Chapter 30
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: Mafia Game (2)
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I raised my head.
In the night sky over the sleeping city, even the moon had hidden itself behind the clouds.
A perfect moonless night.
The ideal time for a game of Mafia.
God, please let me be a righteous Mafia today as well.
"Prayer over. Alright, let's go."
I slipped through the darkness of the night, leaping from rooftop to rooftop.
The temporary camp used by what I presumed to be a group of Raiders.
Most of them had passed out drunk, but true to their survival as veterans, there were guards posted at the entrance.
So I chose the rooftop route.
There'd probably be guards on the rooftop too, but...
"Snore..."
Yeah, that's more like it.
A man who looked like he outranked the entrance guards was dozing off right by the rooftop access door.
The Raiders had apparently set up a double guard system, covering both the rooftop and entrance, but...
If systems worked perfectly, would it even be a world where humans lived?
No one ever came up to the rooftop anyway, and if something happened, the entrance guards would handle it first—or so they must've thought, sprawled out comfortably.
I approached the sleeping guy and casually reached out.
Acupressure for sleep, right?
Following the acupoint technique I'd learned from the Gorum folks, I pressed the sleep point on the dozing man.
They said pressing here puts you to sleep, so this was like putting an already sleeping guy to sleep again.
Of course, this was fresh knowledge I'd never practiced in real combat, so I couldn't expect pinpoint accuracy.
But hey, did it matter?
Whether I crippled him by mistake or not, I was going to kill him anyway.
Stay put nice and quiet.
I hoisted the sleeping man over my shoulder and leaped to the next rooftop building.
Fortunately, it seemed I'd hit the mark—he didn't wake up. Once I'd slipped inside the building, I shook him awake.
"Hey, teacher, time to wake up."
Sleeping here will make your mouth crooked.
Slap slap—
After a few slaps to the face,
"Gah!!"
The Raider woke up, spewing blood.
"Wh-what the fuck, who... guh?!"
"Ehehe. Bad instincts. This isn't the time to act all tough."
This time, I pressed his mute acupoint to shut him up.
But something went wrong—I must've hit the wrong spot—because the Raider clutched his throat, trembling violently.
Oh shit.
At this rate, I'd kill him. I released the pressure—
"Gurgh, guh, haaack...!"
Finally, his airway cleared. His face beet red, the Raider desperately sucked in air.
Mute point or airway point? Who knows.
Anyway.
"Hey, teacher, feeling with it now?"
"Y-you... what the hell do you think you're doing?! Do you even know who we are?!"
"Wow... you really hit the core of it."
"Wh-what?"
"I don't know who you guys are."
So you're gonna have to tell me properly.
"What do you... guk?!"
"Okay, when you're ready to talk, tap three times."
If I'd learned sleep and mute points, it was only right to pick up the classic wuxia torture techniques too.
I immediately hit him with the meridian-severing strike. The cocky Raider suddenly felt real good.
So good he pissed himself, in fact.
"I-I'll talk... I'll talk, so..."
In about five minutes, the thoroughly broken Raider spilled every bit of info he had.
Who they were, where they came from, why they were here.
It was tragic how fifteen minutes summed up five years of one man's life, but at least one thing wasn't tragic.
"I believe you, Raider. You really are a son of a bitch."
That they weren't innocent victims.
As expected, they were pure Raiders.
Phew, what a relief.
I'd worried what I'd do if they turned out to be villains with some sob story.
But no such twist.
These guys kidnapped living people and fed them to monsters.
I asked why—
"So, feeding live people to that monster flower makes it bear fruit, and you sell the sap or whatever from those fruits for cash? Bullshit. What is this, some secret sauce recipe...?"
"Th-that's righhhht..."
These bastards were practicing human alchemy on mutants.
"Where's the drug?"
"I-in m'pockeeet..."
Sure enough, I found a syringe in his pocket.
It glowed an eerie green—didn't look like anything good for the body.
"Effects?"
"Gives strengggth... power... enhannnces..."
In other words,
"Wait, it's just drugs?"
Holy shit.
I couldn't help but exclaim out loud.
