Murim Login - Chapter 587

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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 587
Air. Time.
Everything seemed to have frozen. For the master of Area A—hidden in utmost secrecy within the Ares Guild located in Jongno-gu, Seoul—it truly had.
‘How is this possible?’
Only that question echoed through my mind.
Seok Go-jun stared at the holographic television mounted on the wall with a rigid expression, having forgotten even that Go Se-won stood beside him.
Live footage transmitted from dozens of unmanned reconnaissance drones deployed by the government and various media outlets streamed across the screen.
– You are now witnessing the area near Balwang Mountain in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, where a Monster Wave has erupted. And….
The voice of the flagship news anchor presenting the nine o’clock broadcast on public television flowed through the speakers. Unlike his usual composed and grave demeanor, the unseen figure was visibly agitated.
– Citizens, do you see it! The corpse of Behemoth, a Named Monster! Survivors who endured this calamity are being transported by emergency helicopters….
Seok Go-jun’s eyelids trembled violently.
The grotesquely dismembered body of the beast and the survivors. The voices of the Peace Guild members and the news anchor explaining the situation only intensified his rage.
Crash!
With a thunderous sound, the latest holographic television—replaced more than ten times over the past month—crumbled into dust.
But that mattered nothing to Seok Go-jun.
The moment Choi Min-woo appeared on screen, being transported with a respirator attached, everything became meaningless.
‘He survived. Choi Min-woo survived.’
That fact weighed heavily upon my heart.
To me, Choi Min-woo was a man who deserved death, a man who should be killed.
That was why I had laid the trap.
I had lured Jin Tae-kyung to Busan, and using Song Cheon-woo, I had orchestrated a strategy of using barbarians against barbarians, of mutual destruction.
But…
‘What went wrong?’
Red light flickered in Seok Go-jun’s eyes. In the grip of my hand, two unrefined S-rank Magic Stones ground endlessly against each other.
Crunch. Crunch.
What had I overlooked?
Crunch. Crunch.
I thought it was perfect. No, it truly might have been perfect.
If this flawless plan had but one flaw, it was that standing opposite me was an existence beyond perfection itself.
‘Jin Tae-kyung.’
It had to be him. Though all media outlets were blocked by Behemoth’s magical barrier and could not discern the details, it was undoubtedly him.
That man—my teacher Lee Jung-yong, who had been like a living god, whom he killed and branded me with indelible terror—had once again interfered.
Despite laying an inescapable trap, despite setting the snare, yet again!
Crunch crunch crunch!
Instead of an anguished cry, a bone-chilling grinding sound filled the office.
Suppressing the surging rage, Seok Go-jun barely managed to squeeze out a voice.
“Song Cheon-woo… What of Song Cheon-woo?”
When no answer came to the question, a thunderous roar erupted.
“I asked what happened to him!”
“….”
“Team Leader Go! Go Se-won!”
Go Se-won, the Security Team leader, had been silently observing his superior’s outburst of rage. Now he answered in a measured tone.
“We have no record of him among the survivors or casualties we’ve compiled.”
“What about Gate access logs?”
“The same. It appears the Peace Guild, which effectively owns that Gate, deliberately left no traces.”
“Right, of course. That bastard Min-woo may be useless at everything else, but he’s meticulous. Wouldn’t you say?”
“…Yes.”
Secrets that never cross the fence—both the advantage and disadvantage of absolute secrecy.
Seok Go-jun ran a rough hand through his hair. He tilted the whiskey bottle to his lips and muttered.
“Fine. Even if things have gone to hell, we can’t change it now. Song Cheon-woo can establish an alibi with a prepared double, or if that becomes difficult, we pin it all on him as a solo act. Busan left no traces anyway, so we don’t need to worry about that. Right?”
“But Sub-Guild Master. The Pyeongchang incident is too significant to handle as Song Cheon-woo’s solo act. According to the intelligence we’ve gathered, Kim Hwa-jong, nominally the Guild Master of the Peace Guild, is dead, and Song Cheon-woo is clearly an Ares member….”
“Listen, Team Leader Go.”
