The Devil’s Cage

“Just like what Rachel said, everyone was frightened.”

Kieran slightly sighed when he saw the man in the long white robe.

Although the face of the player was blurred out by the system, the man’s outfit didn’t fit the criteria of the Supernova that Rachel emphasized on so much.

Especially the player’s aura, which, although it was at Advance Rank, wasn’t that strong.

The player probably just stepped into the leagues of the Advance Ranks.

Another suitable term to describe the player was a pawn or goon.

After Kieran’s Spirit reached V-, despite his Intuition remaining the same level, it was still greatly affected by the former attribute.

Within the range where his Intuition could perceive, the details that entered Kieran’s sight and mind got clearer and more meticulous.

Of course, the clear and meticulous enhancement still didn’t allow Kieran to see through what was in the player’s back, so he walked towards the man with utmost carefulness.

He didn’t want to fail before a seemingly easy opponent.

“The Flaming Devil?”

Kieran didn’t know the man, but the man knew him.

The moment the words escaped the man’s mouth, he started to back off unconsciously.

Kieran was probably the most talked about, most popular player in the big city for the past few months, and truth be told, he had quietly exceeded batches and batches of veterans.

The newbie players or new veterans might not know or remember the once infamous Broker, but they would know about the Flame Emperor, the Flaming Devil.

A mere mention of that name, the title that was built on countless bodies, would strike panic in a normal person, even the white long-robed player before Kieran.

The hostages that the player was trying to get were Coll, Hanses, the newly joined Blaire and Garwen, or even Raven the Loner, Lemour the Alchemist, plus the well-known Lawless. However, 2567 was not in that list of hostages.

In fact, the name 2567 was something that he could not afford to cross. He had told himself to never stand in the way of the Flaming Devil, but because of the name, the player got more payment; still he wouldn’t change his decision to run away!

Run!

The thought popped up in the player’s mind the very first moment he saw Kieran.

As an Agility high-ranker, he had absolute confidence in his speed. He believed he could shake Kieran off his tail after gaining some distance from him from the start.

But the moment he turned around, a cold glare flew out from his shadow.

“What the hell?!”

With [Dandelion Pierce] flying out, the man reacted like how a high-ranker would react against a sudden ambush: he stopped his forward step, turned his body around and managed to completely dodge [Dandelion Pierce]’s pre-emptive strike.

Unfortunately, although he dodged [Dandelion Pierce]’s attack, he couldn’t dodge the palm from behind.

Kieran grabbed the man’s head, pulled it down a little and allowed [Dandelion Pierce] to slice the head off from its returning flight.

To Kieran, who had been using [Dandelion Pierce] for a long time, the combo was executed skillfully.

Puk!

As blood sprayed out, the body fell on the ground, the head still in Kieran’s palm.

[Player killed: Jerry]

[Treated as active strike through authentication!]

[Categorized as Cruel Kill!]

[You will receive all the Points and Skill Points of the player…]

[Total: 2000 Points and 5 Skill Points]

[Received the player’s house key]

[Granted the right to use the player’s house]

[All the player’s belongings are returned to their house]

[Cruel Kill: 186]

…

As the notification popped up, Jerry’s body disintegrated into white light particles, even the splashed blood vanishing into nothing.

However, another figure appeared before Kieran in front of Harvest Inn’s door.

“So you are that woman’s secret ace card? Not enough boy, not enough at all!”

A man with a not too buff or strong physique and an extremely fierce aura turned around and looked at Kieran. As the man spoke, he shook his head while sighing, and the motion from his head also shook the arsenal of weapons on his body.

A longsword, dagger, knifes, scimitar, dual-headed blade, flying knives, darts and all sorts of sharp weapons clanked with each other as his body shook, making him look like a ringing wind chime; the clanking of his weapons created an awful atmosphere.

“Barkel?” Kieran asked to confirm the man’s identity.

“Run. Run before I decide to kill you, but I can’t guarantee that the other guys in the area won’t,” Barkel laughed coldly.

Kieran could tell Barkel’s attention was still on the door, the door of Harvest Inn; his priority was still Rachel.

