Around 2:00pm, Leon finally left Grand Prix Arena after a bunch of promotion activities that Mr. Paul organized.

His fight against King Agama was his only scheduled fight of the day.

It was during the return journey as Tyla and Daren discussed, still excitedly dissecting the intricacies of Leon's battle against King Agama that Leon finally had the chance to focus on his System's HUD interface screen.

DING!

~----~

[You have gained +53 Ascended Essence!]

[Ascended Counter: 643/2000]

~----~

He gained a whopping +53 Ascended Essence from that single fight.

This was the most Ascended Essence that he's ever gotten from a single fight.

Leon knew that this massive boon was only partially due to King Agama's strength, more of it was related to the constructs that he created yesterday and how he used them to control and dominate the fight.

Just like the threat of King Agama gave him inspiration and made him develop the blueprints for his Pad Boosters and Infrared Googles, that ability to improvise was the true strength of Mechanists.

A hunch also told him that the massive boon in his Ascended Counter was also amplified by the sheer number of people that watched a Mechanist dismantle a Cyber Gladiator live.

According to Mr. Paul, millions across the Southern Biome tuned in to watch the fight live. Leon had a hunch that people all the way back in Community G also saw him fight live.

This gave him more food for thought. 'Is one of the principles of growing Ascended Essence for E Rank Mechanists getting feedback from an audience?'

Leon was taken aback. 'Am I supposed to become a content creator?'

Despite his thoughts though, he was elated after what he managed to achieve today.

Despite having a plan when he went to the octagon, against an E Rank Cyber Gladiator, he still felt apprehensive that something would go wrong which would spiral and scatter all his plans.

In the end, it all boiled down to a single factor… unpredictability- the ability to adapt and be prepared for any battle, and King Agama was not ready for it hence why he lost in such a one-sided manner.

Leon leaned back on the soft seat of the G-Wagon style modified airbus, then he finally perused his System to catalogue all his current blueprints.

DING!

~----~

[Blueprints:]

*F Rank: Portable Energy Cell, Modified C-5 Drone, Sword Drone, Leon's Cloak, Flux Crystal Spear, Onyx-05 Computer, Jury-rigged bomb, QX-07 Air Gun, Titanium Spear, Titanium Longsword, Titanium Dagger, Titanium Battle Axe, Titanium Mace, Titanium Halberd, Smoke Grenade, Flashbang Grenade, Chemical Grenade, Illumination Grenade, Infrared Googles.

*E Rank: Electromagnetic Pulse Gun, ADE Nullification Shackles, Light-armored Transport Truck, Fragmentation Grenade, Incendiary Grenade, Blast Grenade, Pad Boosters, R9 Energy Shield.

*D Rank: Doom Rover v0.1.

*Modified Blueprint: VX-09 Emberfist.

[Total Number of Blueprints: 29]

~----~

And just like that, compared to when he woke up almost 3 weeks ago, Leon now had 29 blueprints.

In comparison, Kain who had been a Mechanist for years though he was still F Rank had less than 5 Blueprints before he enriched him with his own blueprints.

Riding on the information that he learned through Kain and Rex, and correlating it with what he was currently learning about the world in the Geneforge Clans' territory, Leon knew that having almost 3 dozen blueprints was not normal.

He was by far the fastest-growing Mechanist in Neo-Tokara's history.

He grinned. 'I really am an abnormal bloke'.

After that thought, his eyes gleamed with anticipation for everything else that he already planned for today.

He didn't suffer a single injury in the fight against King Agama, the only thing he sacrificed was most of his ADE but ADE regenerates with time. Apart from his ADE, mentally and physically, he was still in optimum shape.

He didn't plan to rest.

For the next 3 hours till 5:00pm, he intended to go straight to the gym where he hired a private area for his spars with Daren.

His intention was to spend the next 3 hours sparing to boost his Ascended Essence since no one else wanted to fight against him in Grand Prix Arena today after what he just did to King Agama who was the former undisputed champion of the arena.

After that, Leon had one last plan scheduled for the day. He dubbed it 'The Money Heist' plan.

It was time to crack the lottery algorithm.

He checked his bank account balance.

BEEP!

[Account Name: Thomas Riley]

[Account Number: *******070]

[Account Balance: 14,156:89:00]

Translated in simpler words, this is 14,156 Neo Credits, 89 Pounds.

Staring at the figures on the screen of his smartphone, Leon felt his blood rush. 'Damn, this adrenaline, is this how it feels to be rich?'

This was by far the most money he'd ever seen since awakening in this world. According to Kain, he could be called a tycoon in any city with this type of money lying around in his account.

Leon allowed himself to grin but it didn't last, this was because he knew that this money looking like a big sum was just an illusion.

Afterall, just the projected budget for his robot, the Doom Rover v0.1 already rose to almost 40,000 Neo Credits!

'What the f*ck am I even thinking?'

At times, when he saw the budget, he felt like he was going crazy or how else would he create a blueprint that'd cost so much money to make?

'Do I think I'm being funded by the government or something?'

Despite his thoughts, he always double-downed on his decision to maintain the quality and sovereignty of by far his most complicated and expensive project since becoming a Mechanist.

'The price doesn't matter, all that matters is creating a weapon of absolute destruction that can turn me into the blueprint of sovereignty at E Rank combat'.

'Cyber Gladiator's are the best combatants at E Rank? Heh,' he smirked. 'Wait till you see me in my best form'.

And this was exactly why Leon was determined to crack the lottery algorithm, this was the only way to rapidly multiply his money.

