Chapter 147 – Boko Haram
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“Heh heh, I wonder what kind of fresh ones came in today?”
Montai, an organization member, felt best when it was time to go receive the “goods.”
Every day, he got to meet new faces, and more than anything, he liked that he got first pick to rape them.
“This is why I can’t quit this work. It fits me perfectly, you know?”
The joy of choosing new women every day and doing what he wanted even made him forget he was a monster.
“Still… they must’ve been pretty desperate. That picky old bastard is offering the goods at twenty percent off.”
“Seriously. Must’ve gotten shot in the head.”
Well, whatever.
Before transporting the goods, he could just pick the woman he wanted, rape her, then take the rest to his organization.
“Boss, we’re here. Let’s get out.”
“Yeah, alright.”
Samir, the subordinate who’d come along as backup, grinned as he asked,
“You gonna blow off a round today too?”
“Of course. When have you ever seen me take a day off?”
“They said it’s three women and one man, right?”
“Yeah. Tie the man up tight, and we’ll each choose a woman. You know I’m first, right?”
“Of course. When have I ever not yielded to you, Boss?”
“Yeah, thanks, you bastard. Heh heh.”
Grinning, the two slung their assault rifles and entered the traffickers’ site.
“Huh? Where the hell did everyone go? A guest is here and nobody comes out to greet us?”
“There isn’t even a single doorman.”
Did they all go to the bathroom or something?
Thinking nothing of it, they trudged forward, when—
“Huh? What’s that?”
They spotted someone standing in the middle of the compound.
An Asian man with bronze-colored skin.
“What the hell is that guy?”
Before they could even finish asking, Ryu Min summoned his scythe.
The two men immediately raised their assault rifles and went on guard.
“Th-that monkey bastard is a Player!”
“F*ck, so that’s why it was quiet… Don’t tell me everyone got taken out by him?”
There was no way a human-trafficking ring had an Asian among them.
It had to mean they’d been hit.
“Kill him!”
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tang!
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tang!
With an ear-splitting roar, muzzle flashes flared.
Ryu Min, taking the bullet storm without any response, collapsed limply.
“F*ck, what was that?”
“Did we take him down?”
Then a voice sounded behind them.
“Tsk, tsk. How can you chant a resurrection spell?”
“…!”
The moment they jerked their heads around in shock, they saw it.
The Asian man they’d just riddled with bullets was standing there like a ghost.
And an Asian woman was watching as well.
An organization member who looked like he was about to aim again suddenly let his arms drop.
“Dominated?”
“Yes, Master.”
“Good. It was worth drawing their attention.”
The doppelganger that had served as a bullet sponge was already gone.
When Ryu Min flicked his eyes, Yamtti asked the organization members,
“Spit it out. What kind of work does your organization do?”
“We harvest men’s organs for organ trafficking, and the leftovers are used as human flesh. Women are raped in turns by eight organization members, forcibly impregnated so we can sell the babies—”
“S-stop talking!”
At Yamtti’s order, the organization members shut their mouths.
“Why?”
“I—I can’t listen to any more.”
Yamtti turned her head as if just hearing it made her want to vomit.
After giving her a moment to steady herself, Ryu Min ordered,
“For now, let’s take these guys in front and enter the organization.”
“Yes, understood. I’m sorry for cutting them off without permission, Master.”
“That can happen. I understand.”
“Th-thank you. I’m glad I met a Master as generous as the sea. I’ll obey you for life.”
“Obviously.”
Ryu Min believed it.
If he kept climbing and hunting down these organizations, he would eventually reach IS.
After all, these bastards were offshoots spawned from IS.
Medical facilities in northern Nigeria are poor.
The reality is there aren’t many doctors.
In each state, there were only two or three proper doctors, so that told you everything.
Maybe that was why—
A person like him, from Lagos in southern Nigeria, had been dragged all the way to the distant north and forced to play the role of a medic.
“All done.”
Victor Jafayile, having treated a laceration using the First Aid skill, looked at the other man.
Just an organization member armed with a rifle.
As a Player, Victor could kill him and run.
‘But what comes after is the problem.’
The organization that swore loyalty to IS—Boko Haram.
He couldn’t know where their main base was.
All he knew was that countless people besides him had been dragged here.
