Chapter.5 Inside Out (7)
***
“Well, we’ve arrived. “The group we decided to trade with will be in front of the small basin over there.”
“Oh, I can see it too. There’s a strange amount of sand piled up around there. “I just dug in and covered it with something like a tarp.”
The professor relaxed his stiff body from sitting for a long time and checked his armament.
“hmm? Help me? There’s no need to do that. It’s just an ordinary transaction. “It will be conducted in a gentlemanly and peaceful manner.”
“You sound like an ordinary transaction. “Just put down that bag and tell me.”
The professor spoke to Ian, who was stacking up a lot of the items to be traded on one side and stuffing as many explosives as the items to be traded into his iron bag on the other side.
“hmm? Ah, this? It’s just like a tranquilizer. If you take it with you and take it with you reliably, you will feel at ease, your speech will become smoother, and unnecessary nervousness will be reduced. “You have some business know-how?”
“Vex, is that right?”
In response to the professor’s question, Vex just shrugged his shoulders and checked his weapons.
“Okay, it’s time. [45.150.204] I told him to meet me at 4pm sharp in the area.”
“But usually, when doing business, don’t you choose an area far away from your residence as the meeting place? It’s like a hill of miscellaneous things piled up behind them where they’re hiding. “Isn’t that where they live?”
“In general, that’s true, but this deal is a little different. The size is quite good. The target of the transaction was a scavenger group involved in a local conflict, and the other side was monitoring their every move, so they decided that if they traded far away from their residence, they might lose the traded goods. So, we decided to make a deal while risking having the location of our residence revealed to us. To put it simply, it’s the same as asking me to do a direct transaction in front of my house because I have to rush to move expensive items.”
Rattling, rattling –
Ian, who had loaded the buggy at the back of the car with wooden boxes containing trade goods and explosives, put his bag on for the last time, started the buggy and started moving forward without hesitation, and the professor watched the car as it moved forward. He sat in the back and was alert in all directions.
Not long after, Ian arrived right in front of where they were hiding and stopped the car.
“Hmm hey! From Spicy Life! “I brought you what you ordered, so come out and get it!”
Bussssssssssssssssssssss!
As Ian shouted at the top of his voice, scavengers who had been hiding under strangely raised piles of sand around him appeared.
‘hmm? Oh, this….’
There are about 12 scavengers wearing sand-colored poncho raincoats. Even if there are a lot of goods and even if there is a dispute, the number is too large to be considered a transaction.
Ian may not have noticed that part yet, or he doesn’t care, but he was smiling like a salesman, showing both white and silver teeth.
A scrawny man, the only one of the group sticking out of the sand, wearing decent clothes that weren’t rags, spoke.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, there’s no need to be on guard, so guys, put the guns back! We also have our own circumstances. You know, I found out that the transaction itself was a trap, and that the spice merchant, who was known to be a merchant without blood or tears, was instigated by those ‘Lately’ guys…” “
Ah, I know, I know. Creating a new relationship in the wasteland is something that requires caution as much as it is exciting. I’m glad the person I’m dealing with isn’t an idiot. Now, as you can see, we brought our stuff so well, so shall we settle the bill?”
“ha ha ha! That’s great! Don’t worry. “I’m pretty common sense in the wasteland.”
‘….I guess it was unfortunate. By the way, where did this guy go? ‘I haven’t seen you since a while ago.’
Contrary to concerns, the transaction seemed to be going well. As the professor removes his finger from the trigger and searches for Vex, who has suddenly disappeared, something shiny suddenly flashes before his eyes, dazzling his eyes.
‘Mirror signal? ‘Who suddenly?’
Finding the direction of the signal wasn’t that difficult. Because I could see a sparkling area in their camp a little away from the trading place over there that kept bothering me. It was clear to see that the short man was waving something. It was Vex.
‘This… SOS? It’s a rescue signal, right?’
The professor immediately entered into a combat stance. Vex, who had gone off to scout out the enemy camp, sent a rescue signal. Due to the limited expression and the nature of mirror signals that can be noticeable not only to the target but also to others around them, an attempt was made to compress and send information as briefly as possible.
‘Sounds like we’re in crisis. In other words, this deal is a trap!’
While the professor was thinking this, Ian and Scavenger were concluding the transaction, grinning.
“Leader! The number of items is correct! It looks good too!”
At the words of the scavenger who was moving the luggage, Ian glanced at the inside of the pocket he was carrying and frowned.
