Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 237

It all started with a raid on Inagawa’s drug dealers.

Knock knock—

“Who is it?”

“Delivery.”

“Delivery?”

The man opened the door without suspicion.

But when he opened it, what greeted him wasn’t a deliveryman.

“You are «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» under emergency arrest for drug trafficking and manufacturing.”

“Ah, fuck! Run!”

“Stay where you are!!”

The visitor was the police.

Acting on a tip, the Japanese police simultaneously arrested Inagawa’s drug dealers at several locations.

The informant?

Of course, it was the Sumiyoshi side.

Watching the drug dealers being led away, Su-ho commented,

“It’s real.”

“Of course it’s real,”

Hiro nodded.

Surprisingly, Sumiyoshi knew the locations of all of Inagawa’s illegal businesses.

That was due not only to Sumiyoshi’s intelligence network but also because they shared the same city—Tokyo—so they had detailed knowledge.

‘They’d all kept quiet out of professional courtesy, since they were feeding from the same trough...’

But that was no longer necessary.

Even with all this, the one thing the yakuza feared most—war—wasn’t going to happen.

And with that, anonymous tips about Inagawa’s various criminal activities, big and small, began flooding in. Inagawa was thrown into chaos trying to respond to the sudden wave of police crackdowns.

Receiving the report, Hiro grinned.

“Well then, shall we move on to the next step?”

“What’s the next step?”

“We’ve filed all the illegal business reports and tipped off every ongoing crime, so now it’s time to extract someone from the inside.”

“Someone from the inside?”

“A big, solid move. For example, the chairman’s secretary?”

“What?”

Of course it was Hiro.

No matter how modern Sumiyoshi claimed to be, in the end, he was a man without blood or tears.

The headhunting happened quickly.

Naturally.

With the two biggest weapons the yakuza relied on—violence and cash—drying up, Inagawa had almost no means to respond.

The secretary had to survive, too.

So he agreed to Sumiyoshi’s offer.

‘Being the chairman’s secretary actually makes him the easiest to bring over. No one knows the internal workings better than the secretary.’

Of course, they didn’t stop at just bringing him in.

In exchange for rescuing him from a collapsing job, the secretary began to leak Inagawa’s secrets—intel even Sumiyoshi hadn’t known.

Using the information acquired from the secretary, Sumiyoshi launched another round of attacks against Inagawa.

As a result, Inagawa, once the third-ranked guild in Japan, rapidly sank into irrelevance.

But the final blow came with the emergency arrest of Inagawa’s chairman, Inagawa Seiro.

And with that, Inagawa completely disbanded.

From that point on, it was up to others.

“I’ll be counting on you.”

“Yes, leave this place to me.”

Su-ho entrusted the follow-up to Ion, who had come over to Japan.

He didn’t forget to introduce him to Hiro.

Of course, Su-ho still owed Hiro a few more sparring matches, but that wasn’t anything difficult.

Thinking about what he stood to gain, Su-ho was more than willing to offer a sparring session whenever requested.

‘There’s a lot to gain in Japan during this time.’

Truthfully, Su-ho considered requesting a few gates to clear while he was in Japan.

But using overseas gates was still a cumbersome process, so he held back.

‘I also don’t want to look like I’m begging Hiro.’

So instead, he chose to create a different kind of memory.

Without telling Hiro or Ion, Su-ho headed to Yokohama, near Tokyo.

Following a vague recollection, he arrived at the familiar address and confirmed he had come to the right place.

‘Let’s wait, then.’

Arriving at his destination, Su-ho passed the time slowly in a nearby café.

After a while—

Su-ho’s mana detection picked up a significant presence.

‘She’s here.’

He folded the newspaper he had been reading and returned it to the café owner.

Then he casually walked toward his true destination—a luxurious high-rise condo.

It was tall.

But that didn’t matter.

Su-ho activated a skill.

[ Mistform has been activated. ]

Turning into mist, Su-ho gently floated upward toward the upper floors of the condo.

Then he slipped through an open air vent.

Fssshhhh—

As he entered the apartment through the ventilation, he heard the sound of water running.

Someone was showering.

Knowing the resident was in the shower, Su-ho deactivated Mistform.

Judging by the mana signature, he had found the right place.

He looked around for the resident’s belongings.

Fortunately, he quickly found a wallet nearby and confirmed the ID inside.

The name on the ID was “Suzuki Endo.”

‘Bingo.’

Yeah.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Not many people in this area have mana that strong.

At first, he had thought about just heading back to Korea.

But since he’d come this far, even if he couldn’t clear a gate, he could at least check in on an old enemy, right?

While waiting for her at the café, he’d wrestled with the thought for quite some time.

How could he make this reunion... entertaining?

But of all things, she had to be in the shower.

‘It’d be pretty awkward if our first meeting after regression got me labeled a pervert.’

That’s why, just in case, he’d changed his face—but it seemed it didn’t really matter.

While looking around the apartment, Su-ho found something interesting in her study.

‘This’ll do nicely.’

What he discovered in the study?

Poisons.

Poisons that Suzuki herself had collected or created.

Of course she’d be into this kind of hobby—she was basically a witch.

Su-ho began gathering up her precious poisons.

Among them was a prototype of the All-Poison, which she had been actively researching.

