Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 468

Right after coming out of the Gate.

“Mmm.”

The sky is clear.

There are no monsters around.

When he checked the time, not that much time had passed, either.

At most, about a day.

After Su-ho gave a wink of farewell toward Hera’s temple that was on the verge of collapsing, he summoned the Iron Steed.

At that moment, his phone went bzzzt as it vibrated.

It was the notification vibration for all the messages he’d missed.

They were text messages.

And they were from Charlie Paul.

The content was that multiple countries had approved the Unified Player Prison.

Su-ho grinned.

‘Of course they did.’

Truly, what group... no, what country could refuse Su-ho’s proposal?

After replying that they should call him when they needed him, Su-ho opened the status window.

His level went up by one through clearing the Gate.

Only after Su-ho invested the two bonus stats he’d gained into mana did he lift the Iron Steed.

“Let’s go, Iron Steed.”

“Hihihing!”

Suuuaaaaaa!

The Iron Steed cleaves through the sky and glides refreshingly.

His heart felt light.

The association chairman replacement matter, the Unified Player Prison matter, the runes of the Seven Deadly Sins and the India matter, and lastly even the Heracles trait matter—now that he’d handled all of it, could he feel any lighter than this?

‘Now what’s left is....’

Freeing the Fairy Blood he’d been putting off for so long.

Because it wasn’t urgent, he’d been pushing it down the priority list, but now the time had come.

And if he had to pick what he should do next, it was to start taking back, little by little, the lands that had been stolen by Gates and monsters before the second Big Gate was created.

‘Right now, the lands completely taken by monsters are about Africa and Antarctica. Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and so on are only partially taken.’

If they were to launch a recapture operation using Save the World, a lot of people would think of Africa as the first target.

Because Antarctica, due to its unique environment, would have limits in many ways when it came to deploying Save the World.

But was Africa any better off?

That wasn’t true, either.

Because with Africa, the problem wasn’t the recapture itself, but what came after the recapture.

‘If we can’t find the End Gate, Gates will keep forming in Africa. And who stays behind to manage those?’

Not a single country that had been in Africa survived—every last one of them was wiped out.

So it meant there was no one who would move to Africa, where there wasn’t even infrastructure, just out of humanitarianism alone, and live there while clearing newly formed Gates.

That was # Nоvеlight # why, even in his previous life, Africa was never conquered to the very end.

They only dealt with the monsters that tried to barely cross the border.

Of course, they had no intention of leaving it completely unattended.

They’d only postponed the order until after dealing with every disaster-class Gate.

‘But back then, that was the best we could do.’

If there weren’t some other sharp countermeasure, they’d probably follow the same steps this time, too.

Of course, if you told him to come up with a countermeasure, he could come up with one.

For example, since Africa was effectively a region humanity had abandoned, if they received support from countries that were greedy for territorial expansion, they’d be able to build infrastructure as much as they wanted.

However, that was only a prediction—realistically, it was something nobody could know.

Because there wouldn’t be any country that would pour an astronomical amount of money into land where everything had been destroyed by monsters and not a single person lived, purely for the purpose of expanding territory.

‘In the first place, expanding territory only matters if it’s useful. In that sense, Africa has a lot of oil deposits, but....’

To secure the oil deposits, they would have to keep fighting monsters, and to take care of the workers, they’d have to prepare at least minimal infrastructure—and with even mana existing as an alternative energy source, what country would really try to do business this unprofitable?

But now, the situation had changed.

Su-ho recalled the third piece of information about the freed King of a Ruined Nation.

......

③ The King’s power is activated.

└ Domain proclamation becomes possible.

└ Through recruiting talent, a loyalty contract becomes possible, placing the target under your command.

└ Through the King’s call, summoning the subordinates under your command becomes possible.

Domain proclamation.

And recruiting talent, and summoning subordinates.

In other words, like the lizards at the Amnok River, it meant he could now keep monsters under his command as subordinates.

‘Now the story changes.’

And since summoning was possible, he could call the lizardmen and fight together, too.

‘In my previous life, I was so jealous of the Black King or those Great Lord bastards’ abilities.’

The Black King, who was called the best among necromancer players, and the Great Lord, who was called the best among summoner players.

Both of them were specialized in summoning and large-scale force warfare, so when he thought about a place like Africa, they were the kind of guys who made him desperately want to borrow a hand from them in many ways.

But both of them had such strong personalities that they absolutely never lent a hand, and in the end, Africa could do nothing but be left unattended.

‘If they’d been villains, I’d have caught them and made them do forced labor, at least.’

With that in mind, Su-ho headed for Africa.

Of course, the Fairy Blood matter was more important, but even so, the reason he was going to Africa was because a large number of fairy-race monsters were also positioned within Africa.

‘If I’m doing it anyway, getting two birds with one stone is best.’

The Iron Steed carrying Su-ho glided straight toward Africa.

*

The place Su-ho arrived at after riding the Iron Steed was an island located at the southern tip of Africa, called Madagascar.

Madagascar is the fourth-largest island in the world, and it had territory about six times the size of his country.

And of course, now it was one of the deadly uninhabited zones where no humans lived.

‘It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this place, too.’

Madagascar’s nickname is the Island of Death.

This place got the nickname Island of Death because of a plague that circulated within Madagascar.

The name of that plague was, surprisingly, the Black Death. Even though a cure for this disease—which had once produced hundreds of millions of casualties in Europe—had been developed in the era before the Great Cataclysm, it still ran rampant in Madagascar at the time.

