One week ago.

June 24th, Year 714 A.G.

["Mr. Grok and the Big Gig Construction Company."]

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["The Big Gig Construction Company has grown over the years to become one of the biggest construction companies in the Federation's Megacity, Red Meridian. It is owned by Mr. Grok Letho, a Synth who's rumored to be more than 200 years old…"]

That day, Leon felt like an explosion detonated inside his head.

He just completed his first Ascendancy Trial, he was an E Rank Neo Mechanist, his body was enhanced, now more powerful than ever before but none of those attracted his attention at that moment.

All that attracted his attention was the contents on his smartphone.

'T-the company's still alive,' he shuddered. 'He's alive!'

His eyes widened. "Did I just go back in time and affected history?"

Leon always knew that the ChronoSystem was mysterious and special, he knew that it was likely connected to his past, and he knew that it was his surest bet to regaining his fragmented memories.

But still, not even in his wildest dreams did he expect something like this to happen with the ChronoSystem.

'Ascendancy Trails are supposed to be a core inviolable rule of this world. Since Ascendancy is an act of defiance against the natural order of this world, Trials are the world's way of balancing the act, a dangerous game of risk and reward'.

'Ascendancy Trials are connected to the inherent nature of this world and ADE!' Leon's eyes widened in shock, he never expected his System to be capable of affecting the very nature of this world.

It's just like receiving a toy gun as a kid without realizing that the toy gun was actually the key to a nuclear bomb!

'Holy sh*t!' Leon raised his hands and looked at them, all his hair stood on end as he felt goosebumps.

The System had never appeared to him in a physical form, but at this moment he could not help but carefully scrutinize his hands as if he would be able to see the physical manifestation of the System if he looked close enough.

"System, what exactly are you?" His voice was complicated.

Ideas flowed, jammed and exploded in his head.

On one hand, it felt like what happened was related to the 'Chrono' in the System's name. Chrono means related to time, and it's reasonable for something called the ChronoSystem to be able to affect time.

Still, Leon felt that it was not that simple. Only at this moment did he realize just how much he'd underestimated the secrets of the System.

He felt complicated.

His first Ascendancy Trial was not normal at all, literally everything that happened pointed to how different he was, and their connection to his System.

"What's the origin of the System?" He mumbled to himself, conflicted.

"Umar Nurmagomedov, Craig Mayweather, Franklin Aaron," he tapped his index finger against the ground. "Who are these people? How are they related to me? Why did they appear to me in a lucid dream after my Trial?"

Somehow, Leon was convinced that the 3 people that appeared before him were related to his past.

Once again, he felt a deep yearning to get stronger as fast as possible so he could finally remember his fragmented memories.

It took a long time for him to calm down but once he did, he smiled in a melancholic manner. "So, Mr. Grok is still alive, who would have thought?"

"Maybe I should meet him in the future?" He laughed. "I wonder how he'll react. Considering how I just disappeared after helping save his career, he must think that I'm some ghost or an Angel sent from heaven to help him".

He spent less than 2 days in the Trial but in those 2 days, Leon built a strange type of bond with his colleagues.

"I wonder if that obese Manager is still alive," he smiled. "What of Supervisor Jeff? What of Sonas?"

Only after all these did Leon finally pay attention to his body.

Even without looking at his System status, he could instinctively feel the changes in his body. His body was far stronger than ever before, his speed, strength, agility, everything was better.

He could also feel the innate connection with his new abilities. If he wished, he could activate them and use them at any time.

Also, after becoming a Neo Mechanist, his two F Rank abilities became even better. It took less time to use both Construct and Deconstruct, and the quality of his constructs was now better.

His chances of getting a blueprint fragment and a blueprint when using Deconstruct on items also increased.

After all that, Leon remembered something and mumbled to himself. "Year 583 A.G, I wonder what really happened in history".

Remembering how he just confirmed Mr. Grok's life through the psionic network, he grabbed his smartphone again and surfed the internet, searching for any news related to Year 583 A.G.

Year 583 A.G was 131 years ago, most news from back then were already lost in the endless catalogue of news that appeared every year in Neo-Tokara.

Leon didn't find anything tangible.

"Maybe I'll have to access the backlog of super computers in the headquarters of the major factions of the world if I truly want to know what happened 131 years ago".

"Good luck doing that". He mocked himself.

But despite the fact that he didn't find exactly what he wanted, he found something else- the hot news of the Year in 583 A.G.

["On the 4th of April, Ren Nora, the leader of the freedom fighters leads his rebels to declare the first Civil War in Neo-Tokara in 4 centuries!"]

["They call him the Glitch."]

Leon's eyes gleamed as soon as he saw this news. Instantly, his brain started making certain connections.

