Chapter 62

Looking at Alex's corpse, Ajax threw his knife aside, used some water to clean his hands before turning to the 2 operators that had held Alex in place: "Hang him at the gate of the camp. Let it be a message for anyone who has any idea of betraying us. Those who betray us and purposefully put the lives of their brethren on the line shall receive the same punishment."

Alex's corpse was dragged, hunged up at the gate of the camp, and left to rot. His corpse would only be taken down when nature takes its toll on it and lets it fall off due to erosion. This scene was engraved in the hearts and minds of all who stood around and witnessed the event.

In the future, every time a new operator joined, the old operators would tell them the story of what happened that day to the traitor, and for a long time to come, no one would ever dare think of betraying the Reapers...

***

After the dust settled, Ajax continued his crusade and cleaned up the small and medium-sized organizations that had helped the Hell's League attack them or were related to the Hell's League. From time to time, an organization would be wiped off the face of the planet. The corpses that they buried during this crusade became a foundation for what the Reapers would become. 

The entire border panicked for a while, and some people who had joined small and medium-sized organizations withdrew from them in waves, fearing that they would become the next target of Ajax's crusade.

Bearing witness to this, Ajax felt that the time was ripe, and began to recruit people. Noticing that the Reapers were now recruiting, the pace at which people were leaving all small and medium-sized organizations increased, and within 3 days, many of the organizations on the border had been disbanded.

Now that he had become a leader, Ajax noticed something peculiar about the border. It wasn't that the border was such a lawless land because there were no legal constraints keeping things in check, but rather the multitude of organizations that existed here.

No matter how powerful you are, as long as other organizations are vying for your power, the struggle and chaos would never stop, and others will become stronger as you become weaker until one day, your neck is the one on the chopping board. Therefore, Ajax did not intend to give any organization a chance to develop, instead, he would make sure that only one organization remained in control of the border, that being the Reapers.

When word got out of Ajax's plans, the border trembled, some of the remaining small-scale organizations disbanded one after another, with most people choosing to join the Reapers. However, some of the organizations that still had some people were enraged by this. What Ajax was doing was destroying their livelihoods which caused them to set up a meeting where they would discuss the creation of a resistance.

But who would've thought that they'd be sold out by one of their own and in the middle of their meeting, Ajax and a killing party had showed up, killing them all and permeating the air with the smell of burning bodies once again.

After hunting down all opposition to his rule that existed on the border, the organizations that had remained neutral decided to disband unanimously on the same day. When the following came knocking at the door: Ajax's mech, the Reaper, now painted Vantablack and with a reaper holding a scythe painted with a number 1 below it in white on its shoulder, Erica's Thorny Rose, also panted Vantablack but with multiple roses painted over the black and with a reaper holding a scythe painted with a number 2 below it on its shoulder, and Lily's Sunflower, which bore a new coat of pink paint with a reaper holding a scythe painted with a number 3 below it on its shoulder after she vehemently refused the Vantablack paint; resistance was futile.

At the cost of a sharp drop of one-third of the border's population, Ajax had monopolized the border by the twenty-seventh day of becoming a leader. At the same time, the number of the By the twenty-seventh day of becoming a leader, reached a new peak, with around 5,000 combat operatives, which could only be accommodated after being divided into three camps.

The business districts, the mining areas, and the planting areas had all been reopened, the only difference was that now they were under new management. Things like the everyday gunfights in the middle of the streets rarely happened anymore. Hell, the streets were now patrolled all 24 hours of the day by the over 20 brand new mechs Ajax had ordered from the Space Port, all painted Vantablack and with a reaper holding a scythe painted with a number below it on their shoulders.

Many places had corpses hung, displaying a simple warning of what would happen to those who caused a disturbance. The people living on the border were no longer filled with thoughts of who to fight and who to kill, but how could they manage to join the Reapers and become an operator, maybe even a pilot, since after joining, not only can you get protection, but also top-notch benefits.

The risk of death while performing tasks had been minimized, you could go to the mining area to dig for ore, go to the planting area to help grow some of the prohibited crops for sale, or go to the business district to sell things and get a good dividend. All in all, things weren't much different from the outside world.

Ajax's management of the Reapers was even simpler. The prohibited crops produced in the planting area were made into contraband and sold at high prices to the two empires that neighbored them. He would then buy the daily necessities from the two countries at a low price before returning them to the business district to sell them at their normal prices.

A trip back and forth not only improved the living standards of the people on the border, but it also made for a nice small profit. Ajax had also found a new buyer through Alana for the ore produced in the mining area, a large local company called Qianling Heavy Industries, who bought them at a price that was only 20% lower than the market price.

Ajax didn't care how much he sold it for since the only ones really competing for them were Qianling Heavy Industries and the Ashlin Group. Well, you know what they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. They sold the products of the mine to Qianling Heavy Industries and refused to sell to the Ashlin Group.

Now that they had three sources of income, the Reapers estimated that they could net out a profit of over 20 million eddies a month. There would still be hundreds of thousands of eddies left over even after deducting all of the expenses such as the pay of the operators, cost of operation, and other camp expenses.

They had yet to oil up this machine and it was already getting such a profit. Once they work things out better in the future, their production capacity would be boosted and so would their profits.

***

Leonard, on the other hand, was pissed. It had been over a month since Bach had asked him for supplies. When the supplies were delivered, Bach was nowhere to be seen, and neither did he send anyone to pick them up from their designated drop point. No matter how hard he tried to contact him, he couldn't get a hold of Bach, let alone of the people he had sent.

As the day passed, he couldn't bear it anymore and asked for his people to go to the border and observe the situation. He almost got a heart attack when he found out what was in the report. Who would've thought that the Hell's League would have been slaughtered and that Ajax was the one behind it all?

Leonard couldn't believe the news he was getting, after all, Ajax had almost been killed not that long ago and the Hell's League had the Lazoole Society on the ropes. But he was left in a daze once his people sent back a video that showed corpses littering the ground, dozens of trucks transporting corpses, and massive fires from the burning of the corpses.

It was hard, but Leonard had to accept the bitter truth. It explained why he was unable to get in contact with Bach or the team he had sent over. He didn't know exactly what had happened and could only bring the video to the attention of the high-level security team.

He wanted them to send another team there again, and this time around, he would provide the best mechs that he had at his disposal. However, senior management of the security team directly shot down his request and refused to send any more people to the border. They had listened to Leonard's advice last time and had secretly sent 20 people over because they were under pressure. They thought that they would be fine if they captured Ajax within a few days.

Who would have known that he was not caught and that they had instead lost every single one of the men they had sent over? They were still thinking about how to deal with the aftermath. If they continued to dispatch more people to the border and they were discovered, then they would be held responsible for violating the treaty between the Blauth Empire and the Empire of Uz. This would spark a war between the two, one that would not be settled with a mere apology.

*TN: Kingdom of Uz changed to the Empire of Uz*

Leonard would not give up so easily, so he threatened them again telling them that he intended to send some of the blackmail videos he had of them in his possession to the media. However, using the same threat twice did not have the effect Leonard desired and the senior guards who were threatened told Leonard to go fuck himself and do as he pleased.

Leonard had now reached a fork in the road; send the videos to the media and let the consequences affect both sides. Or he could not send the videos and let these people keep on taking his money as they do nothing.

After some time of deliberation, Leonard calmed down and decided not to do anything. Thinking for a moment, he came to the conclusion that Ajax was the problem and that there was no need for him to get involved anymore. With this, he got a vicious idea and decided to anonymously send the video he had gotten of the corpses littering the streets and the burning of the corpses to the media of the Empire of Uz through his connections.