Murim Login - Chapter 18

The atmosphere was becoming worse.

“The important truth is that the one-on-one fight was justified!”

“Justified? Do we justify the use of poison now? Are we the Sichuan Tang Clan¹ now?”

“He said himself that he didn’t do it! Also, like the doctor said, Lee So Geun was fine when he was in the infirmary…”

“Of course the Third Master would say that he didn’t do it. Also, how can you believe that quack?”

“Quack? This bastard!”

At that minute, a loud voice came into my ears.

“If needed, we should at least offer the Third Master’s head to stop the war!”

… What?

“What kind of absurd talk is that!”

“Are my words wrong? Let’s just admit it. Mount Heng Sword Sect is stronger than us. If the war starts, hundreds of people will die, and in the worst situation, our Sect will be exterminated. If we hand over the Third Master, then all of this would be over!”

Are those words or farts. My chest felt stuffy from hearing the bullshit that was coming out of their mouths. But there was someone who intervened before I could.

“What did you say just now?”

Even though his voice was low, there was strength behind it. Actually because it was said so quietly, his words were heard more clearly.

It was Jin Huikyung. He looked around him with an impassive face.

“Whose. Head. Was. That?”

With one syllable cutting off after another, the room became frosty. Even my body felt chilly in that kind of atmosphere, the White Tiger Captain opened his mouth.

“Of course the perpetrator of this event is the Third Master… Ah.”

That bastard didn’t have any hair, but it looks like he didn’t have any sense² either. Even though the White Tiger Captain made a slip of the tongue, it was already too late.

“So, we’re offering the Third Master’s head to the Mount Heng Sword Sect on something we haven’t even actually confirmed yet? Is that something a Sect Captain should say?”

“No, that’s not what I meant when…”

The White Tiger Captain got pushed down by Jin Huikyung’s force and avoided his gaze. Jin Huikyung silently looked at the White Tiger Captain. It was scarier to watch because someone who doesn’t usually get angry was getting angry.

Looking at the White Tiger Captain’s face, it felt like 10 years of my congestion was going down. Jin Huikyung stood up from his seat and stared down at everyone with a harsh face.

“Everyone already knows.”

Jin Huikyung looked at everyone around him and firmly said.

“The one-on-one fight was conducted fairly and that Lee So Geun’s poisoning is a conspiracy. Everyone already knew this but because of your fear, you guys want to submit to them?”

All the Elders avoided each other’s gazes. Jin Huikyung said even more firmly.

“I don’t know who poisoned him, but Mount Heng Sword Sect are holding the sword of justification. Today, tomorrow. If not, they may have already pulled it out but it’s too late for us to turn back now. There’s only one way. We’ll need to fight.”

“…”

“You want to live? You want to protect the Sect? If you feel that way, prepare your warriors and prepare for war. If not, hand over my head and my brother’s over to them. It’s not a bad solution if all you want is fame and fortune.”

Suffocating silence occupied the conference room.

In the next moment, if one person didn’t open their mouth then the suffocating silence would have lasted forever.

“How excellent.”

A man who, until now, had just sat there and watched.

The Head Elder.

—

The Head Elder.

He was a person of interest. The Sect’s greatest senior and also the Head of the Elders.

I thought of what Jin Huikyung said to me previously in a sound technique.

‘He told me to be careful.’

The NPC Jin Huikyung was my greatest ally and advisor.

I didn’t listen to his words vainly, and kept an eye on the Head Elder.

And also, came to a conclusion.

‘Fuck, I have no idea.’

After I started this crappy game, if someone were to ask me to count the number of NPCs I’ve met, I felt like it would number over a hundred.

They each had their own individual expressions and personalities. The servant I met at the brothel had a salesman smile, the warrior who dropped me off had a kind of clumsiness, and the seniors I met at the Sect were unexpectedly innocent and had a radical side to them.

However the Head Elder…

‘I can’t read his expression.’

He had a strange smile on his face and was simply watching everything that was happening.

When the interrogation started he had that strange smile on his face, when everyone was shouting and also at this moment too.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

The sounds of the Head Elder clapping filled the room.

“I thought you were just young, but it looks like the Clan Leader has become a confident Murim-in. Wonderful. It needs to be that way so that we can call you a Clan Leader.”

“I apologize for showing you something unsightly.”

“Too much humility can be seen as arrogant. There’s no need for the Clan Leader to apologize.”

At the Head Elder’s compliments, Jin Huikyung’s face was as stiff as always.

“This old man wants to add something, what does the Clan Leader think?”

“I shall listen carefully.”

Everyone looked his way, as the Head Elder slowly rose up from his seat.

He was the highest senior in the Sect. Based on authority, he could even be beyond Jin Huikyung.

The biggest problem was on the other hand, that influential person was the Head of the Elders.

‘Shit, it’s become fucked.’

In this worst possible situation, I slowly started to move my body towards the door, when the Head Elder spoke his first words.

“It’s rotten.”

Huh?

I turned my head around. Like always, the Head Elder had the same strange smile on his face. Did I hear wrong?

But I didn’t.

“Even animals will join forces against an enemy. But the Sect seniors are suggesting that we offer up the head of the direct line of the family in order to stop a war. Haha. And you’re telling me that these kinds of bastards are sitting here in the meeting.”

“Lǎ-lǎoyé. It’s a misunderstanding. That is…”

“Captain.”

At the cold face of the Head Elder, the White Tiger Captain’s face became tense.

“Was my trip abroad too long? If not, maybe it’s because I left my seat empty for too long?”

“Lǎ-lǎoyé.”

If I were to just look at his expression, he looked like an old man who was asking someone if they had water at a gym but his words were cold.

‘What is this.’

What was happening? Why was he on our side?

