Murim Login - Chapter 588

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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 588
That day, the air over South Korea was heavy with unease.
The Monster Waves that had erupted in succession in Busan and Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province had been successfully suppressed, yet they had claimed no small number of lives.
People who had been living through an ordinary day like any other trembled with anxiety upon receiving the shocking news.
“Team Leader, did you see the news?”
“I saw it. That’s why I abandoned my work and came out here.”
“I can’t focus either. What if a Monster Wave erupts near my house or office….”
“Hey, don’t jinx it. Let’s just have a cigarette and forget about it.”
Office workers escaping their suffocating workplaces and heading to cafes, students just finishing classes and heading home, children clinging to their parents wanting to play longer without understanding what was happening, and parents pulling their children along with an ominous feeling in their hearts.
It was an anxious afternoon, and people’s minds were in turmoil. Eyes laden with worry and fear remained fixed on smartphones broadcasting emergency news alerts.
– You are now witnessing the collapsed Gwangandaegyo Bridge. In the nearby waters, the corpse of Kraken, the Named Monster responsible for this Busan Monster Wave, has been….
– The casualty count compiled so far approaches four thousand. Rescue and search operations continue, and the confirmed casualty list can be checked through the [Monster Disaster] application….
– I am currently at Balwang Mountain in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province. With the death of the Named Monster Behemoth, the Monster Wave has been concluded, but approximately seven thousand citizens who visited nearby condominiums and ski resorts remain gripped by anxiety.
– The Pyeongchang Monster Wave resulted in 371 casualties, and among the 45 confirmed deaths, Peace Guild Master Kim Hwa-jong is included, causing great shock….
All of it was gruesome and shocking news. Broadcast networks, cable channels, internet news articles—everywhere was in an uproar as if a hornet’s nest had been stirred.
People on the streets swallowed hard at the sight of the devastatingly collapsed Gwangandaegyo Bridge, and were left speechless by the image of the city drenched in blood.
Catastrophe. It was a sight that could be expressed in only one word.
Yet the media’s spotlight did not shine solely on the damage.
Rather, when discussing the Monster Wave, there was a name that could never be omitted.
– This is an unprecedented situation unprecedented in domestic history since the Great Cataclysm. Two Monster Waves occurring with a two-hour interval caused tremendous damage, but with perfect initial response measures, the chaos was quickly subdued. And remarkably, in the process of suppressing these two Monster Waves, there was one person.
– A young hero who appeared like a comet, an S-rank Hunter named Jin Tae-kyung who defeated two Named Monsters in a single day—his whereabouts are now unknown. Regarding this matter, the Peace Guild has yet to release an official statement….
A hero who quelled the chaos and then vanished without a trace. It was natural that everyone’s attention converged on that keyword.
When the government announced that Jin Tae-kyung’s whereabouts were unknown, within mere minutes, various media outlets were pouring out numerous speculations about him.
Death, disappearance, or even that he had fallen into unconsciousness due to the aftermath of battle.
Most were third-rate media outlets famous for dealing in rumors and hearsay, but the people themselves harbored the same question.
‘Did something really happen to him?’
A man with no reason to disappear had vanished without a trace. Without a single word, without showing his face.
By the time support troops arrived, the young hero had already vanished, and the Peace Guild remained silent with no official statement.
As this news swept through the nation and reached overseas, the questions snowballed into something massive.
And… that enormous snowball, rolling and rolling as it grew, came to a stop in the Building District of Jongno.
Thud.
No one knew when or how he appeared.
But the people hurrying through the densely packed Building District, each preoccupied with their own affairs, realized it.
The person in the profile photo filling the screen of the smartphone they held in their hands had appeared before their very eyes.
Drip. Pitter-patter.
Red and blue.
Drenched in the blood of both human and monster, with each step he took, red and blue blood soaked the pavement beneath his feet.
A towering frame of 190 centimeters and a body in perfect balance advanced slowly, treading through the blood.
“…Jin Tae-kyung?”
Someone’s hollow voice shattered the silence that had suddenly descended.
Yet rather than cheering for the young hero who had finally revealed himself, approaching him closely, pulling out their smartphones to report to the media and take photographs—the crowd fell silent and stopped in their tracks.
Perhaps it was because his eyes, visible between blood-soaked strands of hair, had sunk into a profound abyss.
Thud. Thud.
Each of his footsteps seemed to emanate a deep, bone-weary exhaustion.
Hah.
The white breath escaping between his split lips carried the sorrow of one who had lost someone irreplaceable.
But one thing was certain. Everyone filling the nearby streets instinctively understood it.
That he must not be obstructed.
Whoosh. Swish.
Hundreds of people parted to the left and right.
Instead of a prophet’s staff from mythology, the young man wielding a pristine spear carved through a human tide that seemed created for him alone.
Those who had followed his retreating figure with vacant eyes began to move in his wake.
No one present could explain why, yet all moved as though entranced by something. Hundreds upon hundreds accumulated, thousands upon thousands joined.
The swelling crowd, now numbering in the thousands, walked as if under hypnosis, on and on.
This massive procession, which had begun with a single person’s footsteps and seemed it would never cease, finally halted—because that single person’s footsteps had stopped.
Thud.
The final step.
The young man suddenly lifted his gaze toward the sky.
Five o’clock in the afternoon. An unusually cold, exhausting, and sorrowful January day was slowly fading into twilight, bathed in reddish light.
But not for one person.
‘Now it begins.’
A high-rise building of dizzying height gleamed as the sunset rays stretched westward, illuminating its facade.
Among all its features, the massive letters hanging from its topmost floor reflected in his eyes.
