DING!

~----~

[You have acquired construction materials!]

~----~

Of course, Leon was not about to leave an armory of the Zmer gang untouched when they left him a gift in the form of materials.

It didn't matter if it was deliberate or not.

It was disappointing that the warehouse didn't house the slaves like they expected, but to Leon, it was not a complete disappointment.

The siege of the cargo trailer helped him realize a few principles of Mechanists, and he still firmly believed that preparation was King for a Mechanist. A Mechanist was nothing without his constructs.

This was why he had always been so adamant with equipping the crew.

Within the past few days, he, Rex, and Kain already did well to equip the crew with pistols, bullets, and even jury-rigged bombs. Personally, Leon also crafted a new Flux Crystal Spear, but to him it was not enough yet.

He carried a big leather bag with him that he bought from the open market a few days ago. During the battle, he kept it at some corner but he later retrieved it.

Inside the leather bag was the incomplete chassis of a gun, an Air Gun.

Leon was still obsessed with equipping himself with an additional weapon and since he had the blueprint and already started the construction, the only thing that held him back was the lacking materials.

He was desperate, so the moment he discovered that the warehouse was actually an armory, he immediately went on a raid while the others were more focused on overriding the digital defense measures of the truck and bikes.

The Zmer gang was indeed worthy of a gang that had been ruling community G for years.

Despite this clearly being a warehouse that they didn't put much importance to, Leon still saw more than enough materials for him to complete his construct.

And so, while the truck was moving, he gathered the materials inside.

Kain was the one driving while Talia sat on the passenger seat on the front. Leon, Rex, and one of the rebels sat in the middle-row seats, while the 4 other rebels who followed them sat in the back seats.

As soon as Leon dropped the materials from the leather bag, arranging them inside the moving car, he immediately went to work.

Construct!

His grayish white ADE flared as they wrapped around the gathered materials before also encompassing the half-complete construct of the Air Gun.

The rebel in the middle-row seat watched with wide eyes as something miraculous happened in front of him.

More than a week ago when Leon just woke up and became a Mechanist, it took him approximately 10 to 15 minutes to break down a scavenged gadget using Deconstruct. It also took him approximately the same time with Construct.

But now, with his Ascended Counter rising so fast to the peak of F Rank, he could consistently construct gadgets in under 8 minutes depending on the complexity.

Approximately 7 minutes later, the Construct solidified.

DING!

~----~

[You have crafted a QZ-09 Air Gun- Rifle]

[Your Craftsmanship and Assembly ability has increased!]

[You have been rewarded with +2 Data Points]

[Current Data Points: 64]

~----~

The end product was a sleek-looking long Rifle with a polished gray metallic body, a long muzzle, and a scope.

The HUD screen hovering in front of Leon's eyes changed its contents.

~----~

[Snoop Function activated!]

[Target: QZ-09 Air Gun- Rifle]

[Classification: Class-neutral ADE-Reactive Armament]

Name: QZ-09 Air Gun- Rifle

Manufacturer: Leon Ardent

Power Source: ADE Condenser Cell

Material Composition: Zinc alloy, aluminum alloy

Weight: 12kg

Compatibility: Class-neutral

Maintenance Grade: Green (easily maintainable)

[WEAPON ADE SKILLS:]

>Air Projectile: When activated, by sacrificing a tiny fraction of ADE, the Air Gun sucks in air and compresses it to extremely high densities before shooting it out as a violent and powerful air projectile. This process takes less than a second.

>ADE Storage (Passive): The Air Gun has an ADE module that passively absorbs ADE from the atmosphere, storing it for future use. Absorption rate is slow.

~----~

Rex silently looked at the Air Gun as admiration swirled in the depths of his eyes, then he sighed and looked at Leon. "Is this what you mean by always thinking out of the box?"

"I never thought of taking advantage of the armory when I saw it".

Leon smiled. "Kind of".

With 2 kinetic pistols, a dagger, his Flux Crystal Spear, an Air Gun, and a jury-rigged bomb, Leon finally felt that he was ready to take on whatever the showdown today would throw at him.

He leaned back against the chair and took a deep breath.

By then, the truck and the two bikes escorting it already drove a great distance as community G disappeared behind them.

They spent approximately 20 minutes on the road.

6:57am, they finally arrived at the second warehouse.

With Ghostwire keeping steady surveillance of the warehouse through invisible drones, he knew that nothing significant happened in the warehouse during this time.

Ghostwire kept steady contact with Talia, directing them from the shadows.

And just like the first warehouse, this warehouse was also heavily fortified by dozens of thugs.

They were less than 30, but this warehouse was even more fortified because it had a thick metal fence surrounding and protecting it.

There was no exchange of words, there was no hesitation. As soon as the thugs saw them emerge from the truck and realized that they were not their allies, they opened fire and another battle erupted.

This time, they didn't enjoy a numbers advantage. They didn't have any mob supporting them, it was 9 against dozens of thugs of the Zmer gang.

But with multiple Ascended on their side, they moved with confidence and precision as Talia intended to capture this base without any casualties.

This time though, they were not as casual as when they fought in the first warehouse.

On one hand, Talia was wary. 'Since this is the only other warehouse that we've seen, there's a chance that Parasite is inside here somewhere'.

'If not him, at least one of the Ascended of the Zmer gang'.

