The Devil’s Cage

The voice sounded friendly, but it still sent chills down Kieran’s spine.

“It’s over!”

Kieran closed his eyes instinctively.

He thought this might be it.

He was afraid of dying. He had entered this game for the sake of survival, but who would have thought that he would die before he could even make it through the newbie dungeon.

It kind of made him regret the risk he had taken.

If he had taken Colleen’s advice and hidden in the underground storage area to wait for the days to pass, he might have survived for longer.

However, the cloud of regret dispersed as his survival instinct took over, igniting his will to survive.

He was willing to risk it until the very end.

Kieran held the [U-II] grenade tight and placed his finger over the pin, ready to set it off.

“Please, sir!” the traitor’s voice said, sounding even more sincere than before.”I have no intention of harming you. I know you don’t believe me, but you can look at the facts. If I wanted to shoot you, you would have been already dead. I didn’t, though!”

The traitor’s words made Kieran hesitate.

He was not buying it, but what the traitor was saying was kind of true.

If he had fired, Kieran would have already died, but he had not. Why though?

Why hadn’t the traitor pulled the trigger?

Kieran didn’t think it was his personal charm that had won over the guy. The traitor had to want something from him.

After some thought, Kieran came up with a logical explanation.

The man wanted the bag of jewelry.

“Are you really that kind?” he mocked the traitor.

“Of course. Just look at the facts. If you cooperate, I promise I will let you live.”

The traitor went so far as to promise he’d spare Kieran’s life.

“A promise? Promises are worthless during a war! You’ve only let me live this long because you haven’t gotten what you are here for yet. Once you get it, it will be a whole different story!” Kieran said in disdain.

Behind his rough, low voice, hysteria made him shiver.

He would not take the chance and turn around, though.

He was sure that if he made any sudden movements, the traitor would fire.

The man needed to know the whereabouts of the jewelry. That was the only reason Kieran was still alive.

So if he did fire, he would go for Kieran’s arms or legs.

Even so, Kieran would not take that chance.

He needed to stand his ground and display his demented, desperate side just enough to maintain his position in the situation.

“Calm down! Please just calm down, sir! I don’t want any misunderstandings. I’m sure you are a smart person, and if you would just tell me the location of the jewelry, I could fulfill your request to leave this damn city! Trust me, it’s not that hard for me to lead you out! I serve General Zennings after all. He’s not like your partner, Major Zarukhar! Zarukhar is just one of General Zenning’s dogs!”

Kieran’s method had worked.

The traitor had started spilling information that Kieran wanted desperately.

He was repeating Kieran’s false story, the one Kieran had revealed when he’d been trying to fool Major Zarukhar during their phone call.

This proved that the traitor was no ordinary enemy. He had to be smart.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have known about his conversation with the Major, nor would he have been able to infiltrate the Major’s most trusted squad to sabotage this mission.

Kieran did not doubt that Major Zarukhar was just “one of General Zennings’ dogs”.

It sounded like it was the truth.

Kieran was confused.

He felt like a hunter chasing after a rabbit in the mountains, only to discover that the rabbit was actually a tiger.

Kieran had only planned to take Major Zarukhar out to raise his game rating, but now the man behind Zarukhar had been revealed, the Rebellion General.

Although it was still unclear what role the General played in the Rebellion, given his title, he had to be the real Head of the Rebellion.

Zarukhar’s actions were under his radar.

The traitor behind Kieran proved as much.

Prideful arrogance.

That was what Kieran had gotten from the Major during their conversation. He should have added self-righteousness to arrogance as well.

Zarukhar thought that he was doing so well, but Kieran knew that as soon as Zarukhar had gotten his hands on that bag of jewelry, he would have been secretly arrested. Skipping the Court Martial completely, the Major would have been executed as a criminal.

No doubt it had been General Zennings who had plotted all this since the very beginning.

“The man behind everything!” Kieran came to a conclusion based on everything he knew about the two men.

“So what do you think?” the traitor behind Kieran interrupted his thoughts.

