His hand gripping the phone tensed.
It was more chilling than surprising.
It was the agent of the Alex Group.
He hadn’t thought the agent would call him directly.
He had assumed the agent would flee from their threat to come out alone.
He had assumed the agent would hide somewhere out of sight.
But it was the opposite.
Instead, the agent had come alone to the appointment location and was pressing Rodrigo, who hadn’t shown up.
Truthfully, Rodrigo had completely forgotten about the appointment.
With the bomb going off and the ensuing cleanup, he hadn’t been able to pay the appointment any mind.
He was a man inside Tijuana.
He had the confidence that he could do as he pleased at any time.
Perhaps that was why he hadn’t paid it more attention.
He raised his wrist to check his watch. It was exactly 7 o’clock.
“Not coming?”
While Tijuana was blowing apart, the agent’s voice was nothing but calm.
He mouthed, *“Where’s Matias?”* to his secretary, but
the secretary shook his head.
It seemed Matias had gone to handle the explosion too.
“Sorry. Is it already this late? I’ve been a bit busy.”
“Heh. How disappointing. Your hospitality is a mess. I barely made time for this too.”
Laughter was heard from beyond the phone.
It sounded like a hollow laugh born of absurdity,
and also like mockery.
There was no time to figure out the meaning of that laugh now.
Handling the explosion came first.
He just needed to keep the agent occupied for now.
Should he send a woman?
“It’s just that the situation is what it is right now. If you’re in front of the hotel, you know well. The city center is in chaos right now. Please understand a little. Instead, I’ll make sure you have one hell of a time.”
Rodrigo spoke softly, as if trying to persuade him.
“Understand? Me? Why?”
“Huh? Look at the situation now. Shouldn’t you understand at least this much?”
“What does the current situation have to do with us meeting?”
“Huh?”
“Did you cause this explosion?”
“No.”
“Or are you the mayor or the police chief?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Then why are you cleaning up the bomb?”
“Well, as a citizen of Tijuana…”
“You were the one who made the promise first.”
“…Right.”
“You told me to come alone.”
“…Right.”
“So I came alone… but you’re not here?”
“I told you. The situation right now…”
“I know. I said I know. But what does that have to do with us meeting? According to your own words, you’re just a citizen of Tijuana. Leave that to the experts and hurry over here.”
Pressed by the agent, Rodrigo was left speechless.
Rodrigo was the invisible king of Tijuana.
It was a city where nothing could be done without Rodrigo’s permission.
At this moment when an explosion had occurred in the city, Rodrigo had much to do.
He needed to control the city and clean things up quickly.
But officially, he was nothing.
He held no position.
So the excuse that he couldn’t keep his appointment because of an explosion in the city?
That was difficult to accept.
Just then, he remembered the factory.
“Right now, one of our important factories has a problem. I think I need to handle that first.”
“Oh? Really?”
“Yeah. It’s an important issue.”
“Are you talking about the factory on the outskirts? The one you reach by getting off the highway.”
Rodrigo was slightly surprised when the location of the factory came out of the agent’s mouth.
“Huh? How do you know that?”
“Because I was just there until now.”
Rodrigo’s heart sank.
“What?!”
“I’ll put the drugs you left there to good use.”
Only then did Rodrigo grasp the situation.
The ones who had raided Warehouse 3 were the Alex Group.
Rodrigo was furious.
“What? Hey!! You just touch that. If you touch that, you’re dead right away.”
“Did you intend to keep me alive?”
“…”
“I’ll hang up now. I’ve pinpointed your exact location.”
A chill ran down Rodrigo’s spine.
This bastard had deliberately dragged out the call until now.
To pinpoint the exact location.
“Now a bombardment will start there too. Try to dodge it.”
Click. The call disconnected.
Rodrigo couldn’t move for a moment from the shock.
The phone in his hand felt heavy.
It was hard just holding it.
He slammed it down onto the table.
*…I’ve been tracked.*
The tables had turned.
Until moments ago, he had been the hunter,
but in an instant, he had become the hunted.
Rodrigo looked at his secretary with a devastated expression.
