Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant

Chapter 75

The afternoon shift had begun, and Suho officially became a Record Renewal Agent in the Awakening Division.

“A Renewal Agent… It’s been a while.”

A Renewal Agent was, in essence, a collector of overdue responsibilities. Much like how the tax office sends collection teams after delinquent taxpayers or the military dispatches deserter squads to capture runaways, the Awakening Division deployed Renewal Agents to update overdue records.

Naturally, all Renewal Agents were field operatives, exclusively Players. Ordinary civilians need not apply.

Eom Jun-seong handed Suho a temporary Renewal Agent ID and encouraged him with a smile.
"Well then, Suho, good luck!"

"Yes."

Suho replied nonchalantly to Eom’s enthusiasm.

The reason Eom wasn’t accompanying him? Simple: Eom wasn’t a Player, nor a field operative, but a desk worker. Thus, someone else was assigned to act as Suho’s guide—someone who was both a field agent and an active Player.

Han Ho-seong, a current Renewal Agent and Suho’s assigned field mentor, greeted him.

"Nice to meet you, I’m Han Ho-seong."

Han Ho-seong.

As a Grade-7 field agent and a seasoned veteran with a reputation for excellence, he had been specifically chosen to oversee Suho’s training.

But Han wasn’t thrilled about this assignment.

“Damn it, being good at my job feels like a punishment sometimes.”

Han knew exactly who Suho was.

In fact, who in this country didn’t?

That was why Han couldn’t be pleased about becoming Suho’s trainer.

Rumors about Suho were already widespread within the association.

“He’s part of the Royal circle, so everyone is expected to cater to him. Great, just great… Like I don’t have enough to deal with already.”

As part of his role, Han had reviewed the list of non-compliant renewals assigned to Suho for training. That list alone was enough to annoy him.

The individuals on it weren’t just troublesome—they were legendary for being untraceable or impossible to catch. They were, as Han thought of them, “legends of legends.”

And yet, these cases had been dumped on Suho, a mere trainee.

The intent was obvious: others would catch the targets and hand them to Suho on a silver platter.

Why?

Because Suho was a "Royal" destined for the Special Division.

From Han’s perspective, it was impossible not to harbor some resentment.

Despite this, Suho greeted him with a bright smile.

"Nice to meet you, I’m Ahn Suho. I’ll be relying on you for a while."

"Uh, sure… Shall we start with some basic instructions? Oh, wait—Eom briefed you on the stat-measuring device and other tools, right?"

"Yes, he did."

"Great. Then we can skip the basics. Let’s see…"

Han sighed heavily as he scowled at the file he held, reviewing the list of targets.

He muttered under his breath, "This is insane… seriously…"

It felt almost inhumane to include nothing but troublemakers on the list. How could they assign a trainee only the worst cases?

Han continued grumbling, unaware that Suho was watching him with a faint smile.

"Are you having trouble deciding where to start?" Suho asked politely.

"Yeah, you could say that…"

"Then how about this person?"

Suho pointed to one of the names in the file.

Han glanced between the photo and Suho, letting out another sigh.

"Look, Suho… Are you sure you know who this guy is before suggesting we go after him?"

"He’s a non-compliant renewal case, isn’t he?"

"Sure, but… Let me be blunt. Everyone assigned to you is a legend in the Awakening Division for being utterly unmanageable. And this guy you just pointed to? We don’t even know where he is! He’s been off the grid for years!"

"I know."

"What?"

"I said I know. If he’s listed as a non-compliant case despite being untraceable, it means the division knows he’s still active somewhere. Isn’t that why he’s on the list?"

"Well… that’s true. But how do you know that?"

"I’ve done my research. Anyway, I’ll handle him."

The target Suho had pointed out was Kim Goong-won.

As Han had mentioned, Kim was an infamous non-compliant renewal case who had eluded capture for years.

Under normal circumstances, his prolonged absence would warrant a declaration of missing or deceased.

However, his continued presence on the list indicated that he was still actively operating within society, and the Awakening Division was well aware of it.

Han frowned even deeper at Suho’s confident attitude.

"Look, Suho, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but how exactly are you planning to catch him? The guy is supposedly overseas."

"Do you really think he’s abroad?"

"What?"

"Kim Goong-won. Profession: illegal pharmacologist. Nicknamed the 'Doping Designer,' he supplies performance-enhancing drugs to athletes, including non-Awakened individuals. The issue is that these drugs mimic skill effects. He denies the allegations, but multiple reports have been filed against him. The Awakening Division requested an update to his status window to verify the charges, but he’s refused for years, evading capture. His current location is supposedly overseas…"

It was as expected.

Kim Goong-won had initially worked as a doping designer while still an ordinary person. However, when he unexpectedly awakened as a Player, his case was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Great Awakening Association (GAA).

