The Devil’s Cage

After Larry finished, he sat on the ground with a blank expression on his face.

Kieran frowned at Larry’s revelation. The simple memories he had did not include the name Compton, but the man’s title was enough to know who he was.

”We’ve already got Sphendix on our tail. What’s so different about this Mr. Big?” Kieran asked without the slightest care. He needed to know more about Mr. Big.

”There’s a huge difference! If Sphendix rules the city by day, then Mr. Big rules the city by night! We might have still had a slight chance with only Sphendix on our tail, but if Mr. Big is after us too, then we’re really dead!” Larry said.

He looked as if he was about to cry.

”Who said that we don’t have a chance?”

Kieran shook his head as he saw Larry’s state. Larry was consumed by his own fear and had fallen into despair. As a result, he could not see the details.

”You are the Shadow Stinger! Of course you’ll find a way to escape! Even if you cannot get away, Sphendix and Mr. Big would welcome you into their ranks! I’m different, though! I’m just an informant! I’m a mere piece of trash in the eyes of those behemoths!”

Larry could not hold back anymore as tears started falling from his eyes.

”That’s it, roll back your tears! You can cry when you die! Haven’t you noticed the opportunity before us yet?” Kieran scolded Larry.

He was not prepared to deal with a crying person, especially a man.

”Opportunity? Don’t tell me that you want to assassinate the higher ranks of Sphendix? Don’t even think about it! Sphendix’s security level is on par with the military! Even the Shadow Stinger wouldn’t be able to do that!”

Despite Kieran’s hint, Larry’s fear had gotten the best of him, and he still could not see the hidden opportunity before them.

”I’m saying that there’s an opportunity for us with Sphendix and Mr. Big! Don’t forget what you just learned from Creedo. The one who ordered him to deal with Leonard was Mr. Big! Mr. Big is after you, because you accidentally saved Leonard! This means that Mr. Big was either concerned about Leonard or about the box in Leonard’s hands! Similarly, Sphendix is hunting you down because of Leonard’s secret box! Try to see things from a different perspective. What kind of relationship is there between Sphendix and Mr. Big? Both them were after the box in Leonard’s possession. If we take Leonard out of the equation though, what was their relationship in the first place? Don’t tell me they were both saints willing to allow the other party to have full control of the city!” Kieran explained the reasons behind their supposed opportunity.

As for him assassinating the higher ranks of Sphendix?

In a big corporation like Sphendix, there was only one person in charge, and that was Sphendix himself.

If Mr. Sphendix could hire Kailuark the Executioner as his security consultant, that meant that there had to be a thousand more security measures around him and his company.

Kieran had experienced the human sea tactic first-hand before, but despite his current strength, he did not have the confidence to take on an entire security force. According to Larry, Sphendix’s security was on par with the military.

Knowing that his opponent had such firepower and manpower, Kieran quickly dismissed any thoughts of assassination.

As he clearly explained what their opportunity was, Larry got back on his feet.

”There’s a beef between Sphendix and Mr. Big! I’ve always heard about the two of them fighting! If they won’t work together, then we might still have a chance!”

Larry started to get himself together as he realized that he was not doomed after all.

”Still, it’s a fact that we have a bounty on our heads because of Sphendix! Even though Mr. Big will not work with Sphendix, he could still get rid of us to boost his own notoriety. As long as it would hurt Sphendix’s reputation, he would gladly do so! It’s a huge disadvantage for us. We need to use their competition to cause a war between Sphendix and Mr. Big...”

As Larry began to stand up, he came up with an idea to get them out of that sticky situation. As soon as he expressed it though, Kieran rejected it.

”No, tricks and squabbles won’t work! Since Sphendix and Mr. Big are constantly competing against each other, they surely recognize their opponents. We need something bigger to create chaos and a misunderstanding large enough to invoke a full-scale war between them! We need something more harsh and intense, like an assassination!”

When he mentioned the word assassination, Larry’s eyes lit up.

”Let’s kill some people from each side and place the blame on the other side! We’ll start a war! We won’t need much provocation either, as soon as one side is hurt, the other side will take the opportunity and intervene! Killing Mr. Sphendix or Mr. Big themselves will be impossible, but killing their best men would be a piece a cake for you, right?”

Larry looked at Kieran in anticipation. He looked quite clear about his plan, but Kieran still shook his head in disagreement.

