Murim Login - Chapter 304
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I will re-publish the earlier chapters to fix those issues with the translation. I apologize in advance if it did not meet your standard. Please comment the chapters you find that is lacking in quality so I can fix them ASAP. Thanks for understanding!
Current re-published chapters (270 - 305)
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The office, with all lights dimmed, was completely dark as the hologram began to play. I suddenly felt as though I was on the scene.
‘This place…’
The surroundings were entirely gray, with visibility reduced to almost nothing. Only when I saw the large wings of an eagle barely brush past did I realize where the footage began.
The sky.
The drone capturing all this footage quickly descended, avoiding the thick clouds of fine dust filling the atmosphere.
Whoooosh.
As it sliced through the harsh winds and descended, the sight that finally came into view was a city engulfed in flames.
BOOM! RUMBLE!
“Aaah!”
“Run for your lives!”
Factories that had been spewing black smoke were exploding in a chain reaction. Tall buildings were collapsing like dominoes, and tiny figures of people were screaming as they ran in all directions.
Chaos.
The number of people was too many to count.
The camera only captured a fraction of them, but even that was thousands of people. Adding those not caught on camera, the number could easily be in the tens of thousands.
“What the hell…”
A sigh escaped me without realizing it. Was this because of a factory explosion?
No. It was because of the creatures roaming the maze-like city, bringing destruction and death wherever they went.
“Groooowl!”
“Raaaawr!”
Massive bodies. Beasts with strength and agility that could only be described as monstrous.
Their eyes gleamed with killing intent as they scanned their surroundings before howling and moving to find their next target.
‘Why are monsters there?’
The question was brief, and I quickly found the answer myself.
There was only one possible explanation for a scene like this.
‘A Monster Wave.’
During the Great Cataclysm, the Gates served as portals connecting Earth to another dimension called the Demon Realm.
However, after the Demon King Asmodeus was vanquished, the power of monsters waned, and the Gates became portals that only humans could freely traverse.
But if the mana within the Gate exceeded its containment threshold, the situation would change.
‘When a dam breaks, the water floods out.’
That was what caused a Monster Wave, and it was what we were seeing in the hologram footage.
“Screeeech!”
“Somebody help…!”
THUD!
The camera zoomed in on the carnage happening in the heart of the city.
Monsters wreaking havoc and slaughtering humans without restraint, while helpless people were being torn apart.
Some were impaled by the claws of monsters, while others were trampled to death by the panicked crowds.
Amidst the chaos, a mother and daughter desperately fleeing caught the camera’s attention.
“Hold on tight to my hand, Bingbing!”
The woman cried out in a panic.
WHOOOSH! STAB!
A spear hurled from a dark alley pierced the woman’s chest, pinning her to the ground.
Blood gushed from her mouth as her body slumped lifelessly.
Seeing her mother die before her eyes, the child began to cry.
“Mommy!”
But it wasn’t over yet. From the dark alley emerged a horde of over a hundred orcs, all advancing towards the child.
They strategically blocked the path of fleeing citizens.
One orc, seemingly the leader, raised its axe and swung it down towards the crying child.
SWOOSH! SLASH!
“Ugh?”
The leader stared at its arm in confusion.
The thick arm that had been holding the axe was now severed cleanly below the elbow. Before the monster could react, a man appeared in front of it.
“How dare you touch the people of China, you filthy monster?”
The man swung a dazzling aura blade, slicing through the orc’s neck. Before the head could even hit the ground, the man’s voice thundered.
“Public Security Armed Forces!”
“Yes, sir!”
A resounding response.
The man was not alone. Hunters from the Public Security Armed Forces, each wearing armor emblazoned with the five stars of the Chinese flag, were joining the battle.
With burning eyes, the man shouted,
“Kill every last one of those foul creatures!”
“For the people!”
SHING! SHING! SHING!
With a mighty roar, a thousand Hunters charged forward.
Despite the enormous damage they had suffered during the Great Cataclysm, China still boasted a population of over a billion people.
While the individual strength of their Hunters might vary, the sheer number they could deploy was unmatched globally.
“Crush them all!”
“For the People’s Republic of China!”
A thousand Hunters moving as one.
But the monsters, who had been rampaging through the city, were not just going to stand by and watch. As the creatures gathered, their numbers easily surpassed a thousand.
“Roooar!”
“SKREEEEE!”
Monsters and humans. Humans and monsters.
Two unstoppable forces clashed in a confrontation that filled the office with an overwhelming sense of tension, despite it being just a hologram.
The drone captured the scene from above as the two groups rapidly closed in on each other.
500 meters, 300 meters, 100 meters…
Just as the deafening noise reached its peak and they were about to collide—
“Burn to ashes in the flames of destruction. Fire Rain.”
A cold, lifeless voice.
At the same moment, the ashen sky began to crack.
Kiiiiiiing.
It was a sight unlike anything I had ever seen before.
Only about 30 meters away from the drone, the sky seemed to peel away like a thin layer of skin.
From the swirling vortex of black energy emerged a massive ball of fire.
FWOOOSH!
The Chinese Hunters, who had stopped in their tracks without realizing it, stared blankly at the scene.
“This… can’t be real.”
“This must be a nightmare.”
But sadly for them, everything they were seeing was real.