I knew these guys were crazy,
but I never imagined they'd be this insane.
Let me sum it up.
These assholes kidnap survivors even in this apocalypse, feed them to monster flowers, then extract and sell drugs from the fruits the flowers produce in return.
Surprisingly, communities still existed in this world.
But unlike the positive Martial God Gallery where folks like us hung out,
theirs was a Gotham City-style criminal hub dominated by Raiders.
"I've heard of worlds where chastity is reversed, but never one where good and evil are flipped..."
Earth's author, you've finally penned something no webnovel writer ever dared.
I could only admire the sheer writing prowess.
How the hell did they even think to consume that shit?
The exact mutation conditions for mutants weren't clear yet.
It'd been over three years since they appeared,
but research facilities had shut down long before that.
So whether it was blood infection or saliva from bites, you just played it safe.
But these fuckers mixed it among themselves, processed it, and ate it.
These goddamned syndicate bastards.
Whether in the canyon or here, they're all the same shit.
"Uh, us..."
Then the battered, crumpled guy cautiously spoke up.
"I-it's all... done... wh-what about meee..."
"Oh, you?"
What to do? What else.
"Die like a man."
That was the last mercy I could offer.
Thud.
I stood, leaving the headless corpse behind.
According to the additional info, this was their whole group.
They drove that massive vehicle around, selling flesh-flower sap collected from everywhere.
From the description alone, they sounded like nomadic tribes.
Actually, thinking about it, they pretty much were.
Right down to their serious combat prowess.
Well, in a world like this, you can't survive playing nomad without some real firepower.
The problem was spending a hot night with those guys.
A bit unfair, but I'd just accept it.
Mafia's always about the elite few, right?
So, time to go.
I leaped across rooftops again, infiltrating the building where the gun-toting citizens slept.
This had to be quick.
It had to be.
Watch shifts rotated—that was the rule.
If the next guy showed up and found out I'd reeled in the previous one, things would get serious.
And sure enough, as I slipped further inside—
"Yaaawn."
A drawn-out yawn echoed, followed by footsteps climbing the stairs.
I scanned around—no good hiding spots.
Nothing for it.
I jumped fast.
Leaped to the ceiling, clinging between walls like a gecko.
Wall-clinging technique worthy of a gecko lizard.
Moments later, the footsteps reached my floor.
"Hey, lazy eyes. Shift change... guk!"
The moment he stepped in, I dropped behind him.
And straight into a neck slice.
Clubbed the nape—knocked out... whoops, misjudged the force and snapped it.
I caught him before he fell and set him down gently.
Stripped anything useful, then pushed deeper inside.
Their boss is on the fifth floor, right?
The building these nomads had turned into a temp hideout was seven stories tall.
Eight including the roof. Their leader had set up in a dedicated suite smack in the middle of the fifth.
Bad guys always extra careful with their own safety.
Not every floor had guards, but from the fifth up, there were plenty awake.
From there, it'd be all-out war, no avoiding it.
Best to thin their numbers first, but no good ideas yet.
So I'd come down as far as I could—but...
It's tighter than I thought?
The fifth floor security was stricter than expected.
Five guys awake, at minimum.
Despite the booze fest wafting alcohol fumes all the way outside.
Five standing watch in the fifth-floor hall, all armed with guns.
And only one entrance from here.
Normal buildings had stairs running straight from first floor to roof.
Efficient design.
But some don't.
Here, stairs connected eight to five, but from five to one, you had to exit to a hall, cross to another sector for the stairs.
This place was like that.
No way they planned this far ahead.
If so, fighting them just got way harder.
Right?
No matter how much kung fu I'd learned, to reach the boss room, I'd have to charge down a straight hallway—and get shredded by rifles. Game over.
No detour routes?
No matter how I thought, this wasn't it.
Turning my head, scanning for another path—
Ah, there.
At the landing leading to the fifth, another exit.
Looked like a long detour,
but a bypass was a bypass.
Self-justifying like that, I started to move—
Snap.
Something underfoot tore.
Huh?
The moment I felt puzzled, chilling dread surged over me.
And then,
A searing explosion tore through the darkness.