Murim Login - Chapter 594

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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 594
Crack!
With that sickening sound of tearing flesh, a sensation I had experienced hundreds, thousands of times before coursed through my fingertips. The feeling of cleaving through muscle and shattering bone.
A sensation I had grown so accustomed to that it sometimes filled me with a bitter emptiness.
Being accustomed to such things meant I had directly taken countless lives with these hands.
But not this time. As I watched the man die, I felt not a shred of that bitterness.
“Kuh… hack!”
A final gasp escaped with the sound of air leaving his lungs. In that same moment, the solidly built man collapsed to his knees.
Thud.
The crimson light that had once seemed so terrifying in his eyes gradually faded, and his entire body trembled faintly before the death descending upon him.
Or perhaps—perhaps what Seok Go-jun truly feared was not death itself, but me, the one delivering it.
“J-Jin Tae-kyung.”
His voice and gaze were fading fast. Yet I felt no pity.
He was not human like me—he was a monster.
Just as we of the Peace Guild had lost Kim Hwa-jong today, thousands of nameless people had to lose their beloved families and friends.
For such madness, an easy death seemed almost unfairly merciful.
“Cough… I can’t… die like this…”
I looked down at Seok Go-jun, convulsing in agony on his knees, my gaze cold as ice.
“Die. A wretch like you doesn’t deserve the air you breathe.”
I had no intention of listening to his drawn-out final words, nor any desire to let him speak them. I wrenched the White Flame piercing his chest free with all my strength.
Splurt!
As the translucent blade was pulled free, blood that hadn’t yet evaporated sprayed forth like a fountain.
Seok Go-jun, with a fist-sized hole torn through his chest, stared up at me blankly before his body slowly tilted.
Splash.
That was the end.
With his face buried in the pool of his own blood, he went still, his eyes wide open.
Looking down at the corpse of the monster who no longer breathed, who no longer held even a spark of life, I suddenly understood.
‘It’s over.’
The disciple who had devoted decades of loyalty to Lee Jung-yong, the true master of one of the world’s most formidable Guilds—the Ares Guild—had died by my hand.
He had artificially triggered two Monster Waves, causing thousands of casualties, and sacrificing Kim Hwa-jong and twenty-odd members of the Peace Guild. Now he had paid the price with his death.
‘This is… truly the end.’
Yet why did my heart feel so hollow, even with my revenge complete? It was as though the hole had been torn not in the dead Seok Go-jun’s chest, but in mine.
Perhaps it was because I knew those who had left my side would never return.
‘Are you still cold? Still shrouded in darkness?’
I turned away, asking a question that would never be answered.
Suppressing the exhaustion and drowsiness that pressed down on my entire body with unbearable weight, I slowly crossed the darkened Corridor, devastated by the fierce battle.
Step.
With each footfall, faces and memories flashed before my eyes.
I saw the collapsing Gwangandaegyo Bridge and heard the screams of terrified people. In the family photo hanging from the rearview mirror of some car, I recalled a promise made long ago with someone I missed endlessly—our pinkies linked together.
‘When Ha-yeon grows a bit more, and when Tae-kyung becomes a middle schooler, let’s go see the Sea again then. Understood?’
‘Really?’
‘Of course. Here, a promise.’
But today, the place where I had cherished that promise deep in my heart crumbled to dust.
Innocent people died, and monsters swept through like a plague. I did my best, yet I couldn’t save more lives.
Thud.
My heart spun as dizzily as my faltering steps. Within that chaos, a warm voice resonated through my mind.
‘It’s not your fault.’
‘…!’
‘You did everything you could.’
Noh Ji-sa, the gray-haired man who had comforted me even as he died, had embarked on a journey from which there was no return.
Whether the place he arrived at was night or day, cold or warm—I had no way of knowing. I could only hope.
That the world there was a little brighter. That he, who had trembled in the cold, would find warmth.
And… that he believed until the end in my lie—that the one person he had wanted to see one last time had come.
Thud.
There is no result without consequence. Someone must pay the price. I believed that to commit a wrong was to invite punishment—such was the natural order.
So I came here. I threw open the gates of the Royal Palace that no one could approach, and I conquered the impregnable fortress.
