The Devil’s Cage

[Shooting: Lethal Attack, Inflicts 100 Damage to Target HP, (50 Firearm (Light Firearm) (Basic) X2), Target dies...]

[Shooting: Lethal Attack, Inflicts 100 Damage to Target HP, (50 Firearm (Light Firearm) (Basic) X2), Target dies...]

[Rebellion General Zennings Eliminated, Main Mission progress altered, Game Rating increased to GREAT, Main Mission shortened by 3 days]

[Rebellion Major Zarukhar Eliminated, Main Mission progress altered, Game Rating increased to HIGH, Main Mission shortened by 1 day]

…..

Four notifications popped up simultaneously in Kieran’s line of vision .

The last two shocked him.

He quickly opened up the Mission Window, and saw that the Main mission [Survive for 7 days: 2/7] had changed to [Survive for 3 days: 2 /3].

Kieran had not expected this.

It was messing up his original plan. After taking out Zennings and Zarukhar, he had planned to slip unnoticed while the rebels were fighting each other and find those soldiers with a higher skill level than him and kill them to raise his own skill level.

He believed there would be a lot of soldiers with a higher skill level among them.

But now it had all gone south.

“No, there is still time until the end of the day!”

He quickly picked up his [Viper-M1] and started to look for targets.

That’s when he heard a sound directly below him.

Someone was there.

He had noticed in an instant.

Before, when he had taken out the sniper occupying that spot, he’d paid extra attention to his surroundings.

He had wanted to avoid sharing the same fate with the sniper he had killed.

Immediately, he adjusted the [Viper-M1] and aimed at the direction of the sound.

Directly beneath him stood a black figure. He did not even need to aim before he fired.

Bang!

His entry level [Firearm (Light Firearm)] skill once again proved its usefulness and high accuracy.

He and his target were only ten meters apart. Under the circumstances, he had the upper hand and had sealed the man’s fate.

[Shooting: Lethal Attack, Inflicts 150 Damage to Target HP, (75 Firearm (Light Firearm) (Basic) X2), Target dies….]

……

[Successfully eliminated enemy with Undercover (Entry) skill...]

[Skill: Undercover (Basic) -> (Entry) level]

[Name: Undercover (Entry)]

[Related Attributes: Agility]

[Skill Type: Ancillary]

[Effects: Better use of shadows and hiding, harder for others to discover, increases hiding by 20%]

[Consumes: Stamina]

[Prerequisites: Agility F]

[Remarks: The fact that you’re good at hiding does not mean you’re invisible!]

….

[Skill: Undercover Skill Up, Related Attributes Leveling Up…]

[Agility: F -> F+]

….

The familiar warm feeling flowed into his body again, knowledge being transferred to his brain while he adjusted to it.

“Damn, am I lucky!” Kieran thought to himself.

While he adjusted to the changes the new [Undercover] entry level had brought plus the knowledge entering in his mind, he realized that despite the extra attention to his surroundings, if another soldier appeared, he would still be on the passive side.

His passiveness would eventually lead to his death.

After getting familiar with the new [Undercover] level, he knew how scary it would be if he lost the upper hand.

Looking at the fallen headless body, he felt even more scared.

The man Kieran had just shot was definitely one of Zarukhar’s men.

Were it not for the sudden death of Zarukhar, the man would not have screamed out in surprise and gotten discovered by Kieran.

But before Kieran could catch his breath, voices sounded again beneath him.

“Sniper on top!”

The headless body had attracted unwanted attention, which was followed by a series of footsteps.

Kieran’s heart skipped a beat as the footsteps approached fast.

He quickly strapped both his own and the dead sniper’s [Viper-M1]s on his back, took out a [U-II] grenade and threw it down.

BOOM!

When the grenade exploded, Kieran rushed down with his [M1905] without hesitation.

He dared not stay in that spot any longer.

Even though it was a vantage point that oversaw the whole Times Square, there was nowhere for him to retreat if anything happened.

If he got cornered, there would be no escape for him.

Boom!

As Kieran left the vantage point, a rocket hit the very spot he had just occupied.

