The Devil’s Cage

When the knocks entered Kieran’s ear, he answered without looking.

“Come in.”

Kieran then picked up another newspaper for reading.

Because of his current identity, reading newspapers and magazines was one of the limited ways that he could get information about this dungeon world.

Although there were mobile phones in this world, they were rather old, other than making and receiving phone calls and sending messages, they could only use it to play Snakes.

There were computers in this world too but they were also very old and expensive.

After using his money for necessities and preparation for tonight’s encounter, the money he had left was not enough for him to buy a computer and even if he had enough, he didn’t plan to get one.

According to his calculation, he would soon acquire a lot of information about the mystical side of this world.

Tssst Gak!

The entrance door was pushed open but there was no one outside.

The streetlamp outside started to flicker again.

Tssst Tsss Tsss!!

The electrical buzz and flickering lights in the silent night made the restaurant front look scary, but Kieran turned a blind eye.

He continued to flip the newspaper for interesting news.

The streetlamp in front of the restaurant flickered, and the owner inside the restaurant concentrated on his newspaper.

Both sides refused to give in as they fought, what followed was a slight awkwardness in the air.

Then, the flickers outside the restaurant became quicker, as if it was telling Kieran ‘I’ve arrived!’.

Kieran still didn’t care, the hurried flickers carrying on for two to three more seconds.

Pak!

The lightbulb finally burst after the furious flickers. Sparks flew everywhere and a dark figure appeared in a flash.

Without the streetlamp in front of the restaurant, the restaurant front truly fell into darkness. The lights inside the restaurant could only reach less than a meter away from the entrance, beyond that was total darkness.

Dak, Dak Dak.

Loud footsteps sounded in the darkness beyond the entrance, but no one appeared.

Gatsssst!

Three to four seconds later, the ceiling above Kieran started to make noises, as if someone heavy was walking on the second floor. Loud thumps and irritating squeaks sounded relentlessly, sounding like the footsteps were about to stomp through the ceiling.

Kieran, however, took a mouthful of his chicken soup and went back to reading.

The noise stopped.

A sudden breeze then entered the main hall.

The wind was very subtle yet gloomy and cold, anyone would easily shudder under the wind.

Kieran frowned slightly.

The wind also sensed the furrowed brows from Kieran, turning colder and focusing on Kieran.

Kieran frowned harder, and reached his hand to a switch.

Tak!

The switch was pressed and the bright spotlight installed in the bar counter was switched on—John Dickson had installed it in the bar counter before this, Kieran checked it beforehand and decided to keep it for the sake of Starbeck.

Although Kieran was seriously weakened, he was still at a human’s peak performance. As long as the weather change wasn’t too extreme, it was useless to him but Starbeck was different, he was as weak as a common man and once the weather turned cold, he had to be wary about keeping warm.

The orange red warm spotlight shone around Kieran.

The gloomy cold wind instantly melted away and not only did the room warm up, the wind also stopped.

A translucent figure was revealed under the spotlight, crawling on the floor and weeping loudly.

“I’m so useless! People bullied me when I was alive and now after I’m dead, I still get bullied! I wouldn’t have died if I knew this was going to happen!”

The sorrowful weeping sounded beside Kieran’s feet, the translucent figure starting to fade under the warm spotlight and could vanish any moment.

However, Kieran had no intentions of switching off the spotlight. He didn’t even care about the figure and continued reading his newspaper.

“You heartless bastard!”

The spirit cried for a full minute before it looked up at Kieran, who was still reading. It couldn’t hold back anymore and shouted at Kieran, before it cried even louder.

Crank!

Suddenly, a ceramic plate fell down in the kitchen and the noise startled Starbeck. Kieran raised a brow.

“Shut up.”

Kieran scolded the spirit coldly and the spirit immediately shut up.

It didn’t just shut up, it even shuddered. It seemed like it was frightened by Kieran.

Three to four seconds later, only it realized what happened.

“I’m already dead! Why should I be afraid of the living? The living should be afraid of me! A spirit!”

