Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant

Chapter 517

The world was still running smoothly, with everything proceeding step by step.

The conquest of the remaining gates left on Madagascar was still ongoing, and construction was progressing without a hitch too—starting with the Hyper Camp and continuing on to housing and infrastructure for the workers.

Other business was the same.

When he opened his phone to check, there weren’t any urgent calls.

They were all just messages about status reports.

He’d told them to compile everything and send it by text instead of calling, and everyone had handled it cleanly, without any fluff.

Su-ho checked the time and date.

‘There’s still a long way to go before the second Big Gate that was scheduled to break out. That’s why I was going to stack my specs as much as possible until the next Big Gate and set up a World Stabilization System or something in the meantime, but....’

To think it would toss him a new piece of homework called a special quest.

As expected of the system.

No—maybe it had been the intended sequence.

It had regressed him to the day he was the strongest of all humanity, so it wasn’t an idiot. There was no way it would just sit by and silently watch him run wild.

‘Maybe it “aged” me for new entertainment.’

The system only pursued entertainment.

So no matter how outstanding he was, as long as he was playing in its playground, he couldn’t get ahead of it first.

If he wanted to catch the system off guard, he had to comply with the course it created as much as possible and gather information he didn’t know.

‘Then I should start right away.’

After thinking for a moment, Su-ho went back into the Subspace House.

Then, inside the Subspace House, he tried activating the Big Gate embedded in the special quest.

[You cannot trigger it here.]

A firm response.

So tricks like this didn’t work after all.

It said that if he touched it, a Big Gate would occur immediately, but it hadn’t said exactly where it would occur—so he’d tried to make it occur inside the Subspace House, where there would be minimal casualties.

But the system was the system.

It didn’t allow Su-ho’s little trick.

‘First, I need to go somewhere with as few people as possible.’

After thinking for a moment, Su-ho summoned Cheolma and headed for an uninhabited island with no signs of life.

‘This should do.’

Starting from Madagascar and going far to the south, he was able to find an island without a single trace of people.

To prevent any possible accidents, he checked the surrounding area two or three more times, and only then did Su-ho trigger the Big Gate once again.

[Do you want to trigger a Big Gate?]

When he touched the text, the system asked for final confirmation.

The answer was obviously yes.

And then.

“...?”

There was no response at all.

What was this?

An error?

That couldn’t be.

Because the “create Big Gate” text written in the special quest entry had been blocked so it could no longer be touched.

At that moment.

[The conditions have been fulfilled.]

[From now on, the creation of the second Big Gate will begin.]

Kugugugugugu!!

A system notification appeared.

At the same time, the entire island began to rumble violently.

‘It’s finally starting.’

Su-ho mounted Cheolma and moved away from the island.

This Big Gate wasn’t the Big Gate he knew, but a new type of gate, so he didn’t know what kind of gate-creation effect might occur.

At that moment, Su-ho’s phone began to ring like crazy.

The caller was Kim Geon.

But he ignored it.

Now wasn’t the time to answer calls.

But after that call ended, calls came in one after another—Jeong Cheol-min, Jo Jin-hwi, Charlie, and so on.

Only then did Su-ho realize that these weren’t just ordinary calls, and he answered right away.

The person he picked up for was Kim Geon, who had been calling repeatedly.

The moment he answered, Kim Geon’s relief burst out from the other side of the line.

- Ah, thank goodness. You answered.

“What is it? What happened?”

- Section Chief, did you not see the notification?

A notification?

At the word “notification,” Su-ho’s spine went cold for a moment.

“What notification?”

- The Big Gate notification. Didn’t an alert pop up just now saying the second Big Gate has started being created?

“What?!”

At Kim Geon’s words, Su-ho raised his voice without meaning to.

No, wasn’t a Big Gate created through the quest supposed to show a notification only to me?

It wasn’t.

Unfortunately, because a Big Gate was a world-class event, just like the first Big Gate, a notification popped up for all players.

As a result, the world was turned upside down once again.

“A Big Gate?”

“No, a second Big Gate?”

“What is this supposed to mean?”

“What is this out of nowhere?”

“What did the Director-General say?!”

The World Magic Detection Organization, WMD, fell into chaos.

During the first Big Gate, there had at least been precursor signs, but this was, in the truest sense, something that appeared out of nowhere.

Of course, it wasn’t just WMD. The U.N. and the entire world were thrown into turmoil.

‘This is driving me insane.’

He’d tried to handle it as quietly as possible if he could, but of course—it was the system.

It couldn’t stand seeing players have it easy.

No, now it felt like it couldn’t stand seeing Su-ho have it easy.

After thinking briefly, Su-ho gave orders.

“I’ll look into it right away and contact you, so tell everyone to stay put and not do anything rash—have them wait. Tell WMD to monitor the entire world as much as possible, and if anything unusual comes up, to contact me immediately. I’m going to turn this phone off, so contact me on my sub phone.”

- Yes, understood!

After the call ended, Su-ho turned off the phone.

Then, with a furrowed brow, he looked at the uninhabited island that was still trembling.

That was when.

[The second Big Gate has been created.]

It said the second Big Gate had been created.

At the same time, the island that had been ringing like mad also stopped, as if it were a lie.

But the gate was nowhere to be seen.

‘What? Don’t tell me it’s not here?’

