After 28 hours, in the Testing Area of the Big Gig Construction Company.

Once again, a brand-new military-grade Truck with the emblem of the Omnicore Federation was towed into the Testing Area.

The emblem of the Omnicore Federation is a half body-size image of an A.I Construct with a dull gray mechanical body in a deep metallic brown background like a battlefield. Fire burned in the background, and the A.I Construct held a sturdy metallic shield stained with blood.

Underneath the emblem was the motto of the Omnicore Federation- ["Order, War and Conquest."]

By now, the mercenaries in charge of test-driving the light-armored Trucks already grew numb as the engineers brought in new batch of Trucks every hour.

"Dogsh*t! How is this possible? What are those engineers on?" A mercenary cursed and muttered in disbelief as a new batch of brand-new light-armored Trucks were brought in.

His eyes were widened in shock.

Hearing him, his companion, another mercenary that was hired for the test-driving chuckled and asked. "Have you not heard?"

"Heard what?"

"I heard it's because of the new Head of Engineering, Mr. Leon".

"Really?"

"I'm telling you!" The mercenary- a Synth brimming with energy said excitedly. "According to what I heard, they said he's a God of Machinery!"

"They say he turns water into oil, they say a sneeze from him can turn raw materials into a pistol. Can you believe that? They say he doesn't control the machines, instead, the machines worship him".

"What? Come on that's bullshit! I'm not buying it one bit".

"I'm not lying!" The mercenary quickly defended himself. "They said there's some kind of strange gray energy that comes out of his hands when he starts working, and this energy makes the machines obey him!"

"He constructs Trucks without even touching them!"

"He doesn't even need to hold a screwdriver or spanner, the raw materials and machines simply listen to him, piecing themselves together while he just stands there watching!"

"C'mon man".

"I'm not lying, go ask anybody!"

"Is there really an engineer like that?" The mercenary still seemed suspicious.

His companion sighed, then he suddenly leaned towards him and whispered. "I heard it's because he's a superhuman".

Hearing that, the mercenary quickly turned alert as he looked around to see if anyone heard their conversation.

"Really?" He whispered back to his companion excitedly.

The other mercenary nodded with a knowing smile on his face, then he whispered again. "I feel like kidnapping him, do you know what a single engineer like that can do for my mercenary team?"

He sighed dreamily. "We won't need to come back to the City to replenish every month!"

"I heard they'd have met the quota for Trucks already if the machines didn't break down after 10 hours of non-stop work".

"Even as a superhuman, he still has to use processed and reinforced raw materials to ensure the quality of the Trucks".

"I heard that Mr. Grok brought in specialists to directly replace the machines instead of repairing them. Apparently, Mr. Leon said they'd reduce his efficiency if they repair them that he prefers getting new ones".

"How did you hear all of this?" The first mercenary was taken aback, he could not help but ask.

"Heh, it's through the engineers in the Welding and Assembly Area, they talk about Mr. Leon like he's some God".

"I envy him," the first mercenary lamented. "I don't want to be an engineer though, I want to be the kind that holds true superhuman powers".

They were not the only ones having conversations like this, and the conversations were not limited to the Testing Area. Conversations like this sprouted everywhere around the Big Gig Construction Company.

As the morning shift engineers and mercenaries had to go home to rest after work, changing shifts with the night shift workers, the news quickly spread outside the factory.

In just the first 12 hours of his coming to this factory, Leon's fame spread like wildfire in harmattan.

…

After 32 hours, Leon was still yet to rest as while the assistant engineers got to change shifts, he was the only one who didn't have that luxury.

He stayed locked up inside the Welding and Assembly Area of the Big Gig Construction Company, working non-stop.

Leon could not do everything himself.

And since there were no competent replacement for the 20 engineers who assisted him in constructing the Trucks, to make them work a few hours in the night before going home to rest, Leon convinced Mr. Grok to increase their salaries.

The middle-aged Synth did and the engineers worked till 10:00pm before retreating for the night.

For the next 8 hours from 10:00pm to 6:00am the next morning, Leon worked alone, planning to stay holed up inside the Welding and Assembly Area.

But he didn't just work on the Trucks.

When the raw material processing machines broke down, instead of trying to repair them, since their internal design was too complicated, he simply told Mr. Grok to get new processing machines.

It was a lot of money bur the owner of the Big Gig Construction Company was buoyant enough to meet such a demand.

During the time that Mr. Grok once again mobilized his connections that night to procure new raw material processing machines, Leon didn't rest, instead he diverted his attention to the other targets, helping the engineers.

By 4:00am, the new raw material processing machines arrived and Leon once again resumed work on the Trucks.

By 6:00am, 2 hours earlier than their regular work time, Leon's assistant engineers in the Welding and Assembly Area reported back for work.

This time, they went on a marathon from 6:00am in the morning.

Leon gave his assistants rest time intermittently, and he specially agreed with Mr. Grok to promise them bonuses in advance because of how he intended to exert them today.

Dangling money in front of engineers was always an effective tactic.

With enough money, Leon managed to hold all the engineers in and work non-stop from 6:00am in the morning to 11:00pm at night.

And finally, after 32 hours of non-stop work, his System lit up with a familiar notification for the 85th time.

DING!

~----~

[You have constructed a military-grade light-weight Truck!]

~----~

Leon almost cried.

