Murim Login - Chapter 574
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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 574
Splurch!
Baek Yeom’s spear blade pierces through the massive eye. The terror of the sea, the Kraken’s colossal body convulses in agony.
But the suffering awaiting the creature does not end there.
Boom!
Erupting flames evaporate the blood, and the formidable energy flowing along the spear shaft tears through the Kraken’s interior.
The scorching solar essence, amounting to three full cycles of accumulated power, does far more than sear one of the Kraken’s eyes—it inflicts catastrophic internal injuries.
– Screeeeeeee!
Overwhelmed by pain unlike anything it has ever experienced, the Kraken thrashes all eight legs in every direction, roaring in fury.
A violent convulsion meant to dislodge its attacker.
But I drive the spear blade deeper while bracing myself, simultaneously hammering the creature’s massive eye with my fist.
Whoosh! Crack!
Though I possess Baek Yeom, a divine weapon of unparalleled quality, I have no need for martial techniques—my fists, already moving at speeds and with power far beyond human limits, are lethal instruments in their own right.
Crack! Crack! Thud!
With each fist strike raining down like shards of light, the Kraken’s massive form writhes anew.
– Ugh, screeeeee!
Boom, splash!
Eight legs lashing the water’s surface send up barriers of liquid and towering waves.
Drenched in seawater laden with salt spray, I lick my lips. The distinctive briny taste spreads across my tongue.
“Stay still. There’s more to come.”
How many have died and been injured in this monster wave?
The collapse of the Gwangandaegyo Bridge alone has claimed hundreds of lives. Each of them is someone’s father or mother, a beloved child beyond price.
‘A price must be paid.’
What the Kraken destroyed is no mere structure.
Sinking deep into the sea along with white foam are hundreds of precious lives, and promises with loved ones I will never see again.
Crack!
I tighten my grip on the spear shaft. Simultaneously, I channel my energy like electricity into the mythical monster’s depths.
Boom.
A small explosion sounds from somewhere deep within the glistening cephalopod’s flesh.
– Aaaaagh! Ren. Douuuu!
I aimed for the head to end this quickly, but given its enormous size, while I can inflict powerful damage, I cannot deliver an instant kill.
Yet I answer without the slightest hesitation.
“Give up. You’re going to die here anyway.”
This much, at least, is an unchanging truth.
At my dry voice, I feel the Kraken’s body stiffen momentarily.
It must be shock at encountering a human who speaks the Demon Realm language—something only monsters of high intelligence can use.
– You. Are. Definitely. Human. Yet.
“Of course I’m human, you bastard. Do I look like an octopus to you?”
All of this is thanks to the [Universal Language Pack] provided by the system, but I see no need or reason to explain this to the creature.
Instead, I drive a punch toward the eyes of the creature, momentarily hesitant in its unexpected predicament.
Whoosh.
Blue flames ripple across my clenched fist. The Extinguishing Flame Divine Fist—the legendary technique that once reduced the Potala Palace in Tibet to rubble.
The hammer of that immense heat-wielding force pierces through the Kraken’s skin, protected though it is by magical power.
Crack!
Even the hardest stone will shatter if struck enough times.
How much more so with the Extinguishing Flame Divine Fist, channeling all my accumulated power—capable of felling a monster hundreds of times the size of a human, let alone mere stone.
Splash!
The Kraken’s massive body trembled as blue blood surged forth.
The creature that had thrashed so violently it destroyed every yacht and fishing boat moored nearby now released only shallow gasps instead of its usual piercing roars.
– …You. Human. Are.
“Shut your mouth.”
At last, I could see the end of this battle.
Sensing victory, I moved with lightning speed to extract the White Flame embedded in its eye and drive it down.
Or rather, I was about to.
– Did you not. Give me. Strength.
“…!”
The spear point that should have pierced through the Kraken’s head froze in mid-air.
In that instant, countless thoughts raced through my mind. I opened my mouth, confusion clouding my eyes.