As for himself, he wasn’t a noteworthy person in Barkel’s mind.

Despite Kieran’s achievements being astonishing, which famous players who grinded their lives in the big city didn’t once share such achievements?

Especially those famous players who lived and survived through the Witch’s era, all of them seemed to possess some kind of superiority against other players.

They deemed the players who entered the game after the Witch’s era as some fledglings who didn’t go through the storm, and even if the newer player were high-rankers, nothing would change.

Kieran’s heart was thankful to these batch of players though.

Other than dead enemies, what else was better than enemies who underestimated you?

Even more so when this enemy was quite valuable.

Barkel the Robber was notorious for his greed.

He was infamous for his outrageous robberies, seizing players’ Points, Skill Points and equipment.

And the rules in the big city made him a fish swimming in water.

Had he not run into Rachel back then, his name and wealth would have grown to an unimaginable level.

Kieran couldn’t help but sigh when he thought about that.

He didn’t care about name or reputation, but he was quite interested in the items that Barkel owned.

Therefore, Kieran’s eyes started to burn with eagerness.

Just look at the weapons on Barkel!

Among the dozens of weapons, a single glance provided Kieran with a glimpse of at least a Rare or maybe Legendary rank weapon, there might even be an Advance Rank item in there.

A treasure vault! Barkel was a human treasure vault!

It was what Kieran commented on him after a glance at his arsenal.

At the same time, the eagerness in Kieran’s eyes burned hotter.

Even a player with a lower Intuition and a duller perception would feel uneasy under Kieran’s burning eyes, let alone Barkel, a Chosen One.

Besides, Barkel was all too familiar with this kind of burning eagerness.

Each time he saw what he wanted, he would have similar eyes.

Get it! Own it! Possess it!

The voices echoed in his head, but unfortunately, back in the real world, he couldn’t get through the laws and order.

But in the big city? In the game?

Barkel had always followed his nature, and the feeling was… marvelous!

Barkel had lost himself in the intoxication, but it didn’t mean he would show mercy to someone who shared similar eyes with him.

Quite the opposite, as each time he met someone similar to him, he would instead deliver a horrible death.

Similar attributes repelled each other.

At a certain level, the saying was suitable in the majority of situations.

“You eyes disgust me to the point that I want to kill you!” said Barkel, and he intended to make his words come true.

An unknown binding force suddenly appeared out of nowhere and pressured Kieran. Kieran’s vision was spammed with Strength and Spirit authentication notifications.

Kieran failed the former attribute, but passed the latter with flying colors.

All Kieran needed to do was shake his shoulder, and he could break free of the binding force, but he didn’t budge a muscle. Instead, he stood there, watched the weapons from Barkel fly out from his body like arrows let loose, and allowed them to swirl around himself.

Kieran squinted his eyes at Barkel when he sensed the sharpness of the swirling weapons.

Barkel looked Kieran in the eyes without the slightest intention of dodging.

Then, Barkel said in a teasing tone, “No, you are a decent leverage! I will use your scream to force that woman out of her hole!”

As Barkel voiced his teasing remarks, the swirling weapons got closer to Kieran, but most of them avoided the weak spots, only a few were aimed precisely at the lethal points.

Moments later, Barkel laughed in an abdominal way, “I’ve changed my mind again! I will make you scream myself!”

Since Kieran was ‘within grasp’, Barkel grabbed one of the flying longsword and charged at Kieran. Despite his outward offensive charge, Barkel took out a rhombus-shaped gem in his other hand very subtly.

It was a fact that Barkel looked down on Kieran.

In Barkel’s mind, Kieran was just a newbie who hasn’t even been through real fear; how could others call him the emperor, the devil? Ridiculous!

Still, it didn’t mean Barkel would not take precautions against this newbie.

The Chosen One wasn’t just a name for fun, it was called that way because of how powerful and strange they were.

But because of that, the weakness of a Chosen One was also obvious; as long as one could lock down the weakness, everything would unfold easily.

