The Devil’s Cage

Kieran laughed as he heard the silence on the other side of the phone line.

He truly felt the urge to laugh. He was not just pretending in order to irritate the man.

For once, he was the one in control of the game.

An outrageous number of fully-armed men was nothing compared to the greed of one man.

Yes, Major Zarukhar was extremely greedy.

That was his weakness.

Kieran could take advantage of it, he was confident that he could.

He waited for the man to reply.

“What do you want?” Zarukhar asked after a short while. Even from the other side of the phone, Kieran could sense the man’s anger.

He didn’t care though.

To him, Zarukhar was only a Boss he needed to kill to advance farther in the game. Nothing more, nothing less.

“What do I want? That’s a very good question Mr. Major. What could I possibly want in this goddamn city? Well, to leave, for a start. I want to leave this godforsaken city!”

Kieran followed his plan, which was to pretend he was a war survivor wishing to escape from the area.

“Give me back my jewelry, and I’ll get you out of here,” Zarukhar quickly granted Kieran’s request.

“It’s done, I’ll wait for you by the Vulture’s old base at nightfall!” Kieran answered without a second thought.

The major hang up the phone.

Kieran looked at the screen before he quickly removed the battery. Then he shrank to the side of a piece of wall and closed his eyes.

He knew he had a tough fight ahead of him, so he needed to rest as much as he could.

As for the deal with Zarukhar?

Of course it was all a lie.

Judging by the strong intimidating vibe that he got from the man, it was safe to say that he was not an easy-going person.

He would not comply that easily after what Kieran had done to him.

He would definitely want revenge.

But because he wanted the jewelry, he would not send his full force. He would just sent out an elite squad.

The squad would certainly include Zarukhar’s right-hand man, which meant they would be a powerful enemy. Kieran was not about to step back though.

Facing an entire army, even with his current skills, would have been tough, but he figured he could take down a small squad.

His plan needed to be executed perfectly in order for him to progress farther in the game.

“He could find me within a minute!” he thought to himself while he rested his eyes.

When he had found the phone in the Vulture’s room, he had noticed that it looked different than any regular phones.

It looked a lot more rigid and hard. Plus, no communication device was safe in this war-ridden city.

Given the circumstances and the fact that the phone still worked, it had to be a gift from Zarukhar to the Vulture so the man could contact him. By the looks of it, the phone had to have some kind of tracing device on it so Zarukhar could keep an eye on the Vulture.

That was why Kieran kept removing the battery every time he ended a call.

He did not want to drag Colleen into this, but he also needed a safe place where he could head to in an emergency. It was only his second day in the game after all.

“It’s been such a long day!”

Noticing that the [Main Mission: Survive 7 days, 1/7] had changed to [2/7], Kieran felt the warmness of the sun touch his face, and he sighed softly.

…….

“Did you located that sewer rat ?”

Zarukhar hang up the phone and turned to his aide.

“I’ve locked into his position, he is near the Garden Villa Area!” the aide replied quickly.

“Very well. Send the coordinates to Hank, and send the squad out to kill that sewer rat and retrieve my belongings! Remember, I want them unscathed!” Zarukhar ordered his aide with a nod.

“Yes, sir!” the aide saluted before he quickly went off with the message.

“You little scumbag! You think you can threaten me? Major Zarukhar?” Zarukhar said in a chilling voice while he looked at the red dot on the tracing machine.

…….

Under the stark sunlight, a truck appeared between Sixth Broadway and the Garden Villa Area route.

The special signage on the truck allowed it to pass through without any resistance.

A squad of ten men jumped down swiftly from the truck and lined up by its side. Then a man got out of the passenger seat and all ten men saluted him with a uniform action.

“Mission instructions from Major Zarukhar: Locate and kill the target. He is an armed man hiding around this area. Locate him, kill him, and confiscate everything in his possession! I repeat, locate and KILL!” the man said in a steady tone.

The truck drove off, the sound of its engine trailing behind it.

