The Devil’s Cage

As time ticked off second by second, the sunshine from the setting sun shined through the window and covered the wooden desk in bright red light. Zarukhar was sitting behind the desk in his office.

The expression on his face was blank as he held a cup of coffee in his hand.

The aroma of the coffee filled the room, but Zarukhar did not bother tasting it.

He felt that something was off.

Something bad was about to happen.

Zarukhar was extremely confident in his intuition.

It was his intuition that had saved him from death many times before.

This time was no exception.

But he needed to figure out what was going on.

“What is wrong?” Zarukhar frowned as he started questioning the situation.

His first thought was that that dirty sewer rat had something to do with his bad feeling.

“Impossible, Hank’s team will finish the job easily!”

Zarukhar let out a laugh with a hint of self-mockery as he shook his head.

How could an armed smartass match a real soldier, not the mention a squad of his most trusted men?

The only troublesome thing was flushing the rat out from the sewer he was hiding in.

Zarukhar laughed at himself for overthinking things.

Just as he was about to continue down this line of thought, his cell phone started ringing.

The white display screen showed the caller ID: The Vulture!

Zarukhar held his breath.

After a moment, he picked up the phone.

This time, he did not speak first. Instead, he waited for the man on the other side of the phone to speak.

He did not believe his own men would fail, but he needed to know what was going on.

“Did you expect your men to reply? Well, I’ve got some bad news for you. You might need to try speed dialing Hell! Oh wait, you’ll be joining them soon enough, so you don’t need to go to all that trouble! My new ally gave me a better deal and granted my request! I really can’t wait to see your lying face dead!” Kieran spoke quickly and hurtfully in an effort to irritate the Major.

When he finished, he hung up the phone right away without waiting for a reply and removed the battery.

Zarukhar tried to call him back, but he couldn’t get a dial tone.

“GODDAMMN IT!”

He smashed his phone furiously on the ground.

After a moment, he calmed down again.

He was not buying the lies that dirty sewer rat had told him, but he still had to take this seriously.

“Aide! Get me Hank!”

“Yes, sir!” the trembling aide replied instantly.

He noticed that his superior was easy to agitate these days.

Was the situation that bad?

As Zarukhar’s aide, his information was quite accurate.

He suppressed all this thoughts and questions, and did what he had been ordered to.

After a few minutes, the aide reported back.

“Sir, communications are down. I’ve tried reaching Second Lieutenant Hank and everybody else on the squad, but I can’t get through!”

“Damn it! Send another recon squad down to the ruins to see what happened!”

Zarukhar had still not given up hope.

“Yes, sir!”

The aide saluted and left the room quickly.

Zarukhar was left alone.

He started recalling his conversation with the dirty sewer rat.

“Someone saved that scumbag and promised to kill me?”

Zarukhar squinted as he thought about who it could be.

Who could have noticed that he’d dispatched his men for a mission and could have taken out Hank’s squad without causing much of a commotion... There were not many people that fit that criteria.

There was only one.

General Zennings.

Zennings was the only one who knew that he’d been working with the Vulture.

As a matter of fact, half of that bag of jewelry belonged to him. Zarukhar’s deal with Zennings was that once he had given him enough, he would be able to leave the city with all his belongings.

Zennings controlled a passage out of the city.

It was not really a secret. All the Rebellion high-ranking officers knew about it.

That was why they could afford to negotiate with the Government Forces.

Yes, the Rebellion and the Government were already negotiating.

That was why Zarukhar had rushed the Vulture on this matter.

But now...

He breathed heavily as his heart beat fast. Zarukhar was furious.

He had been played like an idiot.

“ZENNINGS!” he roared as he clenched his teeth. His eyes looked like a hungry wolf’s waiting to rip his prey apart.

He had not just lost a big sum of his wealth, he was also facing a dangerous crisis.

Zarukhar knew Zennings well enough.

If Zennings had planned all this just to get that bag of jewelry, then he would kill anyone who knew about its existence.

If Zarukhar wanted to live, he had to make a move fast.

“You forced me!” Zarukhar mumbled angrily before he shouted, “AIDE! PUT EVERYONE IN CAMP IN STANDBY AND SEND OUT AN ALERT!”

