The Devil’s Cage

There was a man standing in the corridor with a black jacket and a hood over his head. He was also carrying a bag behind him.

The man looked normal though, 4 out of 10 people on the streets dressed similarly.

Kairi and Kray wouldn’t be surprised over such a commonly dressed person, what surprised and stunned then was the man’s face!

The man looked like their boss, Footer!

If it wasn’t for the shape of his head, Kairi and Kray might think their boss had just returned.

“Who are you?” Kairi raised a puzzled brow after a cloud of smoke was spat out.

“Kairi?”

“Kray?”

The man didn’t answer the question, instead, he asked his own.

Such question, however, agitated the short-tempered Kray who was originally Footer’s trusted brawler. He wanted to go over and teach the man a lesson, showing him who was the boss around here.

However, before Kairi took the first step, a never before felt presence assaulted his face.

It was a faint gloomy and cold presence together with a strong rampant and chaotic feeling!

A loud roar echoed in Kray’s ear and his sight was tainted with red similar to an erupting volcano.

Despite the stinging sensation and burning heat, what terrified him more was a monster faintly showing itself in the volcano and was staring down at him.

The contempt and killing intent turned the burning sensation icy cold in an instant.

“Aaaarh!”

Kray cried out of shock before stepping back.

Compared to Kray, Kairi was in an uglier state. Kairi was originally the person responsible for most of Footer’s business dealings, therefore when he felt the presence assaulting him, he fell on the ground, limping and crawling. The cigarette in his mouth fell out as well and he himself was panting heavily, his eyes were looking at the man like he saw a monster before him.

The feeling wasn’t new to Kairi though because he recently felt a similar feeling from his boss.

But…

The young man that looked like his boss in front of him struck Kairi with a denser, fiercer feeling.

“Kairi?”

“Kray?”

The names were called out once more and this time, Kray and Kairi nodded.

“Nice! My name is Ethan Hunt, Footer’s cousin! Something happened to him and he has to leave the city for a while. So before he comes back, Dublin Street is under my command.”

“Any questions?”

As “Ethan Hunt” spoke, a stronger burning sensation was ravaging the two of them.

Even the air was scorching at the moment. Each time they took a breath, it felt like they were swallowing burning charcoal that would burn their throats and cause excruciating pain.

The pain caused their body to tremble, their faces were even twisted uglily.

“N-No!” Kray spat the word out despite the pain.

Kairi didn’t even speak, all he did was nod along with Kray.

“Very nice. Now call all the men, gather them up.”

As the burning and terrifying presence went away, the man claiming to be “Ethan Hunt” casually walked into Footer’s office.

Kray and Kairi exchanged gazes when they saw “Ethan Hunt” sat in their boss’ chair.

They crawled up and quickly carried out the orders given to them.

Kray and Kairi were also from the streets, their baseline was wiped away a long time ago, so when Kieran displayed his powers, the tremendous pressure they felt allowed them to know what must they do; they didn’t even question what happened to their original boss, Footer.

Kieran who expected this wasn’t surprised at all.

After taking control of Footer with [Mesly Ring], Kieran knew everything in Footer’s mind.

The information he gave Kieran included but was not limited to the trades his gang had with Perforation Sting.

However, Kieran expected the news regarding Perforation Sting to be limited. It proved him right.

Footer didn’t know who was he dealing with, nor could he remember the person’s face, all he knew was the person he traded with gave him some “powerful” drugs.

If he wanted to stay “powerful”, Footer needed more money for the trade.

As for the said drugs?

Kieran followed what Footer told him and opened the second drawer on the left of his desk, which was unlocked beforehand, and poured the contents out.

Kieran found a hole carved by Footer with a dagger under the drawer and the hole was holding a pill sealed with wax.

After digging it out, details of the item popped up in Kieran’s vision.

[Name: Slither Secret Pill]

[Type: Medication]

[Rarity: Magic]

[Attribute: Trigger the hidden potential of weak living beings, empowering them (human or animal), only effective against beings with attributes of D rank or lower]

[Prerequisite: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remark: It might look good but is extremely addictive while having a lot of side effects. Don’t expect to live up to your optimum age.]

…

“Overdraw one’s potential to grant power? Plus the addictive attribute… Controlling people through drugs? If this is used as the base to destroy Flame City…”

Kieran looked at the remark as his mind swiftly provided him with a thought.

Following the new thought, he related to more possible scenarios.

A bunch of gang leaders tortured by drugs and in order to ease their suffering, they had to increase their purchase of the [Slither Secret Pill], but the drug was somehow in short supply and the price would skyrocket beyond anyone’s imagination.

Once that happened, what could the gang leaders do about Perforation Sting?

So, it would be a natural move for them to shift their target to the commoners, just like how they treated the civilians as walking ATMs.

However, unlike little squabbles during normal times, the gang leaders would be a bunch of hungry beasts plundering the civilians’ wealth.

Flame City would surely plunge into chaos should it happen.

There will be some other intentional bastards who will fish in troubled waters and ultimately, Great Swamp will be the one who suffers the most damage.

“So this is your plan eh?” Kieran muttered to himself.

Despite getting a slightly reliable conclusion from the news he got, Kieran didn’t think he had a grasp of the entire plot.

Perforation Sting might share a similar habit with himself, which was saving their own trump cards for the very last moment before revealing them for maximum effect.

In fact, a lot of individuals or factions preferred to do it this way.

Kieran wasn’t an arrogant person who looked down on his opponent and treated them as idiots because that would be exactly the act of an idiot, any slight misstep would cost him his life.

Still, Kieran knew what he had to do right now.

Dak, Dak Dak Dak.

After a series of messy footsteps, a group of forty to fifty men arrived before the office.

Majority of them were outside while only a few others plus Kairi and Kray came in.

Kieran took a glance at every one of them.

Every one of them who caught Kieran’s gaze would avert their own nervously.

The slight emission of the Devil aura already triggered the deepest fear in the men’s hearts. Should Kieran go further, all he needed was a little more posture and acting to completely crush these men who thought themselves as tough, arrogant gangsters.

To be frank, these men were nothing but low-level goons that bullied the weak and feared the strong.

After Kieran’s gaze circulated over them, the atmosphere quieted down.

Each of them looked at Kieran without overreacting, they dared not even breathe out loud.

The men were waiting for Kieran’s orders just like how they were waiting for Footers previously.

While enjoying the comfort of his seat, Kieran finally opened his mouth.

“Kairi and Kray here should inform you of who am I. Now, let me tell you what I want. Dublin Street is too small, I want a bigger, grander, more comfortable office. I want the new office to be filled with beds of money, I want everything in the office to be made out of gold!”

“What about you guys? Do you all want more money? If you guys promise to follow me unconditionally, right here, right now, I guarantee everyone will have unimaginable wealth. But, that is a matter that we will get to later.”

“Now, I want to know only one thing, who are those bastards that came into Dublin Street yesterday?”