The Devil's Cage

The familiar light descended upon him again and words started to pile up on Kieran’s vision.

[Entering Title Dungeon!]

[Dungeon Type: Party Special Dungeon...]

[Number of party members: 2]

[Detected only 2 players, player 2567 and player Wu have formed an alliance based on contract, dungeon difficulty increasing!]

[Determined player 2567 has sub-scroll, assigning identity...]

[Identity: As a snitch, you hide in the corners of the city, you live by pickpocketing and bluffs but the last job put you into some big trouble, you have become a target for all. You hide carefully, hoping to prove your innocence but no one will believe a snitch.]

[Background: Eiders, at night, has fallen into panic. Continuous murders have made the prosperous and crowded streets empty, and those that hide in the corners of the city are tempted to move!]

[Main mission: None, Stay duration: 60 days]

[Temporary language pack, Disappears upon exiting the dungeon.]

[Clothing, backpack, weapons, and other items remain unchanged, Temporarily altered appearance, Returns to normal upon exiting the dungeon]

[Detected firearms and grenades do not match the dungeon period, power decreased by 30%. This is a Title Dungeon, you will not be compensated.]

[Note 1: Title Dungeon has no main mission]

[Note 2: Player cannot acquire items or equipment through killing in the Title Dungeon]

[Note 3: Player will not get dungeon clear Points, Skill Points, Golden Skill Points, Golden Attribute Points and because of the alliance formed with player Wu, even if you acquire ratings higher than player Wu, you will not get the Unique Title, The Wisher. It will only provide you with extra time to stay behind.]

...

“A wanted snitch?”

Kieran looked at the identity assigned to him and raised a puzzled brow.

With a single glance at his identity, he could already imagine what he had to face.

Will you believe what a thief has to say?

The answer was self-explanatory.

Even for a kind person, one would have certain guards against a thief.

Most importantly, Kieran did not see any bit of clues leading to The Wisher in his identity or background description, not even The Wisher was mentioned.

“So this is the result of the increased difficulty?”

After comparing it with [Blade of the Daybreaker], he muttered to himself. Then, his eyes slid down and read through the following description and notes, in hopes of finding more information.

“Firearms and grenades don’t match the period, so power decreased by 30%, which means firearms are on the rise? On top of that, the contract existence really doesn’t give the player any loopholes to exploit. Hope that lady is fine on her side.”

Kieran couldn’t help but frown when he thought about his “contracted comrade” who basically had no means of attack.

Both of them did communicate before entry but all they did was speculate about the Title Dungeon, [The Wisher]. However, the situation at hand had far exceeded their expected difficulty and was very complicated.

Looking at the difficulty, Kieran had reason to believe he would not be able to locate Wu as easily as he did Starbeck in [Blade of the Daybreaker].

Huu!

As the words started to fade away, Kieran took a deep breath and started to adjust his condition.

When the dazzling light and loss of gravity went away, Kieran appeared inside a small house that was short, humid, and brokenly old. Through the window seams, one could see that the sun was slowly setting.

The house had no extra decoration or furniture but an old torn blanket.

Kieran simply picked up the blanket that should have been made out of cotton and checked it thoroughly. After making sure there was nothing noteworthy, he continued to search the entire house.

Unfortunately, he did not get anything. Kieran didn’t leave right away after checking the house though.

He took out [Thousand Face] that he got from the hero’s dungeon, put it on and waited quietly.

He needed a new identity, an identity that allowed him to blend in and be ‘acknowledged’ by others.

What kind of identity could earn acknowledgment better than the pursuers?

Dak, Dak, Dak.

A series of hurried steps later, several less friendly men blocked the exit of the old broken house. The neighbors who lived in the area quickly ran back to their house before these few men truly arrived, all of them were peeking through the seams of their windows.

“This is the place? I thought we just searched this place in the morning?”

The leader among the bunch sized up the surroundings and frowned. The cheeks on his face twitched as he furrowed his brows, making his already vicious face look even fiercer.

Anyone who saw him would feel scared, especially when he gripped the sword at his waist, the neighbors who looked at him turned around right away.

“Boss, don’t worry! I’ve got exact news on this! My informant here saw the bastard return to this place about an hour ago—he obviously thinks this place is safe after we searched it but he never thought someone was watching this place.”

A small, thin man with small eyes and long hair said with flattery without minding his boss’ viciousness.

“Nicely done!”

The vicious leader nodded before waving at his men.

Then, the men barged into the short small house.

Don’t expect any kind of manners from these vicious men.

The one in front took charge and smashed the door with a single kick.

The thin and weak door plank couldn’t resist the powerful kick.

Pak!

When the foot landed on the door plank, the whole door was smashed to pieces.

The other men shouted and barged in angrily.

Then...

There was no vicious scolding, no fighting after they rammed in.

What happened was dead silence, as if behind the door was the dark mouth of a giant monster, devouring all the men without a sound.

The vicious leader and the thin man who flattered him exchanged gazes, both of them saw the anxious looks in each other’s eyes.

The former pulled out his sword and pointed it at the door.

The latter sweat coldly and stepped back uncontrollably.

Dak, Dak Dak.

Footsteps were heard.

Unlike the messy steps when these men arrived, the footsteps now were clearer and more powerful.

Both pursuers locked their gaze at the darkness beyond the door.

A deep, dark figure started to emerge from the darkness.

Following the emergence of the dark figure, the darkness beyond the room slowly turned bright, and the slightly warm sunset that shed on the figure lost its temperature instantly.

Because when this figure walked into the sunset, it looked like bloodshed itself on the figure. His cold eyes landed on the two pursuers.

“You...”

Bam!

Just when the vicious leader tried to say something, his eyes caught that cold glare, thus nothing came out of his mouth.

What was left in him was fear caused by sheer killing intent.

His body lost control under the killing intent and fell to the ground.

As for the thin follower of his?

The thin man limped down on the floor as well and peed his pants.

Kieran glanced at these two men who couldn’t even be considered as goons before he walked to a side and merged with the shadows.

The moment Kieran vanished into the shadows, a scream sounded from further away.