Chapter 146 – Human Trafficking
Umbako, a member of a human-trafficking ring, panicked.
‘I-I didn’t even see the attack.’
His gaze dipped slightly.
The taxi driver who had been doing steady business with their organization had become a corpse in an instant.
‘A scythe? This happened because of that scythe that extends?’
How the scythe extended wasn’t important.
What mattered was that it was so fast he hadn’t even been able to react.
Gulp—
Even with an assault rifle in his hands, Umbako tensed up.
Speed beyond a superhuman, a weapon that defied common sense, a young-looking face.
Taken together, it was obviously a Player—the kind he’d only ever heard about.
‘A Player… To think I’d face a Player in my lifetime, f*ck.’
With that thick beard, he’d thought the guy was just some ordinary man in his forties, but apparently he’d been pretending to be a civilian on purpose to find their location.
“You… what are you? Police?”
Umbako, who’d blurted it out without thinking, corrected himself in his head.
‘No, that can’t be. We’ve got every cop in this area in our pocket. And more than anything, that guy’s an Asian.’
Umbako aimed the muzzle again, never taking his eyes off the other man.
A Player or not, as long as he had an invincible assault rifle, there was no reason to cower.
If it came to it, he could just shoot.
And if the bastard was human, wouldn’t he die?
“Who the hell are you! Which organization sent you!”
“If I tell you, will you even know? Just come over here quietly.”
‘Like hell I would.’
Umbako forced down the words that rose to his throat.
There was no need to provoke a Player.
“You’re not coming? Then I’ll go to you.”
As Ryu Min stepped forward, Umbako made up his mind.
No matter who the guy was, he would just kill him.
“Die! You f*ckiiing—!”
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tatang—!
Even before he pulled the trigger, Umbako pictured it.
In a moment, the target would turn into a beehive, spewing blood as he dropped dead.
A Player was still human in the end, wasn’t he?
In front of bullets, all humans were equal.
But something happened that he hadn’t expected.
‘W-why is he fine?’
Even though he’d aimed dead on and fired, the other man was standing there completely unharmed.
Blinking as if he’d seen a ghost, Umbako fired again.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!
This time he saw it clearly.
The man weaving left and right, avoiding the bullets.
‘H-he’s dodging all of that…?’
In the space of two seconds, thirteen bullets poured out, but not a single one even grazed him.
A sight he couldn’t believe even while watching it.
Ryu Min looked at the shocked man and sneered.
‘Looks like he was counting on that gun. Not a chance.’
Ryu Min’s Agility, increased by the Rune of Balance and the Rune of Slaughter, was 1,176.
Even if an assault rifle was faster than a handgun, dodging it wasn’t difficult.
‘And I’ve got the Rune of Foresight on top of that.’
Still sneering, Ryu Min started walking again.
“D-don’t come! Don’t come! You monster bastard!”
Umbako sprayed bullets again, but—
Click— click—
Before he knew it, he’d burned through everything, so much that even pulling the trigger felt pointless.
“N-now, reload….”
As he tried to swap the magazine from the ammo belt with trembling hands—
“Ghk!”
Umbako recoiled in terror at the sight of the enemy right in front of him.
“Looks like you’re out of bullets?”
“H-hiiik!”
Umbako stumbled backward and fell flat on his ass.
Ryu Min didn’t do anything.
He simply watched the bastard shake in fear.
“Yamtti.”
From behind, Yamtti—who had been hiding—peeked her head out.
“Yes, Master.”
“Dominate this guy. And order him. Tell him to guide us to the organization’s boss.”
Step, step—
As Umbako walked, his comrades—armed with assault rifles—came running.
“Umbako! You were here?”
“We heard gunshots all of a sudden. What happened?”
At that question, Umbako shrugged like it was nothing.
“The humans we brought in to sell fought back, that’s all. I fired into the floor to scare them a bit.”
“Are those ‘humans you brought in’ the ones behind you?”
Umbako turned his head slightly.
Behind him were Ryu Min and Yamtti.
“Uh, yeah.”
Even after Umbako admitted it, his comrades couldn’t shake their doubts.
Who in the world moved around with kidnapped people behind them?
What if they got ambushed, or the captives ran?
‘Something’s off.’