There were especially many children—kids who’d been attending classes at a school in a remote village in Zamfara State, Kaia.
He didn’t know why they’d been kidnapped, but as a medical professional, it was hard to abandon them and flee.
He’d already lived with them long enough to grow attached.
Then why not kill all the organization members and escape together?
‘If I’m honest, I want to.’
But Boko Haram didn’t consist of ordinary people only.
He knew there were as many Players as there were civilians.
Even the force stationed here alone had thirty Players guarding the area.
That was why Victor still hadn’t been able to escape.
“Hey, Victor. What are you thinking so hard about?”
“Me? Ah— no, it’s nothing.”
“Staring off into space… I guess life’s been comfortable lately, huh? Since you’re a ‘doctor’ and we treat you nice, you think you can look down on us? Is that it?”
“N-no, of course not.”
Waving his hands with an awkward face, Victor swallowed down a curse inside.
‘You worthless bastard who can’t even throw a punch…’
He had no choice but to endure.
Even right now, Detection confirmed five Players nearby, and even if he used Area Scan, dozens of dots appeared.
And more than anything, like he’d said, he couldn’t abandon the kidnapped children and people and escape alone.
“Watch your attitude, Doctor. These days, any Player can get First Aid. We don’t need the likes of you.”
“……”
“And you’ll wonder this, right? If healing is possible, why keep you alive at all? What do you think it is?”
“W-well… I’m not sure…?”
“What else? It’s because we’ve grown attached to you, that’s why.”
Victor nearly snorted.
‘Attached? What a joke. You animals.’
After being held by IS for a full year, Victor knew.
He knew what kind of filthy things these bastards did to the people they kidnapped.
‘Because you’re attached to me? Bullsh*t. You’re keeping me alive because of my ability.’
They knew his class was an Alchemist.
It wasn’t like he’d confessed on purpose—he’d been caught when he used a healing potion to save a dying woman.
After that, they grilled him about his runes, skills, and abilities, and ordered him every day to make potions.
He didn’t know what they did with those potions.
They probably sold them on the black market to fatten their pockets, or stockpiled them for themselves.
‘At least I lied that I can only make one a day and the type is random—if I hadn’t, a massive amount of potions might’ve flooded the market…’
So the “attachment” story was nonsense.
The reason they didn’t kill him was because he was an Alchemist.
You wouldn’t cut open the belly of a goose that laid golden eggs.
“Anyway, watch yourself. Unless you want to die.”
“Yes… I’ll remember that.”
The organization member smirked and left with his comrades.
A Player being looked down on by an ordinary organization grunt.
Victor let out a quiet sigh.
“Uncle, are you okay?”
“Ah, Ricky. How long have you been watching?”
“From the start.”
As much as Victor adored the kids, the kids liked Victor too.
Ricky was the one who followed Victor the most closely.
He’d chat and joke around constantly.
‘Now I felt anxious if I couldn’t see Ricky.’
Victor shook his head, then asked carefully,
“Ricky… do you like living here?”
“No way. It’s too dirty here and it’s boring. And the uncles with guns are scary.”
Hearing that, Victor cautiously checked his surroundings.
Only after confirming there was no one in sight and Detection showed no one nearby did he speak again.
“Then… if, just if… Uncle asked you to leave with me, would you come?”
“Mm-hmm! I like you, Uncle. I’ll go with you!”
“Shh. You have to talk quietly. If someone hears, Uncle gets in trouble like before.”
“O-okay. Shh…….”
Ricky covering his mouth with his small palm made Victor smile.
But only for a moment.
At Ricky’s next question, Victor’s expression hardened.
“Uncle… are we leaving here?”
“Huh? It’s not that I definitely—”
“If you go, can’t the other kids come too? Everyone hates being here.”
“……”
“Huh? Why aren’t you answering? Can’t we go together?”
Victor couldn’t answer.
‘If I’m honest, I want to. I really do…’
But he had no confidence he could take ten children and escape without being discovered.
‘Haa… escape. It’s like a dream.’
In a situation where he might not even survive the next Round, he was worrying about “real life.”
‘Real life, and the other world too… there’s no hell like it.’
He just wanted to go home.
He wanted to return to Lagos—his hometown.
Several times a day, he found himself thinking of his parents and his little sister.