I fought, and fought, and fought again. And when I finally killed the monster wearing that human mask, my chest suddenly hollowed out, and a single question emerged.
‘What do I do now?’
I thought that if I eliminated Seok Go-jun, the root cause of all this calamity, this rage would fade even slightly. I thought I might even laugh aloud in relief.
But it wasn’t so. With a single gesture, I could create a vast chasm and fill it, yet I could not fill the void in my heart.
It was the same three years ago, and it remains so now.
‘Damn it.’
My mouth tasted bitter. In the end, bearing the wound fell entirely to those left behind.
I even found myself regretting that I had given Seok Go-jun too painless a death.
Thud.
I suddenly stopped in my tracks. An inexplicable sense of wrongness had seized my entire body. A chilling unease crept up my spine like frost.
‘What is this feeling?’
Was it from the extreme exhaustion? Or from the turmoil in my heart? My mind was as hazy as fog.
But moments later, as I stood lost in thought, I finally grasped the nature of that wrongness.
‘Seok Go-jun should be dead. So why….’
Why hadn’t the system notification for the elimination appeared yet?
I had driven the blade through his chest and burned his organs. I had seen and felt him breathe his last, his face pressed into a pool of blood.
“Surely not.”
I muttered low and turned back. The Corridor, devastated by the fierce battle, was shrouded in an unusually dense darkness.
* * *
The System is absolute and immediate.
I had failed to notice the anomaly only because of the extreme exhaustion that came with victory and the deep thoughts that consumed me, but I knew this truth better than anyone.
That’s why I wasn’t greatly shocked to see the pool of blood where Seok Go-jun had lain now empty.
‘He’s alive. Seok Go-jun is alive.’
Of that, at least, I was now certain.
What puzzled me, however, was how such a thing was even possible.
In Area A, there were only Seok Go-jun and me—just the two of us. And he had clearly met death.
With his heart stopped and breathing ceased, even a full immersion in the highest-grade potions would have made resurrection impossible.
‘But how?’
Driven by this question, I began to move, following the traces Seok Go-jun had left behind.
Area A, being a secret zone granted only to a select few, possessed a labyrinthine structure. Yet tracking the blood trail that led in only one direction proved far from difficult.
I crossed the space swiftly, absorbing information from my surroundings.
‘No accomplice. No time or opportunity to cover his tracks.’
The traces he left behind emanated urgency. I could almost see him crawling desperately on all fours, clawing his way forward in desperation. And then….
‘Finally, he rose to his feet. Right here.’
Two footprints, clearly imprinted in blood. The walls bore countless handprints as well.
What on earth was this? Why had he writhed in such agony? And it wasn’t long before I found the answer to that question.
‘That is…’
It was blood.
Not the crimson blood of a human, but droplets of a monster’s blue blood, tinged with an eerie azure hue.
The meaning of such evidence was unmistakable. Staring silently at the monster’s blood on my hand, I unleashed a Divine Technique.
Whoosh!
Between the winds sweeping left and right, I caught the scent of thick blood-musk and a putrid stench. Even amid overwhelming exhaustion, I could sense the presence of someone drawing near.
And when my footsteps entered yet another corridor.
I could finally confirm it with my own eyes.
That creature—so utterly transformed from the last time I’d seen it.
“Seok Go-jun.”
My voice flowed low and hollow from between my lips. At the same moment, the figure staggering through the corridor—no, the ‘monster’—turned to face me.
“Krrgh. Kuurgh.”
Whatever sound it was trying to make was metallic and grating, though that was the least of the horrors before me.
The massive frame towering at four meters, the grotesquely swollen arms and legs—it was grotesque. And the form, as if someone had haphazardly mixed different creatures together, each bearing its own shape and characteristics—it was abominable.
The only thing that retained any semblance of its original form was the human face, half-covered in scales, and the blood-red eyes that gleamed between them.
“Jin…Tae-kyung. Kaarrgh.”
Eyes swirling with fear and hatred fixed upon me. As I scanned the creature from top to bottom, I opened my mouth with disgust.
“You wanted to survive that badly? Even if it meant becoming a monster?”
“Shut…up. This. This wasn’t something I wanted—”
Crack! Snap!
It happened in an instant.