He rubbed his chin in thought. 'Is Year 583 A.G the year that the Freegrid Collective rose to power?' Suddenly, Leon lamented the fact that Talia was not here or he would have directly asked her.

It was not much but Leon felt that this was a big step towards prying open the veil of mystery covering Year 583 A.G and his first Trial.

Leon didn't decide to leave though. Instead, he decided to have a nap.

When he woke up, he looked around his shelter and then he smiled. "Let's renovate this place".

…

Back to the present…

July 1st, Year 714 A.G.

VROOM!

A sleek-looking black and green super bike drove through the wasteland at a rapid speed, leaving a trail of dust behind it.

On top the bike was a man on black leather attire covered by a long flowing black coat and a black helmet. He wore a black leather backpack.

As Leon drove back towards Community G, leaving his shelter behind once again, he recalled a few experiences of the past week.

~----~

[Ascended Counter: 150/2000]

~----~

One of the first things that Leon paid attention to after settling down in his shelter after his Trial was his Ascended Counter.

Afterall, it was the counter that tracked his growth and his viability to attempt a second Trial and become stronger.

Like he expected, the Ascended Counter reset after he became an E Rank Neo Mechanist. Not just that, compared to 1000 at F Rank, the Ascended Counter increased and doubled to 2000 at E Rank.

One of the reasons why Leon stayed behind at his shelter for a week was to fill his Ascended Counter as much as possible before leaving.

But to his shock, filling it was not as easy as before.

The rules have changed.

At F Rank, all he needed to do was be creative and construct as much as possible to gradually fill his Ascended Counter. But at E Rank, simply constructing gadgets was no longer enough to raise the Ascended Counter.

He was dismayed. Once again, he was forced to go through a process of trial and error to learn the new rules of increasing his Ascended Counter which he did diligently through the past week.

His experimentation resulted in varying degrees of success.

Throughout the past week, despite the fact that with his improved abilities he crafted so many gadgets and did many things, the only time that the Ascended Counter increased was when he created Davis, constructed C-5 drones, and when he constructed the sword drones.

Though he only took 2 sword drones with him when leaving, he crafted 4 during the past week. The first time, constructing a sword drone increased the Ascended Counter by +10.

The second time, it reduced to +8. The third time, it reduced to +6, and the fourth time it reduced to +4.

Leon was almost depressed at that point. 'How is the Ascended Counter supposed to grow when you make it this difficult?'

During the past week, he also constructed 9 C-5 blueprints. The first time, his Ascended Counter increased by +5, the second time by +4, the third time by +3, the fourth time by +2, and all subsequent times +2.

But then, he completed the program for Davis and immediately, his Ascended Counter jumped by a whopping +100!

These were the only times that his Ascended Counter increased.

With the experience from these few times, he made conjectures and concluded a few principles of growing his Ascended Counter at E Rank.

'It's only when I do things or create constructs related to my new rank and abilities that the Ascended Counter increases'.

At F Rank, all he had was Construct and Deconstruct so it made sense that the times when his Ascended Counter increased was when he created blueprints, gained blueprints, and made constructs.

With this model as the blueprint, he found the connection. 'At F Rank, the focus was on Construct and Deconstruct. Now, at E Rank, the focus has shifted to my new abilities'.

'It's why when I created drones, it increased but when I created other constructs, it didn't'.

One of the abilities that he gained at E Rank is Drone Control Matrix. By using that connection, it made sense that constructing drones increased the counter.

But there was a contradiction. 'If so, why did the counter not increase when I used miniaturization while crafting constructs?'

That was when he got the second principle. 'Unlike a Proto Mechanist, a Neo Mechanist's growth at E Rank is no longer tied to just creativity and construction but also combat'.

Apart from Neural Overclock that was exclusive to him, a normal E Rank Mechanist gains 4 abilities with 2 dedicated to construction and the remaining 2 dedicated to combat- Drone Control Matrix and Enhance.

Leon projected 2 ways to quickly increase his Ascended Counter:

One, by constructing increasingly sophisticated and powerful drones as evident by the fact that constructing the sword drones increased the counter than constructing normal C-5 drones.

Two, by engaging in combat.

Leon felt his whole view of the Mechanist Class turning upside down. 'Who would have thought that combat will become a priority of my Class at E Rank?'

He projected that by constructing sophisticated drones and by fighting using Enhance and Drone Control Matrix were the best ways to quickly increase his Ascended Counter.

This influenced his decision to go to Leviathan Quay.

He wanted to participate in the combat sports tournament that a merchant once advertised in Community G.

Besides, as a Mechanist, he needed the prize money from the tournament.

After more than a dozen minutes of riding through the familiar path, Leon finally arrived before a familiar community.

He was back in Community G.

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