Even though I looked around the room, everyone else’s reactions were the same as mine. On either side, everyone looked taken aback.

“What do you think. Clan Leader?”

“What do you mean?”

“If we are to go into war, it is important to take care of things internally first. So wouldn’t it be a priority to cut off their heads?”

In the chilly atmosphere, Jin Huikyung just gazed at the Head Elder for a long moment and then just sighed, while responding.

“We cannot do that.”

Whew. The White Tiger Captain let out a sigh of relief. I thought it was too bad, considering just a moment ago he was talking about offering my head.

… Should I try suggesting that we just kill him.

“Not only did they insult the direct family line, but they also insisted on handing it over to the enemy, don’t you think we’re treating them too softly?”

“They have been loyal to the Sect for a long time. I will think that they were words spoken out of excitement.”

The Head Elder laughed at Jin Huikyung’s response.

“A slip of the tongue, a slip of the tongue you say. Right. The Clan Leader’s bowl is bigger than I thought.³ Indeed Clan Leader. If so, I won’t hold them accountable. I’d like to thank the Clan Leader for forgiving their slip of the tongue.”

As the Head Elder bent his head, the other people in the room bent over and waved their hands in a hurry.

“Aigoo. Lǎoyé. No. It’s our fault.”

“Please don’t do this.”

“If you do this, we shall be even more embarrassed. Please…”

“Lǎoyé!”

They sure were overreacting when it was Jin Huikyung who saved them. They were really putting on a show, a show.

It was at that minute when I was watching.

‘Wait, hold on. Show?’

I felt an unknown feeling all over my body. I looked at the people surrounding the Head Elder. And realized.

The ones who were talking about me earlier. And the slight smiles on their faces.

‘Don’t tell me…’

It was all a plan? All of it?

For what intention, for what reason? Multiple questions rose and disappeared in my head. My mind was in chaos.

‘I wonder what Jin Huikyung knows?’

I didn’t even need to turn my head. Because the Head Elder was holding Jin Huikyung’s hand and was shouting.

“The space that the Patriarch has left behind, the Clan Leader should be seen as basically the Patriarch. In this event, I shall support the Clan Leader. If we support him, no matter how amazing those fools are, they won’t be able to covet the sect!”

The heated atmosphere, the chants and shouts of the people.

Where did I see this before, for some reason it felt familiar.

Also.

“Thank you.”

The moment I saw the shaking smile of Jin Huikyung and the Head Elder’s mysterious smile, I realized what the familiar feeling was.

An election campaign.

I could see the image of a politician on TV overlapping with the Head Elder’s appearance.

—

Even though it didn’t feel great, after the Head Elder held Jin Huikyung’s hands, the rest of the meeting proceeded smoothly.

The elder’s persistance about the one-on-one fight went away, and the rest of the meeting was about the war.

“What is the number of available people that we have?”

“If we call back the people currently outside… it’s a little more than 200.”

It’s about 200 people? At the large amount, I opened my mouth in admiration but closed it shut again as the talks continued.

“What about if we were only to select First-Rate Murim-ins?”

“It is less than twenty. Of course if we were to include the people in this room, the number might be different.”

Including the three master seniors in the room, it was a little more than 40.

Even though I didn’t know the current situation, I felt like it was a good number of people.

It really was a deep-rooted prestigious family. The power of a 200 year old family wasn’t for nothing.

“What about Mount Heng Sword Sect?”

“First, the minimum number of confirmed warriors is at least 300.”

300. Only the minimum was a difference of 100.

But it was okay. The number of heads in a fight…

“And the number of First-Rate warriors is at least fifty.”

This war, it was hard. But still, it seemed doable with masters like Jin Huikyung and Hui Peng. Because they were NPCs that had high enough levels that I couldn’t even read with Qi Sense. And the Head Elder was probably the same.

“The peak masters of the Sect include the Clan Leader, Lǎoyé and Hui Peng, which would make it three. For Mount Heng Sword Sect, they currently have five peak masters.

… I can’t because it feels like a beggar. Really.

‘What? Deep-rooted prestigious family? A 200 year history?’

What did these bastards do for 200 years. Listening, Mount Heng Sword Sect’s history wasn’t even 30 years, in terms of power they crushed us, crushed.

‘Did they go through the black plague last year.’

Even if they went through the black plague or not, it felt like I would go insane right now. As I stared up at the ceiling of the conference room, I made a resolution.

‘I need to escape.’

It should be enough if I left at about 4 in the morning. I just need to run far away while everyone was still sleeping.

If it was me right now, I could probably get defeat five or six people at Jang Sam’s level.

If I looked around every mountain I saw, my experience and fame…

“A carrier pigeon from Mount Heng—Mount Heng Sword Sect has arrived!”

It was the shout of a warrior who burst into the room.

They opened the roll of paper and spread it out and words that looked like they were written in blood came into my sight.

It was writing I could read, even without the system translating it for me.

不俱戴天.

‘Mortal enemy.⁴‘

Enemies who weren’t able to live together under one sky.

Jin Huikyung spoke with a heavy expression on his face.

“As of this time, our Sect is in war. Without my approval, regardless of their status, it is important that we prohibit entry and to remain alert. Do not let a single ant in. Do you understand!”

“Yes!”

“…”

The system alarm rang in my ears.

Ring.

… Haha. Hahahaha.

1. According to Google, the Sichuan Tang Clan (四川唐門) is a famous martial arts clan that specializes in poison.
2. The word they use is ‘눈치’ or ‘nunchi’. There isn’t really a corresponding English word but it basically means the ability to gauge someone’s mood or to be quick-witted, basically. There is a Wiki article that explains more about the concept.
3. Unsure if I translated this right. I think it’s a Korean saying/idiom?
4. Or archenemy, sworn enemies, etc.