Kain had literal tears in his dull gray eyes that looked even more lifeless now as he looked at the human with a deflated expression on his face.
"Come on man, tell me you're lying".
"He's not". Talia said calmly.
Kain felt even more pain as he grabbed his mechanical head in despair. "Then what the hell have I been doing with the past 3 years of my life?"
"I feel like a wastrel". He collapsed on the ground, spreading his legs in exaggerated lifelessness. "I only have 2 blueprints, and I literally spent all my life savings of the past 3 years to buy them at the Freegrid network!"
"I think I know your secret," he suddenly sat up again as he looked at Leon with gleaming eyes. "You're lying. You must have attended Omnicore's Harvard University right? Or the Synth Order Academy, definitely that one!"
"You're one of their secret genius, right?" He tapped his head in epiphany. "Yes! They must have sent you out here on a secret mission to get experience!"
"Talia, I know! He's Omnicore!"
Smack!
Talia smacked Kain on the back of his mechanical head, forcing him quiet even as he grabbed his head and peeked at her with a pained look of betrayal on his face.
His face screamed. 'You're supposed to support me! I'm your best friend!'
Talia ignored him, keeping the same nonchalant look on her face even as her gray-green eyes became slightly unfocused as she became lost in her thoughts.
Leon stared at him with a teasing smile on his face. "Well, sorry to break it to you man, but this is my first time hearing those terms".
"Omnicore Harvard University? Synth Order Academy?" He shrugged. "What's that?"
"F*ck off man!" Kain turned his head away in grievance. "He's definitely fake, he's lying". He kept on muttering to himself.
Leon smiled; he was enjoying this.
While Leon and Kain had their back and forth, Talia kept quiet as for the first time, the look in this woman's gray-green eyes changed, now filled with curiosity and a different but even deeper emotion.
"Tell me again Leon," she suddenly said. "How did you wake up again?"
Leon answered naturally as he turned to look at her.
From the very beginning when he decided to play his ploy, he already expected this and he already had an explanation in mind.
To him, this was the best case scenario. The more he got to know Talia, the more he realized that if it truly came to it, in a life and death battle, with Kain backing her, he literally had no chances of surviving.
Afterall, his Class was Mechanist and not Cyber Gladiator.
Besides, he saw this as an opportunity. He was alone and lost in this world since his awakening, but meeting Talia Venn gave him a chance- a chance to finally go out there and find answers to the missing pieces of his mind.
"I woke up and found myself underground," he answered. "That was 2 days ago".
"I found myself inside the skeleton of a car that was buried underground. An energy shield protected me; I don't know for how long but the moment that I woke up, it disintegrated, and I had to crawl my way through the sand to the surface".
Talia tapped the ground in front of her with her index finger, a clear sign that she was in deep thought. This was a personality trait of her that Leon observed quickly during the past few minutes of their talk.
Leon watched keenly as the expression on her face alternated between realization, shock, disbelief, acceptance, and then determination.
She was a decisive woman.
She raised her head to look at him again with a resolute look on her face. "I think I know your origin now".
"You do?" Leon looked at her in surprise.
"Yes". She nodded seriously.
Kain also looked at her curiously.
"I'm 70% certain that you're a human from the past".
"Huh?" Kain stared at her in confusion, slightly alarmed.
"Yes," she nodded again. "He has to be, that's the only explanation. You're an existence from the days before Project Genesis".
"This Project Genesis again?" Leon asked.
"Yes," she nodded, tapping her index finger on the ground again. "I mean, think about it, all evidence point towards it, and my special trait tells me that you're not lying and that your memories are truly lost".
"There's a reason why few people ever come to these parts of the Wastes". She looked at Leon seriously. "It's not just because of the roaming Neon Beasts, it's also because of the ADE corruption".
"The fringe of the Wastes are some of the most dangerous places an Ascendant can ever find himself in all of Neo-Tokara".
"The corruption here is so thick that low-tier Ascendants can't survive past a few days here. Even higher-tier Ascendants can't survive past a month in these parts of the Wastes".
"If you're not careful, the corruption can easily morph you into a Neon Beast as your Ascendant powers become corrupt and go haywire".
"The only place in the planet that is more dangerous than the fringe corners of the Wastes is the Abyssal Pit itself, the Genesis Crater, the place that is rumored to be the origin of the supposed temporal disaster that ended the old world".
"The last time we came, we didn't see you here, and nobody survives here alone for long".
"And yet, all evidence points to the fact that you've been here for a long time, and for you to survive that long alone, that can only be possible due to one reason," she lifted a finger for emphasis. "Temporal stasis".
"Like I said, I don't know much about Project Genesis but I do know that it's related to temporal experiments of a long-lost era".
"I think you're related to Project Genesis".
"That car fossil that kept you protected underground, and the energy shield, I believe they kept you in a state of temporal stasis for centuries".
"So, Mr. Leon, I'm afraid that you're likely a centuries old monster".
Leon's eyes widened. Now, he was truly terrified at the intelligence of this NetRunner that he met by chance.
'Madam! You mean to tell me you just deduced all of that in such a short time? It literally took me days!'
'Dammit, now I feel dumb'.
Talia tapped her index finger on the ground even faster now.
"Also, your natural talent fits the description of how the Reclaimer Church paint humans of old," she rubbed her chin in thought as her eyes shone brightly. "The Church paints them as the perfect beings, the original version of humanity".
"And you fit all the parameters. You're intelligent and clearly ahead of your peers with your skills, it's just like how the Church describe humans of old".
Kain glared at Talia, but she didn't even react.
Leon coughed. 'Well, I'm pretty sure that not every human is as smart as I am, but its fine, keep on glazing them'.
Well, if Leon said he was not impressed, then he was a big liar.
He had a certain expectation of this lady seeing how Kain respected her, but her display of intelligence was beyond anything he ever expected.
What she said next caught him off-guard though.
"Leon!" She said suddenly, her eyes blazing with clear desire now. "Join my crew, help me and I will help you recover your memories!"
This was the first time that she revealed this side of her, and it unsettled Leon as he shifted uneasily under her fiery gaze.
"Um, help you in what way?"
Talia finally calmed down.
She tapped her index finger two more times against the ground. "Well, I want to breakthrough to E Rank".
She looked at Leon. "It's been about 6 months now since I hit the peak of F Rank. Over the years, I've done everything to improve. I've fought, I've created systems, I've infiltrated others, and I've hacked and intruded places and networks where I shouldn't be".
She grinned. "But that's what makes being part of the Freegrid Collective so exciting, you're free".
"But there's a price for everything".
She looked at Leon again, her expression serious now. "Along the line, I made a few powerful enemies. I hacked the system of a Waste Warlord, costing him a lot of money and prestige, and now he's out for my head".
"That's why I came here to the fringe".
"It's no longer a matter of choice for me. I no longer have that luxury. Now, it's either I find a way to breakthrough or I agree to become his mistress, or I die trying to fight him".
She took a deep breath, and then she looked into his onyx-black eyes.
"So, Mr. Leon, will you help me?"