7:27am.

2 military-grade trucks and 5 Karaki CT-3X super bikes emerged from underground and erupted in pursuit!

Parasite had a livid expression on his face as he sat inside the leading truck. 'That f*cking b*tch!' He thought angrily.

'How did she find them? Just how?' His chest heaved up and down in anger.

His aura was aggressive and rampant, suffocating inside the truck as the thugs, some of the best fighters of the Zmer gang who followed their Warlord dared not breathe in the presence of a livid Parasite.

They were all close to him and they knew his temper.

Sometimes, a mistake as simple as a cough at the wrong time is all it takes to lose a head, so no one dared make a single sound as a solemn and silent atmosphere pervaded inside the truck.

As for Cell, Swain, and Alexander Cain, the trio of Ascended, Parasite's right hand and left hand and secret executioner led the pursuit on Karaki CT-3Xs.

VROOM!

They drove through the wasteland at dangerous speeds, leading the line of reinforcement as they went in pursuit.

Inside the truck, Parasite gnashed his teeth as he smiled darkly. "Oh I'm so going to break her… I'm going to f*ck her, I'm going to make her scream my name while I f*ck the living soul out of her body!"

"I'm going to torture her slowly, I'm going to make her watch while I kill her subordinates, I'm going to make her watch while I kill the slaves that she's so desperate to protect!"

"I'm going to make her regret the day she decided to go against me!"

…

7:27am.

The battle on the road erupted!

With a single attack, Talia and her crewmates took out 12 of the elite soldiers that Mr. Representative Ben brought with him for this trade!

The A.I Construct was livid, he was shimmering in rage.

The 12 soldiers who died to the ambush were not the only casualties among the A.I Construct's subordinates though. Afterall, one of the trucks somersaulted and in a moment of genius, Leon took the opportunity to directly obliterate it and all its inhabitants.

Every single one of the military trucks escorting the buses had 5 to 6 soldiers inside them, and the one that somersaulted had 6 soldiers.

During the initial attack, apart from taking the driver out immediately with a well-placed shot, Leon also took out another soldier as he shot rapidly.

The 4 other soldiers reacted on time and ducked, taking cover inside the heavily-armored truck but the moment the truck somersaulted, Leon ended all of their lives by shooting at the fuel tank.

KABOOM!

In that moment as the truck exploded, Leon sent 4 additional soldiers to heaven, taking the initial casualty list to 16 elite soldiers!

On the left side of the buses where Talia and Brick was, and also where the A.I Construct was, the duo of freedom fighters didn't manage to make the trucks explode but their bullets took more than enough lives in the initial assault.

It was a fatal loss for Mr. Representative Ben.

What he felt at this moment was no longer just rage, it was wrath- pure, unadulterated wrath that made his synthetic smooth gray forehead squirm crazily like tiny little worms were wriggling inside it.

The moment his subordinates finally re-oriented the military-grade trucks to face the enemies, he didn't hesitate, he attacked immediately.

Ping Scan!

BZZZT!

With her Karaki CT-3X super bike extremely close to the truck at the front and as a psionic being, Talia immediately felt the full wave of that deep scan sweeping through her body as she shuddered.

It was a feeling similar to being gawked at by a pervert.

Talia's gray-green eyes flashed. 'An Ascended… a NetRunner… and Ping Scan of this intensity… he's an E Rank!'

These thoughts flashed through her mind in less than a second when the unknown enemy inside the first truck on the left finally made his move.

Neural Projection!

Talia saw an illusory and slightly transparent ghostly silhouette emerge from the truck with billowing neon green ADE swirling around him, then…

Data Lash!

BUZZ!

Talia's eyes rolled to the back of her head as she felt like a supersonic explosion just took place inside her head!

Her thoughts turned chaotic, but as an E Rank NetRunner herself, her WIL was strong and she recovered near instantaneously, then…

Bzzz!

She also transformed.

Neural Projection!

A digital ghost just like the one that attacked her emerged from the figure on top the bike, and Talia retaliated in kind.

Data Lash!

BUZZ!

Mr. Representative Ben froze in mid-air as he felt like an iron was being driven through his head even as his thoughts froze!

'An E Rank?' The A.I Construct was shocked.

In this digital age, literally everybody had a smartphone or at least one neural device. And since E Rank NetRunners had the ability to travel through electronic devices, they were inevitable in battle.

Not just inevitable, they were bizarre.

When he started with Ping Scan, Ben did it to search for all the smartphones and neural devices that the enemies had on them.

This way, he could create a map around the battlefield where he would gain unrestricted movement.

But to his shock, the enemies had no smartphones on them!

Only one of them had a smartphone, the enemy riding the super bike right beside the truck he was on.

This was not a coincidence, it was preplanned.

After discovering the advanced application of Ghost Line that was used to hide the cell tower base, from then, Talia updated her evaluation of the Zmer gang.

As an F Rank NetRunner before, she didn't know better but as an E Rank now, knowing exactly what Ascended of her rank and Class could do, she was wary against meeting an E Rank NetRunner in battle especially when her crewmates were also with her.

This was why she made countermeasures ahead of time.

During the showdown on D-day, apart from her, absolutely nobody else was allowed to carry a smartphone or neural devices with them.

This was for their own protection.

Then, it felt like a far-fetched idea and paranoia but in the face of this E Rank NetRunner, Talia was glad she took that extreme decision.

Now with the ability to instantaneously move between her crewmates cut off, this NetRunner had no choice but to fight her head-on.

Afterall, she was the only one with a smartphone.

And a battle among NetRunners… it was bizarre.

When two strong psionic beings clash, it's very rarely a physical clash where blows are traded, instead, it's more of a cyber-clash in the psionic network.