The reason was Madagascar’s unique funeral culture called “Famadihana.” Every seven years, the people of Madagascar would take a corpse out of the grave, wash the body clean, dress it in new clothes, and then dance beside it.

That was the problem.

Because being exposed in that process to the bodily fluids of a deceased person who had once had the Black Death was considered the biggest cause of the Black Death spreading.

‘No matter how unique a funeral culture is, it’s a very barbaric one.’

Because of that, they were still suffering from the Black Death, which causes severe illness just by catching it.

But the System must have really liked that unique funeral culture, because it ultimately succeeded in remodeling Madagascar into the Island of Death based on the Black Death.

And Su-ho, too, had chosen Madagascar as his first landing point in Africa because of those facts.

It was then.

“Kiaaaaaaa!”

A high wail.

When he looked down, a swarm of monsters was wailing loudly.

More precisely, they were wailing while looking at Su-ho.

“Wow.”

Death Island Madagascar.

Most of the monsters that existed there had zombie attributes.

Especially the malignant zombies that reacted very sensitively to life force.

They were already dead bodies, so even if they ate living creatures, it wouldn’t benefit them at all, but whenever they saw living creatures, they rushed in like they wanted to die, tearing off flesh and eating it.

That was why they were malignant zombies, and why they reacted so sharply the moment Su-ho appeared.

Because Su-ho was a living creature overflowing with vitality that had appeared here, where only death and lingering thoughts lay in wait, for the first time in a very long while.

As Su-ho looked at the zombie monsters in ragged shapes, with flesh torn off or bones half exposed, he shook his head.

‘As far as I know, this place used to be a treasure trove of life, like the Amazon. What a shame.’

This was all because of the System’s curse, right?

Shaking his head, Su-ho began activating his skills one after another.

[ Blessing activates. ]

[ Eclipse activates. ]

[ You receive sunlight and moonlight. ]

[ The Runes of the Sun and Moon react. ]

[ The power of the sun and moon is activated. ]

[ You receive the blessing of the sun and moon. ]

[ All stats increase by 2%. ]

[ All recovery increases by 2%. ]

First, Blessing and Eclipse.

Next, Su-ho chose the attributes he would activate.

[ You use the Fire attribute. ]

[ You use the Light attribute. ]

[ Two attributes are activated, doubling the mana cost for attribute use. ]

The attributes he selected were fire and light.

Then Su-ho lightly snapped his fingers and activated the next skill.

[ The Art of Wind and Rain activates. ]

The skill he used was the Art of Wind and Rain.

The shower of fire and light, influenced by his silver color stat, instantly became a pounding rain and began being sprayed across the entire island.

Krrrrooom! Shwaaaaaa!

“Kiaaaaaaaa!!”

“Ggraaaaaaaa!!”

“Kyuaaaaaa!!”

Monsters wailing in pain.

It couldn’t be helped.

There was nothing as weak and harmful to the undead as fire and light.

Su-ho sat still on the Iron Steed and watched the monsters suffer.

He had no intention of getting off the Iron Steed.

He also had no intention of going through the trouble of going down and swinging a sword.

He had a great means of transportation called the Iron Steed, and he could rain attacks down from the sky like a bombardment—so why would he go through that trouble?

And then, not long after.

[ You have slain a Contaminated Dolbirak. ]

[ You have slain a Contaminated Dolbirak. ]

[ You have slain a Contaminated Dolbirak. ]

[ You have slain a Contaminated Dolbirak. ]

......

[ You have slain a Contaminated Elephant Bird. ]

[ You have slain a Contaminated Elephant Bird. ]

[ You have slain a Contaminated Elephant Bird. ]

[ You have slain a Contaminated Elephant Bird. ]

......

Unable to endure Su-ho’s holy wind-and-rain, the monsters began dying off in droves.

It was then.

“Ggeooooooo!”

Thud thud thud thud!

Out of nowhere, along with a high, thick scream, an earthquake that shook the ground erupted.

Its true identity was some gigantic tree—a tree that had caught fire, screaming as if in agony, as it burst out of the forest.

It was a tree, and at the same time, a monster.

They were monsters created from mutated baobab trees: “Contaminated Baobab Ents.”

Thanks to their uniquely enormous bodies and tenacious life force, even with their bodies on fire, they didn’t go out easily, and instead only suffered as they began rampaging across all of Madagascar.

“Good.”

He was going to burn down the entire island anyway, so if you guys were going to step up like that, it was greatly appreciated.

Like a slow advance, Su-ho burned his way across the island.

This work would probably take longer than he thought.

Because Madagascar had an area about six times the size of his country.

But even so, this was the very best option.

Because there was no more efficient countermeasure than searing this contaminated place with wind and rain.

‘They say in a place like the United States, the land is so vast that when they farm, they spray pesticides with helicopters.’

It was that kind of logic.

It was then.

Swaaaaash!!

All of a sudden, something came rushing at Su-ho.

Sensing killing intent, the Iron Steed lightly twisted its body and avoided it.

When Su-ho saw the one who had thrown a projectile at him, he smiled without realizing it.

The reason was none other than that the only fairy-race monsters in Madagascar that weren’t zombies had appeared.

“Finally showing yourselves.”

The only fairy-race monsters that existed in Madagascar.

It was the moment the Plague Fairies appeared.