The Devil's Cage

Kieran fell asleep.

It was a deep sleep that he barely experienced before in recent years.

There wasn’t any stress, any goals to achieve, all he did was sleep.

When he woke up, he instinctively stretched his body and after the gesture, the sudden realization hit him.

He was looking at Rachel who was still wiping the wine glasses in doubt.

Subconsciously, he opened up the system notification tab.

[Player consumed Osiris Brew...]

That was the only notification in recent time but it was sufficient at the moment.

He remembered what he drank was [Orange Light Sorante] not [Osiris Brew]

"Rachel, I..."

"My bad, I took the wrong cocktail for you. That was supposed to be Lawless’s punishment. Well, consider yourself a fish caught up in a disaster." Rachel answered Kieran directly.

She then passed Kieran a contract scroll.

"Both of you are friends, so it’s quite okay if you want to take the punishment for him but I don’t want him haunting me after this... So, you know, consider that compensation. It’s what you wanted right? A companion contract."

Rachel didn’t care about Kieran after she spoke and concentrated on her wine mixing.

Kieran took the companion contract though his instinct was telling him Rachel was hiding something but he couldn’t gather enough proof to prove as such.

Nothing changed in his character tab and attribute tabs anyway, Rachel’s explanation made sense as well because every one of the veterans knew the relationship between Rachel and Lawless. The compensation scroll in his hand was real as well.

Why not ask other bystanders then?

Kieran turned around and saw the empty inn. The few players that lingered had disappeared long ago.

Rachel seemed like didn’t want to talk about it further either so after Kieran used the [Companion Contract] on the Fire Raven, he left Harvest Inn after completing the contract process.

It was already at night outside. The sky was full of stars.

The big city in the game also had a day and night reflection of the real world.

Kieran raised his head at the unknown constellation and raised a brow.

He seldom came out to the big city in the game at night.

He spent most of his time strengthening himself so he barely left his room. The other point was Lawless mentioned before the night in the big city was very dangerous, especially after the player killers appearance.

"I slept for a whole day?" Kieran mumbled as he quickly headed towards the train station.

At the same time, he also checked his PM tab for messages.

There were two in fact. One was from Blacksmith and the other from Lawless.

Blacksmith’s message told him that the appraisal of [Dark Nether Stone] had been completed and was available for embedding but Kieran would need to follow her schedule.

Lawless’ message was about the trouble that the curse dispeller had and he had to lend his hand.

Blacksmith’s name was grayed out at the time. Obviously, the female player was still persistent in differentiating between virtual and reality.

Kieran then opened up Lawless’s message tab straightaway.

......

2567: Where are u?

Lawless: Almost done!

Lawless replied almost instantly yet Kieran frowned.

2567: Where are u?

...

Kieran asked once more.

Kieran understood Lawless well enough, helping the curse dispeller was part of his character but the other part was because Kieran requested the curse dispeller to help him remove the curse on [Wilco’s Grudge].

With Lawless nagging attitude, a simple and quick answer like that meant the trouble was not something small.

Just like how Kieran understood Lawless, Lawless too shared the same understanding of Kieran.

When Kieran repeated his question for the second time, he knew Kieran was serious. If Lawless didn’t want the situation to get out of hand, it was best he go along with Kieran.

...

Lawless: Donaville Street, Small Path Square.

2567: I’ll be there in a moment!

...

After the message, Kieran dashed out frenziedly from his casual walk, however, a couple of figures blocked his way in front of the train station.

A total of four people sharing the same look of a black cap and mantled body, meaning the four of them were from the same organization and the weapons in their hand were reeking of malicious presence. It seemed like they were not there for a friendly visit.

The four of them dashed out to Kieran the moment they saw him without even asking anything.

The group of four dashed out in a "one front, three back" formation. The player in front reached out both his hands straight and two barrels of a Gatling gun sprung out from his palm.

Dak Dak Dak Dak Dak Dak!

Dak Dak Dak Dak Dak Dak!

The barrels rotated rapidly as bullets shells came off from his shoulder.

The bullets were like a heavy downpour of rain, almost enveloping Kieran whole.

Kieran didn’t even dodge the barrage of bullets as [Primus Scale] was activated, he took the bullets head on and closed in on to the firing player.

Ding Ding Ding Ding!

Bullets were sprayed at the Powerful force field barrier, sparks splashed all over upon contact. The translucent barrier started to shake under the relentless fire, seemingly ready to fall apart at any moment.

But before the barrier was even broken Kieran already appeared before the firing player.

The firing player would never have thought the scene would unfold like that. He was so used to the scene when he fired his Gatling gun, his targets would scatter in all directions so the remaining three of his teammates would clean up the battlefield easily.

So, when the bewitching greatsword was swung down at him, he didn’t have any chance to evade.

Tsssing!

A red line started from the middle of his brows and extended downwards. The next moment, the body was split in half, plunging into the ground and disintegrating into light particles.

Souuuuuu!

A giant net sprung up above Kieran’s head.

The net was made out of ropes but even under the stars and moon, it was glittering in a metallic glint. Just as the net was about to catch Kieran, the net was sparkling with electricity.

An electric net!

Yet it was not much of a use.

The already activated Powerful barrier plus [Secondary Elemental Damage Resistance] and [Body of Evil] allowed Kieran to completely neglect the numbing effect of electricity.

Wuung!

[Arrogant Word] was swept out horizontally. The other two players pulling the net were sliced in half at the waist.

The last remaining player though turned around and ran for his life without even showing the courage to fight back.

Bang!

[Python-W2]’s bullet blasted of the crown of the running player’s skull. The moment his brain splattered out, his body twitched a little before it disintegrated into light particles.

Honor Kills notifications then came right after.

The group of four presented Kieran with 30,000 Points and 15 Skill Points, plus their room keys.

Yet Kieran wasn’t delighted at all as he frowned even harder after the quick battle.

Something was wrong! The attacker before him was not right!

"It wasn’t the familiar player killers. They have a general understanding of my strength by now, especially after that battle with Black Hell Banning, they wouldn’t put up such a rash setup to ambush me. Maybe they are just the player killers that prey on common players during the night?" Kieran’s brow almost stuck together.

The reason that he came up with couldn’t even persuade himself.

The moment Lawless required his support and just so coincidentally, a bunch of player killers appeared at the train station and struck him without asking anything?

No matter which side Kieran looked at it, it wasn’t a coincidence.

"Maybe someone sent them here to intercept me from giving support to Lawless?" Kieran guessed.

Kieran then quickly sent out a couple messages to the other acquaintances player yet none of them replied.

Kieran’s heart turned heavy.

When he saw the train come around, he boarded it without further ado.

Though, the scene within the carriage caused him to squint his eyes.

The same black cap mantled figures were all over his sight.