A Black Market LitRPG

Kyle watched Dekar punch Mornero hard for the umpteenth time, with Dekar’s knuckles already raw and Mornero’s face bloodied while he was tied to a chair.

“After everything we have done for you, you dare to kill Johan and fuck over the whole country?!” Dekar roared while Mornero just laughed happily through broken teeth, his jaw already crooked from the repeated punches.

“Still laughing?!” Dekar kicked Monero in the groin, causing Mornero to topple over. Dekar pulled him up again by the collar, but the impact had already knocked him out, making Mornero unconscious.

Before Dekar could attempt to slap him awake, Kyle grabbed Dekar’s wrist, stopping him. “Focus. Stabilise the situation first. You can interrogate him anytime.”

The state of Tenar was still in flux, with the military troops still pushing, unaware of the demise of the head of the Versian military as well as the government. Kyle and Dekar needed to take control of the entire situation and try to turn around the army.

Furthermore, Count Leon was still outside, pushing against the second defensive line. At this point, Kyle immediately enacted his second part of the plan.

“Dekar, prepare to make a speech announcing your presidency; Yona, take over command of the military temporarily. List down whichever general refuses the order – we’ll sort them out later.”

Kyle turned to the ADCON soldiers. “Cut off all supplies and observation report to Count Leon now.” He planned to turn the Versian military into allies now, pushing hard against Count Leon to force him back to Ocra. But first, he would have to rally the military again.

The loss of command wreaked havoc among the various division defending Tenar, with widespread confusion. The generals and division commanders desperately tried to contact the head of the military to no avail, only to hear a female voice on the other end of the radio when the communication finally made it through.

[All Versian military troops, prior orders to suppress revolts in the city are now revoked. All divisions to focus on holding the second defensive line.]

The confused generals and commanders attacking the government palace were astonished, with some of the smarter ones immediately realising what had happened. Not every general in the army supported Mornero, only blindly following orders, but the supporters knew that they would be purged eventually, with the government having collapsed.

The final nail in the coffin came when the public announcement system was suddenly used by Dekar, announcing to the public and causing the riots and fights across the city to pause as they listened to the speech temporarily.

[Citizens of Versia, the illegitimate government under Mornero has been toppled. The schemes of corruption have been exposed – It was Mornero who originally captured and now killed the former president, Johan!]

The revelation boosted the morale of his followers and the adherents of Nona, while the opposing side began to waver slightly.

[The industrialists and Mornero have colluded to eat the system from within, attempting to wrestle power away from you, the people, under the guise of improvement and war. They have lied to you, time and time again, of their true intentions!]

[But I am different. I am the true successor to President Johan, and I will carry his will forward and return Versia to it’s ideal state of equality and high standard of living. No longer shall the weak suffer, and no longer shall the poor tremble. All shall be supported, lifted up high and elevated beyond their station to work towards a better future together!]

[However, the fight is not over! The supporters of Mornero are still within our midst, colluding with each other to profit over fellow Versians, aiming to squash you and put you under their feet. They think of you as dumb, useless scum that does not deserve the right to determine the course of the country.]

[Well, tonight, all of you now have the power to do what is right! Fight! Stand up for your rights. Recall the golden days after the first war, where Johan and I strived to do everything for your sake.]

[Even now, the enemy stands at the gate, wanting to oppress us once again. We have pushed them back before: We can push them back once again! Purge the enemy; glory to Versia!]

“Purge the enemy; glory to Versia!” Dekar’s loyal followers chanted, pushing back at the military. The supporters of Mornero began to attempt to flee the city, knowing that they would die if they remained in the capital.

“All ADCON soldiers, don’t let the traitors escape!” Kyle ordered, sending out the various squads who were now freed from their various firefights across the cities to encircle the fleeing military units.

Those who listened to Yona’s order joined forces with the ADCON soldiers, chasing down the supporters and killing them in a bloody massacre, with bodies filling the streets as former comrades fought against one another, their allegiances now in plain sight.

Not even the civilians who supported Mornero were spared, with the list provided by Kalian outing all of the rich business owners, with ADCON nabbing all of them and killing them on the spot, no prisoner taken.

The entire city of Tenar underwent a purge, while previously diverted troops were now sent to the frontlines to fight. Kyle and Yona immediately took command of the Versian military, observing the situation.

Count Leon’s forces had already begun to launch a frontal assault, with Count Leon now anxious about a quick victory. News of the loss of his knight forces had yet to reach him, but as they missed yet another scheduled check-in, Count Leon knew that his plan had already been compromised.

Kyle was aware Count Leon was now desperate, attempting to push his numerical advantage and overwhelm the Versian defenders. However, Kyle now had a secret strike force waiting to ambush Count Leon’s forces. The stealth hovercrafts and mineral ants were waiting far in the backline, prepared to hit hard.

“We’ll coordinate the strike now!” Kyle sent an order for all Versian soldiers to hold the line, while the ‘airforce’ prepared to launch their raid.

Count Leon’s soldiers were already pouring into the trenches, advancing under heavy artillery shelling while barraging the defensive lines themselves. Bodies began to pile up as the Versian military fought hard, knowing that if they lost here, the capital that represented the seat of power in the country would be gone.

