I Became a Black Market Tycoon with an Inventory - Chapter 26

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

027-Bacambu
27.
The booby traps I installed begin to demonstrate their purpose.
They start detonating everywhere.
In places I never anticipated,
in areas the Rebel Forces believed without question were their own territory,
the booby traps begin to explode.
The Rebel Forces start to panic.
Booby traps of unknown origin—
installed by an unknown hand at an unknown time.
Such booby traps begin detonating all around them.
The problem lies
in the fact that these booby traps bear their own signature.
To anyone’s eye,
they are the design Derek Meyer taught them.
Hastily learned and crudely executed.
The very same booby traps they themselves had been installing.
Clearly meant to obstruct intruders,
designed to inflict damage upon the Government Military,
yet it is the Rebel Forces who suffer the consequences.
In fact, the Rebel Forces have experienced firsthand the sting of their own creation.
In the early days of their booby trap construction,
they built them themselves and detonated them themselves.
Some exploded during installation,
others when they unknowingly passed through areas where traps lay hidden.
Booby traps of unknown installation.
Booby traps that seem likely to be their own handiwork.
Booby traps designed to block the enemy.
They inflict tremendous inconvenience upon the Rebel Forces.
As a result, every time the Rebel Forces pass through the Campoko region, they must proceed with constant verification.
Roads they once traversed without concern
must now be tested and probed like tapping a stone bridge before crossing.
The Rebel Forces’ movements have become severely sluggish due to the booby traps.
.
.
.
The dozens of booby traps I installed prove sufficient to sow confusion among them.
To be honest, the booby traps themselves inflict no catastrophic damage.
A few casualties, perhaps?
Occasionally deaths occur, but
Most of them ended in injuries.
But that doesn’t matter.
When the Rebel Forces move,
when they advance.
Are there booby traps? Or aren’t there?
All it takes is a moment of hesitation.
All it takes is to make them delay their actions even slightly.
When they should be advancing,
if they find themselves hesitating.
Then the booby trap has served its purpose.
The purpose of a booby trap isn’t to kill the enemy.
It’s to make them doubt everything.
It’s to sow confusion.
And here, I add one more spoonful of chaos.
.
.
.
L’Oasis
The name of the bar that Jose operates.
Jose, a Frenchman by origin, wanted his bar to offer people rest and refreshment.
With that meaning in mind, he named his bar L’Oasis, which carries the essence of an oasis.
That day too, after training with Poapi,
I headed to L’Oasis.
“Jose. I’m here.”
“Welcome. Our VIP.”
“VIP? Isn’t that treatment a bit much?”
“You visit every single day, so you’re VIP. On top of that, you have good manners and you’re clean. For me, you’re the best customer.”
“Haha. If one beer makes me VIP, that’s pretty good. Give me one beer.”
“TEMBO?”
“Yes. I like it. The slightly bitter taste.”
“TEMBO is a good beer.”
As I spoke, I took a seat at the bar table right in front of Jose,
and Jose handed me a beer with an elephant drawn on it.
TEMBO.
One bottle of this beer costs ten dollars.
The average monthly salary in Congo is around one hundred to one hundred fifty dollars.
I was spending two to three days’ worth of their wages every evening at L’Oasis.
Sometimes I’d drink several bottles in a single day.
Perhaps I did deserve VIP status.
I took a light sip of the beer.
A bitter taste slides down my throat.
“How’s work been lately? You looked pretty swamped.”
“The Rebel Forces are killing me with work, sir.”
“Why?”
“Because the Rebel Forces cause so much trouble.”
“Trouble?”
“Lately they’ve been planting bombs everywhere, killing people—it’s absolute chaos.”
I feel the eyes of everyone in the bar focus on my words.
Perfect.
This is exactly why I’ve been coming here every day.
Jose is a valuable information source, and I needed the intel,
but spreading disinformation here works just as well.
