Chapter 193 - 25000 vs 1 [3]
Chapter 193: < Protect – Episode 192 – 25000 vs 1 [3] >
James Black, A.K.A. Black fortune, was a living legend of the US military’s special operation. But compared to Ahn Soo Ho, he was just an ordinary operations agent. Ahn Soo Ho was active as an on-site agent for only 2 years, or around 600 days to be exact. But what he did during that short period of time allowed him to sit on the throne.
Following the battle in Sicilia, he transformed into a negotiation mediator, and after that, all average missions were given to Logan and his underlings. To be honest, Ahn Soo Ho wasn’t very active for 10 years before his retirement. Since people trusted his reputation and hired him without any hesitation, there wasn’t much room for problems.
He even became an example for the enemies.
Ahn Soo Ho still abided by his rule of giving everyone a chance to save themselves. The broadcast was made in English, French, and the African language.
“Back off! Then we won’t look for you!”
99% probably wouldn’t understand, but the 1% who understood it was enough. The reason why Boko Haram expanded so quickly was because Ahn Soo Ho wiped out their competing organization. At the time, the African human trafficking organizations were targeted, and Boko Haram was too new back then to be noticed.
Ahn Soo Ho sat on a wooden chair and hung up a white flag on top of a flimsy tree while waiting for someone in the wind. Since there wasn’t much time left that Bridal Mask gave them, they had to hurry up, but they took their sweet time.
‘They can just die then.’
If anyone could look into his thoughts, they would have been shocked. The rich who had never earned a dollar in their life and the arrogant educated people deserved to die.
Ahn Soo Ho looked up at the night sky of Africa.
The way the moon and stars sparkled so clearly showed off another charm different from that of Seoul. In the highlands with only the beautiful sky to admire, he heard the sound of a car engine along with the lights of headlights. The driver parked on a safe distance away from Ahn Soo Ho and then approached with a flashlight. What was funny was that that person was holding a white flag, too.
“Sit down.”
Ahn Soo Ho offered a seat to the man. The flimsy wooden chairs were stronger than they looked. Under the bright moonlight, the man’s face revealed to be covered with hair. That meant it was definitely a man, and in North Africa and the Middle East where Islams were common, men weren’t treated as adults if they didn’t have facial hair.
“Soo Ho.”
“Hamid.”
The greeting methods of Islamic fundamentalists were very complicated. But the man was very familiar with the Western method. He was called a fundamentalist, but his religion was just an excuse for him to not have other people telling him what to do.
“How are the wife and children? The eldest is in London, right?”
“Yeah. The first is in London and the second is going to enter Harvard next year.”
This wasn’t something that was expected to come out of Boko Haram’s executive’s mouth since he was against Western education methods. What was funnier was that Hamid was from MIT himself. This situation was similar to a silver spoon who got all the best education and jobs, but he suddenly decided to become a politician representing the commoners.
“Say it.”
“Eduard has lost his mind.”
“What do you mean?”
“He lost his family to the US military’s attack.”
“How unfortunate.”
“That’s how all wars are, I suppose. So the living should just go on living. As you know, our organization doesn’t have a long history.”
Boko Haram, the IS West African Branch, and other Islamic fundamentalist activities only began after the Afghanistan war which the US military started. And everyone knew that they had a clear objective and intention.
“The executives and their families all receive elite education of Western culture.”
“But you have an excuse.”
“Yeah, we do. That we’re tricking the Pagan and spying on them. But the ones who receive such high education come to realize how stupid the fundamentalist movement is. If they’re pure fundamentalists, they can’t learn foreign languages like English or French, and they can’t even upload decapitation videos on YouTube. What about cars or fridges or electricity? They can’t use anything that Pagans made.”
“Isn’t that why they mostly drive Japanese cars more than American ones?”
“Haha. Maybe. Anyway, the frame we created is what is keeping us trapped. In the end, we have no choice but to drag in outsiders. The problem is that they can’t be controlled.”
