Talia was dying. She could tell.

Ba-dump! Ba-dump!

Her heartbeat slowed with each subsequent second that passed.

Blood flowed from her mouth, nose, and eyes, dying her vision red. Her vision turned hazy. She could feel the encroaching embrace of death.

Despite the current situation, Talia was calm.

This was because she was an E Rank NetRunner now. It was notoriously hard to kill E Rank NetRunners, even more so than Gene Augurs. This is because of Neural Projection, the ability that enables them to enter AR overlays and interact with digital signals.

With Neural Projection, she could turn into a digital existence, negating the importance of biological organs, meaning that the damage dealt to her heart would no longer be considered a life-threatening damage.

Instead, the damage would be spread throughout her digital body.

With Mirror Mask, so long she had ADE, she could hide in a place where a Gene Augur would never find her, long enough to escape or fully recover.

Faced with the danger of the assassin, Talia instinctively wanted to make use of her NetRunner abilities, but then she forced herself to stop and think.

Another idea entered her mind.

Overclock Mind!

Bzzz!

Talia's brain entered a state of overdrive as her mental processing speed doubled for 10 secs, allowing her to take in all the information available.

Then, she analyzed them.

'…two swords… the ability to hide in Shadow like a Bat… it's clearly Cell…'

Her glowing neon green eyes scanned the dark surroundings of this toilet, taking in all the information. 'He doesn't have allies… why?'

'Is he confident in assassinating me before my companions come?'

Talia frowned; something wasn't right.

Others may see Cell as a brute and a fool, but experience had taught her to respect every enemy that she was facing. Overestimating an enemy and surviving was a far better outcome than underestimating your enemy and dying.

With this foundation, her brain whirred. 'Even while I was still F Rank, there's no way I'm going down easily. I am the leader of a Freegrid Collective cell for a reason, and Cell knows it'.

'Even with a sword stabbing through my heart, as an Ascended, I won't die immediately. I can still resist for a few seconds. I can retaliate and deal devastating damage within just a few seconds'.

'And most importantly, I can call for help, so why?'

The glow in Talia's eyes deepened. 'If I call for help and my crewmates arrive, I may still die but I won't be the only one dying. At that point, he'll die too. That doesn't make sense'. Her brain whirred. 'Does he not care about his life?'

'Or does he have reinforcements nearby?'

'Wait, are they in the lower floor?'

Ping Scan!

Talia instinctively activated this NetRunner ability.

With Overclock Mind active, the world seemed to be moving in slow motion. Her thoughts were like a river, raging non-stop and even the speed of her activating her abilities were far faster than normal.

Within milliseconds, Talia's ability enabled her to detect all the neural devices in this inn.

Ping Scan does not just detect neural devices. As an E Rank NetRunner now, Talia could also use the ability to detect nearby consciousness so long they were hostile. And in the first floor, she detected none apart from the assassin before her.

Emphasis on the first floor, this was because Talia's Ping Scan saw nothing in the second floor.

In her mind, with Ping Scan active, whereas the second floor of this inn looked like a golden lake with tranquil consciousness, the first floor was an abyss.

A dark, still and empty abyss.

'Empty?' Talia's mind tensed as the implications of what she just detected rang in her head, but then she calmed down.

She knew what to do next.

All these thoughts clashed and mixed in her head like a supernova, and all of it took just a single second.

Talia's glowing neon green eyes gleamed, and time finally seemed to move.

Bam!

While moving backward, both of her hands instinctively slammed against the sword that stabbed deep into the left side of her chest, holding it in place and preventing it from stabbing deeper.

The Gene Augur didn't stop.

Whoosh!

Cell's second sword cut a crescent shape upwards as the sharp blade of the sword cut towards the NetRunner's head.

Cell's movement and attacks were precise and deadly.

There was no easy way to dodge the attack due to how cramped and tight the space in the toilet was, but Talia still had Overclock Mind active. Her mind was raging with thoughts, rapidly analyzing her situation.

Just as the sword was about to cut off her neck, she swung her head backward to dodge. She didn't just dodge, she smashed her head against the door of the toilet, breaking it, and then she opened her mouth and screamed.

"HELP!

…

"HELP!"

Like a ripple spreading through a previously calm lake, Talia's cry for help reverberated through the inn.

She didn't care that she was causing a nuisance in the middle of the night at all, all that she cared about was alerting her crewmates.

And it worked.

In the room with six F Rank Ascended, the familiar voice of their leader reverberated, and immediately they all jerked awake.

Click!

Daren dropped his cards and unsheathed his dagger, pointing it at the door even as he rolled to the corner where he kept his VX-09 Emberfist gauntlets.

On the bed, Leon woke up, instinctively picking his dagger from under his pillow. The others also moved for their respective weapons.

Within a second, Ghostwire was already pointing his Rifle at the door.

"What happened?" Kain asked, but Daren was already moving towards the door having hastily equipped one of his gauntlets.

Yet, just as he appeared in front of the door, a law seemed to take effect.

Bzzz!

Time-space froze!

Leon was still trying to get up from the bunk bed after picking up the dagger when time froze, literally.

He was still conscious, his thoughts were still flowing, but his body was frozen like he was stuck in a quagmire.

'W-what is going on?!' Leon felt horror grip his heart.

'Is it the Zmer gang?'

Every single one of them froze, unable to move to go and save their captain.

As for Leon, he was no longer even thinking about Talia, but himself. 'If we can't move, we can't escape! And if we can't escape, we're sitting ducks to the Zmer gang!'

Leon felt horror grip him.

He could already see the grim reaper coming.

…

Talia was dying.

Yet, she didn't go down without a fight.

The moment she didn't see any signs of her crewmates coming to rescue her, all signs of confusion left her eyes, replaced by clarity. But she didn't show it on her face; she still showed the desperation and anger of being ambushed.

She fought back desperately.

One on one against a Gene Augur, a Class that was adept in head-to-head combat, a NetRunner like Talia never stood a chance.

Without preparations, a NetRunner could never fight a Gene Augur head on in a physical battle. Her uplink discs and magnetic coil were in the room, meaning her strongest weapons were unavailable.

And she was fighting against a deadly assassin who had the advantage of surprise and heavily injuring her from the first exchange.

The odds were stacked against her.

Still, with her plasma knife and modified rail-pistol, Talia resisted like a Bull who didn't know the concept of retreat or surrender.

Bam… bam… bam…

With her right hand, she aimed and shot with the rail-pistol but she only hit shadows, leaving dents on the toilet walls without hitting her opponent once.

With her dominant left hand, she grabbed the plasma knife in a backhanded grip as she danced around the edge of the abyss.

As for Cell, he was performing a dance.

With the racial ability to morph into a shadow as a Geneform with Bat DNA, in the tight confines and dark environment of the toilet, he was right at home. His fighting style was bizarre and difficult to follow.

Despite Talia's rich combat experience and skill, she couldn't keep up.

His swords could not turn into shadows with him but by morphing, he could grab the swords from different unconventional angles and attack in different ways that no normal Geneform or Synth could attack from.

He was unpredictable and bizarre, he was inevitable.

As for Talia, her abilities were not suitable for fighting against an Ascended. Afterall, she was just an F Rank NetRunner.

Her vision blurred, her blood stained the floor of the toilet, her legs wobbled, and finally, she collapsed.

Thud!

After putting on a desperate fight, lasting 2 minutes despite the harrowing situation that she found herself in, Talia finally gave up the ghost.

Talia died.

Then…

CRACK!

The dream shattered.

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