The moment Talia realized the threat of her opponent, Ben also finally realized the true threat of the enemy before him, and they focused on each other.

The moment Talia used Neural Projection to became an AR psionic entity, the Karaki CT-3X super bike that she rode lost control and veered off track, somersaulting but she no longer cared about the bike.

In this state of Neural Projection, the base speed of NetRunners increased. Talia and Ben could comfortably keep up with the bikes, trucks, and buses even as they clashed on the road.

Overclock Mind!

Floating in mid-air, the two ghostly humanoid silhouettes surrounded by neon green ADE seemed to glow brightly as they used the same ability, then…

Firewall Bypass!

A silent explosion detonated, then a fierce battle started.

This was a battle that could not be perceived by mere biological beings, this was a battle in the psionic network, a battle between two Neural Projections!

This was a battle on the road!

The soldiers in the trucks expected their Commander to instantly overwhelm the enemies when he retaliated, they never expected someone to actually be able to stall him.

Only then did they realize that perhaps these enemies were more powerful than they expected, these enemies were Ascended!

With Talia taking on Ben and keeping him occupied in an intense battle in the psionic realm, her crewmates were free to cause havoc.

They didn't hesitate, Daren and Brick went haywire.

Impact Surge!

With his gauntlets active, violent purple ADE surged around Daren as he drove closer to the truck beside him, then with his left gauntlet, he punched at the truck as the impact transferred devastating kinetic energy through its hull.

BAM

The heavily-armored truck's body dented, instantly squeezing the soldier that was closest to the hull to death!

Bam… bam… bam…

The soldiers retaliated as they shot with their guns and Daren was forced to block with his gauntlet but he couldn't block everything. After a few missed shots, a bullet found its way through his ribs.

Daren grunted as he spat a mouthful of blood and was forced to slow down.

With his bike slowing down, the truck started gaining ground ahead of him but Daren was not done though. As the truck overtook him, he grabbed at the back door of the truck that faced him, then his ADE flared again.

Arc Clutch!

The gauntlet generated a micro-magnetic field with which he firmly gripped the reinforced metal door, then he pulled, then…

CRACK!

Daren pulled the door right out of its hinges!

He exposed the soldiers inside, then his ADE once again converged around the gauntlet, supercharging it.

Then Daren punched.

Ember Burst!

Daren's seemingly ordinary punch turned into a directional flame-shock punch with a 2.5m cone range!

"Arghhh…!"

With the back door already torn apart and exposed, the flames faced little resistance as they surged inside the truck, cooking the soldiers alive as they screamed in pain and terror.

All 3 surviving soldiers at the back of the truck were cooked alive!

Within just a few seconds, Daren eradicated all the soldiers in the truck except the soldier who took the driver's spot.

The thick reinforced hull of the truck prevented it from directly exploding after such extreme temperature flames, and the only reason why the last soldier wasn't cooked yet was because the reinforced front door protected him.

His eyes widened in terror as he stared at the bike-riding Ascended. After watching the manner in which his comrades died, he was too terrified to react.

Daren accelerated again, keeping up with the truck then he casually swiped the left gauntlet across the waist area of his leather attire, equipping the kinetic gun that was strapped there.

He aimed at the soldier whose eyes remained widened in fear, then he pulled the trigger.

BAM!

…

While Talia fought Ben on the left and Daren dealt with the front truck on the right, Brick and Leon also faced their problems on the left and right respectively.

But with the truck assigned to Leon already taken care of due to his ingenuity and improvisation in battle to shoot at the fuel tank of the somersaulting truck, only Brick actually faced a problem on the other side.

Unlike them, the soldiers didn't just have pistols, these guys had Shotguns and automatic-fire machine guns.

After the initial attack that took them by surprise and took out two of them, the others retaliated with their machine guns at the bike-riding enemy. They shot at Brick.

Tututututu…!

Just before the bullets could hit though, bright orange ADE flared around the Gene Augur as his mechanical skin hardened like unbreakable stone.

At the same time, Brick used an ability.

Adaptive Tissue!

With the natural hardening of his skin brought by his Class as a Gene Augur, and with Adaptive Tissue giving him resistance to the first damage type that he suffered, the bullets hit only to fall off his hardened skin harmlessly.

Clink… clink… clink…

When these soldiers saw their bullets falling off harmlessly, they were shaken in terror.

Brick calmly pulled his kinetic pistol, aimed and pulled the trigger.

Blood and synthetic oil blossomed inside the truck as another soldier died with the others getting injured as they took cover inside the truck.

Yet Brick was not alone.

There was another Karaki CT-3X super bike following him from behind.

When Leon saw that Daren was easily taking care of his enemies on the right side, he decisively veered off path to the right, driving through the space in between two of the buses to the left where he saw Brick and instantly decided to help him.

With his truck already taken care of, he had all the time in the world to provide help to Brick as steadying himself on top the bike, he let go of it, removing both hands and still managing to keep the bike steady due to his superhuman balance as he pulled out the Air Gun Rifle from his leather bag.

Balanced on top the super bike, he took aim at the truck from behind, the scope enabling him to focus on the head of the new driver.

He pulled the trigger.

BAM!

Headshot!

One shot, one kill.

With his superhuman balance and strength, he managed the recoil easily then he aimed again at another head.

BAM!

Headshot!

One shot, one kill.

Within just a few seconds, Talia's Wraith Cell-9 were on the brink of eradicating all of Ben's whole force.

And yet, it was that moment that reinforcement came.

Not the type of reinforcement that made Ben smile though, it was the type that made him grimace.

After almost missing out on all the fun, Kain, Rex, and the other rebels finally arrived on the military-grade truck that they hijacked.

The time was 7:29am.

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