Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 456

“Ah, Director, you’re here?”

At Su-ho’s visit, Charlie, Director of the UN Player Bureau, rushed out in a hurry to greet him.

Su-ho lightly accepted his warm welcome and moved straight to his office.

As soon as they entered the office, Charlie took out some drinks and said,

“By the way, what brings you all the way here? Don’t tell me there are already signs of a second Big Gate appearing?”

Charlie likes Su-ho.

No, beyond liking him, he respects and loves him.

But separate from those feelings, he knew Su-ho was not someone who came here spouting nonsense or without a purpose, and that was why he was nervous.

To that question, Su-ho accepted the drink and answered,

“Director, I’ll skip the preamble and get straight to the point. Among the Player prisons currently being operated by each country, there are the ultra-max-level prisons, correct?”

“Yes, and?”

“How about using this opportunity to merge all of those into one and place them under UN management?”

“...Excuse me?”

“Just as I said.”

At Su-ho’s words, Charlie’s mouth fell half open.

Then he hastily sat down and asked again in a fluster,

“What do you mean by that? To suddenly integrate the prisons?”

“It’s not sudden; it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. The facilities that hold only supervillain-grade criminal Players are called ultra-max-level prisons, aren’t they? In America’s case, Lockdown is the representative facility.”

“That’s right.”

“But the United States is not a country without the death penalty, and yet they still insist on keeping supervillain-grade Players locked away in prison. As far as I know, there are certain reasons for that.”

“...What exactly do you mean?”

“You don’t have to pretend you don’t know. The UN is well aware of everything, isn’t it? I’m talking about the Suicide Squad project, where a great many countries secretly use villain Players to attack hard Gates.”

“...”

Charlie fell silent.

It was true.

Normally, among ordinary prisons, the highest grade of facility is called a supermax prison.

In the United States, ADX Florence in Colorado is the representative example, and the main purpose there is the inmates’ permanent isolation from society.

Hence its nickname: a clean hell.

However, with the appearance of Players, the severity of crimes rose, and it was decided that a higher grade beyond that needed to be established.

That was how the ultra-max grade was born, but the problem was that even though the inmates there were certainly fitted with mana restraints and had all five senses sealed, there were still Players who occasionally managed to succeed in escaping or going berserk.

Naturally, the cost of maintenance and operation was several dozens of times higher than for ordinary prisons.

But even so, the reason they could not execute supervillain-grade Players was because of various reasons.

The first was that no matter how much the United States had adopted the death penalty system, there was a constant movement of opposition within the country in order to prevent the possible death of wrongly convicted inmates.

The second was that they knew permanent deprivation of freedom was a punishment more difficult and cruel than death.

But Su-ho knew.

That all of ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) this was bullshit.

'Ultra-max is a place where only practically terrorist-level inmates go, and they pretend it’s about preventing wrongful executions, yeah right.'

The reason ultra-max-level prisons, which cost dozens of times more to maintain, were still being operated was because the governments of America and some other countries were secretly using inmate Players for hard Gate raids.

'In my previous life, it was only much, much later that I learned of the existence of this project.'

The Suicide Squad project was, just as the name implied, a suicide commando operation, and from an economic perspective, it was a fairly rational choice.

Compared to the astronomical sums of money it took to send ordinary Hunters into hard Gates with low survival rates, there was the expectation that supervillains might be able to succeed in the raids as long as there were means of control.

'And even if the raid failed and the inmates died, there would be no fallout afterward.'

This method was used especially often in China and Russia, and the United States, having seen that, belatedly adopted it as well.

At Su-ho’s words, Charlie kept his mouth shut for a while.

Then at last he opened his mouth with difficulty and said,

“...Then why, of all things, are you suggesting we place them under UN management?”

“Because the UN is the most neutral. But on the surface, I’d like the UN to administer them in name only. We’ll handle the actual operation.”

“Save the World will?”

“Yes. If we’re going to manage all the supervillain-grade Players in the world, we’ll need manpower to match. Leaving aside the cost, where else but Save the World could you currently find the personnel capable of controlling them?”

“That is true, but...”

Charlie’s eyes narrowed as he trailed off.

“Then this time, let me ask you something. What is Save the World’s reason for wanting to gather the inmates in one place and manage them together?”

“There’s something I want to make.”

“Something you want to make?”

“Yes, it’s an item recipe I found inside the Big Gate...”

It was about Gi Seung-hwan and Gi Seung-ok.

However, he did not actually speak about Gi Seung-hwan and Gi Seung-ok.

Instead, he spoke of how, through the Absorbing Gourd, it was possible to draw out a Player’s energy without side effects and thereby accumulate mana energy.

“Th-There’s such a thing?”

“Yes, it’s something I learned this time. Of course, even before I knew about the Absorbing Gourd, I was aware of the difficulties and uses surrounding the ultra-max-level prisons. So I’d been thinking for a long time about how they could be utilized, and just as I happened to learn of the Absorbing Gourd’s existence, it was like finding the answer.”

“No matter what, that’s a bit...”

“Is it because of human rights issues?”

“Yes, no matter how much these inmates are beings lower than human, we can’t completely ignore the voices of human rights activists.”

“We can ignore them.”

“Excuse me?”

“In Korea, there’s a saying. The guy with the loudest voice wins. But it’s not that he really wins because his voice is loud; it’s that he wins because people give in out of annoyance. I think it’s the same with the matter of human rights activists. In the end, the important thing is that you can’t ignore them because they show up to protest and raise their voices every damned day.”

