8:36am.

VROOM!

Leon dragged down on the accelerator as the Karaki CT-3X super bike flew into the distance as if gravity and friction had no pull on it.

He made the decision to lure the gigantic Tiger away on a whim.

Only when he escaped from the battlefield, pulling the Beast away from his teammates did he calm down to think and finally, he began to panic.

'Can I outrun it?'

Having witnessed the speed of an E Rank Gene Augur through Parasite, he felt horrified just imagining how fast a D Rank Neon Beast would be and despite the fact that he was driving a Karaki CT-3X.

But then, after two minutes on the road with the Beast still not closing the distance on the bike to eat him alive, he was puzzled and finally decided to focus on the side mirror of the super bike.

That was when he saw the pursuing Beast.

The Beast looked just as frightening as the first time that he saw it, the only difference was that it looked more mutated and heavily damaged now.

Holes of different sizes were torn across its body by the flames, and most of them were still hot-red. The Tiger's gigantic body was sagging, almost melting of its chassis; its whole body was weaker than usual.

Such a sight immediately made Leon heave a sigh of relief. 'No wonder it's not catching up, it's too weak'.

But he didn't dare let his guard down.

He didn't think about it before but now that his life was no longer in danger, he finally started thinking about his next step. 'What should I do next?'

'How do I get rid of the Beast?'

'I can't fight it alone. No matter how weakened it is, it's still a bonafide D Rank Neon Beast'.

His brain whirred, and then a thought came to his mind. 'The Wastes'.

Not just the Wastes, but the fringe of the Wastes where he woke up.

Not only are those parts filled with highly-concentrated and toxic ADE, it is a swath of land teeming with Neon Beasts.

His eyes gleamed. 'I didn't see a D Rank Neon Beast then, but even if there are no D Rank Neon Beasts, there's a bunch of E Rank Neon Beasts who take there as home'.

'I believe they won't let go of the opportunity to kill a D Rank Neon Beast that's this heavily injured'.

'Afterall, according to Kain, the only reason why the Neon Beasts swarmed and were so united previously was because of the call of the Trial'.

'In normal circumstances, Neon Beasts are irrational, mad, and corrupt existences that only care about consuming anything in sight, even themselves'.

Leon didn't make the decision to return to the fringe of the Wastes just because of the D Rank Neon Beast who was no longer an immediate threat to him, he made the decision also because of another reason.

'My Ascended Counter is full'.

Despite everything that he had experienced with the crew in the past few days, including the harrowing battle today to rescue the slaves and eradicate the Zmer gang, he still had his own personal goals.

In the end, he was still a man who didn't even know his past.

All he had were fragmented memories of his past.

He was still determined to regain his memories and like the System already showed to him, to do that, he needed to grow stronger and climb through the ranks as an Ascended.

This was why the moment his Ascended Counter filled up, he began thinking of when to attempt the Ascension Trial.

At first, his idea was to seek help from the crew. He believed that they would be more than willing to protect him if he wanted to attempt a Trial.

But now that he started returning to the fringe of the Wastes, he remembered his shelter and then he devised a different plan on the spot.

His yearning to grow stronger increased after witnessing E Rank Ascended in action, and it increased even more after what happened to Rex.

Thinking of the Geneform, his gaze darkened as his hands tightened on the super bike. 'I don't ever want to watch a friend die again!'

When he first came to the crew's hideout in the cargo trailer, Rex was the only one who welcomed him and showed him goodwill from the onset.

Though Leon would have still been unfazed if all of them showed hostility, the gesture from the Geneform was still something that stuck with him, and it was from that moment that their friendship began.

Leon didn't want to admit it but Rex was the closest friend that he had since his awakening.

This may be because he hadn't met a lot of people yet, but it still meant something. For Rex to die just like that, it left a hole in his heart.

Remembering the fact that he was the one who threw the bomb that killed his friend, he winced slightly, but then he sighed. 'I never thought he had that in him'.

They were his crewmates, Leon cared for them just as Rex did but he knew that he wouldn't have been able to sacrifice his life for them.

Afterall, he was a selfish man.

He would help and even put himself in danger like when he directed the battle to embrace chaos when they were losing, but doing it when he knew that there was a 100% chance of him dying, Leon didn't believe he could do it.

He sighed again.

Thinking of all the lives that were saved and all the slaves that were liberated by Rex's crazy actions, Leon forced a smile. "Goodbye, my friend".

He looked at the side mirror one last time, focusing on the Neon Beast, then he made his decision. 'I'm returning back to the fringe'.

But there was one problem. 'Uh, I'm lost, what direction should I take?'

At that moment, Leon finally remembered the C-5 drones that he crafted and left in Ghostwire's care since he was in charge of surveillance.

