The Devil's Cage

Panda Novel

In a small restaurant near the rehabilitation center, Eckart bought out the entire floor just to let the owner and cooks prepare meals faster.

The little restaurant did have a lot of ingredients stocked to handle their daily customer flow, and fortunately, it wasn’t lunchtime yet, so it would be sufficient to handle Kieran’s appetite.

But even if they had enough ingredients, turning them into dishes required time.

Therefore, all sorts of chocolates and energy bars with high calorie counts and sugar became the snacks for Kieran to stall his hunger.

In fact, the snacks were much more useful than Kieran thought, similar to how Transcendence [Tracking] was much more Stamina consuming than he initially thought.

At that moment, when he activated [Tracking] if he didn’t have a strong will, he might have passed out right away.

Shortly after that, dreadful famine drowned Kieran.

He knew it was a sign from his body after exhausting a significant amount of Stamina.

As he chewed the snacks, another energy bar was stuffed into his mouth.

Two more chews later, the energy bar was devoured entirely, and after the last one, Kieran finally stopped his eating.

He wasn’t full, but the snacks were finished!

“12 bars! If you continue this, you will spoil your body!” Lyn Amie said in a worried tone.

Energy bars were not something typical food could compare to; it was created to cater to a select group of people or during special situations.

A common man would be bloated for half a day with 3 energy bars, even if the man had a great appetite, he would still feel full for 3 to 4 hours.

But Kieran ate all 12 at once, and it surpassed Lyn Amie’s wildest imagination.

However, what shocked Lyn Amie more followed right after that.

“Get me another 10 boxes of this protein bar.”

“And I need a mixer,” Kieran said with a tired tone.

“10 boxes?! Do you know how many are there in 10 boxes?”

“60! 60 bars! You want to stuff yourself to death?” Lyn Amie widened his eyes.

“3 boxes of 1-liter milk and 10 eggs,” Kieran continued without being concerned about the makeup artist’s words.

“You…”

“It’s fine, just go buy the bars.”

Lyn Amie was stopped by Eckart before he could say anything else. The director looked at the makeup artist and said thoughtfully, “2567 won’t joke with his body.”

Lyn Amie hesitated for a while before heading out for the errand.

He, of course, knew a common man wouldn’t joke with his body, but was Kieran, a normal man?

Recalling the time spent with him in the past two days, Lyn Amie really couldn’t decide, and he ultimately chose to comply, because he had no choice despite him being worried about Kieran’s well-being.

The makeup artist quickly left the restaurant. Eckart then asked his question.

“Are you really, alright?”

Eckart was obviously as worried as Lyn Amie.

“I’m fine,” Kieran said in a firm sure tone.

Although Kieran was extremely weakened, he was still at a common man’s peak. After significantly burning away his Stamina, his way of eating wouldn’t cause any real damage.

On the contrary, if he didn’t replenish his energy…

Once he emptied out his body, he might cause damage to his foundations. Maybe after unlocking his skills in his weakened state, he might revert to normal, there might be some other unknown after-effects as well. Kieran was not willing to risk it.

“Then…”

“Is it enough to ‘reverse’ an attribute?” Kieran naturally thought of it.

Before this, Kieran has already thought about a similar question, but he wasn’t as eager as he was now, and the current situation was very fitting.

Needless to say, he had saved up enough ‘reverse energy’ to unlock one of his Basic skills.

[Activating reverse energy to unlock Constitution, authentication started…]

[Insufficient energy, authentication failed!]

“This can work!”

Kieran squinted his eyes at the words on his vision.

As the exhaustion attacked his body, he had never before felt so eager to gather ‘reverse energy,’ but his calm nature allowed him to know how he should proceed.

“Eckart, tell the cook to cook at his own pace.”

“A nice meal should have its own procedures.”

“Any missing step will rob them of their glory,” Kieran said.

“Okay.”

Eckart jolted for a second before running into the kitchen, and when the director came back, Kieran already stood up from the chair.

Despite still looking tired, he was much stronger than before.

“2567, you should rest more,” Eckart said.

He knew what state Kieran was in, and he was apprehensive that Kieran might pass out on the ground because of exhaustion.

“Now is not the time to rest.”

“We must seize the seconds to find the mastermind,” Kieran waved his hand and expressed his well-being.

“But didn’t he gave us an hour…?” Eckart said but automatically stopped.

It seemed like he reacted to the situation. Why would he trust a killer?

The bomb that the killer planted in the rehab center had stated how crazy he was.

A crazy man’s words, how much could you believe?

“An hour? He didn’t give us an hour, he is buying himself an hour!”

“The bomb that the police found messed up his plans. So he had to alter his future ones, like planting another bomb slightly!” Kieran then looked at Eckart.

“Planting another bomb? Meaning that crazy man is misleading us?”

“But if he really made a bomb, his lies become real, and for the sake of safety, we will also run around like madmen to find the other two bombs, which gives the killer more time to prepare!”

“That bastard!” Eckart, who wasn’t stupid at all, quickly reacted to the situation.

Looking at how Eckart cursed, Kieran smiled. He preferred to talk to an open-minded person because it would save him a lot of trouble.

“Go gather your men,” Kieran said.

There was no emphasis in his words, but Eckart understood what it meant.

The director pulled out his phone and started to make calls.

Less than 10 minutes later, Kieran and company, including Lyn Amie who returned boarded the minivan.

…

“Hehehe, a bunch of fools.”

“You people really think I’m giving you an hour?”

“After this hour, you will know fear.”

A figure with a backpack was walking down the stairs.

Once he thought about what would happen, he couldn’t hold back his laughter.

But his laughter was abruptly halted because when he turned around the stairs, a black figure stood in front of him quietly, staring at him.

The eyes of the figure were cold and ruthless.