Talia looked at Leon coldly.
"Mr. Leon, you truly know how to piss someone off, don't you?"
Leon chuckled. "Do I?" He asked as his grip tightened around his spear.
The atmosphere became as thick as a quagmire. Any moment, Leon expected to hear the sound of a gunshot, and his body was already coiled with tension to dodge, but he didn't hear it.
Instead, Talia leaned forward slightly with an unnaturally chilly but calm look on her face. "Yes, you're right Mr. Leon," she said coldly. "The Freegrid Collective is just a background player that fights for scraps, but we're a background player with teeth. And most importantly, we're free".
She smirked. "You think the Omnicore Federation is better? You think it's a paradise where you'll get everything you want and get to live the way you want?"
"If you thought so, think again Mr. Leon".
"The Omnicore Federation is the strongest power in Neo-Tokara, yes, but they're not perfect. Actually, they're far from perfect".
"Omnicore values data supremacy, but more importantly, they value control. The dominant Classes among Omnicore are NetRunners like me, Cyber Gladiators, and Quantum Shapers who mostly serve as elite researchers controlling time-space applications".
"Gene Augurs are seen as heretics in Omnicore territory. And you know another Class that is discriminated there?"
"Yes, Mr. Leon, that's your Class, the Mechanist Class". She grinned coldly.
"Mechanists are tolerated but restricted in Omnicore territory. They are only allowed to build within corporate guidelines".
"You see that curiosity and creativity of yours that I like? In Omnicore territory, it'll be smothered and crippled completely. Any Mechanist who develops autonomous AI units without approval risks being data-erased".
"You know what it means to be data-erased, Mr. Leon?" She smiled ominously. "At best, you'll be killed, erased completely with no traces of you left".
"At worst, you'll literally be data-erased," her eyes gleamed. "Powerful NetRunners will subdue you, invade your consciousness and wipe all your remaining memories, turning you into an idiot that only knows to work for the Federation and that calls Director-Prime Epsilon God".
"There's nothing like freedom once you're part of Omnicore".
"The Federation sees all independent inventors as destabilizers of order. They favor assimilation or contract servitude, and they maintain the world's largest army of synthetic soldiers controlled by collective AI".
"They hate autonomy".
"Living in Omnicore territory? Every action and movement of yours will be monitored. Any deviation from what is deemed ethical will mark you to be visited by the police, or even worse".
She smiled again and boldly stared at the space in between Leon's pants. Yes, that space, and it caused Leon to shiver.
"You see that thing you boldly parade as a man?"
She smirked. "While in the bathroom having your bath, some Omnicore bastard will be keeping a close eye on you, watching you do everything. Maybe if it's big enough, a female agent may even masturbate to it".
Leon shuddered.
"You want to have some action with your wife? An Omnicore agent is there, watching you like a ghost". Her voice dripped with venom now and Leon felt a chill run down his spine listening to it.
"You're never alone in Omnicore. There, there's nothing like privacy".
With her gray-green eyes staring him down piercingly as she said sentence after sentence, Leon could not help but shiver again.
"One more thing," she added. "The leader and legend of the Freegrid Collective, Nora -Glitch- Ren and other legends of Neo-Tokara are all stuck at the C Rank for years and decades, never taking the step into the next rank".
"Rumors say it's because of Omnicore, that they deliberately restrict and cap the growth of Ascendants in the planet".
"So, tell me, Mr. Leon, do you still want to join Omnicore?"
"…"
Leon's lips twitched.
"Damn. When you put it like that, you really make it difficult".
"Welcome to the team". Talia said and stood up.
"Huh?" Leon stared at her. "Since when did I agree to join?"
She smirked at him. "You think you're smart, huh? You already accepted, you just asked that to piss me off and see my reaction, and to also probe for more information".
She looked at Kain. "We've stayed too long in this vault, we have to go meet the others before they begin to think that some misfortune befell us".
"The others?"
Talia nodded as she looked at Leon again. "It's not just me and Kain in the team, there's four others that you'll meet".
Leon nodded. "That makes sense considering what's at stake. But first, the blueprint," he demanded with a smile on his face.
"F*cking narcissist!" Kain rolled his eyes in disgust.
Leon chuckled; he didn't mind.
"Yeah, I almost forgot". Talia tapped a ring that was attached to her finger the next moment, and then a golden scroll came out. The golden scroll was sealed with unique glyphs drawn on its surface.
She handed the scroll to him.
As soon as Leon touched the golden scroll, it disintegrated and his HUD screen lit up before him again after a while of its inactivity.
DING!
~----~
[You have acquired an E Rank blueprint: Electromagnetic Pulse Gun]
~----~
Leon whistled as he stared at the advanced specs of the gun.
