Murim Login - Chapter 582

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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 582
What could one even call this?
Choi Min-woo, Kim Hwa-jong. And twenty elite Hunters from the Peace Guild standing guard outside the Gate.
All of them harbored the same question, yet none could answer. Or rather, none could answer.
They could only stare with pallid eyes at ‘that thing’ that had descended into the mortal realm.
– GRAAAAAHHH!
A roar like thunder that shook the heavens themselves.
It was a hippopotamus, and an elephant at once, a bull, and a rhinoceros besides. Yet simultaneously, it was none of these things.
For it was far too massive and powerful to be called merely a beast.
Whoooosh. CRACK!
A single step. Yet the shockwave was catastrophic.
A colossal foreleg, casting a shadow that engulfed a radius of some thirty meters, came crashing down upon the Gate Management Office.
The earth trembled as though seized by an earthquake, cables connecting to the Mountain snapped, and the gondola plummeted.
And in that next moment, Kim Hwa-jong recalled from the depths of distant memory the name of a certain monster.
“…Behemoth.”
Behemoth. Or Behemoth.
A monster’s name derived from the Hebrew word meaning beast.
Traces of the mythical creature that rose from the deep and shadowed abyss could be found even in the Bible.
Behold Behemoth. As I created you, so too did I create it.
Though it grazes grass like cattle.
Yet the records written in scripture were wrong.
Whatever being had created that monster, Behemoth was far removed from the peaceful creature that grazed grass and drank from ponds.
CRACK! CRUNCH-CRUNCH!
– SCREECH, SCREEEECH!
What emerged from the Gate into the world was not Behemoth alone.
Two hundred Yetis fled, shrieking cries that sounded like screams. Behemoth’s first target was them.
This colossal being trampled and devoured its own kind—its subordinates—without mercy.
SQUELCH, CRUNCH-CRUNCH-CRUNCH!
Blue blood rained down like precipitation.
Four legs like temple pillars stamped upon the earth, and each time tusks resembling an elephant’s ivory scraped the ground, severed limbs and blood of monsters sprayed forth.
From someone’s lips came a trembling voice.
“This… this is…”
A sight that inspired despair merely by witnessing it.
And as all stood frozen, their gazes hollow as they watched the Yeti horde meet their gruesome end, that was when it happened.
WHOOOOSH!
Beyond the black fog that had settled around them, a brilliant radiance erupted.
A warm, luminous light pushed back the mist, gradually, gradually expanding its reach.
Only then did those who had held their breath release it, finding the source of that radiance.
Two dozen pairs of eyes. Where their gaze fell, a young man stood wielding a sword that blazed with resplendent light.
His eyes shone brighter than ever before as he opened his mouth to speak.
“Everyone, behind me.”
“…!”
The moment his composed voice pierced their ears, the Hunters of the Peace Guild finally realized they had escaped the grip of the Fear that Behemoth was radiating, and one person watching this spectacle trembled with a chill.
‘This is.’
An all-too-familiar, wistful sensation.
Kim Hwa-jong murmured as he recalled a face from his past memories, now blurred with time.
“So you were here.”
Past and present overlapped. What reflected in Kim Hwa-jong’s eyes at this moment was Cheon Tae-min and yet Choi Min-woo simultaneously, Choi Min-woo and yet Cheon Tae-min at once.
Song Cheon-woo felt despair at witnessing such a thing, but Noh Ji-sa felt joy welling up from deep within his chest even in this precarious situation.
He stood beside the radiant young man.
Whoooosh!
A long and fierce whip of flame materialized in both hands. Choi Min-woo, whose gaze met Kim Hwa-jong’s, opened his mouth with a composed expression.
“We must stop that creature. By any means necessary.”
Unwavering resolve resonated in his voice. Already, screams from those who had sensed the anomaly were echoing from below the Mountain.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
“Ugh, ughhhh!”
–
Graaaaaaaaah!
At Behemoth’s roar as it slaughtered two hundred yetis, the snow piled upon the Mountain swept down like a tidal wave.
Shrill screams accompanied the scattering of over a thousand people in all directions.