More than anything, the decisive thing was the expressions on their faces—despite being kidnapped, there wasn’t a trace of fear.
“You’re saying those are the ones you grabbed to traffic? For real?”
“I’m telling you, yes.”
“Even so, something feels weird—”
They couldn’t finish.
Ryu Min’s scythe had mercilessly severed their throats.
Thud— thud— thud—
Watching the heads drop in the order he’d cut them, Ryu Min said coldly,
“Keep going. To where the boss is.”
It was time to start taking out the trash.
A stale, reeking basement where not even sunlight reached.
Subina, an ordinary thirty-year-old woman, cried behind iron bars.
‘If I’d been born just two months later, I would’ve become a Player. If that had happened… I wouldn’t have been dragged into a hell like this….’
Most people became despairing at the fact that becoming a Player meant living a life with a time limit, but Subina was different.
Instead, not becoming a Player by a difference of a few months was a lifelong regret.
She’d been dragged into this hell for one simple reason: she was powerless.
‘How much time has passed?’
She didn’t know how many days it had been since she was kidnapped, but she had seen plenty here.
They’d beat people like livestock for having the “wrong look,” and the organization’s men would drag women away with greedy eyes.
When those women came back, their eyes were hollow—like something inside them had been stripped away.
What had been done to them was obvious without needing to ask.
Sometimes strangers would show up, point at people like they were shopping in a market, and take them away.
Not a single person who was picked that way ever came back.
‘Still… am I better off than the others? I haven’t had anything done to me yet….’
Subina remembered what the man who seemed to be the boss had said when she was first brought here.
—That face and body are totally my type. Hey. Don’t touch this b*tch. Once I wrap up the overdue work, I’m raping her first.
—Understood, Boss. We’ll keep her safe until then. Heh heh.
He’d singled her out because he liked how she looked.
That was why she hadn’t been touched so far.
‘I heard it clearly. He said he’d rape me.’
Hugging her knees, Subina buried her face.
Was this how a cow felt, knowing it would be slaughtered?
Once she knew something horrific was coming, every hour became anxious, and every footstep made her nerves spike—
Wondering if it was her turn.
‘If I were a Player, I wouldn’t be going through this….’
Helplessness gnawed at Subina’s mind.
‘If I just… if I just bite my tongue and die….’
She had thought about suicide over and over, but she was terrified of the pain that would come with it.
And yet, when she imagined the pain she would suffer later, suicide almost felt like the right choice.
‘What am I supposed to do…?’
Just then, footsteps echoed in the quiet basement.
They were fast, as if whoever it was didn’t intend to give her time to think.
‘Ah— it’s here. I-it’s here. I-it must be the Boss.’
But what reached her ears was a woman’s voice she’d never heard before.
“Huh? There are people here too?”
Subina, who had been squeezing her eyes shut in fear, slowly opened them at the unfamiliar foreign language.
It was a woman.
An Asian woman wearing a ridiculous outfit.
‘That outfit… don’t tell me she’s a Player?’
Ka-chang—!
When the woman smashed the cell’s padlock with the dagger in her hand, Subina realized.
Strength beyond an ordinary human.
This woman was a Player.
But then why was she breaking the lock?
Subina had lost so much hope she didn’t even realize she was being rescued.
“Come out. Hurry, come out.”
When Yamtti beckoned, Subina stepped out with a dazed expression.
“W-where are you taking me?”
“What are you talking about? Just follow me for now.”
“…?”
Even after being told to follow, Subina just stood there blankly, so Yamtti finally grabbed her hand and dragged her along.
Leaving the stale basement and climbing up to ground level, the two of them went outside.
There were sparse trees and an open space like a clearing.
Under the streetlamp light, people were gathered, murmuring.
‘W-what is it? I’m scared.’
Subina was still on guard, but when she saw who those people were, her expression loosened a little.
They were the kidnapped women she’d seen in this place.
“Wh-what are you all doing he—”
Subina froze when she noticed a lump at their feet.
It was a human corpse.
The stench of blood hit her late, making her feel like vomiting, but only for a moment.
“Huh?”
When she recognized the face of the organization’s boss who had threatened her, the nausea vanished strangely.
And it wasn’t just one corpse.
When she lifted her gaze higher, she saw countless bodies—likely organization members—strewn all over.
