I Became a Black Market Tycoon with an Inventory - Chapter 27

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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027 – Bacambu
27.
The booby traps I’ve set begin to do their work.
They start detonating all over the place.
In places no one expected,
in areas the Rebel Forces had no doubt they controlled,
the booby traps begin to explode.
The Rebel Forces start to panic.
Booby traps that no one knows who installed,
or when they were installed.
These mysterious traps start detonating everywhere.
The problem is
that they’re using their own methods.
To anyone’s eye,
they’re the kind Derek Meyer taught them.
Hastily learned, quite clumsily done.
The same booby traps they’ve been installing themselves.
Supposedly set to stop intruders,
meant to damage the Government Military,
yet it’s the Rebel Forces taking casualties instead.
In fact, they have firsthand experience with the booby traps they made themselves.
Back when they first started making them,
they installed them and detonated them.
They’d get hurt while setting them,
and they’d set them off while walking past, not knowing they were there.
Booby traps no one knows who installed.
Traps that probably look like they made them themselves.
Traps set to block the enemy.
They’re causing the Rebel Forces enormous inconvenience.
Because of this, whenever the Rebel Forces pass through the Campoko region, they have to verify and re-verify everything before moving.
Roads they used to walk down without a second thought
now require the kind of careful inspection you’d give a rickety bridge.
The Rebel Forces’ movements have become painfully slow because of the booby traps.
.
.
.
The dozens of booby traps I set are enough to sow confusion among them.
Honestly, the booby traps themselves don’t inflict massive casualties.
A few people get wounded?
There are occasional deaths, sure,
but most injuries are nothing worse than that.
But it doesn’t matter.
When the Rebel Forces move,
when they travel.
Will there be a trap? Won’t there be?
All you need is a moment’s hesitation.
Just make them delay their actions ever so slightly.
When they need to advance,
if they hesitate even then,
the booby trap has done its job.
A booby trap’s purpose isn’t to kill the enemy.
It’s to make them second-guess everything.
To sow confusion and doubt.
And now I’m adding another layer of chaos to the mix.
.
.
.
L’Oasis.
The name of the bar Jose runs.
Jose, a Frenchman, wanted his bar to be a place that gave people rest and refreshment.
With that in mind, he named his bar L’Oasis, meaning oasis.
That day too, after training with Poapi,
I made my way to L’Oasis.
“Jose. I’m here.”
“Welcome, our VIP.”
“VIP? Isn’t that a bit too much hospitality?”
“If you visit every single day, you’re a VIP. Plus, you have good manners, and you’re clean. To me, you’re the best customer there is.”
“Ha. If one beer gets you VIP status, that’s pretty good. Give me a beer, would you?”
“TEMBO?”
“Yeah. I like that one. The sharp bitterness.”
“TEMBO’s a good beer.”
As I spoke, I sat down at the bar table right in front of Jose,
and Jose set down a beer with an elephant drawn on it—
TEMBO—in front of me.
One bottle of this beer costs ten dollars.
The average monthly wage in Congo is around one hundred to one hundred fifty dollars.
Every evening, I was essentially spending two to three days’ wages of the locals at L’Oasis.
Sometimes I’d drink several bottles in a single night.
Maybe I really do deserve VIP status.
I took a light sip of the beer.
The sharp bitterness slides down my throat.
“How’s work these days? You looked pretty busy.”
“Honestly, the Rebel Forces are driving me crazy.”
“Why?”
“Because the Rebel Forces are causing such a mess.”
“A mess?”
“Lately, they’ve been setting bombs for each other, killing each other—it’s absolute chaos.”
I feel the eyes of everyone in the bar focus on my words.
Perfect.
This is exactly why I come here every day.
Jose is a good source of information—I need the intelligence he has—but
it’s also excellent for spreading disinformation.
Anyone who drinks here is just one or two degrees of separation away from the Rebel Forces.
That’s the kind of country Congo is.
A place where people take money from the government while working for the Rebel Forces.
I’m about to spread some fresh hot fake news to all of them.
“I heard ADF has been planting bombs in M23 territory.”
“What? That doesn’t make sense.”
“It doesn’t, but that’s what we’ve heard.”
“More people are going to die because of this.”
“Apparently, ADF has even recruited some American special forces. Their methods are quite 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 a robust smuggling route. Maybe ADF got jealous of the profits.”
“Oh my…”
“That’s why we’re suspending all patrol operations for now. It seems too dangerous.”
“Good call. Live first, ask questions later.”
By tomorrow morning, my conversation with Jose today will reach the top ranks of the Rebel Forces.
The idea that ADF attacked M23 will likely be accepted as established fact.
M23 is the largest and most powerful of all the Rebel Forces.
ADF is smaller than M23,
but it’s still a fairly large Rebel Forces group in Africa.
In Congo, M23 is first, and ADF is second.
The two have neither good nor bad relations.
They don’t encroach on each other’s territory,
each operating in their own zone.
Like gangsters.
But now a detective managing these gangsters is telling people
that ADF attacked M23.
This rumor will spread at incredible speed.
To the other Rebel Forces too.
No matter how much ADF denies it,
M23 won’t be able to shake their suspicion.
Even if a neighborhood kid said it, they’d be suspicious.
But if a special forces instructor—someone who receives all the intelligence—said it?
They’ll almost certainly accept it as truth.
First place and second place won’t ally.
If they fight, I’m grateful.
The other Rebel Forces will watch this situation closely.
To see how it resolves.
These kinds of people have a habit of
not believing official statements, calling them lies,
while believing fake news completely.
Patrol operations haven’t been canceled.