“Outsiders? Who is it?”
“Soo Ho. It’s an organization you know.”
Ahn Soo Ho thought of a name.
“Allayas Frovesa?”
“Yes.”
Alleyas Frovesa was the craziest of the crazies. They were an assassination squad that had the most broken men in the world. How did soldiers make a living after coming back from the war with missing arms and legs? The only thing that mercenaries and soldiers were good at doing was killing.
Originally, Alleyas Frovesa started off as a union for the injured soldiers and mercenaries, and it seemed pleasant to see the disabled helping each other out. But they started to degenerate about 10 years ago, and then they started to become known for the hiring advertisements for assassins. At one point, women, children, and elders were favored while in the 21st century, the disabled were the most preferred.
No one suspected the disabled to be killers. What was scarier was that Alleyas took the disabled who didn’t want to live anymore and pushed them to their deaths. There were many who wanted to die so that they could leave large monetary compensation for their families. Most of all, in Africa, even the most average people had the crazy idea of wanting to be disabled.
“Why? Why did they drag me into this? I didn’t have any kind of point of contact with them.”
“I don’t think there needs to be a reason for crazy people… Soo Ho, it seems like you expect everyone to think in logical ways.”
“Really?”
“The way I see it… you seem to still have hope for mankind.”
How could Ahn Soo Ho, also known as the killing machine, be a humanist? Hamid said it, but he couldn’t believe it either. The two looked at the night sky without saying anything. And the first one to speak up again was Hamid.
“The hostages are near Lake Chad.”
“They crossed the border.”
“That region… doesn’t even have borders.”
“What about Chad’s military?”
“Well, France hated that the US declared war first.”
“Is this their unofficial way of expressing their opinion?”
“The French government would probably deny it.”
“Anyway… you brought a tail with you, my friend.”
Hamid was startled by what Ahn Soo Ho said.
“I… I don’t know anything about this, Soo Ho!”
“I know. They probably secretly followed you.”
Hamid was relieved when Ahn Soo Ho nodded. Once Hamid calmed down, he thought about it and then clapped his hands.
“If it’s near here, it’s Mohammed’s 6th group.”
“Are they Eduard’s right arm?”
“Yeah.”
As soon as Ahn Soo Ho got up, Hamid also followed and yelled at his underling who was nearby.
“Are you going to fight?”
“I think they’re planning to attack my tribe.”
It was possible that Eduard wasn’t pleased with Hamid who always retaliated against his stances. Seeing how there was so much military power despite it not being America’s terrority, there was definitely a strong force behind him.
Ahn Soo Ho patted Hamid on the shoulder.
“Go back to your family, my friend. I’ll take care of this.”
Hamid flinched and then nodded with a touched look on his face.
“Thanks, Soo Ho.”
“Go.”
They didn’t like exchanging expressions of gratitude. Ahn Soo Ho saw off Hamid in the distance and then walked toward a noise he heard. The US military used strong force to attack Nigeria, but just like during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, their enemies fought back with guerillas.
Tanks and armored cars were unimaginable.
‘The French are being cute now.’
No matter how much they wanted to screw over the US, it wasn’t sane to provide weapons to terrorists. This could have been Ahn Soo Ho’s misunderstanding, but it seemed as though he was right. The Sahel area which was in the process of desertification didn’t have many hiding spots.
He saw a war machine that was causing a gust of sand to blow everywhere.
Armed cars were centered around a disguised vehicle that looked like a pickup truck, and besides a Japanese car was a T-Series tank from Russia. They were all old-style vehicles and the only thing that held them together was a black flag with white letters on it.
‘I’m not their target.’
There was no way Boko Haram could know Ahn Soo Ho’s whereabouts when not even America did. The recon equipment in the sky were all busy trying to keep focused on Ahn Soo Ho. There were even some countries who dispatched ground forces to keep an eye on him.