Another thing that attracted his attention was the advanced materials that were needed to craft it.
It would take him a while before he gathered all the materials to craft just one of this gun, and he won't be able to gather them here in this wasteland.
"Thanks," Leon flashed a smile finally.
Before leaving though, he made a proposal. He proposed that they thoroughly explore the half-collapsed data vault.
Talia didn't object. Afterall, Leon managed to make the originally dead monolith server react with his presence, maybe he could trigger something else.
But luck was not on Leon's side this time as they found nothing of value inside the data vault. Disappointed, he led them back to the first hall of the vault.
There, he stopped them again.
"One more thing," he said with a mischievous smile on his face as he walked towards one of the dead computer systems.
"What again?" Kain asked in an irritated tone as he turned to glare at him.
Seeing him approach one of the computers, as a Mechanist too, he quickly realized what he wanted to do but for some reason, it made Kain even more irritated. "We don't have the time for that, smartass".
"You're still a greenhorn, but I'm a veteran Mechanist. Now, listen to your senior and do as I say".
"Let's leave. Do you have any idea how long it'll take you to Deconstruct a single computer? Not to talk of one with such specs".
"Besides, it's not as if you'll even get a blueprint fragment, or…"
From just rambling in irritation at the annoying human, Kain's voice gradually lowered and lowered till it became a faint whisper, till it stopped entirely as his eyes became as wide as saucers.
His jaw dropped in shock as he watched.
~----~
[You have activated System Function: Deconstruct Protocol]
[Scanning… Analyzing… Deconstructing… Creating Blueprint Fragment… please wait…]
~----~
As soon as Leon's gray magnetic energy flowed out and encompassed the computer system, right as Kain was watching, he saw this computer slowly start dissolving into motes of light.
And within just 2 minutes, the computer disappeared completely!
~----~
[You have gained a Blueprint Fragment of the Computer System: Onyx-05]
~----~
"…"
"…"
"…..!"
Kain's mechanical legs faltered as he staggered in shock. "W-w-what just happened?" He stammered in his typical mechanical voice.
"Oh, this?" Leon smiled. "Nothing, I just used deconstruct. I want to get the complete blueprint before we leave".
"T-t-the complete blueprint?!" Kain felt dizzy. "Is that even possible?" He mumbled.
It took him a while to regain his composure, and by then Leon was already standing before another computer as he started the process again.
Kain rubbed his cybernetic eyes, then he cautiously asked. "How long did it take you to Deconstruct that computer just now?"
"That? I think…" Leon raised his fingers and started counting. "It should be 2 minutes, 8 seconds".
"T-two minutes?!"
Kain staggered and supported himself with the wall. "Did you get a blueprint fragment for it?"
"Of course, doesn't Deconstruct always give blueprint fragments?"
CRASH!
Kain collapsed to the ground.
"Um, hehe… carry on, nothing happened". He stumbled back to his feet, trying to hide his embarrassment under Leon's judgmental gaze.
As soon as Leon turned away, this Synth almost cried as he turned his back to the human and faced the wall with despair written all over his face.
Beside him, Talia silently watched it all happen as her eyes gleamed.
'Don't look, don't look…' he repeatedly told himself, his pride was on the line, but when has he ever been lucky? He didn't look for trouble, but this time, trouble itself came seeking him out.
He almost cried as he heard Leon's hateful voice.
"How long does it take you to use Deconstruct? Let's say, on a computer system like this".
Kain cried imaginary tears. "30 to 40 minutes". He said truthfully in a low voice that was once proud, but now reeked of pain, shame, and sorrow.
'Argh! Hateful human!' He thought angrily.
He turned to glare at him again. "And who even gets a blueprint fragment for every Deconstruct? That's bullshit! Even a veteran like me call myself lucky if I get 2 fragments in 10 Deconstructs!"
Leon looked at him, then he shrugged. "Maybe you're not as good as you think you are".
"Eh?"
This time, Kain truly cried. He cried silent tears.
Talia shifted closer to him and patted him on the shoulder. "It's fine Kain. You're good, he's just a freak".
"As if that'll make me feel better!"
Dozens of minutes later, Leon said it.
"Phew," he wiped his sweat. "I'm done, I've gotten the blueprint. That took longer and expended more ADE than I expected".
Kain felt dizzy.
"F*cking ungrateful bastard!" He turned around and stormed out of the data vault.
Leon chuckled and followed behind him with Talia.
~----~
[You have a new complete blueprint: Computer System Onyx-05]
~----~
Leon whistled an upbeat tone as he walked out of the data vault.
But that was not the end though; he barely stepped out of the data vault when the HUD screen lit up again.
DING!
~----~
[You have received a new Mission…]
~----~