While his doping activities had little direct connection to the GAA, the issue was that his illegal drugs started producing skill-like effects rather than just traditional doping enhancements.

This development made him a target of the GAA's investigations.

Interestingly, despite this being a clear case of Player-related crime, it wasn’t the Special Division that was pursuing him, but the Awakening Division.

The reason was simple:

“They need concrete evidence before the Special Division gets involved.”

Ideally, the Special Division would handle this from the start. However, being chronically understaffed, they didn’t act unless there was undeniable proof.

“And, of course, P. Sung-yeol finds cases like this bothersome.”

Naturally, Sung-yeol prioritized cases that were directly beneficial to him.

Even so, the Awakening Division couldn’t just let cases like these pile up indefinitely. Just as the police face criticism for a growing backlog of unresolved cases, so did the GAA when overdue tasks began accumulating.

Suho continued, his voice calm but assured:

“Kim Goong-won is definitely in the country. His drugs are still circulating domestically, so how could he be overseas? Smuggling drugs into Korea from abroad would require an extremely complex process. Even this file mentions that, according to a recent anonymous tip, Kim’s drugs are being used by well-known athletes here in Korea.”

His logic was airtight, and Han Ho-seong found himself nodding along despite himself.

“That’s a good point. But a tip is just a tip. We don’t even have proof that those athletes are actually using the drugs.”

“Then let’s verify it.”

“And how do you propose we do that? Skill-enhancing drugs leave no physical traces, unlike traditional doping substances.”

“That’s my problem to solve.”

“Are you serious? This isn’t a formal investigation; it’s just an anonymous tip. There’s no way we’ll get a warrant.”

“I have a method in mind. Let me handle this on my own first. If I fail, I’ll follow your approach.”

“…Hah.”

Han let out a dry laugh, shaking his head at Suho’s unyielding determination.

But Suho’s resolve was genuine.

After staring at him for a moment, Han finally relented with a resigned nod.

“Fine. Do it your way. I’ll be watching, so go ahead.”

“Thank you for trusting me.”

Han’s decision wasn’t reckless—it was deliberate.

He had no real power to stop Suho’s persistence, and part of him was genuinely curious to see how this would play out. After all, Suho wasn’t just any trainee—he was a "Royal." Even if he made a mistake, the higher-ups would undoubtedly cover for him.

And most importantly…

“Let him figure it out the hard way. He needs to learn that even being a Sword God doesn’t make tracking non-compliant individuals any easier. This is a completely different game.”

Suho collected the phone numbers of the athletes implicated in the tips, then left the room.

Watching him go, Han reclined in his chair, deciding to treat this as an unexpected paid vacation.

With the phone numbers in hand, Suho headed to the Nexus Academy in Paju.

There, he summoned Seo Gi-won, who was in the middle of leveling up, and explained the situation.

After hearing everything, Seo nodded confidently.

“This is easy.”

“Easy?”

“The goal is just to find Kim Goong-won’s location, right?”

“Exactly.”

“Then we just follow the phone numbers provided in the tips. Once we identify Kim Goong-won’s phone, we’ll have his location. Then it’s just a matter of catching him.”

Hearing this, Suho grinned.

As expected.

If it were anyone else, this plan might seem far-fetched, but Seo Gi-won’s abilities as a digitization specialist made this task seem trivial.

“I knew coming to you was the right choice. You always make it sound simple.”

“Of course. For problems like this, I’m your guy. Shall we get started?”

“Not yet. Bring Hyun-min along.”

“Hyun-min? Why do we need him?”

“He’s crucial for this operation.”

Kim Hyun-min, a founding member of Banshee and the team’s mobility specialist, was essential for their plan.

While Seo didn’t immediately understand Suho’s reasoning, Kim Hyun-min grasped his role quickly after the situation was explained.

“Alright, Hyun-min’s on board. Let’s get started,” Suho said.

Their first step was to contact one of the implicated athletes, a famous baseball player named Ham Dae-ho. Seo handled the call.

The phone rang and was soon answered.

• “Hello?”

“Yes, is this Ham Dae-ho?”

• “Yeah, who’s this?”

“This is Kwon Sung-min from the Telecom Base Station. We have an excellent internet package I’d like to—”

• “Not interested.”

Click.

Ham hung up immediately at the mention of an internet package.

Still, the brief interaction confirmed that the number belonged to him. Seo grinned and gave Suho a thumbs-up, to which Suho responded with his own amused thumbs-up.

“Nice acting.”

“This is basic stuff. Shall we move on?”

“Let’s.”

With the number confirmed, Seo configured his phone and activated his digitization ability, pulling himself and the team into the phone’s digital space.

The operation to locate Kim Goong-won had officially begun.