< Darkness and Light (Part 1) >
The chipbuster was made with the dust of blue chips, the grenade launcher was built to fire the chipbuster. The launcher itself was a crappy weapon, but the explosiveness of the grenade was not to be taken lightly.
Zin recovered his arrows, and gathered the grenades attached on the launchers.
"I haven't seen a bow like that before," Ramphil said.
Zin shrugged as he was explained the compound bow to Ramphil.
"It has a short range, but it's very useful in situations like this.
A gun with a silencer would still make a sound that could be heard within a hundred yards. However, an arrow is as quiet as the wind. Sniping using a silencer would be the best option at long range, but there is no weapon better than a bow at close range." And especially a compound bow built for a strong hunter like Zin, powerful enough to take out a person in one shot.
The area inside the hole was very dark, but a faint light could be seen from far away.
"Let's go."
Zin put the arrow on his bow and started forward again, Ramphil following him not too far away. After walking though a narrow passage, an open space appeared in front of them. The space seemed to be the old subway station. In order to live underground, light was needed, and the Reavers were using a light stand that used chips to brighten up the area.
Pfft…
Zin and Ramphil stopped and hid behind the dark corner. The Reavers kept the area very bright, and it was not possible to launch a surprise attack in the dark. Zin put away his compound bow and put out his AKM. Watching Zin take out the other weapon, Ramphil understood what to expect and was waiting for his signal.
"The tofu dude got dragged out by the rats. These rats are scary, dude."
"Damn it… How long are we going to live underground?"
The Reavers were in one place and complaining about their lives. Around them, there were human skeletons lying around on the ground. It seemed that Reavers were dragged away by the monster rats when they were sleeping. The darkness was their biggest enemy, and therefore the Reavers were using the chips to lighten up the area.
One of the Reavers rebuked the group as they kept on complaining.
"If you want to get killed by the Left hand Reavers, go ahead and get out of here."
"Damn, you think I don't know about them? Why don't we go to a different city? What the hell are we doing here…?"
"Who knows what the boss is thinking. I'm sure he has a plan in mind. He said to wait a little longer."
"It's only a matter of time before the Lefties get crushed by the Wargrave troops. It's a pity we lost some of our buddies, but if the Wargrave wipes out the Lefties, their sacrifices would be well worth it."
The other Reavers agreed as well.
"Yeah, all their stocked chips and equipment would become ours. The Wargrave is not interested in any of the Reavers' equipment, so it would all become ours, right?"
These Reavers believed that the Wargrave would be wiping out the Left Hand Reavers. And in fact, if Ramphil and Zin had not talked with the Reavers, the Wargrave would have destroyed the Slaughterhouse.
They did not realize that their plan had failed and that they were about to get attacked by Zin and Ramphil. The subway area was pretty big. It was evident that Zin and Ramphil would get attacked from all directions. Zin signaled Ramphil to standby. Zin had to make a decision.
Zin thought, It's too bright inside here, and we can't hide anymore.
They are about 100 in number and are armed with rifles and grenades. If they start blasting those grenades, it is going to be a big problem.
Fortunately, they have been exposed to the light for a long time, and they can't easily spot us.
How can I wipe out a hundred enemies with the least amount of effort…?
Zin looked at the interior of the subway where the Reavers were. The most efficient method of attack was an ambush. An ambush would require darkness, but Zin would not be able to ambush them because of the light. On the flip side, it meant that Zin would have to take out the light in order to ambush them in the darkness.
Zin thought again, I will have to start a ruckus and then take out the lamps.
I will fire a grenade, and then take out the lamps while they are confused.
After that, Ramphil should be able to take them out.
Zin was planning to take out the light and make the underground area completely dark. The Reavers did not have any night vision goggles. But Zin had night vision scopes, and Ramphil could easily switch his eyes to night vision mode. Zin relayed his plan to Ramphil, who nodded.
Good idea. Ramphil was thinking of a full-on attack, but he liked Zin's plan. The lamps were stationary and it was too hard to shoot them.
Zin loaded the chipbuster into the AKM launcher and fired it away.
—Tub! —
"Huh?"
When the Reavers responded to the sound, it was already too late.
