Chapter 94

Chapter 94

Catch Me If You Can

"Are you the real Squatjaw?"

Leo frowned and asked the new arrival.

Naturally he wasn't asking because of the newcomer's appearance. He looked identical to the ones he'd seen two days before.

Instead, what caught Leo's eyes was the attitude of the horned boy toward him.

Seeing how respectfully the boy, who was clearly a member of the Squatjaw Adventurers, treats him Of course, this might all just be another prank, but the possibility remained.

That was then.

"You still can't tell?"

The new Squatjaw turned to face him with a bright smile.

A familiar smile.

A very confident smile that had been missing from the rest of the Squatjaws.

So he actually was the real one?

"Its me, Hiro."

"You, you!"

"Its been a while, Leo."

At that moment, Leo felt something bubble up inside his chest.

He didn't know what the lump of emotions consisted of.

It just felt hot, and intense.

"You bastard I've been looking for you!"

"Were you?"

"Squatjaw! Give me the treasure!"

"Which one is it? Did you come here to find me? Or to find the treasure?"

"Both!"

Leo strode forward.

This was his first time feeling so excited.

Lightning started flashing naturally from his body.

Zzappp-!

But Squatjaw was still smiling brightly, and he didn't take any special action.

"Whoa, hey, calm down."

"Lets fight! Whoever wins gets the treasure, how about it?"

"Well, that doesn't sound bad Wait a minute. Wait. I'll send them away first."

Then he gently lowered his head.

And then,

"Huh?"

Something was peeled off from the air above Squatjaw's head.

Surprisingly, that little girl from the Squatjaw Adventurers had been hiding there.

"Ah, you're that little kid!"

"Youre the kid! My name is Cocoa. Or Cocoavi."

"Now, now, quiet. Leo, wait a bit."

Squatjaw, the little kid and the horned boy took some distance and put their heads together.

Squatjaw started whispering, and the other two listened intently, but Leo couldn't catch the conversation.

He could only make out a couple of phrases.

Spread out'. And follow me'.

And then,

"Ah, thanks for waiting."

After sending the two away, Squatjaw came back.

Then he asked a bizarre question.

"By the way, looks like you two have gotten friendly?"

"Huh?"

It was an odd question.

The intent behind the question was of course difficult to understand, but more than that, the subject itself was strange. Why did it sound like Squatjaw knew Tanya too?

"Do you know each other?"

When Leo looked back at Tanya, she answered without turning her gaze away from Squatjaw.

She was showing off a really suspicious attitude.

And after that,

"What, didnt you tell him?"

Squatjaw asked.

"Tanya? Did you already know Squatjaw?"

Then,

"Like hell I know him! Th-, this this cunning thief!"

She suddenly started screaming out of nowhere.

"Oh, are you introducing yourself?"

Squatjaw's words that followed were truly astonishing.

That Tanya was none other than the one who'd first stolen the treasure from Eastland. He even said that they'd arrived to the continent on the same ship.

When Leo asked her if this was true,

"Yeah. But that squat-jawed bastard stole it! My treasure!"

Tanya roared.

"Well, isnt it a bit too much to say that its yours? You stole it from somebody else, too. Oh, and Leo, you don't even know, do you? That this woman is a member of a very famous bandit gang?"

"Huh?"

That was then.

"Hey, stop it"

Suddenly, Tanya's voice became very quiet.

"A bandit gang?"

"Yeah. The Huntington Bandits. Have you ever heard of them?"

It was a very familiar name.

Huntington? Huntington

"That Huntington?"

""

From how Tanya bowed her head, it was true.

"But then why have I never seen her before?"

"Are you an idiot? Because this woman was in Eastland all along."

"Ah."

Leo nodded.

Then,

"But so what?"

"Huh?"

Squatjaw seemed puzzled.

"So what if Tanya's a Huntington?"

"What do you mean haven't you guys been fighting them off and on? I've heard the rumours."

"What does that matter? Like you said, Tanya was in Eastland at the time. And at least for now, she's my friend, not a Huntington."

The left Squatjaw speechless for a while.

Finally,

" I see. Already in the party I guess not yet? That'd be a bit more obvious."

"What?"

"No, nothing. That's a good attitude to have. I was just wondering how close the two of you were, so I asked. Well, it doesn't look that bad. You're doing well."

Why did he have to constantly spew out nonsense that Leo couldn't understand?

Leo thought that he needed to take charge and sort out the situation. Somehow, he had a feeling that the Squatjaw was constantly trying to change the topic.

For example, what if the chapter went off-track in my absence? What if Groniyan, without an opponent to fight against, eventually turned to Karl Zayed; and the two of them had a fight?

All I'd done so far would be quickly overshadowed and lose its impact.

And if that happened, the post-chapter rewards would also naturally decrease significantly. Because the readers wouldn't remember any of it.

And once the chapter rewards were reduced, I'd really become helpless.

Unlike the others, I had a system that let me level up my character.

