The Devil’s Cage

Kieran was looking at the room, which after putting in a single bed, one would have to walk sideways to get out. He couldn’t help but shake his head.

He didn’t want to linger in the room for a second longer.

The wooden flooring was badly rotten, despite how Kieran carefully moved around, his steps would produce irritating squeaks. The room had no window either, so the mattress on the bed was very humid to the point it has started to go moldy.

The only instrument of a light source inside the room was an oil lamp extended from the wooden wall but the oil was used up long ago, leaving only a dried up filament.

Kieran took his bag from the front side of the bed and double checked the room again. He turned around and went out through the door after making sure there weren’t any valuable pieces of information left behind.

Inside the dark and narrow corridor, there was only an oil lamp lit at the entrance.

The vile stench of overdue cleaning and feces filled the place, a couple of drunkards were lying on the corridor, snoring loudly.

Drunk scoldings and sharp screams from shrews were rumbling in the rooms along the corridor. They were arguing about the difference in prices of the beer they drank.

The drunkards along the corridor were woken up but all they did was mockingly laugh before passing out again. None of them were bothered about the place they fell asleep, neither did they care about the environment around them.

“People destroyed by despair.”

Kieran commented in his heart, he slowly, carefully moved along the drunkard’s legs.

He would not let his guard down because of how harmless the drunkards were, neither would he trample their pride because of the way of living they chose.

After he crossed the last drunkard and reached the entrance leading up to the surface, the slight breeze caressed his face and slightly blew over the stench in the corridor.

Kieran eagerly hastened his steps and right at that very moment, the last drunkard that Kieran crossed suddenly rose up with a dagger in his hand, giving out a cold glare and drove the dagger towards the back of Kieran’s heart.

Not only was it sudden, but it was also extremely fast.

However, to Kieran, who never let his guard down, the sudden strike was very lacking.

He didn’t even have the thought of dodging, instead, he dished out a kick behind him.

When the dagger was still some distance away, Kieran’s kick already landed on the drunkard’s chest.

Crack!

The drunkard’s check caved in clearly and was flying backward but as the drunkard’s feet were leaving the ground, Kieran turned around and grabbed his arm, pulling him back and laid him down on the floor softly.

Kieran would not show any mercy to his enemies, otherwise, he wouldn’t have killed the drunkard with one kick. The reason he pulled the drunkard back because he didn’t want to startle the others around him.

After a quick search on the attacker who pretended to be a drunkard, Kieran’s face turned heavy.

There wasn’t anything extra on the attacker except for the dagger and connecting it to the timing the attacker struck… He was a professional!

“Is it because of Herbert?” Kieran’s eyes shone brightly.

It was the only reason he could think of.

Herbert who was pretending have memory loss was under government surveillance and now Kieran who had just entered the dungeon world was attacked.

Although the attacker was nothing more than a goon, it was still enough to tell him the situation wasn’t too good.

When the thought came into his mind, Kieran quickly went up to the surface without a second thought.

Compared to the vile stench underground, the surface was countless times better.

Although there were no extra decorations, the environment was clean and had a counter filled with keys in sight, it told Kieran that the place he came through was a hotel, the cheapest one available.

The attendant or the owner himself was sleeping soundly on the counter.

Kieran didn’t startle the man and quietly walked out of the hotel.

However, before Kieran could size up the area to make sure where he was while standing in the shadows, a squad of ten appeared further away.

Unified uniforms and weapons, even their running was in a uniform manner at all times.

“The military?”

Kieran took a glance and quickly understood their identities.

Likewise, he also had a general guess about why the squad of men was there.

They were looking for him!

What happened next proved Kieran’s guesses right.

The squad quickly reached in front of the hotel, leaving only three on guard outside while the others rushed in.

A while later, the soldiers who went in brought the body of the attacker out. They weren’t just casually carrying the body but they formed a simple stretcher with the bed sheets and covered the body with a blanket.

Obviously, the attacker was one of the soldiers and thus the attacker’s body could enjoy such treatment.

The one who looked like the leader among the bunch waved at the three on guard and the whole squad gathered together, leaving swiftly.

There wasn’t even a sound throughout the process, the soldier’s had replaced talking with sign language.

“They are elites!” Kieran’s heart skipped a beat.

Although the soldier’s strength was not worthy of mention, the faction that they represented did not allow Kieran to underestimate them.

What would an elite military represent?

A country!

Regardless of how powerful Kieran had become and how he would grow stronger, he wasn’t that arrogant to the point that he would fight an entire country alone.

Especially against a country where firearms were already taking shape.

Thinking about the scene where thousands of cannons firing at him, Kieran brow’s furrowed together.

At that moment, he felt the situation was even worse than he had predicted.

The only fortunate thing was, he was still in Herl City.

Kieran’s plans would just drown in the river had he appeared in an unfamiliar city after entry to the dungeon world.

“Hope it’s not the worst kind!”

Kieran looked at the familiar clock tower further away and uttered in his heart. Then he went along with his plan and quickly headed towards a certain direction

…

A famous person once said, “When something might turn out to be good or bad, in the end, it will surely turn out to be the worst.”

Now, Kieran was facing the exact situation.

Kieran’s steps were forced to a halt when he saw a group of armed men in uniform standing in front of Herl City’s police station.

“The military has taken over the station?”

Kieran squinted his eyes over the situation before him.

His initial plan was to find the new chief officer, Rosher and try to find out about Herbert and the others but now given the situation, he would have to wonder whether the new chief officer was safe or not, let alone finding out more about the others.

After all, the military did come after him because of Herbert.

As long as one’s intel network wasn’t outdated and stuck in some hole, they should know the relationship between him and the new chief officer.

Judging from how the military worked, in order to secure insurance, putting the chief officer behind bars was inevitable and it was already the best case scenario.

If the leader of this contingent of troops was a cruel man, the new chief officer might not even be alive anymore.

No doubt Kieran’s initial plans were wasted, so he quickly made adjustments.

He had come up with contingency plans before he entered the dungeon world just in case. But before Kieran could move out, a squad of men appeared in front of the police station entrance.

When Kieran saw one of the people among the group, he was shocked.