The secretary did not meet his eyes.
At that moment.
BOOM.
An enormous roar was heard.
A vibration that shook the earth was felt.
It was enough to shake Rodrigo’s mansion.
A bomb had definitely fallen not far from the mansion.
.
.
.
I was sitting in the hotel lobby, on the phone.
Then the tablet flashed, showing a new message.
It was Tian Zihao.
[Location pinpointed]
The corners of my mouth rose slightly.
The call wasn’t simple conversation.
Honestly, I had nothing to say.
I didn’t want to talk either.
I was just dragging out time to pinpoint the location.
And I succeeded.
“I’ll hang up now. I’ve pinpointed your exact location.”
I said that and hung up.
I didn’t want to hear that disgusting bastard’s voice anymore.
When I ended the call,
the Obsidian Unit member beside me approached and asked.
“Are we moving?”
Just now.
When I said I would move from the warehouse to the hotel, Sin Junggi had stopped me.
“We can sufficiently deceive them of the location with Phantom Grid 2.0. There’s no need to go all the way to the hotel. It’s dangerous.”
But I shook my head.
You never know.
Guide Matias might come.
That he wouldn’t come was my prediction, not a certainty.
Given the situation, there was a high probability he wouldn’t come.
If the Guide came, I would have had to execute Plan B accordingly.
So for now, I had to go to the hotel.
I might be able to deceive machines,
but I couldn’t deceive people.
That’s why I came to the hotel.
Instead of coming alone, I came with about a dozen Obsidian Unit members.
But as expected, no one from Rodrigo’s side came,
and we were able to pinpoint Rodrigo’s exact location.
“No. The bombardment comes first. Tell Allen to open fire.”
We’ll break through from the outskirts inward.
The Obsidian Unit member raised the radio.
“Fire command. I repeat. Fire is authorized.”
“Roger.”
With a short reply, the sound of metal moving.
The faint sound of loading was heard.
And shortly after.
It seemed like a distant thud reverberated from somewhere.
.
.
.
The warehouse was already fortified.
The windows were blocked with sandbags,
and barricades were set up at every entrance.
On the steel structures,
Obsidian Unit members armed with machine guns had taken positions.
And on the opposite side of the warehouse.
Mortars were lined up in the wide open outdoor space.
The angles were already set.
He checked the newly acquired coordinates from Tian Zihao.
He converted them for the mortars and passed them to Allen.
He input topographical data and wind direction information as well.
Allen shouted to the Obsidian members checking the azimuth.
“Azimuth two-eight-zero-zero! Deflection one-one-zero-zero! Stand by!”
When Allen called out the coordinates,
the Obsidian Unit moved in perfect unison.
The gunners pressed their eyes to the sights and leveled them,
while the assistant gunners pulled the safety pins on the shells and waited.
“Aiming complete.”
“Load.”
Tian Zihao hadn’t given the coordinates of Rodrigo’s location.
He called out the coordinates around Rodrigo.
The boss had ordered to turn Rodrigo’s base into a wasteland.
So he planned to destroy the surroundings first.
There was nowhere to run anyway.
“Wind speed 3.2. East to west.”
“Correction complete.”
“All batteries, prepare for effect fire!”
“Fire!”
At Allen’s command, they dropped the heavy rounds into the tubes.
THUD.
With the dull sound of metal striking metal, the shells soared into the sky.
THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.
Continuous firing followed.
The air trembled.
The flames spewing from the mortars dyed the surroundings.
The shells cut through the dusk sky of Tijuana.
A parabola.
They flew, tracing a perfect trajectory.
And at their end was Rodrigo’s fortress.
“Hit.”
Tian Zihao confirmed the target with a drone.
He informed all members over the radio.
And 0.5 seconds later, BOOM!!!
The ground heaved.
The outer security post was blown away.
Concrete walls tore like paper.
Under the subsequent falling shells, Rodrigo’s base began to collapse.
Vehicles parked in the lot burst into flames.
Glass windows shattered into pieces.
Steel roofs were pierced through, and explosions erupted from inside the buildings.
“Continue. Don’t stop.”
