The Devil’s Cage

As Kieran pulled the cloth out of her mouth, the girl coughed. She kept it down just like Kieran had told her to, and looked right at him. She looked delicate and pretty, which explained why she had ended up at the base.

Her eyes begged Kieran to untie her.

Kieran did not do so immediately. He asked her a question instead.

“Hold up, can you introduce yourself first? A proper introduction.”

He needed to make sure that she wouldn’t cause him any trouble. She had kept her voice down so far, so Kieran hoped that she would continue to be cooperative.

She might have been a victim of the Vulture, but that did not mean that he would let his guard down around her. She was still a stranger to him, unlike Colleen whom he had formed a bond with.

Still, that was not the main reason why Kieran would not untie her.

“I am Maggie, an apprentice nurse at St. Joanna Hospital… Before they captured me, I was hiding with the others at the Harles Street Underground Subway Station. The subway has a hidden passage that leads to an abandoned place. I was just coming out of that passage when they caught me!” the girl said after a minor hesitation.

Despite the slightly frightened tone of her voice, she did her best to explain herself.

Something had caught Kieran’s attention, though.

“Wait, how did you find the hidden passage?” he asked.

“My father was a subway maintenance worker, so I got the information from him.”

She seemed sad at the mention of her father.

The sadness in her voice implied that he had died during the war.

These might have been hard times, but families could not help but mourn. There was nothing else for them to do.

“Sorry to hear that. How many people were with you?” Kieran expressed his sympathy while he tried to get more information out of her.

“I was the last one to leave that place. Although it was safe, we were facing a serious lack of food and water. In the beginning, we still had lots of supplies, but eventually they ran out and people started to leave. I was afraid to leave at first. I waited until the very last moment to come out. When I did, I was captured by these men.”

As she spoke about her encounter with them, she lowered her head. Maybe she was of a cowardly nature, or maybe she just hadn’t had the courage to face the Vulture and his men.

“You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. They were notorious, violent thugs. There was nothing you could have done,” Kieran tried to comfort her, but it seemed to make her even more depressed.

She had witnessed Kieran kill the Vulture right before her eyes.

“Alright, we don’t have much time. I have to get some stuff and then we’re leaving!”

Kieran cut the rope off her hands and untied them while Maggie tried to untie her own legs. Kieran searched around the room.

He still kept an eye on her in case she made any sudden moves. He did not fully trust her yet.

Although Maggie seemed to be harmless, he could not afford to put his trust on someone he had just met. Colleen was a different matter. She been through a life-and-death situation with him.

Kieran cut Maggie’s hands loose, but did not untie her legs.

He did not care if Maggie noticed his wary attitude towards her.

He opened a drawer next to the bed.

Inside the drawer he found a handgun, two magazines, and two grenades.

The handgun was an M1905, and the magazines were both compatible with it.

What was important was the grenades.

[Name: U-II]

[Type: Explosive]

[Rarity: Common]

[Attack: Strong]

[Attributes: + 30% Damage against bare-handed targets]

[Effect: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remarks: This is a defensive grenade, so please take cover before you throw it.]

While he looked at the details of the grenade, especially its attributes, Kieran came up with a plan.

He put both grenades into his shirt pocket along with the gun and the magazines.

After he made sure that there was nothing else worth taking, he went over to the two big cupboards on the other side of the bed.

Maggie was still struggling to untie her legs.

Kieran opened the door of the cupboard without hesitating.

He wasn’t being careless by not looking for traps. He just figured that the Vulture would not install any traps inside his own room. After all, Kieran had taken him out with just one hit, so he couldn’t have been a very vigilant man.

The left side of the cupboard was dragged open with a screeching noise.

Canned food, bottles of water, magazines, guns. Everything was arranged in perfect order as if it were a supermarket.

There were almost thirty cans food and boxes of water, about six or seven M1905s, and even a M12 rifle. Yellow bullets were stored inside a big box.

“What the…”

Even though he knew that the Vulture had been storing supplies, Kieran’s jaw still dropped open at the sight.

If he took all these supplies, they would be enough for him to survive the next six days of the mission. Maybe even more than enough.

He strapped the M12 on and moved on to the second cupboard.

He opened the door wide again.

It held the same supplies as the previous one, plus two extra backpacks.

He quickly grabbed one to inspect it.

It was so heavy that he had to use both his hands to lift it.

He put the backpack on his lap and used his knee to hold the door of the cupboard open.

He pulled the zipper and a reflection of light shined out of the backpack.

There was jewelry and treasure stuffed inside it.

His heart skipped a beat just by looking at it. He could imagine what all this would be worth.

It hit him pretty hard when he read the description details.

[Name: Priceless Jewelry]

[Type: Jewelry]

[Rarity: Mixed, unable to identify multiple items]

[Attributes: None]

[Effect: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: No]

[Remarks: You could give it to the Head of the Rebellion, or choose to do something else with it!]

“I can’t bring it out?”

The message struck him like lightning.

All that jewelry could be worth a fortune.

If he were able to bring it out of the dungeon, he could just abandon all his future plans and find a place to spend the remainder of his days.

It would allow him to reach his goal in no time. However, the maker of the game was not that stupid. He would never have set such an easy task for the players.

If he tried to take the bag with him, the low-level thug base he had infiltrated would suddenly turn into a high-tech military base with extreme security.

Even the boss that Kieran had taken out so easily would in that case become a martial arts professional or military specialist.

You take what you give.

That was a game rule.

Unless there was some kind of bug or hack that he could use to his advantage.

Kieran was a rookie though, so he was not able to spot any noticeable bugs.

As for using a hack? Forget it.

He closed the zipper again and turned his attention back to Maggie.

She had already untied herself, but she had not made any sudden moves despite the amount of supplies and firearms that were on display.

Intentional or not, it still gained her some points with Kieran.

She was either very naive or extremely clever.

Either way, it was good for Kieran. The latter might cause him some trouble, but as long as he was in control, he could prevent her from doing anything rash.

“I’ll be right back. Just need to settle something with the guys outside.”

He walked out of the room, planning to take out every single one of the thugs outside.

Although this had not been his initial plan, acquiring the two grenades had given him room for improvisation.

Kieran approached the diesel generator. Right next to it was the room where the thugs gathered. The men inside were too busy making noise to notice that anything was wrong.

Kieran switched off the generator, and all of a sudden the corridor turned pitch black.

“Damn it. That fricking generator stopped again!”

“Let’s go take a look. We don’t want the boss yelling at us again.”

“I think we need to find a generator that works properly.”

All sorts of curses came from the room before footsteps began to sound out. The lack of light made the men clumsy.

As one of them opened the door, Kieran came out of the dark, lifted his left foot, and kicked the thug back inside.

The kick landed hard on the man, who could be heard rolling backwards into the room again.

Shortly afterward, Kieran pulled the pin out of the grenade and threw it inside the room.

“What the f*ck?”

“What in the f*ck happened?”

BOOM!

A loud explosion silenced the thugs. Everything became quiet as the explosion subsided.