The figure muttered to itself and it seemed like its mutters granted itself courage, it wanted to stand up but the moment it looked up, it saw Kieran’s gloomy and cold face.

Its knees turned to jelly and fell back on the floor. The spirit cried again.

Unlike the previous loud cries, it was afraid that its noise would attract discomfort from Kieran, so it sobbed in a muffled voice.

Kieran frowned again.

He had seen a lot of spirits, ferocious ones, ruthless ones, evil ones, etc. But it was his first time seeing this kind of cowardly spirit.

If Starbeck wasn’t beside him, he would have assumed the spirit was a dead Starbeck.

In fact, not only did Kieran think as such, even Starbeck himself shared the same thought.

Starbeck, who was behind Kieran, stuck his head over Kieran’s shoulder and looked at the sobbing spirit under the warm spotlight with a curious gaze.

As if it sensed Starbeck’s gaze, the spirit looked up at Starbeck carefully.

“Ugly!”

The word escaped Starbeck’s mouth when he saw the spirit’s face.

The sobbing spirit was stunned, further curling up on the floor, as if its soul fire was dying.

“I’m sorry, I know I’m ugly, I don’t have friends, don’t have a life, I lived as a ugly person and died as an ugly ghost, sob sob…”

The spirit started to mutter to itself.

“S-Sorry, I don’t mean it, I…I just…Looks aren’t everything, I’m sure you are good at something else!” Starbeck apologized and tried to shift the topic.

The shifting of topic was out of courtesy but the sobbing spirit took it seriously.

“Good?!”

The spirit looked up and almost stuck its face to Starbeck. It wanted to ask Starbeck what good did he see in itself, but the moment it got close, it caught Kieran’s eyes again.

Pam!

The spirit fell back on its knees, but its eyes were still looking at Starbeck, in hopes of getting an answer.

Starbeck obviously had never been in such a situation. He thought for quite a while for the answer but couldn’t find any, instinctively turning to Kieran.

“You may be ugly, stupid, and a coward but… you know your limits, that’s what you are good for.”

Kieran said under Starbeck’s watch.

“I’m ugly, stupid and a coward, but I know my limits? That’s what I’m good for?”

The spirit crawling on a floor showed a complex expression, not knowing whether it should cry or laugh. Its body then started to disintegrate into white particles, like fireflies flying out of its body.

The spirit looked like it was at peace as it was showered by the white particles, even its ugly face looked kinder.

“Thank you. I once was a greedy person, I wanted everything but got none in the end. I didn’t fight for things and never worked hard before. I was ugly and fat and thought others didn’t appreciate me. I ran from reality and lived in the corner of the city, daydreaming like a coward. Even after I died, I became the least mainstream ghost. I didn’t dare to communicate with other ghosts and was scared of crowded places. I didn’t even dare to fight back against a stray cat or dog, but… I really want to go to that peaceful land. I sensed something here that could lead me to the place, so I came here in hopes of being lucky but I was still unwilling to submit to myself… Thank you for not scolding me, criticizing me, thank you for completing my final wish: telling me what I am good for. am no longer a lazy, ugly, coward, at least I’m good for something! Thank you.”

The spirit bowed and Starbeck replied with the same awkwardly.

Although Starbeck really thought the good that the spirit mentioned was less than insignificant, his words didn’t come out from his mouth when he watched the light spots floated away.

As he watched the light spots floated away, thoughts came into his mind and he quietly looked at Kieran.

“You are different from that ghost, you at least look better and know how to cook. More importantly, you also know your own shortcomings and learned how to overcome them. That sole point alone makes you better than the ghost,” Kieran said before Starbeck asked.

Starbeck puckered his lips and showed a smile.

‘It’s because you are with me that I have the courage to overcome my weakness, otherwise I am really the same as the ghost.’

“It’s great to run into you.”

Starbeck said in his heart and then hopped back into the kitchen—today’s dishes were done but not the breakfast for Kieran.

Starbeck hoped to feed Kieran differently everyday, something well-balanced and nutritious, including breakfast and other meals.

He had to spend quite the effort in preparing it though.

As for Kieran?

He recalled the information the coward ghost revealed and looked down at his current equipment.

