It was night, and a faint bioluminescent fog covered the world. The fog wasn't as thick as when Talia's crew slept in the plateau in the fringe, but it was still toxic to normal people without a neural core.

In a large compound with three metal buildings housing a cell tower, a shimmering grayish white membrane covered it, hiding it from the outside world.

A black shadow silently infiltrated this compound, triggering no alarms.

The black shadow avoided the electric metal fence, slithering underneath the gigantic metal gate instead. As soon as it infiltrated, the shadow morphed, turning into a black bat that flew towards one of the three metal buildings.

It silently perched close to a window, then turned back into a formless shadow before slithering inside the building undetected.

Inside the cyber-lab in this building, a short Geneform rested his head against a glass desk. Loud snoring sounds reverberated.

Brad was already fast asleep.

There was a visible HUD screen hovering on top the desk just in front of the short Geneform's head, and displayed on it was a map of the large compound in 3D format.

There was a red dot moving on the map, and the dot was right on top of Brad's current position!

The black shadow silently approached a chair and sat down before silently morphing into a lean but powerful Geneform. Resting his hand against his chin, he removed his black glasses.

His brownish black eyes bore holes into this NetRunner's body.

"…!" Brad's intuition woke him up.

He was groggy at first as he raised his head, but then he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine as he froze.

Staring straight ahead, his eyes were focused on the blinking red dot that was right on top of his current position. 'My position!'

Brad felt pure horror grip him. 'What? How?! How did he bypass all the guards and the compound's defenses? Those f*cking freeloaders!' He felt angry and shocked.

'Wait, why isn't the alarm ringing?'

Stiffly, Brad turned around and through the dim lighting of this cyber-lab, he finally saw the entity that was sitting just across him.

Brad felt like he was staring at a shadow.

Staring into those eyes, he felt his soul leave his body and return.

'…Brownish black eyes… black durag… black coat… black boots, f*ck! Cell???!'

Brad finally understood why the compound's alarm didn't ring. This is because they recognized the biological signature of the intruder.

He quickly stood up from the chair, secretly wiped his drool, and adjusted his white lab coat before bowing his head reverently.

"To what do I owe this visit?"

Cell didn't answer. He stayed silent and motionless as his brownish black eyes kept on staring at the NetRunner.

Brad felt his scalp tingle. 'F*ck! Why did this maniac have to come? I hate this gang man, can't they just let me focus on my cyber experiments?'

He forced a smile, patiently waiting for a reply.

Then…

Thud!

Hearing the sound, Brad finally raised his head and looked at the glass table. A bottle of red wine was now on the once-empty table.

"Drink". Cell said in a slightly hoarse voice. "The Lord sent a gift".

Brad blinked. "Now?"

Cell silently stared at him without replying.

'F*ck! Stop looking at me like that! I'll wet my f*cking pants!'

His smile turned even more strained as he finally straightened his back. He chuckled nervously. "I'll get a glass cup, should I get two?"

Once again, the invading Gene Augur didn't reply.

Brad grimaced, silently uttered another curse and then left. 2 minutes later, he returned with two glass cups.

He opened the wine and poured on both glass cups.

Staring at the content in the cup, Brad was slightly taken aback. The wine was as red as blood, and it had a faint metallic smell.

He forced a smile again and looked at Cell, only to see that the Gene Augur was still staring at him. Muttering another curse in his mind, he finally picked up his glass cup and drank the wine.

It was sweet.

He thought Cell would finally talk, but the Gene Augur didn't. Feeling awkward, Brad had no choice but to pour more wine for himself.

In the next few minutes, he kept on drinking till he finished the wine. Of course, he didn't dare touch the cup of wine that he poured for Cell.

'The wine is surprisingly sweet'. He smacked his lips together. 'If only this creep was not there just staring at me'.

Cell finally spoke up. "The Lord has forgiven you".

His brownish black eyes glimmered in the dim light, then his hoarse voice sounded again. "Tell me".

A person who was unfamiliar with the Geneform wouldn't understand, but Brad understood him. He did his own interpretation. 'You mean tell me all about the intruder that sent a message to the Freegrid Collective, right?'

'Tell me every single detail, and keep nothing hidden, right? F*ck! He's soooo creepy!'

Brad didn't hide any details as with a forced smile, he revealed everything that happened.