“HOLD! HOLD THE LINE FOR VERSIA! DON’T LET THE YUAL DOGS WIN!” The various generals yelled, motivating their troops. The idea that their backs were against the wall made them even more ferocious than an animal backed into a corner, triggering their fight response.

On the Yual Dominion side, Count Leon’s forces were also well aware that the prize was in sight. “THERE IT IS! THE FINAL GLORY! PUSH! PUSH FOR GLORY!”

Soldiers clashed in a torrent of flames, smoke, explosions and mud as the soil was tossed non-stop, the mortar and artillery rounds smashing and pounding the ground into the loose dirt. Broken war machines burned furiously as they hit mines, with soldiers cowering in shell scrapes, waiting for their sergeant to order the next push.

Despite the bravery and willpower of the Versian military, Count Leon’s forces were slowly beginning to overpower them, taking over sections of the second defensive line. Just as the various Versian generals began to contemplate retreating to the walls of Tenar, a blinding dazzling light erupted before them, with every soldier pausing to look at the sight in awe.

A line of explosions blew up in a spectacular fashion, bombing the entire backline of Count Leon’s forces as green arcia bolts lanced upwards, trying to take out as many bombs as possible. The balls of flame erupted in a row, killing the logistical crews and blowing up the armouries as well as ammunition dumps.

Count Leon’s command tent was blown to bits as well, the point defence systems failing to stop every single bomb. However, his own arctech armour blocked the brunt of the explosion, only being knocked over to the floor as he tried to stand up in a daze. “Who hit us?! Versia can’t have that many artillery guns here!” Count Leon roared, shoving a broken wooden beam off of him.

A third of the supplies had been hit, with the point defence systems able to stop most of the bombs. However, the few that got through were devastating enough, immediately sparking flames that began to burn like wildfire, spreading through the camp.

High-pressured arctech water cannons began to douse the entire area, blasting away the flames and depriving them of oxygen. However, Count Leon’s face paled considerably as his troops were already locked in the frontal assault.

He had relied on his knights to kill off Kyle and his troops, sending the knights that he had the utmost confidence in. Count Leon had far misjudged Kyle, treating him only as a small-time gang lord who got a bit lucky. He even managed to defeat the leader of the knights – I have no chance of winning Tenar now.

“Retreat! Full retreat now! Load whatever we have into wagons and rush back to Ocra! We’ll take Ocra by storm and hold there!” Count Leon was unwilling to give up his position, but with Raktor under fire and the two flanks of the Versian military still threatening to collapse on his position, he had no choice but to retreat in order to save what he could.

The morale of the Yual Dominion soldiers plummeted as soon as they saw the line of explosions that seemed to encompass the horizon like a wall of fire, along with the subsequent command to retreat.

The various divisions formed into a line as they retreated, with the rearguard still fighting tooth and nail to suppress the Versian military and prevent them from catching up.

However, instead of chasing, Kyle sent an order down to stay put instead, letting Count Leon get away. Dekar was indignant: “Why aren’t we chasing them down? We are winning!”

However, Kyle did not feel this way. He did have a hidden motivation to keep the war going so as to maintain his smuggling economy as well as become an integrated part of the Versian economy, but he also knew that the Versian military was exhausted and would not be able to give chase after all the confusion that was happening.

“We need to regroup and reorganise the city before we push out against Count Leon as well. Don’t forget that the other Counts are on the move as well.”

Dekar realised that the other two war fronts were collapsing as well because of the original order to retreat and defend Tenar. He quickly relayed the order through messengers, informing the various waterfront commanders to turn around again.

With this, Kyle had now successfully gained control of Versia through Dekar, though he did not intend to play too much of a role in governance, unlike Desham.

Over the next few days, Tenar calmed down, allowing Dekar and his followers to assume the role of the government quickly. Dekar’s prior governmental experience made him the best candidate, allowing him to efficiently organise and manage the work needed to restore Tenar despite the war.

The change in government did not sit well with some of the richer citizens, but the poorer ones who had been badly affected by the war economy were far more supportive, cheering for Dekar as he gave speech after speech, attempting to unify the population once more.

However, rebel activities still remained the vestiges of Monero supporters who were unwilling to accept this fall from power. The city was still breaking out into intermittent fighting, with Kyle’s ADCON soldiers working to flush out the rebels.

Already some of the rebel military divisions had made it out from Tenar, having escaped from the ADCON soldier’s encirclement and fleeing to other towns with the help of industrialists on the outside, forming a counter-revolution to Dekar’s government now.

The economy began to falter as supplies dwindled rapidly, the various major industries held by the powerful businessmen refusing to supply Tenar any longer, instead hellbent on concentrating their own local power. Some even declared themselves as local authorities, further fragmenting Versia apart into different areas ruled by warlords.

Kyle knew this split was inevitable, a common occurrence in every successful revolution. He himself was a ‘warlord’ in Desham under Mornero’s government. But unlike Mornero, who had no experience in dealing with such a fragmented state, Kyle had far more experience from the Galactic Era, where he had unified the criminal organisations of the Melsura Sector himself, along with better technology.

He recalled the days when he used to act as the shadow state behind multiple D-class states, realising that Versia would constitute the first state to have fallen under his grasp. Naturally, Kyle wasn’t about to let these warlords get away scott-free, claiming essential resources critical to the war effort and threatening the collapse of Versia.

The first step to my empire of sin will be perfect!