“I won’t deny that. Then how do you intend to resolve this issue, Director?”

'You use barbarians to control barbarians, poison to counter poison, heat to fight heat. In the same way, we just have to deal with them using the same kind of method. I have countless supporters who cheer for Save the World. They’ll resolve the problem of the human rights activists.'

“Excuse me? Are you serious?”

“Yes, of course I’m serious. And I have no intention of hiding this project from the public. On the contrary, I intend to reveal it openly and receive their support.”

“What do you...”

“If you cover up the current facts with lies, you’ll have to tell even bigger lies later. And what do you think it means that this newly discovered recipe was found in the Big Gate? It means it was discovered so we could prepare for an even greater Wave to come. Surely you’re not planning to pretend you didn’t see the opportunity granted by the Big Gate for some ridiculous reason like human rights activists, are you, Director?”

“...”

Charlie shut his mouth.

He had nothing to say.

Of course he wouldn’t.

Now that the Suicide Squad project and the Big Gate had both been brought up, it was a perfect checkmate.

Su-ho rose from his seat and said,

“Please secure the consent of the UN Secretary-General and the presidents of all the countries operating ultra-max-level prisons. And if, by any chance, there’s no agreement on shared costs, Save the World will cover all expenses. But really, do you think they’ll all just zip their lips when we’re offering to manage their countries’ supervillains?”

“...Understood. I’ll bring the matter up for discussion.”

“Thank you.”

After a brief bow, Su-ho left the room.

*

Shaaah!

Su-ho’s Cheolma cut through the sky.

Following UN Headquarters, the place Su-ho headed to was none other than India.

After flying for quite some time, Su-ho arrived in India and from there headed toward the northern mountain ranges where the Himalayas, the Karakoram Range, and the Patkai Range were located.

'Where did he say that guy was again, around here?'

There were two reasons Su-ho had come to India after finishing the UN meeting.

One was because there was a skill he absolutely had to obtain in India, and the other was because there was a supervillain in India who had nearly destroyed the world in his previous life.

In that sense, Su-ho first visited the northern mountain ranges in order to obtain the skill.

'It really is damnably wide.'

Looking around the northern ranges, Su-ho let out a quiet exclamation.

The skill Su-ho was trying to obtain was none other than “Body Technique.”

If he had obtained spear technique from Xiang Yu of China, then the skill he was going to obtain in India was none other than Body Technique, a bare-handed combat art.

However, unfortunately, the owner of the Body Technique Su-ho sought was, at about this time, supposedly training alone somewhere in the northern ranges.

'It was better back in Xuzhou where Xiang Yu was.'

There, Xiang Yu had openly settled in the Xuzhou area and was busy fighting Orcs, so it had been easy to find him.

But trying to find a single person in the northern ranges, which were like a jungle, was truly like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

What was worse, unlike Paju or Xuzhou, this place was an uninhabited zone with no people, overflowing with unexplored Gates and monsters.

Even so, Su-ho had no intention of giving up.

Because even in this situation, he had a method.

“Guiyeong.”

“Woof!”

Su-ho summoned Guiyeong.

After eating Girard, Guiyeong answered quite well, and Su-ho had a feeling that if he fed it one or two more guys like Girard, it might even start performing tricks.

Su-ho gave Guiyeong an order.

“I’m going to step out for a bit, so look for someone. It just has to be a strong guy who beats monsters to death with his bare hands.”

“Woof!”

Having received Su-ho’s command, Guiyeong immediately jumped down from Cheolma.

Once Guiyeong leapt off, Su-ho lowered his altitude and used his next skills.

[ Army Tactics is activated. ]

[ Blood Armory is activated. ]

Fwoooosh!

It was the combo of Army Tactics and Blood Armory.

There was no way he was going to leave it to Guiyeong alone to find someone in these vast mountain ranges.

Su-ho released a huge amount of silver-colored mana and scattered his clone soldiers as if blanketing the entire range.

Sprinkling them around like this was the only way he could hope to find the guy, even by sheer dumb luck.

'There’s nothing better than human-wave tactics when it comes to searching for missing people.'

Now all that remained was to wait like Jiang Taigong for that guy to bite.

Of course, he had no intention of literally sitting still and waiting.

Su-ho immediately turned Cheolma and set off to fulfill his second purpose in coming to India: to meet the supervillain from India.

*

The place Su-ho arrived at in order to meet the supervillain was none other than the Indian Institute of Technology, India’s top university and one of the most prestigious institutions in the world.

'So the Overload is here, huh?'

Overload.

He was, together with Seo Gi-won, one of only two cyber-type trait ability users in existence, and he too was the owner of Digitization. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

He was an elite graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, a school known worldwide as a prestigious university—perhaps because of that?

On the strength of his outstanding intellect, he quickly grasped just how incredible an ability Digitization was, and based on the information he had worked out, after about ten years of preparation, he caused an unprecedented incident by using Digitization to seize control of all network systems on Earth.

'If I don’t cut him off at the bud now, he’ll hack nuclear weapons again and threaten the world just like back then.'

Back then, it had been fortunate that Meteor Seo Gi-won sacrificed his own body to stop him; if not for Seo Gi-won, this world would have been destroyed not by Gates, but by nuclear weapons.

Recalling that time, Su-ho shook his head and walked into the Indian Institute of Technology building.