“What did you just say?”
At my question, its limp body stirred. The Kraken—it was definitely laughing.
– How amusing.
“Answer the question. Before this gets boring.”
– Did I not say it? You gave me strength.
“So what does that even….”
As I pressed further, sensing something was wrong, the Kraken gasped roughly and spoke.
– It must be cramped, no? Here.
“…!”
– Go outside. There is a wider sea.
I went rigid. That was not the Kraken’s voice, nor was it the language of the Demon Realm.
This voice, flowing smoothly unlike before, was unmistakably….
‘Korean?’
Yes, it was definitely Korean.
The Kraken was mimicking someone whose identity I couldn’t fathom. Or rather, it was reproducing memories as they were.
The next moment, as the unfamiliar voice continued, my suspicion hardened into certainty.
– Giving you strength. Leading you outside. Everything.
Drip.
From eyes charred black, blue blood streamed like tears.
The Kraken, already dead yet with hatred and despair still lingering in its gaze, looked at me and continued.
– All of it. Was human.
“…!”
Human. The moment I heard those two words, an icy chill so cold it made my skin crawl surged up my spine.
In my mind, several inconsistencies that had nagged at me flashed like lightning before vanishing.
A Monster Wave that had progressed so rapidly that no one could have prepared for it.
The existence of the Kraken, a Named Monster possessing tremendous power.
And the involvement of someone else, as the Kraken itself had confessed.
If all of this were true.
‘Someone had deliberately triggered the Monster Wave.’
My teeth clenched involuntarily at the unbelievable thought. An artificially induced Monster Wave. It was something that shouldn’t exist, something that shouldn’t be allowed to exist.
But….
‘Damn it. It’s possible.’
The cause of mutated Gates and Monster Waves was the total quantity of magical power.
Therefore, if magical power exceeded the threshold a Gate could contain, both phenomena would occur as previously mentioned.
And there was definitely a way to artificially elevate this magical power level.
‘Magic Stones.’
At those three words that surfaced in my mind, the scattered puzzle pieces clicked into place.
Yes, Magic Stones would make it possible. If those containing monster magical power—pure Magic Stones that hadn’t undergone purification by humans—then this could be the only answer to the problem.
‘But. Who? Why?’
By making the Kraken absorb Magic Stones, creating this Named Monster, and artificially triggering a Monster Wave to bring about catastrophe.
This was clearly terrorism, a brutal act no human should be capable of committing.
‘Who could do such a thing.’
My hand gripping Baekryeom trembled from the shock. As questions continued to flood my mind, it became as dark and clouded as a sky shrouded in mist.
And ironically, there was only one being who could answer these questions.
“…Tell me. Everything you saw and heard.”
At my voice, spat out like I was chewing the words, the Kraken let out a low, gurgling laugh.
– Why. Should. I?
“If you don’t speak now, I’ll kill you.”
– How. Frightening. Truly. Terrifying.
The meaning in those words was unmistakably sarcastic.
I pushed the blade forward as a threat, but the creature continued to laugh, pain mixed into its voice, refusing to yield its defiant attitude.
– Ask. Your. Own. Kind.
“You damned octopus.”
– Kill. Me. Human.
“…!”
I clenched my teeth with all my might. To suppress the rage surging within me, to keep myself from immediately drilling a hole through this cursed creature’s skull.
Grit.
I had to kill it. I should have killed it.
I had witnessed it with my own eyes. Hundreds of people being slaughtered by the Kraken.
If I included the other monsters under its command, the death toll might have exceeded thousands.
Even now, somewhere in this city, someone was screaming as they died.
Yet.
“Damn… shit.”
I couldn’t sever the Kraken’s lifeline.
If I thought about what that bastard had done, I wanted to beat it to death a hundred, a thousand times over—but more important than that was the identity of the true culprit who had caused this accursed calamity.
If I couldn’t capture the one who had absorbed the demonic stone and created the Kraken as it now stood, the one who had triggered the monster wave itself, then this was only the beginning.
