Chapter 40: Birthday?
Chapter 40: Birthday?
I really got screwed by the Black Sheep!
I didn't expect that after such a good performance, everything would go to hell in a second, exposing my identity completely. Leon could only curse inwardly, then he swiftly turned around with his broom, sprinting out of the meeting room in just two steps, facing the security manager with a twisted expression.
"You..."
"You're finished!"
A flying kick landed squarely on the security manager's face, sending him flying along with the rest of his sentence. Leon grabbed the folder from the ground and bolted out of the door, head down.
At this point, even the most dim-witted person would realize something was wrong. Five or six angry shouts, each with a different tone, erupted almost simultaneously in the meeting room, merging like a symphony into a single command:
"Stop him!!!!!!"
...
You'll never catch me!
Although the situation had inexplicably gone awry, Leon wasn't the least bit worried.
Thanks to the calming effects of the [Wino Martyr] and the experience imparted by Senior Emma—“Before thinking about how to complete a task, you should first consider how to escape if it fails”—Leon had already thoroughly observed the terrain when he entered the water supply company and planned his escape route in advance. He wasn't at all concerned about being caught.
After a quick mental review of the surroundings, considering the protester defense security team stationed at the main entrance, Leon didn't run toward the nearest exit. Instead, he reversed direction and dashed deep into the company!
"Stop him!"
"Grab that person!"
"Don't let him escape!"
Amid the chaotic shouts, the number of people chasing Leon grew like a snowball rolling down a hill, densely packing half the corridor.
Due to carrying several items, Leon couldn't pick up speed and was soon overtaken by the "pursuers." Among them, the fittest security guards were within three steps of him, still shouting loudly as they pursued him.
"Drop the items!"
"There's no way out ahead!"
"Stop! You can't run anymore!"
Who said I was going to "run"?
Glancing back at the pursuing security guards, Leon noticed they were already very close. Prepared, he narrowed his eyes and gripped the handle of the [Witch's Broom] tightly!
"Boom!"
The airflow shield, designed to block air currents, burst open, and an odd gust of wind suddenly swept through the room, bizarrely targeting only the lower halves of the people.
The security guards, already leaning forward as they ran, were knocked down like stalks of cut grass, each one hitting the floor tiles and suffering head injuries. Some, reacting slowly, even fainted on the spot.
Though those following weren't directly blown over, they tripped over the fallen guards, most of them tumbling to the ground in a heap, blocking the path and reducing the number of pursuers by nearly half!
"Dammit! Go around!"
"Move! Don't block the way!"
"He's going upstairs!"
It had to be said, the security guards of the water supply company were really in good shape. A few managed to maintain their balance and only paused briefly, while those who hadn't fallen too hard got back up one by one, gritting their teeth and resuming the chase, pursuing Leon into the stairwell.
However, something even more baffling happened again.
Entering the stairwell, Leon moved like a monkey returning to the forest, his slender body light as paper. With a single leap, he covered half the stairs.
Using his free hand to grab the railing and dissipate some of the force, he seemed to find this too slow. Hugging the sheep head and folder under one arm, the broom under the other, he actually flipped into the gap between two flights of stairs.
In the stunned gaze of the security guards, the man in the same uniform as them, seemingly unwilling to even use the stairs, started "swimming" up the stairwell's gap, as if the surrounding air provided buoyancy like river water. His not particularly muscular body, with just a bit of a push and a pull, could leap up two meters at a time, lighter than floating with an empty wine barrel in the sea!
"Are... are you stopping for what?"
(End of Chapter)"Huh?!"
The security guards stood dumbfounded, their heads tilted back, as the pale-faced administrator stormed into the stairwell, shouting furiously.
"Chase him! He took the records from the archives! Even if you die of exhaustion, you must..." His voice trailed off as he watched Lyon, who had climbed up to the sixth floor like a monkey, kicked open the air vent, and rode the broomstick out into the sky.
The administrator's face, filled with rage, turned red and then white, white and then red, and finally, a faint purplish-blue hue crept across his face.
"Huh?!?!"
"Ahahaha! I never expected it! My heart is right here in the Capital City!"
Ignoring the gust of wind blowing in his face, the black goat hanging from the broomstick, grinned widely with excitement. "Your luck is incredible! I just mentioned it to you, and you immediately encounter one, and it's even the strongest heart!
"When you become stronger, just give me an hour, and I'll help you take down the Lane family and get my heart back!"
"Speaking of luck..."
Lyon, perched on the broomstick, habitually ignored the black goat's demonic words. After recalling the situation, he frowned.
"Don't you think today is a bit strange?"
"Huh?"
Lyon, straddling the broomstick, extended his hand and counted on his fingers. "I wanted to find your sheep... the anomaly, and I immediately got the message. I wanted to understand the compensation plan for the Water Supply Company, and I instantly discovered the board meeting. I wanted to sneak in and see who had touched your heart, and something happened inside right away... Oh, and there's more!"
Lyon touched the pocket on his security uniform and furrowed his brows. "You fell out of the shopping bag, which is fine since I did turn around quite dramatically, but this pocket is just too strange. To avoid losing my ID, I specifically fastened the button, but as I bent down, the thread of the button snapped, and the ID from the Cleaning Bureau flew out."
"And that security manager, if he had passed by just a moment earlier or later, nothing would have happened. But he appeared at the most inopportune moment. Isn't today's coincidence a bit too much?"
It seemed a bit far-fetched... and the number of good luck and bad luck incidents were exactly the same? Hmm... I get it!
The black goat blinked thoughtfully, then spoke with certainty. "Kid, today must be your birthday!"
???
"My birthday is still a long way off! And what does this have to do with my birthday?"
"Hehe, this is a blessing your Cleaning Bureau snatched from the Star Sovereign."
The black goat, seeing Lyon's doubt, chuckled and asked, "You don't think the names of your 87 branches were chosen randomly, do you?"
"Kid, let me tell you, these eighty-seven branches of yours are themselves a conceptual anomaly, something like the Star Map Blessing, I think.
The effect of that thing is that on your birthday, you'll gain the protection of the corresponding Zodiac Mansion, possessing a power akin to making wishes come true."
"Of course, this power is degraded, and it can only help you achieve some goals that were already possible. If you want to become the ruler of the world, you'll definitely get nothing."
"Huh?"
Lyon furrowed his brows upon hearing this, then shook his head in denial. "Making wishes come true is good luck, but my birthday isn't today!"
"It's bad luck, don't you think the Star Sovereign is so petty?"
The black goat seemed to recall something extremely amusing. "Though he was forced to give you a blessing, that Star Sovereign is quite petty. He immediately countered with an equally scaled curse.
"The employees of your Cleaning Bureau, on their birthdays, use this blessing to achieve some goals, and after they succeed, they will suffer from the same number of misfortunes. It's a give-and-take situation."
"That does seem to make sense..."
Lyon, after recalling the situation once more, nodded slightly, but then shook his head, frowning.
"But my birthday has already passed, and it's not today!"
End of Chapter.
Chapter end
Report