As for Leon, a different thought entered his head. 'Why are they not trying to use the slaves as captives to restrict our attacking freedom yet?'

After learning more about this world and after the past few days in community G, Leon expected the gangsters to use their desire to rescue the slaves against them, but it didn't happen.

In the end, none of it mattered, all that mattered was battle.

Leon, Rex and Kain stayed behind with the 5 rebels, hiding behind the truck as they unleashed a barrage of attacks with their guns from that cover.

As for Talia, she charged forward on foot, weaving through the bullets as she retaliated with her kinetic pistol and rail-modified pistol.

And as for Brick and Daren, the duo didn't even bother to stop as they directly jumped over the fence with the Karaki CT-3Xs.

When the powerful bikes landed inside the compound, Daren rolled to dodge the first barrage of bullets even as he powered the VX-09 Emberfist.

BZZZ!

Violent purple ADE flared around him, converging on his fists, then he charged forward like a hurricane.

Kinetic Absorption!

Daren's ADE converged on and empowered the gauntlets as with them, he blocked the next barrage of bullets, then he pounced on the nearest thugs.

In close range, the thugs stood no chance against an Ascended, not to talk of a Cyber Gladiator.

Daren tore them apart!

Beside him, Brick's grayish black mechanical body hardened like unbreakable stone even as his dull gray eyes flashed with his ADE manifesting an orange flare.

Bio-Pulse!

The Synth Gene Augur bulldozed through the thugs.

When Talia jumped over the fence, neon green ADE flared around her as she triggered her magnetic coil and with it, her hidden uplink discs flew out.

Whoosh!

She weaved and bobbed, dodging even as the uplink discs began painting a gory picture using the compound as the canvas.

From outside the fence, Leon placed himself comfortably behind the armored truck as he took aim with the Air Gun and pulled the trigger, supporting the melee fighters inside.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Despite their numbers disadvantage, their organized assault and superior power overwhelmed the defenders.

All the while as they fought, they were tensed, waiting for enemy Ascended to suddenly charge out and retaliate.

This was also the reason why Leon didn't recklessly charge into the compound.

Talia looked out for Parasite as she fought but even as the battle gradually turned into a one-sided slaughter, Parasite was nowhere to be seen.

Then slowly, her face began to change.

Leon also noticed the anomaly as his face became grim. 'What's going on? Are they not protecting their warehouse?'

"Ghostwire, what's going on?" Talia asked as she kept on fighting but Ghostwire's reply was negative.

He didn't notice any anomaly.

…

While Talia and the rebels fought in the second warehouse…

7:02am.

Mr. Representative Ben finally arrived at the secret entrance to the underground bunker of the Zmer gang.

The main entrance to the underground bunker is a metallic door hidden in the middle of nowhere.

It was metallic brown and disguised to look like it was part of the soil.

More than a hundred meters to the right of it, there was a scrapyard, and to the left there was a forest of tenacious leafless trees who refused to die despite the dry and dehydrated ground.

The forest of leafless trees with dry and parched tree branches spread across the dry ground, covering a lot of land.

At this moment, the hidden main entrance to the underground bunker was opened and 4 men walked out.

Parasite led the way, followed by his subordinates, Cain, Swain, and Cell. They stared at the 5 huge heavily armored double-decked buses in front of them, including the 4 military trucks that escorted them here.

Mr. Representative Ben stood directly in front of them. Behind him stood two soldiers in a helmet and scarf that covered and hid their faces.

In this barren land in the middle of nowhere, he looked out of place in his sky blue suit, red tie, and white leather boots but he didn't seem to care.

Parasite flashed a grin and shook hands with the A.I Construct. "Let's complete our deal".

Mr. Representative Ben nodded gently, then he beckoned at one of the soldiers who handed a rectangular-shaped device to him.

The A.I Construct grabbed the device, scanned it with his eyes then rapidly inputted a few numbers.

DING!

Immediately, Parasite's smartphone received a notification.

[Bank Transaction Notification…]

[Value: 12,600 Neo Credits]

Parasite immediately flashed a big smile as he saw the notification.

"Bring them". He ordered and gestured at his subordinates as Cain immediately went back to the front of the entrance.

And then, thugs began emerging from the underground bunker with chains.

The chains dragged beautiful women of all kind from underground, including young under-aged girls. Every one of them had the chain on them, shackling their hand, and they came out in 5 different batches.

Just like Parasite and Mr. Representative Ben agreed on ahead of time, they came out in batches of 100 slaves per batch, making 500 slaves in total.

The double-decked buses had a capacity of 85 passengers but when the comfort of the passengers is not taken into account, each one of them could contain up to 100 passengers at a time.

This was exactly what Mr. Representative Ben intended to do.

As the slaves were loaded into the buses, Mr. Representative Ben shook hands with Parasite again. "It was nice doing business with you".

The Warlord grinned. "Heh, the pleasure is mine. I hope to conclude more business deals like this with you".

Mr. Representative Ben nodded calmly. "Next time, do well to keep the peasants in your backyard in line".

Parasite's face darkened slightly when he heard that, but he nodded calmly. "Don't worry, this won't happen again".

"It better not".

With that, the A.I Construct turned and entered one of the 4 military trucks with the 2 soldiers that followed him.

He had no intention of riding on a bus with slaves.

With that, the deal worth 30,000 Neo Credits was completed.

The 5 buses drove off.

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