Everyone in this bar is just one or two connections away from the Rebel Forces.
Congo is that kind of country.
A place where people take government money while working for the Rebel Forces.
I’m about to spread some fresh, piping-hot fake news to them.
“It looks like ADF planted bombs in M23 territory.”
“What? Does that even make sense?”
“It doesn’t really, but that’s what our intelligence says.”
“This is going to get a lot of people killed.”
“Apparently ADF also recruited American special forces operatives. Their methods are pretty similar to M23’s.”
“But why would ADF attack M23? There’s no reason for them to.”
“M23 gets support from Rwanda while also taking mineral resources. They’ve got smuggling routes all over the place. ADF probably got jealous of the profits.”
“Good grief…”
“So we’re suspending all patrol operations for now. It seems too dangerous.”
“Smart move. You have to stay alive first.”
By tomorrow morning, my conversation with Jose today will reach the upper echelons of the Rebel Forces.
The idea that ADF attacked M23 will likely be accepted as established fact.
M23 is the largest and most powerful faction among the Rebel Forces.
ADF is smaller than M23,
but it’s still a fairly large rebel group by African standards.
In Congo, M23 is first place, and ADF is second.
The two have neither good nor bad relations.
They don’t encroach on each other’s territory,
and each operates in their own zone.
Like Gangsters.
But then a detective managing those Gangsters tells them
that ADF attacked M23.
This rumor will spread at incredible speed.
To the other Rebel Forces as well.
No matter how much ADF denies it,
M23 won’t be able to shake their suspicion of ADF.
Even if some kid from the Hometown District said it, they’d still suspect.
But an instructor from the special forces unit who receives all intelligence said it?
They’ll accept it as fact with very high probability.
First and second place won’t be able to unite.
If they fight each other, even better.
The other Rebel Forces will watch this situation closely.
How it will be resolved.
These types have a characteristic.
They don’t believe official announcements, calling them lies.
But they believe fake news as gospel truth.
The alert operation wasn’t cancelled.
It was merely postponed.
We’re giving them an opportunity to run wild.
We’ll clear the field—play to your heart’s content.
******
M23 Rebel Forces Base.
Bacambu, the leader of the M23 Rebel Forces,
couldn’t hide his unease at the recent news.
“ADF attacked us?”
“Yes, sir.”
“ADF has no reason to attack us.”
“I suspect they were targeting our smuggling routes.”
“If they were targeting smuggling routes, shouldn’t they attack Uvira here instead of Kinshasa, the capital?”
“By attacking Kinshasa and drawing reinforcements there, they’d be taking advantage of the empty house, so to speak.”
Derek Meyer, who had been listening to this conversation, spoke up.
“Where did that intelligence come from?”
“It came from a Government Military instructor.”
Derek Meyer let out a short laugh upon hearing that.
“That intelligence is likely fake.”
“Sir?”
The informant questioned him,
and Bacambu also asked Derek.
“Why?”
“From the Government Military’s perspective, isn’t it good if the Rebel Forces fight each other? If we destroy ourselves fighting, the Government Military just needs to put out the remaining embers. They’re trying to set us on fire to make us fight each other right now—so why should we play along?”
“But the rumor that we were attacked has spread so widely. Are you saying we should just take a beating and do nothing?”
“Isn’t it better than fighting pointlessly?”
“No. A winning battle is always worthwhile. Isn’t this actually an opportunity? If we wipe out the ADF bastards now, we can absorb their resources and personnel. We didn’t have justification before, but now we do. I’m actually grateful to that instructor.”
“If you decide to fight, I won’t stop you, but you won’t gain much benefit from it.”
“Why?”
“Our weapons and systems are far superior to the ADF’s. It would be more cost-effective to bring in the ADF and retrain and rearm them rather than rely on our own forces. Compared to us, the ADF lacks both funding and weaponry, doesn’t it?”
