Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 440

“Good work.”

“No, well. I just said a few words and pressed some acupoints.”

Su-ho pressed the paralysis points and the mute points to firmly subdue and restrain the remaining Newclass members who had collapsed under Pressure and Mini Fear.

The effect was excellent.

None of them could undo Su-ho’s point-sealing.

Su-ho had people move them all to a quiet place and contacted the U.N. so they could take them over quietly.

The U.N.’s handling was thorough.

They had already contacted the ministries of justice of each country and obtained emergency arrest warrants for them.

Su-ho asked Kim Geon.

“Nothing else now, right?”

“Yes, just as you instructed, all that’s left is handing them over to the U.N.”

“Handle it so the Sabers don’t find out until it hits the press. If they learn early, it’ll only cause a stir.”

“Understood.”

“How’s the progress on Genocide?”

“It’s going smoothly.”

“Okay. Then I’ll head back, so take care of the rest.”

“Yessir, leave it to me.”

Reliable Kim Geon.

Su-ho encouraged him and then returned to the Great Victoria Desert.

*

— Shocking news. Alex Morgan, called the Shield of America, and Hex Hood, called the Robin Hood of Britain, under the name Newclass...

News was flowing from the tablet.

The news anchor listed all the founding members of Newclass, including Alex and Hex, and revealed in ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) full what kind of group Newclass was, what they had tried to do, and what they had been doing.

Thanks to that, the world was turned upside down.

Also, just as Su-ho expected, people began boycotting and cutting off business with the chaebol aligned with Newclass, and the government utterly wrecked those Newclass-affiliated conglomerates through powerful tax investigations and the like.

The affiliated Players were no different.

People everywhere pointed fingers and threw stones, and the personal guilds run by Alex and Hex were treated like criminal organizations, triggering a mass exodus of their affiliated Players.

They too were subjected to powerful tax investigations.

Su-ho smiled as he watched the news flowing from the tablet.

“They’ll be wishing they were dead.”

Alex and Hex were still alive.

However, in addition to having one hand and an ankle severed, just as someone once did long ago, certain bodily senses were sealed with point-sealing, and even the muscle-points and nerve-points all over their bodies were sealed, so despite being 2-star Players, their physical capability had fallen below that of ordinary people.

Barring a miracle, nothing would change their lives.

‘If not for those two, Newclass wouldn’t have existed.’

Then there wouldn’t have been any betrayal in his previous life either.

That’s why he didn’t kill them and made them cripples.

Some lives are worse than death.

“Well then, shall we keep it up.”

Su-ho stepped back into the Gate.

*

Two days before the Big Gate opened.

“Hoo.”

Just out of a Gate, Su-ho let out a stale breath.

“Open status window.”

[ An Su-ho ] 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Lv: 269

Class: Rage Crusader

Traits: <New Blood><Hercules Candidate><King of Ruin><Power of the Sun><Power of the Moon><Guest of Greed>

Strength (N): 62

Mana (P): 75

Senses (B): 23

Command (N): 88

Bonus Stats: 0

It felt like only yesterday he’d hit 260 in the Wild Rabbit Gate, and already he was 269.

It was the result of spending the past month doing nothing but field hunting and Gate clears like mad.

‘Considering the hunting I did, the level gain is markedly low, but...’

Still, it was fine.

Anyway, every Gate in Australia was lower level than Su-ho.

Considering that, nine levels was quite a decent result.

Su-ho took out his tablet and checked the real-time situation.

The Union had made it for him, and it was linked to an app that, via satellite, showed the Sabers’ progress and real-time information on cleared fields.

‘Is this the limit.’

Over the span of about a month, Su-ho and the Sabers threw themselves into the Gate eradication operation.

Su-ho departed from the Great Victoria Desert, and the Sabers departed from Sydney Airport.

But when you had to move on foot—not riding mounts—while doing field hunting and clearing Gates, wiping out every Gate in Australia in less than a month was practically an impossible mission.

For one thing, the distance between Sydney Airport and the Great Victoria Desert alone was over 2,000 km.

‘Korea’s roughly what, about 500 km across?’

Even so, it wasn’t as if they had no results at all.

Pouring his all into it, barely sleeping, Su-ho succeeded in annihilating most of the Gates within the Great Victoria Desert, and the Sabers, starting from Sydney Airport, made quite a bit of progress as well.

As a result, they achieved the eradication of roughly 65% of the target Gates, which was virtually a miracle.

‘The Newclass news helped fire up people’s fighting spirit.’

Just as Su-ho predicted, Newclass served as a very welcome catalyst that rallied the Sabers one more time.

It was inevitable.

Save the World was organized for the peace of humanity—a pure-white group, in terms of colors—while Newclass was, plainly speaking, a black group organized to place themselves above others.

What more perfect antithesis could there be?

Thanks to that, with the mere few hundred Newclass riffraff, Su-ho was able to run Save the World more stably and decisively over the past month, and now the opening of the Big Gate was right before their eyes.

