The Devil’s Cage

Bright red brain juice was splattered all over the place; it reached almost 3 to 4 meters.

However, Kieran didn’t even spare a look.

It was not that he was cold-blooded, but the moment Shandy’s head exploded, the body took all his attention.

The body suddenly emitted an aura that made Kieran feel threatened.

In simple words, someone took over Shandy’s body the moment he died, and it might very well be related to Shandy’s death.

Wuuuuung!

A minor tremble spread through the air; the brain matter on the ground then started to gather and retract rapidly into a dagger-like weapon within a breath and went on to Shandy’s hand.

His body stood up right away, and he was tossing around the dagger that was made up with his brain.

Keiran couldn’t help the unusual feeling that bloomed in his heart.

Just as Kieran was feeling unnatural, a formless power blasted out from Shandy’s body, like an arrow aimed at Kieran.

[Spirit Sting: Spirit has passed the authentication, no damage occurred…]

[Backlash: Spirit is higher than user by 2 ranks, user will receive a Heavily Wounded degree attack…]

...

PAK!

The brain dagger that gathered in Shandy’s hand exploded, and soon, the headless body fell back to the ground.

The aura on the body even disappeared into thin air, followed by a suppressed, agonized groan that sounded in the atmosphere before it flashed away.

”Zorl! The registrar Zorl!”

Although that voice only sounded for a flash, Kieran could clearly tell it was from Zorl, one of Broker’s trusted man.

Kieran’s impression of Zorl came from the item appraisal at the secret bazaar and the conversation back in Harvest Inn. He never thought Zorl was also a Chosen One, but within the battlelog notification, [Spirit Sting] was enough to prove who he was.

Not only was Zorl a Chosen One, but also one with extremely strange abilities.

Whether it was detonating Shandy’s head or controlling his headless body, it allowed Kieran to have a general idea of how a Chosen One battled.

”A competition of Spirit? No, not only that, there are some small tricks involved as well!”

Kiera unconsciously recalled the scene when Shandy was tossing the brain dagger.

That was Zorl trying to create an atmosphere, to create more fear from the wicked scene for Kieran, thus allowing [Spirit Sting] to harness more power from Kieran’s weakened state.

Although such tricks were useless against Kieran with his S-rank Spirit, it didn’t stop him from having the interest to learn such tricks.

Kieran could use his S-rank Spirit to suppress other common players and the other Chosen Ones with lower ranks than him, but should he come across an opponent with an equal rank, these tricks would come in handy.

Kieran believed that as Broker’s enemy, he would soon come across opponents that could match him.

”Having the loyalty of a Chosen One, Broker…” Kieran ruminated over this matter.

He then walked out even further with a languid pace.

Kieran had originally planned to move towards the rooms of the three killer players that possessed a decent level of strength, acquire more spoils of war and even confuse Broker by abandoning one or two rooms before Broker could react to the wipeout of this men, but because Zorl suffered the backlash directly, Broker would be able to react instantly.

Was Kieran willing to abandon his rights to the other players’ rooms? All Broker needed to do was to wait him out, and Kieran’s plans would go to waste.

Besides, Kieran believed Broker would prefer the simple way to deal with him.

Unless Kieran never returned to 13th Wallway Street. But was it possible?

He had the rights to other players’ rooms, and each and everyone of the room was unique in its own way, similar to his own.

However, the other rooms didn’t have the book collections that he had in 13th Wallway, the [Basic Medicine Crafting Platform] and other miscellaneous items.

Moreover, it was a fact that a scrooge would never give his [Basic Medicine Crafting Platform] and his own collection up; it was as hard as plucking the moon. The other fact was that there were still tons of unfinished books about sword skills and mystical knowledge, enough for Kieran to treat them as priceless treasures.

If Kieran still had a sane mind, he would never give the books up.

After all, Kieran had no intentions of placing himself in the dark. He was anticipating Broker’s reaction so he could verify his guesses.

...

PUK!

Zorl staggered backwards after a spitting a mouthful of blood on the ground.

However, before he could even wipe the blood off his mouth, he sent a PM to Broker straight away.

After he had completed his duty, he took out a healing potion and poured it down his throat.

The effect of the potion spread through Zorl’s body, healing his backlash effect quickly. However, as his body was healing, his emotions and his mind weren’t calm.

2567 was a Chosen One! On top of that he was an extremely powerful one, at least higher than his Spirit rank by 2!

”A Chosen One with A+ rank Spirit or higher?” Zorl took a deep breath.

To Zorl who was quite different from other veterans, it was not his first time encountering a Chosen One, but it was the first time a Chosen One could completely suppress him in terms of Spirit competition.

”What a scary gift! And even more scary potential!”

As a real, trusted subordinate of Broker, Zorl aided Broker in taking care of most of the matters. He even knew the arrangements for the game newbie 2567, but he didn’t think it was too much for his boss, Broker.

It was also not the first time he had encountered such incidents either. The little sympathy in his heart was already buried down by the harsh reality.

Zorl knew that in this ”man-eat-man” underground game, if he wanted to live on steadily, he would have to bury his conscience. It was a luxury he couldn’t afford.

Success after success built up his confidence, until the appearance of 2567!

Not only did he ruin the mission that Zorl thought was a piece of cake, now 2567’s actions had affected his boss’ entire plan.

”Hmph! Foolish 2567! You really have it coming from the boss since you never knew how scary he is!” Zorl let out a cold grunt.

Ding!

His PM tab pinged. Zorl was anxious to check the message, but what followed were puzzled and confused thoughts floating in his heart.

Zorl couldn’t understand what his boss’ intentions were.

No doubt, 2567’s existence could threaten the entire plan, similar to the previous encounters. They must kill him while he was still in his cradle, but why would his boss let 2567 off so easily?

However, he knew how his boss did things, so he didn’t press the question; he didn’t dare question his boss’ orders.

All he did was follow as he was instructed in the PM.

Zorl stood where he was for a while, trying to find the words to put into a PM.

After around twenty seconds, a PM was sent out with a substantial amount of reward and mercenary fees.

The recipient was…

Banning, Black Hell Banning!

One of the Supernovas!

Translator’s Thoughts

Dess Dess

Banning, Black Hell Banning!