“Instead, we’d gain prestige. We’d become the undisputed number one.”
“The risk is too great for a battle fought merely to claim that title. We’re already number one, aren’t we?”
“We’re already number one. But listen. Do I seem like I’m doing this just to become the top rebel faction?”
“Sir?”
“I don’t want to be the top among the rebels. I want to take control of Congo with overwhelming force and liberate it. To do that, I’d beg for help from anyone. And you’re telling me to abandon a golden opportunity because of risk?”
“…”
“If I absorb the ADF, there’s a high probability the other rebel groups will fall under my command.”
Derek Meyer shook his head.
“No. That won’t happen. The political and religious divisions run too deep for them to unite so easily.”
“Everyone bends their convictions in the face of bullets.”
“Even so, it won’t be easy.”
Perhaps irritated by Derek Meyer’s continued pessimism,
Bacambu glanced at Derek Meyer and spoke.
“I brought you in as a combat instructor. Are you now my operations officer?”
“…”
“I make the decisions.”
“Then the combat instructor will take his leave.”
Derek slammed the door shut and left, clearly displeased,
and Bacambu glared at his retreating figure.
Bacambu harbored considerable resentment toward Derek.
When Derek first joined, things seemed promising.
He claimed to be from the Navy SEALs,
and I assumed he was from DEVGRU, the elite of the Navy SEALs,
but he was just a regular Navy SEAL.
Derek never explicitly claimed to be from DEVGRU.
But every time he opened his mouth, it was DEVGRU this, DEVGRU that, so I assumed he was.
It wasn’t exactly deception, but it felt like it, and that left a bad taste.
Even among Navy SEALs, regular SEALs and DEVGRU were worlds apart.
DEVGRU was formed by selecting only the most exceptional talent from the Navy SEALs.
Derek, not even DEVGRU, arrived demanding
complete authority, insisting everything needed to be overhauled.
Do this, do that.
Buy this, build that.
It had cost a fortune.
Yet all he’d actually delivered
was the installation of booby traps.
Booby traps weren’t inherently bad,
but they lacked any overwhelming destructive impact.
Bacambu wanted to crush them with overwhelming force,
whether it was the UN Peacekeeping Force
or the Government Military.
He hoped they would suppress the enemy with movements like those of a special forces unit.
But Derek had only installed booby traps here and there.
Those unfamiliar with booby traps injured themselves even while installing them,
and injured themselves while treading on them.
Losing a few subordinates was nothing,
but from Bacambu’s perspective, now that Derek had come, he wanted to see overwhelming firepower displayed.
Yet booby traps, of all things.
Derek’s only achievement
was resolving Okapi Sting.
And he had done it with extraordinarily cunning traps.
He dug a trap and waited for a long time.
I have no idea how many personnel, budget, and time it consumed.
Had that operation failed,
Derek would have become a corpse right there.
Beyond that, they clashed repeatedly,
but the greatest clash was over the education of the Rebel Forces.
Derek kept trying to make the rebels into soldiers.
Rebels are not soldiers.
They are not people who maintain peace.
They are people who create chaos.
Waiting quietly for training and deployment doesn’t suit their nature.
Killing, looting, and massacring—that is what rebels do.
If they pass something they like, they take it,
and if they don’t like it, they kill it.
This is what rebels are.
Derek only needs to teach the technique of killing people.
Derek’s opinion is unnecessary.
Now is the time to make a decision.
Should we attack the ADF?
Or should we endure and let it pass?
Fortunately, the Government Military said they would not conduct vigilance operations.
The UN Peacekeeping Force has been nowhere to be seen lately.
Now is the opportunity.
Without interference from the Government Military and UN Peacekeeping Force.
An opportunity to seize the ADF.
With overwhelming forces assembled.
An opportunity to devour Congo.
There is nothing left that can stop M23.
The age of M23 has arrived.
Bacambu’s era has come.
“Prepare to attack the ADF.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————