The Devil's Cage

The moment the door on the carriage was opened, the players inside shifted their eyes at the door.

When they saw Kieran walk into the carriage, the players stood up as if they had been waiting for a long time.

Their actions were in sync, causing their front garment to shake in unison.

Souu.

Malicious gazes and dense killer intents were fired at Kieran at the same time.

"Kill!"

A sudden loud shout came from one of the players.

Right at the next moment, pitch black gun barrels were lighted up with muzzle flash ceaselessly.

The bullets were like heavy rain, pouring down at Kieran who immediately dodged behind the seat beside.

The bullets followed Kieran’s movements as well, that row of seats was instantly turned into a hornet’s nest. Even the alloy forged carriage wall started to dent because of the bullet shower.

Ding Ding Ding!

Sparks splashed everywhere as the bullets ricocheted from the carriage wall to the parts of the carriage.

Shields were held up one after another in front the firing players, followed by long knives appearing from the seams of the shields.

The long metal knives were glaring coldly under the lingering light within the carriage.

Then, the players then moved forward in unison to the seat where Kieran was hiding, trying to surround him.

But...

There was nothing behind the seat!

The players who attacked were shocked, yet before they could react to the disappearance, darkness enveloped the whole carriage.

[Shadow Cloak]! The supernatural darkness assaulted the sights of the players.

However, through their longtime teamwork, the players instinctively stuck their back to one another. The shields were held high after one another, not even sparing the space above their head.

Kang!

When the held up shields came in contact with the alloy floor of the carriage, a defensive dome formation without any dead angle was formed, similar to a tortoise shell.

Under the situation that they couldn’t see anything, a zero dead angle defensive formation would be a decent choice, if formation was impenetrable of course.

Fuuu!

A blazing fireball burnt fiercely on Kieran’s left hand, it expanded rapidly within a breath’s time.

Inside the supernatural darkness, all light was absorbed but the heat from the fireball brought up a wave throughout the carriage. The players inside the defensive formation felt something was wrong. Yet their longtime teamwork had made them believed out of habit that their defensive formation was unbreakable.

Therefore, when the Powerful rank Devil Flame exploded in their face, the players were assaulted by [Flame Burst] and unbelievable screams sounded all at once.

"Aaaargg!"

"What kind of fire is this!?"

The undying Devil Flame was like a plague, spreading between the players rapidly and devouring their life force. Whether was it rolling or beating the flames, none of their efforts could put out the fire.

Under the agonizing cry, the burnt stench started to fill the whole carriage.

Kieran frowned at the scene though. It wasn’t that he wasn’t used to the burning scene since he had trained up himself out of his own will, the horrifying burning scene could totally be ignored. He was just curious about the backgrounds of those players.

Close teamwork between players and precise roles divided among them, it wasn’t something a common organization could achieve. Especially inside this underground game, such teamwork between players would be even rarer.

Of course, it wasn’t good news for Kieran.

If Kieran was still guessing before, now he was certain that the curse dispeller had crossed some terrible player organization and Lawless was dragged into this mess. Most importantly, it was because of him.

Fuuuu!

Kieran spat out a heavy breath and rubbed between his brows uncontrollably.

Before solving the problem with Broker, Kieran’s own intentions were not to get involved with other player factions. However, changes always surpassed plans.

The eight bodies on the floor disintegrated into light particles and presented Kieran with another 60,000 Points 20 Skill Points plus eight room keys.

At the same time, another notification popped up on his vision.

[Player involved in battle within the train!]

[The conductor authenticated your action as self-defense!]

[Categorized as Honor Kill!]

[Sanction waived...]

...

"The conductor?" Kieran raised a brow.

Then, he saw a man-sized robot walk in through the off-limits locomotive direction with a train uniform followed by a bunch of smaller robots behind.

"Dear passenger, please hold on a moment!" The train attendant robot spoke through its loud speaker in a mechanical tone.

"Okay!"

Kieran replied with manners since he was used to dealing with robots in real life.

Then, he saw the smaller robots restore the whole carriage back to its original state. The seats were renewed, the floor, the wall was removed of any visible dents.

"Have a pleasant trip!" The train attendant robot said before bringing the smaller robots back to the locomotive area.

Kak!

The door was slowly closed.

Kieran then picked a seat and sat down.

"The robots are much smaller than the Union announced construction robots, and their capabilities exceed them even more!" Kieran commented.

He touched the seat that he sat on but he couldn’t feel any marks of repairs.

Though, he mocked himself soon after.

"This is just a game! A game! Everything that happens here is purely virtual! I don’t need to compare with those in the real world!" Kieran reminded himself.

But...

It wasn’t really effective.

He took in a deep breath and opened his PM tab, and contacted Rachel.

He needed something to divert his attention for the time being.

"2567: Rachel, You know any player organization that wears black cap and mantle plus has great teamwork?"

Kieran briefly described the players he encountered in the message, he thought with Rachel’s vast experience, she would know easily.

However, out of his expectation the moment he sent out the message, Rachel went offline.

Kieran was stunned.

"Did I step on her tail?" Kieran thought uncontrollably.

Kieran then continued sending messages to other acquaintances, yet got the same outcome.

None of them replied, even Blacksmith, Hanses and Coll.

Based on Kieran’s understanding of them three, as long as they were online and not caught up with something, they would definitely reply.

"Is the situation that bad?" Kieran slightly frowned.

...

Was the situation that bad?

Much worse than Kieran had imagined!

At a crossroad of Donaville Street, Small Path Square, the guns, and explosions sounded together.

Bullets flew in all directions, smashing the walls into rubble.

Explosions went off loudly, creating big craters on the ground one after another.

Groups of black cap mantled players were in a special formation, pressing forward in unison.

Hanses and Coll, on the other hand, were hiding at one of the houses aside and were pinned down by the bullet shower.

"God F*cking Damn it! How the hell are the Black Robes getting so much firepower!"

Hanses cursed loudly while holding his shield up high. He then looked at Coll beside him who was staring at a LED monitor on his LED screen controller.

"Still haven’t located the others? Hurry up! Otherwise, both of us will be shot into a f*cking sieve!"

Hanses urged Coll.

"Almost there, I... F*CK! My robot dog exploded! I..."

A moment ago, Coll was still calm as water yet he cursed out loud at the next. However, before he could finish his rant, Hanses dragged him along and rolled away.

KABLOOOM!

A huge explosion sounded.

The house that both of them were hiding in together with a couple more besides were leveled to flat ground.

...

"Hahahahaha! Saw that explosion Blacksmith? You sure you want to keep up us? With that handful of you trying to fight Black Robes with almost two hundred elites, ain’t you guys feeling a little delusional?"

A scrawny man was standing before a floating lady, mocking her with a ridiculing tone.

Different from the black cap mantled players around, although the man was also in black, his outfit leaned more towards casual wear. He was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, almost identical to the common folk on the street.

Except for the bloody, long flying knife in his hand.

Droplets of blood slid off that cold sharp edge, causing the ground to be wet.

As the dark and red intertwined, the lady’s red mantle became more eye-catching.

A series of twisted feelings from the man resonated with his flying knife.

Then...

Souu!

The flying knife was hurled out.