Jilong had anticipated this situation. If Leon brute-forced his way past the roadblocks, how could they possibly stop him in the end?
The answer he came up with was mines.
He had a minefield laid across the highway. Once a car drove over, the pressure would trigger the detonators and set off massive chain reactions. One blast would set off the next, row by row, until the entire section of road erupted.
He even accounted for the possibility that Leon's car might be too fast — fast enough to outpace the mines' reaction time, leaving the explosions behind. To prevent that, Jilong had laid special trigger lines. As soon as the car rolled over them, they'd ignite mines ahead of the vehicle's position. There would be no escape.
"Heh… this time, you won't sprout wings and fly away," Jilong muttered, eyes gleaming with murderous intent.
He had put tremendous effort into this plan. Wadia was already dead, shot down as soon as Leon had marked him. But Jilong felt no grief — he'd long despised Wadia. If Leon killed him, all the better. Eteon would hardly complain.
If the minefield finished Leon off too, then the mission would be perfect.
"Just wait, Leon. You'll be blown to pieces," Jilong laughed wildly, the sound grating and manic.
Meanwhile, Leon himself burst into laughter after blasting through the roadblock.
"That was awesome!!" His every cell felt like it was boiling with exhilaration.
Especially the slaughter at the blockade — seeing the enemy scatter like rats had been pure ecstasy. Leon wasn't the type to tolerate ambushes without retaliation. If not for the urgency of the mission, he would've stepped out of the Nilo and gone on a killing spree.
But inside the car, Hattie and Elena weren't nearly as thrilled.
When the Nilo had gone airborne, it felt like they were passengers on a plane. And when it slammed back down, they'd nearly been thrown from their seats. The experience was more terrifying than any roller coaster.
"I swear… that was the wildest ride of my life," Hattie said weakly, her voice drained. She looked like she'd been wrung out completely.
"I never should've suggested this," Elena added, pale enough that not even lipstick could hide her bloodless lips. Both women's legs trembled uncontrollably. Leon's driving was something out of nightmares.
Leon only laughed. "Hang in there a little longer — we'll be in Utah soon."
"What? Already?" Elena gasped.
The distance from Las Vegas to Denver was around 500 kilometers, a five-hour drive under normal conditions. Yet Leon claimed they were almost there already. It didn't sound possible.
"It feels like we only just left Vegas…" Elena muttered in disbelief.
"Utah can't be that close, can it?" Hattie added, her eyes wide.
Half an hour — less than that — and Leon claimed they were crossing state lines. What kind of speed was this?
"What's our current speed?" Elena finally asked.
"Nine hundred," Leon said casually.
Both women froze. Their bodies went cold.
900 kilometers per hour.
That wasn't driving anymore. That was a jet fighter.
How could a human even react fast enough?
Elena stared out the window, watching the landscape blur into streaks of color, and realized she could never in her life handle what Leon was doing.
Normal drivers initiated a drift when the curve was right in front of them. Leon? He was already drifting from half a kilometer away, reading the road like a god.
"This pace…" Elena whispered, "at this rate we'll reach New York by midnight."
Hattie glanced at her watch. Not even six yet. They'd left around five.
Half an hour from Vegas to Utah. Another half hour to Denver — 500 kilometers gone in a blink. That was already one-third of the trip to New York. Next would be Chicago by the Great Lakes — two-thirds done. After that, it was a straight shot east.
A journey that normally took 40–50 hours was being compressed into five. Nearly ten times faster than normal.
As Leon had said earlier — that extra thirty million investment in the Nilo was worth it.
Then the onboard system suddenly spoke:
"Warning: Minefield detected one kilometer ahead. Nearly ten thousand explosive devices buried across the road. Strategy required."
"Damn it, are they insane?!" Leon cursed aloud.
America's "freedom" really was something else. Grenade launchers, missiles, now a minefield of ten thousand explosives? Just lying in wait on a public road?
Didn't the government fear that one of these groups might turn their weapons inward one day, storming the White House itself? Leon wouldn't be surprised if someone had tanks and APCs lying around for the right price.
"Can we go off-road, into the wilderness?" Leon asked.
"Negative," the system replied coldly. "The ambush is positioned between two cliffs. Detouring would add several hundred kilometers to the route."
That was the problem. In peacetime, maybe it wouldn't matter. But with enemies actively hunting them, every half-hour wasted meant giving Eteon more time to prepare the next ambush.
If he changed course now, he'd likely be forced into more detours later. New York would be out of reach.
Leon clenched his teeth. He couldn't give them that satisfaction.
"What if we just blast straight through? The car's fast enough," Elena suggested.
But the system immediately rejected it:
"Negative. The mines are linked. Triggering one will detonate all within a one-kilometer radius. Vehicle survival rate: zero."
Leon frowned. This wasn't going to be simple. Whoever set this up wasn't stupid.
"Then what about jumping over it?" Leon asked.
"Impossible. The minefield is set on a curved road. Midair, you cannot turn. The vehicle will crash into the mountain wall and trigger the mines. No chance of survival."
That idea died instantly.
Neither charging through nor jumping it was an option. Leon's expression tightened. Was detouring the only way?
Then a spark of inspiration struck him.
"What if we use the machine gun?"
He thought back to the logic. The mines detonated when triggered. One explosion set off the rest in a chain reaction.
So what if he intentionally detonated them… from a safe distance?
Blow the whole field sky-high before even setting a wheel on it. Then simply cruise through the wreckage.
Why avoid danger… when you could obliterate it instead?
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