Therefore, when Barkel charged towards Kieran, almost 90% of his attention was still on the door behind him because he believed the rhombus-shaped gem could resist anyone else weaker than him.

On top of that, Barkel’s mind even pictured the helplessness and panic on Kieran’s face when the irresistible ‘limitations’ were put on him; it would be best if Kieran could scream, so it could end perfectly in Barkel’s expectation.

Barkel knew the woman very well. She wouldn’t sit back and let her friend die; she would come out.

But to his disappointment, even when he was almost at Kieran’s face and his sword was almost stabbing Kieran, the door to the inn didn’t open.

“Seems like you aren’t as important as that Lawless! But whatever, as long as you scream, what else can she… How is this possible?!”

Barkel was talking about Kieran’s screams, and at the next moment, screams sounded, but they were his own.

As he voiced his unbelievable thoughts, Barkel looked down at the rhombus-shaped gem in his hand; there were cracks like spider webs all over the surface, and his eyes filled with shock.

Then…

Pak!

Bang!

The gem shattered, together with Barkel’s own head.

The weapons that swirled around Kieran fell to the ground. Kieran dislocated his steps and grazed the headless body that fell on the ground.

Bam!

The body on the ground then disintegrated into light particles, along with the plethora of weapons around Kieran.

Kieran’s eyes showed a sense of astonishment.

He felt something beating in his heart, and it was actually from Greed.

This weird beating in his heart was somewhat unfamiliar to Kieran, it was something that he could never notice before his Spirit reached rank V-, but with his Spirit reaching new heights, it was easy for him to notice something unusual.

Back in that dreamy scene of the cardinal sins, Kieran clearly witnessed Pride, Sloth and Gluttony ‘break’ out of the building, so he had been wondering about the three who were different from the others.

And at the same time, Kieran was also looking forward to Greed, Envy, Wrath and Lust; therefore, he set up an initial plan to deal with them.

However, with the beatings from Greed, it struck more thoughts into Kieran mind.

“This may be smoother than I thought!”

As Kieran added more to his plan, he turned his attention towards the end of the street.

A few more hidden presences quickly went away.

Barkel’s death had frightened the other rat-like players.

Kieran frowned though. After accepting the request from Rachel, these other players would eventually become his rewards, but with the beating from Greed, it messed up Kieran’s plan.

But if Kieran had to go through this a second time, he would still choose to discover the secret beating from Greed.

The dreamy scene back then deepened his understanding of his own body.

His core! Everything was based on his core energy!

Only his core energy was the source of all his other Origin Force.

As for the others? All the other Origin Force were there to serve his core energy!

Aside from his self-discovery, another important point was that Kieran acquired rewards far exceeding his expectation of Barkel—

[Player Killed: Barkel]

[Treated as self-defense through authentication]

[Categorized as an Honor Kill]

[You will receive all the Points and Skill Points of the player…]

[Total: 500,000 Points and 70 Skill Points]

[Received the player’s house key]

[Granted the right to use the player’s house]

[All the player’s belongings are returned to their house]

[Honor Kill: 118]

…

The rewards that exceeded his expectation made Kieran grin.

When Kieran saw Barkel, he knew it would be another harvest for him, but he didn’t think the harvest would be so scrumptious.

In the big city, even for a high-ranker, a player would rarely keep that many Points and Skill Points on them, because Points and Skill Points represented their own strength.

Compared to equipment and items, using Points and Skill Points to level up one’s skill was more reliable.

“Did he save up to level up his skills? Or was he trying to buy something? Or could it be…”

Kieran didn’t know why Barkel saved up that many Points and Skill Points; it may be for leveling his skills or maybe purchasing an equipment or item.

There were too many answers to a single question, and Kieran couldn’t find the best answer without clues.

Besides, he had no need to waste that much brain juice to figure out Barkel’s intention. All he needed to know was that the Points, Skill Points, and plethora of weapons were all his now.

Kieran was eager to pay a visit to Barkel’s room. He was anticipating what other ‘spoils of war’ Barkel might leave behind.

However, he didn’t forget about another important thing—the payment Rachel promised.