Soho

Chapter 235: < Protect – Episode 225 – Green Peace [4] >

Kim Na Hee trusted the Kirukawa Mai matter with Ahn Soo Ho. That meant she respected what he would do whether he convinced her or kidnapped her. What was unfortunate was that despite his magical powers, it was quite difficult to suppress reason.

Dating techniques and intelligence weren’t directly proportional.

Ahn Soo Ho didn’t really know what women were interested in. The only reason why he didn’t run away was because of his magic. Jang Seol Hyun wasn’t the only woman in the world who would listen to his old man jokes.

The Rosette Hope Volunteer Group was busy with their schedules. It was a big team that included celebrities, famous people, the filming team, as well as guards to ensure their safety.

And the bigger the group, the harder it was to control everyone. Han Chae Kyung was cut out to be a boss. She didn’t have strong charisma like Kim Na Hee, but she had the type of leadership of a young woman.

“Please check your group every once in a while, and if anything happens, please report it to me.”

The first destination of the volunteer group was a native village in the East of Nairobi. Kenya played a leading role as a native nation in Africa. There was a reason why many international rescue groups came to Nairobi.

There were almost no civil wars within Kenya since its establishment.

There were some conflicts and protests here and there, but there weren’t little boys shooting guns like in the other African countries. After America’s Nigerian War, Central Africa was in the middle of a dispute with Ethiopia, but Southern Africa didn’t seem like they were going to back down easily either.

“What’s funny is that most of the countries fighting over dominance of Africa are a part of the Common Wealth.”

South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria were all a part of the Common Wealth.

“Why is that? Because England is great?”

In the same way, France, who colonized Africa were on the decline, but British colonists weren’t completely gone. Why? Because they were less cruel than France? Not at all. Both England and France had a great number of colonies.

As soon as Ahn Soo Ho paused, Go Ah Jin raised her hand.

“Is it because of America?”

“Why?”

“Because they speak English, too.”

“Oh.”

Ahn Soo Ho exclaimed in surprise.

“Am I right?”

Go Ah Jin was surprised.

“You’re right. England is America’s biggest asset and strongest weapon.”

Culture came from language. In order to understand an English-speaker, one had to know English, and in order to learn about the basis of English, one had to know English literature. People had to learn about the identities and customs of other people in order to predict how they would think and act.

“Then why are they joining England instead of America?”

No one could answer that question.

“That’s because America stresses democracy. They have a sense of duty to protect human rights and democracy. However, that’s another type of imperialism. Luckily for England, they’ve shared many aspects with America, and America needed a bait in order to hide their intention.”

Following the Second World War, France managed to become a leading country, but they were unable to rid themselves of their image associated with Germany. And that caused them to speed up their break away from the colony. International order functioned based on the reasoning of power. If a country grew weak, its uncivilized side would begin looking elsewhere.

The reason why England’s colonial empire didn’t collapse like that of France was because people saw America and England as one. And that was a misunderstanding. But the fact that they shared the same language worked in their favor.

America didn’t have anything to lose either. In order to have more power in the following generations, the influence of the English language had to grow bigger. Unlike how French used to be the common language in Europe, it was now English, and America didn’t hesitate to invest in England for that reason.

“America and England filled in what was lacking in each other.”

The American and British empire’s strategy was a success. After all, not everyone in the world had the kind of intelligence that was needed to graduate from Harvard. While America sold freedom, England sold the royal family. They sold the past and future at the same time.

“America used England as a shield while England used America’s superiority in order to regain their reputation.”

The topic that Ahn Soo Ho raised on the bus was random. However, there wasn’t a single person that didn’t listen. The fact that they came out to volunteer meant that they had an interest in the public interest. Just because they were young didn’t mean they had no interest in politics or diplomatics.

“So are you saying language is also a national power?”

“Being able to communicate is more influential than you can imagine.”

The worth of a language depended on the number of people that used it. Korean was a superb language, and it was impressive to know it. However, that was all.

“People have different mindsets depending on what language they speak.”