—Kaabaaaam! —
With a blue flash, five Reavers were instantly pulverized, and the other Reavers around them started to yell.
"Damn!!!"
"We've been attacked!!!"
"What the hell were the guards doing?"
"Of course they are probably dead, idiot!"
—Clang! —
As soon as Zin positioned himself, he started to shoot. He was not shooting at the Reavers, but the lamps.
—Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! —
As the AKM blasted away, the lamps were busted, and the underground area started to become darker and darker. After five shots were fired, the subway area became completely dark, and Zin hid himself behind the passage.
The Reavers did not have time to get to their rifles, and the whole area become completely dark.
"Those bastards busted all the lamps!"
"I can't see anything at all, damn!"
"Flare! Bring out the flare!"
"Where is the flare?!!? I can't even see anything!"
The Reavers were not able to see where the enemy was, and they were not able to see where they were located. They could not fire their rifles, as they couldn't see anything at all. Precisely at that moment, Ramphil quickly moved into the area.
If he used his laser, his location would be exposed, so he turned the rifle into a pistol and put it away in his holster.
The Wargrave executor did not need a gun to butcher all the Reavers. He could easily see all the Reavers crawling out in the darkness towards any light.
However, there was not enough light for the Reavers to see anything.
—Bam! Pow! Crack! —
In the dark, Ramphil cracked the skulls of the Reavers with single blows, and crushed their backs to disable them.
"Enemy!"
"Damn! Run! Run away!"
—Bang! Bang! Bang! —
The Reavers were frightened as they heard Ramphil silence their comrades. There were some Reavers who started shooting towards the areas where there was sound. However, Ramphil was long gone from those spots.
As Ramphil continued to smash all the Reavers, Zin put on his night vision goggles and moved into the area.
Ramphil was in charge of melee attack, and Zin was responsible for taking out any lamp. As Zin moved into the subway area, he shot at the lamp in the other corridor.
—Bang! Bang! —
As the shots were fired from the AKM, the lamps were destroyed. The flash suppressor on the AKM limited Zin's exposure, and the Reavers were able to catch a glimpse of Zin.
"There are two! Two guys!"
The Reavers were finally able to figure out that there was a gunner and a brawler.
"So what do we do now!?!"
"Arrrrgggh!"
The Reavers were no match for Ramphil. And on top of that, the Reavers had no sight, so it was an impossible fight.
The Reavers were all tangled up, and some of them were shooting at each other.
It was too late for them to realize that it was a mistake to hide in the underground.
—Crack! Crunch! —
The Reavers' skulls cracked with a punch, and their ribcages were crushed with a kick.
Zin and Ramphil were teaming up as if they had fought side by side for many years. Zin took out the lamps at each alleyway and Ramphil smashed the Reavers after entering each area.
Zin teed up the stage, and Ramphil finished off the enemies. Even though they never fought together before, they overpowered the Reaver base.
Ten minutes into the fight, about thirty Reavers were dead. The remaining Reavers were cornered in one of the old tunnels. It was a one-way passage that the subway used to travel, at the deepest area of the subway station. But the tunnel was crumbled and the Reavers were pinned in the corner.
Or to be exact, they were retreating.
—Zap! Zap! —
The Reavers threw many flares around the subway platform area and were able to regain visibility. They were planning to form a defense line by lighting up the area with the flares. The leader of the Reavers was able to regroup the Reavers in the middle of the chaos.
"It looks like they are preparing for their last stand."
"Let's take our time. They have nowhere to run to anyways."
Bam!
Ramphil finished off the last Reaver who was not able to run away. The remaining Reavers were forming a defense line in front of the platform area, and were ready to fire at anybody moving down the stairs.
Zin and Ramphil cleaned up the area before they planned the last attack. Using a infrared camera, Zin was able to spot the Reavers who were hiding in the restrooms or the collapsed wall area.
—Tzzzzz… —
"Hmmm…."
Ramphil and Zin were looking at the burning flares at the bottom of the stairs. There were about seventy Reavers remaining, waiting for the attacker to come down. Even Ramphil would not be able to withstand seventy-plus gunshots and shower of chipbusters, he would be dead in a matter of seconds.
