The Devil's Cage

[Player Lawless has requested to enter the house, Yes/No?]

The notification popped up right after the knock.

Kieran was not surprised by Lawless’s presence there.

After their short conversation back in the Harvest Inn, Lawless did not had any solid proof to doubt Kieran’s theory. However, that had not stopped him from trailing Kieran to see the truth with his own eyes.

Kieran had been well aware that Lawless had been following him. That huge backpack of his was extremely eye-catching.

Even though Lawless had purposely boarded the wrong train, Kieran had noticed him the moment Lawless had entered the narrow alleyway.

He had also been present when Nobian had ambushed Kieran and Kieran had killed him in self-defense.

Lawless had witnessed the whole incident and had seen the truth with his own eyes. He had been very open-minded about everything he had watched.

He had been on Kieran’s side right from the start though. He would never have sided with a killer.

Kieran granted Lawless access without a second thought.

As he answered yes, he put the scroll in his pocket.

When Lawless came in with his huge backpack and buff body, Kieran did not utter any welcoming words. Instead, he just pointed at the blackboard.

It was easier to explain the situation through Nobian’s blackboard than with his own words.

"Sh*t!" Lawless cursed instinctively when he saw it.

He was not that stupid. He could guess what had happened.

"I knew Gibbons! He was a beta player like me! Quite a decent fighter and a great person. I thought he had died in a dungeon, but…"

Lawless brows tightened as he spoke of his acquaintance, and he quickly shook his head.

"Something’s not right. Considering Gibbon’s strength at the time, Nobian’s ambush could not have killed him. Unless…"

Lawless turned his eyes to Kieran as he spoke, their gazes locking. They both came up with a logical explanation.

"Unless Nobian had some accomplices helping him. He lured me in with the [Potionology] Skill Book, but I found nothing of the sort here. He seemed to be quite familiar with my information, something a man alone could not have achieved. There must be a killer organization founded by a couple of players, an organization unknown to the public," Kieran said slowly.

"So how would we find them?" Lawless asked directly.

It seemed like the existence of a killer organization had come as no surprise to him. In fact, the term seemed to fill Lawless with rage. He could not tolerate killers that treated people like they were something expendable.

"How would we find them? They should have some kind of special communication method and a secret meeting place, but that’s not something we could discover easily. Fortunately, even if we cannot find them, we can still find their employer! We have the list of the victims, so all we need to do is find out who they pissed off and who wanted them dead, and voila!" Kieran pointed to the blackboard as he planned everything out in his head.

"You’re also on the list!" Lawless said.

"And I can provide you with a valuable lead! Who bought my rocket launcher during the guild war between the Steam City and the Iron Chariots?" Kieran said with a smile.

"What are you saying?" Lawless looked puzzled.

"I’m just a newbie in this underground game, so I haven’t had much contact with other players. The only thing I did that might have caused a grudge against me was selling that rocket launcher to one of the guilds. The other side, who suffered a big loss, was obviously mad at me and wanted me dead! That’s why they contacted Nobian or Nobian’s superior!" Kieran said with a shrug.

He had figured it all out on the way to Nobian’s place. Compared to his theory about the Broker, for which he had minimal proof, the guild war explanation made much more sense.

When the guild war had been lost and their men had died, the guild master must have also lost face. Any one of those reasons would have been enough for them to have Kieran assassinated.

"Leave that to me!" Lawless said as he prepared to leave.

"Hold up! I want to leave something else to you as well. Help me sell the equipment, and I’ll give you 5% of the earnings!" Kieran stopped Lawless, pointing at the equipment that had once been Nobian’s.

It was not that Kieran did not want to sell it himself. After his experience at the Harvest Inn, he certainly knew what to do. However, Kieran could not explain the origin of that equipment, or to be more specific, he could not convince the other veterans of the identity of Nobian’s killer.

Lawless was different though. Kieran could tell that Lawless had quite a reputation among the veterans, and that reputation would be enough for everyone to believe him.

What if the information was leaked and the killer organization found out though?

Kieran was sure that now that Nobian had died, they must have already found out.

After all, when Nobian had borrowed that [Potionology] screenshot, he must have explained to the owner why he needed it.

When he had taken a longer time to reply to Kieran’s message earlier, the owner must have known what was going on.

Every arrow would be pointed at Kieran, and the hitman who would come after him after Nobian would be an even higher rank killer.

Kieran was not naive enough to believe that everyone in the organization was as weak as Nobian had been.

Instead of facing the organization in the dark with an even more powerful killer looming behind him, why not expose the incident, gather more allies, and buy himself some time?

If Lawless’s rage was any indication, Kieran had reason to believe there were many like-minded players among the lone wolves.

"Okay, leave that to me! Do you need me to accompany you back to 13th Wallway? Or you are planning on staying here?"

Lawless had quickly figured out what Kieran was planning, but he did not object. Quite the opposite, he asked Kieran what he would do straightforwardly.

"I have no intention of staying here. Compared to a killer’s den, I am way more comfortable in my old broken garage!" Kieran said.

Kieran and Lawless tidied up Nobian’s leftover equipment.

When everything was cleaned up, Lawless accompanied Kieran back to the old garage on 13th Wallway.

After Lawless left Kieran’s place, Kieran went back to his room. He took out the Title Dungeon scroll and thought about what skills he should upgrade next.

Although he had already upgraded a skill for his fight with Nobian, that was certainly not the end of it.

Translator's Thoughts

Dess Dess

Bonus 1