The Devil’s Cage

Kieran got off the train and carefully hid in the shadows.

After signaling Lawless who was also hiding, he went over to Reeder Irla Bridge.

Reeder Irla Bridge was one of the many bridges connecting the big city.

It was around 300 meters long and had six pathways for cars to travel.

The image was incomparable to the kind of long bridge that was easily a few hundred, thousand meters Kieran had in mind.

While among all the bridges, Reeder Irla Bridge wasn’t special by any means, even if it was connected to the outskirts of the city.

The outskirts, a general term from the players describing the place outside the big city, but it wasn’t a permanent agreement, because the big city kept changing every day.

The robots carried out their duties as if dedicated to continuing their expansion of the city in all directions, using the city center as the central point.

The expansion wasn’t exactly fast but it wasn’t slow either. At least their expansion operations were more efficient than human operations.

Kieran was standing at the inner city end of the bridge and gazed over to the horizon.

What he saw was an area of grayness, covered by mist.

Even with his sharp sight, he couldn’t see what was hiding under the mist, all he could hear was some noise from machine operations.

According to Lawless, the border was off limits, not only did it have the power to reject a player’s presence, there were cyber law enforcers guarding the area as well. The cyber law enforcers weren’t just there for warnings as robots would not show mercy to stubborn players.

Kieran had no doubt of their capabilities since he had the opportunity to see them work in the past.

There was no need to doubt the preset protocols in the cyber law enforcers system, just like there was no need to guess whether the sun would rise in the morning or not.

It was a cold hard fact.

Hiding his long gaze, Kieran turned to the memorial tablet at the head of the bridge.

Being a memorial tablet, it was nothing more than two meters tall and three meters wide. The largest was the base and it only had a couple of words written on certain parts.

Each of the words written were as big as a human palm, allowing one to easily see the words without looking up or focusing.

The words written on the tablet were…

In the war…

No!

Warriors and heroes…

The words were incomplete, a portion of the words were erased on purpose. Kieran could even see the sharp cutting marks left on the tablet.

”Carving away the words bit by bit using a dagger?”

Kieran speculated based on the marks. Curiosity then bloomed in his heart.

The robot workers would repair the damage done to the city structures from time to time, unless…

”Is this place abandoned?” Kieran sized up his surroundings again.

The place could really be considered secluded but it wasn’t really waste land. There were traces of crossing on the bridge and below the bridge was a river flowing strong, plus there was construction going on at a further spot; no signs of an actual wasteland.

At least it was over a hundred times better than Old Strea Street.

No doubt, the robot workers didn’t abandon the place, which means…

Kieran placed his attention on top of the bridge.

Allen was there ahead of Kieran. No doubt it was Allen’s handy work, erasing some of the traces on the tablet and delaying the robot workers from repairing the place.

Kieran wasn’t fond of people waiting for him, even though there was still time before the meeting.

Kieran stepped into the area between shadow and light as he approached Allen swiftly.

The boss of the Blood Alliance, the Sharpshooter, was leaning on the bridge’s handrail, silently waiting for Kieran to walk over.

His emotions were hidden by the system blur but Kieran could tell by his presence, he wasn’t really in a friendly mood.

The moment Allen spoke, it verified Kieran’s guess.

”So, you’ve prepared to go to war with Broker? You couldn’t hold out any longer and wanted me to be a standout?”

Allen pressed his hat down and grunted coldly.

Kieran who remained in the shadows didn’t deny nor would he quibble because it was the truth.

Kieran decided to respect the truth, just like he knew Allen would choose to work with him.

The hatred running in Allen’s blood was enough to make him follow his emotions, everything unfolded like Kieran expected.

”I don’t mind at all. As long as I can kill that bastard, I’m willing to sacrifice anything. But you need to show your sincerity as well. Who knows, maybe you’ve reached an agreement with that bastard and now you’re trying to get me! I’ve gotten hit before once and I will not get tricked twice!” Allen grunted loudly.

He was completely devoured by his hatred but he didn’t lose his sanity. It was what Kieran commented in his heart while he was looking at Allen.

”What kind of sincerity?” Kieran asked, at the same time sizing up the surroundings again.

”Be patient, Broker’s men haven’t arrived yet,” Allen said.

’As expected!’ Kieran thought in his heart.

The moment Allen suggested the meeting time and location, Kieran knew he was up to something.

The time and the location were a dead giveaway, plus the secluded environment and traces around, Kieran was quite confident that Broker’s men were around, or someone who had relations with Broker would pass by this place.

Allen planned to ambush them after getting the news but he knew his own strength wasn’t enough to complete his goal. Coincidentally, Kieran contacted him.

With a round of co-op play, both of them could gain each other’s trusts and at the same time deliver a surprise strike to Broker. It was a win-win situation, yet Kieran still had lingering doubts.

How did Allen get a hold of such information?

Even though Kieran didn’t have an in-depth understanding of Broker’s organization, judging from how Broker operated, such an organization would surely be confidential.

A confidential organization and in conjunction with the contracts that he had been sending out, it was not an easy feat trying to probe information out of such organization.

Kieran believed Allen wasn’t capable of that, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been suppressed by Broker for so long.

So, there left only one explanation, which was using himself as bait to lure out more of Broker’s affiliates and erase them by Kieran’s hand.

Kieran wasn’t angry about it since both of them chose to work together, they must sacrifice something. Still, Kieran had to be cautious about one thing.

”Would Broker notice clues leading back to them?”

Kieran wouldn’t underestimate such a foe even though he was fully prepared.

Seconds turned into minutes, around twenty minutes later, beyond the outskirts area, a motorcade consist of four heavy-duty trucks and a military armored vehicle appeared.

On top of the heavy-duty trucks were thick rain cloth, blocking away all unwanted watching eyes.

There was a heavy machine gun loaded on the armored vehicle, controlled by a player behind.

The armored vehicle had noticed Allen who was standing in the middle of the bridge the moment they arrived.

The triggered was then pulled without hesitation.

Dak Dak Dak Dak Dak!

The powerful barrage of bullets instantly rained down at Allen, but a quick side roll allowed him to completely dodge the attack.

A quick draw later, the revolver appeared in his hand.

Bang!

A shot was fired and a soul was reaped.

The player that was controlling the heavy machine gun was shot and his head exploded just like that.

No doubt Allen’s bullets were all custom made because after piercing the player’s head, it continued forward, flying towards the heavy-duty truck behind.

Then out of a sudden, Allen’s bullet froze in mid-air.

Squadrons of men came out from the rain cloth on the truck and quickly surrounded Allen.

It was a trap! A trap that was specifically targeted at Allen!

Yet when Allen realized he was surrounded, he laughed.

He laughed happily like never before!