"We should wait for now."
"They probably took some lamps with them. It's not a good idea to wait too long though. They might blast the tunnel and make a way."
The flare wouldn't last forever, and the Reavers were trapped with nowhere to go.
There was no reason for Zin and Ramphil to rush. The Reavers were well prepared. And it would not much sense for the flares to burn out because the Reavers had lamps with them.
Ramphil couldn't think of a good idea. They could crush the ceiling and attack from above, or they could blow up the whole underground area to bury the Reavers alive. There were many different ways to kill them.
But Zin and Ramphil would be exposed to danger using either method. They might get buried alive together with the Reavers if they chose to blow up the place. If they surprise attacked from the ceiling, they would eventually have to fight them off directly.]
Ramphil looked at Zin hopefully. He knew that Zin could think of a way to make the battle easier for them.
Zin smiled bitterly as he noticed Ramphil looking at him. "Yeah. I am like a vending machine that comes up with a solution when a chip is inserted."
Zin took out two grenades from the void storage.
"They are in love with the light, so I should present them with more light."
—Click! —
"I'll use this because I'm going to be paid handsomely for this request anyways."
Ramphil nodded as he watched the item that Zin took out.
Zin threw the grenades downstairs, turned his face away from the stairs and closed his eyes. Ramphil also turned his face away and closed his eyes.
—Kaboooom! —
As soon as the grenades were thrown, there was a huge blast with a bright flash. Zin had thrown a couple of flashbangs instead of grenades.
Zin threw them at the perfect time, and the Reavers were exposed to the bright light without time to react to the flash bangs.
Zin used the darkness to fight against the Reavers, and now he was using the light to fight against them.
"Argh!! My eyes!"
"I can't see anything!"
The area was too dark to see before. But now, it was so bright that the Reavers could not see anything. While the Reavers were covering their eyes, Zin and Ramphil moved downstairs and started to attack. The platform area was an open area, and there was nowhere to hide.
Zin and Ramphil proceeded to attack at lightning speed.
—Flash! —
As the laser shotgun blasted out shots, the Reavers were popped like balloons, and Zin fired away the chipbuster grenades that he had picked up from the guards. In the heat of the battle, Zin was saving the ammunition of his own weapons.
The chipbuster grenades were more effective than an automatic shotgun, anyways.
—Bang! Bang! Bang! Flash! —
The area turned into complete chaos. The flashbang that Zin used was not for simply disabling the enemies. Some of the Reavers had lost their vision completely as the flash burned out their optic nerves.
The Reavers started to frantically shoot their rifles, but the shots all missed. Some of them hit their own allies.
The seventy-some Reavers were showered with grenades and laser shotgun blasts, and were decimated. It didn't even take half a minute for Zin and Ramphil to take out all the Reavers. Most of them were dead, and some had suffered critical injuries without hope of surviving.
…We have killed them all.
As the flashbang's light was dimming down, Zin and Ramphil realized that they forgot to capture the leader alive. Zin carefully watched the tracks. Nothing could be seen with his bare eyes, but infrared cameras allowed things to be seen. The camera that sensed temperature even detected the heat of footsteps on the ground.
On the left side of the tracks, there were clear footprints with heat. A single person was moving towards the left tunnel.
And Ramphil had just gone down the track to check the tunnel there.
Zin yelled hurriedly, "Take cover!"
—Ratatatatat! —
It's a machine gun!
From the inside of the tunnel, tens of bullets hit the area Ramphil was in. Fortunately, Ramphil was able to take cover on the area between the track and platform as soon as he heard Zin shout.
The platform area was chaotic, but there was enough visibility because of the light. Ramphil would have been shot multiple times if Zin hadn't warned him.
Only one Reaver who was armed with a machine gun was alive.
Ramphil and Zin knew that he was the leader of the Reavers. The leader had the Reavers create a defense line, and was probably hiding in a safe place and did not get affected by the flash bang.
He had hidden in the tunnel and was waiting to ambush Ramphil and Zin with his machine gun. However, his plan failed. The standoff could last longer, but Zin was determined to finish the fight.
