A Black Market LitRPG

Kyle frowned as he read the message he had just gotten from Raktor. No activity from the Ardent Cretins nor the Violet Demons in attempting to attack us. Weird.

He had half expected his businesses or at least his supply chain to be affected by the Ardent Cretins in some way or another. Sebastian theoretically should have begun to poke holes into the entire network that Kyle had built up.

Similarly, the Violet Demons seemed to have given up attacking the Euria Seeds operation, simply letting it be. What was even more surprising to hear was that the conflict in the West Sector was beginning to die out, as though both major gangs were taking a rest.

The inaction of the major gangs made Kyle wonder what the underlying plot was. Sebastian isn’t dumb – he must have an agenda for not attacking me.

He laid out the motives of every group he could think of that was involved in this entire situation.

First, Mornero and his lackeys wanted total control of the state. Kyle already knew they were militarising, though he had no idea how fast.

Next, Count Leon was bound to attack Versia at some point or another. Kyle did not know enough about him to make a clear judgment call on his character, but the fact that the Barons, such as Cain, were prompted to build as many factories and supply lines as they could for a potential war led Kyle to believe that this was most likely a real possibility. He already heard of even more military build-up at the border.

Finally, there was Nest, who was in cahoots with Mornero. He did not know what Mornero offered them, but it was more than enough to get them to offer more than five thousand hitmen to bolster the military in Tenar itself.

Kyle did not find this too complicated – he had been involved in far worse diplomatic issues in the Galactic Era, especially when there were multiple criminal organisations involved.

I don’t believe for a second that Sebastian does not know what is going on here – all of the major gangs should be aware of this imminent war. Are they stockpiling or reducing their movements? But for what purpose?

The only reason Kyle could think of was due to the increased military build-up of Count Leon: perhaps the major gangs were afraid that if they acted out of turn, the Count would turn around and declare martial law on the sector. No gang wanted to face the military of the Count’s head-on.

As Kyle continued to ponder on the moves of the different groups, the sounds of manufacturing from the workshop area reverberated through the walls of his makeshift office chamber as hundreds of fresh recruits were being trained. This was not the only base they had, with multiple other separate bases set up.

Suddenly, a Clouds employee barged into the chamber. “Sir Greyborn, the military and Nest are attacking in synchronisation! They are planning on wiping us out!”

“Where are they now?”

“They are pouring through the black market and sniffing out all our safehouses – I also heard that there’s an entirely separate force that’s aimed at flushing out the catacombs.”

Faster than expected. Kyle quickly rushed out of the office, spotting Feldon, who was overseeing the production of weapons. “Feldon, prepare evacuation plan B. I want all essentials emptied out and moved to the backup base immediately. Get Dekar and Zayin to run diversionary tactics – we already planned for this. Assemble all of your men.”

The workers all were frightened, but under the calm leadership of Feldon and Kyle, they began to pack up the portable workbenches and tools, stuffing them into crates and ferrying them off on trolleys further out into the catacombs.

However, the amount of equipment was far too much, with the rate of evacuation slow-paced. Even after half an hour, there was still more than half of the equipment left in the workshop.

Feldon continuously monitored the situation as Dekar and Zayin’s troops and the Clouds observers reported on the enemy’s movements.

[Two 5-5s moving down Asha Street. Prepare ambush at Sector 4’s candy shop.]

[Lost contact with Sector 8B. Base raided. No news of survivors.]

[Enemy squad entering catacombs. Sector 17A moving to Sector 17B, expected five minutes.]

[Performing diversion operation in Sector 28P.]

[Sector 19C is under heavy fire, redirecting support forces to other sectors.]

[Five squads spotted on 1D, entering catacombs.]

Dekar and Zayin had already implemented guerrilla tactics into managing the troops, but Kyle was sure that anything and everything could go wrong. They only had close to a week of training, which was far from enough to make them an efficient fighting force.

The only saving grace Kyle had was the Clouds employees, who had some three hundred trained hitmen. By spreading them out among the squads and putting them in charge of a group of five recruits, it increased the fighting capability as well as cohesion levels.

However, Kyle had yet to en-masse produce guns at scale to arm everyone, so it became an issue of equipment. With the military and the Nest being far better equipped, it was no surprise that any of his squads would lose head-on. There was also the lack of an arcia energy training chamber – half a ton was barely enough to fit more than ten people at a time, which would not be useful for a force numbering in the thousands.

Kyle had already prepared for such an eventuality of a purge – hence the evacuation plan and diversionary tactics. If they are performing a full sweep operation, this means that considerable resources are being dedicated to eradicating us. The longer we survive like a cockroach, the better our chances of toppling the government.

It was a fine balance to manage. Kyle continued to assist with the evacuation while all of Feldon’s men, that had been smuggled over from the goblin den over the past five days, geared up with their full armour and new prototype automatic rifles. Kyle counted them as he equipped himself, noting that they numbered only ten here with him now, with the other fifty or so being split up, working on establishing secondary bases.

