Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 317

A blinking field of vision.

At the same time, the surroundings shifted, and a thick darkness fell.

And sure enough—

[The effects of Original Vampire prevent any penalties from the darkness.]

The Original Vampire effect activated instantly.

At the same time, Su-ho could see it.

The darkness blocking his sight wasn’t natural—it was artificial, created by objects.

And those objects were none other than corpses.

“Ah, shit.”

Su-ho let out a sigh without realizing it.

No wonder—he had opened his eyes in the middle of a mountain of corpses... to be precise, deep inside that mountain.

This was the problem with 2-star gates.

Unlike 1-star gates that summoned players at a peaceful starting point, 2-star gates and above often dropped you from the sky or placed you in terrain full of obstacles like this.

Still, it’s better than what I heard in my previous life.

Su-ho hadn’t joined the expedition into Logan Hell, though he had been there when the Cheongsa Fortress was opened.

At the time, his level had been too low to enter the 3-star Logan Hell Gate.

But he had read countless reports about it, enough to be as knowledgeable as those who had been there firsthand.

Su-ho activated a skill immediately.

[Blood Weapon has been activated.]

The skill he used was Blood Weapon.

Just like Sun Wukong with his Ruyi Bang, Su-ho summoned a thick, pillar-like Blood Weapon and shoved away the corpses pressing down on him all at once.

As the corpses were pushed aside in a heap, the real landscape of Logan Hell began to reveal itself.

“Tsk tsk, what a mess.”

As soon as the scene filled his eyes, Su-ho clicked his tongue.

Of course he would.

Even after getting up and brushing off the corpses, all he could see were more bodies.

Mountains of corpses.

Below them, a river of blood flowed, and beyond that, cries and screams echoed nonstop.

“Please!! Let us in!!”

“There’s a plague out here!!”

“Please!!”

“Just the kids! At least let the kids in!!”

The crowd had gathered before a massive fortress gate.

There, a sturdy gate stood locked, and atop the walls, soldiers wearing black triangular cone masks—like something the KKK would wear—were looking down on the people without a shred of emotion.

Then, a man wearing armor that looked slightly more distinguished than the rest raised his hand.

He was the commander of the gate guard.

At his gesture, the soldiers began nocking arrows, and the people below, seeing this, once again scattered in panic.

The commander lowered his hand and gave the order.

“Fire.”

Thunk-thunk-thunk!

“Aaagh!”

“Argh!”

“Spare me!!”

People collapsed and died.

But even under that rain of arrows, the crowd soon rushed back to the gate.

“Open it!”

“Let us in!”

“Please!!”

The same scene, over and over.

Exactly like in the Logan Hell report Su-ho had read before.

And then—

[A quest has been generated.]

[Open the Castle Gate]

A plague of unprecedented scale is spreading across Dorima. The kingdom has sealed the capital to protect its citizens, while outsiders desperately try to enter to survive.

Open the gate and give hope to the outsiders.

Su-ho looked at the quest details with an expressionless face.

As expected.

Exactly as described in the Logan Hell reports.

He had worried there might be differences due to the gate's level, but thankfully, nothing had changed.

If anything changed, it would just be monster or boss levels and the difficulty.

That’s why players had panicked when first seeing this quest.

From the quest’s perspective, opening the gate was the correct choice—but from an epidemiological standpoint, in the face of a contagious disease, the correct move was containment.

The system throws these kinds of irrational tasks at you as quests.

In the industry, they call it a quest dilemma.

Eventually, people settled on the conclusion: just follow the quest instructions no matter what.

Because even if the system’s quests were irrational or unethical, they only ever applied to the NPCs inside the gate, not to the players.

For example, there had never been quests like “Kill each other” or “Kill your teammate.”

And in the end, most quests were clearly designed this way for the sake of progressing the storyline.

So the best thing to do was stop overthinking it and follow the quest.

In any case, the final goal was to clear the gate.

Su-ho began buffing himself immediately.

[Blessing has been activated.]

[Holy Enchant has been activated.]

[Mana Perception has been activated.]

[Endurance has been activated.]

[Enhancement has been activated.]

[Eye of the Blacksmith has been activated.]

As each skill activated, brilliant effects wrapped around Su-ho.

Then he reshaped Blood Weapon into Blood Spear form and slowly approached the castle gate.

“Hm?”

The gate commander narrowed his eyes at the sight of Su-ho.

Compared to the ragged crowd, he was clearly dressed differently.

Just then, his eyes met Su-ho’s.

“Hey there.”

Su-ho raised a hand in greeting with a light smile.

Of course, there was no way they could hear him—there was too much distance.

So the commander turned to the adjutant beside him and asked,

“Who is that guy?”

“I’ll find out immediately.”

The adjutant was about to look into it—

“Huh?!”

A soldier’s sudden shout.

And then—

Boom!!

A massive roar erupted from the gate area, and something unbelievable happened.

“The... the gate has been breached!!”

“What?!”

It was true.

The gate had been forcibly opened.

And beyond it stood the same unidentified man from just moments ago.

