Leonel took a step forward, taking a large bite out of the hunk of meat at the same time.
'In a city like this, they're unlikely to use explosives. The greatest danger to my safety are snipers. The range of my Internal Sight can't possibly be wide enough to take them into account. I also can't guarantee there isn't anyone with an ability that makes them confident in sniping even if I'm in the midst of a crowd. —'
Leonel's thoughts suddenly froze.
He felt as though a flame had suddenly dropped into his stomach and he felt incredibly heavy. The bloating in his stomach slowed his steps, making him uncomfortable.
Leonel was never one to eat much. In fact, he had had a poor appetite for as long as he could remember. Due to this disposition of his, it was a wonder that he wasn't a skeleton. This aside, it was safe to say that he hadn't experienced this feeling before.
'… No, that's not true. I have… The first time dad gave me that vomit brew…'
Leonel's burrow furrowed. The discomfort wasn't enough to slow him down severely, but it made him feel a bit sick. He was already not in an optimal state. He couldn't afford even the slightest tick down in his stats.
'What the hell…' Leonel felt like cursing this damn dictionary and his dad for creating a faulty product.
Leonel's frown deepened, but he couldn't continue remaining here. He had to make it to the doors out of the city as quickly as possible.
The moment Leonel broke out into a run, he felt his blood begin to boil. Before Leonel could even pause to figure out what was wrong with him, he found that his stomach was already rumbling.
The hunger was severe to the point Leonel almost fell over. The rolling and contracting muscles of his stomach felt like they might tear his body apart any moment.
Feeling a bit fearful and shocked, Leonel quickly took another bite. By the end of it, he bit into his palm, not realizing the meat was already consumed.
"What the hell is wrong with me?"
[ *Ping* Information Omitted ]
Leonel almost began cursing again, but his expression changed when he saw a troop of soldiers marching through the streets and toward him.
The sight of black clothes military men stomping in unison through a residential area was particularly dystopian. However, Leonel didn't have the time to take in the sight. He could only dive through the side gates of a nearby mansion.
He might be able to dodge the trajectory of bullets, but he wasn't insane. There were at least three dozen tactical rifles between them. Compared to the pistols in Leonel's possession which could already be considered as powerful as sniper rifles of the past, their power could be imagined.
Leonel leapt up with all his power, grabbing the edge of a house's roof and pulling himself up.
"Get down! Stop resisting!"
The roar of a man used to command entered Leonel's ears. But, he couldn't have imagined that Leonel would have already appeared on the roof when they were still seeking to cut him off from the side and back of the house.
'These men are clearly highly trained, but this is also their downfall. They don't dare to step out of line, which means they're restricting themselves from using their abilities. This is to my advantage…'
Leonel's gaze flashed. He put his rod away and two guns appeared in his hands.
He kept his head low as the tactical unit surrounded the house from all sides. The instant before they realized Leonel wasn't still on the ground, he had already jumped.
Leonel's body flew horizontally in the air, his arms pointed downward and his eyes blazing with fighting intent.
The sounds of gunshots rang beneath the night sky, followed by pained grunts and dull thuds.
With a flip, Leonel landed on the roof of an opposing house and broke out into another sprint.
"Give me another piece, I'm starving." Leonel said, hoping his words would be effective.
Thankfully, the Segmented Cube didn't let him down. Another head-sized cube of octopus meat appeared in his hand and disappeared into his stomach just as fast.
The burning in Leonel's blood grew. It was so comfortable that he almost forgot the aching of his muscles. It was a similar feeling to someone working out with sore muscles. After a while, the heat would make one forget the pain. However, if one stopped, the aching might return with several folds more potency.
Leonel knew he couldn't afford this, so he continued to push his body, hoping this heat would continue.
"Halt!"
Another roar entered Leonel's ears. It seemed that the captain from before had found his dead squad members. With a single leap, Leonel had shot six bullets and taken out six of them.
He didn't want to kill, but going down here meant that his life was basically over. The way Miles was trying to toy with his future left him sick to his stomach. However, what disgusted him the most was that if he were caught, Aina would definitely be sent to the Brazinger Clan. He refused to let this happen.
In that case, his conscience was clear. He could have easily killed them all, but he only killed enough to leave unscathed. He had already been merciful enough.
Aina watched silently as all of this happened, shaking her head. In truth, Leonel somehow thought she was still sleeping. But, how could she be sleeping in a situation like this?
'… He needs to learn that being kind to your enemies is only harming yourself…'
A cold light flickered in Aina's eyes, but she remained silent. Pretending as though she was still 'asleep'.
Leonel was absolutely unstoppable. The small tactical units sent after him one after another didn't even pose any challenge. The terrain was too disadvantageous to them.
They didn't dare to shoot toward Leonel carelessly. Who in this city wasn't a big shot? Did they even have the ability to take responsibility if one of these figures died in their homes because they were shooting at Leonel?
To make matters worse, Leonel having guns was like giving wings to a tiger. His senses were too sharp, his coordination too elite.
Every time he shot, a bullet would perfectly land in the gap of their armor, ending their lives swiftly. They almost couldn't believe that Leonel was only using handguns. Even if they were as powerful as sniper rifles of the past, the armors the tactical units wore in this age had advanced just as much.
However, it didn't seem to matter.
Over an hour later, Leonel sat behind the side gates of yet another home, his breathing ragged.
He had already swapped into the tactical gear of a soldier. The only thing he didn't change were his treasure shoes. Even if he couldn't use them in range of whatever was disrupting Force, they would still be useful to him in the future.
Leonel tied Aina to his back once more, gritting his teeth as he stepped forward.
From here until the doors, there were no longer homes to constantly hide behind. It was practically a flat plain.
Between Leonel's location and the doors out of the city, there was a city square and park. The space was as open as Royal Blue Academy's campus and the city square had no cover aside from a large fountain that sputtered water from the mouth of a mermaid and whale.
Not only were there units all throughout the park, but there was a small troop of at least 200 standing at attention right before the doors.
On a tower far away from the danger, Miles and Simeon watched on coldly. They hadn't managed to get eyes on Leonel just yet. They had a feeling that something with strong Force was protecting his body under these conditions, or else it was impossible that their surveillance systems couldn't lock onto him.
But that didn't matter. There was only one way into and out of the city. It had been specifically designed like this to stop rogues like Leonel.
Leonel practically inhaled another head-sized piece of octopus meat before slamming down the black head gear of the tactical unit.
In order to get this, he had actually doubled back toward the units he had already killed. This was part of the reason his location still hadn't been locked down and why he now had two tactical rifles in his possession.
Unlike the handguns, these rifles had 50 bullets per clip and were several times more powerful. With this kind of fire power, he still had a chance.
Unfortunately, things wouldn't be so simple. To now, the tactical units hadn't used their abilities. But, this didn't mean there weren't specially trained units. After all… Miles couldn't clear an A-grade Zone alone.
Since the beginning of the Metamorphosis, Royal Blue Province had experienced the appearance of four A-grade Sub-Dimensional Zones. One wiped out a special unit completely but three units survived, one of which, led by Miles, managed to clear the fourth just recently.
Leonel took a deep breath, his eyes gaining a deep calm as he stood out from the final home and entered the park with confident steps.
BANG!
Leonel's pupils constricted as he quickly fell to one side, but it was already too late.
A searing pain appeared in his left shoulder, precisely tearing through the smallest gap in the joint of his armor.
BANG!
Another shot rang out.