It wasn’t hard to identify the All-Poison.

Compared to the other poisons on display, it was treated with almost sacred reverence.

So Su-ho, instead of taking the whole thing, only took exactly half the contents of the bottle.

That way, it would raise suspicion.

‘She’s gonna wonder why someone took only half instead of all of it.’

He planned to tease her about it later.

He was already looking forward to the look on Suzuki’s face when she discovered her poisons had been stolen.

And so, after this non-reunion reunion, Su-ho used Shadow Step and returned to Korea.

Much later, after her shower and drying off, Suzuki hummed a tune as she entered her study to admire her collection—

“...Huh?”

Suzuki couldn’t believe her eyes.

Just before she’d gone in for a shower, all her precious poisons had been perfectly on display—now they had vanished like a lie.

“W-What the hell is this...!”

It didn’t make any sense.

Her treasures had all been there just moments ago, untouched.

But then her eyes landed on the prototype of the All-Poison—only half a bottle remained.

Mouth half-open, Suzuki picked it up.

“Why just... half...?”

Every other poison, even the cheap ones, had been cleaned out.

But the most valuable of them all—the one she was still developing—was left half-full.

It made no sense.

Suzuki immediately contacted the management office to review the CCTV footage from the hallways, elevators, and building entrance.

But there was no sign of anyone entering.

“......”

It was like a ghost.

Goosebumps rose all over her body.

And for the first time in a very long while, she felt a sharp wave of fear and dread.

‘Who the hell...?’

She was ranked third in the entire country—one of the top of the top.

So who could’ve possibly done this?

She bit her lip.

Then immediately decided to move.

***

[ Shadow Step activated. ]

Fwoosh!

His mana drained in a rush.

In the next instant, the scenery shifted, and Su-ho arrived in Seoul.

Breathing in the familiar air, he smiled wide.

“Home sweet home.”

He had arrived at his house.

He’d sent the Guiyeong Spear ahead of time, so this was all part of the plan.

Stretching with a yawn, Su-ho flopped onto the couch.

‘She must’ve noticed the poisons are gone by now.’

No one knew how much Suzuki loved her poisons more than Su-ho, her former comrade.

Which meant she must be absolutely furious by now.

‘And probably scared, too.’

Alongside the rage, she’d be gripped by fear.

Despite her harsh language and sharp personality, she was surprisingly cowardly when it came to things like this.

This level of warning was just right for the current Suzuki.

And hopefully, she’d take that rage and use it to become even stronger.

The higher she climbed, the harder the fall would be. freewёbnoνel.com

Su-ho turned on his phone to check the date.

There was still time before the meeting with Banshee and Kim Mu-hwan, and his transfer hadn’t happened yet.

Next, Su-ho opened his status window.

[ An Su-ho ]

- Lv: 163

- Class: Crusader

- Traits: <New Blood>, <Hercules Candidate>

- Strength (Y): 56

- Mana (Y): 56

- Perception (O): 54

- Bonus Stats: 0

Level 163.

His schedule was wide open.

That meant one thing—time to grind levels.

‘I need to hit it hard while I’m still with the Gate Bureau.’

There was no alternative.

It wasn’t like he was going to pick up a new hobby at this point.

Su-ho pulled out the Poison Dragon and fed it one of the poisons he’d taken from Suzuki.

[ The Poison Dragon consumes the poison. ]

[ The Poison Dragon is extremely satisfied with its meal. ]

A good response.

Of course it would be—it was part of Suzuki’s prized collection, after all.

Su-ho immediately headed for the Association.

Once there, he began reviewing the gates awaiting inspection, looking for the next one to clear.

But—

‘Tch. Not many one-star gates available.’

There weren’t any that looked worth the time.

Mostly because Su-ho had already cleared most of them as soon as they showed up.

Maybe he should’ve taken care of a few while he was still in Japan?

No.

No use dwelling on the past.

Still, the lack of decent gates was a real problem.

After a bit of thought, Su-ho decided to change his plan.

***

Imjin River.

Su-ho had arrived by car.

He parked in a decent spot, then continued on foot.

Walking along the tracks of the now-defunct Imjingang Station, he began to make his way north.

His destination?

North Korea.

‘If there aren’t any in the South, I’ll find them in the North.’

He’d planned to clear North Korean gates eventually anyway.

The official clearances would come later, but since he’d be the one doing most of it, he figured he might as well get a head start.

It didn’t matter.

There were gates overflowing in the North right now.

After following the tracks for a long while, the Han River came into view. When he reached the midpoint of the bridge, he found it had been destroyed.

The bridge had been blown apart as a precaution against potential monster invasions.

Though this area was still well before the actual DMZ, there were a lot of broken bridges like this to account for the unpredictable nature of monsters.

Standing at the end of the ruined bridge, Su-ho threw the Guiyeong Spear.

Crackkk!

The flying spear embedded itself in the far side of the bridge.

[ Shadow Step activated. ]

With a single use of Shadow Step, Su-ho crossed the gap effortlessly.

Once across, he kept walking.

Eventually, Dorasan Station came into view.

It was the final train station before entering North Korea.

And then—

“Kyaaaa!”

Dorasan Station was currently overrun by monsters.

Su-ho grinned and drew his Blood Sword.

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