Before Seok Go-jun could finish speaking, as if an invisible hand had moved, his right arm suddenly bent at an unnatural angle, and blue blood erupted forth.
“Krraaaagh!”
A scream of agony. Simultaneously, rapid changes began coursing through Seok Go-jun’s grotesque form.
Squelch. Crackle-crackle!
The thick, scale-covered skin of the monster sealed shut, and the shattered bones snapped back into place like puzzle pieces.
“Gasp. Hah…”
Seok Go-jun gasped for breath, still wracked by lingering pain. And in that moment, I understood how he had come this far.
“A Troll. That’s right?”
“…!”
At my casual remark, the creature’s eyelids trembled violently. Confirmation.
A Troll—needless to say, a monster possessed of overwhelming regenerative abilities.
The Named Monster that had originally owned the S-rank Magic Stone Seok Go-jun absorbed was undoubtedly an extraordinarily powerful Troll.
And….
‘The S-rank Magic Stone he absorbed won’t be limited to just that one.’
I could deduce as much from appearance alone. The grotesquely swollen body and tremendous regenerative power were hallmarks of a Troll, but the scales and hide covering half its form bore the traces of another monster entirely.
‘A mutation. Incarnate.’
Unlike mana, magical power is dark and turbid—a force that corrupts humanity. Having absorbed two S-rank Magic Stones brimming with such tremendous power, discord was inevitable.
“Kugh. I could have. become stronger. But you. You….”
I cut off its words with cold composure.
“You didn’t become stronger. You became something far more grotesque. Look at yourself now.”
“…!”
“You’re a monster beyond monstrosity. Neither a Hunter nor human—merely a wretched creature. That is what you are.”
Thud.
With each word, I advanced. Seok Go-jun, who had been staring at me with wide eyes, let out a scream.
“Don’t come closer. Kugh! Don’t approach!”
“I’m afraid that’s impossible. There’s a monster right before me.”
“This. This can’t be!”
Fear now flooded the blood-crimson irises.
He surely understood as well—that with a body already showing signs of collapse merely by standing still, he could never hope to face me.
Tap-tap-tap!
The moment Seok Go-jun turned and began to flee, I showed no surprise. Gripping the shaft of the Flame Spear in reverse, I hurled it forth.
Screeeech! Boom!
A beam of flame-laden light tore through his legs and drove into the ground. As Seok Go-jun thrashed with screams, flesh and bone rapidly regenerated from the severed edges.
Of course, I was not one to merely watch.
“Go ahead and regenerate. While you still can.”
Thud!
Gathering the last of my strength, I surged forward, trampled his back beneath my heel, and seized both his thick arms, wrenching them.
Crack. Squelch!
Having lost both legs and now both arms, Seok Go-jun shrieked.
Yet I didn’t so much as blink, moving my hands with methodical precision.
Slash! Thrust!
I pulled the spear from the ground and slashed and pierced his body repeatedly. I seared the regenerating wounds with Flame Divine Extension, then tore at them with force.
It was a cruelty I would never have committed in my normal state, yet now I harbored not a shred of hesitation.
Crunch!
Endless regeneration and destruction. And from this cycle of unending agony, it was Seok Go-jun who broke first.
“Kraaaagh! P, please stop!”
His voice hoarse with screams, the creature’s eyes were no longer as crimson as before. The regenerative power that had gradually slowed was now completely stilled.
“P-please… kill me now….”
“I was already planning to.”
So that he could never rise again. This time, with a method far more certain than before.
I met Seok Go-jun’s gaze and continued speaking.
“Whether the place you’re going is Heaven or Hell, go first and wait for me there. When the time comes, I’ll kill you without reservation.”
“…!”
That was all. The last words Seok Go-jun would ever hear in this world.
‘It’s over now.’
I didn’t wait for his response. Without a moment’s hesitation, I drew down the transparent blade.
Schwick! Thud!
With a sharp cutting sound, the head severed from the body rolled across the ground.
This was the end of a monster—one who could never become a hero like Cheon Tae-min, nor a loyal warrior like my master Lee Jung-yong.
Ding.
As the familiar chime pierced my ears, I picked up Seok Go-jun’s head from the pool of blood.
And slowly, with unsteady steps, I crossed this space where only I remained.
I was exhausted.

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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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