Chapter 49
Zeke and Manuel’s unit approached the main production camp of the Favela Cartel.
Seeing smoke rising beyond the jungle, Zeke realized they were getting close to the camp and said to Manuel.
“Wait here.”
Manuel was startled.
“What? Wait here? What do you mean?”
Manuel had become notably more respectful after witnessing Zeke single-handedly annihilate the Werewolf tribe unit.
Zeke stood up and said.
“I’m going in alone.”
Then he told Manuel.
“Your only job is to properly report what happened up there.”
Zeke disappeared into the jungle after leaving those words.
Manuel stood there with a dumbfounded expression.
The other unit members were the same.
And shortly after, a tremendous explosion erupted from inside the camp.
A startled Manuel looked around at his unit members.
“What’s going on?”
“What should we do, Unit Commander?”
After contemplating, Manuel gestured to his unit members.
“Damn it. Let’s head to the outskirts first. We need to see what’s happening to make our report.”
* * *
Leaving Manuel’s unit behind, Zeke approached the camp freely using his Shadowless Step technique.
‘I thought I’d die from having to hide my power.’
Due to concealing his identity, he couldn’t use all his power.
He planned to seal away his True Dragon Slaying technique and destroy the camp using Southern martial arts, assassination techniques, and Elemental Sword.
‘This much is enough for a cartel camp.’
Before his regression, he had countless times raided camps with just his bare hands without these techniques.
Back then, he truly had to risk his life every time he conducted a raid.
Kaisir hadn’t called Zeke someone who crossed the boundary of death for nothing.
Zeke pressed himself against the camp’s thick wooden wall.
He took out an ordinary claymore from his inventory and channeled mana to draw out fire power.
WHOOSH!
The sword was engulfed in flames.
Zeke immediately swung the flame sword at the wooden wall.
BOOM!
The power was stronger than expected, causing not just the wall but all nearby facilities to collapse.
‘Need to control my strength a bit.’
While mindlessly destroying everything was easy, he needed to be careful as he had a purpose for coming here.
“Attack! We’re under attack!”
“There’s a mage! Watch out for magic attacks!”
They seemed to have mistaken his flame sword attack for magic.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Zeke entered the camp.
He moved toward the center of the camp guarded by Favela Cartel members.
There was a factory facility there that refined soma leaves into powder.
Before reaching there, several people blocked Zeke’s path.
“Intruder!”
About a dozen organization members rushed toward Zeke.
Zeke took out daggers from his inventory.
Swish!
He grabbed daggers in both hands and threw them at the rushing members.
Thud!
The members who were hit precisely between the eyes collapsed immediately.
Since Zeke’s inventory contained hundreds of cheap daggers, he threw them recklessly at the organization members without worrying about quantity.
“Gack!”
Soon, all the rushing members died with daggers stuck in their foreheads or hearts.
Zeke ran straight toward the manufacturing facility again.
Boom!
Something approached Zeke with a thunderous noise.
Surprisingly, several magical tanks were charging toward Zeke.
‘They’ve well equipped themselves with something that’s barely used in the Central Continent due to its cost.’
In the Central Continent, knights and high-level combat mages are preferred over magical weapons.
Magical weapons are not only expensive themselves but also costly to maintain.
However, the cartel had an abundance of money but lacked knights and mage talents.
It wasn’t for nothing that people said the cartel was the biggest client of the Magic Tower and House Nirvana.
Zeke drew out Bahamut as he watched the tanks covered entirely in armor plating charging toward him.
In his previous life, he had to avoid tanks first, but the situation was different now.
His sword was enveloped by the power of wind.
The technique often used by his master, the Hero King Kaisir, unfolded from Zeke’s sword.
Elemental Sword
Wind Force Field
Storm Sword
The sword containing the will of fierce winds was swung toward the tanks.
WHOOSH!
A massive storm arose around Zeke.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The tank, which was about to crush everything, got caught in the storm and flipped over.
CRACK!
Not only did it flip, but the external armor was all torn off, unable to withstand the storm’s force.
“Ahhh! Help!”
The organization members who were controlling the tank crawled out, trembling in fear.
This was because Zeke’s storm had formed a dragon wind vortex that lifted not only the tank but all surrounding production facilities into the sky.
“Wow. This is no joke.”
Zeke was impressed by his own display of power.
He hadn’t realized during training, but seeing it in action, the power was tremendous.
The camp’s production facility was instantly devastated.
The organization members caught in the storm screamed in terror, shaking uncontrollably.
“Ah, a demon has appeared!”
Zeke beheaded the screaming organization member and checked his map for location.
“Let’s see. Where was the secret passage in this camp before?”
This camp was one that Zeke had raided and destroyed in his previous life.
In his previous life, he had captured one of the Favela Cartel bosses here and obtained various information.
The fact that the Favela Cartel was originally a pirate group was information that came from that person’s mouth.
While examining the map, Zeke remembered the location of the secret passage.
“Right. It was that cave.”
Zeke quickly ran toward the cave behind the camp.
When he reached the cave entrance, several organization members aimed crossbows at him.
But Zeke’s sword was faster.
Their heads fell to the ground before they could fire their crossbows.
“Should have fired as soon as you aimed. Your training is completely sloppy.”
Zeke picked up the crossbows the members were holding and entered deeper into the cave.
There were more organization members guarding inside.
“Intru- ack!”
The first member he encountered fell before finishing his words, hit by Zeke’s bolt.
He had aimed precisely at the lungs, ensuring a painful death without the ability to scream.
Zeke showed mercy by beheading him for a quick death.
