General Ren Nora’s mansion was at the heart of the central district in Iron Reef, and that was where Leon went to.

It was a state-of-the-art smart 5-story mansion which the General monopolized completely for himself.

His attendants and help maids were robots.

All Leon needed to get access inside the mansion was to scan his face. He walked into the General dressed in casual clothing and watching a movie in his sitting room, an action movie.

The sitting room was dim except for the flicker of the large holoscreen.

Leon paused in the middle of the sitting room and paid attention to the screen. Onscreen, two men were tearing through each other with brutal, almost mechanical intensity with gunfire, fists, and explosions.

BZZZT!

The audio crackled, slightly degraded like it had been copied too many times across too many decades or maybe even centuries.

Leon’s face turned weird. "...you’re seriously watching that?"

Ren Nora didn’t look away. "Careful," he said with a smile. "Back in the 21st century, this was vintage".

Leon folded his arms. "Vintage what? What’s the title?"

There was a brief pause as another explosion lit the sitting room, then Ren Nora finally answered. "Universal Soldier".

Leon glanced back at the screen, unimpressed. "Okay... and what am I looking at? Military cosplay? Is that supposed to be a group of soldiers?"

Ren Nora chuckled. "Not exactly, it’s about dead soldiers," the General said while smiling, lowering the volume a notch. "Well, technically dead. They take guys killed in war, rebuild them, wipe their memories, and turn them into perfect soldiers with no fear and no hesitation, just orders".

"..."

Leon froze. ’Eh?’

He looked at the screen again and finally, the look on his face changed, becoming a bit interested but also morbidly unnerved.

Onscreen, one of the men took a hit that should’ve dropped him. Well, it should’ve dropped a mundane human, but he didn’t stay down.

Leon raised an eyebrow finally. "So... recycled humans?"

"Yeah," the General answered. "They call them ’Universal Soldiers’, a Government black project".

"They’re meant to be controllable," he leaned forward slightly, placing his elbows on his knees. "Problem is, some of them started remembering who they were".

Ren Nora smiled. "It’s one of my favorite old movies, it kind of reminds me of our situation under the oppression of the Omnicore Federation before we developed the courage to fight for our freedom".

Leon watched as the fight escalated as the tone of the movie changed with something raw now creeping into it, less controlled and more personal now.

"Remembering who they were...," Leon mumbled. "And I’m guessing that’s bad right?"

Ren Nora nodded. "That’s the whole movie. Two of them, former enemies actually wake up in pieces. One starts questioning everything, trying to figure out who he used to be".

"The other," he nodded toward the holoscreen as one character’s expression twisted into something unhinged. "Well, he leans into it and goes completely off the rails".

Leon chuckled. "So it turns into a personal war and how they deal with it".

"Exactly," Ren Nora smiled. "Past versus programming, and identity versus control. It’s a pretty old concept now, but back then I’m guessing it was heavy stuff. I’m also thinking this was when the idea for Synths was first conceived".

"Interesting". Staring at the screen now, Leon finally cracked a smile. "I think I’m going to love this".

"Uh, I think I’m going to be like Garfield now". He looked at Ren Nora. "Can I borrow this?"

Ren Nora immediately looked at him in a vigilant manner, then he finally asked. "What brought you here?"

Leon rolled his eyes. "Stop acting like you haven’t spied on my past with Primordial Hacking already the moment you saw me by your door".

Ren Nora sighed. "I asked just to be polite and to make you feel at ease".

"Well, I don’t need it". Leon finally walked towards the chair and sat down beside the General.

He stared at the holoscreen for a few seconds, then he asked. "What do you think about the mission?"

Ren Nora didn’t take his eyes off the holoscreen but his mouth moved.

"Infiltrating Omnicore territory is extremely dangerous for any D Rank Ascended in the world, including you. I’ve told you what I feel about an idea like this before, and I also advised you to stay away from Sylvari".

"But I have to do this". Leon didn’t back down.

Ren Nora sighed. "I did a lot of crazy things when I was young like you too, so I won’t go off preaching like I was some good boy in my youth".

"The only advice that I’ll give you now is to be careful, watch your steps and also watch your back".

Leon nodded seriously.

Ren Nora paused the movie and finally looked at him. "Well, if you must infiltrate Omnicore territory, I’ll give you a few gifts to help you".

He stood up and walked towards a secret cabinet in the corner of his sitting room. Opening it, he brought out a wooden token- a rod and 6 masks.

Seeing the number of masks, Leon’s lips twitched. ’This ability of his... he already knows how many of us are in my team’.

Ren Nora walked back and sat down beside Leon.

"During those years of waiting for you, influenced by you, I dabbled into craftsmanship a bit in my free time. These are some of my best constructs". He smiled proudly.

"I call these masks CH Masks, Chameleon Masks. Each one of them has a database of millions of faces stored inside them. With them, you can change your face easily".

"They’ll help to make your infiltration seamless and easy, they’ll also help to erase your traces in case you’re on the run in enemy territory".

"As for this token," he looked at the wooden rod. "It’s ordinary wood, but there’s a chip inside carrying a part of myself in my Shadow Node form- a data stream corresponding to me".

"If you crush the token, the data stream will be released and though I can’t manifest out of that data, without interference, it’ll enable me to hop to your position through Ghost-in-the-Machine no matter your location in the world".

"Even with interference preventing me from hopping there directly, it’ll enable me to see and know your current condition when you crush it".

He pushed both gifts towards Leon.

The moment Leon took them, the ChronoSystem lit up with a thread of new notifications.

DING!

~----~

[You have acquired C Rank Gifts: CH Masks & Data Token]

~----~

’These are my first C Rank items’. Leon thought.

He exhaled quietly, then he stood up and looked at Ren Nora one last time. "Thank you". He said sincerely.

The General smiled. "You’ve done more for me".

"Just don’t die out there".

"I won’t," Leon said confidently, then he left the sitting room.

As he left, his grayish white ADE flowed out, focusing on his right hand and penetrating into the CH Mask.

A few seconds later, the ChronoSystem lit up again.

DING!

~----~

[You have acquired a C Rank Blueprint: CH Mask!]

...

[Total Number of Blueprints: 41]

~----~

Behind him, Ren Nora’s lips curled up in a smile.

Leon also smiled as he finally left and entered the Zerphyr-7 Stealth Reconnaissance UAV again.

At the same time that he entered the stealth aircraft, he got another message from Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq that he was already in Canyon Hub.

At the same time, something else happened.

The ChronoSystem lit up again with new notifications.

DING!

~----~

[You have received a new Mission...]

~----~

...

[Special Appreciation to Adamantis, ImperialJadeDragon, Yametekudastop, MachaMarvelous, and Josh_Potter_5354 for the Golden Tickets!]