An electric baton, a blowtorch, some fuel, and some molotov cocktail.

Other than the electric baton, which he found, the rest were bought and the blowtorch and fuel cost the most for it was bought in the supermarket around the street block.

The molotov cocktail was cheaper but it required a certain level of skill to make it work.

Kieran wiped the bottles clean and placed them on the corner of the bar counter.

He would keep the molotov cocktails as a last resort and would never use them unless absolutely necessary. Once used, the situation would escalate from bad to worst.

He would not just lose the restaurant and a shelter, his newly acquired identity would also be ineffective and may put him on the wanted list.

More importantly, he wasn’t sure that he was capable enough to protect Starbeck under such dire circumstances.

Huu!

Kieran heaved a heavy breath. He must prevent the worst from happening. Fortunately, he had the chance to.

After the coward ghost left, the Origin Forces in his body grew again. Kieran squinted his eyes.

Although compared to the first time, this enhancement was much smaller, he knew the saying of ‘many a little makes a mickle’. Hence he did not close the door and waited patiently.

Since the coward ghost was attracted by something in the restaurant, this something would also attract others and the attracted spirits would only be stronger than the coward ghost.

At the same time, it will also recover his Origin Forces quicker.

This would be the perfect cycle!

However, some less friendly spirits would also come forth to the restaurant.

As a matter of fact, it was exactly like Kieran thought.

A few minutes later, a spirit with a sharp knife stood in front of the restaurant. The spirit’s face was scary and its body was bloody, its eyes filled with malice, which stated its intention clearly.

Such spirit was hard to communicate, so…

Tssssst!

The blue flame on the blowtorch burned hot.

The moment this ferocious looking spirit entered the restaurant, it was sliced in half before it could react. Then it was the John Dickson treatment all over again.

This spirit was also sliced into a dozen pieces.

“Any last words?” Kieran asked with the blowtorch pointing at the diced up body.

“I’LL KILL YOU!”

The blood red eyes of the spirit glared furiously at Kieran.

“Okay,” Kieran nodded and pointed his blowtorch at the spirit’s head.

Fuaaa!

The blue flame torched its head and the spirit quickly cried in agony.

“N-No! I have a wish, I want to slice the most beautiful body!” the spirit screamed.

Kieran stopped his blowtorch, picked up the sharp knife that the spirit brought in and used it to chop the remaining body parts.

Kieran chopped not once, but multiple times at the body, as though he making minced meat.

“Feel the beauty yet?” Kieran asked as he minced the body.

“But this is my…”

Fuaa!

The blue flame from the blowtorch lighted up again.

“This is the beautiful body that I longed for! This is great! I’ve never felt something like this before!”

The spirit said seriously in front of the blue burning flame, but the white firefly light did not appear.

Kieran frowned, he moved the blowtorch closer to the head.

“Try to savour the moment a little better,” Kieran said.

“I feel it! I feel it!” the spirit screamed again.

“No! You are not being delicate enough!” Kieran shook his head as there wasn’t any firefly light.

“Yes, there is! I really feel it!” the spirit cried.

“No, it’s not deep enough!” Kieran shook his head again and moved the blowtorch to its face, the screams got louder.

The agonizing screams went up in the air.

Promptly, a few more translucent figures like the coward ghost appeared in front of the restaurant. Each of them showed a grudgeful gaze at the spirit being torched and showed Kieran a face of gratitude.

After the few spirits appeared, the spirit being torched widened its bloody eyes, then disintegrated together with its sharp knife.

It finally understood Kieran’s intention. Kieran wasn’t going to let it go, he was just playing it and taking revenge for the other spirits.

He used its scream to attract the others who it killed before and release them from their shackles.

It finally understood, but what use would it have?

The endless darkness had arrived upon it.

“Thank you.”

Gratitude from the other spirits represented their completed last wish. They were once the victims killed by this spirit and now their bodIES disintegrated into white firefly light and flew to the sky.

Kieran’s Origin Forces grew again, but his gaze was outside the restaurant.

In the darkness, a tall figure with a keen aura stepped forward.