People who mainly used Korean died as Korean. That was why Ahn Soo Ho had no choice but to be Korean. He was able to use his magic to speak all the languages in the world, but since Korean was his first language, that was his default basis for his beliefs and way of thinking. Even if he spoke English, French, and Spanish, he interpreted them in a Korean way.

Ahn Soo Ho didn’t only talk about difficult topics. He even added some humor and some stories of corruption here and there. As soon as he revealed a president that had an affair with an actress and how much slush funds a famous dictator had, loud exclamations could be heard.

The best story was the one of the kidnapped reporters in Nigeria. As soon as their rescue stories came out, their eyes sparkled. They couldn’t hear these stories anywhere else, so it was more stimulating than any affair story.

“To be honest, affection fell upon Korea. Not Onami.”

“Wow!”

Go Ah Jin looked impressed. No one expected him to pull out an old man joke at a time like this.

“I’m sorry.”

Ahn Soo Ho immediately apologized. Do Min Ho’s joking skills were definitely trash. There was nothing to learn from him.

“We’re here.”

After racing through the empty roads for 5 hours, they arrived at a village. As soon as they got out of the bus, Ahn Soo Ho realized what was going on.

‘They’re actors.’

Just like how foreigners looked at traditional villages in Korea and marveled at how Korean it seemed, the volunteers looked at the shabby-looking houses and marveled at how African it looked.

One of the main industries in Kenya was volunteer experience. When considering the safety of the volunteers, they couldn’t bring them to remote areas. What if they got hurt, kidnapped, or even killed? That would be the Kenyan government’s responsibility. So they secretly made a native village for volunteers to gain their experience.

Every single adult, elder, and children were educated actors. And the volunteers that knew nothing believed that they were actually volunteering. If one compared them to a real African that require help, they could be distinguished quite easily. But foreigners were unable to tell them apart.

He had no intention of ruining the fun for the volunteers who were handing water to the natives. Ignorance was bliss. Ahn Soo Ho approached the native guides gathered at the entrance.

“Where are we going today?”

Their eyes flinched when they heard Ahn Soo Ho speak their language so fluently. His pronunciation made him sound like he was a native.

“Huh?”

One of the bewildered guides got a hold of himself and stepped up.

“We’re going to go to two more places after this.”

“I see. Well, let’s see. Then today’s accommodation must be in... Garissa?”

“Um, yes.”

Ahn Soo Ho took out a cigarette and handed one to him. He turned happy. Just because they were a guide in Kenya didn’t mean they made good money. Africans also had a tendency to become friends if someone gave them something.

“How are the borders these days? Is it still hectic?”

“Somalia? It’s always crazy there.”

He obtained all sorts of information by smoking with the guide. During the days of the European empire, all sorts of borders were drawn, but they were rarely followed. Borders didn’t mean much in Africa. Even the concept of a nation was vague, and the tribal mindset was so strong that not many thought of themselves as citizens.

“The UN is also planning to reduce the size of the refugee village. So the vibe has been strange these days.”

“Why is that?”

“Do you seriously have no idea? It’s because of the Al Shabab. They’ve already penetrated deep into Nairobi.”

Al Shabab.

Just the fact that their name started with “Al” suggested that they were an Islamic group. They were one of the worst terrorist organizations in Eastern Africa.

Ahn Soo Ho thought that SI was actually worse than Al Shabab. Al Shabab at least didn’t kill any Muslims but not the SI. They were close to heathens, and they punished Muslims.

After Boko Haram went to shit from the Nigerian war (they were actually shit on by Ahn Soo Ho), the African Islamic organizations naturally took over Eastern Africa. Due to the baseless rumors claiming that the US military’s next target was Sudan, there was an energy of an oncoming war, but the Islamic terrorist groups exploded rather than reducing in size.

People with intelligence felt doubtful.

‘Where did all that money come from?’

Where did they get the money to create a military of thousands of people? Some claimed that they must have made an agreement with the Somalian pirates. There were rumors that their funds came from those pirates.

