Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 102 From now on, this is my territory.
Inside the EE-11 infantry fighting vehicle, Varta's face was terribly gloomy.

The constant gunfire from ahead, and the fact that his team members had completely lost contact, all told him that his convoy had been ambushed.

"how could be?"

"Didn't that cannon fodder discover anything?" Varta's new second-in-command looked incredulous. "Useless!"

“That’s not the most important thing.” Varta shifted to a slightly more comfortable position. “I just want to know, why is Milton here at this time? Wasn’t he supposed to be attacking Raul’s fortress?!”

"It's impossible that he took down Raul's fortress in half a night, right?"

Even in the worst-case scenario, Raul, who had seen the fortress with his own eyes, believed that with Milton's strength, even if he asked Jesus for help, it would take at least half a day to take down the fortress with considerable casualties.

The second-in-command who replaced the deceased Carlos cautiously asked, "Is it possible that Milton and Raul reached some kind of agreement?"

“Unlikely… Milton and he are absolute mortal enemies.” Varta sighed. “Let’s move forward quickly, but once we get close to the battlefield, we shouldn’t rush in too aggressively.”

"As for the specifics, once we catch Milton, I'll have a million ways to make him confess. I'll make him beg me to kill him! 'Hell's tax collector'? I'll send him to hell!"

"If he really defeats Raul, that would be even better... Van Kangbang, a bunch of bastards who follow other groups around like dirt, dares to give me attitude?"

"Luckily, I was cautious enough to keep our strongest firepower well behind the convoy, otherwise we would probably be their targets by now."

Varta's face was both gloomy and smug.

He's been keeping quiet these past few days to gather his strength!

Once he absorbs Milton's power and the power of Van Cam's gang, he will have no rivals in the town. He can then easily deal with the remaining discontented people, and he, Varta, will be the true ruler of Malacan!
No, it's the emperor!
Varta added, "Milton's team has a lot of rocket launchers. Even if our infantry fighting vehicles have reactive armor, they will definitely be penetrated in close combat."

"Moreover, I borrowed this armored vehicle. If it gets damaged too badly, I won't be able to explain it."

"Go quietly, find their firing positions, suppress them with machine guns, and prioritize attacking their artillery positions."

"Once we're close enough, the rest of you get out of the car and flank us from the side!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than the observer ahead suddenly shouted, "I see our convoy! Milton is bombarding them with mortars!"

Varta immediately shouted, "Gunners, fire! Take them down!"

Bang bang bang! !

The machine guns spat fire, firing at the distant artillery positions.

Two seconds later, a car hidden nearby was hit and exploded, and the artillery position fell silent within seconds.

"We hit them!"

The deputy was also excited: "Station commander, it looks like their artillery position has been taken down!"

"The gunfire has stopped... no one's firing anymore, did they escape?"

“They might just be down.” Varta’s face also broke into a victorious smile. “Don’t let your guard down, press your advantage, and continue to maintain suppressive fire!”

"I remember Milton also had an old armored car, and he even put a recoilless rifle on it. It might be a bit of a threat to us. Keep an eye on this target, and take it out as soon as you find it!"

The gunner revealed a cruel smile: "Station commander, his beat-up car can only stop rifle bullets... If he dares to show his face, I'll tear him to pieces."

“Even if he’s shattered into pieces, I’ll piece him back together,” Varta sneered. “Then I’ll hang him on the traffic lights so everyone knows who really owns this place.”

The second-in-command laughed: "What if we can't go to heaven after we die doing this? Should we do something good, like spare the lives of those people in the old streets and force them to owe us money, so they have to pay it back for the rest of their lives?"

"It would be better to just kill them and sell their organs."

"I agree! Doing good deeds only gets you into heaven after you die, but doing bad deeds lets us live like we're in heaven while we're alive, hahaha!"

"..."

Bang bang bang!
The infantry fighting vehicle swept forward, suppressing Milton's team, who had been incredibly arrogant, so much so that they couldn't fire a single shot. No one even tried to use the rocket launcher, making the crew on the vehicle extremely bored.

"Hmph, I wonder who was it that made Milton and his men sound so amazing. In the end, they still quieted down after taking a few shots."

"Hahaha, a bunch of cowards. You have RPGs, don't you? How come you don't even have the courage to put up a little resistance?"

"Did they really abandon their weapons and run away?"

Varta's second-in-command patted his Level 3 body armor and said, "If it were me, I would definitely fire a shot before I die. I don't want to go to meet God as a coward."

"Catching them later will probably be as easy as catching chicks."

"Hahaha……"

Just as the passengers on the vehicle were celebrating their victory and the enemy's incompetence, the observer suddenly saw a burst of orange-red fireballs in the distance, and something resembling a rocket flew into the sky, trailing gray-white smoke.

The people on the bus were stunned for a second or two, and then burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! Where are they aiming their RPGs at?"

"Could their real target be the sun in the sky?!"

