The night of Black Daraphanan began.
Abu Sayyaf pushed in with armored vehicles leading the way.
The bullets fired by the BLF were repeatedly stopped by the armored vehicles,
and the Abu Sayyaf soldiers advanced safely behind them, moving into BLF territory.
Karim was flustered as he watched Abu Sayyaf force their way in without restraint.
They had prepared extensively.
They had stationed troops along every route of entry and set up booby traps.
He had thought that would be enough to inflict serious damage on Abu Sayyaf, but he had been wrong.
They kept pushing forward without end.
Abu Sayyaf was stronger than he had expected.
That did not mean they had entered without suffering losses.
Abu Sayyaf had also taken heavy casualties.
It was only that their forces were so massive that the losses were not readily apparent.
The BLF had prepared extensively as well.
The booby traps planted throughout the area hindered Abu Sayyaf’s advance.
The booby traps installed in advance began exploding here and there.
They even took out one armored vehicle.
The BLF troops lying in ambush repeatedly attacked and withdrew.
Many Abu Sayyaf soldiers fell in the process.
Even so, they could not stop Abu Sayyaf from pushing farther in.
Abu Sayyaf’s manpower and armaments were of the highest caliber.
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Meanwhile, Amir’s expression twisted viciously.
This was not what he had wanted.
The losses were far too great.
Amir had expected to enter almost without bloodshed, but something had gone wrong.
Amir had not gone out of his way to keep the attack on the BLF secret.
If anything, he had spread rumors about it.
He thought the BLF would be frightened.
With Murad, their absolute spiritual pillar, now dead,
he thought that if even Abu Sayyaf attacked them, many people would abandon the BLF.
Because the BLF would disappear.
He thought they would flee in search of somewhere to live.
There had actually been signs of such a movement.
The BLF’s informants had continued sending in reports to that effect.
So he had envisioned putting on a show of firepower against the ragtag BLF, then strolling casually into their territory.
In fact, they had used armored vehicles from a distance to rain shells freely upon the base.
He had thought they had cleared the place out to some extent.
He had thought everyone hiding in the BLF’s base was dead.
But the BLF had been somewhere he never expected.
Their resistance was far fiercer than he had anticipated.
Murad’s death had instead united the BLF.
The losses were already too great.
How much had that armored vehicle cost?
Many soldiers had already died.
But they had come this far; they could not simply turn back.
To flee after gaining nothing?
That could never be allowed.
His position as the rebel leader might be put at risk.
A rebel army was a place where a coup could break out at any time.
Unless he completely controlled the organization, trouble could arise at any moment. That was the nature of a rebel army.
He could not retreat.
Even if they had to shed blood, they had to keep pushing forward.
They poured out their firepower.
Anything that could be fired was fired first, without hesitation.
They threw everything they had into it.
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“Boss, what should we do? Shouldn’t we join the battle by now?”
“No. Wait. Have the entire army stand by.”
“The entire army is standing by.”
“The entire army is standing by.”
At a single word from me, two hundred Damaya troops waited on standby.
As expected, the Seoul National University study method was reliable.
There were no deviations.
There was only one reason I had told them to wait.
It was not time yet.
Abu Sayyaf and the BLF still had strength left.
They both seemed flustered by the unexpected situation,
but they were merely surprised and confused for now; it was not that they lacked strength.
What I wanted was not victory in the battle.
I did not want the title of having defeated Abu Sayyaf and the BLF by fighting them myself.
What I wanted was—
the annihilation of Abu Sayyaf and the BLF.
That was all.
And while I was at it, I could pick up a few scraps that fell from the table.
So I had to wait until the two sides fought each other harder.
I had to wait until they shed more blood.
Until both of them had bled so much that they could no longer stand.
Only then would we finally begin the war.
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Abu Sayyaf entered the BLF’s main base.
There was no mercy for Abu Sayyaf, who had fought so hard to enter the BLF’s headquarters.
They were filled with murderous intent.
They sprayed bullets at everything within sight.
Just when it seemed the BLF’s base was about to fall,
the BLF troops lying in ambush throughout the area entered the main base.
At their ambush points, they blocked those attempting to advance,
and by continually changing positions, they inflicted damage on Abu Sayyaf.
But now that Abu Sayyaf had entered the main base, they could no longer attack them from the ambush points.
