Murim Login - Chapter 511

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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 511
In the depths of night, when darkness consumed all directions, two vessels cut swiftly through the water with their sails fully unfurled.
Whoooosh.
Any boatman with keen night vision would have been startled twice over—first by the vessels’ extraordinary speed, and second by the flag visible beyond their faint torchlight.
The Yangtze River Water Bandit Alliance.
Those five characters inscribed in blue dye served as an undeniable pass—a guarantee of safe and unrestricted passage across the vast expanse of the Yangtze River.
Yet it was a pass that simultaneously bore the mark of plunderers.
“That is…”
“Look, the Yangtze River Water Bandit Alliance! The Water Thieves!”
“Kyaaah!”
The pleasure-seekers aboard the pleasure barge erupted into chaos, but the fishermen casting their nets at a distance reacted differently.
“Ridiculous. Just finish your drink instead of screaming like that.”
“Don’t mind them. It’s nothing new. But is that the legendary Fast Ship the Yangtze River Water Bandit Alliance boasts about?”
“I’ve seen a Fast Ship once before. The way it moves—terrifyingly fast. Must be the real thing.”
“If I had just one ship like that, I’d want for nothing.”
“How many more fish are you planning to catch?”
“What are you saying? With a Fast Ship, why would I bother catching fish? I’d switch to being a Water Thief immediately.”
Fishermen and Water Thieves were separated by the thinnest of lines. When livelihood grew desperate, those who once cast nets and spears for fish would transform into plunderers.
Perhaps for this reason, they showed no particular fear of the Water Thieves.
“Oh, are they heading this way?”
“Let them come. They won’t rob us anyway.”
“Damn, we have nothing worth stealing, so even the Water Thieves won’t bother.”
The fishermen conversed among themselves, watching the situation with keen interest.
Fishermen were rough-and-tumble sailors second to none. Even ignorant Water Thieves knew better than to cross them.
There was always the risk of being skewered by a harpoon while trying to steal pocket change.
The Yangtze River Water Bandit Alliance saw it the same way. Robbing fishermen for meager coin made no economic sense.
So for the fishermen, it was like watching someone else’s house burn.
But moments later, as they watched the Fast Ships accelerate and vanish into the distance, they tilted their heads in confusion.
“Huh, they’re just leaving?”
“Strange indeed. Does that pleasure barge carry some noble of such high standing that touching it would be pointless?”
“For something like that, they didn’t even verify anyone’s status before rushing off.”
“Never mind. What does it matter? Let’s finish gathering our nets and head back before it gets any later.”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
As the two Fast Ships disappeared without incident, cheerful music resumed from the pleasure barge, and the satisfied fishermen returned their attention to their work.
Barely half an hour later, an unidentifiable howl erupted from somewhere in the distance.
“Keeeyaaaah!”
At first, the fishermen who heard that strange cry thought little of it.
“Goodness. They should know their limits. So loud.”
“Seems like someone knows how to have fun.”
“We’re already exhausted, and now they’re making sounds like ‘keeeyaaaah.’ I’m tempted to just drill a hole straight through the bottom of that boat.”
A middle-aged fisherman with graying hair muttered irritably as he yanked his net taut once more.
“Go! Go! Go! Move it, dammit!”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m going now. You bastards.”
The fisherman seized his harpoon, his eyes rolling back in fury.
“Damn it, this won’t do. I’m heading down to drill a hole in the hull right now, so nobody try to stop me.”
“Wait, wait just a moment.”
Only then did the fishermen notice something amiss, their ears perking up.
“This… doesn’t sound like it’s coming from the pleasure barge, does it?”
“You’re right. What is that, then?”
“So the sound is coming from… that direction, maybe?”
As if bound by some unspoken agreement, the fishermen simultaneously craned their necks and scanned the darkness in all directions, searching for the source.
On the pleasure barge where the music had abruptly ceased, a man and woman draped in resplendent silk garments stood at the bow, gazing out into the dark expanse of the Yangtze River.
“Did I mishear?”
“I definitely heard something strange.”
“Hah, it’s not as if we’re bewitched by ghosts.”
In that very instant, as people exchanged uncertain glances.
Kwaaaaaaa!
A figure emerged amid the violent churning of water. Or rather, to be precise, he was not alone.
“…Oh my.”
“What… what is that?”
Everyone’s eyes widened as they finally discerned the identity of the uninvited guest.
It was startling enough that a young man was crossing the Yangtze River bare-chested in the dead of night, but upon recognizing the massive creature swimming before him, tethered by some inexplicable cord, they could scarcely trust their own eyes.
“A, a shark! It’s a shark! Someone is riding a shark!”
A cry burst from someone’s lips, shattering the silence that had fallen over the moment.
And everyone understood. That impossible sound was the reality they were witnessing.
Kwakwakwakwakwa!
A shark. A creature of immense bulk with a hideous visage and a savage nature, known to devour men—a monstrous fish of legend.
And that very shark was swimming with a man upon its back.
Moreover…
“There’s, there’s not just one!”
“One fin, two… five. There are five sharks!”
It was truly astonishing. While sharks, which primarily inhabited the open seas, rarely appeared in the Yangtze River, to have five of them gathered in one place was extraordinary indeed.
Yet had it been merely that, the fishermen would not have been so utterly dumbfounded.
The reason they had lost their words was simple.
“…Tell me, am I dreaming right now?”
“…It seems I’m having the same dream.”
“To my eyes, that young man appears to have placed something like… reins on the sharks and is controlling them,”
“I don’t understand. What is that? It’s terrifying…”
Just as the fishermen spoke, the five sharks indeed bore what appeared to be reins.