They all suspected that Ahn Soo Ho had supernatural powers, but none of them knew the details. Magic wasn’t supernatural powers. But he had no interest in trying to prove that.
‘If they think of it as supernatural powers, I’ll go with it.’
Since this wasn’t a scientific theory, he had no obligation to correct them. But if they asked him in person, he probably would have answered.
‘What’s magic?’
It could be argued as supernatural powers. That was because it causes things that couldn’t be verified with science. When he first experienced magic, he was very disappointed. Why? Because there were no fireballs that men dreamt of. There was no Gandalf throwing fire. And the magicians Ahn Soo Ho met didn’t have long beards or wore pointy hats and held canes. They also didn’t wear any kind of robe or pretended to be smart, and they definitely didn’t go around telling people their identities.
Magicians always moved in the dark.
What would happen if Ahn Soo Ho was compared to Anna-Anne from his memories? Who would be stronger?
The answer was Ahn Soo Ho.
And by a long-shot, at that.
Anna-Anne was powerful enough to battle against the world. But if Anna-Anne came into the 21st century, she would have become the target of a cruise missile. Even if the great, great magician showed up or the great, great, great, great magician showed up, there was no stopping magic delay. No matter how powerful their magic was they couldn’t dodge a bullet darting their way.
However, Ahn Soo Ho wasn’t afraid of any nuclear weapon or bullet. Why? Because he didn’t need a seal or a safe house.
‘There’s no Anna-Anne, but I’m here.’
Although Anna-Anne wasn’t in this world anymore, Ahn Soo Ho had computers. And a very fast one at that. On top of that, he had many of them. No mathematical genius stood a chance against a supercomputer. Magic was a battle against time, and whoever could end it quicker would win the war.
Was it hard to make them lose their minds and have illusions? Or was it harder to control one’s own mind? Illusion magic used the abilities of a supercomputer to inject information in real-time like a head-up display.
But this posed two problems.
And those were radio and capacity.
Considering the size and weight of the generator running the supercomputer, mobility was thrown out the window. But for Ahn Soo Ho, the size of the computer didn’t matter. That was because he was a space magician.
As Ahn Soo Ho became more skilled, his secret pocket increased in size, and every time he added a supercomputer, he became more skilled which meant space was no longer an issue.
And once the problem with the size was resolved, the radio issue would naturally be resolved.
As his space became expanded, he was able to set out an antenna anywhere in the sky. If that was the case, where did the generators, supercomputers, and all of the equipment came from? He bought them with money. The reason why the world couldn’t look down on Ahn Soo Ho was because his ability to buy surpassed those of an average nation or company.
He possessed the best guns, bullets, and explosives in the world. He was what controlled the military world as the biggest armory. And that wasn’t all. He was also the fridge that controlled the food industry. For over the last decade, Ahn Soo Ho bought everything he possibly could.
He was what they called a shopaholic.
“This is the perfect stage for a showcase.”
It was a good debut stage for a man with supernatural powers.
As soon as multiple sleeping supercomputers went into full effect, the world in Ahn Soo Ho’s eyes changed. Infrared rays functioned as retinas that reacted to light, and supercomputers were used to deliver analyzed information into Ahn Soo Ho’s head through illusion magic.
Without the need to use vision magic, he was able to see in the dark.
He knew his enemy’s exact locations without knowing the distance.
His head-up display differentiated enemies without a thought.
Pulling the trigger was all too easy for him.
It was raining.
People often expressed the fierce battlefield by saying it was raining bullets, but it was raining something different this time.
Boom, boom- Boom- Boom, boom, boom-
It was raining grenades and explosives.
“Gasp!”
The US recons who were monitoring their target with magnifying glasses gasped at what they saw. The way the sky collapsed and the land flipped upside down was a sight that was rarely seen even by veterans. One of the Catholic members drew a cross with his fingers.
“God!”
Hell followed Ahn Soo Ho’s every footstep.
< Protect – Episode 192 – 25000 vs 1 [3] > The end.