The Devil's Cage

When Kieran saw Lawless pull out a long metal rod with a hollowed, round shape attached to its end, he was surprised.

A mine detector!

One would recognize that kind of equipment, even if they were not familiar with firearms, and Kieran knew a lot about firearms thanks to his various skills.

He understood why Lawless would want to use a mine detector.

The trap set up by the first wave of attackers was an obvious one. It was a minefield.

It was an affordable, powerful method to deal with enemies.

Kieran frowned helplessly as he remembered his knowledge about mines.

He was amazed by the neverending methods the Killer Organization had at its disposal.

The system [Shop] did not sell such items, and neither did the [Forum]. There were only some common defensive grenades. Offensive grenades were rare.

However, the attackers had been able to get their hands on mines, cannons, and a Magnetic Field.

The latter made Kieran’s breath quicken.

There was no situation more desperate than having your attacks negated and their effects nullified. Even the cannon’s ridiculous firing range was better than that.

Kieran could always come up with a countermeasure, but if his attacks were negated, then it was pointless.

His brows furrowed even harder than before.

"The Killer Organization is more powerful and influential than I thought!" he mumbled to himself.

He was certain that, even though the two waves of attacks seemed unrelated, they were from the same organization.

As for why the attackers would be divided?

Kieran had a bounty on his head, and from the looks of it, the reward had to be quite high. Otherwise, it would not have lured all those killers.

"This is only the start. There will be more killers sooner or later. My strength has increased gradually, so the killers that will appear will only be stronger than before. I need to get stronger faster than they expect. That’s the only way I will be able to survive a battle with them!"

It was something Kieran already knew. A sense of danger gradually rose in his heart.

He was not afraid of the danger though.

After the pressure of despair and constantly dwelling on the edge of death, he had gotten tougher and stronger.

He would not back off. He would just advance with vigilance and careful planning in order to overcome any potential obstacles.

However, Kieran was not denying that one of the reasons that pushed him forward were the Honor Kills and their compensation.

After the battle he had been through, he had earned a total of 26,000 Points and 4 Skill Points, and the Honor Kills had granted him access to the items and rooms of both attackers.

The rewards were almost on par with a normal dungeon clearing reward, excluding the Golden Skill Point and Golden Attribute Points.

Points and Skill Points were a motivation for Kieran, as they were closely related to his current and future way of life.

After about two minutes, Lawless brought over the diffused mine.

"Here, you can keep it as a souvenir. It might bring you good luck!" he said as he tossed the mine to Kieran.

[Name: Z-II]

[Type: Landmine]

[Rarity: Great]

[Attack: Strong]

[Attributes: Power +45% against vulnerable targets]

[Effects: None]

[Able to bring out of the dungeon: Yes]

[Remarks: This is an anti-infantry landmine, an explosive with a wider range than a common landmine.]

...

"This is not something you can just pick up at the supermarket!" Kieran told Lawless after a quick glance through the [Z-II] description.

His meaning was self-explanatory. He was talking about the way the attackers had acquired the landmine.

The first wave of attackers might have accidentally stumbled on the landmine or gotten it from other players, but the second wave of attackers must have left some traces to follow.

"I think I’ve got a general idea. If it really came from where I think it has, I can track it down by following the clues," Lawless said seriously.

"Time is running out. Let’s take another look around and then head back to the Harvest Inn," Kieran said.

"Of course!" Lawless said with a nod.

...

Half an hour later, the two of them were on the train heading towards the Harvest Inn.

Their brows were furrowed, and they were deep in thought.

They had found more traces of both attacks, but had not discovered anything about the person who had been following Kieran.

Kieran had checked a couple of good spots for someone to follow him with his [Tracking], but there had been no clues.

The spots had all been clean and they had not looked like they had been visited by anyone.

"Don’t waste brain matter on it. Maybe we’ll find something at the Harvest Inn! What were the attackers’ names again?"

Lawless could not reach a clear conclusion either, so he pushed his thoughts aside and asked about the attackers.