”Both sides are behemoths, and they put their profit first, not their personal squabbles! Unless we killed someone on the driver’s seat of these behemoths, our breeze would not even produce a wave! Targeting their best men might infuriate both parties and lead them back to us, putting us in a danger that we wouldn’t have been in otherwise!” Kieran came up with a reasonable excuse to brush Larry off.

Truth be told, if Kieran had had enough time, he would have been willing to take the risk of Larry’s suggestion.

Killing off some lower-rank leaders would not have much of an effect on either behemoth. Some of them might even have been happy, because there would have been room for promotions.

However, if the lower-rank leaders of the groups were dying in big batches, that might have been enough to cause fear among the rest of the men.

A position that everyone would have been after otherwise would instantly become a position that everyone tried to avoid.

At the same time, the other side, which would still be intact, would intervene, and if everything went smoothly, both behemoths would be hurt badly.

Anyone who fanned the flames to take advantage of the situation would speed up the process and cause both organizations to disappear within matter of days.

Humanity was not something to be underestimated. There might be no one willing to help during a blizzard, but there were plenty of people who would throw a stone if someone fell into a well.

That plan might work given enough time.

A huge organization like Sphendix and Mr. Big might only have one leader on top, but the men beneath that leader were too many to count. Investigation and preparation would take a lot of time, even with Larry’s help as an informant. Given only two weeks, Kieran might barely be able to make it. Plus, he was not completely free during that period. He still needed to complete his Main Mission.

Maybe the assassination would unlock some kind of Sub Mission, but was it wise to give up on the Main Mission because of some potential Sub Mission? Kieran was not willing to take that bet.

His personal stats had been getting higher, but if he failed the Main Mission, his highest stats would drop by one rank.

That was what Kieran was most concerned about, because it meant losing a huge sum of Points and Skill Points.

When Kieran had still been in his first dungeon, upgrading his [Tracking] skill from Entry to Master had only cost 3,000 Points and 2 skill points.

Considering his current progress in the game though, upgrading [Tracking] from Pro to Grand Master would cost him a hefty sum of 12,000 Points and 8 Skill Points, and any upgrades to increase his Intuition level would not cost him Skill Points anymore, but Golden Skill Points.

Taking everything into account, this could cost him almost the entire reward of clearing a dungeon.

Such a loss was not something Kieran wanted, or was willing to suffer.

Plus, he had a more energy-friendly plan.

”Those goddamn capitalists! So does that mean that we’ll have to kill Mr. Sphendix or Mr. Big themselves? How is that even possible? Considering the number of their guards, if they all spit, they’d produce enough saliva to drown us to death!” Larry scolded, unwilling to back down.

Kieran’s excuse had easily persuaded Larry, who was not a risk taker by nature.

”Even if I could kill Mr. Sphendix or Mr. Big, I’d need to kill them at the same time! Otherwise, the other side would have enough time to conquer the city. No matter who the victor of the war would be, he would not spare the people who defied him!” Kieran kept pointing out the flaws in Larry’s plan.

Larry was stunned as he understood what Kieran meant.

”So what should we do?” Larry looked at him with a helpless expression.

”Sphendix has placed a bounty on us, and I just killed their security consultant, so it’s kind of hard for us to fix things with them. Unless Mr. Big is different... Please don’t tell me Creedo was one of his men!” Kieran said jokingly.

”Creedo? Of course not! That fellow does not respect the rules, so no one really likes him! If Mr. Big didn’t still have a use for him from time to time, he would have skinned him a long time ago! But we’ll need to pay a lot if we want Mr. Big to protect us! Since you’re the Shadow Stinger, your strength is the best leverage! Me, though… I think I’ll probably go broke!”

At the thought of paying the price for Mr. Big’s protection, Larry’s eyes filled with tears again.

”Damn it! If we still had Leonard’s box, we wouldn’t even need any leverage! Mr. Big would come to us instead!” Larry felt regret about his decision again. If he could go back in time one day, he would have spent all his fortune to hire real bodyguards for Leonard.

”Only you, me and Sphendix know that Leonard’s box is not in our hands, Mr. Big doesn’t! Plus, by the sound of things, Mr. Bigs would not believe anything Sphendix said anyway!”

Kieran looked at Larry with a smile as he explained the plan he had come up with earlier.

”You’re saying…”

Larry widened his eyes as he looked at Kieran, completely startled by the meaning behind his words.

”That’s right! From now on, we’re Mr. Big’s collaborators! We don’t need to seek his protection, because we have exactly what Mr. Big wants!” Kieran said with confidence.