Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 238
“So we’re finally cleaning up North Korea, huh.”
This wasn’t Su-ho’s first time stepping foot in the North.
Previously, he had crossed the Imjin River with Choi Yoon during a gate transaction.
‘Though calling that “crossing over” is a bit of a stretch.’
But this time was definitely different.
Last time, they had deliberately stuck to safe zones to make the gate deal. Now, Su-ho had come specifically to hunt monsters—this was a full-frontal assault.
The first example of that was Dorasan Station.
Technically, Dorasan was still South Korean territory.
Yet the field was crawling with monsters.
That was because the monster oversaturation in the North had forced them to migrate south.
That was why the Imjin River bridge had been destroyed.
Without cutting off access, the monsters would’ve kept spilling into the South nonstop.
“Grrrk?”
Right around then, the monsters finally registered Su-ho’s presence.
They were orcs.
Su-ho glanced at the name tags hovering over their heads.
Green Orc Lv.143
Green Orc Lv.141
Green Orc Lv.142
...
The orcs were high-level.
For field monsters, their levels were unusually elevated. That was because these Green Orcs were the apex predators of the surrounding area.
‘The Cataclysm may resemble a game system, but this isn’t a game.’
Games clearly distinguished between dungeon monsters and field monsters, but the so-called “field monsters” people talked about after the Cataclysm weren’t a formal category.
The system itself had never designated anything as a “field monster.”
That term was something humans came up with.
It came from the reality that monsters from Gate Outbreaks would spill out and continue multiplying, eventually dominating entire areas.
So in the field, there were no designated boss monsters. Only gates that spawned monsters endlessly.
Which meant the only way to purify an area overrun by field monsters was to destroy the gate spawning them.
“GRAAAAH!”
The Green Orcs spotted Su-ho and charged at him, brandishing their weapons.
In response, Su-ho summoned Bulgasari.
“Bulgasari.”
“Bul-bul!”
“You can break through, right?”
“Bul-bul!”
Bulgasari answered with vigor.
The reason Su-ho summoned him was for mobility.
The field was practically swarming with orcs, but Su-ho had no intention of hunting them all.
At least not right now.
He did need experience points for leveling, yes—but if he was going to hunt, he wanted to do it efficiently.
‘No point wasting time on mobs that are 20 levels below me.’
Su-ho’s real targets were the gates scattered across North Korea.
As for these weaklings, he planned to leave them for the guilds that would soon be called in.
Even if the gates were cleared, the field monsters would remain. And reclaiming the territory would eventually require wiping them out anyway.
That’s why he summoned Bulgasari.
Its mobility far outclassed running on foot.
“Let’s go, Bulgasari.”
“Bul-bul!”
Mounted on Bulgasari, Su-ho swung his sword as they cut through the swarm of orcs.
***
After undergoing an evolution, Bulgasari had become an unstoppable beast of a tank.
Every now and then, a crazed orc would throw itself into their path, but Bulgasari would simply send it flying like a ragdoll.
Thanks to that, Su-ho made it deep into Dorasan Station with ease, arriving near the gate portal.
Hidden in cover near the portal, Su-ho looked down at the gathering orcs.
‘That’s... disgusting.’
No exaggeration.
The orc gate at Dorasan Station had been left unattended for so long that it had practically become a hive.
But the worst part?
The orcs inside Dorasan Station had evolved even further.
Su-ho examined the name tags hovering over the internal orcs.
Crazy Orc Lv.157
Crazy Orc Lv.159
Crazy Orc Lv.152
...
The orcs outside were Green Orcs, but the ones inside were Crazy Orcs.
Why?
Because they had resorted to cannibalism.
Even though they had spawned from a gate outbreak, they were still living creatures.
Which meant they needed food to survive, and they were affected by their environment.
And in that regard, Dorasan Station was a perfect habitat.
‘It had a roof to block the rain, and it’s clean and spacious inside.’
Shelter was taken care of—but food wasn’t.
So they turned to eating each other.
It was the natural progression.
North Korea was already scarce on resources. The only thing constantly being generated by the system was more orcs.
So cannibalism was inevitable—and through it, they evolved into Crazy Orcs.
One of the system’s rules allowed for frenzied evolution through cannibalism.
‘This is why conquering the North is such a nightmare.’
Clearing the gates themselves wasn’t that hard.
Inside the gates, conditions were stable and predictable.
But abandoned places like Dorasan Station followed the laws of natural survival and evolution. The monsters that survived there became far more dangerous to players.
And North Korea had a lot of places like this.
In fact, that’s all that was left.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
Which was why humans couldn’t survive there anymore.
Su-ho watched for the right moment and began preparing to enter the gate portal.
If they were just ordinary humans, he could’ve dealt with them using Monochrome Solitude.
But these were, after all, one-star monsters.
Their sensory perception was too sharp for Monochrome Solitude to work on them now.
Just as Su-ho began to slip into the portal—
Whooosh—BOOM!!
