Chapter 65: My Scope Was Too Small
One, two, three... The islanders crossed one by one.
Then it was the fourth man's turn.
He was burly, his movements a fraction slower than the rest.
He cleared the first two layers of the net without issue.
But as he leaped through the third layer, just as the hole in the mesh began to shrink rapidly, his judgment failed him. He jumped a split-second too late.
His right ankle brushed the edge of a contracting lightning thread.
That tiny touch was a death sentence.
The current paralyzed his body instantly. The net, as if alive, reacted to the contact, its threads lashing out like sentient tentacles to wrap around him.
"No—!" Raiki screamed, his eyes wide with terror.
It was too late. The net snapped shut, encasing him in a blinding cocoon of white light.
The roar of the current was deafening, mixed with the sickening sizzle of burning flesh.
Raiki convulsed violently inside the cocoon, then went rigid.
A second later, the net opened. A charred, smoking husk fell from the air, hitting the ground with a wet thud.
The whole process had taken less than a second.
The remaining men didn't show fear. Instead, their expressions became even more fanatical. They suppressed their thoughts and charged into the net.
Kyle watched the charred body. He could sense that the electricity in this net was far more condensed and violent than the Rain-Spark Flow. It wasn't a gentle shower; it was thousands of high-voltage blades with a predatory instinct.
Raika didn't even flinch. He glanced coldly at the corpse of his comrade. "Continue."
He was used to this.
His father, King Thunder, was the only person in thirty years to return alive from the depths of the Forbidden Zone, and even he had only reached the fifth stage.
The intel his father brought back, along with images from a surveillance snail, was burned into Raika's mind: at the end of the zone lay a fruit. A Devil Fruit that glowed with lightning, as if formed from the very essence of thunder itself!
That was the key to lifting the curse that had plagued their island for generations. For that goal, a few lives meant nothing.
Outside the Forbidden Zone.
King Thunder watched the events unfold through a monitoring device, his brow furrowed.
Raika had cleared the second stage. Passing the Lightning Net was expected for someone of his caliber.
But the real test was the third zone... the horror there was beyond imagination.
Once they passed the third zone, Thunder knew that aside from Raika, no one else would walk out alive.
Because by then, the lightning at the perimeter would begin to regenerate and close in, like a shrinking cage of death.
There would be only two paths: forge ahead, or give up and try to tank the lightning on the way out.
Die in there, all of you, Thunder thought. Only I need to be the miracle.
With that dark thought, he turned his gaze to the two relaxed outsiders—Netero and Knov.
Killing intent coalesced in his eyes.
My kingdom has no need for outsiders or rebels.
"Old man," Knov said, pushing up his glasses, his tone calm despite the sharp glint in his eyes. "It seems the King can't hold back anymore. He wants to kill us."
"Hoh hoh hoh..." Netero chuckled, hands tucked into his sleeves, looking completely at ease. "Wasn't that expected from the start? What king would truly entrust the fate of his nation to outsiders?"
"Should we do something?" Knov asked.
"No," Netero shook his head slightly. His gaze seemed to pierce through space, landing on the thunder-shrouded zone. "Let's watch the show. I want to see just how big a fish Kyle can catch in that pond."
Inside, Kyle looked ahead. Only eight figures remained.
Second stage, and already four dead.
What kind of power lay within that legendary fruit at the end of this road paved with lives? And what secrets lay behind the fanatical faith of these islanders who treated death like a baptism?
He took a deep breath of the ozone-heavy air.
Kyle watched them head toward the third zone, then turned his attention to the Lightning Net in front of him.
In his mind, a map formed. He could sense the rhythm of the net—when it would expand, when it would shrink. It was like a precise machine.
He didn't need to see the future. He could sense the trajectory.
Kyle charged.
He moved like a precision instrument—dodging, leaping, twisting in mid-air. He slipped through one layer after another, effortlessly clearing the net and landing on the other side.
He caught up to Raika just as the Prince stopped, staring grimly at the path ahead.
The third stage was completely different. It wasn't rain or a net.
It was a Lightning Carpet.
The ground itself was composed of raw electricity. One step would paralyze you instantly.
And from the storm clouds above, random lightning bolts struck down with terrifying frequency.
The power of these bolts was far greater than the Rain-Spark Flow.
The carpet stretched for about a hundred meters. Even with a thirty-meter jump, one would have to land on the electrified ground at least three times.
If you were paralyzed upon landing, unable to jump again... you would be cooked alive.
Raika's confusion vanished, replaced by a ruthless resolve.
Without a word, he grabbed one of his subordinates and hurled him forward.
The man flew thirty meters and landed on the Lightning Carpet. before he could even scream, the electricity silenced him, locking his muscles. He died instantly.
Raika grabbed two more men.
He leaped into the air, landing directly on the corpse of the first man.
CRACK-BOOM!
A bolt of lightning struck down from the clouds, aimed right at him.
Raika instinctively raised one of the living men he was carrying as a shield.
The bolt hit the man, frying him instantly, but protecting Raika. Raika didn't hesitate. He threw the charred body forward to create the next stepping stone.
He leaped from the first corpse to the second, using the dead bodies of his own men as insulation against the deadly floor.
With a final, powerful leap, he cleared the hundred-meter zone.
Kyle stared, stunned.
He had thought Raika was a noble prince leading the way for his people.
Turns out, Kyle thought grimly, my scope was too small. He's just a monster.