Murim Login - Chapter 741

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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 741
— Damn it. He’s dead.
I had a bad feeling about this.
That brief word I heard through the receiver—my anxiety had proven disturbingly accurate.
— I’m sorry, but you need to come right now. Before this case slips out of our hands, we need to gather as many clues as possible….
“Where is that location?”
There was no time for hesitation.
We moved as quickly as possible along the coordinates Magic Johnson had provided, and after attempting several consecutive long-distance teleports, we arrived at a Snow Mountain painted entirely white.
Crunch.
The eternal snow blanketing the ground crumbled beneath my feet.
The breathtaking vista of the Alps Mountain Range, which I had only ever seen online, now sprawled before my eyes—yet I had no leisure to appreciate the scenery.
And that was…
“Intruder detected!”
The group keeping watch over the area felt precisely the same.
“Halt, halt!”
“Ready weapons!”
Clack clack clack!
Urgent shouts accompanied by gun barrels and blades leveled directly at us.
Just as I stopped in my tracks at the sight of heavily armed soldiers and Hunters, a familiar voice cut through their ranks.
“If you insist on attacking, I won’t stop you, but it might be wise to check the faces of these intruders first—for your own sake.”
“One more step and we fire… Mr. Johnson?”
“Don’t act rashly, Colonel. They’re my invited guests.”
A large Black man wearing a beret brushed past the middle-aged commander and stood before us.
Exhaustion and sorrow hung heavily across his face.
After weeks—no, months—I finally saw Magic Johnson again, and he greeted us with a weary smile.
“It’s been a while, friends. How have you been?”
I grimaced and grasped the hand he extended firmly.
“Not well at all.”
* * *
“Who are all those people outside? There seemed to be an equal mix of soldiers and Hunters.”
“Swiss Federal Police. This area falls under their jurisdiction, and I contacted them to avoid being suspected as a murder suspect for being the first to discover the body. Come along.”
Choi Team Leader, Skeleton King, and I followed Magic Johnson.
As we passed between soldiers and Hunters watching us with eyes full of both anxiety and curiosity, then entered a forest thick with snow, I felt a strangely familiar sensation wash over me.
‘This is…’
I closed my eyes and focused my mind. As I slowly extended my hand, I could feel an invisible ripple amidst the fierce snowstorm.
“Mana?”
Magic Johnson nodded at my murmur.
“A barrier. So secretive that even an ordinary S-rank Hunter wouldn’t notice it, and equally perfect.”
His explanation was fact without a shred of exaggeration.
Even Skeleton King only became aware of the barrier’s existence after hearing those words.
“For human craftsmanship, it’s quite impressive. However, it falls far short of deceiving my keen eye. You see, I am no mere S-rank Hunter, but rather an exceptionally superior….”
“Monster.”
“….”
The Skeleton King fell silent, his demeanor deflating.
Having quieted him with a single word, I gazed upon the barrier spread before me and recalled a memory not so distant.
‘It’s similar.’
Just as certain martial techniques leave distinctive traces, so too does magic.
I observed the flow of mana as clear as a fingerprint and became certain.
‘Without a doubt. That sensation from Area A.’
As if reading the thought that had suddenly crossed my mind, Magic Johnson, whose gaze met mine, opened his mouth.
“Since before this incident, I’ve been searching for people connected to Area A at your request. But among those I know, there’s only one person who comes to mind.”
I now knew who he was—the great Archmage and the designer of Area A.
And I also knew that he had announced his retirement more than a decade ago and vanished from public view.
“I never expected him to be staying in a place like this, but have you been in separate contact with That Person?”
“Not at all. He was such an eccentric, and his nature was quite reclusive.”
Magic Johnson replied to Choi Team Leader’s question and added one more thing.
“But he was a friend. The kind of friend who could share hints about a refuge where he might one day stay.”
A faint whooshing sound.
Mana intertwined with mana, and the blizzard ceased with a brilliant white flash.
No—the landscape around us had changed.
From the vast snowy plain into a labyrinthine, enormous cave.
“Follow me. Magic involving spatial displacement cannot be manifested within here.”
We moved following Magic Johnson and conversed as we went.
And as one might expect, the current situation was not proceeding smoothly for Magic Johnson either.
“As you’ve seen from the news, our L.A. Branch was hit. Though it’s located on the outskirts of the city, the surrounding foot traffic is so heavy that we couldn’t prevent casualties.”
Magic Johnson is both a great Archmage and the master of the massive Wizard Guild.
Though he had already fallen in the rankings several years ago and now holds the lowest position, the Wizard Guild was once among the world’s top ten guilds.
Yet even the Wizard Guild, with its countless Mages, and Magic Johnson himself could not prevent the meticulously planned terror that unfolded in a flash.
“By the time I arrived, it was already too late. After that, I was swamped dealing with the aftermath.”
I didn’t bother asking what had kept him so busy.