In that instant, Go Se-won felt a chill sweep across his entire body. His frozen visage was reflected perfectly in Seok Go-jun’s crimson eyes.
“Then we make that big incident small.”
“Sub, Sub-Guild Master.”
“Whether it’s hundreds of billions or thousands of billions, it doesn’t matter. Scatter money to the prosecutors, threaten the old men sitting in the National Assembly Building, grab the ones with cameras and microphones by the collar. Isn’t that your job?”
“…!”
Go Se-won’s pupils trembled faintly. The malice and spine-chilling aura emanating from one man bore down upon him.
‘How is this possible….’
Beyond surprise—it was horrifying. Could a person change so drastically in mere months? Could they fall so far?
And what was this overwhelming force now crushing him?
As Go Se-won stared at Seok Go-jun with astonished eyes, the voice of Song Cheon-woo from days ago suddenly echoed in his mind.
‘The boundary between human and monster. That bastard Seok Go-jun… has already become a monster.’
It was true. Seok Go-jun—his superior—had already become a monster.
Using his subordinates’ faith-like loyalty, he had driven them to their deaths, and he had artificially triggered Monster Waves twice, waves that could claim thousands, tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of casualties.
For the single reason of eliminating his enemies.
‘A monster that has forgotten even the bare minimum of human duty.’
Just as Go Se-won struggled to conceal the turmoil he felt, Seok Go-jun spoke again.
“Handle it cleanly. Min-woo may have survived, but at least we’ve dealt with Song Cheon-woo, so if we get through this, there’s no problem.”
Seok Go-jun’s voice had grown serene, his composure fully restored.
Though he had failed to topple the external enemy, eliminating the internal threat was half a victory in itself.
Once the fake Song Cheon-woo, set up as a double, went through retirement procedures and disappeared, everything would be finished.
No rumor or condemnation would ever bring down the Ares Guild.
“Thirty years. A full thirty years. Politics, business, prosecutors, media… all grew up in Ares’s shadow.”
Crack. Crack.
Cheon Tae-min had laid the foundation stone, but after he lost consciousness, it was Lee Jung-yong who built the pillars and roof.
Young politicians once sponsored by Ares had become Prime Ministers, party leaders, and powerbrokers in the opposition. The same held true for business, prosecutors, and media.
A portion of the astronomical sums the Ares Guild had extracted from the Gates—those diamond mines—had been scattered as dirty money across every corner, and those seeds had grown into a dense forest that wrapped around an impregnable fortress.
Seok Go-jun was one of the few who understood this fact better than anyone.
Among what he had inherited from his master was a ledger meticulously filled with every corruption and weakness imaginable.
“Even if the whole world points fingers at us, it’s this world itself that protects us.”
In his haste and rage, he had forgotten—the true extent of the power he possessed.
And it was precisely when Seok Go-jun’s lips curved into a deep, satisfied smile that regained his composure completely.
“You’re mistaken.”
“What?”
Go Se-won fixed his gaze directly upon the monster before him—his superior—with an indescribable intensity in his eyes.
“The aging politicians raised under the name of Ares, the Prosecutor General, the corporate and media conglomerates passed down since the Japanese occupation—none of them can protect the Sub-Guild Master.”
“Team Leader Go. What are you—”
“To some extent, what I say is true. The name Ares won’t crumble from mere finger-pointing and criticism. But even if the entire world stood guard, there is one person it cannot stop.”
“…!”
In that instant, Seok Go-jun’s body went rigid.
The thought of seizing the Security Team Leader by the collar for spouting such nonsense to his face had already flown far away.
It was because of a single name that struck his mind like thunder.
‘Jin Tae-kyung.’
Go Se-won, reading the thought from his trembling superior’s gaze, continued in a subdued voice.
“Have you forgotten? The one who personally cultivated that world the Sub-Guild Master now trusts in—whose hands did he fall to?”
“…!”
As if struck across the back of his head, Seok Go-jun unconsciously clenched his teeth.
Unfortunately, every word spilling from that damned man’s mouth was not nonsense—it was fact.
‘My master.’
That’s right. Lee Jung-yong. His master, who was the owner of Ares and all but a king of South Korea, had ultimately fallen by Jin Tae-kyung’s hand.
