Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant novel Chapter 387

Amazingly, the footage was the full video.

Only one edit had been made: the audio track had been deleted.

There was no helping it.

If he released the full version with sound, the conversation would spew a pile of new suspicions.

But Jo Jin-hwi didn’t care in the least.

“Upload complete.”

Jo Jin-hwi.

His nickname: the Golden Media Leech.

Partly because he drove a yellow Ferrari, but also as praise for how fast his articles hit the wire.

And into his hands went Su-ho’s Amnok River battle footage.

On Su-ho’s direct order, no less.

Of course, both the tipster’s identity and Jo Jin-hwi’s identity as the uploader were concealed.

The reason was that the background was the Amnok River. The Korean Hunter Allied Forces hadn’t even approached the Amnok yet; if Jo Jin-hwi, a South Korean, posted Amnok River footage, a flood of questions would be inevitable.

After finishing the upload, Jo Jin-hwi called Su-ho.

“It’s all up, Chief.”

— You hid the reporter’s identity too, right?

“Of course. Not a single grain of your identity or mine leaked. You think this is my first day dribbling a piece like this?”

— As expected of you, Reporter.

Su-ho was grateful that Jo Jin-hwi didn’t ask about the source of the footage.

A reporter might naturally be curious, but he just did the job like a good henchman.

Jo Jin-hwi asked,

“Busy, right? When are you coming back to Seoul?”

— I should be able to enter in a little while. Quietly, of course.

“Are you coming in for good?”

— Hardly. Even if I go in, it’ll be a brief stop for work. If we can swing it, I’ll drop by and say hello.

“Ay, with how swamped you are, what’s the point of seeing my face? Just toss me work like this from time to time.”

— Haha, much appreciated as always. I’ll be in touch.

“Yup, talk soooon~!”

Brightly, he hung up.

Leaning back in his chair, Jo Jin-hwi hit play again.

It was that same video he’d received from Su-ho.

“Nice to meet you. You’re the Trident brothers, right?”

“Plenty to be shocked about. Well? Not going to rush me? Think you can manage like that sorry state?”

“That’s not your real power, is it. Stop clowning and lay all your cards on the table.”

“Or you’re going to shit blood.”

But out of the video he’d thought was muted, Su-ho’s voice was playing—clear as day.

Grinning, Jo Jin-hwi said,

“Oh, Chief... if you hand me a crudely phone-muted clip, I can restore all of this.”

It was just that.

The footage sent to him was a phone edit where Su-ho had simply stripped the sound.

But with his deep knowledge of video, the moment he received it, Jo Jin-hwi spotted the gap, re-edited it so no one else could restore the audio, then uploaded it.

He didn’t tell Su-ho.

If Su-ho had muted it even to him, there had to be a reason he didn’t want to say it out loud.

Tak!

Watching, Jo Jin-hwi tapped the space bar and paused.

Any way he looked at it, the footage was shot well.

And any way he looked at it, the Red Dragon King in the video sure seemed like Su-ho.

No wonder—Su-ho’s voice was coming from the Red Dragon King’s mouth.

With a faint chuckle, he muttered,

“What kind of life are you leading, Chief...?”

*

— Holy shit lmao

— Aren’t these the Trident Trio?

— Wow, we knew Lizardmen lived on the Amnok, but this level?!

— They can’t even put up a fight, getting absolutely stomped lol

— They call him Red Dragon King in China? That name sounds badass as hell lol

Explosive reactions.

Uploaded across all major social platforms worldwide—not just China—the Amnok River battle spread through reuploads and mirrors until no one could put the genie back in the bottle.

Thanks to that, Su-ho, dubbed the Red King and Red Dragon King, became the hottest “monster” on Earth—and the Trident Trio who charged him...

— Damn! Still badass lol. Didn’t they go in to bag the Red Dragon King in place of the Chinese army?

— Bro amazing wwwwwww

— This is China and wuxia, fuck lol

— Sure, they all got an ear ripped off, but still metal as hell

— Isn’t that what you call heroes? lol

Were on people’s lips almost as much as the Red Dragon King himself.

For many reasons, but chiefly because they didn’t give up and fought the Red Dragon King to the end.

Which left the Chinese government in a bind.

“Haa...”

Particularly Wang Qiang, the Paranormal Elite Corps officer, was in deep trouble.

As he’d told Rongchen earlier, he had been keeping a close eye on the Red King while managing the CMC Amnok River Surveillance Unit—but events were spinning in an utterly unexpected direction.

“So what are you going to do if the Red King goes berserk?!”

“You little shit! Do you have a brain or not?!”

“You call yourself a Paranormal Corps officer and didn’t even anticipate this much, just letting those Trident or tuna or whatever ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ bastards run loose?!”

“Christ, you useless pig...!”

“Bring us a plan, fast!”

Wang Qiang fumed at the injustice.

Letting the Trident Trio be had been an order from above, but now they were dumping the blame on him—how could he not be pissed?

Flying over Xuzhou’s sky, Su-ho looked down.

This land belonged to the famed heteromorphic monsters: Orcs. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Not that Orc occupation was special in itself.

Among bipedal monsters, Orcs were the strongest and most numerous heteromorphic race.

‘It couldn’t be otherwise: strength is one thing, but their fecundity and adaptability are beyond cockroaches.’

Even vast China had headaches aplenty thanks to Orcs.

But in Orc-held Xuzhou, there was someone Su-ho was looking for.

Just then—

KWAANG!!

A massive boom.

It came from far off, but Su-ho didn’t miss it.

“Head that way.”

“Hihing!”

He urged the Cheolma toward the source of the sound.

He’d been wondering how he’d find that person in sprawling Xuzhou—but it might be easier than expected.

Soon, as he approached the direction of the sound, Su-ho witnessed a rare spectacle... though in Xuzhou, relatively common.

A single man, wielding a long spear, fighting hundreds of Orcs.

“Uryaaa!”

KWA-AANG!!

“Graaaargh!!”

“Guuuuuh!!”

The man fighting hundreds of Orcs.

He was a burly fellow.

With a single sweep of his spear, a dozen-odd Orcs were sent flying or pulped.

But there were still many Orcs.

So they kept swarming like zombies.

“Hahahaha! Yesterday, today, tomorrow—there will never be a day when you beat me!”

KWAAAAANG!!

Hundreds of Orcs charged.

But the man remained carefree.

He wasn’t scared, he wasn’t cowed; if anything, he hacked them down as if playing with children, never losing an ounce of momentum.

Perhaps that was why—

At a glance, the fight between the man and the Orcs looked like a well-choreographed stage piece.

Watching the man’s battle, Su-ho grinned and muttered,

“As expected, China’s strongest Player in its history really is built different.”

After the Great Upheaval, the Player hailed as the greatest and strongest in China’s history.

He had never once ceded the top spot in China and survived to the extreme late end of the Upheaval—and narrowly missed becoming a member of the final suicide squad.

Unlike the Trident Trio, he was a unique-trait Player whose namesake was Xiang of the old Western Chu—the Hegemon-King: surname Xiang, given name Ji, courtesy name Yu—Xiang Ji himself.