The next morning, Leon woke up to sudden preferential treatment as a beautiful female room attendant came to his room with new bedsheets, towel, cream, and even perfume.

She was dressed in simple maid attire but she looked young and attractive with rosy red lips and chubby, round cheeks that were flushed red. Her ears were long and furry, they had a certain charm to them.

This Geneform clearly had Fox DNA.

Simply staring at her made Leon's blood rush in the wrong direction.

"Ahem," he coughed and stood up, giving her space to work but she wasn't shy at all as she initiated a conversation.

"Sir, what do you want to eat this morning? Noble Inn is willing to organize a special treat just for you".

"Also, we have certain connections to Big Cheeks Motel," her rosy cheeks flushed even more as she said this. "If you're interested in those activities, we can invite one of their best attendants to come attend to you right here in the inn".

Leon laughed. "Haha, I'll pass".

He already knew what was happening. 'Did they discover that I'm an Ascended? But I made sure to avoid the security guards and cameras yesterday'.

'Wait, is it that short Ascended at the Tower?'

'It's him'. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. 'Is this his attempt at trying to befriend me after helping him yesterday night?'

'Unfortunately, I won't be staying long here but I have no reason to reject his show of goodwill'.

Leon was not modest at all as he looked at the beautiful room attendant. He listed a bunch of exotic food that the hotel's restaurant had in their menu yesterday but he was too impoverished to look at.

The moment he made a request, the beautiful room attendant visibly heaved a sigh of relief as she excitedly left to fulfill the request.

Leon sat down on the newly made bed and laughed as he suddenly remembered something. "That guy is short, Rex was short too, is it a trait of Gene Augurs to be short or something?"

To him, Brick and Parasite were outliers. Cell was slightly short too.

A few minutes later, the beautiful room attendant personally returned with the meal that he ordered.

Leon ate till satisfaction, devouring the rest out of sheer greed despite already being full.

After that, he quickly had his bath, arranged his bag, used Miniaturization on his weapons that needed it again, and then he left the hotel room with his black leather bag slung across his back.

Unlike what he expected, nobody stopped or disturbed him as he left. He paid for the 1-night stay before leaving.

He was impressed. 'They're really professional. They clearly tried to please me but once they noted that I'm a conservative person, they reacted accordingly to avoid ticking me off'.

'They even allowed me to pay for the night-stay thinking that a person like me would feel awkward if they made everything free'.

Leon didn't know if he should laugh or cry. 'Rejecting free sex is not the same as saving money, I would have actually appreciated it if you guys made me save those 5 pounds that I just spent'. He sighed.

The moment he opened the door of the hotel's first floor to go to the garage and leave though, he was surprised to see a familiar face.

"Mr. Gabriel?"

The vigilante was no longer in his work uniform. Instead, he wore a simple white blouse and black pants.

The moment Leon called his name, he flashed an awkward smile. "Mr… uh, visitor, it's nice to see you again".

Leon looked at him in an amused manner.

Gabriel felt awkward but he shamelessly pressed on. "Hehe, I told my captain about you yesterday and he wants to meet you if you're free".

Leon shook his head. "Tell him I'm busy, maybe next time. Like I told you, I'm going to Leviathan Quay".

"Oh, ok". He nodded profusely, then he suddenly pushed an envelope towards Leon. "He said I should give this to you".

Leon took the brown envelop with a skeptical look on his face. "What's inside?"

Gabriel scratched the back of his head. "Hehe, it's a small gift from the captain. He said you're welcome to Wurzburg anytime!" With that, he turned and quickly scurried away.

Leon chuckled then he opened the envelope and saw a few paper bills each with 1 pound written at the top right corner.

He counted 30 bills in total.

"30 pounds!" Leon hissed and clicked his tongue with a smile. "That's like paying me for what I did yesterday, it's not like I'm a mercenary". He laughed but he didn't reject it.

He needed money.

He went to the garage where he retrieved his bike. Not only did they help him refill his fuel tank, all 5 of his batteries were fully recharged.

Leon smiled and then he got prepared to continue his journey from Wurzburg.

"Davis, update the map".

"Yes master".

DING!

[Wurzburg 12km → Rothenburg 21km → Larton]

Leon's lips twitched as the map appeared again. 'It's even calling me master now? What the f*ck!'

He felt alarmed. 'I really need to check its code as soon as possible for any changes'.

Due to how treacherous the road was and the need to avoid the territory of powerful Neon Beasts, crossing the journey of 12 kilometers still took Leon more than 30 minutes before he arrived at Rothenburg.

The journey to Rothenburg was easy and straightforward, but the journey to Larton Town was less straightforward.

Leon stumbled upon a nanite storm!

Despite the fact that he had experienced it once already during the siege of the cargo trailer, Leon was still taken aback when Davis identified the incoming storm before him.

This storm was even bigger than the one he experienced previously.

It felt like night itself was coming for him as an endless swarm of black micro-machines descended from the sky in a mad display of synthetic disaster, devouring everything and anything in their path and leaving only ruin and destruction in their wake.

WHOOOOOOO…!!!

The leafless trees on their path were eaten to their roots, even the chassis of abandoned trucks were wiped clean.