Zin leaned on the wall of the platform and yelled, "Hey, all your men are dead now. Why don't you come out now?"
There was no answer from the tunnel.
"I have about twenty ways to kill you. Why don't you just give up and walk out?"
There was still no answer.
"I can fire a chipbuster, blast another flashbang, throw a smoke screen, or take out all the lights and snipe you down in the darkness… I can think of more ways. Are you still going to stay there?"
"I will walk out!"came the muffled reply.
Zin smiled as he forced the leader to surrender with just his tongue.
< Darkness and Light (Part 2) >
The Reaver leader had an M60 machine gun with him. He probably gained the status of a boss because of the machine gun. However, at the moment, all of his men had been killed and he was kneeling in front of Zin.
He'd tried to take out the other group of Reavers with the help of the Wargrave, but in the end the Wargrave took out his group. The leader was huge in size and seemed to be powerful. But he wasn't smart enough as a boss. He made the mistake of forming a line of defense beneath the subway platform. He should have known that the enemy, who was utilizing infrared vision, had better equipment than them. Even if he didn't know the existence of the flashbang, he'd made a poor choice by cornering his men. Numbers are important but equipment was just as important in a fight. Five hundred Reavers armed with guns could be wiped out by a single armored vehicle. And in the last battle, the Reavers ended up slaughtered because they did not have the equipment to see in the darkness. They were all killed because they were unprepared for the flashbang attack.
It was important to understand what the enemies were armed with, and Zin always checked for the weapons that the enemies carried before he started the hunt.
"It was an excellent idea to attack the Wargrave in order to have them kill the existing group of Reavers. And in fact, if the Left Hand Reavers hadn't visited the fortress to explain their story, we would have killed those innocent Reavers."
"Th—th—that… I mean, that…"
"Fine. I applaud you for surrendering. I'm killing you right away because I'm curious about something."
"What is that…?"
"Looking at you, I can't imagine that you thought of a plan to piss off the Wargrave in order to wipe out the existing Reavers. If you were smarter, you would have destroyed the hallway as soon as we attacked you. You should have tried to find an escape route. But you chose to corner yourself under the platform. Isn't that dumb? If you're that stupid, I don't think you thought of the plan to take out the existing Reavers."
Zin was saying that the dumb leader could not have thought of such plan. The leader was not able to speak as Zin sneered at him.
"Who is behind all this?" Zin asked the question assuming that someone was behind this plot. He realized that the leader was a coward and an idiot, so he was trying to make the leader confess. Zin suspected that there was a mastermind because the Reaver group was making bad decisions.
"Why are you targeting Harbin?"
The leader reluctantly replied in a quiet voice, "I was invited to join the 'Group' if we took care of the Reavers in Harbin."
Zin was shocked at the unexpected name. "Group?"
"Yes, the Group. I told them that we were outnumbered… and they told me of a strategy…"
"Hmmm…"
"What is the Group? Why are you reacting to that name?" Ramphil did not know what the Group was about, and he was surprised at Zin's reaction.
"They're the allied force of the Reavers. You can think of them as a large group of Slaughterhouses… As far as I know, their base is in the region of Far Northeast Asia."
"The Group is expanding at a rapid pace. The entire northern region is under their control."
"They're expanding?"
"Yes, they took full control of most of Northern Russia… There are many Reavers that would like to be a part of the Group. The Left Hand Reavers refuse to join the Group since they trust in the Wargrave. So, I reached out to the Group and they told me that they would accept my team if I could take out the Reavers in Harbin…"
After Zin listened to the story of the leader, his face hardened. "Could they be…?"
They're an alliance of Reavers, but… they are not Reavers.
Zin didn't continue to speak. He felt confused at this wholly unexpected news. Zin remembered a conversation he once had a long time ago.
Are you moving into that cold land? What are you going to eat? Ice?
Well, that land has only ice, so I won't be able to kill anything. That's crazy.
There won't be any humans to hunt. They'll also learn how to live like human beings. And in fact, look at them. They're changing. There are some who love to run instead of kill. They're just mimicking other people. If we're away from people for a long time, they will become ordinary people.
The conversation from the past flashed through Zin's memories.