Though the entire world had been his, no one could protect Lee Jung-yong.
A seething voice escaped through Seok Go-jun’s clenched teeth.
“Team Leader Go… you bastard.”
“I merely spoke words that someone had to say.”
“Shut your mouth.”
“If that is the Sub-Guild Master’s command, I shall obey. But please do not dismiss my words unheard.”
“I told you. Shut that mouth of yours.”
Crack—crack—crack!
In that instant, a colossal aura exploded from Seok Go-jun’s entire being, shaking the Office as if an earthquake had struck.
Go Se-won’s complexion turned ashen before such overwhelming power, but it was nothing compared to the revulsion he now felt.
‘A monster.’
Seok Go-jun, reading the emotion flickering across Go Se-won’s eyes, bared his teeth and asked.
“Team Leader Go, have you suddenly lost your mind? Have you gone mad?”
“….”
“I gave you the Team Leader position only because your skills were worth using. Did wearing a title you were never meant to have made the world look different?”
Seok Go-jun continued, his laughter tinged with fury.
“Team Leader Go, you’re a coward and a worm. You dressed it up nicely with words like ‘loyal counsel,’ but the truth is you fear Jin Tae-kyung more than you fear my master or me.”
“…That’s not true.”
“It’s too late for excuses. Let’s acknowledge what’s real. Yes, that bastard Jin Tae-kyung is strong. But how much longer will that bastard remain above my head? Hmm?”
Crack—crack!
“It’s only a matter of time anyway. Once I’ve decided to kill that bastard, I’ll find a way. A way more than sufficient. Damn it. Do you understand?”
Crack—crack—crack!
A desolate voice mixed with the sound of grinding teeth. Seok Go-jun glared at Go Se-won with eyes that had turned from red to the color of blood itself.
As he leaned his upper body toward the subordinate who had committed an unforgivable sin, a worn necklace slipped out and spun in circles before Go Se-won’s eyes.
“Go Se-won. You ungrateful insect.”
“….”
“At most, a year. Jin Tae-kyung—that one you fear so much—will die by my hand in the end. Whether in Sichuan or Seoul, it doesn’t matter. I’ll kill him in a way no one can detect, just as I did with my master.”
“….”
“Until then, this world is on my side. No one can touch me before I leave this castle. You stupid bastard.”
Ecstasy at the thought of revenge and madness directed at a single person intertwined. Go Se-won, who had been silently watching those turbid eyes, suddenly opened his mouth.
“A year. That’s quite long.”
“What?”
“I don’t know what method the Sub-Guild Master has found… but Jin Tae-kyung won’t wait until then.”
“What, do you think he’ll attack right now?”
“Yes.”
At the brief answer, Seok Go-jun laughed aloud. His face twisted, laughing so hard the office seemed to shake, but then his expression suddenly fell and he parted his lips.
“You idiot. This is the Ares Guild. If we fall forward, we hit the Blue House; if we fall backward, we hit the National Assembly Building. Do you think that bastard would commit such insanity and make the entire world his enemy?”
“Someone I know artificially triggered a Monster Wave, I’ve heard. Why couldn’t Jin Tae-kyung commit madness lesser than that?”
“…!”
“And, Sub-Guild Master.”
Go Se-won let out a laugh he didn’t even realize he was making. He had recalled the facts he’d learned from monitoring Jin Tae-kyung’s every move and investigating his past.
“Jin Tae-kyung is a madman. Didn’t you know?”
“You bastard…!”
The moment Seok Go-jun’s eyes widened.
Boom—boom—boom—boom—boom!
The Ares Guild Headquarters. The high-rise building exceeding one hundred floors trembled.
Beyond the fading roar, Go Se-won’s voice pierced Seok Go-jun’s ears.
“This will likely be my final mission, facing that madman. Thank you for everything until now, Sub-Guild Master. If I survive, I’ll submit my resignation formally.”
Go Se-won bowed deeply, pouring gratitude for all this time and human revulsion into the gesture, then threw open the firmly shut door.
An emergency siren was awakening the Ares Guild.

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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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