A Black Market LitRPG

Kyle reorganised the ADCON soldiers, tallying up the casualties and injuries. Out of the two thousand and five hundred men that he had deployed, five hundred had died, a severe blow to his forces.

Lucky for him, there was no shortage of willing fighters, many citizens of Versia having witnessed ADCON’s prowess in combat and skill through the entire revolution. When the call for recruits came out, those willing to become a mercenary came in droves, bolstering their forces even more and swelling to four thousand.

Kyle had them all sent to Desham, repeating the same boot camp as before while handling the promotion of the best performers of ADCON. Many previously assigned officers and sergeants were killed in combat, opening a whole slew of new awards and ranks awarded to brave soldiers.

Jaden smiled widely as Kyle presented him with a new rank of sergeant, finally in charge of his own squad. Though he felt a tinge of sadness at the death of his former sergeant and other comrades, the victory of the battle still buoyed his spirits up high, causing him to dedicate more of himself to ADCON.

In terms of the economy, Kyle had to rapidly take over the abandoned factories and industries left vacant by the purge of businessmen. Unlike a regular coup, Kyle knew exactly what do to do, assigning the correct people to carry out the work. Even experienced factory managers were brought in from Desham, to get the existing machinery up and running.

Some of the factories were intentionally sabotaged when the industrialists left, but it was barely an issue when Desham’s steel factory began to churn out replicas of the machines under the oversight of Hayden and Feldon.

Hayden was over the moon, not expecting Kyle to have been able to restore order so quickly. Dekar quickly roped her in as his military engineer, using her to produce designs based on Kyle’s weapon and updating the arsenal as fast as he could.

Kyle’s black market system began to work wonders in Tenar, re-establishing old trade routes that were previously blockaded by Count Leon from the surrounding farms, villages and towns. However, the level of input was pitiful compared to the previous contributions of the industrialists, who were now bonafide warlords in their various towns, each of them converting the deserters from the Versian military into their own private armies.

Dekar and Kyle began to plan for a reunification campaign, to be only waged by ADCON soldiers. The Versian military did not have enough men to spare for a frontal assault, and only the ADCON soldiers were well practiced with the use of hovercrafts in their arsenal now. Kyle could finally launch a combined arms assault, utilizing the full power of air power superiority.

Over the next week, Kyle launched multiple assaults out from Tenar, recapturing towns with blitz assaults, using the fast hit and run speed of the hovercrafts to take out heavy artillery emplacements and walls before a infantry charge.

However, the industrialists were no slouches, already having heard of the hovercrafts playing a big role in the victory at the Battle of Tenar, researching quickly to counter the new weapon.

Harrison, the leader of the industrialists, was not a stranger to such contraptions, having seen them personally in use in the Hwa Dynasty. As such, he began to already design and produce counters, such as modifying current mortar rounds to be timed instead of exploding on impact, as well as re-engineered coloured arctech spotlights to shine across the sky, exposing the hovercrafts.

This made the reunification campaign even harder for Kyle, as his advantage slowly began to wane as the various industrialist warlords began to share equipment with one another. The first few anti-aircraft guns were slip-shod and hastily put together given the short timeframe. However, the effectiveness began to ramp up over time as the various armed forces became more and more used to it.

Kyle continuously changed up his attack pattern, sometimes hitting head-on, other times infiltrating the city himself and capturing the garrison from within. Town after town soon fell back under central government control, with the prestige of ADCON building up even further as a reputable private military force.

Of course, the citizens of Versia knew that ADCON was hired by the Versian government, with some resenting the need of foreign mercenaries to help them. However, more and more people began to sign up due to the bleak economy.

As much as Dekar claimed about restoring Versia to its former state, the war had yet to die down just yet. While Count Leon had been pushed back to Ocra, the other two war fronts were still barely clinging on, with the other Counts recognising the weak state of the Versian military and pushing as hard as they could.

“Count Leon failed to take Tenar, which means he has already weakened the enemy!”

With this mindset, the fighting intensified on the border, with more and more land lost to the enemy every day. Kyle worked against the clock, pushing his ADCON soldiers to the limit and rotating them out with fresh recruits to bolster the numbers. He personally fought as well, leading the ADCON force to strike at the various warlords.

His kill count rose significantly as he continued to kill swaths of rebel Versian soldiers as well as any sympathisers.

The levelling is a lot slower now…. Kyle of course did not expect the EXP required per level to be a linear increase, but it still felt bad to him. He recalled the previous system message he had received when he unlocked his race.

Level 50 is the next target. Kyle used the current war to try and farm as much as he could, but he could not singlehandedly fight an entire army. It was also in his interest to provide battle experience to the ADCON soldiers, building up their strength in the face of consistent adversity.

At the same time, Kyle received messages from Raktor that the city was under a constant state of civil war, but the fighting had stabilized into a new normal. Reminds me of a few states back in the Galactic Era.

Kyle knew that economies could still function even though there was blatant fighting out in the streets, but he was slightly surprised to hear that the Seven Snakes had managed to hold on to at least one district, where the shopping mall was located.

He had previously sent an order for Keith to retreat to the Culdao Peaks, but Keith instead had the evolved hobgoblins transported over through the tunnel network, bolstering the numbers of the Sevens Snakes significantly and allowing them to break even with the Ardent Cretins forces.

The Seven Snakes were not the only ones fighting against the Ardent Cretins as well: the enforcers, too, had mobilised, the initial surprise attack wearing off as they quickly consolidated their chain of command.