He was thrusting a long, red spear forward—and even seeing it with their own eyes, the soldiers could hardly believe it.

“H-he couldn’t have... did he break through the gate with just that stick?”

“I-it appears so.”

“That wasn’t magic?”

“Y-yes, it appears that way...”

They barely had time to be shocked.

Because now the real crisis began.

“The gate’s open!!”

“Let’s go!!”

“Get inside!!”

The outsiders who had been waiting to enter the capital came rushing in.

Su-ho retrieved the Blood Spear like drawing back a Ruyi Bang.

Then, leaving the stampede of people behind, he leisurely checked the system alert.

[Quest objective fulfilled.]

[Quest completed.]

[You have leveled up.]

[All stats increased by 1.]

[You have gained 1 bonus stat.]

Su-ho pursed his lips as he read the notifications.

The rewards were better than he expected.

“Wow, this much for completing just one quest in a 2-star gate?”

Of course, the reward wasn’t simply generous because it was a 2-star gate.

Defense or siege quests were always some of the hardest battles.

There’s a reason they call it an iron fortress.

That’s why the max entry for this gate was 300 players.

The kingdom had tall, sturdy walls and plenty of archers, while this side had flat ground, no siege weapons, and no properly trained forces.

So in a way, getting just one level might even be considered a little stingy.

Still, can’t complain. Considering the effort, gaining a level that easily is pretty good.

Of course, if Su-ho were just a regular player who had just reached level 200, he wouldn’t have been able to break the gate alone.

The only reason this was possible was because Su-ho was an irregular—a being outside the system’s scale.

Especially Eye of the Blacksmith helped a lot.

Honestly, he hadn’t expected it to break in one hit.

He had just struck at a vulnerable spot in case it helped—he didn’t think it would actually open.

After claiming his rewards, Su-ho slowly stepped forward again.

“Kill them!!”

“Don’t let a single one inside!!”

“Purge those filthy plague carriers!!”

The capital’s defense forces had belatedly descended and started slaughtering the outsiders.

“Aaaaah!”

“Please save us!!”

“I’m begging you!”

“Just the child! At least the child!!”

Screams and sobs filled the air.

Even if the people inside the gate were technically NPCs, hearing cries that sounded so human left a bitter taste.

Su-ho pressed a pressure point behind his ear and cut off his hearing.

Silence.

That was better.

Listening to that nonstop would’ve been bad for his mental health.

Of course, he could still see the massacre unfolding before him, but he couldn’t very well shut his eyes too, so he tolerated it.

After standing still for a while, a new quest popped up.

[A quest has been generated.]

[Open the Royal Palace Gate]

Thanks to your actions, the capital gate of Dorima has been opened.

Now destroy the Royal Palace Gate, the only path leading to the palace, and open all routes to the heart of the kingdom.

The second quest: Open the Royal Palace Gate.

Not much different from the first gate quest.

And no different from how it progressed in his past life.

Su-ho knew how this quest ended.

That’s why he waited for it to appear.

Now that it had, it was time to move.

Just then—

“There he is!!”

“That’s the one!!”

“Catch that bastard!!”

The defense forces spotted Su-ho and shouted.

Looks like word of him had spread through the gate commander.

The kingdom’s soldiers started charging toward Su-ho to kill him.

Su-ho considered swinging his Blood Weapon—then changed his mind.

“Yup, I’m right here.”

He gave a friendly wave.

And then Su-ho’s figure vanished.

“Huh?” 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

“Wha—?”

“Where’d he go?”

“It’s a trick! He’s using some kind of illusion!”

“Search everywhere!!”

Su-ho had disappeared like magic.

But they didn’t stop looking.

They thought it was just a diversion.

What shocked them even more came right after.

Boom!!

A massive explosion.

The sound came from the direction of the Royal Palace.

The gate commander and the entire defense force felt their hearts ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) drop.

Their blood ran cold.

No way...

No, surely not...

But most bad feelings tend to be right.

The Royal Palace Gate, which should’ve been sealed shut, had been torn to shreds.

Su-ho had ripped off the remaining debris and looked at the system messages.

[Quest objective fulfilled.]

[Quest completed.]

[You have leveled up.]

[All stats increased by 1.]

[You have gained 1 bonus stat.]

Another level-up.

Not bad at all.

And he let out a smirk.

It worked.

Su-ho had vanished earlier by using an item skill.

He had activated Colorless Solitude.

He didn’t expect it to work against the royal army, but since his stats were overwhelmingly higher, it seemed to fool even them.

Thanks to that, he’d gotten close to the Royal Palace Gate without a hitch.

Movement? That was easy with Guiyeong Spear.

Su-ho put both bonus stat points into Mana.

Then, as the defense force and the gate commander stared blankly at him, he gave them a wave and casually entered the palace.

“I-intruder!!”

“The Royal Palace Gate has been breached!!”

“What are the Royal Guard and knights doing?!”

Su-ho had arrived.

An unprecedented storm had descended upon the Royal Palace of Dorima.