They had no choice but to enter the main base and begin fighting.
The cycle of killing and being killed continued without end.
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Amir ordered an all-out attack.
He told them to leave nothing behind.
He ordered them to kill every last member of the BLF,
to leave no one alive.
Karim was the same.
He said it did not matter if they had to fight dirty.
They had to protect the base at all costs.
*******
“The bombs have been installed.”
“Good. What about Blue Team?”
“Blue Team has the mortars ready as well.”
“Good. Make sure they can fire immediately when I give the signal.”
Right now, Abu Sayyaf and the BLF were killing each other by squeezing out their last reserves of strength.
Neither side was giving up.
They were doing well.
The night had deepened,
and visibility had grown poor.
Even so, the battle had not ended.
Instead, a brief lull had descended.
Everyone was exhausted.
Now was the time.
The moment we had been waiting for.
“Blue Team. Prepare to fire the mortars.”
“Ready.”
“Three. Two. One. Fire.”
“Fire.”
Just as Abu Sayyaf and the BLF were taking a brief rest with their exhausted bodies, mortars began raining down.
It was not a single shell.
Dozens, then hundreds, continued to fall.
If the mortars had been landing in one place, they might have been able to respond, but they were not.
Mortar shells began pouring down like rain from every direction surrounding the BLF’s main base.
There was no way to respond.
All they could do was take cover.
“Take cover. Hide!”
“Get under cover!”
Karim and Amir both shouted at the same time when they saw the mortars raining down.
But their cries did not carry very far.
Countless people fell before them.
Karim shouted.
He shouted for them to take cover first.
As he continued shouting, Karim suddenly collapsed with a thud.
The people beside him did not realize he had been shot.
They were still disoriented by the constant explosions of the mortars.
But Amir saw it happen.
Gooseflesh rose all over his body.
There was a sniper somewhere.
That sniper had probably taken care of Murad.
They had been deceived.
They had fallen into the enemy’s plan.
No wonder everything had seemed to be proceeding so smoothly.
He reflected on his own arrogance and the fact that he had failed to suspect anything.
But it was already too late.
He had stepped wrong.
They had to retreat immediately, even now.
They had to retreat quickly. The instant he thought that, his forehead stung.
He raised a hand and touched his forehead.
A large wound that had not been there before had appeared on it.
Before he could even determine what kind of wound it was, Amir collapsed where he stood.
“The commander’s down.”
“Amir’s down.”
“We’re retreating now.”
“Retreat! Retreat!”
Having lost their leader, Abu Sayyaf hastily decided to withdraw.
Their losses were already enormous, but they had to retreat even now.
They had even lost their leader.
But retreating would not be easy either.
Bombs began exploding along the route they had taken to retreat.
It had clearly been the path they came through,
but now that they were trying to go back out, bombs began exploding.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
A bomb exploded every time an Abu Sayyaf soldier took a step.
They thought they had barely managed to escape by avoiding the bombs, but Damaya’s Red Team was waiting ahead of them.
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By the time the heat from the mortars that had poured down like rain had subsided,
we descended into the BLF’s main base to mop up the remaining enemies.
Once we went down, it looked completely different from above.
It was more horrific and gruesome than I had expected.
That was why one had to live a good life.
The Damaya troops calmly eliminated the remaining enemies.
They dealt with the remnants hiding in every nook and cranny.
In the meantime, they gathered the spoils.
Guns, weapons, cash, and more lay piled up.
The haul was better than expected.
They even took the armored vehicles.
What a jackpot.
And so the night of Black Daraphanan gave way to dawn.
The operation ended successfully.
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“Good work.”
We had dealt with the rebels of Mindanao in a single night.
Although it had taken a long time to prepare and cost a great deal of money, the results were good.
Some of our troops stayed behind at the BLF’s base to clean up the battlefield,
while the rest went straight to Abu Sayyaf’s headquarters and thoroughly stripped the place bare.
Since all of Abu Sayyaf’s available troops had come here, their main base was completely empty.
We were able to enter without firing a single shot.
We searched the headquarters from top to bottom, took everything that might be worth money, and returned to Damaya’s headquarters.
We even gathered documents and the like.
With this, the rebel forces could be considered dealt with.
Of course, the New People’s Army (NPA) was still around, but they were not very active externally, and they were still weak.
