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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]
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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 close and told Manuel,
"Wait here."
Manuel was surprised.
"Huh? W-wait here? What do you mean?"
Having witnessed Zeke single-handedly annihilate the Werewolf unit, Manuel had become noticeably more respectful.
Zeke stood up and said,
"I'll go in alone."
Then he added,
"Your only job is to accurately report what happened up there."
With those words, Zeke swiftly disappeared into the jungle alone.
Manuel stood there dumbfounded, as did the other unit members.
A short while later, a tremendous explosion erupted from within the camp.
Startled, Manuel looked back at his unit. "What was that?"
"W-what should we do, Lieutenant?"
Manuel pondered for a moment, then gestured to his unit.
"Damn it. Let's head towards the outskirts. We need to see what happened to at least make a report."
***
Leaving Manuel's unit behind, Zeke approached the camp, freely utilizing his Phantom Steps to swiftly advance.
'Hiding my strength has been suffocating.'
Due to his concealed identity, he couldn't fully utilize his abilities.
He planned to dismantle the camp using Southern martial arts, assassination techniques, and Elemental Sword, while sealing away his Dragon Slayer techniques.
'This should be more than enough for a cartel camp.'
Before his return, he often had to raid camps with his bare hands, without relying on these skills.
Back then, every raid was a gamble with his life. It was no exaggeration when Kaisir said Zeke had walked on the edge of death.
Zeke reached the thick palisade of the camp. He pulled out an ordinary claymore from his inventory and channeled his mana to draw out the power of fire.
Fwoosh!
The sword was engulfed in flames. Zeke immediately swung the fiery blade towards the palisade.
Boom!
The power was greater than expected, causing not only the palisade but also the surrounding structures to collapse.
'I need to control my strength a bit.'
Blindly destroying everything was easy, but he had a purpose here, so he needed to be careful.
"Attack! Attack!"
"There's a mage! Watch out for magic!"
It seemed they mistook Zeke's Flame Sword for magic.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Zeke infiltrated the camp and moved towards the central area guarded by Favela Cartel members.
There, he found the factory facility where Soma leaves were refined into powder.
Before reaching it, however, he was blocked.
"Intruder!"
Fifteen cartel members rushed towards Zeke.
He pulled out daggers from his inventory.
Swish!
Holding daggers in both hands, he threw them at the charging members.
Thud!
The members, hit precisely between their eyes, collapsed instantly.
Zeke's inventory held hundreds of cheap daggers, so he didn't hesitate to throw them at the cartel members.
"Ugh!"
Soon, all the charging members lay dead with daggers embedded in their foreheads or hearts.
Zeke immediately dashed towards the production facility.
Clank! Clank!
Something approached Zeke with a deafening roar.
Surprisingly, it was a few tanks equipped with magic engines.
'They managed to acquire those expensive things that aren't even commonly used in the Central Continent.'
In the Central Continent, knights and high-ranking battle mages were preferred over magic weaponry.
Magic weapons were not only expensive but also required significant maintenance.
However, the cartel had an abundance of money and a scarcity of skilled knights and mages.
It was no wonder they were the biggest customers of the Magic Tower and the Nirvana Clan.
Looking at the tanks, clad in iron armor and charging towards him, Zeke drew out Bahamut.
In his previous life, Zeke would have had to avoid tanks at all costs, but now the situation was different.
His sword was enveloped by the power of wind.
A technique often used by his master, the King Kaisir, unfolded from Zeke's sword.
Elemental Sword
Wind Chapter
Storm Sword
A sword imbued with the will of the raging wind was swung towards the tanks.
Whooosh!
A massive storm erupted around Zeke.
Crash!
The tanks, with their momentum to crush everything, were swept up by the storm and flipped over.
Clank!
Not only were they flipped over, but the outer armor was also ripped apart, unable to withstand the force of the storm.
"Aagh! Help me!"
The cartel members operating the tanks crawled out from within, trembling in fear.
The storm Zeke created formed a whirlwind, engulfing not only the tanks but also the surrounding production facilities, pulling them up into the sky.
"Wow. That's insane."
Zeke was amazed by his own handiwork.
He hadn't realized its true power while just training, but witnessing it firsthand was overwhelming.
In an instant, the camp's production facility was devastated.
The cartel members caught in the storm trembled, screaming in terror.
"Ah, a demon has appeared!"
Zeke beheaded the screaming cartel member and checked his minimap to confirm his location.
"Let's see. Where was the secret passage in this camp again?"
This camp was also one of the places Zeke had raided and destroyed in his previous life.
Back then, he had captured one of the Favela Cartel bosses here and obtained various pieces of information.
The fact that the Favela Cartel was originally a group of pirates was also information he learned from that guy.
Examining the map, Zeke recalled the location of the secret passage.
"Right. It was that cave over there."
Zeke quickly ran towards the cave located at the back of the camp.
As he approached the cave, several cartel members aimed their crossbows at him.
But Zeke's sword was faster.
Before the crossbows could be fired, the cartel members' heads fell to the ground.
"You should have shot as soon as you aimed. Your training is terrible."
Zeke collected the crossbows from the fallen members and entered the cave.
Inside, more cartel members were guarding.
"Intruder, ack!"
The first member he encountered collapsed before he could finish his sentence, struck by a bolt shot by Zeke.
Aimed precisely at the lungs, the member would die in agony without being able to scream.
