The Devil's Cage

Amid the blazing sea of fire, line after line of Cruel Kill notifications piled up in Kieran’s vision.

His Cruel Kill count has increased from 177 to 185.

The number only increased by 8 but the Points and Skill Points he had gotten were almost on par with the previous gains.

[Points: 1,035,000; Skill Points: 215; Golden Skill Points: 1; Golden Attributes Point: 2]

The high-rankers and the soon-to-be high-rankers values were not something common players and veterans could compete with.

Without him realizing, Kieran had earned enough Points to repair [Emerder’s Deal] with quite some extra leftover.

Though when he looked at his points tab, he didn’t feel much excitement because everything was within his expectations.

Whether was it Broker’s so-called bounty reward or those players attracted by it.

‘If the reward offered is high enough, there will always be those brave enough to take the risk.’

‘Human die for fortune, animals die for food.”

Kieran understood those two sayings long ago, and at this moment, he had another kind of experience of it.

“Since the players in the Advance Rank were attracted here, I can only imagine how high of a price Broker has offered for my head, then why did his men not make a move? Is it to cover up something or are they held up by something?”

Guesses appeared in Kieran’s heart.

Inside the underground game, Points and Skill Points might not be able to represent a player’s entire strength but each and every powerful player would burn through countless amounts of Points and Skill Points to level up. It was a publicly acknowledged fact.

So, having an astronomical amount of Points and Skill Points, Broker would not be lacking powerful men.

Otherwise, Broker might need to hide in his own game room.

Kieran wouldn’t believe that every one of the high-rankers weren’t jealous of Broker’s earnings. Since Broker was still able to walk in the big city under broad daylight without being killed, it was enough to prove everything.

“What would it be? The Witch’s legacy? Or the [Blade of the Daybreaker]’s title dungeon?”

Kieran theorized based on the information he had gotten but obviously what he gathered was too little. He would never have guessed what Broker was after and why.

“Maybe I should talk with Allen!”

Following his deeper understanding of Broker, Kieran was also more and more curious about the Blood Alliance boss.

After all, based on the strength Allen has displayed, it couldn’t have made Broker nervous to this extent.

“And… That high-ranker with malicious intent…” Kieran squinted his eyes.

His gaze turned cold under the sea of blazing flames.

His Intuition allowed him to clearly tell one of the high-rankers that left just now showed killing intent towards him and it was much stronger than the other players around.

The other players around had malicious intents but that high-ranker’s intensity was a few times higher.

If the high-ranker was solely there for the bounty, it wouldn’t make sense. There must be something else that was mixed into the fray.

As for saying the high-ranker had natural heavy killing intent or other sorts of coincidence?

Well sorry, Kieran never believed in coincidences.

Kieran was standing in the middle of the flames, arranging his own thoughts until he was interrupted by a series of calls.

“2567?!”

“2567?!”

Not only calls but also the pings from messages.

When Kieran came back to his senses, it was already ringing out of control.

He walked out of the flames, waving his hand at Lawless and the others who were dashing towards him.

“Here!”

When Kieran uttered that word, his face had a smile on it.

Kieran believed the group of lone wolves knew what they would face given the circumstances yet they were still willing to come.

He would take this debt of gratitude to heart, including the last time when he faced Black Hell Banning.

“Two times!” he told himself as he scanned over the crowd.

At the very front was Lawless who he had the best relationship with and beside him was Hanses and Coll, walking side-by-side.

Raven was also there, staying close with his cat and also Ramont with his fire and ice dual swords together with Rhino who was the new owner of [Calga’s Crush].

Alchemist Lemour who looked like an elementary kid and Blacksmith who was floating in mid-air as she traveled also showed up.

Lawless who was at the front took a big stride forward when he saw Kieran.

“Are you okay? Damn, thank God you’re okay!”

Lawless threw his concerns at Kieran as if he was asking and answering his own question.

“Not too shabby. Did I make a little too much of a commotion?” Kieran said in a half joking, half serious tone.

A little too much of a commotion?

Everyone present rolled their eyes when they saw the street block covered in fire.

This was a little too much? Then if he really went all the way, would he tear the entire city down?

Everyone else didn’t voice their comments, only Lawless alone didn’t care much about it and laughed out loud.

From Lawless’ point of view, as long as Kieran was fine, he would be happy.

As for other matters? Whatever, it didn’t matter to him anyway.

“A friendly reminder to everyone, those cyber law enforcers has arrived!”

Coll who was wearing a monocle, obviously was doing some inspections around the area while reminding the others.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Lemour opened up her hands in a questioning manner at the crowd.

“RUN!” Lawless was the first one to shout.

Instantly, the crowd turned around and ran.

One of the rules within the big city was that whenever a player broke the rules and wasn’t capture, it wouldn’t be considered illegal.

It could be considered as the rule that people loved and hated but it was also because of that rule that the escape of the crowd turned into a joyous one.

With Coll’s voice command, the crowd easily dodged the cyber law enforcers encirclement one time after another.

No one was nervous or worried, there was only laughter and joy.

Everyone was running around, escaping the robots, like kids playing catch in the playground.

Occasionally, Lawless’ explosive laughter would break out as well.

No matter how cold a person was, they would be tainted by the atmosphere, showing off a smile or perhaps even more, especially those who weren’t originally cold people but pretended to be, like Blacksmith!

Blacksmith didn’t keep her floating state though, the steps that she took displayed quite the speed and her soft and tender laughter didn’t escape Kieran’s Intuition.

Unconsciously, Kieran took a glimpse at Blacksmith out of curiosity and what he got in reply was Blacksmith’s vicious glare.

Ding!

His PM tab rung right after that.

…

Blacksmith: Embedding fees increased by 50%!

2567: wth did I do?

Blacksmith: U r not happy with it?

Blacksmith: I’m sure u are!

Blacksmith: I’ve decided to increase another 50%!

2567: …

…

Looking at the messages sent, Kieran was at a total loss whether to laugh or cry.

It was the most ungracious way of price increment and her way of talking and answering her own question, if Kieran didn’t make sure Lawless was running in front of him, he might have thought Lawless had changed the unchangeable in-game name to play a joke on him.

Kieran was quite sensitive about pricing though, he was preparing his words, ready to argue with Blacksmith because he still had a special gemstone that he wanted her to appraise and embed.

Even though his Points and Skill Points were overly sufficient, he couldn’t just be extravagant and waste all of them.

Though before he could find appropriate words to reply, the message from Blacksmith pinged him again.

…

Blacksmith: Just saying~

Blacksmith: ^.^

…

Looking at the message content and the emoji at the end that didn’t match Blacksmith’s usual cold and cool temperament, Kieran was completely stunned.

Another soft laugh later, Blacksmith ran faster forward without pausing.

“2567! Hurry up! Don’t get left behind! We are heading back to the inn, drinks on me today!”

Lawless shouted out loud running in front.

“O-Ohh, Okay!”

Kieran who was blown away by Blacksmith’s contrasting changes only knew how to nod continuously before chasing up to the crowd.