The Devil’s Cage

The main mission and the dungeon background appeared in Kieran’s vision in words.

[Background: After participating in years of reaping lives as an arbiter, you have grown tired of it. You wish to live a more peaceful life. So you had begun your risky plan but accidents happened and it almost caused you to fall just short of success. Fortunately, you realized the truth at the crucial moment but the executioner that trailed you will not give up that easily, even though you can fool their sight for a while!]

[Main Mission: Make sure your new identity is not exposed in 90 days.]

[Note 1: Player completing sub-missions and special events will not contribute to the final clear rating but will reduce the main mission time.]

[Note 2: The ongoing and unfinished sub-mission will be calculated to the current reduction of time.]

[Note 3: The difficulty of sub-missions and special events determines how much time will be decreased.]

[Note 4: The time spent searching for the main mission will not be counted towards the main mission time, but the remaining time will contribute to reducing the main mission time.]

…

“Arbiter? Years of slaughtering?”

Kieran muttered in his heart and his facial expression became even heavier.

When he realized he was one of the participants of the Winchester House explosion, he tried to theorize what his main mission would be but he never thought that he was a deserter from a certain organization.

After causing so much commotion, all that effort was just to flee an organization.

Although the background didn’t have any further description, the term “executioner ” made him understand that he was being searched for by an extremely secretive organization.

It wasn’t a good news at all, the more secretive an organization was, the harsher the control on their members. The organization would surely form a set of effective methods to clamp down on their internal members.

The easiest method was, utilizing chronic poisons or controlling their family members.

Kieran didn’t know whether “his” organization would go that route but he knew he had to find a secluded place to check his body.

He surely hoped there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary inside his body.

Otherwise, let alone 90 days, he couldn’t even live another day.

…

Inside Augen Manor, there was a medical room purposely set up to treat Symende Augen and Anne Aldrich Augen and the medical equipment inside was overwhelmingly advanced.

Not only was the equipment was very complete, but it was also at a state-of-the-art level as well.

Compared to St. Reid Hospital, the hospital had fallen to a third tier medical facility.

Even the best hospital in Edland City has fallen down to a second tier facility before all this medical equipment.

After showing his “wound” on his back to Anne Aldrich Augen’s personal doctor and stating that he had gotten hurt due to protecting her, Kieran was immediately invited to the medical room.

Kieran allowed the personal doctor to patch him up and in the meantime, he was examining the medical equipment there. He would ask the doctor from time to time out of curiosity as well and the doctor too explained to him since there was nothing to hide.

However, the personal doctor didn’t only notice Kieran’s curiosity but also the humbleness of asking for consultation, it instantly set up a good image in the doctor’s mind.

From the brief explanation, it further elaborated to become a detailed yet understandable talk of all the equipment.

The doctor’s explanation prolonged the simple patching process for almost half an hour.

“The wound isn’t very deep, no stitches will be needed. All you need to do is change the bandages on time, stay dry, and you will recover in no time. Be careful though, the wound might be itchy during the recovery. If you don’t want to get infections, its best not to scratch it.”

The doctor advised Kieran after Kieran’s question.

“Thank you, doctor. I think I should watch Mrs. Augen’s mayoral speech, it might be able to divert my attention.”

Baring his top, Kieran took his coat and went out the medical room.

“Of course!” the doctor didn’t refute and even left the medical room after Kieran.

Anne Aldrich Augen’s beauty had a lethal attraction to regular people.

A minute after the doctor left, Kieran returned to the medical room.

He went straight for the most expensive CT scanner inside without any hesitation.

Anne Aldrich Augen’s speech wouldn’t last forever, in fact, it had already reached the end.

If Kieran wanted to be secretive, he would need to finish the scan in a short time.

Wung!

The CT scanner started its operation after the soft sound of starting up.

Two minutes later, Kieran brought a couple of similar patterned CT scan results out of the medical room.

…

“I never thought you are interested in medicine as well!”

Anne Aldrich Augen entered Kieran’s guest room after switching out her white suit for the long red dress.

Even if it was a rustle of leaves in the wind inside the manor, nothing would slip past the female owner’s knowledge, even more so when Kieran decided not to hide it.

“You know, I’ve lost my memory… I hope these books can help me,” Kieran said without lifting his head.

“Fine, I admit that your usual performance struck me wrong, thinking that you are a “normal person!”

Anne Aldrich Augen stared at a certain body part on Kieran and left an innuendo hidden in her remark.

“I am clearer than you at this point.”

“What do I owe the visit, Mrs. Augen? If there’s nothing of importance, I hoped you could leave me alone to my readings.”

While Kieran was emphasizing, he even ordered for his guest to leave.

“Hey, you are the guest, I am the owner now!”

“… There’s a dinner tomorrow night, I want you to go with me. My rivals will attend as well, I hope there are no accidents this time,” Anne Aldrich Augen reminded Kieran.

Kieran nodded to express his acknowledgment.

His attitude really upstaged Anne Aldrich Augen, she grunted with her nasal voice to express her dissatisfaction before leaving swiftly.

The door was shut once again, only the flipping of books was heard after that.

The day had slowly slipped into midnight, Kieran placed the book down and heaved a long breath.

He raised his hand to rub his ever-swelling temple because of the long hours of reading.

When the swelling went away, Kieran started to think again.

“According to the comparison, my heart has been swapped out! Not too long ago but around a year or more!” Kieran was sure about the results in his body.

Of course, Kieran didn’t spend the entire day and half a night to read himself to a doctor’s level. It was just that he found the CT scan results of a heart transplant patient within a year in the books.

Comparing to his own CT scan results, the process was almost the same and the similarity caused more doubts in his heart.

“The method of the organization clamping down on their members, it should be inserting some item inside our hearts. That is why my heart has been swapped out but… When I entered the dungeon world, my [Fusion Heart] had been sealed coincidentally as well, giving me a brand new heart. This is too much of a coincidence, doesn’t it?”

Sitting in the sofa, Kieran tapped the armrest lightly, his face was shifting with different expressions.