Zeke showed mercy by swiftly cutting off his head, granting him a quick death.
Zeke continued through the cave, killing all the Favela Cartel members he encountered, and found the secret passage.
He descended down the passage.
It was a tunnel connected to an old mine.
With his Dragon Eye skill activated, Zeke scanned the tunnel's surroundings.
'Was it like this back then?'
The walls and floor were well-preserved for a simple mine tunnel.
In his past life, he must have missed this detail as he was focused on completing his mission.
Checking the map to locate the escaping cartel boss, Zeke leisurely entered the tunnel.
'The more I look, the less it seems like a mine. It's more like an ancient ruin...'
At that moment, something flew towards Zeke.
Whoosh!
Zeke snatched the arrow flying towards his forehead.
But that wasn't the end.
Suddenly, sharp needles sprang out from the arrow shaft, pricking his palm.
[Black Mamba venom detected.]
[The effect of the constitution "Poison immunity" negates the poison's effect.]
Black Mamba venom was a deadly poison with no antidote.
It was an assassination technique used to deal with knights in the Central Continent, a method of concealing a deadly poison within an arrow, anticipating that the target would try to catch it.
Knights who could use Aura often chose to catch arrows with their bare hands instead of dodging them, as a way of showing off their skills.
This arrogant attitude was exploited in this Southern assassination technique, using poison to kill them.
Zeke himself had used this method many times in his previous life.
As Zeke caught the arrow and tossed it aside, someone appeared.
"What? I thought it was a knight, but it's just a brat. I wasted expensive poison."
If Zeke hadn't neutralized the Black Mamba venom, he would have bled from every orifice and died within five minutes.
A man with thick hair all over his body slowly approached Zeke.
"Who sent you guys?"
Zeke looked at the man and replied, "Paulo Santos."
Paulo was startled when Zeke said his name, and he backed away cautiously.
"You... How do you know my name? And why aren't you dead?"
Zeke slowly walked towards Paulo.
Sensing something amiss, Paulo immediately turned to escape.
However, it was impossible to move faster than Zeke, who had mastered Gale Force.
Whoosh!
Zeke dashed past Paulo.
He then drew a dagger and plunged it into Paulo's thigh.
"Aagh!"
Paulo screamed, clutching his wounded 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.
Zeke easily dodged the spit and then stepped on the dagger embedded in Paulo's thigh.
"Aagh!"
As the dagger blade dug deeper into his thigh, Paulo screamed and thrashed.
Zeke pulled out another dagger and plunged it into his shoulder.
"Ugh!"
Looking at Paulo trembling in pain and fear, Zeke spoke again.
"Paulo, I know you're an executive of the Favela Cartel. And I also know that the Favela Cartel is a group of South Sea pirates."
Paulo's eyes widened in surprise at Zeke's words.
"W-what do you mean?"
"Don't act surprised. You wouldn't make a living as an actor."
Paulo was even more terrified than before.
Zeke took out a new dagger and held it to Paulo's throat.
"Listen to me if you want to live. Come with me to McCain. And tell the boss everything about the Favela Cartel. Then I'll let you live."
Paulo was shocked by Zeke's words.
"M-McCain! You mean Don Juan sent you?!"
Zeke pressed the dagger closer to his throat.
"Watch your mouth. Don't carelessly call my boss's name."
"W-we never touched the McCain Cartel! We respected each other's territories!"
"Then why are you guys sniffing around the Syndicate, trying to interfere with their distribution network?"
"Th-that's..."
Paulo couldn't help but be flustered as Zeke casually mentioned things that only executives in the Favela Cartel knew.
Zeke pressed Paulo further.
"The boss has no intention of keeping you guys alive. He's going to launch a full-scale attack until Favela is completely reduced to ashes, wiping out the filthy pirates. Understand?"
Paulo's eyes darted around.
Then, as if he had something attached under his shoe, he quickly retrieved a hidden weapon and sprayed it at Zeke.
"Ugh!"
It was poison powder, and Zeke, hit directly, collapsed sideways.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Paulo limped away.
Zeke, hit by the poison powder, clutched his face and rolled on the ground.
"Aagh!"
He groaned and rolled around until Paulo disappeared down the passage.
And only when Paulo was completely out of sight did he get up.
"This should be enough. That idiot, he must have forgotten that he didn't get hit by the Black Mamba venom earlier."
The reason he sought out Paulo was to give him information about the McCain Cartel.
For both the McCain Cartel and the Favela Cartel to collapse simultaneously, a fierce war had to break out between them.
That was what Zeke was aiming for.
'If Don Juan thinks they're going to launch a full-scale attack, Favela won't just sit still.'
While McCain and Favela were engaged in a fierce war, Zeke intended to slip through the cracks.
Zeke brushed off the poison powder and turned around.
"Now, let's finish this..."
At that moment, he felt a chilling presence behind him.
Whoosh!
Something flew towards Zeke.
Whirl!
He hurriedly rolled to the side to dodge the attack.
'An Aura-infused sword strike.'
It was a Central Continent swordsmanship style, not a Southern one.
He looked back.
Several figures clad in black, wielding swords, had somehow appeared and surrounded Zeke from both front and back.
Gritting his teeth, Zeke drew his sword.
They were the ones he knew all too well.
"Come on, you damn Imperial Hounds."
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]
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