Of course, he could only recount the details from what he saw and noticed. He never realized that his smartphone was hacked.

Cell nodded, then asked a few questions. All his questions were one-liners; they were confusing but Brad was smart enough to fill in the blanks.

"Good". Cell nodded then ignoring the NetRunner, he turned into a shadow and directly slithered out of the cyber-lab.

Only at that moment did Brad release a deep breath of relief. 'Phew'.

He didn't dare relax yet. He stayed awake for the next 30 minutes, and only after he confirmed that the Gene Augur was gone did he return to his room to sleep.

He grumbled as he left. "All these doesn't concern me, all I want is Parasite's continued financial sponsoring. Why can't they just let me research in peace?"

The night was deep and silent.

…

The next day…

DING!

~----~

[You have completed a vital repair for the VX-09 Emberfist gauntlet!]

[Weapon efficacy now at 89%]

[You have gained +1 Ascended Essence!]

[Ascended Counter: 822/1000]

…

[You have crafted F Rank Weapon: Flux Crystal Spear]

[You have gained +2 Ascended Essence!]

[Ascended Counter: 824/1000]

…

[You have crafted an F Rank Drone: C-5 Drone]

[You have gained +2 Ascended Essence!]

[Ascended Counter: 826/1000]

~----~

Within the afternoon of the next day, Leon once again showed how efficient his Mechanist abilities were as he completed 3 major projects- repairing Daren's damaged gauntlet, creating a new Flux Crystal Spear, and creating a C-5 Drone.

After the conversation that they had yesterday, Talia didn't stay idle as she immediately began finding circles in the community where she could get resources that were not available in the open market.

Unfortunately, she couldn't find the exact materials that were used to build the VX-09 Emberfist gauntlet.

In the end, Daren had to settle for the slightly inferior alternatives available. Despite the handicap, Leon was still able to restore the damaged gauntlet to 89% of its peak state.

As for his Flux Crystal Spear, the only trouble in it was finding Flux Crystal, but apparently Flux Crystal was common in these parts.

With the core material found, Leon easily brought his spear back to life.

Compared to the one that he crafted previously, Leon got access to even better and stronger metal this time. The shaft of the new spear was crafted with a highly durable metal compared to the previous one.

As for the C-5 Drone, Talia made it a priority while searching for resources. She didn't care that she had to pay a premium to get the resources.

In her words. "A drone is very vital to our mission".

Apart from doing all of this, Leon finally revealed all the blueprints in his repertoire to the Mechanist duo.

Rex and Kain were shocked, they never expected such generosity from the new member of their crew.

Leon did it not just to help them raise their Ascended Counter, but also because it was easy for him to get the blueprints.

He found no reason not to help people that he saw as crewmates, especially when they were planning to embark on a potentially dangerous mission together. His teammates getting better would increase his survival chances.

Also, since he was working on confidential things that shouldn't be exposed to the public like Daren's gauntlet now, Talia spent the money to get a tarpaulin cover to demarcate his workshop.

This way, customers and bystanders could not see what he was doing in the work table.

Apart from that, Leon got 2 more customers on his second day. The first needed a simple gadget repair which Leon delegated Rex to take care of.

The second needed a repair job too, but it was an old holographic radio. This was the first Synth who was clearly old that Leon had met.

The old Synth's mechanic body was washed and weak; his body produced grinding metallic sounds when he moved, and his dull gray cybernetic eyes were almost glazed over like a blind man.

The old Synth complained that all of a sudden, his old holographic radio stopped getting any signal. For months he could not get any news from the city.

In the end, with a smile, Leon could only tell the old Synth. "Sir, it's not a problem with your holographic radio, but it's a problem with the LAN. Don't worry, in a few days to a week, at most 2 weeks the network will return to normal".

"Really?"

"Yes". Leon smiled; he felt even more urgency to resolve the Parasite case.

Later in the evening while returning to the inn, he saw a familiar Synth beggar with an aluminum bowl stumbling through the streets.

Leon walked closer and casually dropped a 5 cent note.

"Thank you… thank you…" the beggar said repeatedly.

As he left with Rex and Kain, Leon had a faint smile on his face.

That night while using the inn's bathroom, Leon felt like he was being watched. 'Maybe it's just my imagination'.

It was not.

That night, at 11:00pm, the crew was ambushed!

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