The heatwave from the explosion pushed Kieran down, making him roll on the ground.

After a few rolls, he quickly jumped up and started running again.

He could see dozens of soldiers coming after him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Assault rifle bullets formed a cloud as they rained down on Kieran. He rolled away quickly, getting injured by the bullets getting in his path.

Boom!

He rolled towards the group and threw out another grenade.

The explosion killed dozens of soldiers, but it attracted even more attention from the other soldiers around the area. A nearby tank adjusted its cannon and aimed at Kieran.

He did not have time to think about his plan anymore. His priority now was to stay the hell out of the tank’s shooting range.

He dashed towards the obstacle-filled ruins.

Boom!

The tank fired its cannon.

Although he avoided the fire, the immense explosion sent Kieran flying to the ground once more.

“Damn it!” Kieran kept cursing silently

He had to ditch the extra [Viper-M1] and his backpack.

He knew that, under the circumstances, they would only be a burden to him. He would never be able to outrun the fire if he kept them.

Yet Kieran could not just leave them behind for the soldiers to find.

He pulled off another pin from a grenade and threw it onto his abandoned backpack.

Carrying only one [Viper-M1], Kieran’s speed increased tremendously, showcasing the full potential of F+ rank speed.

Kieran felt like the combination of a gymnast and a runner.

His reflexes were better and his speed had gotten faster.

Boom!

When he slipped into the shadows once more and entered the [Undercover] mode, the grenade he had set off exploded, igniting the other grenades in his backpack as well. The massive explosion caused severe damage to the soldiers.

Finally he had gotten rid of them.

It was the first time Kieran had experienced the terrifying human sea tactic.

If it had been a one on one battle, he believed that he could have taken the soldiers out one by one, or even two or three at a time.

But when those numbers were multiplied tenfold, he could not think of any other tactic except running away and hoping he would be fast enough.

After nearly escaping death by rockets and tank shots, he felt like he had come back from the edge of hell.

However, his heart sank every time he remembered that he’d had to ditch his gear.

Still, he would have done it again if he had to.

Equipment was expendable, but his life was not.

He moved quickly into the shadows with no intention of returning to the battlefield.

Although the soldiers chasing him had been badly injured, he would have attracted even more attention and there would have been more soldiers looking for him. Going back there would have been suicide.

He had one more place to visit though, and that was Zarukhar’s base.

Since his original plan had been aborted due to unforeseen circumstances, he’d had to form a new one to make up for it.

He had to get new equipment and supplies, and Zarukhar’s nearly empty base had immediately come to mind.

He had liked the place since he had laid eyes on it.

Other than three squads of men, the base was basically deserted.

If he was extremely careful and used his recently upgraded [Undercover] skill, he could definitely infiltrate the base without anyone finding out.

The weapons and equipment inside the base would not even compare to the ones that he had just abandoned.

Just the thought of it was enough to get him excited.

Without a pause, he kept on running towards his destination.

……

A bright searchlight shedded light on the path and the blockage in front of the base.

The stuffed gunny sack with the two heavy machine guns scared away any unwanted visitors.

Kieran, however, had been attracted to the outpost of the base camp.

It was ten meters tall and there was a soldier on top of it holding a light machine gun. If he noticed anything suspicious or unusual, he would rain down bullets on the unexpected visitors.

On the outpost were also two heavy machine guns ready to obliterate anything trying to climb its walls.

The only way in was to attack with a rocket launcher or drive a tank past the wall.

Well, Kieran did not have a rocket launcher, nor did he know how to drive a tank, but his [Undercover] entry skill allowed him to enter the base more easily.

He took a detour around the ruins and reached the other side of the base. Using the shadows as a cover, he climbed up an abandoned house’s beam and carefully looked inside the base.

The tents were lined up neatly.

Five teams of three were cross-patrolling the base. Anyone entering would be spotted immediately.

“This must have been a school before the war!” Kieran guessed as his eyes turned from the men patrolling the field and to the building behind the wall.

That’s when he spotted the empty field between him and the wall.

It was an unusual empty field.

“It has to be a landmine!” he speculated.