'Ren Nora is having a speech?'

Without hesitation, Leon stood up from the ground as he picked up his backpack and strapped it on before swiftly walking out of the room.

His motivation for his current enthusiasm was simple.

Despite thinking and analyzing for hours, so far the situation looked hopeless but Leon was not willing to give up yet.

'I don't believe that the chances of success are truly 0%'.

'Even if it is, I must find a way to forcibly change destiny!'

Like Talia said, Trials are basically manifestations of ADE and the world resisting the promotion of Ascended to higher ranks. Afterall, according to her, rising through the Ascendant ranks is a way of defying nature and ADE.

But Leon didn't care.

'If it means tearing down the world, I'll do it just to complete this Trial!'

From the very beginning since awakening in Neo-Tokara, Leon heard of the infamous Nora 'Glitch' Ren from Talia, the leader of the Freegrid Collective.

He'd heard so much about the man, he was eager to finally see him.

Leon didn't just want to see him though, his hunch told him that by listening to Ren Nora's speech, he would be able to have more insights on how to tackle this seemingly impossible Trial.

At the very least, he had to understand Ren Nora's POV, personality, and approach to this whole saga that he started.

Leon quickly met up with the 11 other mercenaries and like before, they didn't interact much. This mercenary squad was a loosely organized squad of elite operatives with their own pride and personality, they rarely interacted extensively with each other.

The middle-aged mercenary captain whom Leon already realized was an E Rank Cyber Gladiator led the way as they walked towards the grand square.

The grand square was not too far from their apartment building so they got there easily by foot.

By the time they arrived though, a massive crowd already gathered.

The grand square of this city was easily as big as a stadium and yet, it was already filled to the brim with tens of thousands of rebels- men and women who were armed to the teeth with wild expressions on their faces.

They had the wild and aggressive look of rebels going to war.

There were Geneforms, there were Synths, and there were even some A.I Constructs. They were divided by race but united by thoughts, a collective hatred for the Omnicore Federation.

They were all rebels.

The atmosphere was loud and rowdy, and it was charged with electricity as the crowd chanted.

"REN NORA!"

"REN NORA!"

"REN NORA!"

There was a massive platform erected at the middle of the grand square, and soldiers in black military attire and green scarves were already there, forming a guard of honor leading to the stage.

After a few minutes as the crowd grew, finally, he arrived.

Ghost-in-the-Machine!

BZZZ!

He arrived like a ghost, but the moment the crowd set their eyes on him they erupted with cheers.

BOOM!

Amid the loud cheers, Ren Nora walked through the guard of honor and climbed the stage having appeared at the foot of the erected platform.

He was followed by an entourage of middle-aged and stern-faced Lieutenants with aggressive looks on their faces.

Every single one of them radiated high density ADE.

They were all powerhouses.

For the first time, Leon laid his eyes on the leader of the Freegrid Collective.

Ren Nora was a handsome young man, he was far younger than all his powerful Lieutenants.

He had neatly cut curly silver hair with emerald eyes that seemed to draw the crowd in, he oozed confidence and charisma as he led his Lieutenants into the erected platform amid roars from the crowd.

His silver, wind-tossed hair contrasted sharply with the industrial glow of neon green ADE pulsing through his gear.

It was almost as if the city's power grid was partially routed through his body.

His emerald eyes burned with an artificial luminescence- augmented, calibrated, and always scanning like he had constant access to data streams that were invisible to everyone else.

Just like the soldiers guarding the platform, he also wore the green scarf on.

He was a Geneform, and the subtle cat-like whiskers on his face told Leon that he likely had Cat DNA.

Despite clearly being a Geneform, thin cables and reinforced plates snaked beneath his coat, hinting at subdermal implants, neural interfaces, and combat augments that blurred the line between flesh and machine.

His clothing was layered, modular, and scarred- designed for seamless movement into the psionic network in his psionic ghost form.

Nothing he wore was decorative. Every clasp, strap, and glowing seam had a function, either power routing, weapon access, or stealth modulation.

Ren Nora was stacked and armed to the teeth.

Even right there in this podium, if he was to suffer an ambush, Leon was 100% sure that the assassin would be the one in danger.