If they managed to escape the monster before them by sheer fortune, Behemoth’s next target would be them.
Choi Min-woo and Kim Hwa-jong, along with the Hunters of the Peace Guild gathered here, understood this fact well.
They also knew they could not face that monster alone.
“T, Team Leader.”
Though all possessed the strength of elite Hunters, their opponent was a beast that belonged only to mythology. Choi Min-woo answered the fearful voice of one among them.
“I will not force you. If you wish to flee, then flee.”
Before unease could even begin to spread, his quiet voice continued.
“But do not forget. What choice you made in this moment. Whether you can still call yourself a Hunter.”
“…!”
The trembling in their wavering eyes ceased. The blade in Choi Min-woo’s hand blazed with a brilliance unlike any before.
[Hero’s Soul]. An ego sword that grants power befitting a hero to those deemed worthy.
Whooom. Flaaaash.
The blade trembled fiercely. Light burst forth like a flash, pushing back the darkness, and the warmth contained within that radiance enveloped them all.
In Choi Min-woo’s eyes, now tinted golden, the form of Behemoth—which had devoured all of its own kind—finally came into focus.
“The power we have received… was it not given for a day such as this?”
Not a single exception among them. Those gathered here had been chosen by someone unknown on some fateful day, and had gained power beyond the ordinary.
And with that power came duty and a sense of mission.
Hunters.
The blade that protects humanity, the shield that defends against threats, the guardians who must always stand at the forefront in battle against monsters.
Though their pure essence may have faded beneath the wealth and fame they had gained, it still remained.
“Formation for assault. Take positions.”
Thud.
Choi Min-woo stepped forward. Light moved in the wake of his stride, and behind him came Kim Hwa-jong and twenty Hunters.
Their formation, sharp as an arrow’s flight, was reflected in the enormous eyes of the monster that had just finished its first meal in this new world.
–
Guh. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah.
The monster, Behemoth, released a sound like bitter laughter. Even after devouring hundreds of yetis, it remained ravenous.
It was ready to trample and devour the humans approaching with their sickly light, grinding them between its jaws.
–
You. Insignificant. Insects.
No one present could understand Behemoth’s Demon Realm tongue.
Yet the meaning reached them all the same.
Shing. Crackle.
Weapons are drawn. Manifested magic surges through staffs and hands.
Twenty-two Hunters, radiant in the oppressive darkness.
And what released them, taut as a bowstring, was the cry of Choi Min-woo at the vanguard.
“Charge—!”
With a roar so deafening it numbed the ears, they became a single arrow loosed into the void.
Screeeeeech!
A shaft of light tearing through darkness. The beast at its tip unleashed a shriek as if dragged from the abyss itself.
–
Kwaaaaaaah!
The next instant.
Crash! Boom-crack!
Roars and shrieks, light and darkness, all intermingled.
* * *
-Screech!
“Shut your mouth, you bastard.”
Thud!
With a dull impact, the Merman’s head vanished.
But I didn’t bother confirming its death. Before the corpse even hit the ground, I cut off the other Mermen attempting to flee by springing into their path.
“You filthy things made a mess everywhere, and now you’re running? What kind of honor is that? Hmm?”
–
Screech, screeeech.
A cry filled with desperate longing to live. But it was already too late. They were monsters, and I was human.
Besides, if they crawled all the way to Busan and defiled it, they had to pay the price.
An eye for an eye. A life for a life.
Without hesitation, I swung the White Flame in my grip.
Whoosh!
Flames erupted along the spear’s edge, spreading horizontally across the space.
Inferno Dragon’s Tail. As the blazing tail of the fire dragon, brimming with tremendous heat, lashed out and struck down fifty-odd Mermen in a single sweep, a horrific stench of charring flesh mingled with agonized shrieks that pierced the air.
–
Kiiiieeeeek!
A pitiful death cry. I swiftly brushed past the nearest Merman.
A faint slicing sound. I felt his head soar upward through my heightened senses, my nerves stretched taut.
But it wasn’t over yet.