Wrapped tightly around their five snouts was a luminescent rope, firmly grasped in the young man’s hands.
“Turn left!”
As the Young Man shouted and pulled his wrist,
Whoooosh!
the five sharks simultaneously veered leftward.
“Turn right!”
When he twisted his wrist in the opposite direction,
Whoooosh!
their course shifted accordingly.
Five sharks possessed of tireless stamina and blinding speed cut through the river’s current before him, while the Young Man kept pace atop the water’s surface with his feet. His velocity was not merely equal to the Fast Ship that had passed earlier—it surpassed it.
A speed that lacked nothing, indeed exceeded what had come before.
“…What in blazes is that thing.”
The moment someone muttered those words in a dazed voice, the Young Man had already closed the distance to arm’s length and waved toward the fishermen.
“Fishermen, good day to you.”
“…!”
“Forgive the intrusion, but I need directions. Did two ships pass by here not long ago? I’d estimate it was perhaps half a watch to a full watch ago.”
The fisherman, who had been planning to attack the pleasure boat, lowered his harpoon and answered hesitantly.
“Y-yes, we saw them. You mean the Fast Ship?”
“That’s the one. From the Yangtze River Water Bandit Alliance. There was a child standing at the stern who looked like he had a terrible personality.”
“W-well, I wouldn’t know about that. If it’s the Fast Ship, it went that way. About half a watch ago.”
“Half a watch? I’ve nearly caught up then. Phew, damn it. I nearly died of exhaustion.”
“…?”
At the Young Man’s choice of words—colorful and crude as any river sailor’s—the fisherman hesitated, and the Young Man casually loosened the strange rope binding his hand.
The fishermen gasped in horror as they belatedly realized one of the sharks had been released.
“Ahhh!”
“A shark’s gotten loose!”
“Back! Back! Row!”
Yet the calamity the fishermen feared never came to pass.
The shark merely blinked its eyes as docilely as a crucian carp, gazing at the Young Man, who opened his mouth with an unbothered expression.
“A shark? Ah, you mean a shark.”
“W-what are you doing?!”
“I understand your concern, but mine doesn’t bite.”
“Mine?”
“Let me show you. Here—fin.”
The fishermen’s eyes bulged from their sockets.
The moment the Young Man extended his hand, the shark—whose eyes had been rolling wildly—presented its fin to him.
“See? It listens well, doesn’t it? I told you it was docile.”
Though it seemed less docile than domesticated.
The fishermen swallowed the words rising in their throats.
The tattered fin and trembling body of the shark were surely just their imagination. They had to be.
Whether the Young Man noticed the fishermen’s stares or not, he continued speaking with perfect composure.
“The kid has had anger management issues since birth, but after taking a beating from me, he’s been controlling himself well, so it should be fine. Since an opportunity like this won’t come again, why don’t you adopt one from me?”
“Y-yes?”
“Consider it a token of gratitude for the information you provided. Besides, it’s about time I let them go anyway. In exchange, do you have any food? After eating nothing but raw fish three times a day, my stomach feels like an aquarium.”
Though I had no idea what situation I was in, I instinctively knew what would benefit my position.
The fisherman trembled like an aspen leaf as he handed over the snacks he’d been keeping in his bosom.
“H-here, here it is.”
“Ah, yes. Th-thank you very much.”
The Young Man who received the bland rice balls laughed playfully.
“Then catch plenty.”
Whoooosh!
That was the last of it.
The fishermen, who had been staring blankly as the figure of one man and four sharks vanished into the distant darkness, gazed upon the only trace he left behind.
Flinch!
The shark—or rather, the white armored shark—that had been beaten badly after carelessly touching a person and now feared humans themselves trembled violently.
And the fisherman who had become its new master realized in that moment that his fate had changed dramatically.
“…With this, I won’t even need the Fast Ship.”
It was the moment a new deity of the Water Thieves was born.
* * *
I dare say that throughout both the Modern World and the Martial World, no one has ever experienced water skiing as environmentally harmonious as mine.
Splooooosh!
“Number four shark. Your posture is wavering.”
Flinch!
“Yeah, that one who just flinched. You. Are you an individualist?”
Swish!
“Good, keep it like that. You’re not going alone. You’re moving together with your friends, fins synchronized.”
Of course, I did use some violence.
When a few punches weren’t enough to satisfy them and they kept charging, I toughened up their fins a bit and even pulled out a few teeth.
Environmental groups would have called me a nature destroyer worthy of universal condemnation and a fish abuser destined to suffer even in death, but I didn’t care from the start.
‘I’m not Shanks, after all.’
Only in classic comic books do magnanimous heroes offer an arm to a charging shark just because it looks hungry.
I grabbed one, gave it a proper education, called over its kin, and founded a shark water skiing unit. The so-called “catch-them-yourself” farming method.
‘Still, I wouldn’t have made it this far without these guys.’
I gazed at my water skiing unit members with a satisfied expression as they performed their duties admirably.
Alternating between rest and travel over half a day, I’d replenished my inner strength that had hit rock bottom to some degree, and I’d significantly closed the distance with the Fast Ship. The reward for diligent labor is freedom.
“Alright, all of you go.”
It was when I released the rope tied around their snouts—or rather, the [Water Dragon’s Sinew] I’d stored away last time.
“…What kind of madman is this.”
I turned my head at the voice that suddenly pierced my ear.
Beyond the deep darkness, a figure walked across the water’s surface, approaching.

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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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