“Hey Scavenger. They say all the goods have arrived over there. But… no matter how I look at it, doesn’t it seem like my side is a little less involved? Do I look like an asshole? Or are you planning to pass off these unattractive pieces of brass as gold?”
Quickly!
When Ian threw a heavy sack in front of the scavenger who appeared to be the leader, the scavenger let out an unpleasant laugh.
“Tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk…. I should have just pretended not to notice and taken that with me. It’s metal. Forget the bravado. Because my men have already confirmed that no one is around and that only you two are here. Hey, I gave you a hint earlier. I say ‘common sense’. Looking at common sense, if two idiots came to my front yard carrying a lot of valuable items, would it be right to buy them at full price, or would it be right to kill them cleanly and get them for free?”
The scavengers nearby and the guys moving the wooden box from the buggy were grinning. Ian glanced at the professor behind him for a moment, and a fierce smile appeared on his lips like those guys.
“Hehehe. So, if you leave everything behind and just take that piece of brass, your life will be spared?”
While Ian was taking his time, the professor moved backwards and walked in the path of the guy carrying the luggage.
Stumble – clatter!
Patter!
“Oh my! I’m sorry!”
“Don’t think about running away, just stay still! If you listen carefully to what the captain says, he might be able to let you go. Damn, stuff spilled out.”
The scavenger bent down to pick up the grenade that had spilled from the box.
Just like that.
The parched man picked up the bag of brass that Ian had thrown.
“Well. That’s what happened when I received this and disappeared smoothly. “Once this was thrown in front of me without notice, wouldn’t there have been no reason to keep it alive?”
“Hehehehe. Yes, it will come out like that….”
“Holy shit. If you lose even one, the captain will be shocked…”
The scavenger who was carrying the luggage was holding the spilled grenades.
23 24…. Where did one go?
“Now here.”
“25. It’s perfect. good. What if you just stay calm like that? But this…”
A moment of puzzlement passed over the Scavenger’s face as he accepted the grenade the professor kindly gave him. When I first checked, there must have been no defects, but the safety pin in the grenade in front of me was missing.
“Uh uhuh….”
“Khehehe.” Is this going to happen again this time?…”
“Don’t blame me too much. Blame yourself for walking around so defenselessly in the wasteland.”
“Defenseless? “Well…”
Ian took a cigarette out of his front pocket and put it in his mouth. He stretched out his hand like lightning and pushed up the muzzle of the gun pointed at him. With his free hand, he quickly took out his favorite gun from behind his back and held it in the scavenger’s grinning mouth. I smashed it. The hard steel barrel shattered the scavenger’s yellow teeth and pressed down on his throat.
“Wow! Oh my! “Ugh!!”
“Shouldn’t we wait and see which side is defenseless? Negotiations have collapsed. “You idiots.”
Quaaaang!
Taaaang!
Explosions and gunshots rang out at the same time, and the quiet wasteland was instantly filled with the noise of the battlefield.
***
Taang!
After the last gunshot, the professor shook his hands and put away the gun as if he was fed up.
“Okay, okay? “Now that you’ve fired the gun, just shut up!”
[Oooooh! It’s awesome! husks! Please lend me your body for just 10 minutes! Don’t do anything else, just touch that ‘gun’ thing! I want to see it, touch it, and lick it!]
“A guy like Metal Joe.”
The professor wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve and looked around.
The battle itself wasn’t very long. Outnumbered and surrounded without any cover. The only way to turn the situation around was a surprise attack using confusion.
‘It was close.’
After the grenade he threw at the foolish scavenger exploded, before the faces of the grinning guys turned into embarrassment, the professor had already pulled out a shotgun and blown up the two guys.
After breaking the arm of one of the three remaining guys and putting a knife into his side, he used it as a human shield and shot the guy holding what appeared to be a scrap gun.
Just before the last remaining guy takes aim at him and pulls the trigger, he tackles him low and knocks him down. Then, to calm down Hyde, who has been partying in his head since the moment the explosion occurred, he holds up the Ak he was holding in his left hand. It was made to be fired with a single shot.
While wiping the blood from his face, the professor realized that it was not just the enemy’s blood that had splattered, but that the area around his temple was torn quite long, as if a bullet had grazed it, and that blood was flowing. I didn’t even know I was sick from the excitement of battle.
“What is it, Professor? “Did you get it right?”