Allen shouted.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
Shells rose endlessly into the sky.
Rodrigo’s base began to collapse.
The fortress that boasted impeccable security began to collapse.
The CCTV, checkpoints, and armed guards were all disappearing.
Every time a shell fell, concrete shattered and fragments flew.
“Take cover.”
“Hide.”
Someone shouted, but it was meaningless.
A new shell would just fall on that very spot.
Mortars poured like rain.
Who knew how much ammunition was in the inventory,
the shells never ran out no matter how much they fired.
The barrels grew too hot,
so they swapped tubes and continued firing.
There was plenty of leeway in both mortars and shells.
The only one without leeway was Rodrigo.
\*\*\*\*\*\*
Beneath Rodrigo’s mansion.
Rodrigo had hidden and come down into the underground bunker.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The continuous sound of shelling.
Rodrigo stood still for a while, unable to say anything.
The sound of shelling was not mere noise,
but felt like a hammer striking reality.
Everything Rodrigo had built up.
The name, King of Tijuana.
The position of absolute power.
It felt as if all of it was being smashed with a hammer.
Everything of Rodrigo’s was collapsing.
He barely calmed his trembling hands.
He slowly drew a breath.
“…Fuck.”
Cursing was all he could do.
He placed his hand against the wall.
The thick, solid concrete wall.
Over a meter thick.
A bunker built to withstand bombardment.
That fact was barely holding him together.
*It’s okay. It’s okay. No one can get in here.*
He convinced himself.
He continued to mutter.
*They absolutely can’t break through here… This is just noise. It’s safe here.*
But as the shelling grew longer,
as his words grew longer, Rodrigo’s voice lost strength.
It was closer to pleading than convincing.
Rodrigo turned on the CCTV to check the surroundings.
Zzzt… zzzt…
Nothing came out.
Only black screens.
“… Ha.”
It was suffocating.
He called his subordinates over the radio.
But no one responded.
He took out his phone,
but there was no signal.
It was suffocating.
He didn’t know the situation, couldn’t contact anyone, and had no subordinates.
There was no one.
All that remained were this bunker and himself.
It was the first time.
That he had been so completely isolated.
*Should I have brought the secretary in with me?*
He had hurried into the bunker and locked the door.
So no one could enter.
Only now did he regret it.
Rodrigo had thought he was a madman.
He had thought he was one of the few people in the world who could do things others wouldn’t dare to think of,
things others couldn’t even conceive of.
He was a pioneer and destroyer who navigated without hesitation through realms unacceptable by common sense.
He had thought so.
But he wasn’t.
Compared to the Alex Group, Rodrigo was nothing more than an ordinary citizen.
He was no different from the thugs you ran into every three seconds walking around Tijuana.
This was an enemy he couldn’t face from the very beginning.
You don’t fight madmen.
That was madness of a different dimension.
What madman could even imagine firing mortars like that from another country?
Here, even firing a single gun required thinking about the aftermath.
But the Alex Group had none of that.
They fired indiscriminately.
They seemed like men with no regard for consequences.
It was even doubtful where they could acquire so many weapons in such a short time.
They were weapons hard to obtain here.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Rodrigo, listening to the shelling, slapped his own cheek.
He pulled himself together again.
“It’s not over yet.”
He ran his hand down his face.
He had to think.
A way to survive.
Thinking about it, if they were shelling to that extent,
the police, the army, someone would deploy.
His head began to work.
If the government moved upon hearing the shelling?
The army would come. The Americans who came because of the border might come too.
Rodrigo’s eyes began to regain their light.
*Those bastards can’t last long anyway.*
Rodrigo was certain.
If they fired cannons like madmen, the authorities would deploy,
and he just had to hold out until the authorities dealt with the Alex Group.
Then Rodrigo would survive,
and after reorganizing, he could devour the Alex Group.
Thinking so, his mind grew much more at ease.
The thought gave him the strength to endure.
*I’ll hold out here. For hours, or days.*
Rodrigo slowly looked around the bunker.
There was plenty of food, weapons, and water.
Time was also on Rodrigo’s side.
Rodrigo just had to hold out.