‘And people will keep dying every time.’
Was it the exhaustion of my depleted martial power? Or the shock of an unexpected betrayer’s existence? My body felt heavy as waterlogged cotton, and a sudden, overwhelming fatigue crashed over me.
I felt the sunlight pouring down from above my head and muttered inwardly.
‘Damn it, the weather is unnecessarily beautiful.’
That’s right. Cursedly beautiful weather, and a situation as miserable as it gets.
Breathing roughly, I withdrew the White Flame I’d been driving into the Kraken’s head.
With a wet sound, the pristine white spear blade emerged, and blue blood spilled forth in torrents.
‘This creature… I have to keep it alive.’
The sole witness and evidence was a monster.
Feeling the sudden fatigue, I released the grip I’d been maintaining so tightly on the spear shaft.
A soft scraping sound.
And that was my only blunder in this battle, and a painful mistake at that.
A tremendous surge of power!
“…!”
It happened in an instant.
The Kraken’s massive body, which had been hanging limp as if half-dead, convulsed violently as all eight legs came flying at me.
“Tch!”
A sharp crack and a piercing shriek!
Coming to my senses too late, I stomped on the creature’s head and launched myself into the air.
For a moment I thought I’d evaded the ambush, but I quickly understood its true intention.
A gushing spray of liquid!
Black liquid that covered dozens of meters of empty space.
It was an action calculated thoroughly from beginning to end, and my loosened state left me without the margin to evade every attack.
A violent splash!
Despite moving as fast as I could, I couldn’t avoid all of the widespread onslaught.
And the moment black liquid—perhaps a cup’s worth in volume—touched my entire body, an unexpected system notification rang out.
Beep.
–
[Kraken’s Ink]
has made contact!
–
[Kraken’s Ink]
is a deadly poison possessing tremendous toxicity in itself!
– Status Abnormality,
[Poisoned]
has been applied!
– Abnormal Status Inflicted:
[Paralysis]
has been applied!
– Temporarily,
[Strength]
has drastically declined!
– Temporarily,
[Agility]
has severely declined!
–
[Hundred Poisons Unpierceable]
begins resistance!
–
[Internal Force]
can rapidly expel toxins when deployed!
“…!”
My body grew heavy as the system notifications flooded in.
The black liquid was nothing other than ink.
And not just any ink—a virulent toxin of staggering potency.
‘Damn it.’
Why had I let my guard down? Why hadn’t I suspected him until the very end?
Bitter regret washed over me, but it was already spilled milk.
I summoned the Blazing Yang Technique, the antithesis to poison, while simultaneously equipping the Universal Antitoxin Pill from my inventory.
Ding.
Purification began as the system notification chimed once more.
But this too was a fatal blunder. The Kraken, seizing my momentary lapse with precision, had never been targeting me at all.
Whoooosh!
The massive form surged forward like a beam of light, churning the waves in its wake.
And at its destination lay the Gwangandaegyo Bridge, where survivors still clung to life, awaiting rescue.
“You…!”
– Human! Witness! Your! Death!
In an instant too brief to even be called a moment.
Countless thoughts flashed through my mind. Yet the answer had been decided from the very beginning.
A martial artist fights. A Hunter fights while protecting others.
Crack.
Despite the blood coating it, I gripped the cold spear with all my strength.
I twisted my shoulders in mid-air, rotating my waist. Internal Force spiraled through muscles and meridians coiled like a helix, surging toward the spearhead.
Whoosh.
Beneath the scorching sun, azure flames ignited. The sunlight shattered against the spear’s edge.
And….
‘Now.’
Die.
I swung my arm with the resolve of a killing blow. A spear engulfed in crimson flames transformed into a beam of light and shot forth.
Screeeech! Boom!
Compressed air exploded outward, and the sea split asunder.
And at the end of that trajectory, the massive body of the Kraken lunged toward the survivors.
Thud!
Blue blood fell like a downpour.
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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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