The time was up and Kieran had to either accept or decline his proposition.

“I want to leave this city first. Then I’ll tell you everything!” he replied.

“Sir, you know it’s not possible for me to do that. At least not until I see the jewelry with my own eyes. I have no authority to take you out of this city. Only General Zennings can do that!” the traitor replied with a laugh.

“Then I want to meet General Zennings!” Kieran changed his terms. “Do you think that’s possible?”

The traitor’s laugh carried a sense of mockery. He thought he should teach Kieran a lesson to let him know who was in charge of the situation.

As a matter of fact, if he had confirmed the location of the jewelry, he would have already killed Kieran just to avoid all this unnecessary conversation.

“I need medical treatment, I’ve been shot!” Kieran stated his terms once again.

This time, however, the traitor did not refuse right away.

He could see that Kieran had been shot. Although Kieran had a protective vest on, he seemed to be jumping and moving all over the place. As they spoke, his life might be hanging by a thread.

The traitor did not agree right away.

He said, “Well, to prove to you that I am an honest man, I will provide you with some medical supplies. Please do take this as proof of my sincerity. Now put your gun down and turn around slowly! Yes, do it slowly. Let me see your wound.”

Following his instructions, Kieran put down his makeshift rifle and turned around slightly.

The traitor saw the wound on Kieran’s abdomen and left calf.

Judging by his experience on the battlefield, the flesh wound on his leg was nothing, but the wound on his abdomen might have caused him some serious damage to the organs, even with the protective vest on.

After all, it was just a police vest against a military bullet.

The traitor knew Kieran had been severely injured. There might even be some internal injury that was beyond repair. If Kieran could still move around freely, it had to be due to his strong body and survival instinct.

But he wouldn’t be able to last long. Soon he would fall into an eternal slumber.

The traitor had witnessed lots of cases like this on the battlefield.

Still, he kept his guard up, his gun pointed at Kieran’s head.

“Your wounds are not that serious. You just need to tie them and you’ll be fine. I can give you some medicine and gauze to fix yourself up quickly!”

The traitor grabbed the pack on his waist and threw it near Kieran.

His right hand was still holding the gun, pointing it at Kieran’s head.

Kieran managed to sit down and grab the pack the traitor had thrown him. There were two gauze bandages and two syringes inside.

[Name: High Quality Gauze Bandage]

[Type: Medicine]

[Rarity: Common]

[Attributes: Recovers 30 HP within 30 seconds, suppresses bleeding and accelerates healing.]

[Effects: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remarks: Better than your average gauze bandage!]

……

[Name: Painkiller]

[Type: Medicine]

[Rarity: Common]

[Attributes: It can relieve your pain for 3 minutes!]

[Effects: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remarks: Three minutes allow you do a lot of stuff, such as write a will.]

The notification popped up as soon as Kieran had touched the items.

The [Painkiller] made Kieran’s eyes brighten.

It made him even more confident about what he was about to do.

He slowly unbuttoned the [T1 Bulletproof Vest], trying to look like he was in a lot of pain.

“You should take a shot of the painkiller first. If you tell me the location of the jewelry, I can provide you with a better treatment, one that will get you up in no time!” the traitor reminded Kieran as he watched him suffer.

He was afraid that Kieran might die.

“Yeah, of course.”

Kieran obediently rolled up his sleeve and injected himself with the painkiller.

Then he removed the vest.

While he watched Kieran remove his [T1 Bulletproof Vest] over his head, the traitor moved his gun downwards, aiming at Kieran’s legs instead of his upper body, which was at the time covered by the vest.

It was a natural instinct to inflict the maximum damage to his enemy. That was exactly how the traitor had been trained.

His move gave Kieran a chance to fight back. A chance he had been waiting for a long time.

As Kieran noticed the gun pointing away from his head and toward his legs, he quickly took off his vest, throwing it towards the traitor like a gunnysack and blocking the man’s vision.

As he did so, Kieran stood up and leapt back to the passage behind him.