Well, it said it would create a Big Gate. It had never said it would create it in front of my eyes.

While he was at a loss at the system’s pettiness, Su-ho’s sub phone rang.

It was Kim Geon.

“Yeah.”

- Section Chief, WMD contacted us and said they detected abnormal mana concentration.

“Where?”

- That is... in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

“The Pacific?”

Suddenly, the Pacific?

At that moment, one memory from his previous life flashed through Su-ho’s mind.

“Geon-ah, don’t tell me it’s near the Mariana Trench?”

- How did you know? We haven’t tracked it precisely yet, but they say it’s highly likely to be around there.

“This is driving me insane. All right. I’m leaving for that way right now, so tell WMD to keep watching the mana trend, and tell everyone else not to overreact and just keep doing what they were doing. Especially the Hyper Camp project—keep it going.”

- You’re going alone?

“Of course. Among the players right now, is there anyone with mobility as fast as mine? And you said it’s in the middle of the Pacific, right? How else are you going to get there if not by flying?”

- That’s true, but... even so, will you really be all right?

“I don’t know either. But if I’m not all right, then nobody else will be all right either, so what’s the point of that question?”

- Th-that’s true, but even so, I’d prefer you not say things like that.

“It’s a joke, you idiot. Anyway, I’ll contact you when I get there.”

- Yes, understood.

The call ended.

Su-ho sighed as he put away his phone.

“Of all places, the Mariana Trench....”

There was a place in the world called the Mariana Trench.

A trench 2,550 km long and reaching a height difference of 11,000 meters—the deepest seafloor in the world, and at the same time the largest trench.

It took its name from the nearby Mariana Islands, and it was called the bottom of the Earth, or the lowest place in the world.

Just by seafloor depth alone, it was as deep as the distance from land up to the stratosphere, so saying any more about how deep it was would be stating the obvious.

The problem was that, in his previous life, an enormous gate had existed in the Mariana Trench.

That place, called “Undersea Hell,” proudly held one seat among the five calamity-grade gates, and it had been a gate he and his comrades from his previous life had planned to raid at least as their third or fourth target.

‘Because Undersea Hell’s field is literally nothing but water.’

The moment you entered, an immense amount of seawater welcomed the players.

There was nowhere to put your feet down.

So in the Mariana Gate, the number of players who died by drowning was far higher than the number who died at the hands of monsters.

‘No—just in case, I should go and confirm it with my own eyes first.’

Just because the location was similar didn’t mean it was the same gate, right?

Su-ho immediately mounted Cheolma and headed for the Mariana Trench.

And after flying for quite a while and arriving at the Mariana Trench...

“Wow....”

As if to say ominous forebodings always came true, sure enough, Undersea Hell—the one he’d seen in his previous life—was recreated exactly as it had been.

“This is driving me insane, seriously.”

Su-ho lifted his camera and filmed the second Big Gate.

It looked truly vicious.

Just like the first Big Gate, the Mariana Gate had a shape resembling a black hole of dark purple-black energy. It seemed this kind of form was a typical characteristic of all Big Gates.

Because the Mariana Gate in his previous life had looked like this too.

Click, click.

After finishing filming, Su-ho sent the photos to Kim Geon.

Then he told him to wait, since he would start investigating first.

‘Initial response is good enough like this....’

I have to go in, right?

Yeah. I have to go in.

Even if someone else came, there’s nothing they could do anyway.

Thinking that, Su-ho rode Cheolma and closed the distance to it.

“Man, it really stings.”

In front of the Mariana Gate.

Floating like a floating fortress above the trench, it was rippling with a dark purple-black energy portal that looked like it could casually swallow a few buildings, just like he’d seen in his previous life.

The aura it emitted was intense too.

Just like with the first Big Gate, simply being close to it made his skin tingle—like if he stayed like this, he’d be crushed flat like in a press.

If the force he could feel on his skin was this strong, how much tighter would it be inside?

Probably, unless you were a player on Su-ho’s level, you’d pass out without even being able to breathe the ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) moment you entered.

After thinking briefly, Su-ho approached the Big Gate.

[Loading gate information.]

[Second Big Gate]

- Entry Condition: Player An Su-ho only.

- Variable Conditions: None.

[Do you wish to enter the gate?]

Looking at the gate information, Su-ho let out a snort of laughter.

It was absurd that there were no other conditions—only that it was exclusive to him.

‘So it really is a gate for me.’

Which made it even more absurd.

It was a gate only I can enter, so why are you announcing it to the entire world?

Is it telling me to embarrass myself if I fail?

But if I die inside, it’s over.

The system’s psychology was impossible to understand.

However, because of this special quest, Su-ho could be certain.

‘From now on, all the massive upheavals that will shake this world will be focused on me.’

In other words, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that from now on, this world had become a 1:1 playground meant only for me and the system.

It wasn’t pleasant.

Because it meant if I’m finished, then everyone else is finished too.

Su-ho texted Kim Geon to tell him he was going into the gate and would come back out.

There was no other choice.

Even if this wasn’t the Mariana Gate he knew, in the end, he’d have no choice but to challenge it.

So without hesitation, he entered the gate.

[Entering the gate.]

The moment Su-ho entered the gate, the aura that had been dark purple-black changed to red.

Kim Geon, who had received the text, called like crazy, but the moment Su-ho entered the gate, even that ringing stopped.