As I took out a bandage from my pocket and wrapped it around my head, a shadow appeared and Ian came up next to me and started talking.
“I passed by. Among the scavengers, there is one who is quite quick. “I almost died.”
“Hehehehe. This is a daily occurrence in this business. Still, in 43, there were a dozen of dead scavengers like this, so the number of guys attacking them decreased a bit, but since they moved to 45, they didn’t seem to understand the topic and thought they could just push through the numbers. “But this time, since there were two of us, I thought we would be looked down on a little less than when we were alone.”
“two people? Come to think of it, Vex suddenly disappeared and was in the back. Did you tell us about this in advance?”
Slurp –
Boom!
“Because these guys always have a reserve unit guarding their base. If we keep our distance and start shooting in an open area like this, we will be at a disadvantage due to our small numbers, so I went there to stop it. “The guys at the base were saying they were going to kill you all, so I sent a signal right away.”
Bex, who had roughly wrapped the firearms and ammunition they were carrying in what looked like tattered military uniforms and dragged them away, sat down next to the professor and gulped down the water in his canteen.
“Oh, I also want some water.”
“hmm? Hepburn, didn’t you bring water?”
“I drank all of mine.”
When Bex handed over the canteen without saying anything, the professor just sprayed it on his head. I really enjoyed the feel of the water droplets cooling my head heated up from the battle.
“Ugh. “It’s annoying when you get wet like that outside and the dust sticks to it.”
“sorry. “I can’t stand it.”
After resting for a while, the three walked around the battlefield, swept up the corpses of scavengers and useful items from the garrison, and loaded them into the back of the buggy. Most of the weapons were useless, like pipe shotguns, but there was still a lot of scrap piled up in the garrison, so Ian had to take a truck to load it up.
“There weren’t any particularly expensive items, but it was still a huge surplus today!”
“For some reason, it seemed like he was making a suspiciously good amount of money…”
In fact, in the professor’s opinion, Ian was not expected to make a lot of money. No matter how you look at it, it seemed like more money was going out than coming in, as he frequently threw expensive explosives around and bought things he liked without even thinking about the price.
‘He clearly said that negotiations broke down [this time too]. In this way, business with margins exceeding 100% is repeated, so there is no choice but to make money.’
Even though Ian is well-known, he is ultimately just a private seller. The real money and power places orders with Dom’s Life and Murder company, not with guys like Ian.
“Are you aiming for it?”
“hmm? “What do you mean?”
“this. It’s a business that has moderate quality but is also moderately sloppy. This is the type of business that people with no money look for when they are looking for weapons. “For these guys, it’s good if their business goes well, and even if they get hit in the back like now, they can respond with their skills, so it’s good to be able to get by-products like this.”
Ian’s face became very serious at the professor’s words.
“Hey professor. “Do you think my business looks sloppy?”
“Then isn’t it? You don’t even have a catalog of what you’re selling. Advertisements also advertise to the community, ‘Selling various weapons.’ “I just put it up to that level.”
“Usually, it’s a good thing to do business like this so that only people in the know know about it! And how many people in the wilderness know more about guns than I do? If a customer orders something like, ‘I’m going to use it at a party, something bold and heavy,’ I’ll send it to them. “It’s a service of its own?”
“Even small stores in the neighborhood don’t do business that roughly, dude…”
“But they make good money, right?”
“How can you make money by selling things? “You use things as bait to catch idiots.”
“are you okay. Hepburn. I was shocked at first too, but as I got used to it, I got used to it. Hehe!”
“Hey Bex. “You have a hole in your arm.”
“Ugh! “I went to the hospital today during the day to get treatment, and I got a puncture again!”
“Just wrap it up with a bandage first. “My house isn’t far from here, so let’s go and get proper treatment.”
“oh! already?”
“okay. “My house is a bit outside of District 47.”
Thump percussion!
The three people loaded the truck with the same amount of luggage they had unloaded, packed it with a lot of scrap scraps, and got back into the car looking tattered.
[If you live with these guys, you won’t be bored!]
‘Let alone boredom, it will be a hassle and a problem.’
Soon enough, the professor sighed as he saw the scenery passing by outside the window change into a familiar sight.
“Way down~ we go~ ho- ho- ho- ho~
” Gagging! Wow! Crack cack… Grumble-“
Now, it’s starting to feel real. I’m going to be living with these noisy guys.
***