Baron Cain himself also mobilised his own private forces to quell the Ardent Cretins, not willing to lose control of the sector himself. He did not argue about having hobgoblins within Raktor, only satisfied to know that they were on their side. In such a violent, turbulent time, any form of allies was accepted.

Despite the three forces forming a temporary alliance to fight the Ardent Cretins, the Ardent Cretins were still slowly taking district by district, absorbing the Red Lions and the Wretches, leaving Seven Snakes alone in a sea of hostile districts.

This severely restricted the supply lines into the districts, with the Seven Snakes suddenly becoming the main supplier for the enforcers and Baron Cain in the area. The weapons factory was also heavily defended by evolved hobgoblins that were now trained to use arctech weaponry with armour.

The agricultural boom in the Culdao Peaks, thanks to the hardy seeds provided by Orisa, helped to provide enough food and supplies to the fighters in the district, with the Seven Snakes shielding the loyal citizens from the aggression of the Ardent Cretins.

Battles were continuously erupting all over the forest as Ardent Cretin forces attempted to assault the Culdao Peaks through the dense forest in an effort to cut off the supply lines and starve the Seven Snakes. However, it was to no avail, with Sasha working hard to continuously deter incoming attacks.

Kyle could now rest easy, knowing that Raktor was still stable for now. He did not have to rush back as he had originally thought, allowing him to focus more on stabilising Versia.

Over the next month, the war raged on with seemingly no end as Kyle continuously moved back and forth between the various frontlines, intervening just enough to ensure that the Counts did not have a clear advantage in the war.

The progress of war began to slow to a crawl on the war fronts as the defences of Versia got even better and better due to more and more machine guns and mortars being produced. Hovercrafts gave real-time updates to commanders on the ground, resulting in a stalemate.

Both sides began to entrench further, the entire warfront marked with trenches that stretched for kilometres, with multiple tunnels in either direction. Sappers dug hard underneath each other, clashing with enemy sappers in tightly enclosed spaces where dozens were buried under tunnel collapses every day.

Kyle made a killing supplying all of the various war fronts, paid out the government’s coffers to facilitate and run the continuous logistical train. His weapons, potions and logging companies expanded quickly, with Kyle hiring even more workers and managers to boost their efficiency.

Towns that were previously under the control of the industrialists were revitalised, with new agricultural farming methods as well as renewed factories churning out, the workers properly incentivized. Despite the terrible war at the frontline, the lives of the people in the back began to generally improved.

Kyle had even managed to sneak in a few hardy Galactic Era genetically modified seeds into Versia, spreading them to the various towns and upending the local farms with the rapidly growing crop that could reach maturity in just two weeks or less, albeit requiring copious amounts of water and nutrients.

It wasn’t a particularly unique thing to Versia, with farmers being well aware of such plants existing in other parts of the continent. However, they were surprised to see the seed be able to grow in nearly every condition, not requiring a specific temperature or humidity level. This generic crop immediately took the Versian economy by storm, providing a quick solution to the famine that was beginning to spread due to the revolution.

The rapid introduction of such monoculture farms along help to alleviate the concerns of the citizens, further entrenching and improving Dekar’s political capital, and building his reputation as a capable leader. Dekar continued to work to manage the economy, rebuilding defences and industries all over Versia and focusing them on basic needs.

It had only been two months since the war started, but Versia was now entering a full war economy geared towards providing basic supplies while everything else was dedicated to the war effort. Luxury items like opulent furniture and jewellery began to decline in demand, and people able to accept a lower standard of living.

The starving homeless and poor that were worked hard as slaves or prisoners under Mornero’s government were overjoyed, now having governmental support in the form of food and water, which no longer had to be rationed. This improved their productivity even further.

On the other side, Raktor was in complete shambles, with nearly three-quarters of Raktor’s production taken over by the major gangs, whose tendrils began to invade the neighbouring towns and villages as well, expropriating their resources for the civil war in Raktor.

Just like that, a new normal for society had emerged, as though the constant war and multiple battles and skirmishes were perfectly acceptable and normal. Citizens still went about their daily lives, the major gangs assuming the role of the government and managing the districts under their control. The informal economy became the main focus, with greedy traders exploiting the difference in prices between Raktor and other counties in the Yual Dominion.

The coffers of Kyle surged tremendously, while the ADCON base in Desham only grew larger, with more and more recruits pouring in, seeking their fortune in battle as well. The boot camp over the last month had trained even more recruits, allowing Kyle to now field two brigades in battle.

Soon, the second last warlord stronghold had fallen to Kyle, with the very last one being held by Harrison.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Yona remarked as she pointed to the map of Versia, her finger resting on a mountainous region where the final city, Utul, was positioned at.

“Indeed, it will be hard to assault such a position. We cannot underestimate Harrison lightly – he is the main reason why we have suffered so many losses over the last month.” Nox nodded. Nox was now working for Kyle, having no choice due to the modified slave engraving, free from Nest. Kyle of course, had recruited him to lead the ADCON soldiers, though Kyle still overrides his orders from time to time.

Kyle pondered, looking over the other edge of the mountainous region. “Which country is that?”

“Josei, a vassal under the Hwa Dynasty.” The Hwa Dynasty functioned unlike that of the Yual Dominion, instead having tributaries and vassals over the continent, forming its own power bloc away from the Yual Dominion, who represented a contiguous empire, where all territories directly fell under the rule of the Emperor, with no vassals.

Kyle did not have any impression of Josei, instead focusing his attention on the heavily fortified city. The mountains served as a natural defence against a siege, with the tunnels and pathways leading through towards Josei unable to be cut off. Unless…

“Ready the heavy variant of the stealth hovercraft. It’s time to do an orbdrop.”

“An orb-what?!”