The Devil’s Cage

Calkin screamed at the freaky scene before him and shrunk helplessly behind Kieran.

”On your way! On your way!” the vicious wagoner with the freaky smile mumbled before suddenly throwing himself at Kieran.

His fierce actions caused the rotten flesh on his face to shake, his cheek falling off and revealing the ghostly green bone underneath.

Kieran had been sure he wasn’t human from the moment he’d appeared, but the scene still made him frown.

It was not because of the wagoner’s repulsive appearance. Kieran had seen much scarier corpses than the wagoner.

It was because of the timing. When had the wagoner turned into that?

Although he had been inside the carriage for the whole journey, Kieran’s sharp intuition would have still picked up on anything happening outside the wagon. He had not noticed when the wagoner had transformed though.

Only when the carriage door had been opened and the wagoner’s rotten face had been revealed had Kieran realized that he was in deep trouble.

He had no idea what had caused the sudden mutation, but he was sure that the process couldn’t have been quiet.

A person turning from a living human being into a zombie-like monster could not have stayed silent. Considering the wagoner’s burned, rotten face and his green bones, the transformation seemed to be very thorough. The process must have been extremely painful.

There must have been agonizing cries, yet Kieran had heard nothing on the way there.

So…

”Did something happen to him before he came to Herbert’s place? But the wagoner and Calkin must have been together the whole time, so if the wagoner transformed, then… why would Calkin be fine?”

Kieran’s mind was spinning like lightning.

He did not even care about the zombie wagoner charging at him. He leaned to the left and pushed, crashing out of the carriage.

Just as he pushed out of the wagon, Calkin, who was hiding behind him, suddenly let out an angry, beast-like growl.

His pale face began rotting rapidly until Calkin himself turned into a zombie-like monster, just like the wagoner. They shared the same freaky, vicious appearance.

That growl of his was getting louder and louder.

Bang!

Kieran, who was still in mid-air, fired the gun in his hand. The muzzle flashed suddenly and Calkin’s head was blasted by the [Python-W2]’s bullet.

The loud growl stopped abruptly. When the wagoner leaped inside the carriage and saw the scene, his body froze. He turned around right away, attempting to escape.

The [MI-02]’s silenced bullet pierced through his head from behind, the force of the shot making his skull burst open.

The wagoner staggered forward a couple of steps out of reflex, but eventually fell down.

After a few twitches, he showed no more signs of life.

[Shooting: Lethal Attack, 300 Damage inflicted to Target HP, (150 Firearm Weapon, Light Firearm (Transcendence)X2), Target has Tensile Skin, Bullets of Conviction II authenticated higher than Target’s defense, Armor Penetration Lvl 1 granted, 400 True Damage inflicted to Target, Target dies…]

[Shooting: Lethal Attack, 300 Damage inflicted to Target HP, (150 Firearm Weapon, Light Firearm (Transcendence)X2), Target has Tensile Skin, Bullets of Conviction II authenticated higher than Target’s defense, Armor Penetration Lvl 1 granted, 400 True Damage inflicted to Target, Target dies…]

...

Kieran looked at the battlelog notifications and glanced over at the dead bodies.

”Tensile Skin? Not Dead-Man’s Skin? The bodies are still warm! This means they were somehow still alive when I fired at them...”

Kieran raised his eyebrows over what he had discovered. He looked down at the two bodies before him and could not relate the monsters he had just encountered to the living men.

Suddenly, the bodies started going through some changes that surpassed Kieran’s imagination.

They started to melt like boiling water, green bubbles forming on their skin.

As the bubbles covered them, the bodies started to melt and dissolve.

Less than three seconds later, there was only a pile of green goo and bones left on the ground.

The bones were still melting at a rapid speed visible to the naked eye.

”What the hell is this?” Kieran was shocked.

His Master Level [Mystical Knowledge] had some relevant information, but he could not determine exactly what was happening.

Kieran instinctively wanted to walk over to the green goo and the melting bones, but a series of footsteps stopped him.

”Here! The gunshot was fired from here!”

Suddenly, a team of uniformed patrol officers appeared. Kieran’s gunshot had attracted their attention.

Kieran quickly dodged and hid in the shadows. Then he quickly left the scene.

If the patrol officers reached the crime scene, Kieran would lose his freedom and be unable to investigate the strange green goo.

However, he did not return to Herbert’s place right away. Instead, he went over to Calkin’s source’s place. The room where he had been killed.

Calkin might have been lying, but there had to be a hint of truth in his words.

Kieran didn’t mind going the extra mile to confirm it.

After all, the place where he had been assaulted was not far from the aforementioned location.

”What happened to Calkin and his wagoner? Did they meet the person who killed Hook after they left Herbert’s place? Or did Calkin report everything to the mastermind and get punished for his incompetence?” Kieran guessed.

Meanwhile, he was also recalling the changes Calkin and his wagoner had gone through.

”They could speak and they seemed to be sane. This means they were still aware of what they were doing and had not been reverted to a simple-minded state. I just couldn’t confirm whether they were being controlled or acting on their own free will. Their abilities also seemed to have been enhanced. They had Tensile Skin, so they were not afraid of a normal knife or any sharp objects… I wonder how much their strength and speed had actually increased though…”

Kieran could not help but sigh as he thought about it.

In his opinion, the best way to deal with an unknown enemy was by shooting them in the head. If he hesitated and allowed his enemies to retaliate, his losses would outweigh his gains.

Kieran would rather spend more effort on investigating than having an unwanted accident occur during a battle. Such an accident could cost his life after all.

”Huh?”

He suddenly halted.

A human figure was dodging and heading into a house not far away from him.

According to Calkin, that house was where his source had died.

Translator’s Thoughts

Dess Dess

House of the dead: Calkin’s source