘P-please… save me…’
A voice as faint and fragile as a dying ember.
Yet that alone was enough. My heart, which had been drowning in the helplessness of being unable to save anyone, thundered violently, and strength surged through my exhausted body.
I hurled myself toward the direction of that voice.
‘Inventory open, summon!’
Thwack!
The fragments of the ferry boat—what little remained—swept across the moon’s reflection on the river.
Leaping skyward like a bird, I drew upon what little martial energy remained and focused it into my eyes.
My dramatically heightened vision absorbed the scene sprawling beneath me in perfect clarity.
‘That is…’
Wreckage and corpses.
Though shattered beyond recognition of its original form, there was no doubt it had been the largest and most ornate vessel I had ever seen on Dongting Lake.
‘Somewhere among this, there is a survivor.’
The problem was the sheer number of visible corpses and debris scattered everywhere.
But there was no time to hesitate.
Time remaining: 59 seconds
Fifty-nine seconds. A survivor’s life hung on this single minute.
I closed my eyes and steadied my breathing. I drew upon what little martial energy remained, wringing it from the depths of my dantian.
Whoooooosh!
Qi perception.
A pale blue aura radiating from my entire body swept across the turbulent river waters.
I meticulously combed through over a hundred corpses whose souls had already departed and countless fragments of the vessel.
And finally.
“…!”
I saw it. No—I felt it.
Beyond dozens of layers, a faint vital essence still sinking beneath the surface, moment by moment.
I opened my eyes halfway.
Time remaining: 32 seconds
The pale blue aura circulating through my body surged toward my lower half.
As I stepped on the empty air with my feet concentrated with martial energy, compressed air burst outward with a sharp crack, and a biting wind rushed across my entire body.
Boom! Screeeech!
I shot forward like a meteor. The wind split apart and space itself seemed to blur.
The scenery on both sides blurred past in streaks, but my gaze remained fixed on a single point.
The dark, churning river waters. The survivor was in there.
‘Damn it all—I can’t even swim.’
The moment that thought crossed my mind, the waters of Dongting Lake crashed against my entire body.
Splash! Glub glub glub!
An impact that stole my breath away.
Without martial training, my bones would have shattered and my organs pulverized.
I sank beneath the surface, expelling water from my lungs.
As schools of fish scattered in panic at the sudden intruder, two slowly descending silhouettes became visible.
Time Remaining: 20 seconds
‘More, more, more…!’
I summoned every last ounce of strength within me and surged forward. Seizing the wrists of the two unconscious figures, I thrust upward with all my might.
10 seconds. 9 seconds, 8 seconds….
The faint moonlight reflected on the surface drew closer.
My arms and legs felt as though weighted with iron anchors, and the two people in my grasp seemed impossibly heavy. And in the next instant.
Splash!
“Gasp!”
I expelled the breath I had been holding.
Bitterly cold air seeped deep into my lungs.
But pulling the survivors from the water did not mean everything was finished.
Time Remaining: 3 seconds
In that moment, I instinctively understood what I had to do.
‘Save them.’
That singular resolve alone stirred my momentarily paralyzed body into motion.
I extended my palms, channeling what little martial energy I possessed, toward the two figures.
Boom!
My body jolted and water sprayed.
Yet instead of any response from the survivors, the numbers on the system window hovering in the air changed.
Time Remaining: 2 seconds
‘Once more…!’
Boom!
Time Remaining: 1 second
All time seemed to slow.
That single, meager digit bore down upon me with crushing weight, heavier than ever before.
It was the very moment I stared blankly at the system window, eyes wide with desperation.
“Gasp.”
“Cough, cough.”
The moment the survivors’ long-awaited breathing returned, the system window froze before it could change to the final number.
And a bell chimed out like celebratory fanfare.
Ding.
–
[Life Rescue]
succeeded!
– Emergency Quest,
[The Tragedy of Dongting Lake]
completed!
– You have successfully completed the Quest. Appropriate rewards await you!
– You have acquired a substantial amount of experience points and fame!
– Title,
[Water Rescue Operative]
acquired!
I muttered to myself as the notification pierced my ears.
“Damn it all.”
Beyond the joy and relief of finally succeeding, my body—exhausted from the forced march that began at the Jeongal Family Estate—felt impossibly heavy, as though weighted by a thousand stones.
Perhaps the tension I had barely maintained had suddenly shattered.
‘…Curse it. Getting back to land from here will take forever.’
At this rate, I’d be the one needing rescue.
It was then, while I floated buoyantly in the water alongside the two survivors.
Whoooosh!
That ‘thing’ cut through the water like a jet ski, approaching rapidly from the distance, and came to a halt before me.
A snow-white body, scales, and two horns.
“A water serpent…or rather, a Thousand-Year Venomous Horned Snake?”
Hiss. Hiss. Hisss!
No, don’t! Where are you going!
I cried out urgently at the creature as it flicked its tongue and tried to turn away.
“Hey! Hey! Water serpent! Thousand-Year Venomous Horned Snake!”
Hiss!
“Did you just spit at me, you bastard…wait, hold on.”
Could that have been a sign of being upset?
A sudden thought crossed my mind, and I opened my mouth with desperate yet cautious hope.
“Mi-mi, Mi-mi?”
Chirp! Chirrup!
Only then did the Thousand-Year Venomous Horned Snake—no, Mi-mi—nod contentedly and offer its tail to me as if urging me to grab hold.
At that moment, a shout echoed from the distance.
“Mi-mi! Rescue the benefactor!”
Chirp!
“….”
Yeah, fine. The skill name doesn’t matter anyway—just get me out of here already.
