The Devil’s Cage

Right after the order was given, hundreds of players charged towards the dome clock tower.

Broker sat back and did not follow the group, instead looking at Borl, who was stunned at the spot.

“Right, I forgot to give you back your most important possesion.”

Broker tapped his head softly and took a crystal ball out, tossing it to Borl.

Borl wanted to dodge but after everything that happened before his eyes and toppled his world view, he seemed to have lost the ability to dodge.

The crystal ball hit him, but it didn’t bounce away or break. Instead, it merged with Borl’s body.

The crystal ball was actually Borl’s memories!

Memories like the rising tide gushed into Borl’s mind, impacting his brain heavily.

“Aaaaaaargh!!!” Screaming in pain, Borl went down on his knees.

Edatine! He saw Edatine once again!

He saw the Witch descending from hell!

He saw the destruction of Edatine!

He saw the plague wreaking havoc throughout the Northern Lands!

Death! Endless death! No one was able to escape, including himself!

He might even be the most pitiful one because he was caught by the Witch and was sliced up bit by bit.

His body, his soul, everything was cut into pieces. His power was then extracted and absorbed into the Witch’s body, becoming a part of her.

‘I… was dead?’ Borl muttered to himself.

The questionable spots that used to trouble him finally got a clear explanation, he had finally gotten to the bottom of everything.

He was dead a long time ago and now he was revived by Broker.

He had nothing with him when he came back to life, nothing except for a set of memories that he wasn’t sure were real or not.

Borl went silent, but soon enough he thought of something.

‘2567! 2567 is still inside the dungeon! The Witch will appear, 2567 is in danger!’

With that thought in mind, Borl gave his best effort to stand up and slowly step back.

The restraining force on him was gone, but against Broker, he dared not be careless.

It wasn’t just Broker’s strength that he dreaded, there was also his forces.

No one would ever expect Broker to be the mysterious leader of the Resistance, right?

On top of that, Broker wanted to siege the dome clock tower!

He was going to siege the only place that had a relation with the Witch after she was gone from the game.

‘Is it somehow related to 2567 back in Edatine?’

As for how Broker revived him or how he ‘extracted’ time, Borl didn’t have the mood to think about it at the moment, all he wanted to do was leave.

He originally thought it would be tough to escape from Broker. He even messaged Lawless for help but until he retreated back to the exit, Broker didn’t even move a finger to stop him, he just smiled—although there was the facial blur from the system, Borl was sure Broker was smiling at him.

“I have achieved my goal and you have done your duty. So you are free now—consider it your reward,” Broker commented without touching on the important aspects, but his casual tone did not ease Borl’s heart. Instead, it sank it like an iceberg did to the Titanic.

Broker was a professional business man, it was an undoubted fact and acknowledged by everyone in the big city. Therefore, Broker would never make a losing deal.

The cost of bringing someone back to life…

“What did you do to 2567?” Borl asked directly.

“Him? Nothing. I never had any malicious thoughts for him,” Broker laughed his mind out, then waved to Borl and said, “But accidents always happen. If you people don’t figure out a way to help him, he might really run into a serious problem, not a life-threatening problem, but he might be… lost!”

“Lost?”

“Yes, lost. He will be lost in Edatine forever and never be able to come back. If you want to help him, you better hurry.”

Broker then strode out and Zorl the Registrar followed tightly behind him.

Looking at Broker’s vanishing figure, Borl kept messaging Lawless. He then quickly headed to Harvest Inn.

He felt like there must be more than one trap in all of this and he thought that Lawless had to know about this.

It was not about anything else, it was just that Lawless was 2567’s friend and he was friends with 2567.

…

“Stealing a sip of liquor while Rachel is gone for a kicker. She looks like a bitch to me and doesn’t even wash her hands after she shits…”

Mopping the floor, Lawless was singing a weird song that only he knew.

If it wasn’t wooden and something else, Lawless was certain that the floor he scrubbed would be as reflective as a mirror.

But Rachel told him to mop the floor three more times.

Three more times it was then. He was used to it already, there was no complaint at all about that but how did she notice the stolen liquor?

