"Huh?"
The guard's mind had already been pushed to the brink by Leon's presence. Even now, he had not fully come back to his senses. His entire body trembled uncontrollably as he slowly stepped backward, instinctively trying to escape the terrifying figure standing in front of him.
Leon made no move to harm him.
Instead, he simply watched with a faint smile. The moment their eyes met again, the guard's body stiffened abruptly. His legs, which had been trying to retreat, suddenly refused to move at all.
"This kind of world-changing event," Leon said casually, "naturally needs a witness. You'll do nicely."
As he spoke, Leon tossed the transparent sphere of liquid in his hand toward the erupting fountain of crude oil. The moment the two substances touched, the transformation began immediately.
The dark brown crude oil shooting out of the ground turned clear in an instant. All traces of impurities vanished as the liquid became perfectly transparent, like pure spring water.
The change did not stop there.
It spread downward from the fountain into the underground extraction channels. From there, the transformation traveled rapidly through pipelines and fissures deep beneath the earth, pushing farther and farther into the oil field below.
If someone had possessed the ability to see through the ground, they would have witnessed an astonishing phenomenon unfolding beneath their feet.
Inside the vast underground reservoirs, countless reactions were taking place simultaneously. Like a massive chain reaction, the substances within the oil deposits began undergoing strange transformations. The molecular structure of crude oil changed rapidly as crucial chemical bonds broke apart and reformed into entirely new arrangements.
Matter itself was being rewritten.
Leon now possessed the ability to manipulate matter at the subatomic level. Altering the fundamental nature of substances had become trivial for him. Transformations that once seemed miraculous—like turning stone into gold—were now among the simplest applications of his power.
Turning oil into water was no different.
Although the process itself began instantly, converting the entire oil field would take time. The reserves buried beneath this region were enormous, and it would take a day or two for the chain reaction to spread through every underground deposit.
Still, the outcome was already guaranteed.
Leon had injected enough energy into the initial reaction to sustain the transformation indefinitely. Once it began, the process would continue on its own until every drop of crude oil in the reservoir had been converted.
By the time the world realized what had happened, it would already be too late.
The change would be irreversible.
Just imagining the expressions on the faces of the world's leaders when they learned the truth made Leon chuckle softly. His laughter sounded cheerful and carefree, like someone who had just pulled off a particularly satisfying prank.
The sudden sound startled the guard back to reality.
"Ahhh!"
With a terrified scream, the man spun around and bolted toward the distance.
But Leon simply waved his hand.
The fleeing guard suddenly felt his body jerk violently backward. He struggled helplessly in the air before being dragged straight back beside Leon, landing awkwardly on the ground.
Leon casually wrapped an arm around the man's shoulders as if they were old friends. The guard's body trembled violently, but Leon ignored it and pointed toward the erupting fountain of clear water.
"Look closely," Leon whispered beside his ear. "You don't have to worry about water anymore."
He gestured toward the ground beneath them.
"I've injected a special energy into the earth. That energy will keep the groundwater erupting continuously for the next hundred years. From now on, this place will have a massive lake, and you'll never need to worry about water shortages again."
Leon patted the man on the shoulder with apparent friendliness.
"What's wrong?" he asked lightly. "You don't look happy. There's really no need to thank me."
With a small flick of his thoughts, a sphere of clear water floated up from the fountain and hovered in front of the guard's face.
"You must be thirsty," Leon continued in a persuasive tone. "Go ahead and taste it. This isn't ordinary water. I added several minerals to it."
He tilted his head slightly, as if remembering something amusing.
"What's that advertising slogan again? Right—Nongfu Spring. They say the water is sweet."
The sphere of water floated steadily in front of the guard.
By now the man had been completely overwhelmed by Leon's presence. His mind was blank, and his movements had become mechanical. Without even thinking, he opened his mouth and swallowed the fist-sized ball of water in one gulp.
Whether the water tasted sweet or not no longer mattered to him.
His heart was filled with nothing but fear and an overwhelming sense of despair.
"Excellent," Leon said with satisfaction. "It looks like you enjoyed it."
He gave the man another friendly pat on the shoulder.
"In that case, I'm relieved."
Before the guard could react, Leon vanished instantly.
Several minutes passed before the man finally recovered from the shock. When he realized that Leon had truly disappeared, his body suddenly convulsed as if struck by lightning.
"Aaaaaah!"
He screamed at the top of his lungs and sprinted wildly toward the industrial complex behind the oil field.
Meanwhile, Leon had already moved on.
His next destination was the world's second-largest oil-producing country: Russia.
There, he repeated the same process.
From Russia he traveled to Iraq, then Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and Canada. In a single day, Leon crossed the entire planet, visiting every major oil-producing region on Earth.
At each oil field, he left behind the same transformation energy.
One by one, the world's oil reserves began changing.
Leon carried within his mind the precise coordinates of nearly every oil field on the planet. Because of that knowledge, he moved without hesitation or error, completing the task within a single day.
Soon afterward, reports of his actions at several major oil facilities began to spread.
At first the information circulated only locally. But within two days the news exploded across the globe like a wildfire.
Oil had turned into fresh water.
Once again, the world was thrown into chaos.
Every nation reacted with immediate panic. Oil was the foundation of modern industry and global energy production. Its importance far exceeded that of gold or any financial asset.
Now, however, every oil-producing region on Earth had suddenly lost its oil.
It was as if someone had issued a death sentence to the world's industrial system.
Leon had first shaken the foundations of the global financial order. Now he had destroyed the energy system that powered modern civilization.
Compared with the collapse of financial markets, the disappearance of oil threatened an even greater catastrophe.
The entire world erupted into turmoil.
With a single move, Leon had struck every country on Earth directly in the face.
Despair spread rapidly across the planet.
Through his actions, Leon had delivered a simple message to humanity: never underestimate him. Anyone who did so would pay a devastating price.
Even though every government had already begun taking him seriously, the consequences of this new attack were far worse than anyone expected.
The collapse of the oil system sent shockwaves through global industry. Factories slowed or shut down entirely as major energy sources disappeared. Without oil, transportation systems faltered, production chains collapsed, and national power began declining at an alarming rate.
As the world's leading superpower, the United States possessed significant strategic oil reserves. In theory, those reserves could sustain wartime operations for approximately nine months.
But once those nine months passed, the oil would truly be gone.
At that moment, every nation on Earth faced the same question.
How could they escape this crisis?
Despite countless emergency meetings and desperate discussions, no country had yet found an answer.
Meanwhile, Leon sat comfortably in a reclining chair on a terrace, enjoying a rare moment of leisure.
A relaxed smile rested on his face as he gazed out at the horizon.
Now he simply wanted to watch how the nations of the world would respond.
Would they unite together because of this crisis?
He considered the possibility carefully.
In fact, he thought it was extremely likely.
Unfortunately, he would not know the answer until the end.
.....
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