When Ghostwire came to reinforce them, he clearly left the surveillance duty behind but knowing the NetRunner, Leon doubted that he left the duty entirely unsupervised. Ghostwire was too responsible and self-aware for that.

He hesitated slightly, then he looked up. "Um, Brad, are you watching?"

It was just a wild attempt but to Leon's surprise, the air directly above him shimmered and a C-5 drone that was previously invisible appeared.

A voice sounded from inside the drone.

"Leon, thank God the Beast is injured! Do you know where to go?"

Leon coughed.

Despite the fact that miles literally separated him from the Beast pursuing Leon, Brad's voice still sounded scared.

Hearing the fear in the NetRunner's voice, Leon's lips curled up in a smile, then he said. "Map the nearest route for me to take to the fringe of the Wastes closest to community G".

"Oh, ok".

The NetRunner did it within a few seconds, and then Leon's Karaki CT-3X projected a holo-map that showed him where to go.

"Thanks". He whispered.

Leon hesitated, then he added. "No need to follow me, they need you more. Return with the drone to guide them and make sure all the slaves are returned to safety successfully".

"Ok".

The C-5 drone finally turned and started flying back towards the battlefield.

Seeing this, Leon took a deep breath, looked at the side mirror again to observe the D Rank Neon Beast, then he accelerated.

His destination was the fringe of the Wastes.

…

8:50am.

After over 20 minutes since the battle came to an end, the 5 buses finally arrived in Community G.

Kain performed emergency repairs on the bus that was damaged by Parasite's final rampage, making it road-fit and then, without any hesitation out of fear of being attacked by roaming Neon Beasts, they returned.

Every single one of them was tired and spent, so most of them sat inside the military-grade trucks with which they escorted the buses.

Kain drove.

Only Gary and Mary still had the strength to ride two of the Karaki CT-3X super bikes as additional escorts for the buses.

And finally, they were back.

The moment the 5 buses and the escorts arrived, the community erupted in cheers as they welcomed the Freegrid Collective agents like heroes.

It was an emotional moment for the community as a whole.

In that moment, the girls realized and finally accepted the truth that they were no longer slaves.

In the morning, the moment they were packed into the buses, they thought their lives were over, they thought their freedom was forever lost.

The current moment was a reality that they dared not imagine not even in their wildest dreams a few days ago.

Now, they were free.

It felt surreal.

They broke down in tears.

The lucky ones reunited with their families, shedding tears of joy while the others only reunited with the corpse of their family members who participated in the rebellion and died fighting.

It was a cacophony of complex emotions as they all cried, some of them tears of sorrow while others cried tears of joy.

Among the newly-freed slaves, a small fair-skinned girl who looked 12 walked among the rowdy community, searching for a familiar face yet despite searching for minutes she didn't see him.

Her eyes reddened, she pursed her lips as sorrow gripped her heart.

But then, a voice filled with disbelief sounded from behind her. "Anabel?"

Hearing that familiar voice, her heartbeat accelerated in disbelief as she froze. She turned around slowly and then she saw him, her father.

The middle-aged Geneform was in disbelief as he collapsed to the ground, the KZ-47 gun on his grasp clattering to the ground beside him.

Ralph could not believe his eyes, his daughter was still alive!

"DAD!" The little girl screamed as she ran and jumped into his arms.

Before Ralph knew it, his tears started flowing freely.

He hugged her tightly and desperately like he was afraid that she was just a fragment of his imagination, he cried like a baby.

"You're safe… you're safe now… thank God…" he kept on muttering.

It was an emotional reunion and scenes like this filled the community.

And as all this happened, Talia's crew finally snuck out and hid from all the attention as they mourned in silence.

They carried the remnant of Rex's ashes in a bottle.

Daren carried it; his eyes were still red and swollen.

At that moment, Talia sat behind the military-grade truck as she looked into the neon skies with a hollow look on her face.

She forced a smile, and then she raised her smartphone and dialed a number.

Brad already lifted the network isolation, she could now freely access the global psionic network.

DING!

The call was picked as a holographic projection of a Synth on a face cap with a write-up saying [FREEDOM] appeared.

Seeing the blood all over her body, the Synth was taken aback. "Talia?" He asked. "What happened? I've been trying to reach out to you".

"I want to tell you to stand down, you can't take on an E Rank Gene Augur alone. We'll send reinforcements in a week. Currently, we're fighting a resources battle against the Federation again, we can't mobilize too many forces at once".

"Are you alright? Where is Rex? What happened?"

Hearing the familiar voice blabber on, Talia took a deep breath and relaxed, resting her back against the truck, then she interrupted him.

"Rex is dead".

Silence.

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