"There were two waves. I have no idea about the second one, but the first ones were called Shielder and Correy. Ever heard of them?" Kieran asked, revealing the nicknames of the first attackers.

After some thought, Lawless shook his head. "Shielder and Correy? Nope, they might not have been beta players."

"Then you must know something about the second wave. They were using very special weapons. A cannon and a sniper rifle. The sniper had some sort of Magnetic Field that negated my attacks!" Kieran added.

"A cannon? Are you sure?"

Lawless opened his eyes wide in surprise. The cigar on his lips almost fell on the floor.

"Are they famous?"

Kieran thought something was off based on Lawless’s expression.

"Hellfire! It’s a group of five. Two of them were beta players, and the other three joined later. They have quite the reputation among players because of their cannon. Quite a lot of wealthy players have hired them to clear dungeons. They are not cheap at all though, so there’s no reason they would need to survive by killing people..." Lawless explained briefly.

Then he turned a little gloomy and got lost in thought.

Obviously, Hellfire belonged to the Killer Organization. Lawless was baffled by the fact though, as they had no trouble earning Points.

"Maybe they got rich after they formed Hellfire. What about before though? I think that if you track them down with these clues, you might discover something new," Kieran pointed out, using his sharp senses. He was not affected by Lawless’ sudden change of emotion.

"Right! They were nobodies before Hellfire! It’s after they formed the group and got the cannon that they became famous! Everyone said they had great chemistry, and it seems their chemistry is real, but maybe it’s not all of them. Maybe it’s only the one or two who are in charge!" Lawless quickly responded to Kieran’s point.

Kieran then saw him started to text his contacts.

He sat there quietly and did not interrupt him.

Networking was the only thing Lawless was better at than Kieran.

Kieran believed that as long as someone was not natural twisted in mind, they would be willing to befriend Lawless.

This might vary according to people’s attitude, but still better than Kieran.

Kieran had never considered himself a friendly person, nor a natural loner, but because of the sudden illness that had befallen him and made him struggle to survive from a very young age. He had almost erased the term "friend" from his vocabulary.

By the time he’d realized it, everyone around him was either a colleague or a boss, which were definitely not friend material.

"Friends, huh? A mere luxury," Kieran commented before closing his eyes to rest.

The battle earlier had exhausted him. Even though it had not lasted long, Kieran had given it 120%, and so had he during the search afterwards.

There would be another search when they reached the Harvest Inn, so he knew what he had to do in the meantime.

He did not talk to Lawless for the rest of the journey.

When they disembarked from the train, Lawless was still contacting his friends, hoping to gather more information on the matter at hand.

Hanses and Rachel were waiting for them at the train station.

"I don’t like it when my inn is being watched by some criminal! If I don’t catch them, I won’t be able to sleep peacefully!" Rachel said. She had an irrefutable reason to be there.

Hanses led the way straightaway. "Come with me!"

He was walking in front, leading them to a couple of spots perfect for spying on the Harvest Inn. All of them were empty though.

Kieran was astonished.

"Could I be wrong? It’s not possible though! If they knew my whereabouts, then there had to be someone spying on me. There are no traces at all though… Could the culprit be in some kind of spirit form?" Kieran came up with a bold theory after lots of futile effort.

Hanses and Lawless did not reject his theory. As veterans, the two of them knew very well that the underground game featured millions of odd, mystical skills. No one could confirm that there was no such skill.

If their enemies possessed such a skill though, then they’d be in big trouble!

Kieran would not be able to track them down with common methods anymore, and if they tried to assassinate him again, it would be impossible for him to defend himself and escape unscathed.

Lawless and Hanses looked at each other. There was a sense of worry in their eyes.

"Spirit form?" Rachel laughed coldly, her eyes locked at a specific spot.

Everyone followed her gaze instantly and saw a bird at the spot.

Although it was a common bird, when it sensed the astonished gazes of the humans, it got unusually scared and tried to fly away.

Before it could, Rachel raised her hand and threw a fishnet, capturing it.

Rachel took the net and sniffed at the little bird.

Her cold smile became even colder.

Translator's Thoughts

Dess Dess

Guess what Rachel did with the bird?