The Devil’s Cage

Rachel pinched the little bird’s claw, allowing it to flap its wings furiously.

The coldness on her face and the sense of danger in her eyes made Hanses twist his neck unusually. Lawless turned away right away.

It was the first time Kieran was witnessing the unusual strength of the female owner of the Harvest Inn.

Some people had no need of a powerful aura. All it took was just a gaze alone to make others afraid.

”Scary!” Kieran commented quietly.

His gaze was locked on the woman. He knew Rachel must have discovered something.

The rest of them had not noticed anything though. No matter how they looked at it, it was just a bird. It didn’t have anything unusual about it.

”I’ll give you another chance. Come forward and tell me the truth!” Rachel said coldly.

The little bird was struggling for its life even harder.

”Seems like you won’t take the chance then… Come, let’s go back to the inn.”

Rachel pinched the little bird and headed back to the Harvest Inn.

...

After 10 minutes at the inn, a dish named called Roast Bird was served on a plate before Kieran.

”My treat,” Rachel said.

”Thanks, um…”

Kieran was at a loss for words. He was curious about how Rachel had noticed that there was something unusual about the bird.

He was still confused about what happened back there. He did not have a close relationship with Rachel though, so it was hard for him to ask.

He had been hoping for Lawless and Hanses to do it, but when the two of them had reached the inn, they had received some urgent news and left abruptly.

Kieran knew it had not been about the Killer Organization. Otherwise, they would have brought him along.

Before Kieran could ask, Rachel noticed his confusion.

”It was the smell! Normal birds don’t smell like Pork Hyacinth Bean Stew and brandy. The pork was overcooked and the beans were too soft. Even the brandy was low quality! Lousy cooking and brewing!”

”The smell?” Kieran was stunned by the revelation.

He’d never have thought it would be the smell. It was too hard for him to believe.

Kieran was always confident about his intuition, but he hadn’t picked up any unusual scents at that spot.

”I have a cook’s nose. Yours is a normal one,” Rachel said softly, as if seeing through Kieran.

Then she pushed the plate forward slightly and said, ”Wasting food is a sin. Finish it!”

”Okay.” Kieran nodded.

[Name: Roast Bird]

[Type: Food]

[Rarity: Fresh]

[Attributes: Restores 45 HP in 15 Seconds]

[Prerequisites: None]

[Remarks: This is a dish made by Rachel. The portion is small due to the lack of ingredients, but it’s still delicious!]

...

As the description stated, the portion was small, but it was very tasty.

Kieran finished it in a couple of bites and licked his fingers to savor the leftover taste.

Rachel did not bring him another dish, nor did she open her mouth to talk. Kieran was smart enough to leave.

He had a lot of questions he wanted to ask though. Had that bird been the pet of some player?

Why had Lawless and Hanses looked so strangely at Rachel when she’d caught the bird?

There had to be a story behind it, but it was related to someone else’s privacy, so Kieran could not let the words escape his mouth, even though he was curious.

He could not dig up other people’s secrets without restraint.

He still had manners and a basic respect for everyone, even though it was limited to the people he knew and considered friends or acquaintances.

When it came to his enemies, Kieran wanted to know everything, even what kind of underwear they were wearing.

To know one’s own strength and their enemy’s was the surest way to victory.

Kieran’s journey back to 13th Wallway Street was safe and smooth.

When he entered his room, he was finally able to relax and let his guard down. Then he logged off the game.

After tidying up and resting, he went back in the game five hours later.

His message tab pinged when he returned.

...

Lawless: I found out where the [Z-II] came from!

Lawless: I’ll go meet the guy, wait for news!

(This was the first message Lawless had sent Kieran. It was followed by a second one.)

Lawless: That guy seems to know even more than I expected, but the bastard ain’t talking.

Lawless: Sh*t!

Lawless: He’s staying in his room, I can’t do sh*t to him!

Lawless: If I catch him outside, I’ll teach him some manners!

(The second batch of messages were angry. They were not the last ones though.)

Lawless: We found the guy who’d been spying on us!

Lawless: That son of a bitch logged out immediately though. I don’t think we can get anything from him for the time being.

Lawless: Sh*t!

....

The third message was angry as well. Kieran was speechless.