The man looked strict and fierce, but had a manly seriousness about him.

His name was Hank and as Zarukhar’s right-hand man he was aware of the importance of this mission.

Should they fail to execute it, he and his squad would not even need to wait for the Government Forces to kill them. The rebellion generals would get to them first. Zarukhar might have provided them with plenty of dangerous toys, but those in the higher ranks would not care.

Hank knew this in his stomach. If he failed, he would die. Therefore he had to be extra careful while he carried out this mission.

“Sniper, Machine Gunner, get to your vantage points! The rest of you split into teams of four and start searching!”

“Aye, sir!”

At his order, the soldiers quickly moved into position.

The sniper went up to a high vantage point while the machine gunner along with his aide carried a box of ammunition and settled down in a wide open area full of ruins to set up the machine gun.

The remaining eight men, including Second Lieutenant Hank, split into two teams and went into the Garden Villa Area to search for the man.

Witnessing all this from his hiding spot, Kieran frowned.

He thought he had been overestimating his enemies, but apparently it was not enough.

“The thugs were nothing compared to them!”

Kieran looked at both searching teams, and then watched the sniper get into position silently on a building with a partially blown-off roof.

Kieran could not make a move !

No matter what he did, the sniper would get him.

“I need to take the sniper out first!”

Having made his decision, he went into [Undercover] mode and moved along the ruins, using them as cover as he headed towards the sniper like a cat.

Kieran chose the route halfway between Sixth and Garden on purpose. He wanted Zarukhar to track him down to that spot.

When he and Colleen had passed by this route earlier, it had made a strong impression on him.

Before the war had started, it had been a future commercial street that was still under construction.

Then after the war, the ruins from the fallen buildings had piled up around the area, making it the perfect hiding and ambushing point.

Kieran had already familiarized himself with the place after he had rested. It had been a good choice for him to engage the rebel squad there.

Other than memorizing the terrain and area, Kieran had also used his [Firearms (Light Firearms)(Basic)] skill, which allowed him to gain more knowledge to come up with a plan to deal with anything that had to do with firearms.

Such as the sniper in front of him.

The sniper had not noticed him approaching him.

The advantage of a sniper was that he could kill off his enemies from a distance while also remain hard to capture.

If a sniper was any good and he was really familiar with the terrain, he could eliminate a whole squad of armed soldiers from a distance.

However, this sniper did not have the advantage of the terrain that Kieran did.

Kieran was monitoring the sniper’s every move.

What would a sniper do if the element of surprise was taken out of the equation?

Kieran stood in the shadows holding his makeshift rifle. He aimed at the sniper from a hundred meters away. The firearm skill gave him the best technique possible, and let him achieve easily what others failed to do.

Although the [Basic] level of the skill might not make him a pro, it was sufficient under the circumstances.

Kieran controlled his breathing and steadied his hands, aiming carefully through the scope.

Finally, he pulled the trigger.

Bang!

A shot was fired, but Kieran did not stop. He did not even go up and check. He held the [M12] in his arms and rolled sideways, sliding quickly into another part of the ruins and heading towards his next shooting target.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

While Kieran was rolling away, the machine gunner fired at the spot Kieran had occupied. The strong wall Kieran had been leaning against was torn down in an instant.

Luckily, Kieran was already gone.

“What happened?” Hank yelled at the walkie talkie after he heard the gunshots. He could not see what was going on as he and his team were searching for Kieran on the other side.

“Sniper down!” the machine gunner’s aide replied.

“What?” Hank was stunned.

He was about to ask another question when...

Bang!

Before the machine gunner’s aide could reply, another shot had been fired.

This time around, Hank could see clearly that one of the men on the second search team had had his head blown off.

“Sniper! Get your heads down!” Hank shouted.

Realizing they were being ambushed, the team quickly got down and hid from the sniper’s range of sight.

In an instant, the search team had taken cover, leaving the machine gunner and his aide to fend for themselves.