"This is Milton and his team? Are they here to be funny?"

The gunner then spoke up: "Wait, this rocket looks like it's flying this way."

"So what? It can't just suddenly turn around and crash down, can it?"

"Too……"

No sooner had he finished speaking than a violent impact sound came from the top of the infantry fighting vehicle.

"Ok?"

The next instant, a violent explosion came from the top. The shaped charge of the Javelin missile was ignited, and the high-temperature metal jet with a speed of over 8000m/s instantly burned away the fragile top armor of the infantry fighting vehicle, covering most of the space inside the vehicle!
The driver and gunner turned into carbonized human silhouettes pressed against the ground right before Varta's eyes.

The overpressure from the explosion immediately shattered most of Varta's organs, and the flying shrapnel easily tore through his bulletproof plates.

In his last moments before losing consciousness, Varta witnessed the most horrific scene—his memory was also frozen at that moment of despair.

The turret's ammunition was ignited.

boom!
Amidst the deafening explosion, rings of fire erupted from the turret's welds, and the shockwave propelled the turret hatch into the air before it crashed heavily to the ground a few seconds later.

Five seconds later, the EE-11 was completely reduced to rubble.

A few minutes later, the sound of several car engines came from near the debris.

A pair of boots stepped onto the ground and walked to the side of the car.

Milton's voice, tinged with regret, came through: "...'Bottle,' do you think Varta still has a chance of being alive?"

Flora rolled her eyes: "I've heard of people who are tough to fight, but I've never heard of people who are tough to die."

"Ah, what a pity." Milton was genuinely regretful and heartbroken, and he wasn't faking it. "His money, his secrets, so many things of his..."

With Varta gone, these things will likely only benefit the capitalists in Swiss banks.

"Sigh! This infantry fighting vehicle was actually quite good, but now it seems there's no point in repairing it."

Let's see if there's anything of value left inside.

Milton knocked on the charred car door, carefully pulled it open, and glanced inside—it was a truly horrific sight.

Needless to say, the bodies of the people near the core of the jet were nowhere to be found; only faint carbonized humanoid outlines could be seen.

Even the bulletproof vests and helmets were not left behind.

Although this method of death is almost painless and far less cruel than napalm, the sheer visual impact of these humanoid outlines is enough to make many people present twitch at the temples.

Of course, apart from Olya—it seemed that no matter how horrific the scene, it couldn't faze this war correspondent. She wouldn't miss such a rare sight, and immediately started snapping away with her camera…

Milton ignored her, stepped onto the armored vehicle, and walked inside.

In the rear of the crew compartment, which was quite far from the center of the jet, Milton finally saw several intact corpses.

However, their equipment had also lost all practical value. "Several sets of level 4 plates, worth tens of thousands of dollars, were destroyed by me, no, by Fan Kang's gang. What a pity."

Brandon took a deep breath, forcing himself to forget the horrific scene before him, and went to the back seat to help Milton examine the corpses.

When they turned over the second body, Brandon suddenly exclaimed with a hint of surprise, "Boss, you, you come and take a look at this."

"Did you find something good?"

Milton followed and took a look.

Brandon removed a slightly deformed, blood-stained epaulet from a corpse and handed it to Milton.

"Boss, take a look, isn't this the stationmaster's epaulettes?"

Milton took the item in his hand, examined it carefully for a few seconds, and nodded slightly: "It is indeed Varta's epaulette... This guy actually customized an epaulette himself. The materials must have been expensive, probably with a lot of gold and platinum in it?"

"Valta is really dead!" Brandon finally exclaimed. "Just over ten days... just over ten days, and the Van Conn gang is gone, and so is Valta!"

Milton slung the bloodstained epaulette over his shoulder, turned his arm slightly, admired it for a moment, and nodded in satisfaction.

“That’s right, Fan Kang’s gang is gone, and the checkpoint is mine now… but this matter still needs to go through a few formalities.”

"Olia, let's do an interview."

Olya was already very experienced in this kind of thing, so she immediately took out the photography props from the car and quickly set them up.

"Mr. Milton, as the head of inspection at the checkpoint, could you tell me what just happened here?"

Milton cleared his throat and said:

"As you can see, a war is taking place here, a war between good and evil."

"Our enemy, the Van Conn gang, an armed group from Mexico, has brought long-lasting disaster, poverty, and crime to our inhabitants for so many years."

“Countless police officers and prosecutors have sacrificed their lives in their confrontations with them, and countless civilians have lost their families and are living in pain because of them.”

“Young people who should be full of energy are robbed and forced to take on a debt that they can’t repay in this lifetime… no, in ten lifetimes.”

"As anyone who has watched television knows, recently they also planned a terrorist attack targeting the police station, checkpoint, and civilians—they even openly used chemical weapons to detonate a restaurant."

