Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 477

It wasn’t his imagination.

It was real.

Pi Seong-yeol’s mana had grown stronger than before, and not only that—overall, he had some life back in him, too.

'Well, would you look at that?'

You might fool other people’s eyes, but you can’t fool mine.

At Su-ho’s question, Pi Seong-yeol started hemming and hawing.

"Th-that is..."

"Stand up."

Su-ho snatched the item Pi Seong-yeol was holding and tossed it to the side, then hauled Pi Seong-yeol up.

And then, on Pi Seong-yeol’s stomach as he rose awkwardly, Su-ho saw the Mega Crusher.

But something was off.

The shape of the Mega Crusher attached to Pi Seong-yeol’s abdomen had changed.

"Huh?"

Yeah, figures.

So that’s what it was.

That was when it happened.

Wheeeeeeeeng!!

The Mega Crusher spun like it had lost its mind.

It had sensed Su-ho as a threat and bared its teeth on instinct.

At that sight, Su-ho curled the corner of his lips and said,

"Yeah. You’re not going to quietly come off your host, are you."

But do you think I’m going to be scared just because you do that?

You’re nothing but an item.

Su-ho immediately reached out and used a skill.

[ Recovery activates. ]

Fwooooosh!

The Mega Crusher was, at its core, a kind of debuff that induced a parasitic state by clinging to its host.

To a bastard like that, nothing was ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) more poisonous than Recovery.

And unlike the Recovery he had experienced before, Su-ho’s mana stat was now silver-colored, and on top of that, it wasn’t even ordinary mana anymore—it was true mana.

Naturally, its power wouldn’t even compare to the past.

Wheeeeeeeeng!!

But the Mega Crusher resisted.

Like the last general of a fallen nation—fiercely, intensely.

But even if you do that, what can you possibly do?

Su-ho used Recovery one more time.

[ Recovery activates. ]

Kaaang!!

The instant the second Recovery detonated, a clear, pure sound rang out, like a baseball smacking into a tin bat, and the Mega Crusher was yanked free from Pi Seong-yeol’s body as if it were springing out.

Tremble, tremble...

The Mega Crusher that had been pulled out trembled like it had swallowed rat poison.

Did it hurt that much?

Of course it did.

This was like injecting a vaccine straight into a cancer cell.

But it wouldn’t break.

Because the Mega Crusher was an item.

Thud!

At the same time, Pi Seong-yeol collapsed, too.

Ah. Right, you were here.

You fainted last time, and you’re fainting again this time.

If someone saw you, they’d think you just got a wisdom tooth yanked out without anesthesia.

Well... maybe it really did hurt about that much.

Su-ho roughly cast a single heal on Pi Seong-yeol, then lifted the Mega Crusher.

And he checked the item information.

[ Mega Crusher ]

# Outstanding technology from another world.

# It can grind any item, and through a more delicate dismantling technique, it has become possible to additionally extract the materials and options an item possessed.

# The Mega Crusher’s host accumulates dismantling experience each time they dismantle an item, and the accumulated dismantling experience makes the host stronger.

# If you dismantle 781 more items, a related quest will be unlocked.

"Whew?"

After seeing the Mega Crusher’s information, Su-ho laughed.

Yeah, figures.

It went up another rank.

But a related quest?

That was information he’d never seen before.

'What’s a related quest?'

This was something he hadn’t even heard about from Kang Seul-gi, the deranged crushing scholar from his previous life.

'And this bastard is quietly hiding an option, too.'

The hidden option was a curse option where the host’s mind would be eaten away by the Mega Crusher as time passed.

That was why it was even more vicious.

Some items had their curse options openly displayed, but these nasty ones would quietly conceal those kinds of options.

'Still, what is this related quest?'

If even Kang Seul-gi from his previous life hadn’t told him, then he’d have to grind items himself to find out.

The good thing was that the number of items left to grind wasn’t even a thousand.

If he just covered it up and forgot about it, it would eventually complete itself at some point.

So what drew Su-ho’s attention even more was the second sentence in the item description.

# It can grind any item, and through a more delicate dismantling technique, it has become possible to additionally extract the materials and options an item possessed.

That the Mega Crusher, now S-rank, had gained a more delicate dismantling ability, allowing it to additionally extract the materials and options contained within an item.

Compared to the simple stat extraction option it had back when it was A-rank, this was an insane option on a completely different level.

Su-ho lightly nudged the fainted Pi Seong-yeol with his foot and said,

"Get up already. Stop pretending you’re passed out."

"Y-yes, yes!"

Pi Seong-yeol sprang up immediately.

Seeing that, Su-ho smirked.

"Looks like the Mega Crusher really is something. If your complexion—when you were basically half-dead—has gotten this much better."

"...No, it isn’t."

"Sure it isn’t. So, when did the item upgrade happen?"

"Uh... it happened not long ago. I’m sorry. I want to tell you more precisely, but there’s no clock or calendar here..."

"Ah, right. That’s true."

It really was.

All Su-ho had left him here with was food to survive and cursed items to dismantle.

Su-ho looked around and said,

"Fine. If the Mega Crusher became S-rank, it would’ve spat out more than just stat crystals, right? Where are those?"

"I-I gathered them separately over there."

"Let’s see."

Not far away, he could see a few boxes.

Inside were items Pi Seong-yeol had sorted out on his own, and when Su-ho looked, they were things he hadn’t seen before.

Su-ho slowly examined them.