Everyone present already knew the reason anyway.
The so-called “Vigilante Group Incident”—the suppression of Middle Eastern terrorists and African rebel forces.
The incident that served as both the pretext and medium for this terror attack drew reproachful gazes from the public, and Magic Johnson, who had been one of the Vigilante Group members, could not escape that criticism.
No, everyone was the same.
It was simply that I was the one who had taken the heaviest and most powerful blow wielded by the media.
“I apologize.”
“What?”
“I felt I should at least offer an apology. If I hadn’t stepped forward with such a proposal, then the worldwide condemnation we face now….”
“Damn it. What are you talking about?”
Magic Johnson suddenly stopped walking and shook his head firmly.
“Listen, Jin. That’s not your fault. You don’t owe me an apology for it. Understood?”
“Of course, but…”
“Let me ask you one thing. If you could go back to that moment, what would you choose? Would you have left them alone?”
The deliberation didn’t last long.
It was a question I’d thought through countless times in that lightless room, turning it over again and again.
“Not at all.”
“And those two?”
Choi Team Leader and Skeleton King exchanged glances before opening their mouths in near unison.
“Nothing would change. If anything, I would have dealt with them even more thoroughly.”
“This one would have absolutely slain that wretch called The Prophet.”
“Good. A clear answer has emerged.”
At the two different yet identical responses, Magic Johnson shrugged his shoulders.
“And I’m saying this just to be safe, but I don’t regret that incident one bit, no matter what people say about it. The same goes for Chuck Haigl, even though he’s not here right now.”
Chuck Haigl.
I could vividly picture him—suffering from withdrawal symptoms yet still pounding terrorists into submission.
According to what Choi Team Leader had briefly mentioned on the way here, he too was facing considerable difficulties.
“How is Chuck doing these days?”
“Not well.”
“That was a quick answer.”
“Because it’s the truth. The external pressure coming from all sides is considerable. At this rate, it wouldn’t be surprising if he were removed from his position as Secretary of Defense within a short time.”
Choi Team Leader responded in a measured tone.
“It seems the pressure is strong enough that even the President cannot shield him.”
“Your situation is different. Chuck Haigl is a high-ranking government official of a nation—specifically, the Secretary of Defense of the United States of America. Even if our actions were tacitly approved by the President, that only matters if they remain undiscovered.”
“But it has been revealed to the entire world. And directly by that terrorist called The Prophet, no less.”
“…Yes. Thanks to that damned traitor.”
This entire affair had been carried out with the President’s tacit approval.
Therefore, our mission as a Vigilante Group should never have been revealed to the world.
The reason I could act so boldly in this modern age, burdened with so many constraints, was precisely because of that trust.
Disruption of satellite surveillance systems and the destruction of all related data.
Yet information about us leaked as if on purpose, and I clearly remembered what Michael Silbert had said to me atop the ruins of Paris.
‘Let me give you one piece of advice. There are no perfect secrets in this world. Not even in the Pentagon.’
The United States remained the world’s foremost superpower, and the Pentagon was the Defense Ministry building boasting the most impenetrable security in all of America.
Yet even from within that Pentagon, a matter treated as top secret had leaked to the outside.
And so easily at that.
But…
‘If it’s him, there’s nothing surprising about it.’
I was accepting reality with remarkable composure.
Because the opponent was Michael Silbert. Stronger than any Hunter I’d ever encountered, and far more insane than that.
And on top of that, there was that enigmatic madman called The Prophet.
‘An ordinary person couldn’t even attempt such a thing. No—no human could.’
There exists a spectrum even to evil.
In that sense, their actions had long since crossed that line into the abyss.
Thousands had already perished, and over ten times that number lay wounded.
Not every crime committed across the globe over the past week—including the day the L.A. Branch fell—could be attributed to them, yet their influence was undeniably profound.
Fear paralyzes reason and summons forth madness in its wake.
Alongside ten waves of terror accompanied by Monster Waves, the mana distribution map climbed ever more steeply, and now dozens of Byeon Yi Gate phenomena erupted each day.
Gripped by terror, some had already begun uttering the word “apocalypse.”
With crosses fastened to their waists and microphones in hand, they cried out for divine mercy in the streets with all their might.
Just as their parents had done so very long ago.
But I did not seek God.
They were not demons but mere humans, and I was prepared to strike them down.
There was only one problem, however.
‘One of the threads connected to them had snapped so pathetically.’
With a bitter taste settling in my mind, I halted my steps.
The serpentine, winding passage of the Cave had come to an end.
And what awaited us at that terminus was the corpse of a single person.
A mummified cadaver—the bones and skin of the entire body desiccated and shriveled.
“…What in the world.”
The moment Choi Team Leader’s voice reached my ears, uttered like a groan.
Ding.
― A new Quest has been generated!
The clear chime of a bell rang out with an ominousness unlike any before.

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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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