There were much safer ways but Leon didn't have the right connections to utilize them, and since his brain was literally one of the only things going well for him in this world, he decided to utilize it for a money heist.

'The System says INT is the core attribute of the Mechanist Class, it's time to put that intelligence to use'.

As for his progress, after hours of solving mathematical equations and cracking patterns to break the lottery algorithm, Leon believed that he was now equipped to crack the algorithm of his target casino to make it big.

Once again, he went through his schedule in his head then he mumbled. "Davis, what are the chances of cracking the algorithm with our current calculations?"

DING!

"Master, estimates show a 97% chance of success".

Hearing that, Leon smiled.

Only after the percentage of success rose above 90% did he become confident enough to throw all his money in.

Even at 90%, he wasn't satisfied as he did more homework and gave Davis even more data assignments to calculate millions of numbers and probabilities just to raise the success chance by a few more percentages.

In the end, it peaked at 97%. Nothing else they did made it budge but Leon was already satisfied with this.

There was still a tiny chance of losing all his money but Leon was unfazed by it. Afterall, no risk, no gain.

If he didn't take this risk, he would remain stuck as an ordinary Mechanist and would have to grind for a long time before being able to gather such a large amount of money.

'The fear of taking risks is what keeps men ordinary'. He thought, then he finally turned his head to look at Daren.

At this moment, he was gesticulating wildly as he demonstrated to the Sergeant. "To me, the best moment of the fight is when Leon first used the smoke bomb and he snuck that deadly attack at King Agama with the Axe".

"Chills man, chills! Through those glasses that he gave us before the fight, I saw everything and I can still feel the f*cking goosebumps!"

"You're right," Sergeant Tyla nodded in agreement. "That injury was the turning point of the battle".

"It made King Agama slower, and from there, he became ensnared in Thomas Riley's masterplan!" She said excitedly.

"…"

Looking at them, Leon was speechless. 'How the hell did she suddenly become so close to us?'

He was still struggling to fathom how it happened.

One moment, Sergeant Tyla was just a soldier that he knew through Lieutenant Johnmark and the next, they were already this close?

How does that work?

Despite his doubts, he still looked at Daren and said. "Hey, you're ready to fight right?"

Daren looked at him. "Right now? You're not celebrating your victory?"

Leon shook his head. "The terrorists are not going to celebrate, so I don't think I have the luxury to celebrate either".

"The only way to beat them is to outsmart them and out-prepare them".

Daren nodded. "I'll fight".

"Fight?" Sergeant Tyla looked at the both of them with a puzzled look on her face, making Daren explain.

Once she heard that she had a chance of sparring with Thomas Riley without the fear of being heavily injured, her eyes immediately lit up as she stared at Leon with sparkling eyes.

"I want to fight too!"

'Huh?' It was getting increasingly harder for Leon to fathom the thought process of this soldier, but in the end he shrugged and agreed.

Mr. Paul also heard their conversation as from the front passenger seat, he turned around with an excited expression on his face. "I want to go too!" He said excitedly.

Leon looked at him with a flat look on his face. "Why?"

"Why?" He sounded confused. "Um… um, because I'm your promoter? I want to record your fights with Mr. Daren and Sergeant Tyla to engage your fans".

"No". Leon rejected him immediately.

Recording his fights in the arena to the world was something he couldn't stop since Grand Prix Arena had policies, the only reason why he continued fighting despite the danger of exposure was because he was broke.

That aside, recording his fights with his friend in a private gym where he would surely reveal even more things than he revealed in the arena was another thing entirely. To him, that was a big no.

That was a foolish way of revealing his hand to the terrorists and any potential enemy that he would have in the future.

The more Leon stayed in this world, the more he understood the need to keep his abilities secret. It explained why despite the number of Ascended in the world, very few Ascended knew the abilities of their Class at higher ranks.

For his personal spars with Daren, he didn't want cameras ruining the fun.

Mr. Paul looked absolutely devastated by his rejection but Leon didn't budge.

After that, the entourage from Picasso Lifestyle first dropped at the casino. He couldn't go himself to buy the tickets due to his current popularity, so Leon decided to send Daren.

"Tell them you want to buy specific tickets. Buy the tickets tagged no. 108, no. 405, and no. 198".

"What tier tickets?" Daren asked.

In the casino, there are different tiers of tickets with different price tags. According to the casino, more expensive tickets come with a higher chance of winning a jackpot.

The first tier tickets cost 1 pound per ticket, second tier tickets cost 10 pounds per ticket, third tier tickets cost 100 pounds, fourth tier tickets cost 1000 pounds, and fifth tier tickets cost 5000 pounds.

"Fifth tier". Leon finally answered.

Daren froze, shocked as he turned his head to look at his friend. "And you want to buy 3?"

Leon nodded.

"You're that confident?"

"Are you sure?" Sergeant Tyla even voiced out her concern as she heard about his intention to buy lottery tickets for the first time.

Leon grinned at the both of them. "I'm a big risk-taker". Seeing their reactions, he chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm confident".

Hearing how confident he sounded, in the end Daren shrugged and entered the casino. Leon sent him all the money in his account leaving just 100 Neo Credits.

He told Daren to complete the money and he would refund him later.

Within a few minutes, Daren came out of the casino with 3 golden-colored lottery tickets after just splurging 15,000 Neo Credits.

Even for him, he had never spent such a large sum of money at once. He had a solemn look on his face as he carefully guarded the lottery tickets.

Once he entered the modified airbus, he looked at Leon. "What next?"

"Let's go to the gym".

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