It seemed we could leave them alone for the time being.
That did not mean we would ignore them; we would continue watching them closely.
Our decision would change depending on how they behaved.
There was also a reason to be cautious about acting immediately.
The Communist Party stood behind the New People’s Army (NPA).
There was no need to provoke them and make the situation worse for no reason.
Even so, we would not forget to keep an eye on them.
*******
Simon’s appearance had changed.
He now looked quite a bit like the leader of a rebel army.
As a result of the war on the night of Black Daraphanan, Damaya had emerged victorious.
One of the Philippines’ largest islands, Mindanao, had fallen into Simon’s hands.
Damaya had occupied every region of Mindanao.
They had taken all the influence previously enjoyed by Abu Sayyaf
and all the influence held by the Bangsamoro Liberation Front (BLF).
They had also been able to take over the farms, mines, and other properties owned by Abu Sayyaf and the BLF.
On top of that, they were able to absorb the political power those organizations had built up.
Those Abu Sayyaf guys were thorough.
They had recorded in minute detail what they had exchanged with the politicians.
It was all written down in the documents we had brought back.
Thanks to that, we were able to bring the politicians over to our side with ease.
Even without that, the politicians had no choice but to side with us.
Politicians were beings who inevitably had to lean on someone.
The only thing that had changed was that the person they leaned on was now Damaya instead of Abu Sayyaf or the BLF.
Nothing else was different.
There was no force in Mindanao capable of opposing Damaya.
We had swallowed Mindanao whole.
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New people began appearing who wanted to join Damaya.
I tried to accept as many as possible, but there were quite a lot of them.
In fact, it was far beyond what could be dismissed as “quite a lot.”
The impact was much greater than that.
It was like recruiting for a major corporation.
The competition was so fierce that we had to conduct written exams and physical fitness tests.
That was how fierce the competition was.
Was it because we offered salaries?
The people we were recruiting this time were not meant to become rebels.
We needed people to work on the farms, in the mines, and at the logging sites we had inherited from Abu Sayyaf and the BLF.
The people who had originally worked there were gone now.
Those places had been left completely empty.
So we needed workers.
They could occasionally leave work to train, serve as rebels, and work on the farms.
How great was that?
For me, it was killing two birds with one stone.
Besides, many people sympathized with Damaya’s actions up to that point,
so even though they were applying to join a rebel army, the applicants seemed to take pride in doing the right thing.
But wasn’t that only natural?
That people should be paid a salary if they worked?
Was that really enough to make Mindanao this excited?
It truly was an incomprehensible place.
Of course, I was not the one paying their salaries.
Simon would handle that himself.
Damaya had swallowed two rebel armies several times larger than its own.
The spoils collected after the battle were no joke,
and we had also inherited the businesses they had been operating.
That meant we now had considerable financial breathing room.
Even without my support, they could operate sufficiently on their own.
They could afford to pay salaries of that scale.
******
Zamboanga, Philippines.
I summoned Patrick to Zamboanga.
In truth, all the guys around me seemed more or less alike, cut from the same cloth, but I had my own way of distinguishing between them.
Candy Travel consisted of hotels, tours, and the travel agency as one group.
GoGo Casino consisted of the online casino, Candy Coin, the exchange, and money laundering as one group.
The arms dealers and the rebels made up another group.
Drug smuggling was simply my own discreet side job.
I tried not to stray from those categories whenever possible.
For example, it was similar to not making Scott handle GoGo Casino’s affairs
or Anna handle the arms dealer’s work.
I preferred for whatever happened in one area to end within that area.
They were not good things to begin with, so I wondered whether there was any need to go around blabbing about them.
That was merely my standard, however; it did not mean I had always followed it.
Just considering the present, there had been countless times I had asked Patrick to introduce me to someone.
Patrick was useful in all sorts of places.
I had even once considered taking him around as my secretary.
But the reason I had not done so was because I knew he was more useful elsewhere than at my side.
I knew very well that Patrick had played a major role in keeping Candy Tour running smoothly.
A brilliant man who had graduated from a Philippine university.
A network king who knew people everywhere.
And yet Patrick had become our chief secretary.
There was a good reason I had summoned someone like him all the way to Zamboanga.
“Patrick. You should become the mayor of Zamboanga.”
“What?”