* * *
I sat upon the damp boulder, gazing at the rippling waters of the lake.
Two. Only two.
Among the countless souls who had been buried in Dongting Lake today, only these two I had saved were the sole survivors.
‘…Out of all those people, only two.’
I had suspected this truth since the moment the quest completed, but reality proved far more cruel and merciless than I had imagined.
And the countless deaths left in the wake of today’s tragedy spawned sorrow beyond measure.
“Sigh….”
“Sob, sob…”
“Oh no, Chil-sam’s father!”
“How… how could any heaven-forsaken bastard do such a thing!”
Along the riverbank of Dongting Lake, nearly a thousand people had gathered, pouring forth their anguish in countless forms.
Scholars stood speechless, their sighs heavy with despair. Behind officials clutching the corpses of their comrades, their tears flowing freely, came the wails of women with infants strapped to their backs. Elderly men with veins bulging in their necks swung their long pipes at invisible enemies in their rage.
At Dongting Lake, one of the world’s most celebrated scenic wonders, no laughter or song could be found.
Only the sorrow and sighs of those left behind remained—and the fury that carried all of those emotions with it.
Yet nothing changed. The waters of Dongting Lake had grown still, as if nothing had ever happened, and the dim morning mist settling over the landscape painted a scene of terrible beauty.
Was this what the Myriad Peach Blossom Land, where immortals were said to dwell, truly looked like?
Standing in silent contemplation of the sight before me, I suddenly opened my mouth.
“This feeling is absolutely shit. Don’t you think?”
It was not mere muttering.
Chung Poong, who had remained at my side for over an hour, answered.
“Yes, it’s absolutely shit.”
Under normal circumstances, I would have laughed despite myself, but now there was only emptiness.
I fingered a pebble as I spoke.
“I only said it felt like shit. I didn’t know So-hyup could curse like that.”
“I didn’t know at first either, but I’ve learned gradually. I picked it up from watching a certain person.”
“You should probably keep that a secret from Mae Jong-hak.”
“Why, benefactor?”
“Why? How do you think you’d feel if Mi-mi suddenly called you a fucking bastard one day?”
“Hmm. I don’t think I’d like it.”
“…Usually when a snake speaks, people are startled first, aren’t they? Either way, you’d be startled and angry. Mae Jong-hak would feel the same.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Yes, that’s how it is.”
“What if I accidentally curse in front of Grandfather?”
“Blame Gung Ki-bang for teaching you. Or Hyuk Moo-jin.”
“Yes, sir.”
Silence fell between us.
The conversation from moments before was nothing but meaningless drivel spilling out carelessly. I felt compelled to say something, anything. As if doing so might somehow ease the weight of this moment.
Both Chung Poong and I understood this.
We both knew that no amount of such talk would lighten what we felt now.
“Damn it…”
I muttered the curse like a lament.
Was today somehow different, or did even those creatures sense the tragedy and mourn it?
No birdsong could be heard—only the wails and sobs of people filled the air around us.
Listening to those suffocating, unbearable sounds, I clenched the pebble resting in my palm with all my strength.
Crack, crumble.
A handful of dust spilled from my grip, carried away on a wind from somewhere, settling gently upon the river’s surface.
As if it were the ashes of someone’s departed soul.
Chung Poong, who had been watching silently, suddenly opened his mouth.
“Benefactor.”
“Why?”
“What should I do in a situation like this?”
“….”
“So many people have died. In Hanan, in Sichuan, at the Dongjeong Channel, and here today.”
Her voice trembled as she continued.
“I keep seeing the faces of the dead. And I’m angry. I despise those who keep killing people, and I’m ashamed of myself for being unable to do anything.”
“…I felt the same way. I still do.”
“How did you handle it when you felt like this, Benefactor?”
“Me?”
As I turned my head, I could finally face Chung Poong.
His eyes, once crystalline and pure, now swirled with a tempest of conflicting emotions.
Within that chaos, I saw both my past self and my present self gazing back at Chung Poong.
‘Was I like this?’
Reflected in Chung Poong’s eyes, my present self appeared… merely composed.
I was neither exhausted like Gung Ki-bang or Hyuk Moo-jin, nor did my body tremble with rage and sorrow like those who had lost family and comrades.
No—I was not devoid of emotion, but rather had contained it.
Like a Large Boulder worn smooth by countless collisions over endless years, finally becoming accustomed to its own erosion, I stood there.
“I’m not sure. What did I do?”
After a moment of thought, I continued slowly.
“No different from So-hyup. I cursed those bastards relentlessly, berated my own helplessness, and finally made a vow.”
“A vow?”
“Yes. A vow.”
I raised my hand, pointing toward the grieving people and the corpses laid along the riverbank.
“That I would absolutely kill those responsible for this. That kind of vow.”
“…!”
“I’m no saint, so I need to repay at least what I’ve received to feel satisfied. This time is no exception.”
It was at that very moment—as a voice unfamiliar even to myself, dry and cold, slipped past my lips.
“Leader.”
Hyuk Moo-jin approached, his exhaustion evident.
“One of the survivors has regained consciousness.”
“That’s good. Both of them?”
“No. Only one for now.”
It was unfortunate, but something I had already anticipated. The measures I took after the rescue were merely emergency treatment, after all.
“Understood. Let’s go.”
“Yes. This way.”
Chung Poong and I followed Hyuk Moo-jin. And at last, I could face one of the survivors who had regained consciousness.
“We meet again so soon. Don’t we?”
At my greeting, Hong Ran, a woman of dazzling beauty, bowed with utmost courtesy.
“I am honored to see you again, Benefactor.”

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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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