Ahn Soo Ho shook his head. There were limits to how much money pirates could secure. And since there was no guarantee that they would succeed, it was common for the account of the pirates to take the money and leave.

And on top of that, the US marines were going in and out of Djibouti, so it was hard to be pirates nowadays. In order to protect the paths to the Suez Canal, India, Japan, China, Korea, and even Australia, they sent their Marines to help.

‘That’s why they needed the label of being environmental activists.’

The inside of Somalia was always chaos, but toward the ocean were marines of multiple countries. The NR Peace Keepers worked toward saving the Somalian refugees, and as a result, James Bungee’s black heart decided to go a different direction.

The IAEA was huge with more resources than anyone could imagine. And when it came to modern civilization’s nuclear fuel tracing technology, they were at a level of hitting below the pictogram range.

In other words, there was no hole to crawl out of.

Despite never having been near North Korea’s nuclear facilities, the IAEA was able to predict what kind of experiments they were conducting. However, the IAEA weren’t perfect either. If they targeted a region, they would find it 100%, but when looking through the entire world, it was impossible for them to detect nuclear materials.

And if they were hidden well, it was possible they would never find it.

After serving the native actors, the volunteer group proceeded to their next destination. That place was probably going to be similar to this one. Thanks to the photographer’s passion, the famous people holding a black child and looking sad would probably be reborn as art.

Humanism

It could be described with that one word.

It had been a long time since rescue became a business. Average people believed that their small donations went to children in need, but the truth was, it all went toward a reserve. The money that actually went to the sites came from large sums, not small ones. Most of the small funds were spent on the preparations of the rescue operations.

“Huh?”

The bus was blocked by cars on their way to their next village.

They were Japanese cars in disguise.

While they loved Toyota cars, they killed way too many Japanese people. Just like Boko Haram, their flag was always a black background with white letters on top.

“#^%#$!”

The bus driver immediately turned the handle, but as soon as he could, gunshots were fired.

Bang, bang-

As soon as the bullets went through the bus, it was pandemonium. The cars suddenly popped out of nowhere and shot at the bus from all sides.

“Agh!”

The guards that were supposed to protect everyone ran away, and some of them got killed in the process. Rosette Group’s guards didn’t have real-life experience.

Ahn Soo Ho felt weird.

He had very little memory of being attacked in such a way in the mercenary world. Just as Do Min Ho put it, this was a very fresh and new experience. He whispered something to Go Ah Jin, who was frozen beside him, and got up.

“Get down and lower your heads.”

“Pardon? Ok... okay!”

As soon as Ahn Soo Ho got out of his seat, he met eyes with Han Chae Kyung. Ahn Soo Ho mouthed the words to her, and she reflexively nodded.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang-

An automatic gun landed in each of his hands, and as soon as he pulled the trigger, the heads of the assailants blew up like watermelons. A huge smokescreen followed.

Bang, bang, bang- Bang, bang-

The terrorists were taken aback by the sudden impairment of their vision. The shabby mercenaries ran away while the rest were taken care of quite easily, but the resistance grew stronger.

“Agh!”

“Agh!”

The screaming of his allies could be heard from within the smoke.

“W... what’s going on?”

On their way from kidnapping the National Geographic filming team, they found another delicious prey and pounced. The more hostages they had, the better their negotiation would be.

‘A... a trap?’

Was this a trap of the Kenyan government? He hadn’t heard of anything like that though. While the command panicked, Ahn Soo Ho sniped the bastards one by one. As the gunfires slowed down, the smoke cleared up, and among the dead assailants was Ahn Soo Ho.

And with him at the center, red flowers bloomed.

And then there was a sunset.

“Gulp!”

It made no sense.

‘This is crazy.’

Wasn’t war a cruel thing? However, among the dead assailants’ blood and death was Ahn Soo Ho looking more beautiful than ever. A famous Korean photographer, Yoon Ki Hyun captured this beauty on camera.

He blamed it on the instincts of an artist.

< Protect – Episode 225 – Green Peace [4] > The end.

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