It happened in a flash.
Something came flying in and struck the area where Su-ho had been hiding.
A boulder.
Su-ho, with his fast reflexes, had already moved in time to avoid it.
But the impact site was completely destroyed.
He looked in the direction the rock had come from.
And saw a single orc, standing apart from the others, glaring at him.
The orc was massive, with dark crimson skin.
Its bloodshot eyes were even more inflamed than the others’, and two sharp fangs protruded from its tightly closed lips.
At the sight of this newcomer, the other Crazy Orcs immediately scattered.
They didn’t scream or make a fuss.
They just silently stepped aside, hoping to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.
“...Heh.”
Su-ho watched the scene unfold and smiled as he landed on the ground.
Yeah.
No more reason to stay hidden.
His gaze shifted to the name tag hovering above the creature’s head.
Red Crazy Orc Lv.173
A level over 170.
And unlike the other Crazy Orcs, this one had “Red” in front of its name.
Its identity was clear—it was a field boss monster.
Su-ho summoned his Blood Sword and muttered,
“A field boss forming here... guess this place really has been left to rot.”
That was exactly it.
The one who had thrown the boulder at Su-ho was the field boss monster that ruled the Dorasan Station area.
Of course, it wasn’t an official boss.
The system didn’t assign boss status to field monsters.
Even so, Su-ho called it a field boss because it was the most evolved entity in Dorasan.
That’s why the other Crazy Orcs had fled.
Mad as they might be, a “fake” always quiets down in the presence of the real thing.
Su-ho raised his summoned sword.
Good thing, too.
There were multiple kinds of field boss monsters, and judging from the name, this one hadn’t reached the “Named” tier yet.
Su-ho activated a skill.
[ Overwhelm skill has been activated. ]
Fwoooosh!
As the skill flared to life, it emitted a tangible threat to the enemy.
And that was the signal.
“GRRAAAAAAGH!!”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Red Crazy Orc charged straight at Su-ho, each step carving craters into the ground.
That leg strength was immense.
Which meant its grip strength must be monstrous too.
It wasn’t holding a weapon.
Probably because it had grown strong by tearing its own kind apart with its bare hands.
But so what?
Su-ho held his ground.
Then, as the orc’s fist came swinging right in front of him—
Slice!
Su-ho stepped forward and swung his blade.
The Red Crazy Orc barreled past Su-ho, its body jolting mid-stride.
“......”
A moment passed as they crossed paths.
Then the orc’s body came to a complete stop.
It wasn’t that he’d struck a pressure point or inflicted petrification.
Fwoooosh!
A geyser of blood erupted from the orc’s body.
More precisely, from its severed neck.
The reason it stopped moving was simple—its head had been cut clean off.
[ You have defeated Red Crazy Orc. ]
The system notification appeared in front of Su-ho.
He dismissed it without much interest.
It was his first time seeing a field boss monster since regression—so it was a little novel.
But that was all.
Field boss or not, a level-170-something monster wasn’t even a threat.
Wiping the blood from his sword, Su-ho stepped into the gate portal at Dorasan Station.
***
[ The gate has been cleared. ]
[ ‘An Su-ho’ has been selected as MVP of the gate clear. ]
[ Bonus EXP awarded for MVP selection. ]
[ You have received 1 bonus stat for MVP. ]
[ You have leveled up. ]
[ All stats have increased by 1. ]
[ You have earned 1 additional bonus stat. ]
A cascade of system messages.
Su-ho dismissed them with a glance and collected his loot before stepping back outside.
“Status window.”
[ An Su-ho ]
- Lv: 169
- Class: Crusader
- Traits: <New Blood>, <Hercules Candidate>
- Strength (Y): 65
- Mana (Y): 65
- Perception (O): 64
- Bonus Stats: 2
He allocated the two bonus stat points into Strength and Mana.
Over the ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) past few days, he had been systematically clearing the gates around Dorasan.
He didn’t touch the field monsters—only the gates and the field bosses.
And even just those gave him more than enough to handle.
Still, compared to the number of gates he cleared, the leveling pace felt a bit slow.
It couldn’t be helped.
The gates Su-ho had cleared were mostly low-level, one-star gates.
‘Still better than nothing.’
Once the stat distribution was done, Su-ho turned on his phone.
Right on cue, a welcome message had arrived.
It was from Jeong Cheol-min.
Su-ho called him immediately.
“Yes, Team Leader. I missed your call because I was clearing a gate.”
—Yeah, I figured. Wanna guess why I called?
“I’m guessing the new assignments have been finalized.”
—Bingo. We needed to act faster than the other departments, so the Special Division’s reassignment was locked in first. Starting tomorrow, show up quietly. But before you do, make sure you greet the Association President and Vice President. Don’t be late.
“Yes, understood!”
Finally, the personnel restructuring was complete.
Su-ho grinned.
‘Now I can really pick up the pace.’
He summoned Bulgasari and took off running toward the car he had parked earlier.