Leon had met his fair chair of powerful Ascended so far, the 3 leaders of Leviathan Quay being the summit, but the charisma and confidence being exuded by this man still left him enraptured.

'Wow!' He was genuinely impressed.

In that moment, he finally accepted how a young man like this was able to capture the love and affection of so many powerful rebels.

Ren Nora finally faced the crowd and instantly, they became quiet.

There was no bravado in his posture, only intent as he carried himself like a man who'd seen systems collapse and had seen into the very matrix of this world.

In a world ruled by corporate tyrants, he was the living error and he yearned to become the 'Glitch'.

Staring at him, Leon knew that this was not a man who got his success easily, this was a man who bled and worked for his power.

This was not a hero from propaganda feeds, this was a freedom fighter, an anti-hero, the kind of man revolutions quietly build around.

Ren Nora finally spoke as his voice echoed clearly in a symphony.

"Brothers and sisters," he grinned. "Thank you for responding to my call to arms on this important day".

"Look around you," he gestured around with a confident smile. "Look at the sea of faces lit by holograms and burning eyes, tens of thousands strong, drawn by a single signal sent through firewalls and fear".

"You came because you are done being owned".

"You came because somewhere deep beneath the pain and the scars, you remember what it means to be free".

"For generations, the Omnicore Federation told us the lie was law".

"They manipulated us, they told us our lives were products, that our thoughts are just data and that our dreams are insignificant".

His face turned cold. "They wrapped their tyranny in clean logos and soothing slogans while they bled this world dry".

"They mine our resources and leave us nothing, they auction our men as labor and our children as slaves, patenting our very DNA".

"They built ivory towers that scrape the sky while we live in slums that scrape the soul, and yet they called it progress".

He laughed. "Today, it ends".

"Today, their algorithms shall fail because no system can predict the fighting spirit given by our ancestors before Genesis".

"We are the children who were kidnapped and experimented on".

"We are the coders whose creations were stolen and weaponized".

"We are the creators whose ideas were shackled by laws".

"We are the men they tried to turn into slaves".

"We are the people they tried to reduce to numbers, and we have come to remind them that numbers can overwhelm".

"They have years of accumulation, their army is stronger, they have more warships, but we have hands that know how to build and break".

"They have surveillance, but we have each other".

"They have profit margins, we have purpose!" His voice rose up a crescendo.

"They believe freedom can be licensed, they believe resistance can be nipped in the bud by a simple invasion, they believe fear will keep us obedient".

Ren Nora revealed a defiant smile as he looked around at the massive crowd. "Look at this crowd and tell me… are we afraid?"

"NO!" The rebels responded in a loud voice.

Ren Nora grinned. "We are angry, we are awake, and we are organized".

"Every freedom fighter you see today is a node in a living network they cannot shut down, every voice is a signal that will echo through their boardrooms".

"When we move, we do not move as mobs, we move as people who have remembered their power".

He exhaled and said in a serious tone. "This fight will not be clean, it will not be easy".

"They call us terrorists, criminals, rebels in their perfect machine. Let them. History has always been written by those brave enough to be named enemies by tyrants".

"We do not fight to rule, we fight to end rulers who believe wealth and power make them gods".

"We do not fight to burn the world, we fight to take it back from concrete prisons and digital chains and return it to the hands of the people".

Ren Nora exhaled again then with a solemn voice, he boldly declared. "By evening today, I shall attempt the C Rank Trial".

BOOM!

The crowd exploded in loud cheers.

Ren Nora continued seriously. "This evening, I shall attempt to become the first C Rank Ascended of the free folk".

"They said we can't, they said we shouldn't, but f*ck them!" He grinned.

He raised his right hand and clenched his fist tightly. "Brothers, stand with me, stand with each other".

"Let the Megacities hear us, let the satellites see us, let the Omnicore Federation learn the one truth no empire ever survives…"

"You cannot monetize freedom". He said with conviction.

"Long live the Freegrid Collective!"

"LONG LIVE THE FREEGRID COLLECTIVE!"

...

[Special Appreciation to ctan63, Yametekudastop, and Darks4int for the Golden Tickets, thanks for the support!]

[Also, I just realised, congratulations to us on 200 chapters!]

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.