Chapter 478: Juyoung Hong (5)
A little later, I heard some explosions here and there.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Excluding dynamite, specialized cranes and excavators for digging the ground and breaking stones are not an uncommon sight these days.
But in this diamond mine, I could not see any such machines.
Instead the people here were digging the mines with poor tools such as blunt-tipped pickaxes. Of course, this is Africa, where nearly everything is relatively scarce, but I still felt somewhat bitter watching the laborers here. They were forced to work here endlessly without even stretching their backs under the supervision of rebels holding guns.
I passed by the workers and moved into an area surrounded by trees, which was shabby but strong enough to be called their fortress.
When I moved into the largest building in the center, a guy wearing black sunglasses among those guarding the building looked at me from head to toe, then opened his mouth.
“Who the heck is this guy? I’ve never seen him before.”
Then somebody else replied from behind me.
“We found him while patrolling the outskirts of this area.”
“Given his looks and dress, we thought he was rather unusual, so we brought him here.”
Those behind me emphasized the wording ‘we’, as if to remind the sunglasses wearing man that he should not forget their credit for capturing me alive.
Hearing that the guy guarding the large building nodded slightly and opened his mouth.
“Good. It’s good you didn’t kill him. Okay. I won’t forget your contribution, so return. I’ll call you later.”
“Got it!”
“Understood!”
The guys who took me here returned in a cheerful mood, and I was taken to a big house by other guys.
The outside, as expected, was very hot and humid. But the inside of the building was cool with an air conditioner, and it had luxurious carpets spread all over the place, not to mention luxurious ornaments on the walls.
“Captain, our guys found a stranger while patrolling outside, so they brought him here.”
When the guy wearing black sunglasses said that, a man with a thick cigar in his mouth raised his head and looked at me.
Then he said in a low voice, “I don’t think he’s from this area.”
“That’s right. I don’t know how he got lost in this area, but it looks like we can receive a huge ransom for him.”
“By the way, is he dumb? Or does he not understand English?”
“According to our guys who brought him here, he doesn’t seem to speak English. They said he didn’t say a word while he was coming here.”
The official language of Sierra Leone is English. So I could understand what they were talking about in English, but I deliberately didn’t say anything.
But I didn’t have to keep silent at this point.
So, I opened my mouth to the guy with the cigar in his mouth who seemed to be the leader of this place.
“Are you Reke, the leader of the Tanba rebels?”
“Um…I don’t think he is a stranger who got lost.”
It seemed that he was the Reke that I had been looking for.
As if I guessed right, four guys behind Reke pointed their guns at me as soon as I said that. Even the guy in black sunglasses who led me into this room pointed his gun at me.
Without caring about them at all, I continued, spouting the information that Oliveira had given me, “Tell me if there is anything wrong with what I’m saying because I don’t want you to feel that it is unfair. First of all, you guys killed over 500 tribesmen who lived there in the open Diamond Mine called Kwait to occupy it. And you killed more than 4000 people last year because they couldn’t satisfy their allotted quota, right? By the way, you guys also destroyed another three towns to test the weapons you had purchased. That’s what I know until now. Anything wrong? Just tell me if you think you really didn’t do what I said you did.”
“How crazy! Do you badly want us to kill you right now?”
“Looking at your expression, I think what I said is true. Alright, then, you first…”
I was going to hand him a death sentence because although killing him quickly and sparing him pain might be too generous for him, I didn’t want to drag my feet on it.
But he spoke first, “Kill him!”
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
In an instant, a total of 5 people, including the four bodyguards behind him and the guy wearing black sunglasses who took me here fired at me.
But their bullets didn’t do any damage to me. Actually, I had already confirmed it in São Paulo, Brazil.
In response to them firing at me, I summoned chunks of ice that were smaller than a little finger, then threw them at the five guys shooting at me.
Puck! Puck! Puck! Puck!
Pasasasasak!
“Kheeeeek!”
“Khuuuuuuuuuuuuk!”
Did I use Ice Ball or Ice Bolt? That was too much for them.
I was now strong enough to blow up this big building with a single Ice Ball, my weakest attack.
So, I threw five really small pieces of ice, and with that alone, it was possible to freeze all five people who were brandishing guns at me in an instant.
The tiny ice chunks pierced their chests and froze them.
“!!!”
Their captain could not understand the situation where his subordinates could not kill me even though they were shooting at me. Rather he witnessed me killing and freezing them all of a sudden.
Stunned by what he saw right before his eyes, he sprang to his feet with no remnant of his relaxed manner a moment ago.
A whopping five rifles fired shots at me with loud sounds.
Those affiliated with the Tanba rebels came in through the gate.
“What the heck?”
“Ice?”
“What the heck is that?”
All of them were dumbfounded at the incredible scenes.
At that moment, Reke shouted, “Kill this guy right now!”
It has already been proved that they could not kill me using their rifles.
But they seemed to feel they could kill me by firing at me once again.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
At Reke’s order, the rebel members fired at me.
So I glanced at them quickly. Among them were those in their 30s or older, but I also saw teenagers. Obviously, they reluctantly joined the rebel forces to survive.
But I didn’t care about it any longer.
“Ice Ball!”
Bang!
Pasasasasasak!
I did not want to review their crimes one by one before punishing them. As a matter of fact, I didn’t attack them to punish them because I was neither a judge nor a prosecutor. No one gave me the power to punish other humans.
But I took action against the stronger who exploited the weaker, which was very much common. The only difference was my action resulted in their deaths.
Anyway, I killed them without hesitation because I had already made up my mind.
Then I took Reke out of the building, who was completely stiff from fear even though he wasn’t hit by my ice.
Then I said to him in a low voice, “Hey, it’s still too early for you to give up. I am alone here, but as leader of the rebel forces, you have lots of subordinates, right? So summon all of them!”
“…”
For his boss was monitoring what’s going on here through the lenses he was wearing anyway. At that moment, he heard his boss’s voice through the small earphones he wore on his ears.