Facing the Killer Organization was hard not just because of their mysterious ways of conducting business and their ridiculously strong arsenal, but also because of the game’s elements.

No matter how real the underground game was, it was still a game after all.

Some of the game rules made the Killer Organization even harder to deal with.

Playing a single player game in one’s own room was the safest method. Even if one was caught, no one could do anything if they hadn’t entered battle mode or logged out immediately.

The former was ridiculously hard to deal with, and although the latter could be sorted out by waiting for them to come back online, there were still difficulties though.

Adventurous players were up to the task, but they were short on time.

Casual players could not do either, as they were not strong enough.

It was not easy to find a middle ground between those two. In other words, it cost a lot of time and energy.

”A protracted battle then,” Kieran told Lawless with a sigh.

...

2567: I’m going to the room of the players who attacked me. I might find more there.

2567: You coming?

Lawless: Sure!

...

Lawless accepted Kieran’s invitation right away. After they set up a time and place to meet, Kieran left his room.

He arrived at the prearranged location on time and saw Lawless. He walked up to him with a smile.

No one ever disliked punctuality.

”Let’s hope we can find something. These guys are hiding deeper than I thought! Most of my friends had not even noticed them around, and even those who had were not sure before I asked them. I won’t let them roam free though. I will show no mercy when I find them!”

Lawless sounded unusually persistent, which made Kieran come up with a few theories. He did not press the matter any further though.

If Lawless wanted to reveal his intentions, he would. If he didn’t, pressing him would only put up a barrier between them. He might as well not ask at all.

”So what’s with Rachel and that bird? Was it a pet or something?” Kieran asked a different question.

”I guess you could say that. Some players have the skills to raise animals to fight for them, but most of them are exhausting to train and bear few results. That spy had put a lot of effort in training that bird, but in the end it ended up on Rachel’s plate, didn’t it? Even if one could get a strong beast on their side, the increasing difficulty of the dungeons would eventually diminish the beast’s use. Unless one could find a really unique animal. Using a camel to move goods would be quite nice. If you have the means, you could consider getting an elephant or a camel!” Lawless replied with a hint of humor.

”I cannot even feed myself properly,” Kieran shrugged the joke off.

While they were chatting, they arrived at Shielder and Correy’s neighborhood.

The two of them were living on the same street.

Obviously, it was a place they had handpicked.

Kieran chose to enter Correy’s place first. Judging by their battle and Correy’s performance, the man had to have some good things in his house.

However, harsh reality slapped Kieran in the face again. Other than a piece of Magical Equipment, everything else Correy had owned was pretty common.

[Name: Mystical Grappling Hook]

[Type: ETC]

[Rarity: Magical]

[Attributes: Extension Lvl2]

[Prerequisites: Sharp Weapon, Rope Weapon (Master)]

[Remarks: This is a remodeled magical weapon. You need to have specific skills to fully utilize it.]

...

[Extension Lvl 2: Able to extend by twice its length, (5 meter extends to 15 meters)]

…...

The newfound grappling hook had overlying attributes with the [Deceiver’s Key], plus a bigger size and special skill requirement, so Kieran put it in his ”to sell” list of items.

At Shielder’s place though, he made an unexpected discovery.

There was a huge amount of landmines and flashbangs.

The landmines were the same model, [Z-II], but the flashbangs were something new entirely.

[Name: Q-I]

[Type: Grenade]

[Rarity: Great[

[Attack: None]

[Attributes: Blindness (exudes a blinding flash to reduce the enemy’s vision to zero)]

[Effects:None]

[Able to bring out of the dungeon: Yes]

[Remarks: This is a great flashbang. If you know how to throw it, you will get a lot out of it!]

...

”That’s some good stuff you got there! I wouldn’t sell it if I were you. It could really get you out of a pinch inside a dungeon!” Lawless commented on the flashbang, giving Kieran some advice.

Kieran was always open to constructive feedback.

”Other than this, we got nothing though.”

”I’m ready. Let’s…”

Before Lawless could finish his sentence, he stopped and looked at his message tab.

His expression changed when he read the message.

”It’s from Hellfire! They want to meet you!” Lawless said, raising his head.

The words that came out of his mouth made Kieran frown.

Translator’s Thoughts

Dess Dess

Hellfire... Reminds me of Ifrit’s Ultimate.