Lawless was sure that when he hid the bottle of liquor, Rachel wasn’t in the inn and there was no one around him.

Besides that, Rachel seemed to have kept a secret from him. She’d been missing from the inn recently.

On top of that, Blacksmith and Lemour the Alchemist hadn’t shown up for a while now.

Hanses and Coll, who’d drop by everyday before this, were also quite mysterious recently.

Ramont even rejected his suggestion to go explore the outskirts of the big city, though Derder always dropped by and talked to him.

‘What a great fella! It’s too bad that he doesn’t drink. Compared to him, Borl is much better!’

When Lawless started to think about his friend who left not long ago, he couldn’t help but smile in a silly way. It was at that moment the messaging tab lit up with a message from Borl.

Without a further thought, Lawless opened it.

When he checked the content of the message, the smile on Lawless’ face vanished.

An aura as keen as a blade appeared on his buff body.

“BROKER!!!!” he shouted loudly.

Then, a second message from Borl came.

There were a lot of words this time.

In summary: 2567 is trapped in a dungeon world!

Without further thought, Lawless contacted Rachel.

Lawless: 2567 is trapped in a dungeon world, it’s Broker’s doing and it’s related to the Witch.

Rachel: I’m coming back now. Wait for me.

…

After a short and quick conversation, Lawless sat patiently and waited for Rachel.

The smoke from his cigar quickly filled the inn.

Huuu! Haaa!

Amid the heavy breathing, the image of a crouching tiger with its eyes closed slowly took form.

…

“That idiot Lawless got the news from another idiot,” said Rachel to Wu, her friend.

“What are you going to do?” Wu didn’t look at her friend, instead offering Magic rank items, one after another, for a sacrifice.

“Are you confident enough?” Rachel didn’t answer Wu’s question, asking another one instead.

“2567 will be fine, he won’t be disappointed and I won’t disappoint him either.”

Wu then knelt on the carpet and started ‘wishing’.

She was wishing for Kieran’s return by paying the cost using all the conditions that she could bear.

Rachel looked at her friend. She wanted to stop Wu but she couldn’t even utter a word. All she did was quietly step out of the place and informed all her partners to assemble at Harvest Inn.

After all of that, Rachel hesitated for a moment before she sent a message to… Starbeck the mimosa.

…

“The golden sugar is a little less. I need to use the eye of a hydra to replace the eye of a wing dragon? The heart of a plutonium dragon, the blood essence of a devil overlord, the breath of the primal lord.”

Starbeck was putting the raw ingredients, one after another, into the big wok.

[Duyer’s Recipe] and [Index of Eat] inspired Starbeck greatly.

It allowed Starbeck to properly use the ingredients to carry out his vows to Kieran.

Never be 2567’s burden, become someone who can support 2567.

It’s almost done.

A radiance of indescribable color shone from the [Big Wok], and slowly emerging from the wok was a… steam bun.

Starbeck smiled so happily that his eyes squinted into the likes of a crescent moon.

“With this, 2567’s power will surely reach a new level.”

Overjoyed, Starbeck started to prepare a feast to welcome Kieran back.

It was a habit to him, albeit he obtained this habit not long ago.

Starbeck was serious and serious about this.

It wasn’t a reduplication, Starbeck had twice the seriousness.

He was serious about food and he was serious about Kieran.

Ding!

The ping from the message tab stopped Starbeck from what he was doing.

When he saw the message from Rachel, Starbeck’s look turned ugly. His face turned slightly pale and he even faltered backwards.

Starbeck only regained his senses after a few seconds.

He ran to the living room to reach his bag.

The bag was a normal one and had scrolls that he needed inside it.

Starbeck dug out all the scrolls from the bag.

[Wishing (Small)] x 12

[Wishing [Medium)] x 12

[Wishing [Big)] x 12

[Wishing (Extra Large)] x 12.

A thick stack of [Wishing] scrolls that varied from different ranks were taken out.

He actually prepared all of them for himself because he knew he’d always run into trouble.

Of course, Starbeck had prepared more than just a stack of scrolls, he even has [Auspicious Potion] x3!