And after checking the information on a few items, the corner of his mouth rose without him realizing it.

'Oh, this is interesting.'

[ Mega Crusher’s Shield Frame ]

# A crystallization of an item extracted by the Mega Crusher.

# The crystallization’s attribute is an item frame. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

# The shield frame creates a new shield through the sum of material fragments.

# The shield that will be created will have different options depending on the material fragments that compose it.

# The shield frame can be filled only with Mega Crusher material fragments.

# The minimum composition requirement is 100 material fragments, and equipped material fragments can be dismantled at any time.

# Current number of equipped material fragments 0/100.

The item that made Su-ho’s mouth curl up was called Mega Crusher’s Shield Frame, and its nature was like a block assembly toy.

As long as you snapped material fragments together, somehow, in whatever shape, it became a shield.

So it felt pretty fun, but at the same time, it was puzzling.

'Thinking about it, that old man Kang Seul-gi really didn’t share much information in my previous life.'

Even though he shared a lot of other item combinations, didn’t he?

Like the MuMuMu recipe, for example.

Then, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

'But thinking about it, even though the Mega Crusher became S-rank, why aren’t the options I know showing up?'

For example, the unique ability to extract a dedicated recipe for item crafting—like extracting the MuMuMu recipe.

Once his thoughts reached that point, Su-ho was finally able to roughly grasp what the related quest really was.

'It looks like if I clear the related quest, the options I know will get unlocked.'

He was looking forward to it.

And he could feel that the Mega Crusher was a far more outstanding item than he had known.

The only downside was that a person had to be equipped with it.

'Still, if things are like this, it feels like we’ll have to grind even more items going forward...'

The cursed items the Association had were starting to run dry.

Well, of course they were.

Su-ho was sweeping them up the moment they appeared.

Then there was no choice but to use an external distribution network.

No—honestly, his heart felt more at ease that way.

Because in this field, Representative Ion was the specialist.

'And after the first Big Gate incident, Union also grew globally.'

If so, item procurement would only get easier and easier.

"Okay. We’ll handle item procurement like that, and..."

Su-ho looked around.

The interior design of the Subspace House changed according to the owner’s mana and tastes.

And after a few experiments, he had learned that with just a bit of imagination, you could adjust the interior however you wanted.

Even so, up until now, he hadn’t really touched it because it was annoying.

All he did was create a few extra spaces when he needed them.

But thinking about the future, he now needed to change the interior design a bit.

Because this was a place where, as long as you had imagination, you could create any object.

Su-ho said,

"Seong-yeol."

"Y-yes..."

"As a reward to commemorate the Mega Crusher upgrade, I’m thinking of giving you something. Is there anything you want?"

"S-something I want?"

"Don’t say freedom. You’re not clueless enough for that, are you? You’re going to rot in here until you die anyway. So if there’s something you need to live here, say it."

"..."

He can’t leave until he dies.

At those words, Pi Seong-yeol’s head dipped for a moment, but soon he accepted reality and started thinking. Because he knew hope would be the biggest poison for him.

After thinking for a long time, Pi Seong-yeol finally opened his mouth with difficulty.

"Then... a bed I can sleep comfortably in, a soft single-seater sofa, a toilet I can use comfortably... and boxes I can separate and store material items in. Ah, and if possible, could I also ask for a shower facility... and a back scratcher...?"

Pi Seong-yeol spoke while watching Su-ho’s expression.

It was pretty funny—his requests were quite realistic.

Su-ho asked with a faint smile,

"The rest I get, but why a back scratcher?"

"I can’t scratch my back by myself. I want to scratch my back properly and feel relieved."

"This is ridiculous."

But it’s cute, so I’ll let it slide.

Su-ho nodded, closed his eyes for a moment, and began wringing out his imagination.

Then the surrounding scenery warped in an instant, and a blank white space spread out.

Of course, Su-ho and Pi Seong-yeol, as well as the Mega Crusher sprawled on the floor and the fragment items, remained as they were.

Soon, as Su-ho’s imagination took form, the surroundings changed, and a structure like an ordinary officetel appeared.

Of course, around the officetel, it was still a white void.

So leaving only that felt awkward, so he simply created a common-looking forest around it.

A pond was a free bonus.

When Su-ho turned on the water in the officetel bathroom and saw water come out, he marveled in fascination.

Pi Seong-yeol, too, was overwhelmed with emotion.

"So I don’t even need to imagine details like water and sewage facilities. How is it—does this suit you?"

"Th-thank you. Thank you so much...!"

"I’m giving this to you so you’ll work hard. You know that, right? Compared to the guys in Cheongok, you’re living in luxury."

"Yes. I’m truly grateful."

"But I thought you’d mention food and stuff, so I’m kind of surprised?"

"That is... strangely, when I dismantle items, hunger and thirst get resolved on their own. And in this kind of life, if I eat delicious food even once, I feel like I’ll go crazy thinking about it more, so I decided to just endure it."

"Yeah?"

Is that so?

Hearing that, Su-ho stepped outside for a moment.

And after a little while, he came back in, and in Su-ho’s hands were a cold beer and a whole freshly fried chicken.

Pi Seong-yeol’s eyes widened at the sight, and Su-ho grinned and said,

"Eat it or don’t. Do whatever you want. I’m leaving."

After finishing what he needed to do, Su-ho went out through the portal.

"Ah."

And Pi Seong-yeol was left alone again.

Together with cold beer and warm chicken.