Zeke continued killing all Favela organization members he encountered inside the cave and found the secret passage.
He went down the passage.
It was a tunnel connected to an old mine.
Zeke activated his Skill Dragon Eye and scanned the tunnel surroundings.
‘Was it like this back then too?’
The preservation state of the walls and floor was too good for a simple mine tunnel.
In his previous life, he was too focused on completing the mission to notice such details.
After checking the map to locate the fleeing cartel boss, Zeke leisurely entered deeper into the tunnel.
‘The more I look at it, the less it seems like a mine. More like an ancient ruin…’
As he had that thought, something flew toward Zeke.
SWOOSH!
Zeke caught the arrow aimed at his brow.
But that wasn’t the end.
Suddenly, sharp needles shot out from the arrow shaft, piercing his palm.
[Black Mamba poison detected.]
[Effect of Poison Immunity Constitution nullifies the poison’s effects.]
Black Mamba poison is a deadly venom without an antidote.
The technique of putting lethal poison in arrows, anticipating they would be caught – this was an assassination technique for dealing with mainland knights.
Knights who could use aura would often catch arrows they could easily dodge, showing off their skills.
It was a southern assassination Technique that exploited this arrogant attitude with poison, one that Zeke had frequently used in his previous life.
After Zeke caught and tossed aside the arrow, someone revealed themselves.
“What? I thought you were a knight, but you’re just some kid. What a waste of expensive poison.”
If Zeke hadn’t neutralized the Black Mamba poison, he would have died within 5 minutes, bleeding from every orifice.
A man covered in thick fur slowly approached Zeke.
“Who exactly sent you people?”
To that question, Zeke looked at the man and said,
“Paulo Santos.”
The man was startled when Zeke spoke his name, backing away cautiously.
“You. How do you know my name? More importantly, why aren’t you dead?”
Zeke gradually approached Paulo.
Sensing something was wrong, Paulo tried to turn and flee.
But it was impossible to move faster than Zeke, who had mastered the Wind Storm technique.
SWOOSH!
Zeke overtook Paulo.
He then drew his dagger and stabbed it into Paulo’s thigh.
“ARGHHHH!”
Paulo screamed, clutching his stabbed thigh.
Zeke tripped him, and as Paulo rolled on the ground, he said,
“Paulo. I have a few questions for you.”
Paulo spat at Zeke in response.
Zeke easily dodged the spit by turning slightly, then stepped down hard on the dagger in Paulo’s thigh.
“ARGHHHH!”
As the dagger blade dug deeper into his thigh, he screamed and writhed in agony.
Zeke pulled out another dagger and stabbed it into his shoulder.
“Arghhhh!”
Looking at Paulo trembling in pain and fear, Zeke spoke again.
“Paulo. I know you’re an executive of the Favela Cartel. And I already know that the Favela Cartel is connected to the South Sea pirates.”
Paulo jerked his head up in surprise at Zeke’s words.
“W-what are you talking about?”
“Stop pretending to be surprised. If you were an actor, you’d be starving.”
Paulo became even more terrified than before.
Zeke pulled out a new dagger and held it to Paulo’s neck as he spoke.
“If you want to live, listen to me. You’re coming with me to Mekein. Tell the boss everything about the Favela Cartel. Then I’ll let you live.”
Paulo was shocked by Zeke’s words.
“M-Mekein!? Are you saying Don Juan sent you?!”
Zeke pressed the dagger closer to his neck.
“Watch your mouth. Don’t carelessly throw around other people’s boss’s names.”
“W-we never touched Mekein Cartel’s territory! We respected each other’s domains!”
“Then why are you bastards hovering around the Syndicate trying to mess with their distribution network?”
“T-that’s…”
Paulo was flustered as Zeke casually mentioned information that only executives in the Favela Cartel knew about.
Zeke pressed Paulo further.
“The boss has no intention of letting you guys live. He said he’ll launch a full assault until Favela is completely reduced to ashes, wiping out you filthy pirates. Got it?”
Paulo’s eyes darted back and forth.
Then, as if he had something equipped under his shoe, he quickly moved and pulled out a hidden weapon, instantly spraying it at Zeke.
“Ugh!”
What Paulo sprayed was poison powder. Zeke took a direct hit and collapsed to the side.
Paulo took the opportunity to limp away.
Zeke, hit by the poison powder, clutched his face and rolled on the ground.
“Arghhhh!”
He kept rolling and groaning until Paulo disappeared down the corridor.
Only after Paulo was completely out of sight did he get up.
“That should do it. What an idiot, seems he forgot I wasn’t affected by the Black Mamba poison earlier.”
The reason he deliberately sought out Paulo was to give him information about the Mekein Cartel.
For both Mekein Cartel and Favela Cartel to fall simultaneously, an intense war needed to break out between them.
That’s what Zeke was aiming for.
‘If they think Don Juan will launch a full attack, the Favela side won’t be able to sit still either.’
When an intense war breaks out between Mekein and Favela, Zeke planned to exploit the situation.
Zeke dusted off the poison powder and turned around.
“Now to finish things…”
Just then, he felt a chilling presence behind him.
WHOOSH!
Something flew toward Zeke.
SWISH!
He quickly rolled to the side to dodge the attack.
‘A sword strike infused with aura.’
It wasn’t a Southern style attack but Central Continent swordsmanship.
He looked back.
Several black-clad figures had already surrounded him from front and back.
Zeke gritted his teeth and drew his sword.
They were ones he knew all too well.
“Come on then, you damn Imperial hounds.”