Zin, you don't have to live like trash just because you were born as trash.
You don't have to die terribly just because you've lived a terrible life.
I don't believe that you have to live in a certain way just because you were born in a certain way.
I will change these helpless people. Come visit me one day.
The woman had a gorgeous smile as she spoke.
I will show you the junkwagon racing in the tundra. If you'd like, I can invite you as a racer...
I will politely refuse!, he had answered.
The woman took a large group of Reavers up to the north. Their numbers reached over ten thousand.
Zin calculated the time that had elapsed. He tried to remember when the group of Reavers decided not to kill people anymore and formed alliances. Ironically, the new group of Reavers forbade allowing Reavers to join.
And Zin remembered that at one point, he acted as a hitman when the new group of Reavers went to war against an existing group of Reavers.
And Zin tried to remember the year when the woman left for the land of ice after winning the war.
It had been a while since the new group of Reavers started protecting the northeastern towns, and had the ambition to make the world a better place to live.
When was that?
Zin felt weird when he was told that the northeastern area was a safe place to live.
Was it fifteen years, twenty years, or thirty years ago?
Zin couldn't remember the date. But the Reaver in front of him was talking about the current 'Group', and not the 'Group' from the past.
"Do you know the leader of the Group?"
"I heard that the name of the leader was 'Asura'… He had six arms and held machine guns in each hand…"
Zin did not recognize the name.
So she must have died.
It seemed like her attempt to change the Reavers was futile. In the end, the beasts returned to their old ways. Zin had seen many times when the leader's mistakes caused major failures.
During those times, Zin felt emotions that weren't necessarily that of sadness or anger.
The nature…
In the end, she caused the Reavers to become a well-organized army. Traits like goodness, forgiveness, and trust became meaningless for the Reavers.
The woman had parents who were Reavers. And she had the determination to not live as one. But her determination only resulted in the Reavers forming a massive army.
It was another reason that Zin hated junkwagons.
Zin slowly started to talk again. "Okay, so the Group asked you to remove the Reavers in Harbin. And the Group promised to take you on as a member if you succeeded?"
"Yes… in order to become part of the Group, Reavers need to fully control a region or attack a region picked out by the Group. Once you get into the alliance, you gain a massive ally…"
The Group had a very simple way of expanding its power. The Group asked the Reavers who wanted to join the alliance to attack other regions. The Group accepted new members after a successful attack. The Group naturally expanded its power as many more new members joined their ranks.
The Left Hand Reavers trusted in the Wargrave, and they probably did not join the Group. The Group then asked another team of Reavers to take care of the Left Hand Reavers.
The Group continued to expand, but it did not waste any resources or men. It was a very clever way to manage big groups.
The Group was behind the incident. It wasn't interested in attacking the Wargrave, but it was interested in expanding its control to encompass the city of Harbin.
The matter had become too large for the hunter and the executor to handle. A devil hunter and Ramphil alone wouldn't be able to take down a whole army of Reavers. It was something that the Wargrave would need to discuss.
It meant that Zin had accomplished the request. When the leader noticed Ramphil and Zin exchange signals, he pulled down the zipper on his vest.
"Please spare my life…"
"Hmm…"
The leader was looking for a way to survive. When he unzipped his vest, there were over ten chipbusters attached to the inside.
He was wearing a vest full of bombs that would detonate if he pulled a string. It was something that Zin had somewhat expected.
"I think it'll be okay to let this one guy live. What do you think, executor?"
"Hmmm…" Ramphil pondered for a while. Ramphil and Zin could effortlessly killed Reavers, and at the moment, they were deciding the fate of the leader.
"Well, now that he knows that we can't resolve the root cause of the issue, it should be okay."
As Ramphil spoke, the leader became happy.
"Okay, then. I will start walking out, so you two stay where you—"
—Pow!—
In the blink of an eye, Ramphil punched the Reaver's head and crushed it. The leader's head burst into pieces before he even had time to pull the string. Zin took the string from the dead man's finger as soon as the leader was killed.
Zin sighed and stared at Ramphil. "Hey, even if you could kill him in a split second, he could have pulled the string with a twitch of his muscles. You almost got us all killed."