Just then, Kim Geon came into Su-ho’s tent and spoke.

“Director, the last team just returned, and now all personnel are back.”

“Right, good work. What are the casualty numbers?”

“The injured are being treated almost immediately, and the deaths are just under twenty.”

“Twenty, huh... that’s really fortunate.”

“Yes, and even then, five of those came from Team 1.”

“That’s regrettable.”

“Yes, those two were very bad people.”

It was a miracle.

Despite countless battles over about a month since landing in Australia, the death toll was under twenty.

All of this was due to the absolute rules Su-ho put forward.

Safety first, safety second, safety third.

At first, everyone was half-skeptical.

They said there’s no such thing as victory without sacrifice.

But thanks to Su-ho’s constant emphasis, people advanced while minimizing damage, very slowly, and in the end, up to the final stage of Project Genocide, they managed the miracle of fewer than twenty deaths against the system’s monsters.

‘Fewer would have been better, but that’s an area beyond my reach.’

Aside from the victims on Team 1, most of even those were people who overextended on their own or died for other reasons.

Therefore Project Genocide would carry historical significance in many ways.

“Have them get plenty of rest. If there are any severely injured, call me.”

“Understood. But what should we do now? The mood is that everyone wants a word from you, Director.”

“You mean a speech, right? Tell them I’ll give one right before entry when the Big Gate opens, after I get a bit of rest. Until then, I need to prepare to enter too.”

“Understood.”

If people wanted it, he had no intention of dodging it.

Su-ho enjoyed public-opinion battles to begin with.

Above all, weren’t they precious personnel who ran all the way to Australia trusting only in him?

If he didn’t offer them encouragement and thanks, that would truly be treating them like tools.

‘Then I should start my preparations too.’

Two days left until the Big Gate opened.

In the meantime, Su-ho decided to start preparing various things to clear the Gate.

*

Midnight two days later.

Everyone sat gathered in front of the TV, swallowing dryly.

Su-ho stood before the Big Gate candidate site.

There was no one nearby except Su-ho.

In Su-ho’s hand was a real-time live broadcasting camera; he had evacuated people in advance just in case there would be physical aftereffects when the Big Gate opened.

The Big Gate had grown much larger than when he first saw it.

However, it was certainly smaller than what had been observed in real time in his previous life.

Thanks to the eradication of 65% of Australia’s Gates.

At this level, he expected it would definitely be much easier than the difficulty he experienced in his previous life.

Then, a little after midnight—

[ Time has elapsed. ]

[ With the start of the Second Cataclysm, we will generate the First Big Gate. ]

Shaaah!

The scheduled system notifications popped up before every Player’s eyes.

It was an alert that, as the time had elapsed, the system would generate the Big Gate; the moment it appeared, the Big Gate candidate flared and began sucking in the surroundings like a black hole gone mad.

“Cheolma.”

“Neigh!”

As the Gate began to flare, Su-ho summoned Cheolma and took to the air so as not to be caught up in the Big Gate’s pull.

Even so, he didn’t let go of the camera.

He knew anyway that that kind of suction phenomenon would only last a moment.

Of course, people couldn’t possibly know that, so they watched their monitors with sweaty palms.

After the Big Gate generation effect ran for a while—

BOOOOM!!

A massive explosion.

When the thick dust settled after the blast, there at last emerged within it the black, black-hole-like Big Gate.

‘Been a while. Big Gate.’

A portal with a black body and a violet aura, black-violet sparks crackling around it.

It was a portal identical to the catastrophe-grade Gates he had seen in his previous life.

Of course, the size was much smaller.

The portal of a catastrophe-grade Gate had been an absurdly huge, mega-sized portal.

[ With the start of the Second Cataclysm, the First Big Gate has been generated. ]

An additional notification popped up.

But that was all there was.

The system provided no further information about the Big Gate.

‘Find it yourself and clear it yourself, huh.’

What an unkind thing.

It was fine.

Su-ho was a regressor and knew everything.

Therefore, without approaching any closer, he rode Cheolma back to base camp.

When Su-ho returned on Cheolma to the base camp, people erupted in excitement.

“Sword Saint! Sword Saint! Sword Saint!”

“Director! Director! Director!”

“We love you, Director!”

“Over here!”

Though it was past midnight, everyone who had come to Australia was awake.

All were there to hear Su-ho’s speech along with the opening of the Big Gate.

So, matching their wishes, Su-ho made a stylish landing on the prepared dais.

And he began his speech.

This time, however, he did not use Sound Transmission.

It was because of the cameras of the world’s broadcasters filming him.

Su-ho imbued mana into his voice and spoke.

“Nice to meet you. I’m An Su-ho of Save the World.”

“Waaaaaaa!!”

The people roared.

But now, the moment had come to finally reveal the truth.

The moment to reveal the truth that he would enter the Big Gate alone.