It was not Zarukhar’s style to be a sitting duck.

He swore that whoever had crossed him would pay the ultimate price.

Even if that turned out to be the Rebellion General.

As soon as his recon team came back, he would know the truth.

……

While he hid in the shade of the ruins, Kieran aimed at the military base in the distance. A military recon team had just left the ruins, confirming that his plan had worked.

When Kieran had found out the traitor’s identity, he had come up with a plan to cause dissension.

The fact that General Zennings had planted a mole in Major Zarukhar’s squad and the comments the traitor had made about Zarukhar proved that the two of them were not on the same side, even though they were on the same faction.

At least that’s what it looked like.

Zarukhar thought that he could hide things from Zennings, and Zennings thought he was in control of everything.

With such power-hungry men in the equation, all it would take was a small spark to cause an explosion.

Kieran would gladly be that small spark.

That was why when Kieran had called the Major, he had not spoken clearly enough and had not given Zarukhar a chance to reply. Kieran knew that the more he spoke, the higher his chances of failure would be.

A strong man like Major Zarukhar would not believe the words of a scumbag.

He would only believe what his own eyes saw and what he thought was true.

Even if he got the facts wrong, he would still only believe in himself.

As for General Zennings?

Kieran could pretty much guess what he would do against Major Zarukhar’s uprising. If he was unable to reach the traitor, then an internal conflict would soon befall the Rebellion.

Meanwhile, Kieran would ensure his plan’s success and try to eliminate any chances of failure.

His target was not just set on Major Zarukhar anymore, but on General Zennings as well.

From the moment General Zennings had come into play, Kieran had already decided to kill him off too to raise his game rating.

Only through that could he achieve his real goal, which was to earn enough money to treat his illness.

It would be difficult, but he was not prepared to give up just yet.

He still had many hopes and dreams for his life.

Kieran took a deep breath and cleared his mind of any messy thoughts as he looked at the setting sun. Then he looked down at the sniper rifle that he had just obtained.

[Name: Viper-M1]

[Type: Firearm]

[Rarity: Superb]

[Attack: Great]

[Magazine Rounds: 5]

[Attributes: 1. Armor Penetration Lvl. 1 ; 2. Long Range Shooting Lvl 2]

[Effects: None]

[Prerequisites: Firearm (Light Firearm)(Basic)]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remarks: A 12.7 mm allows immense firepower and range, but requires a certain skill level.]

…..

[Armor Penetration Lvl 1: Able to penetrate light armor]

[Long Range Shooting Lvl 2: Effective shooting range of 1 km]

…..

Vastly different from the makeshift rifle that Kieran had before, the [Viper-M1] was the real deal, not just because of its two extra attributes, but because of its [Great] attack power.

According to the system firearm descriptions, the [U-II] grenade’s attack power was [Strong], and the [M12]’s and [M1905]s’ was only [Common].

The [Viper-M1] surpassed them all with its [Great] attack power.

Even without its two extra attributes, its attack power alone was already scary enough. No one would be able to survive a direct shot from it.

Even Kieran who had an 150 HP now, just like the traitor, would be defenseless against the [Viper-M1].

It was after Kieran had recovered his HP that he’d discovered that his Max HP had been increased by 50, not 20.

That was because, according to the original 100 HP system, it had been increased by percentage based on Kieran’s [Constitution]. Hence, the 150 HP.

The same went for increasing his [Stamina], [Attributes] and equipment enhancement.

He opened his Character Window and checked it carefully.

[Name: Kieran]

[Age: 17 (M)]

[Race: Human]

[Title: None]

[HP: 150]

[Stamina: 150]

…..

[Strength: F+]

[Agility: F]

[Constitution: F+]

[Mentality: F+]

[Intuition: F+]

….

[Skills: Sharp Weapon Dagger (Basic), Evading (Basic), Undercover (Basic), Firearm (Light Firearm (Entry), Combat (Basic), Tracking (Basic)]

[Equipment: Dagger x 1, M1905, Viper-M1, Grenade x 8]

[Inventory: Canned Food x 2, Distilled Water x 2, Painkiller x 1, Gauze Bandage x 2, Lighter x 1, Tobacco, Ammunition]

[Remarks: Still a newbie, but stronger than your regular John Doe.]