The number of creatures huddled together, searching for an escape route, reached approximately five hundred—which meant that was exactly how many monsters I needed to kill in this place.
Slice. Slice. Shwiiiiish!
Monster limbs erupted alongside sprays of blood. Everything caught in the spear’s trajectory was severed, and the palm force of the Flame Divine Palm that burst forth from my open hand incinerated twenty-odd Mermen.
Whoosh, Roooaarrr!
It was scorching.
The asphalt melted by the ultra-high temperature was. The tires of the car spinning idly with its side embedded in the bus were. And my heart as I gazed upon the driver slumped over the accelerator was.
Drip. Plink.
Blood from the shattered windshield trickled down the hood.
Even the state-of-the-art airbag couldn’t stop the trident that pierced through the windshield and embedded itself in the driver’s chest.
The eyes of the middle-aged man, already devoid of light, were hollow, and the family photo hanging like a talisman from the rearview mirror was soaked in blood.
A middle-aged couple. A boy who appeared to be in elementary school and a girl who looked even younger.
The most damning fact was… all the family members in the photo were inside the car. Every single one had lost their smiles. Every single one was drenched in blood.
“You… fucking bastards!”
Whoosh, Roooaarrr!
The flames, now even more ferocious, consumed the monsters.
I traversed the path carved by the inferno, wielding my spear. I cut without pause, sliced, tore, and shattered.
Between the scorching heat and the evaporating blood, a thought suddenly came to me.
‘Perhaps.’
Perhaps they too had come on a trip. On a family vacation to Busan after years apart, laughing and chattering merrily before encountering these monsters.
Looking at the Gwangandaegyo Bridge not far away, perhaps this father and son had made a promise they could never keep.
Crunch!
My extended fist pierced through the hard scales, shattering bone and flesh.
I stared silently at the Merman letting out a short whimper, then tore away the warm mass that touched my palm.
Gaaahhh! Thud!
The moment I withdrew my hand, green blood splattered across my face. A horrific stench wafted up, but it mattered little—I was already drenched in blood from head to toe.
I stood over the corpse of the fallen Merman, its eyes wide open in disbelief, and dropped the heart I had just torn out.
Thud.
And because I didn’t like the look of disbelief in its eyes, the expression of regret on its face, I stomped on it with my foot.
Crunch. Pop.
Only then could I truly realize it. There were no more monsters rushing at me from around. No fleeing ones. No living ones.
It was at that moment I exhaled hot breath in the pool of green blood.
“…Cunning human. You.”
“What.”
As I turned my head to ask, the Skeleton King, whose gaze met mine, let out a sigh.
“No, no.”
I wondered for a moment what kind of expression I must have worn in that creature’s eyes, but I didn’t ask.
Just by looking at the gleam in the eyes of the hundred-odd Hunters standing behind the Skeleton King, I could roughly guess.
“This place is finished.”
The Hunter who appeared to be a superior startled at my own voice—dry and unfamiliar, as though it belonged to someone else.
“Yes? Ah, yes. Yes.”
“How are things progressing elsewhere?”
“Those… those were the last ones. We were gathering our forces to strike them all at once, but…”
Gulp.
He swallowed hard and continued.
“It seems well organized.”
“Then that’s fortunate. You’ve worked hard too.”
I patted the Skeleton King’s shoulder and resumed walking. When asked where I was going, I answered briefly.
“I need to save people. Those dying even now. Those still clinging to life.”
I was exhausted. The mental fatigue weighed far heavier than the physical toll. But I couldn’t rest now.
Somewhere out there, people were still waiting for rescue, facing the terror of death. I had to save at least one more.
And…
Squelch.
The moment my footstep—trailing green blood—pressed against the urban asphalt.
Crackle. Crackle crackle.
With an irritating electronic hum, the digital billboard of the High-rise Building flickered. A familiar face emerged from the noise-laden screen.
Annoyingly handsome features. It was Choi Team Leader. Simultaneously, a caption appeared alongside a small information window.
[Peace Guild Hunter Choi Min-woo. Caught in the Monster Wave occurring in Pyeongchang…]
Damn it all.

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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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