Chapter 19: The Pain That Can't Be Avoided
Luke, who was still in the middle of shooting, had no idea that someone was watching him with envy.
After pushing off the wall and leaping forward, he rolled twice on the ground to absorb the impact before springing back up and continuing to sprint.
The two remaining velociraptors refused to give up and spun around to chase after him again.
Luke ran uphill along the slope. The terrain grew increasingly rugged, and massive boulders, each the size of a two-story house, loomed in front of him.
If he tried to go around them, he'd lose speed—and that meant being caught.
So Luke gritted his teeth, picked up speed, and leapt forward with all his strength, climbing up one giant rock after another.
Then, to everyone's astonishment on set, he dove straight into the air...
Running at full speed, he pushed off the ground hard and soared from the top of one boulder toward another.
He didn't want to slow down by weaving through the rocks below, so his only option was to leap across their tops.
But the gap between the rocks was more than seven meters—nearly twenty-three feet!
For reference, the world long-jump record is 8.95 meters—and that's from a single, all-out leap.
Luke, on the other hand, had to make several of those jumps in a row. The difficulty was beyond belief—borderline record-breaking.
As he soared through the air, his body stretched out perfectly straight, his movements fluid and bursting with power and grace.
He landed squarely on the next boulder, used his hands to roll smoothly, and kept running forward without missing a beat—then leapt again toward the next rock.
In parkour, rolling is one of the core techniques—it helps disperse the impact of a landing.
But what Luke was doing now was a dive roll, an even more advanced technique.
His master-level parkour skills showed not just in the elegance of each move but also in how seamlessly he linked them together.
In just seven seconds, Luke completed four long-distance dive rolls, gliding across the tops of the boulders like a phantom.
If any parkour enthusiast had witnessed it, they would've fallen to their knees in awe.
"Oh my God! I just saw a flying man!"
"This clip—once it's edited—will become the Bible for parkour fans!"
"How is he taking that kind of impact? Are his knees and ankles made of titanium?"
"Okay, I officially believe that maybe people from the East really can do light-body kung fu."
Everyone off-set was stunned. They'd read Luke's action choreography before, sure—but seeing it brought to life was an entirely different experience.
When that script became a living, breathing storm of motion on set, the shock and visual impact were indescribable.
Director Johnston stared intently at the monitor. Luke kept running at full speed, and even after such intense physical exertion, he was still breathing steadily. His stamina was nothing short of monstrous.
But even after clearing the boulder field, Luke hadn't shaken off the two velociraptors.
After another sprint, he suddenly skidded to a stop—there was no road ahead. A vertical cliff blocked his path.
As the raptors drew closer, Luke took two steps back, then dashed toward the cliff.
He pushed off with his left foot, leaping more than a meter into the air. His right foot landed on the rock face, propelling him even higher.
At the peak of his jump, he stretched out his arms and grabbed the edge of the cliff, pulling himself up in one smooth motion.
Wall-runs like that are common in parkour, but the way Luke moved—swift and nimble like a cat—was something else entirely. Before anyone could even process what he did, he was already on top.
The raptors behind him could only roar helplessly at the four-meter-high wall.
Finally, Luke was safe—or so he thought.
As he exhaled in relief, the ground beneath him gave way.
The dirt at the top of the cliff was loose—his foot slipped, and suddenly he was sliding downhill!
This was the most dangerous part of the entire sequence, and Director Johnston couldn't help but stand up in alarm.
The earlier parkour scenes required immense skill, but at least if something went wrong, they could reshoot.
This next part, however… only God could help him now.
Dust billowed everywhere as Luke tumbled down the slope—and right ahead was a cliff, at least fifty feet high.
The momentum was too strong to stop—he went over the edge.
Fortunately, a large tree grew from the side of the cliff. Luke's back slammed onto a thick branch—
Crack!
The branch snapped almost instantly, barely slowing his fall.
Crack!
Another branch broke beneath him, this one a bit sturdier, taking some of the force.
But his luck ran out after that—no more branches.
Thud!
He landed hard on his right shoulder, crashing into the dirt below.
It felt like being struck with a bat. His vision went dark and started spinning wildly.
Through the haze, Luke saw Director Johnston running toward him with the medical team.
Their mouths were moving, shouting something—but he couldn't hear a thing. Only a loud buzzing filled his ears.
His vision, hearing, and even touch all seemed to fade. Everything felt surreal, dreamlike.
He knew this was his body's numbed reaction to trauma. If nothing was seriously damaged, he'd recover soon.
By now, the medic was at his side, checking his vitals and attaching sensors with practiced speed.
Director Johnston's face was tight with worry as he spoke urgently to the doctor.
Then Luke froze—golden text appeared before his eyes, like a holographic system display:
[Warning! Minor concussion detected!]
[Warning! Shoulder ligament strain detected!]
[Warning! Three lacerations on the back detected!]
A string of injury alerts popped up, but thankfully, none of them were serious. The on-set medical team could treat everything without long-term effects.
Once he confirmed that, Luke finally relaxed.
The second half of this action sequence was an homage to Jackie Chan's film Project A—specifically, the famous clock-tower fall.
But Luke's version was even riskier and harder to control.
Still, he'd pulled it off—barely. And that scene was bound to become one of the film's biggest highlights.
His confidence that Jurassic Park III would outperform The Mummy Returns grew even stronger.
When the doctor announced that Luke was fine, the entire crew rushed over.
They clapped and cheered, their excitement barely contained. If he hadn't been injured, they probably would've thrown him into the air in celebration.
"Your eyes are bloodshot! You okay?"
"That was insane, man. I'm honored to have worked on this scene."
"Luke, you just made me a ton of money!"
"Are you even human? Go save the world already, superhero!"
What they saw was only the surface. The true depth of Luke's strength, speed, skill, and endurance wasn't something most people could recognize.
But Bob, who had been watching from the sidelines, understood it perfectly.
He'd worked under Jackie Chan for ten years, participated in over twenty films—his experience and eye for talent were unmatched.
And to him, Luke's performance exceeded ordinary human limits.
While Luke was unaware of Bob's new appraisal of him, the system rewarded him again for completing another dangerous action sequence:
[Completed C-level dangerous stunt: +2 assignable attribute points.]
[First injury during action filming detected. As a stunt actor, this pain is your rite of passage. Bonus: +1 attribute point!]