Just postponed.
I’m giving these lunatics a chance to run wild.
Clearing the field so they can play to their heart’s content.
******
M23 Rebel Base.
Bacambu, the leader of M23 Rebel Forces,
can’t hide his unease at the recent news.
“ADF attacked us?”
“Yes, sir.”
“ADF has no reason to attack us.”
“We think they may have targeted our smuggling routes.”
“If they were after smuggling routes, shouldn’t they attack Uvira, not the capital Kinshasa?”
“By attacking Kinshasa and drawing reinforcements there, they could ransack this area while it’s empty.”
Derek Meyer, who had been listening to this exchange, spoke up.
“Where did you get that information?”
“From a Government Military instructor.”
Derek Meyer laughed sharply at those words.
“That information’s probably fake.”
“Sir?”
The intelligence officer reacted with confusion,
and Bacambu also turned to Derek with a question.
“Why?”
“From the government’s perspective, Rebel Forces fighting each other is ideal, right? If we wipe ourselves out through internal conflict, they just have to clean up the leftovers. They’re trying to light the fire now, so why should we cooperate and fall for it?”
“But the rumors about us being hit are spreading so widely—are you saying we should just take the beating and do nothing?”
“Isn’t pointless fighting worse?”
“No. A winnable fight is always useful. Isn’t now the perfect opportunity? If we crush ADF in this moment, we can absorb their resources and manpower. We didn’t have justification before, but now we do. I’m actually inclined to thank that instructor for this gift.”
“If you do decide to fight, I won’t stop you. But I don’t think you’ll gain much.”
“Why not?”
“Our weapons and systems are far superior to ADF’s. It would be more cost-effective to retrain and re-equip them. Compared to us, ADF has no money and no weapons.”
“We’d get a reputation instead. As the undisputed number one.”
“Getting that one title isn’t worth the risk of a battle. You’re already number one.”
“I’m already number one. But listen—do I look like I’m doing this to become the number one among Rebel Forces?”
“Sir?”
“I don’t want to be the number one among Rebel Forces. I want to seize Congo with overwhelming power and liberate it. For that, I need to borrow every hand I can get. And you’re saying I should pass up this golden opportunity because of risk?”
……
“If I take over ADF, the other Rebel Forces will likely fall under my command too.”
Derek Meyer shook his head.
“No, sir. That won’t happen. There are too many deep political and religious divisions to unite so easily.”
“Everyone bends before the gun.”
“Even so, it won’t be easy.”
Bacambu, disliking Derek Meyer’s persistent negativity,
looked at Derek Meyer once and spoke.
“I believe I hired you as a combat instructor. Is the man before me a strategic advisor instead?”
……
“I make the decisions here.”
“If that’s the case, I’ll be leaving now.”
Derek slammed the door shut and left, clearly irritated,
and Bacambu glared at his departing back.
Bacambu harbored considerable resentment toward Derek.
At first, when Derek said he would join, it was good news.
He’d said he was Navy SEAL,
and Bacambu had assumed he was from DevGru, the elite of Navy SEALs.
But he turned out to be just a regular Navy SEAL.
Derek never explicitly claimed to be from DevGru.
But he kept saying “DevGru” every time he opened his mouth, so Bacambu had assumed he was.
It wasn’t outright deception, but it felt like deception, and it left a bad taste.
Regular Navy SEALs and Navy SEAL DevGru were completely different.
DevGru is formed by selecting only the most exceptional talent from the Navy SEALs.
Derek, not even from DevGru, came in and
immediately demanded full authority, saying everything needed to be rebuilt from scratch.
Do this, do that.
Buy this, construct that.
It cost a lot of money.
But when it came time to show results, all Derek had done
was install booby traps.
Booby traps aren’t bad in themselves,
but they didn’t have any overwhelming destructive power.
Bacambu wanted overwhelming firepower,
whether against the UN Peacekeeping Force
or the Government Military—he wanted to annihilate them.
He’d hoped for special-forces-style tactics to suppress the enemy.
But all Derek did was install booby traps here and there.
People unfamiliar with booby traps got hurt while installing them,
and they got hurt stepping on them.
A few subordinates dying wasn’t a big deal, but
from Bacambu’s perspective, he’d hoped Derek would demonstrate overwhelming firepower now that he was here.
But booby traps?
Derek’s only real achievement
was eliminating Okapi Sting.
And that took an extremely elaborate trap.
He dug the pit and waited for a long time.
Who knows how many personnel, how much budget, and how much time it cost.
If that operation had failed,
Derek would’ve been a corpse on the spot.
There were other friction points,
but the biggest one involved the training of the Rebel Forces.
Derek kept trying to make the Rebel Forces act like soldiers.
Rebel Forces aren’t soldiers.
They’re not peacekeepers.
They’re chaos-makers.
Sitting quietly through training and waiting for deployment doesn’t suit their nature.
Killing, looting, massacring—that’s what Rebel Forces do.
If they pass something they like, they take it.
If they don’t like something, they kill it.
That’s what Rebel Forces are.
Derek just needs to teach them how to kill.
Derek’s opinions aren’t needed.
Now it’s time to make a decision.
Will we attack ADF?
Or will we let it slide?
Conveniently, the Government Military said they won’t conduct patrol operations.
The UN Peacekeeping Force has been nowhere to be seen lately.
Now’s the time.
A chance to take down ADF
without interference from the Government Military or UN Peacekeeping Force.
A chance to build overwhelming strength
and devour Congo.
Nothing can stop M23 now.
The age of M23 has come.
Bacambu’s era has arrived.
“Prepare for the ADF assault.”

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