"Hey Guys Checkout my patreon patreon. com/ScoldeyJod for 35+ chapters Ahead of public release"
**************************************************************************************
"Stop! Don't even think about running!"
"I'm going to shoot!"
Stunned by Leo's sudden and decisive escape, the two Marine soldiers were momentarily dumbfounded. One of them, in a panic, raised his rifle, aimed at Leo's back, and pulled the trigger.
BANG!
The gunshot echoed through the street, causing the remaining passersby to scream and scatter.
"Huh?" As he ran, Leo glanced over his shoulder. In his perception, the world had slowed down. He could clearly see the bullet spinning through the air, every groove on its surface perfectly visible.
Although he lived in Loguetown, a place known for its frequent pirate skirmishes, this was the first time he'd ever been shot at. A normal person would be terrified, as even the weakest pistol could be lethal.
But Leo felt no fear.
To him, the bullet was moving in slow motion. So slow, in fact, that he felt he could easily outrun it. With a slight, almost casual sidestep, he let the bullet whistle past, harmlessly parting his long silver hair.
"Not good!"
Just as he dodged, Leo's enhanced senses caught sight of the cars stopped at the intersection ahead. He couldn't risk the bullet hitting a civilian. In a split second, his empty left hand shot out like lightning and snatched the bullet from the air.
"What did he do?!"
"How is that possible?!"
The soldiers who witnessed this cried out in disbelief.
A faint stinging and burning sensation spread through Leo's palm. He glanced back at the soldiers, casually tossed the bullet—now flattened into a metal slug—onto the ground, and took off again.
This time, the two soldiers didn't make a sound. They just stood there, rifles in hand, frozen like statues.
But the night's chaos was far from over. It was just beginning.
Leo rounded a corner and saw three Marine patrol cars roaring down the road, sirens blaring, heading straight for him. More sirens echoed from the surrounding streets.
"I just want to go home! Is that so wrong?" Leo's mouth twitched in annoyance. "And when did the Marines get this efficient? In the stories, don't they always show up after the action is over?"
This is so unfair!
"Whatever. I can't stay on the streets anymore," he resolved, not wanting to accidentally hurt anyone. His eyes scanned the nearby buildings, and he quickly settled on a relatively low four-story convenience store.
He accelerated, planted his foot, and leaped, aiming for the roof.
But this time, something was wrong. His body felt weak, the immense power from before suddenly fading. He only managed to jump about six meters high before his momentum died, and he began to fall back to the ground. Below, the Marine patrol cars were closing in from all directions.
"Damn it, don't mess with me now!" Leo flailed in mid-air, the familiar, dreadful sensation of falling washing over him as the rooftop grew further away.
Just then, a flash of gold.
FWOOSH!
From the left hand he had instinctively thrown forward, a glowing golden rope materialized out of thin air, snaking through the air like a celestial dragon. One end was held firmly in Leo's hand, while the other end shot forward, looping perfectly around a lightning rod on the building.
With no time to question where the rope had come from, Leo pulled hard. His falling body was yanked upward, and he landed safely on the four-story roof.
"That was close."
He quickly retracted the golden rope as the patrol cars screeched to a halt below, their occupants staring up at an empty rooftop. Using the adjacent buildings as stepping stones, Leo quickly fled the scene.
Down on the street, five or six patrol cars had converged on the spot where he'd taken off.
"Who the hell was that?" a Marine muttered, staring at the crushed asphalt where Leo had landed.
"Not an ordinary person, that's for sure," another replied.
"No kidding," a third chimed in. "Catching a bullet with your bare hands and jumping four stories high? You think?"
"So, what do we do now?"
Just as the Marines were feeling helpless, another car, sirens wailing, finally arrived. The door opened and Captain Morgan stepped out, his face grim. "Where's the target?" he demanded.
"Sir, the target… flew away," the on-site officer reported, saluting. He quickly corrected himself, "I mean, jumped away!" He pointed up at the building, which was more than ten meters high.
"…?"
It took Captain Morgan a full five seconds to process what "jumped away" meant. After a brief moment of thought, he issued his command. "Request airship support immediately. We cannot allow such a dangerous, unknown individual to run loose in this city!"
"Yes, sir!"
…
Leo moved quickly across the rooftops. Although he still couldn't fully control his new body, he was slowly getting the hang of it.
"So this is what it feels like to fly."
With the help of the golden rope, he leaped between high-rise buildings, sometimes clearing dozens of meters in a single bound. Whenever he misjudged his strength, he would use the lasso to pull himself to another building, ensuring he didn't fall.
The rope itself was a marvel. It could stretch and retract at will, and it could latch onto anything—railings, eaves, even a clothesline. He was shocked to discover that it could even wrap around intangible things, like the smoke rising from a chimney, treating it as a solid anchor point. Leo suspected it could probably be used to bind even more abstract concepts, if he knew how.
"Should be far enough now," he thought, landing on top of a skyscraper. He stood near the edge, looking down at the tiny dots of cars and people below, a lingering sense of vertigo in his gut.
"Time to go home."
With that thought, he leaped into the air again, preparing to throw his golden lasso. But as he swung his arm, he realized the rope that had saved him twice already was gone, vanished as mysteriously as it had appeared.
"No way, not again!"
Leo's heart lurched. For the third time that night, he was in freefall. And so, the scene from the beginning of the chapter came to pass.
He crashed onto the roof of a five-star hotel. Seeing the Marine airship chasing him, he had no choice but to continue his chaotic escape.
Ten minutes later, Leo had no idea how far he'd gone, only that he was getting further and further from his home. He finally found refuge in the shadow of a water tower on a tall building, watching as the airship patrolled in the wrong direction until it disappeared from sight.
He let out a long breath, the heat from his body instantly evaporating the snow on the roof around him. Exhaustion was finally setting in.
"Now," he whispered, "can I finally go home?"
It was as if he'd tempted fate.
The moment the words left his lips, a figure appeared out of nowhere, landing gracefully and silently on top of the water tower above him.
"Throw PowerStones For my Support.
200 Powerstones for extra chapter
300 Powerstones for another extra chapter
500 Powerstones for another extra "