If Zin didn't act fast, the vest could have exploded. However, Ramphil replied with a smile, "I was confident that you would take care of it."
"… well, thanks for trusting me. I thought you were going to let him go, but why did you kill him?"
"I thought that he was going to blow up the tunnel and bury us alive. Was I being too suspicious?"
Ramphil killed the leader as soon as he said that he was going to leave first.
Zin smiled as Ramphil explained his action. "It was a very reasonable suspicion."
Ramphil had continued to talk to the leader in order to calm him down, but neither of them had any intention of letting him live.
Although the two had different personalities, they had similar thought processes.
Earlier, Zin had asked about the location of the Group's base.
As the two returned to Northern Harbin, Ramphil asked, "You looked pretty shaken up when you heard about the Group. Do you have a history with them?"
Since the Wargrave wasn't interested in a group of Reavers that had moved to a remote place, there was no way that Ramphil could have heard about this Group.
Zin replied, "If that group of Reavers decided to go back to its old ways of slaughtering and raiding people, the past doesn't really matter."
Zin refused to answer the question, and Ramphil did not ask any more about his past. Four days after leaving the fortress, the two had succeeded in wiping out the Reavers. They both worked great as a team.
They both knew that the other had impressive battle skills, and they also realized that they had a good chemistry going on.
"The Group…" If the Group were to expand aggressively, it was evident that the Wargrave needed to be aware of the threat.
"Do you think that we need to keep an eye on this Group?" Ramphil asked.
"Well. In my opinion, a fortress should be able to take them out, but…"
An army-sized unit of tanks would be enough to wipe out thousands of Reaver junkwagons.
"I see. I don't think they're acting recklessly, though."
It seemed like the Group was acting aggressively for some reason. However, it was hard for Ramphil or Zin to figure out the reason. Zin worried about something important to him.
If the northeast region of Russia was under the control of the Group, he wondered if the Heavenly Power castle was still untouched.
"This is troubling…" Zin had to hurry up.
He wondered if the Heavenly Power castle was under the control of the Group. He had no way of knowing.
Zin did not forget to receive the chips owed him by the Left Hand Reavers. Before they returned to the fortress, he and Ramphil visited the Slaughterhouse.
As Zin looked at the Slaughterhouse, he was impressed. "It's the size of a city."
The trash wall was set up tall, and seemed almost impossible to climb. The apartment ruins served as a defensive wall around the Slaughterhouse.
"What is the probability that they won't pay up?"
"There's no way that's going to happen. They have a fortress right in front of them."
Even though chips were valuable, they were not as valuable as a life. There was no way that the Reavers would attack Zin and Ramphil. If they attacked, the fortress would send out forces to retaliate.
"I suppose they have their reasons not to be a part of the Group."
The Slaughterhouse was huge. As Zin and Ramphil walked closer to the trash wall, they wondered if they should be walking through the main gate. Then, they heard a noise.
—Vrrrrooom!—
Junkwagons were approaching the Slaughterhouse. Zin and Ramphil instinctively hid themselves. A small group of Reavers seemed to have gone out for a hunt.
"Players are entering!"
The Reavers seemed to have killed some people, and their junkwagons were covered with blood. A man was tied onto the hood of the leading junkwagon. A woman and a kid were also tied to the hoods of the other junkwagons.
They were still alive.
There was blood dripping out of the trunks of the junkwagons. After all, these Left Hand Reavers were cannibals who hunted humans.
It was nothing special that they went out to hunt people for food.
Zin and Ramphil wondered why the Reaver yelled 'players are entering'. The group of junkwagons passed by, and the two looked at each other. They weren't particularly disappointed since they expected these Reavers to continue to kill people for meat.
Zin wasn't a hero who rescued innocent people, and Ramphil was not interested in any matter that was not related to the Wargrave.
"Hmmm…"
"Player…"
Zin and Ramphil sensed something, and they were both debating.
"So, how about we look around the Slaughterhouse?"
They had no reason to do so, but Zin made the suggestion anyway.
"Sure."
And Ramphil nodded even though he wasn't sure if he needed to go to the Slaughterhouse.