The Devil’s Cage

Kieran raised his head to the ceiling and lights.

Unlike other parts of the cafeteria where fluorescent tubes hung in rows, the independent lounge of the First Seat was smaller, so the lights used were two ceiling lamps.

Brighter light allowed Kieran to scan the whole ceiling quickly, but there wasn’t anything suspicious!

However, Kieran would never think his Intuition was wrong.

With his Spirit reaching V-rank, a wrong perception was impossible for Kieran, unless someone purposely misguided him.

But as his Intuition reached Advance Rank, such ‘misguiding’ became harder.

Kieran’s left index finger tapped on the table as he fell into deep thought.

While he was thinking, the set meals he ordered were served.

“Hello, sir. Three Set A meals, three Set B meals, and three Set C meals.”

The server had to run back and forth nine times before he could carry all Kieran’s orders and serve them on the table.

Set A was roast beef with potato and salad together with rice and egg soup.

Set B was braised pork in brown sauce, fruit salad, and rice plus a carbonated drink.

Set C was mixed vegetable stew, chicken salad, rice, and a bowl of meat soup.

Kieran arranged all nine sets into three rows and three columns in front of himself, took the chopsticks, and ate like a tornado.

Although it was just cafeteria food, it was still tasty.

The potatoes were soft, the portions of beef were tender, the braised pork wasn’t oily, and the vegetables were fresh and crispy.

The server had not left after he served the food, he stood there blanky and watched Kieran eat, as if he was frightened by how Kieran ate.

However, when Kieran finished his food, put down the chopsticks, and looked up to the ceiling once more, the server showed a wicked smile.

A glaring ax appeared in his hand. He raised it and swung it towards Kieran’s neck.

Suddenly, a hungry growl entered the server’s ear, followed by saliva swallowing noise.

The sudden noise stunned him at the spot with his ax raised high, he turned his neck around stiffly.

“Nooo!” A horrifying scream came from the server, but it quickly stopped.

Only chewing noises were heard after that.

…

“This is too scary!”

“There are such rumors in the cafeteria?”

Standler was walking back to his dorm with Maica beside him. He was still reading the notebook that he bought earlier, and when he reached a specific part, he gasped.

Standler spilled the beans even without Maica asking.

“The Beheader is in the cafeteria! If you are the 3,000th person to walk into the cafeteria that day, order nine servings of food, and look up to the ceiling, it will appear beside you and chop of your head with an ax! This is scary!” Standler whispered out of shock.

“How scary is it? It’s just some random story to frighten people like you! Aside from the fact that there aren’t 3,000 students dining in the cafeteria every day, who’d order that much food in the first place? And when you eat, you lower your head, you don’t look up!” Maica showed a disdainful look.

Maica had never believed the occasional tales of the mysterious Theorate his roommate told him, what library interrogator, cafeteria beheader, all those were stories made up by dull students to frighten others.

He didn’t care for such stories, and he compared them to bedtime stories. He thought his roommate should be concerned about other things.

“Don’t you think you should train yourself better? You are lucky that you got knocked out last night, but what about the next?” Maica’s personality had turned him into a straightforward person. He would not hide or take turns, so he was destined to offend a lot of people with his hurtful words, but sometimes he would make some decent friends as well, like Standler, who was an easy-going person.

“I’ll be careful next time.” Standler closed his notebook and scratched his head awkwardly.

Standler was really frightened by the incident last night, but until now, he couldn’t think of any good idea to deal with it.

Maica turned to his roommate, but he only sighed helplessly in the end.

“Let me teach you some basic combat moves. I’ll train with you every day for one hour before sleep,” Maica said.

“But I want to read before I sleep… O-Okay.” When Standler caught Maica’s less than friendly gaze, he changed his answer right away.

“But I think the things written in this notebook should be real. I’ve read a lot recently, and I found out there are indeed incidents that happened in the library and cafeteria, it’s exactly like what the notebook says!” Standler shifted the topic back to his stories again.

“Well, of course! They were made up after those actual incidents, it’s more realistic that way, and it’s easier to scare people like you! If you don’t believe me, you can find the scariest one in the notebook that requires two people, and I’ll go test it with you so you can see how lame you are,” Maica showed even more disdain.

“The scariest… Huh! Got it! The weeping gymnasium! Two people are required to be there at midnight…”

“It’s settled, then. We’ll go there this weekend.” Before Standler could finish, Maica waved his hand to show his agreement and hastened his steps.

Maica knew how silly those stories were in his roommate’s notebook, just like how he knew the night at Theorate was dangerous.

The night wasn’t something a freshman could handle, and even a 3rd year had to be careful.

Of course, there were exceptions.

For some reason, Maica thought of the outrageous First Seat that he served, and the corner of his mouth couldn’t help but twitch. He pulled along his slow roommate and hurried back to their dorm.

Soon, the day turned dark.

The cafeteria provided three basic meals every day but not supper. Before the sun fully set, the workers in the underground kitchen already started to leave.

Therefore, a moment before dark, the cafeteria was empty, and like any other building, it would always fall into darkness, but not today.

The lights at the First Seat lounge were opened.

After placing all nine trays into the sink, Kieran went back to his seat. He looked up to the ceiling again. He then looked back down at the dining table, and his mind started to spin.

“Look up at the ceiling when one should eat with his heads down?

Secret in the ceiling?

No, that’s not right, the key point should be… eating!”