DING!

"…"

Leon stared at the HUD screen floating in front of him in a daze.

He felt like he was just struck by thunder.

The revelation of what his second Trial truly was hit him with so much shock that he couldn't recover immediately.

Leon frowned. 'A Trial inside a Trial?' He just couldn't wrap his head around the mechanics of what was just displayed to him.

'Am I supposed to help another person complete his Trial as the requirement to complete my own Trial, inside my own Trial?' Leon's eyes squinted as his lips quivered. 'Is that even realistic?'

When he first realized that like he suspected he was back in Year 583 A.G, and with all the clues he got like him being a mercenary and all that, he thought his second Trial was going to be something like Talia's first Trial.

Then, Talia had to be part of the defenders of a hidden fortress of the Synth Order resisting an assault against the forces of the Omnicore Federation.

No matter which year it was, fighting against the Omnicore Federation is a mission with hardcore difficulty.

Talia's Trial was hard, the requirements were stringent but to survive all she had to do was do her thing and defend the base of the Synth Order to the best of her ability.

This was different though.

Leon's Trial theme meant he had to join the fight against the Omnicore Federation, but unlike Talia's Trial, there was no time limit for him because unlike Talia endurance would not do it for his own Trial.

To complete his Trial and become a D Rank Mechanist, Leon literally had to make sure that the leader of the Freegrid Collective also completed his own Trial.

And unlike his, this was a C Rank Trial!

Leon was freaking out. 'Just how messed up is this?!'

His reaction was not irrational, afterall, the Trial directive clearly started that he should thrive and help Ren Nora survive in a war of C Rank entities!

C Rank entities!

Since awakening in Neo-Tokara, Leon had fought against Ascended of all 5 Classes of this world but in all this time, he only had one experience involving a C Rank Awakened and it happened just a week ago.

It was an encounter that lived rent free in his head.

When Leon thought of C Rank, the first image that came to him was that of the Red Dragon that covered the sky and was an entire kilometer long!

That was a C Rank Ascended.

That was power that already defied Leon's expectations of superpowers and mortality; that was power that was already approaching Godhood. That was power that already broke the conventional outlook of power.

That was power that made an entire army retreat!

That was power that made a Category 3 Neon Beast Tide retreat!

Leon was strong, even overpowered but his power was restricted to his rank. Once it got to D Rank, Leon was not delusional enough to think he could fight a D Rank Ascended and win easily.

Once it got to D Rank, he was like any other bum out there, just a slightly special bum.

And this was not even D Rank entities his Trial was hinting at, this was C Rank entities. Not entity, entities meaning it was more than 1!

Instinctively, Leon looked at the city around him and he asked. 'How exactly is this city supposed to survive an assault of a C Rank Ascended?'

Leon could easily imagine the Fire Breath of the C Rank Gene Augur, General Zolkan wiping the defense of this entire city in one attack.

In that moment, Leon realized. 'This is suicide'.

It was not speculation, it was not pessimism, it was realism.

This was a conclusion that he arrived at after analyzing all the facts available before him.

From all the clues that he currently had before him, Leon realized that his calculations revealed a 0% chance of completing this Trial.

What came with this realization was despair, and then the conspiracy theories came. 'Is this Trial a setup by the System?'

'Is it finally revealing its true nature?'

'Can I even trust it?'

Leon became so paranoid that he became numb to his surroundings completely.

Before he knew it, the pickup truck finally stopped in front of a large 1-story stone building in one of the packed residential districts of the city.

Just like the rebel army hired their services for the upcoming clash against the Federation army, they also took care of their residency and 12 rooms in this large 1-story building were reserved for the Order of Iron mercenary squad.

Leon was completely zoned out of his surroundings, lost in his head as he simply went through the motions till he ended up in his room.

The room was modest with a bathroom, a bed, a desk and work chair, and it was brightly illuminated by LED lightbulbs.

Leon couldn't admire the interior of the room though.

Lost in his thoughts, he casually dropped his backpack and the toy-sized Doom Rover v0.1 before sitting down on the floor of his room.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Leon looked at the ground in a daze, tapping his index finger on the ground incessantly as a million thoughts went through his mind.

During the short time that the pickup truck came to this building since he entered Iron Reef, he already went through the five stages of grief- denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance.

Leon already accepted the circumstances of his Trial.

From what he knew, Trials could not be changed halfway so there was literally no avoiding this Trial.

He already accepted his fate.

He already accepted that based on his current knowledge, clues, and facts, there was a 0% chance of him completing this Trial but did that mean he already gave up? Never!

Leon had no intentions of giving up.

Even if it meant going to hell and back, he was determined to get power by all means to regain his memories and satisfy his curiosity of what truly happened.

Living without large swathes of his memories was like waking up one day and suddenly discovering that you lost a leg.

The incongruity of the situation would push you to do everything in your power to recover your lost leg, even if this means getting a prosthetic leg, even if this means spending all your life savings.

The feeling of incompleteness was too uncomfortable to bear.

That was the situation that Leon was in.

Every day without parts of his memories left him feeling disabled, and this was not a feeling that he enjoyed.

He wanted to regain his memories by all means.

His eyes gleamed with stubborn determination. 'I must succeed!'

That was all the motivation that he needed. Locked in his room, Leon thought, analyzed, and calculated, trying to find a loophole in the Trial but there was no loophole. He was stuck in a loop, still he didn't give up.

He thought till his brain ached and his eyes turned bloody red from blood vessels rupturing in his eyes.

He analyzed till his stomach hurt from hunger but he didn't care, and then he was suddenly interrupted by knocks on his door.

Knock! Knock!

The door was pushed open and one of the familiar faces in the pickup truck with him poked his head inside his room.

The mercenary looked amused on seeing him on the ground. "What are you doing?" He asked.

Leon didn't respond.

The mercenary shrugged and said. "Get ready, we're all leaving to the square. In 10 minutes, Ren Nora wants to publicly address all those that responded to his summons".

Hearing that, Leon's eyes gleamed.

The moment the mercenary left, he looked at the time.

[12:43pm]

Without him knowing, he already spent about 3 hours lost in his thoughts.

...

[Special Appreciation to Shadesworn for the Golden Tickets, thanks man. Your persistent support really serves as motivation to me.]

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