‘Given her age, my little sister must’ve become a Player too… what happened to her? Did she survive well up to Round 9 like me?’
He’d been kidnapped before awakening, so he had no way to know.
‘If I even knew her nickname, I could try to look for her in the other world…’
If he found her, could he ask her to save him?
Thinking that, Victor let out a self-mocking laugh.
‘Save me… when I don’t even know where this place is? What am I thinking.’
In this situation, salvation was a luxury.
After being used like a limb for a year, anyone would say that.
Ding— ding— ding—!
A bell rang out suddenly in the clearing.
A sound calling the kidnapped people to assemble.
“Let’s go.”
“Mm!”
Victor and Ricky started walking.
A lot of people were already out in the clearing.
Ten children and fifteen adults, and the remaining fifty Boko Haram members.
Out of those fifty, thirty were Players.
On the adult side, Victor was the only Player.
‘There’s no way we can escape.’
Having long since given up on escaping, Victor was simply curious why they’d been summoned.
“Is everyone here?”
Abubakar, the leader of Boko Haram, swept his bulging eyes over the crowd, then fixed his gaze on Victor.
“Victor.”
“Y-yes….”
“You worked hard tricking me all this time, didn’t you?”
“Pardon?”
Victor’s heart jolted, but he tried not to show it, putting on a confused expression.
“What do you mean…?”
“The potions you make. They’re not random, are they? Right? And the cooldown is shorter than twenty-four hours too.”
“……”
Silence was an admission.
If he wanted to deceive them, he had to say something—anything.
But Victor was so flustered he forgot that basic fact.
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. I told the truth—”
“Did you think you were the only Alchemist in this world?”
“……”
“While distributing potions, we learned another Alchemist existed. We interrogated him, and that’s how we found out you were lying to us.”
“……”
“Well? Got caught for real, huh? You can’t speak, so I guess it’s true.”
Victor cursed inside.
How had he not considered there might be other Alchemists besides him?
‘I was arrogant. I thought I could get by with lies…’
But Victor didn’t know.
All of it had been a test—a probe to see whether he really was lying.
He only realized that once he admitted it with his own mouth.
“Why did you lie?”
“I-I’m sorry….”
“Heh heh heh, sorry? Heh heh heh!”
Not just the boss—organization members burst into loud laughter.
Victor, not understanding why they were laughing, finally understood at the boss’s next words—
That he’d been fooled like an idiot.
“I thought a ‘doctor’ would be smart, but you’re just a complete moron, aren’t you? Heh heh heh, falling for something this simple—heh heh heh!”
“……”
Abubakar, who’d been roaring with laughter, abruptly stopped.
The organization members followed suit, shutting their mouths and going stone-faced.
A terrifying silence fell.
“Victor.”
“……”
“You dared to trick me, huh? Heh… you must’ve enjoyed it. You must’ve laughed your ass off calling me a stupid boss who fell for your lies, right? Heh heh, fine. I admit it. I was stupid. But you know what?”
Abubakar’s bulging gaze turned toward the children.
“I’m not the kind of guy who just takes it.”
At the boss’s signal, an organization member grabbed Ricky and dragged him forward.
“W-what are you doing! Let go! Let go of me!”
“Ricky!”
“That little brat’s really close with you, huh?”
Looking at Abubakar’s nasty grin, Victor felt a surge of intense dread.
And in that brief instant, he regretted it.
Regretted not running away—just the two of them—when he had the chance.
“Why get friendly with some kid? What, is this a daycare?”
“D-don’t do this. I’m sorry I lied.”
“No, no. I’m not doing this just to get an apology.”
Sss—
A dagger appeared in Abubakar’s hand.
A Level 40 Assassin Player, he set himself as if he was about to throw it.
“I’m here to collect the price for your mistake. That kid dying will be your fault.”
“U-Uncle!”
“S-stop—!”
The dagger left its owner’s hand in a flash.
There was no time to block it.
Even if Victor was a Player, there was no way he could save Ricky from twenty meters away.
He thought he couldn’t save him.
Ting—!
Not until someone struck the dagger aside and appeared.
Swoosh—
While Abubakar stared in shock, someone appeared in front of Ricky.
Someone wearing a white mask, holding a scythe.