The Devil’s Cage

”First phase complete!”

Lawless glanced over Kieran who had left the square after attracting most of the killer players’ attention on the roof. He then turned around and walked down the floor.

Kieran and Rachel each had their own task to accomplish; Lawless was no exception.

On the lower floor, Nightingale and Golden Canary were standing side by side.

Golden Canary’s body was still weak and relied on Nightingale to keep her up.

When Nightingale saw Lawless coming down, she wisely acted like an invisible person, but Golden Canary could not.

Greed could drag a person’s intellect down and so could hatred; maybe it was even scarier.

Golden Canary, who was supposed to be smarter than the common crowd, could not even notice the unusual. She was stubbornly acknowledging everything else with her one-sided thoughts, even made an effort to it.

”Don’t you think it will be over this easily!” Golden Canary said.

”Um!” Lawless nodded, and before she could say anything else, he left quickly.

It was a fact that Golden Canary was his best friend’s sister, but the other two of his friends were still risking their lives. He couldn’t afford to delay his actions. Lawless would rather sacrifice his life for another than have others giving away their lives for him.

Since Lawless only had one life, after he repaid it back to Golden Canary’s elder brother, he couldn’t bear the loss of other lives anymore.

Coll, on the other hand, was safe. At least he wouldn’t die the moment Rachel appeared.

It was time for him to proceed to phase two.

”Broker!” Lawless muttered fiercely.

The next moment, Lawless disappeared into the shadows.

...

”Not bad, not bad at all! A Legendary weapon? 2567’s growth really far exceeds my expectations!”

Broker praised and applauded Kieran watching the display on his screen. He was not even a bit angry that his plans were messed up.

”Though, what a pity… If you had appeared during the beta, it would have saved me all the set-ups!”

The Broker suddenly sighed lightly.

When he saw the message sent by Golden Canary, he laughed in disdain.

”While 2567 is moving under the light and Rachel in the dark, attracting the attentions of the killer players to escape my encirclement, Lawless wants to ambush me? What a joke!”

He’d never trust anyone, let alone a stranger blinded by hatred.

Even if what he saw with his eyes was exactly what Golden Canary mentioned, the result would be the same. He would only decide with his own judgement.

”Jason, bring the reserves forward with precautionary measures!” he said.

”Yes, Sir!”

A 3 meter tall, robust robot with a six-barrel gatling gun and two shoulder cannon led a team of over 20 smaller robots outside.

Kak Kak!

The formation was in perfect order; their steps were loud and clear.

Though the robots left following Jason, the vibrant steps didn’t stop but became louder and clearer. More robots appeared around Broker and formed a protection circle with him in the middle.

While listening to the rhythmic sounds of the machines clunking, Broker squinted his eyes in satisfaction. Only under the protection of these ”loyal” guard did he feel truly safe.

”Let’s get prepared. Our real guest is arriving soon!” Broker smiled lightly.

...

On the verge of breaking out of Old Strea Street, there were no more killer players blocking Kieran’s way within his sight.

After the killer players were shocked by Kieran’s frenzy battle mode, they started changing their tactics one after another, switching from blocking to tailing.

It was also what Kieran wanted, luring the killer players and breaking out of Broker’s encirclement.

After that?

Whether was it restarting the battle with the killer players or the killer players dispersed peacefully, that was a problem for another time.

Now he needed to place his focus on the new enemies.

The 2 meter tall robust robots appeared one after another within Kieran’s sight.

The robots were all too familiar. They were the guards and patrol inside the secret bazaar.

Following the appearance of the robots, excluding Kieran who had expected it, the killer players behind halted their steps abruptly.

No matter how idiotic they were, one could notice something was wrong at that moment. Some killer player with quicker reflexes were preparing to retreat completely.

But…

More robots appeared behind them. Once the hundreds of robots appeared, they swiftly surrounded the killer players and locked on their six-barrel gatling guns and shoulder cannons on their targets.

”It really is an army of machines!” Kieran sighed in astonishment in his heart.

The moment he realized it was all Broker’s dirty work, he could already guess what methods he would use to force the killer players into a deadly situation.

The subordinates that signed the contract with him were definitely not reliable.

According to Lawless’s explanation, the contracts that they signed were more towards the dungeon world and not the game space itself. Most of them even signed an additional contract of not allowing to hurt Broker’s life and benefits.

Therefore, within the game space, other than Zorl the registrar, there were no such trusted subordinates characters around Broker. If Broker wanted to force compliance out from the killer players with Zorl alone, it would naturally be impossible.

In order to force them to comply, other than absolute force, there were no other options.

As for using Points and Skill Points?

The reason the killer players were known as what they were, other than inheriting one of the oldest occupation, most of them killed because of benefits and benefits only.

Broker wouldn’t be known as the ”Broker” if he kept using such stupid ways to deal with the killer players who could spark a killing intent for the slightest benefit.

After excluding a majority of impossibles, the previous guess appeared in Kieran’s heart.

The army of machines! Jason and the bazaar guards.

The scene was pointed towards Broker owning a mature manufacturing technology and adding the astronomical numbers of robots from the bazaar, it was not hard for him to form an army of machines.

Though, guesses were still guesses. When Kieran saw them with his own eyes, he was still overwhelmed by the scene. Similar to Kieran, the killer players were also shocked beyond comparison.

”What the hell is Broker doing?”

”That bastard Broker!?”

The killer players started to curse at Broker because they already sense the malicious intents from the infamous businessman.

A lie! Everything was a like!

The killer players were firing PMs at Broker, demanding an explanation, but each and everyone of them was like a clay ox plummeting into the sea; none of the PMs returned.

Then…

Dak Dak Dak Dak Dak

Kabooom boom boom boom boom!

The robots launched their assault without a single sign.

There were no communications or forcing the killer players to comply, like Kieran had expected, but they fired directly.

Over a hundred barrels of six-barreled gatling gun fired out a net of bullets, shadowing the killer players at the very first moment. The shoulder cannon with double the numbers were also emptying their shots.

Within a single breath, the killer players had lost a third in numbers.

”This isn’t right! The Broker’s goal was never these bunch of killer players, but instead…”

Kieran’s face suddenly turned ashen.

Translator’s Thoughts

Dess Dess

Finally, the real goal of Broker will be revealed in the next chapter, and hint, it revolves around a single person.