Leon's heartbeat accelerated as he faced the storm.

Unlike back then during the siege, this time, he didn't have Kain's defense grid to lessen the impact.

He didn't have teammates who were adept at combat to protect him, and most importantly, he didn't have Kain's metal dome to protect him.

He was exposed in the open!

As his pulse accelerated, his body surging with adrenaline, his brain quickly entered a state of overdrive as he analyzed his chances of survival.

And then, he got an idea.

"Davis, map out the speed I need to get to the perimeter of the storm!"

His idea was simple, he wanted to ride perpendicularly to the very edge of the nanite storm and escape the perimeter before it swallowed everything.

The nanite storm looked endless but it was not, it had an edge. It was just that it looked so big and mighty that it seemed endless.

The storm of rabid micro-machines moved at speeds exceeding 400km/hour, but Leon had a super bike that could run up to speeds of 500km/hour!

Besides, with Enhance, he had an ability that could enhance the power, workings, and abilities of any mechanic construct.

The Karaki CT-3X is a mechanic construct, meaning Leon could also enhance its speed.

DING!

[Going perpendicularly, you need a minimum speed of 624km/hour to reach the edge of the nanite storm before it catches up to you!]

As soon as Davis answered, Leon pivoted the bike and instead of facing south, he now faced east.

Enhance!

His grayish white ADE flared, violently wrapping around the super bike as Leon didn't care about the drain, pouring everything in, then…

VROOM!

The Karaki CT-3X jerked, then it flew forward!

With his black helmet on, all that Leon saw was a blur as the world turned into in elongated realistic painting in his perception.

By pouring everything in, he reached speeds of 750km/hour!

He was flying!

He raced against certain death as the nanite storm approached, devouring everything in its path.

And when the storm was just a few dozen meters away from him, he finally arrived at the edge, scraping the perimeter, then…

WHOOM!

The nanite storm tore past him like destruction incarnate!

Due to exceeding Davis's projected speed, it was close but the nanite storm didn't touch him. He escaped with his bike intact.

But at the end of it all, Leon felt weak as his ADE was almost completely drained after such an epic getaway.

He heaved a sigh of relief. "I survived".

But at that moment, Davis lit up a new notification before him as the A.I also spoke to inform him.

DING!

"Master, there are certain articles on the psionic network that says there are certain types of Neon Beast that like to stalk nanite storms, hoping to feast on the weakened survivors that the storm could not destroy".

Leon's heart tightened the moment he heard that. "F*ck!"

At that moment, he thanked his lucky stars for his decision to not leave his shelter to explore this world alone after he became an F Rank Mechanist.

If he didn't leave with Talia's crew and decided to leave alone, he would have undoubtedly died in the wasteland within just a few days.

Even at E Rank now, he didn't feel safe.

Having recharged all 5 batteries of the bike back in Wurzburg, Leon retraced his steps back to the path that his A.I mapped out for him.

But he barely resumed the journey when he noticed a shadow suddenly appear right on top his head, rapidly closing the distance!

Whoosh!

Leon performed a dangerous maneuver as he veered to the side, dodging the lunge of the beast at the last second as instead of directly puncturing his back, the beast's talons only scratched his shoulder.

His shoulder bled as he gritted his teeth in pain.

Through the side mirror of the bike, he saw the majestic beast flap its wings after failing to kill him in one blow, rising up and pursuing him.

It was a Bald Eagle!

And not just any Bald Eagle, this was an E Rank Neon Beast! Not just that, this Eagle was faster than the bike at close range!

'F*ck!'

Leon didn't hesitate as adrenaline surged through him.

Drone Control Matrix!

Enhance!

His remaining ADE flared and suddenly, a bulge appeared on the black leather bag that was on his back.

Before the Bald Eagle could react, a tiny sword-shaped drone emerged.

Miniaturization!

From a tiny sword-shaped drone, the drone suddenly elongated, turning into a 2-meter long and extremely sharp sword.

Leon's grayish white ADE engulfed the sword, turning it exceedingly sharp.

The Bald Eagle couldn't react on time as the sword stabbed forward with devastating speed, burning its fuel and battery cells to rapidly accelerate.

It stabbed and punctured a devastating hole through the left side of the Eagle's body, directly paralyzing its right wing!

The Bald Eagle lost balance in the air and somersaulted, collapsing to the ground as the loud sound of it hitting the ground reverberated.

BOOM!

Leon didn't stop to look at the aftermath and he didn't even contemplate fighting the injured Neon Beast. It may be injured, but his ADE was barely existent at this point.

He accelerated, creating a great distance from the Neon Beast.

Only after a few minutes and seeing that no other Neon Beast came after him did he finally heave a sigh of relief and relax. He finally controlled the sword drone flying after him and escorting him to fly down.

With a needle and thread that he already procured before now, he quickly stitched the hole that was punctured through the leather bag.

Since he didn't have enough ADE to miniaturize the drone again, he could only control it to escort him till he recovered his ADE.

As he drove off, remembering the encounter that he just had, he shivered.

"What a dangerous world".

At that moment, his System lit up again.

DING!

~----~

[You have gained +3 Ascended Essence!]

[Ascended Counter: 157/2000]

~----~

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