Demon’s Cage

Chapter 6: Rest

Qin Ran was temporarily safe. However, the lady was still listening and observing the surroundings for a while until she confirmed that no one was following them.

“Come with me!” she said.

Qin Ran immediately followed her into the ruins. After they crossed a number of beams and rubble, the lady pushed aside the sand in front of her. Qin Ran saw that there was a wooden part.i.tion behind it. The lady quietly lifted the part.i.tion, revealing to Qin Ran a stairway leading to underground.

“Come in!” The lady gestured at Qin Ran to go down. Qin Ran walked in without any hesitation. Through a glimmer of light, Qin Ran could see what the underground room looked like.

It was probably previously used as a storage room, filled with wooden shelves and a few tools.

Now, there was no one here. Judging from this, he believed it wasn’t likely for there to be traps or those sorts of things.

Inside the storage room, Qin Ran stood in the corner and quietly waited for the lady to come down before he did his self-introduction.

“h.e.l.lo, my name is Qin Ran!”

“Colleen! Are you a soldier?” She asked suspiciously.

Obviously, the way Qin Ran used the daggers was still ingrained in her mind.

“No, I just like martial arts…… I’ve just made use of my skills in this war! Also, I’ve never had any malicious intentions towards you from the very beginning. You should understand that if I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn’t have had to go through so much trouble! ”

Qin Ran noticed her doubt, so he carefully explained his ident.i.ty to ease her anxiety.

Being a soldier during a war wasn’t a good profession. Enemy soldiers had to be killed; even citizens wouldn’t be allowed to live.

Wars brought out the cruelness and wickedness inside of people, especially when one side had an absolute advantage over another. Qin Ran could only imagine what the lady had witnessed from the soldiers’ atrocities throughout the four months.

After all, in the task background of this instance, it mentioned the word “rebels”.

Therefore, Qin Ran could not admit his ident.i.ty as a so-called soldier.

Undoubtedly, what Qin Ran thought was very correct.

Perhaps it was his explanation which played a role in easing the lady.

After Qin Ran explained, the vigilance in the eyes of the lady immediately disappeared.

“I’m sorry, I should not have asked. But, you know, I had met a lot of rebels! Some of them were pretty nice, but some were not…”

Colleen frowned. She didn’t know how to continue her words.

“There are always good and bad people!”

Qin Ran said.

Such discourse was not really comforting. It wasn’t even a comment.

But, in such an environment, what he said was fairly appropriate.

That was why Colleen decided to trust Qin Ran, even if it was only temporary.

“Since you helped me, I can let you rest here for one day in return. But you have to leave tomorrow before dark!”

Colleen said.

“Thanks!” Qin Ran answered.

Although he wanted to ask about more information, it wasn’t an appropriate time to do so.

Even though this was only a game, given that everything was so authentic, Qin Ran knew that if he did or said something inappropriate, there would be a series of reactions.

It could be good.

But could also be bad.

According to his experience, the latter one had a higher probability.

At least he couldn’t explain why someone like himself who had experienced the war for four months wasn’t even familiar with the city.

Moreover, he could imagine how Colleen would react if he asked something that conflicted with his ident.i.ty.

He probably would lose the chance to stay safe for a whole day!

As a result, when he saw Colleen walk to a corner and started to rest, he walked to another corner and closed his eyes.

When he narrowed his eyes and tried to see, everything was dark.

As he was breathing, his recovering physical strength took away his physical fatigue.

However, he didn’t feel like moving due to his mental fatigue.

The blood and deaths that were replaying in his mind made him tired.

He fell asleep soon after.

When he heard some noise, Qin Ran woke up.

As he opened his eyes, he saw Colleen eating her cookies, which were her trophies from last night.

When she saw Qin Ran was looking, she turned stiff.

Food was unbelievably valuable during the war.

The bread and cookies that people threw away randomly in daily life could result in a battle at this moment.

Just like Coleen and the survivor who had a headshot last night.

Qin Ran understood what she meant. He took out his can to suggest her that he meant no harm.

From the beginning, Colleen’s body was stiff. When Qin Ran took out his can, she relaxed.

When two people both had food, the risk of starting a fight decreased.

They didn’t talk during the breakfast.

Colleen lowered her head thinking and Qin Ran was eating his food while looking at the system record.

First of all, “Main Task: Live for 7 Days” changed from “0/7” to “1/7”.

Then, the “Character Attributes” had the status “Hunger”.

When he finished the whole can, the status disappeared in the bar.

“It even had ‘Hunger’ in it!”

Qin Ran thought.

He had to praise how authentic an underground game was.

However, later on his praise turned into sigh.

Because if he had the “special circ.u.mstances” in this game, he had to work hard to collect more food.

Apparently, in this city, this wasn’t an easy task.

“These could probably last for two to three days. But to keep myself strong enough to be able to fight…two days will be the most.”

Qin Ran looked at the rest of the two cans and one bottle of water, thinking about how much to consume each day.

The result was apparently not optimistic.

Coughing…

The coughing stopped Qin Ran’s contemplation.

He saw Colleen had one hand over her mouth, while patting her chest with the other.

The dry biscuits were not easy to swallow.

“Have some water!”

Qin Ran picked up his water and handed it to Colleen.

She drank one-third of the water and stopped coughing.

“Thanks, thank you!”

Looking at the rest of the purified water, she was a bit embarra.s.sed and quickly expressed her grat.i.tude.

Food was essential in the war.

So was water.

In the war, anyone willing to share food or water proved that they were really a good person.

Therefore, facing such a good man, Colleen’s att.i.tude eased again.

She became happy to talk to Qin Ran now.

Which was what he expected.

“Before the war, what did you do?

Colleen asked curiously.

“A student. Something happened later on so I became an Otaku! How about you?”

Qin Ran was reciting his real life experience.

“I was a student, too. However, because of some fighting, drinking and other misconduct, I was sent to the service center. Then, before I finished my 200 hours’ volunteer service, the war started. Although I was thankful that I no longer need to do volunteer anymore, I realized that I would rather volunteer than stay here!”

Colleen talked about herself as well.

She had been deliberately keeping her indifferent look. At this moment, however, she collapsed.

Qin Ran shrugged and continued to listen.

To protect themselves, people usually protected themselves with masks.

Especially during a war, where tragic sights and traumatizing events would occur everyday.

“I used to live at the Sixth Avenue, but the ‘vulture’ and his gang were even more hateful than locusts. They completely plundered all the resources so I had to come to the garden villa. Then he came here again! Nasty son of b**ch! ”

“‘Vulture’? Is that guy powerful?”

Once again he heard of the nickname so Qin Ran inquired.

“Qin Ran, of course you have not heard of him in other places!”

Colleen said.

” ‘Vulture’ was just a small fry before the war started. However, when the war started, he happened to be held in jail and got access to a number of weapons! After the rebels became more convergent, the guy became bold and took a group of guys the prison and started causing trouble on the Sixth Avenue!”

“Other organizations with thugs are afraid of ‘vulture’, because the guy is not only powerful, but also vindictive. Anyone who dared to offend his thugs or survivors, will meet a bad end. The last mob leader who offended him was hung on the telegraph poles and burned alive!”

Her words showed her familiarity of the “Vulture”.

However, Colleen’s face suddenly looked pale.

Because last night she killed two of Vulture’s subordinates with Qin Ran.

Also, after Colleen explained, Qin Ran’s face didn’t look very well.
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