He carefully climbed down from the work table, his whole body, especially his waist aching like an old man and immediately after he collapsed to the chair that was beside the walk table as he panted heavily.

"Congratulations sir, we did it!" His assistant engineers celebrated.

Just like him, they were absolutely exhausted.

Leon forced a smile. "Heh, thank you. I told you we'll do it, didn't I?" He smirked. "You can go home to your families now. Don't worry, by the time you get home, you'll see your bonuses".

Hearing that, they immediately smiled despite their exhaustion and said in unison. "Thank you boss!"

Looking at the result of their hard work, they gaped in disbelief for a few seconds before swelling in pride, then they carefully towed the last of the Trucks to the Testing Area before finally checking out for the day.

Leon was the only one left inside the large Welding and Assembly Area.

His forehead was covered with sweat and his head felt heavy like gallons of lead and mercury were dumped inside his brain.

His head throbbed painfully from a migraine.

'F*ck!' Leon cursed as his vision turned dizzy.

He accounted for the problem of his ADE being exhausted as he constructed non-stop for 32 hours, but he failed to account for the problem of his brain cells dying from working non-stop without rest, pushing himself to the limit.

He felt like his brain was on fire.

This time, it was not just his body that was weak, even his spirit was not willing. His spirit was weak and exhausted.

'F*ck whoever created Trials!' He gritted his teeth. 'Why must Ascended have to go through things like this just to promote to a higher rank?'

'It's so f*cking unnecessary!'

At this moment, he finally realized the reason why so few Ascended dared to take the risk of attempting a Trial to go to the next rank.

He was feeling the heat.

He groaned, rubbing his forehead painfully. Then, with difficulty, he finally looked at the updated version of his chart.

[Level 3: 85/85 retrofitted, light-armored Trucks]

After 32 hours where he pushed himself to the absolute limit without any rest in-between, he finally met the first target.

Looking at the chart, Leon forced a proud smile but then he grimaced again. 'With this headache, there's no way I'm going to be able to work at my best to quickly meet the other targets'.

Leon calculated his remaining time. 'With 36 hours gone, I have just 12 hours to work with now'.

His forehead throbbed with pain as he gently massaged it. 'How close are we to the quota? Can I afford an hour of rest?'

At this moment, he felt the desperation that Talia must have felt during her own Trial.

He sighed. 'Ascendancy is harder than I thought'.

As for the problem of resting, he already had a plan. 'I'll go to the Testing Area to see the progress, then I'll decide'.

If the progress of the other projects was slow and not fast enough, he would have no choice but decide to use PEDS to boost his brain capacity through the remaining 12 hours.

With that thought, he finally left the Welding and Assembly Area.

Less than a minute later, he arrived.

The moment he entered the large hall area that was even bigger than the Welding and Assembly Area, Leon keenly noticed hushed murmuring sounds start with his arrival as the mercenaries stared at him with curious eyes.

'What happened?'

He didn't care to know, he was simply too tired to care.

He ignored every other place and went to the large counter at the end of the Testing Area to know how much of the targets had already been met.

The receptionist at the counter attended to him fast. A few seconds later, he found the figures that he wanted.

[Work Targets:]

[16,089/18,000 melee weapons crafted]

[19,211/28,000 guns crafted]

[73,000/120,000 rounds of ammunition crafted]

[721/800 basic missile chassis parts crafted]

[85/85 retrofitted light-armored Trucks constructed]

Seeing the figures displayed on the holo-screen, Leon stifled a laugh as he heaved a sigh of relief. 'I'm actually close to doing it'. He was in disbelief.

Despite the fact that he was the brain behind the rapid upsurge in the production of the Big Gig Construction Company for the past 32 hours, seeing the figures in written form still left him in shock.

'I truly outdid myself this time'.

He sighed and rubbed his temples again, then he decisively turned around to leave to his office which had a well-furnished room for him to sleep and rest.

"I can spare 1 hour to rest before resuming work".

…

The Fringe of the Wastes…

It was early morning again in the wasteland.

The bioluminescent fog of night was beginning to recede with the darkness as the first sight of neon storms appeared in the skylines.

In this wasteland, a crew of 5 Ascended- Talia, Ghostwire, Kain, Brick, and Daren continued searching for Leon.

Above them, a C-5 drone silently hovered in the sky.

It's been 2 days since the showdown against the Zmer gang, and yet, this crew remained in the fringe of the Wastes searching for their crewmate.

It did not take them long to find the corpse of the gigantic D Rank Neon Beast.

At first, they were shocked but a simple autopsy by Daren revealed the truth that Leon didn't kill the Beast. Somehow, it just collapsed and died.

That made them optimistic but now, after 2 days of searching to no avail, it was inevitable that the optimism began dying. They were beginning to accept the reality that perhaps just like Rex, Leon was also dead.

"Did he sacrifice himself to take down the Beast?" Brick suggested.

Daren pursed his lips. "I don't believe he's dead".

No one said a word in objection.

Talia observed the time on the Freegrid interface on her right wrist, then she sighed and said. "Let's continue searching for the rest of today. If we don't find him, we have no choice but to go back".

She paused for a few seconds, then she added. "For what it's worth, I also don't believe that Leon is dead".

With that, they continued the search.

The trail of the D Rank Neon Beast already disappeared long ago, but still, Leon was nowhere to be found.

He seemed to have just disappeared from the face of the world.

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