“H-how did this—”
Just then, a suspicious man in a white mask walked toward the Asian Player.
“Yamtti. Did you free everyone who was kidnapped?”
“Yes. I searched thoroughly with Detection, and everyone who was here is all here.”
“Yeah?”
Ryu Min counted the gathered people.
All women—exactly twelve.
Every one of them had been locked up in cages placed throughout the building.
“Hello.”
When Ryu Min greeted them in English, everyone looked over.
English was used often in Nigeria, so there wasn’t anyone who couldn’t understand.
Still, because he was wearing a mask, they stared at him with wary eyes.
“You don’t need to be that cautious. As you can see, we’re Players who came to rescue you. You’ve already seen the proof, haven’t you?”
When Ryu Min pointed down at the bodies, the women nodded.
The bastards who had violated them while cackling—worse than demons—were now nothing but lumps of meat.
Ryu Min had intentionally not used Trace Erasure, so the women could see it.
“As you can see, we killed the boss. We also killed all 21 organization members who were here. The threat is completely gone, so you can relax. In other words, you’re free. You can go home.”
“R-really?”
“We’re really free?”
At their disbelieving questions, Ryu Min pulled keys from his pocket.
“These are car keys we took from the organization members. Anyone who can drive, take one and go home. Here.”
When he handed them out, the women finally seemed to feel it, tears welling up.
“Sniff… thank God. Thank God.”
“We can go home now.”
Ryu Min knew what kind of agonizing days these women had endured.
He’d heard about their atrocities from the organization’s boss.
‘They kidnap travelers or ordinary people who look like they won’t cause trouble—people in their thirties or older—lock them up like livestock, then sell them to other organizations for a huge sum. You could call them first-stage suppliers.’
In that process, verbal abuse, violence, threats, and rape happening like everyday routine was only natural.
If a “virgin” was needed, they might restrain the rape, but for the kidnapped women, the end was just as hopeless either way.
‘Either way, this organization is just a human-trafficking ring, not IS.’
In his previous run too, Ryu Min had raided IS to build the Black Scythe’s reputation.
But he didn’t know exactly where IS’s main base was.
They were a decentralized network that changed locations constantly, and he’d never thought it worth remembering.
‘Anyway, if you climb up step by step from the bottom organizations and wipe them out, IS will show itself eventually.’
There were countless offshoot organizations that followed IS, so if you tore through a few groups, getting information was easy.
He had found IS’s leader that way in the previous run too.
And with Yamtti here, obtaining information and luring targets would be even easier.
“Taking too many cars won’t do you any good, so take only two. There’s a risk you’ll be tracked, so after you drive, abandon the cars.”
“Thank you. Truly, thank you.”
“Thank you for saving us.”
“You are the savior of my life.”
The women cried as they thanked Ryu Min.
Subina, who had been thanking him among them, suddenly realized she hadn’t asked the most important thing.
“So… the name of our benefactor who saved us is…?”
At the question he’d been waiting for, Ryu Min smiled behind his mask.
“Black Scythe. Just know me as that.”
“Black Scythe…”
“I’ll remember.”
“I’ll never forget, not for the rest of my life.”
Ryu Min had no hesitation about saying his nickname.
Even the story of rescuing women from a human-trafficking ring would help build Black Scythe’s reputation.
That was why he’d worn a mask.
“Go on. It’s late.”
As Ryu Min waved his hand, Subina asked,
“But Black Scythe-nim, aren’t you going?”
“I’m staying here because I have something to do. You should go.”
“Ah… then we’ll go first.”
“We won’t forget this kindness.”
“Thank you, truly.”
For the first time, the women smiled brightly.
When they climbed into a van and disappeared, only Ryu Min and Yamtti remained.
Ryu Min used Trace Erasure to clear away the countless corpses.
Then he held out his hand to Yamtti.
“You grabbed his phone, right?”
“Yes. Here.”
Holding the dead boss’s phone, Ryu Min sent a text in English.
[Three women, one man. Urgently disposing at 20% off. Contact me.]
It was sent to the contact person of the partner organization listed as the buyer.
Not long after, a reply came.
[OK. Coming now.]
“They took the bait.”
Ryu Min smiled, the corner of his mouth lifting.
“Then shall we get ready to welcome our guests?”
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