“Police officers are human beings, residents are human beings, and we are human beings too! We also have the right to live. No one is born to be exploited. If we don’t sell our blood for bread and we’ll starve to death tomorrow, is that our fault?!”

"This battle is a battle to reclaim our dignity!"

"I'll say it again: we will be great again, and this war is the most powerful proof of that!"

Olya nodded and continued, "So, what was the outcome of this battle?"

"Clearly, although the cost was heavy, we have won."

"The enemy possesses powerful firepower, countless machine guns, cannons, and even tanks... but they cannot overcome our iron will!"

"I hereby declare that we have achieved a complete and total victory in the war against evil! All that they have smuggled, all that they have plundered from us, I will take back through taxes!"

"All the money you owe Fan Kangbang is wiped clean starting today!"

"..."

Olya nodded slightly, then asked, "Although it is very sad, I would still like to ask, exactly how many people have you lost?"

Milton calmly replied, "Lots of armored vehicles, lots of weapons, lots of cannons, lots and lots of people."

"The most regrettable thing is that the respected station chief, Mr. Varta, also sacrificed his life in this battle."

"As his successor, I took over the responsibility and burden of stationmaster with both sadness and a sense of honor."

"I will continue to uphold justice and continue to hunt down the remaining forces of the Fan Kang gang hiding in every corner. I will not allow them to die until they have paid all their taxes and compensated for all their losses!"

"For wealth and prosperity!"

"..."

After she finished speaking, Olya gave Milton an "OK" sign, and everyone else laughed.

"Putting everything else aside, the boss's speech was quite inspiring."

"Yes, if I were one of those people who work hard every day but can't even pay off their loan interest and have to sell their blood for bread, I would probably cry after hearing that."

"For a fleeting moment just now, I felt my blood boil..."

Matteo returned carrying two or three guns and said, "Because the boss is right!"

During the interview, the operatives responsible for looting the convoy gradually returned.

Fearing they weren't all dead, Matteo finished them off with a shot—with the checkpoint and Fan Kang's gang destroyed, he finally avenged himself.

The attack on the convoy was not thorough; although many things were damaged, some spoils were found.

There are a small number of precious metal jewelry pieces, but the majority are firearms and bullets.

Is there anything else I've forgotten?

"Nothing."

Milton turned and got into the car: "Good, let's go home!"

Brandon followed behind, asking curiously, "Boss, legally speaking, after Varta dies, can you be his successor and take his place?"

“Of course not.” Milton glanced at him. “Do you think this is the throne? There’s such a thing as ‘inheritance’? I don’t want to end up like Louis XVI, completely clueless one day.”

"Uh, I don't really understand... So, if we follow the proper procedures, how should this position be arranged?"

“The Ministry of the Interior will reassign an official, or a high-ranking one,” Milton began. “Of course, this is only in theory. In reality, I will be the stationmaster when I want to be one and no one has the power to oppose me.”

"Of course, high-ranking officials can ignore everything and force people to come over, but if they do that, they should be prepared to sign an appointment letter every other day."

Brandon didn't quite understand: "Huh, why?"

“Because I killed them one by one until my name was on that letter of appointment—ostensibly killed by Van Kang’s remnants.” Milton laughed emotionlessly. “From then on, this place was my territory.”

“Finally…” Brandon breathed a sigh of relief, then added with a touch of melancholy, “It feels like so long, but then again, it’s only been a couple of weeks. If the ‘boss’ could see this, he’d be so happy, and he could finally buy a ticket to America without worry…”

From being on the verge of collapse and surrounded by countless enemies to completely capturing Malakan and becoming its de facto ruler, it only took a little over ten days.

Flora rubbed her hands together, interrupting their conversation: "What's next? What are we going to do next?"

"Sweep away the remaining enemy forces in the town and seize the police station; fully restore order and security to the town so that everyone can do business safely; establish a systematic, in-depth defense and reconnaissance system for the checkpoint and the town, making this the first stop for our outward expansion and the entire town our base!"

"Let's take over the checkpoint now!"

Milton's convoy soon approached the checkpoint.

Unlike before, there was no one here who could threaten them anymore. No one dared to stop them or even glance at the convoy.

As the convoy pulled into the checkpoint, Flora suddenly frowned and said, "'Tax collector,' look over there! I think there's something wrong with those two."

Milton immediately looked up—in the open space, his former nemesis Maynard, a sexy woman in a work uniform and high heels, and a soldier were standing together discussing something.

Lutz, also a prosecutor, frowned: "I know Maynard, but who are the other two?"

Milton glanced at the two men's faces and then said, "I know this officer. He's the one who sold me his rank. He's an old acquaintance."

"As for this woman... I'd venture a guess, she's probably Rosa Morales, the prosecutor from the Public Affairs Department (Prosecutor's Office) mentioned in the news before?"

"What are they doing gathered here? That's interesting."

The officer looked over at the noise coming from the convoy, then his gaze froze, and extreme astonishment flashed in his eyes.

(End of this chapter)