The giant sphere of fire, dozens of meters in diameter, split into four pieces. Each of the four pieces fragmented into dozens, and those dozens into hundreds.
Then, the fiery rain fell upon the earth.
WHOOOOOM. BOOOOOM!
The explosion painted the surroundings red.
As the drone, caught in the shockwave, finally regained its balance, the being responsible for this destruction was staring directly at it.
“A human device.”
A voice devoid of any inflection or emotion.
A robed figure, with a strange symbol etched onto the fabric, pointed a bony finger at the drone.
“Kill them all and take everything. Those who trespass into my territory must pay the price with their lives.”
CRACKLE!
As the gnarled, tree-like finger moved, the footage filled with static and cut off.
Along with it, the ashen sky filled with dust and the apocalyptic landscape vanished, leaving the office in a heavy silence.
I was the first to speak.
“What the hell is that bastard?”
“The one who caused this Monster Wave. But calling it the ‘culprit’ might be misleading since it’s not human.”
Team Leader Choi’s voice was grave as he continued.
“A Named Monster. A Lich. That’s what it is.”
A Lich.
A fallen archmage. The apex predator among the countless undead creatures.
After the Great Cataclysm, it had vanished without a trace, only to reappear now, causing a catastrophe to celebrate its return after decades.
As Team Leader Choi unplugged the USB, he added,
“November 5th. Exactly ten days ago, this footage was captured by a reconnaissance drone from the Chinese Intelligence Agency near a small city in Nanchong, Sichuan Province. The estimated number of casualties so far is around 300,000. The exact number is still unknown.”
Sichuan Province.
To me, it was more familiar as the location of Qingcheng and Emei of the Nine Schools Alliance, and the Tang Clan, one of the Five Great Families.
Of course, Murim was a completely different world with a Chinese facade, and the hologram showed a massive disaster.
“300,000?”
“Yes.”
“This is insane…”
“And that’s just the estimate within the first 24 hours after the wave began.”
Chills ran down my spine.
Three hundred thousand in just one day. Had humanity ever suffered such losses from a Monster Wave since the Great Cataclysm?
“Are Liches usually this powerful?”
My question was directed not at Team Leader Choi but at Butler Kim. He was the only one among us who had experienced the Great Cataclysm, and his eyes were trembling with unease.
“Of course not. The Liches I saw during the Great Cataclysm were undoubtedly powerful beings, but… that one is on a completely different level. The fire magic alone gave me chills.”
Butler Kim was an A-rank mage specializing in fire magic.
If someone who had survived through the Great Cataclysm said that, it meant the Lich this time was an incredibly powerful entity.
‘Where the hell did a creature like that come from?’
The images of the burning city and the people falling in pools of blood flashed before my eyes. The massive rain of fire that scorched the land was nothing short of a disaster.
I recalled the Lich’s declaration directed at the camera in the final moments.
“Kill them all and take everything. Those who trespass into my territory must pay the price with their lives.”
No one else would have understood, but I did.
Thanks to the [Universal Language Pack] that’s part of the system, I heard and understood every word it said.
This ruthless undead monster wouldn’t be satisfied with just one small city.
Three hundred thousand dead in one day? Given the power it displayed, the death toll could easily be ten times that by now.
“Shit…”
I’m not a fan of China, but no one could be heartless enough to smile at such a catastrophe.
The memory of those helpless people dying, the little girl crying over her dead mother, made my stomach churn with bitterness. Just then, a thought struck me.
Wait a minute.
Something about this didn’t add up. A disaster of this magnitude had occurred ten days ago, and yet the world seemed unaware. And more importantly…
‘How did Team Leader Choi get this information?’
If it were the Ares Guild, or if it were Lee Jung-ryong himself, I could understand. They are one of the top guilds in the world, with exceptional intelligence capabilities.
But Team Leader Choi? He’s just a team leader in a mid-sized guild. If he knew, it would already be breaking news worldwide, with every news outlet talking about the Sichuan disaster.
‘There’s something going on here.’
I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Everyone else in the room was giving Team Leader Choi the same questioning look.
He noticed the atmosphere and responded.
“A week ago, I received an unexpected call.”
It was the day of Hayeon’s college entrance exam.
That day, Team Leader Choi had spent a long time staring at his phone before excusing himself, saying something urgent had come up.
“A call from China, I assume?”
He nodded.
“Yes. To be more precise, it was a direct request addressed to one individual in particular. They wanted him to get involved in this situation.”
“And… that person was specifically me? The Chinese government requested me?”
“Yes. They specifically asked for you.”
“Who asked for me?”
Team Leader Choi took a deep breath before revealing the name.
“Xiao Yang.”
“What?”
“Xiao Yang?”
“Sir, are you serious?”
At the mention of that name, everyone in the room reacted with shock. And I was no exception.
Gawking at Team Leader Choi with wide eyes, I managed to stammer out a response.
“X-Xiao Yang requested me?”
“Yes.”
“But… who is Xiao Yang?”
The room fell silent as everyone stared at me like I’d grown a second head.
Seriously, what’s with the looks? I mean, I can’t be expected to know everything, right?
After a long, tense silence, Team Leader Choi finally spoke.
“Xiao Yang is the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.”
“The what now?”
“The General Secretary! The head of state, the President of China!”
Holy… crap.