Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 438

“St—stop....”

How much time had passed?

Hex threw off the peculiar arrogance he’d worn pretending to be a British noble and started begging pitifully for his life.

He couldn’t help it.

Su-ho had laid a horrendous punishment on Hex, who had tried to flee alone—endlessly repeating cutting and healing.

Su-ho paused from what might have been his hundredth slash and cast Heal once more.

[ Heal is activated. ]

‘This takes me back.’ 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Doing work that forced pain and recovery to iterate without end reminded him of the past.

Right after regression, in the first Gate, he had done just this to the boss Hobgoblin to obtain a pressure-type skill.

In that sense, Hex was worse off than the boss Hobgoblin.

Because when the boss Hobgoblin felt fear toward Su-ho, he at least had the exit of death; but if Hex looked like he was about to lose his mind, Su-ho even treated his psyche with the [Ring of Joy and Sorrow].

At length, after checking the time, Su-ho severed the nerves in Hex’s ankles and wrists, then spoke to Guiyeong.

“Guiyeong, drag him over here.”

Crunch!

Guiyeong clamped onto Hex’s forearm and dragged him along.

No scream came from Hex’s mouth.

He had hit the pressure points in advance.

Leisurely, Su-ho walked back to where Hiro was waiting.

As if he were out walking a dog.

“I’m back.”

“Have you returned?”

“Oh, looks like you were pretty busy on your own?”

Mountains of Wild Rabbit corpses lay around them.

Hiro smiled amiably.

“Yes, they kept coming even if I stood still, so I just cut them all down as they came.”

“Good work. Was it hard?”

“Ordinarily it might have been tight, but once I got your buffs I could handle it alone just fine.”

“My Blessing is pretty good.”

“Almost pope-level. As expected of you, Master.”

“Any injuries?”

“No, just some minor cuts and scrapes.”

“Yeah?”

[ Heal is activated. ]

When Su-ho healed his wounds, Hiro bowed his head deeply.

“Thank you.”

“No, more importantly—what about Alex?”

“He’s over there, quietly curled up.”

It was true.

Where Hiro pointed, Alex, who had lost so much blood his face was extremely pale, was quietly crumpled up.

Su-ho gave the guy a quick once-over and chuckled.

“If he were a normal person, he would’ve died long ago from hemorrhage. But he’s a tank—cockroach-level staying power.”

“Seems that way. By the way, did you bring Hex?”

“Huh? He’s right here.”

“Huh? This was Hex? I thought the dog had some rag in its mouth or something.”

“He’s not a dog, he’s a wolf.”

He knew that, but feigned ignorance to mock him.

Mockery aside, Hex had been dragged a very long way, and he’d become so ragged it was hard to tell if he was trash or a bundle of rags.

Su-ho patted Guiyeong’s head.

“Good job, Guiyeong.”

Guiyeong dipped his head.

After that, he unsummoned Guiyeong, then woke the fainted Hex.

“Get up.”

“......”

“Not getting up?”

Hex didn’t stir.

He wasn’t dead.

So, kindly, Su-ho cut his ankle to rouse him.

“Mmmmmmph!!”

“Now you’re up.”

With his pressure points struck he couldn’t even let out a clean scream.

Su-ho released the pressure points on the awakened Hex and tossed him down next to Alex.

[ Heal is activated. ]

[ Recovery is activated. ]

After that, Su-ho treated both of them cleanly.

Naturally, the ankles that had been severed by the sword did not regenerate.

Only the cut stumps had closed.

It didn’t matter.

Su-ho didn’t care in the slightest about the limbs those bastards had lost.

Soon he stepped up to them, looking down at the two as he spoke.

“How does it feel to see each other again?”

“You son of a...!”

“......”

Alex bared his teeth and glared at Hex.

Hex avoided Alex’s gaze.

The sight was so satisfying that Su-ho smiled as he spoke.

“Childhood pals turned mortal enemies overnight. In that spirit, I’ll make you a proposal.”

Su-ho summoned the blood-forged sword again and drove it into the ground.

Crunch!

The solid Blood Sword sank into the ground with a heavy sound.

To someone, that sound would be downright chilling.

For example, anyone who had been cut by that Blood Sword.

Thus, both men swallowed dryly as they looked at Su-ho’s blade.

“Spill everything you know. Then I’ll spare one of you. Who’s first?”

“I—I’ll talk!”

“Like hell you will!!”

Thwack!!

At the prospect of being spared, Hex opened his mouth first; Alex rammed a fist into Hex’s face, and Hex went rolling to the side.

“You son of a bitch!!”

Furious, Hex drew a weapon.

He’d lost one ankle, but both hands still worked.

At that, Alex also drew his weapon.

Alex’s position was a tank, but that didn’t mean he only ever carried a shield.

Alex, too, quickly drew a blunt weapon and all but threw himself at Hex.

“Die! Die! You bastard!!”

“You drop dead, you son of a bitch!!”

Hex with a dagger and Alex with a bludgeon tangled like demons and fought.

Watching them blow skills and attack each other to the death, memories from the previous life flickered past like a revolving lantern.

‘Pathetic idiots.’

That I had once suffered at the hands of trash like that.

A fresh wave of shame surged up.

So Su-ho never took his eyes off their fight.

Watching from the side, Hiro said,

“At this rate one of them’s going to die. Shouldn’t we stop them?”

“Die? Why would they die when I’m here?”

With his reply, Su-ho cast Heal, and the wounds of the two entangled in combat closed in an instant.