And the currency for that was earned through the post-chapter reward settlements.

In a situation where people stronger than me were coming up on stage one after another, if I missed the rewards? If all my earnings vanished in a puff of smoke?

My future would only become more and more bleak.

Therefore, even if I decided to run away, I had to finish this chapter first.

In a way that didn't harm my image.

It was honestly a pain in the ass.

" This is killing me."

In fact, wasnt there a way to quickly end this chapter?

Based on as a very simple, yet very clear observation.

Just grab the Ramirez and get out of this Clone City.

If my guess was correct, this chapter's realm' was probably limited to Clone City.

My logic was simple. There was no reason for Karl Zayed to appear here otherwise.

I'd been thinking about this since the moment hed arrived here.

Besides, even Groniyan came here.

Obviously, there was something to be concluded in this city.

That said, although I didn't know exactly what the authors plan was by bringing Groniyan here, as long as he didnt succeed, the preceding plot would inevitably become twisted.

In such a situation the author would eventually be forced to end the chapter. To stop the plotline from twisting out of his control.

Of course, this was only a guess, and leaving the city didnt guarantee that the chapter would end immediately. In fact, even in the original, this chapter had ended in Buckingham, not here.

But what if one more condition was added?

The most important part of finishing a chapter was convincing the reader that the story told in the chapter had come to a natural end.

In other words, before the new narrative centred around Groniyan began to build up, I had to clearly remind them that the most important material of this chapter was I' and the Ramirez'; and the goal of everybody here was to chase me and my treasure. What if I just left the city after?

Wouldnt that end the chapter?

So, I was repeating my shoddy escape plan.

My scheme was simple.

1. Keep running away while Leo, the current leading point of view, was following behind.

2. Wander all over Clone City along the way and catch people's attention.

3. Find a place where everyone was paying attention to me, and declare. That there was nothing more to do in this city, and Id be moving on to the next stage. If they wanted to catch up, or if they wanted Ramirez, then just follow.

The problem was at the second step.

Running all over the city, catching everybodys attention.

Everybody' here naturally also included Karl Zayed and Groniyan.

In other words, while running away from Leo, I had to go find them and draw their attention.

This might even be the very thing the author wanted. To go up to those monsters on my own two feet.

But there was no other way. All I could do was risk my life and just run.

At that moment,

"Squatjaw!!!"

Leo, whod been following after me, suddenly shouted from a distance.

He had to carry Tanya while chasing after me, but his stamina still seemed full.

"Stand there! Don't run away!"

" Haah."

Why would I listen?

I was getting ready to run again, but

Beep.

Suddenly, the hologram turned red, and a warning message popped up.

[Warning!]

[Intention to violate plausibility has been detected]

[Acts are prohibited by the preceding plot]

[Movement is restricted for 2 minutes as a cumulative penalty]

[The author's favourability decreases by 10.]

[Character level decreased slightly]

[Are you sure you want to bypass the sanctions?]

Remaining chances: 2

Again?

I'm really dying here.'

I quickly used a veto.

Apparently, just using the veto for an action once didnt mean the sanction of the precedent plot would go away permanently.

Currently, running away from Leo was a sanctioned act, but the warnings didnt stop after the first time. Theyd been popping up at a regular schedule.

Now I only had two vetoes left.

Of course, in addition to the vetoes, I also had two rights to ignore sanctions', but they felt too precious to waste here. Was this the sunk cost fallacy?

Anyway,

"Slow down, you bastard!"

I started running again.

Now that Id had enough rest, it was time to draw the attention of the monsters.

"Haha phew, this is tough."

When Karl Zayed saw Squatjaw appear in front of him, he felt embarrassment, anger, and then wonder.

The embarrassment was from how he literally appeared out of thin air. And how heavy the man was breathing, as if exhausted, didnt help either.

Anger came next, because

"You bastard it really is you."

"Hey, long time no see, huh?"

I was planning to go find you.

"It doesnt matter who stays and who goes, right?"

"Are you ready? Ready to die."

"Oh? That might not work."

He thought a prank was being played on him.

On him! On Karl Zayed!

Even though hed lost once, itd been a mere coincidence. He was confident that hed never lose against the man ever again.

But immediately after that, came puzzlement.

"What are you doing?"

Because the man didn't seem to really want to fight him.

Instead, Squatjaw was just looking at him and smiling.

It was a smile the didnt seem to have any rhyme or reason behind it.

"Are you going to fight me?"

"Naturally."

"What about the treasure?"

"Thatll be mine, too."

"Hmm, is that so?"

Then, after a quick spell of silence, Squatjaw let out a few words.

"In that case, you"

And made all Karl Zayeds doubts and puzzlement turn into a pure intent to kill.

"Catch me if you can."

Editor's Notes:

None for this chapter.

Leave a like and comment, it only takes a minute! Also rate and review at NovelUpdates if you haven't.

Previous Chapter Project Page <a class="wp-block-button__link wp-element-button">Next Chapter Support Us on Ko-fi