Three radiating gold potions were placed in front of him and without a second thought, Starbeck grabbed one and finished it, but he didn’t use the stack of [Wishing] scroll next. Instead, he put his hand back into the bag.

A very old scroll was taken out this time, looking no different from those abandoned scrolls.

However, with a closer look, one could feel the glow of the moon on the scroll. It was very dim, one wouldn’t be able to tell without a very meticulous look.

The scroll’s name was [Dien’s Blessing]! He once found it at a historical ruin and it still wasn’t his last trump card.

Starbeck grabbed another [Auspicious Potion] and drank it, then put his hand back into the back and took another piece of scroll out.

This second golden scroll was radiating brightly like the sun, it even had a faint dragon’s growl emanated from it.

The illusory image of an hourglass flashed over the scroll.

[Leaf’s Blessing]!

After he saw the scroll, Starbeck heaved a sigh of relief.

Then, Starbeck finished the last vial of [Auspicious Potion]

Swiftly, he tore all 36 pieces of the [Wishing] scroll, then [Dien’s Blessing], and finally [Leaf’s Blessing].

A low hymn of blessing echoed in the room.

The moon and the sun appeared together at the ceiling.

Unified Shine of Sun and Moon!

Starbeck didn’t notice any of that since he was praying with his eyes closed, but the others saw it.

The room system that should be able to block everything failed to block the moonlight and sunlight from radiating from within.

Starting off from Starbeck’s room in the center, a crescent moon and a sun appeared in the sky of the big city.

The crescent moon was pure and white; the sun was golden and blistering.

The sun and moon called out to each other and a wonderful resonance started to appear.

…

Those who knew Rynester would be infected by his kindness.

His casual and polite way of speaking allowed him to easily win other’s trust.

But Yu was different. He was cold and ruthless, the most revered among the Guardians, but most of the people were looking at the eight magistrates.

Compared to the two mysterious Supervisors, who hid away from the public eye, the assembled eight magistrates attracted more attention from the Guardians’ members.

The Magistrate of Sword, Lee.

The Magistrate of Shield, Hark.

The Magistrate of Spear, Elder.

The Magistrate of Bow, Rodd.

The Magistrate of Flame, Gue.

The Magistrate of Ice, Rosso.

The Magistrate of Wind, Gike.

The Magistrate of Earth, Glove.

The people were looking at each other in confusion. They didn’t know what happened, but they knew what the assembled eight magistrates represented and what the situation meant.

Therefore, everyone was serious and patient while waiting.

Several seconds later, a series of footsteps came from one side of the Y-stairs.

A person with a blurred out face and an eagle on his shoulder walked over.

When the eagle entered everybody’s eyes, everyone skipped a breath.

They were very familiar with this particular eagle.

It was safe to say that without the eagle’s selection, they wouldn’t have become one of the Guardians and the shoulder that the eagle would land on belonged to…

The leader?!

All the members of the Guardians started to speculate.

“Everyone. I apologize for meeting all of you under such circumstances. We originally should have met in a more solemn situation but unfortunately, because of some unexpected events, we have to move the schedule up a notch. You can call me Ling, but please don’t call me leader because only that lord has the rights to be addressed in that title. And we are all the lord’s Guardians! We guard the lord’s treasure and wait for her return, but now, there are some with ill intentions who have their eyes on our lord’s treasure,” Ling was being very straightforward.

The lord that Ling referred to was the Witch without a question, but Ling continued to call her using the honorary title.

Likewise the members of the Guardians, they too maintained the necessary respect for the Witch.

To them, the Witch was an idol that they admired highly.

There was no need for instigation, those who stayed here had their battle intents aroused.

“KILL!” shouted the members of the Guardians en masse.

KABOOM!

Amid their shouting, an explosion happened outside the door.

The door, which should have been indestructible, was destroyed by the blast.

Broker, leading the Resistance, walked in with a smile.

Ling saw the hatred in Broker’s eyes, but he was soon captivated by the unusual phenomenon of a sun and a crescent moon appearing at once in the sky above the big city.

“Unified Shine of Sun and Moon?! How is this possible?! How did you do it?” shouted Ling in utter disbelief.