ARES GUILD
An impregnable fortress and a resplendent palace.
How many Hunters could possibly be within these walls? How many enemies would he need to fell to face the one sitting upon that throne?
‘Hundreds? Thousands?’
It mattered not. Whether hundreds or thousands.
The young man, Jin Tae-kyung, murmured beneath the crimson sky.
“This weather’s perfect for settling things.”
Whoosh. Flames the color of sunset coiled around his arm and surged upward. In that moment, the entranced crowd gasped and retreated from the sight.
“I’m here. You bastard.”
Whoooooosh, BOOM!
An unprecedented force shook the high-rise building.
* * *
CRASH!
A tremendous tremor shook all directions. The entire area quaked as though struck by an earthquake.
Spider-web cracks spread across the marble that seamlessly covered the floor, and the ornate and precious artworks adorning the Lobby rained down like a downpour onto the fractured marble.
Crash, BANG!
This was the sight I witnessed the moment I entered the Lobby.
The statue that had just shattered was a plaster cast of some man, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember his name, so I had no choice but to ask someone nearby.
“What was that thing that just broke? I’ve seen it in an art textbook before. Was it Rodin’s The Thinker?”
“…Ah. Y-yes.”
An Ares Guild member—a young man who appeared to be from the Security Team—stammered his words with a frozen expression.
Seeing how pitiful he looked, I changed my question.
“So, what are your personal thoughts on the monster wave that occurred today?”
“Y-yes?”
“Lucky you. Being a low-ranking member who knows nothing.”
And that, quite literally, saved this man’s life.
Whoosh!
With a subtle tearing of air, the finger wind I released struck the man’s pressure point.
As his body went rigid and collapsed, a streak of light tore through the space beyond him.
Screeeech! Crash!
An arrow that grazed my ear shattered the entrance door. A middle-aged man who appeared to be an A-rank Hunter drew his bowstring taut with a hardened expression, aiming at me.
But that wasn’t the only weapon leveled in my direction.
Shhhhk!
Dozens of Security Team members, and hundreds of Hunters filling the lobby, fixed their tense gazes upon me. In their hands were flames and ice, spears and blades, and bows.
A middle-aged Hunter who appeared to be the Security Team Leader spoke in a clipped voice.
“Stand down, Jin Tae-kyung.”
Stand down? Unable to hold back, I let out a hollow laugh and replied.
“That’s going to be difficult.”
“What is the meaning of this?”
“There are many reasons. But I’m not sure you’d believe me if I told you them right now.”
“Jin Tae-kyung. You…!”
I gazed at the people filling the lobby with hollow eyes.
Who should I kill, and who should I spare? Who among them was directly connected to what happened today?
I had to exert all my willpower just to suppress the murderous intent that rose as naturally as breathing.
‘Don’t forget. I am not a monster.’
If I killed everyone here today, I would become a monster. But I wanted to remain human until the very end.
At the very least, I hoped that the innocent would not be unjustly slain for the actions of their superiors.
I believed that was the path for Kim Hwa-jong, for everyone.
“Everyone, let’s keep this calm.”
I met the gaze of hundreds of eyes and spoke a single command.
“Bring Seok Go-jun.”
“…!”
“…!”
An invisible wave of pressure swept through the lobby and across the hundreds of Hunters.
In the air that hummed with tension, I continued slowly.
“Right now.”
The Security Team Leader answered with a rigidly hardened expression.
“That would be difficult.”
“Why?”
“I’ve received orders. Orders to stop Jin Tae-kyung by any means necessary.”
“I see.”
“I don’t know what business brought you here, but leave now while you still can. How many Hunters do you think are inside this building? Inside the Ares Guild’s Guild House?”
“If there are this many in the Lobby alone, there must be close to a thousand total.”
“I’m telling you—if you don’t leave right now, within five minutes at most, everyone in this building will be hunting Jin Tae-kyung.”
I replied calmly.
“I’m telling you—if you don’t drop your weapons and run right now, within five minutes at most, you’ll all be crippled. Remember that.”
“…!”
“So disappear from my sight. I don’t want to turn innocent people into invalids.”
Whoooosh!
A sudden wind swept through the Lobby.
The Security Team Leader gritted his teeth, crushed beneath the overwhelming aura radiating from my entire body.
The courteous tone he’d struggled to maintain vanished into the distance, overwhelmed by pressure beyond imagination.
“Why… why are you going this far?”
“Because I’m a Hunter.”
“What?”
“Seok Go-jun—that bastard is a monster. Hunters don’t need reasons to hunt monsters.”
Since Seok Go-jun wouldn’t have spread word of his own crimes, most of them wouldn’t easily understand what I meant.
But one thing they would certainly grasp.
That standing in my way would not end well.
The Security Team Leader, staring at me with a complicated expression, muttered.
“Damn. Caught by sheer luck.”
“I like your honesty. So, what’s your answer?”
This wasn’t a question directed at just one person.
Conflict flickered in the eyes of two hundred pairs surrounding me—the Security Team Leader’s subordinates.
The hands gripping their weapons trembled slightly.
– Code Red. Code Red. Target: all Ares Guild members. Objective….
Through massive speakers installed throughout the building, someone’s voice resonated thunderously within the high-rise.
– Jin Tae-kyung.
“…!”
“…!”
The air around us vibrated finely.
And in the next instant, I saw it. Conflict vanishing from hundreds of pairs of wide-open eyes, countless beams of light erupting from their hands, becoming a massive flash that dyed everything around us in brilliant radiance.
Kwaaaaaaah!
Red, blue, and white.
I swung a blindingly pure white blade toward that tremendous flash.
Shwaaaaaaack!

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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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