Solflare: The Painter's Secret

Chapter 239: Suicidal Training

Shadows stretched long and spilled across the ground at the front of the Bulwark Hall’s training yard when Leon entered.

He walked straight toward the heavy iron bars without giving the elegant posters hanging on the walls a single glance.

When he wrapped his fingers around the seven-foot bar, which was already loaded with 200 kg of weight, and lifted it, a bone-cracking sound echoed from his elbow.

He gritted his teeth and raised it up and down while sweat spilled from his face and arms like a broken pipe.

The moment he finished thirty repetitions, the bar slipped from his trembling fingers and slammed on the ground, sending a loud shockwave across the training yard.

"Fuck!" Leon screamed, then forced his trembling fingers into a tight fist before releasing them.

As soon as he lifted it five inches high, he lowered it back to the floor, then shifted his gaze to the round weight bar. "Another 100 kg won’t be bad."

He giggled, then added two 50 kg weights at each end of the iron bars.

Veins appeared on his face, neck, chest, and arms when he lifted the 300 kg, but he didn’t place it down.

Leon increased the weight to 400 kg before stopping himself when his vision began to turn fuzzy.

He collapsed flat on the ground and lay there while his chest heaved like a heavy generator.

Sweat dripped from him and coated his shape on the floor as he burst into laughter.

When he closed his eyes to relax his trembling arms and legs, An Lang appeared. He stretched his arm as if wanting to give Leon a hand from the land of memories.

*Let me help you stand, brother.*

Without waiting for the memory to fade, Leon tightened his jaw and pushed himself up onto one knee. "I promised to honor your death, so I must keep going until I am ready to go back to Tartarus and take him down."

Leon squeezed his fist so hard that his knuckles turned white as snow, then stood up.

He walked toward the speed test section. He glanced through the hanging mesh suits, then picked the black one.

The moment he wrapped it around his body, Leon stepped into the chamber with the Mill Disk and the round glass around it, then closed the glass behind him.

He took in a deep breath, stepped on the Mill Disk, and placed the VR glasses on.

In a flash, he saw himself standing on a vast busy road filled with trees while vehicles rushed around him.

When a green motorcycle passed through him, pain rattled the bones of his physical body while warm blood trailed out of his nose.

"Ouch," he screamed in the virtual world and managed his way out of the busy road to stop under a thick mango tree.

"So everything that happens to me is felt outside my body, wow. This is just like when Hei Yung was training me on how to fly the Triarch but superb."

Before he could celebrate, a bull appeared from nowhere and began charging at Leon.

Leon ran, but no matter how fast he was, he ended up getting slammed by the bull’s horns, which caused more blood to flow out of his nose in the physical world.

After hours of training, the virtual world stopped when Leon collapsed on the Mill Disk with blood flowing heavily from his nose and mouth.

He felt himself being carried but wasn’t able to see the person until the morning of the following day.

When he shifted his gaze from the ceiling, he saw Kim smiling at him while Eun-woo stood behind her. "Kim, Eun-woo."

"You don’t need to stress yourself that much, Leon." Seo-jun’s voice echoed from the right and made him tilt his gaze.

He smiled at Leon and folded his arms across his chest. "Why did you use that device which was sealed?"

Leon’s eyes sank, but he didn’t shift his gaze from Seo-jun. "Sealed, as in new or locked so that no one could use it?"

Seo-jun smirked and shook his head. He moved a step forward, placed his palms on the bed, then leaned toward Leon’s left ear. "That Virtual Treadmill was sealed off the very day it was bought."

Leon’s head snapped back. He shifted his gaze to Kim and Eun-woo, then back to Seo-jun. "Why?"

All three of the Lieutenants spoke in a cold voice that made the nurses walking around pause. "The M66 Virtual Treadmill killed its own inventor when he tried to show us how to use it."

Some of the nurses peeked their heads out to see who the lieutenants were talking to, but they pulled their heads back with rumors that had already spread through half of the country of Agatha.

"That’s Leon Storm, the guy who defeated Samir and Tiger inside the Death Pit."

"Did I hear correctly? That he used the M66?"

"I bet this kid will actually reshape the world with his hands when he reaches the Overlord level of the continuum."

Leon’s shoulders raised while he laughed uncontrollably. "But I’m alive."

"You’re alive because we saw you before the machine could finish you off," Kim said loudly, then moved a step forward, frowning.

Leon sighed when he shifted his face to her and began staring into her silver eyes. He swung his legs off the bed, then stretched.

"Since I’m not dead and," he looked at his hands and squeezed them twice, "every part of my body is intact, I have to go and continue my training."

"Training for what?" Seo-jun moved from where he stood and stretched a hand forward when he stepped in front of Leon. "You nearly died in that and want to go back there to continue again?"

He looked at Leon’s unemotional face and clenched his fist. "Are you seeking death or what, Leon? It’s enough that you survived."

Leon lowered his gaze to the ground for a moment then lifted it with a spark of gold energy appearing in his iris. "I survived to make their deaths worth it. Until that is done, I will never stop."

The moment the nurses saw the spark of golden glow flash from Leon, they all rushed out of the room, leaving everything behind, including their hard-earned smartphones.

Seo-jun placed a hand on Leon’s shoulder and exhaled sharply. "Go make them proud then."

He moved to the side Kim and Eun-woo had moved to, then watched as the glow slowly vanished when Leon reached the door.

...

Room 616 in the Bulwark Hall’s cozy warmth intensified when Leon entered.

Brown leaves drifted toward the outside of the glass wall and slid down slowly, like a ghost trying to merge with its body.

As soon as the leaves reached the center, the blue wave appeared.

"Synchronization level is at seventy percent," Gia’s voice echoed softly in the quiet room that seemed heavier than the road. "Your vitals are now closer to the red zone, Leon. Relax yourself before you explode again."

"Keep it open, Gia," Leon said and smirked while staring at the new kinetic-drift shield leaning against the wall by his bed.