“How many squads spotted?” Kyle asked.

“About close to seventy squads now. They are really full-sweeping the –“

While Feldon was talking, a sudden thud was heard as a metal spike tore through one of the chamber walls, embedding itself on the opposite wall. “Shit! They are here! Get to-“

The metal spike’s engraving began to glow brightly before a loud shrill sound was continuously emitted from the metal spike, prompting the workers to cover their ears immediately, dropping their equipment as they winced from the pain.

Sonar attack?! Kyle quickly lunged for the metal spike, stomping on it and breaking it while the entire chamber wall burst open with more than two dozen Nest hitmen entering, guns blazing.

Their repeaters immediately riddled close to a dozen workers and three of Feldon’s men with holes, killing them instantly. The remainder of Feldon’s men quickly flipped over crates and workbenches, taking cover behind them and anything else that could withstand the incoming gunfire. Kyle himself rolled into position behind a pile of steel bars, peeking at the Nest hitmen who were entering in droves now.

“Deploying!” One of the Nest hitmen lugged a large block of black metal as his allies covered him, dropping it onto the ground and plugging a tube from his arcite fuel pack into it.

The myriad of engravings on the block began to brighten up, causing the block to unfold rapidly to form a chest-high defensive cover that began to shine brightly like a spotlight, blinding Feldon’s men and Kyle from being able to see anything.

Three more of the same cover were set up, with each five-man squad acting in synchronisation. “Spread out and flank them!”

That’s far too high-tech for this technological era?! Where is Nest getting all of these? Kyle did not bother, hefting his own prototype rifle which was a far larger version than the mass-produced one and checking the canister.

The crossfire was immense, with Feldon’s men controlling their arcia energy usage as they defended in a semi-circle, trying to pin down the Nest squads to prevent them from getting a flanking angle around them. With no arcite fuel pack, it was hard to contest with the well-equipped Nest hitmen.

Two grenades sailed through the air and landed right in the middle of the cover, exploding into fragments that pierced Feldon’s men, wounding nearly all of them. The Seven Snakes armour set worn helped to relieve some of the damage, but it was unsustainable.

“Feldon, grab the bombs and blast them!” Kyle ordered, himself popping out from cover to lay down suppressing fire as Feldon quickly scampered across the room, heading for the ammo store that was further behind.

Kyle held down the trigger, feeling his own MP drain as the gun unleashed a veritable storm of bullets, immediately riddling the chest-high defensive cover with holes and damaging the spotlight engraving, reducing the glare. This finally allowed Feldon’s men to fire back accurately.

He swept the area with his automatic rifle, firing for a good ten seconds before retreating back into cover. “Feldon, ammo!”

A metal tin can containing the pellets was rolled over the floor from the back while Feldon resumed arming the explosive mortar rounds that they had in store.

“Report to the boss: Kris Greyborn is here – priority target number 1! Hold him here until the boss comes!” One of the Nest squad leaders ordered. “Suppress them!”

Just as the squad members complied and began to peek over their defensive cover, one of their heads was immediately knocked right in the face by an explosive mortar round, with Kyle holding the mortar launcher vertically like a rocket launcher.

The explosive mortar round exploded into a brilliant flame, engulfing the entire squad and killing all of them except for the squad leader, whose personal defence shield saved his life, but was completely knocked out by the resulting shockwave and impact.

The remaining squads were shocked at the sheer firepower. “Take him down, quickly! Throw everything!”

That’s my line, idiot. Kyle reloaded the mortar quickly before hoisting it up again on his shoulder, firing. The searing heat from the barrel of the mortar and the strong recoil hardly fazed him, with him using the Necklace of Healing to heal the burnt skin on his hand and shoulder continuously as he anchored himself over a steel bar.

Another squad was blasted to smithereens, with the two remaining Nest squads focusing all their firepower on Kyle, making sure he couldn’t step out of cover to fire off another shot.

However, this freed up Feldon’s men, prompting them to quickly dash out of cover and exploit the advantage, taking up new positions to surround the two squads. “Pin them!”

With their flanks jeopardised, Kyle then had the chance to fire off yet another shot. However, while the round travelled in mid-air, a black human shadow suddenly appeared in between, blocking it with his body as the round exploded.

Despite the force of the explosion, the black shadow was hardly knocked back, his feet firmly planted on the floor in a deep groove. The engravings of his interior chest plate glowed, absorbing the kinetic energy impact and converting it into arcia energy.

Kyle immediately recognised him as the first secret service agent to block his railgun shot. While he had not been aiming to kill Mornero outright, he had always been surprised someone managed to react to and block it directly without a personal energy shield. “Why am I not surprised to find out you’re Nest?”

Nox ignored Kyle’s remark, instead deploying his vambrace into arm shields that were designed in a shape of a kite, their edges sharp and deadly as he pointed them right at Kyle.

“Kris Greyborn. Where is Lady Yona?”