Thanks to that, their bloodbath continued on and on.

It was miserable.

Blades tempered by mutual hatred kept stabbing deep into each other, incessantly, in a hell where they could not die.

Those blades sometimes pierced skulls, sometimes gouged eyes, sometimes sliced out uvulas.

As the fight dragged on, virtually every vital spot got punctured at least once.

But neither man stopped fighting.

The pain they inflicted on each other dulled as time passed, but the single fact—that the loser of this fight would die—was etched clear in their minds.

Then, just about when Hex’s artery got gouged deeply yet again—

“Guiyeong, go pry them apart.”

At Su-ho’s order, the summoned Guiyeong bit Hex’s leg and flung him far away.

“Why is it ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) me again!!”

“Grr?”

At Hex’s protest, Guiyeong bared his fangs.

At the same time, those blazing eyes—no matter that Hex was a top-tier British Player—jabbed terror deep into his bones, and in an instant his eyes fell.

As he healed the two, Su-ho said,

“Good, good. I said I was going to interrogate you, and you’re foaming at the mouth to kill each other? When did I tell you to fight each other?”

“......”

“......”

Both men shut their mouths.

They didn’t even dare think of protesting.

Su-ho smiled and said,

“Hex, you first. Everything you know. Who’s behind you, what common organization you belong to and what its purpose is, and also who was dispatched to Save the World with the same objective as you.”

“......Understood.”

Thankfully, Hex didn’t say anything like “Just kill me instead.”

For all his pride, he was a guy with a strong desire to survive.

He didn’t use Enthrallment.

Watching him sell information of his own accord was far more pleasing than having him babble under charm.

After hemming and hawing for a while, Hex opened his mouth.

“We are... founding members of a secret group called New Class.”

“New Class?”

“It’s a group composed only of top-tier Players across the world—or tycoons....”

New Class.

Put simply, it was a secret social club created by those who, after becoming Players, had gained immense wealth and fame, or by new tycoons after the Great Upheaval. Their ultimate goal was to become the rulers of the world.

“...We believe this world isn’t going to collapse. And at the same time, we want it to continue forever.”

“So that you can stand above everyone else.”

“If the top Players gather, they can overthrow even a nation—such is the present. If levels rise further, even nukes could probably be suppressed with ease. And seeing you, we realized our projections were correct.”

“But you didn’t approach me.”

“That’s because you declared the founding of Save the World first through the Big Gate broadcast.”

“You could have after that.”

“We were looking for an opening. Even pushing you to show your face had a similar reason behind it.”

“I see.”

Su-ho closed his eyes.

And once more brought back memories from his previous life.

The four comrades who betrayed him.

So all of them belonged to New Class?

No wonder he had wondered how America, Britain, Japan, and Russia had joined hands together.

‘And yet I didn’t know a thing.’

To survive somehow in this damned world, he had lived day after day absorbing all the information in the world.

And he had worked like he was dying and climbed to the seat of Sword God—only to find that the ones behind his death amounted to nothing more than the petty greed of humans dreaming of royalty.

It was hollow.

Because, to be honest, he had expected at least a Transcendent to be behind it.

But a Transcendent? As if.

It was just a lump of human greed.

‘It’s so hollow it makes me even angrier.’

Suppressing his anger, Su-ho asked Alex, who was kneeling at his side,

“How about it—is he telling the truth?”

“...All of it is true.”

“I see.”

Su-ho closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed his temple.

A little later he slowly opened his eyes and said,

“Spill it all.”

“What?”

“Name every Player, corporation, and politician in New Class. If we get all those bastards arrested, then I’ll spare you.”

“I—is that for real?”

“Of course it is. But in exchange—”

Su-ho summoned the Blood Sword again and gripped it.

Then, in an instant, he swung the blade and severed both of their right wrists.

“Gyaaaaaaaah!!”

“You’re both right-handed, yeah? I’ll let you live. But you’ll live crippled for the rest of your lives.”

The price of survival was one wrist and one ankle each.

Strictly speaking, it was the price for survival right now, not continued survival, but since there was no need to clarify that, Su-ho used Heal to stop the bleeding at their wrists.

Then he pressed every one of their pressure points to blind their eyes, deafen their ears, and mute their mouths, and finally struck the paralysis points to turn them into living corpses.

After tossing them into the Subspace House, Su-ho spoke to Hiro.

“Let’s go. I’m going out there to smash this New Class or whatever to pieces.”

“You’re going to handle it personally?”

“No? I’m busy as hell just dealing with Gates. Why would I?”

“Then how will you do it?”

“I’ll announce it to the world. You’ve played tag, right? Imagine playing tag against the entire world. A politician becomes a cripple if people don’t vote for him; a company turns into worse than a corner shop if people don’t consume. Think Players will be any different? If they’re banned from entering Gates, they lose their usefulness and become scrap. Then everything inside them that supported them will collapse, and they won’t be able to bear the continued criticism and finger-pointing. Oh, and of course that person and that person’s family, and everything connected to that person, will end up the same way. That’s how you deal with trash.”

“An excellent method. True—having you personally deal with vermin would be ridiculous.”

“Death is too light a punishment. If you wanted to stand in a high place, you should know how much it hurts to fall. Let’s go. There’s no reason to stay here any longer.”

“Yes, understood, Master.”

Hiro quickly fell in behind Su-ho.

And once more, he made a vow.

That he would follow Su-ho for the rest of his life.