["Welcome to Community Kragin."]

The moment Leon saw the holo-signboard, the look in his eyes changed as his face became serious. His onyx black eyes became even blacker.

’It’s finally starting...’ he thought. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

He was not the only one who thought so. After long days of planning and preparation, nitpicking and fine-tuning every detail of the mission to avoid mistakes, they were finally about to embark on one of the most dangerous weapons of their respective military and combat careers.

Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq held nothing back during the planning phase, and the first step of the plan started in Community Kragin.

For some reason, now that he was finally here, Leon could not help it as his heartbeat accelerated.

BADUMP! BADUMP!

Feeling his heart beat fast, he was surprised. ’Am I scared? We’re not even at the heart of the action yet’.

Well, it didn’t matter, but his instinctive reaction made him do something that he didn’t plan on doing from the onset for this mission.

He trusted his body’s instincts and accessed the ChronoSystem interface.

DING!

~----~

[You have made use of Character Summon Card: Ramirez ×1]

[You have triggered Gene Augur passive ability: Symbiotic Core!]

[For the next 5 hours, you’ve gained the ability to store ADE directly in your blood. You can use the stored ADE anytime or keep it stored.]

...

[Character Card: Ramirez]

[Card Ability: Symbiotic Core ×2]

~----~

Immediately after using the Character Summon Card, Leon felt the change. It was like a trait inside of him changed, or he gained a new trait.

After so long of being an Ascended, he was intimately familiar with how ADE worked. Filtered through his Neural Core, ADE flowed from the atmosphere into his body through invisible energy networks in an Ascended’s body, but suddenly Leon felt his ADE becoming physical.

The ADE from the atmosphere was now flowing through his veins!

Not just that. The circulation of ADE from the atmosphere into his body increased, and 40% of this ADE was now being stored in his blood.

Leon could visibly feel his ADE levels rising.

He felt like he suddenly had an extra internal ADE storage, and this storage was his blood.

He was surprised as he quickly did the calculation in his head. ’At this rate, in 5 hours, I’d have stored 5 times of my ADE at full capacity!’

He finally felt first-hand why it was literally impossible for high-ranking Gene Augurs to run out of ADE in battle.

’This is crazy...’

Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq seemed to have sensed something as he briefly looked at him, but he didn’t linger for long.

Instead, he asked. "Are we all ready?"

Everyone nodded, and without hesitation the Lt. Colonel led the way into the obscure but slightly developed Wastes community sitting in between the border separating Drift Haven and Neo Solace.

Bio-bot Creation!

BZZZ!

Lt. Colonel Umar was already scouting ahead as he led the way, scouting not just for strangers but also on the lookout for something.

The road into the community didn’t exist on any official map.

It peeled off from a dying expressway as a cracked vein of asphalt that was swallowed by leaning shanties, rusted sheet metal, and tangled cables that dropped like spider silk between poles.

Old signage stood by the side of the road, flickering beside another "Welcome to Community Kragin" hologram.

Parked by the side of the dilapidated road was a military-grade truck; that was what Umar was looking for.

The Lt. Colonel’s bio-bots already found it long ago, and the moment they came close enough, he said softly. "That’s our contact".

They went close and saw a single driver who was waiting for them at the driver’s seat.

They nodded once at him, and then they quietly walked to the backside of the truck where 2 metal benches were arranged facing each other.

There were multiple able-bodied men already seated at the back of the truck, both Geneforms and Synths, each of them wearing the same cheap dark blue security uniform that Leon, Umar, and their companions wore.

Without saying a word, they climbed into the truck and sat down, 3 on each bench as they faced each other.

The other security guards briefly looked at them, confused, but then they lost interest as they had other things to think of.

VROOM...

The truck drove off.

About 5 minutes later, they arrived at the Northern outskirts of the Wastes community where a half-caved dilapidated building that looked abandoned was.

Immediately, figures emerged from the darkness of night- guards. These were not the corporate kind though; these guards wore mismatched gear with gang tattoos and cybernetic augmentations that looked more scavenged than installed.

They looked savage and heftily built.

Unlike what their mismatched gear suggested, weapon wise, every single one of them was armed to the teeth.

One stepped forward towards the driver’s side. "You’re late". He said.

"Traffic," the driver replied evenly. "I stumbled upon a pack of Neon Beasts and I had to take a detour and hide just to ride it out till they pass, I didn’t want to pull the new recruits into an avoidable battle".

The guard nodded. "The new hires are inside?"

The driver nodded.

"Open the back".

CLICK!

The guard accompanied by 2 others went to the back of the massive truck to expect the new recruits. Inside, he saw all the newly hired guards.

Seeing how tall and heftily built some of them were, almost as tall as him, he grinned and nodded in satisfaction.

"I’m Kade," he said. "From now on till your contract duration is over, when you’re not escorting transports, you follow me. You don’t speak unless you’re spoken to, and you don’t touch anything that isn’t yours".

"Do that faithfully and you get paid".

"And if we don’t?" One of the hired guards asked casually.

Kade’s smile immediately turned dangerous, he smirked. "Then you won’t have hands left to touch anything with".

He turned without waiting for a response.

"Move".

Most of the guards couldn’t tell but having felt the ADE density of the tall Geneform already, Leon could tell that he was an E Rank Ascended.

This man, Kade was the security head of the local drug lord and sex trafficker in Kragin, Daddy Puff. Kade was the leader of Daddy Puff’s underground army.

This powerful man has an enterprise that is just like Parasite’s Zmer gang, and just like Parasite, he is secretly being sponsored by Joe Curry.

Leon and the others guards were led inside by Kade and his subordinates.

The entrance to the lair wasn’t a door, it was a collapse within the half-caved building. As they stepped inside, the illusion of a dilapidated and abandoned building finally peeled away, revealing a ground that sloped downward.

As they walked, lights flickered on automatically, revealing a reinforced tunnel beneath the ruin. It was eerily silent down here.

But not for long.

The deeper they went, the louder it became.

Leon first heard the sound of machinery, then he also heard voices- screams and though it was far he could sense the fear in them from afar. They were faint and distant at first, then they were quickly swallowed by the roar of industry.

Hearing those voices, Leon felt a sense of déjà vu.

He had flashbacks to Parasite’s underground enterprise back in Community G, but this time, he didn’t let his emotion have sway over him as with an impassive expression on his face alongside his teammates, they followed the other guards in.

After about 2 minutes, they emerged into the main chamber and the scale of it all immediately hit them like a wall.

Despite Umar’s detailed information about Daddy Puff’s trafficking enterprise in Community Kragin, they were still caught off-guard.

This wasn’t just a lair, this was an underground complex- a sprawling network of platforms, conveyor systems, and enclosed sections that stretched farther than the eye could track in one glance.

Layers upon layers of operations stacked vertically and horizontally.

To the left was drug production. There were rows of tables under harsh white lights where workers, some willing, most not- handled powders, liquids, and synthetic compounds that glowed faintly under UV strips.

These guys even produced drugs that were usable by Synths! This was Joe’s secret money-making machine, and Daddy Puff’s enterprise was just one of them.

Automated arms assisted in the packaging, sealing thousands of units per hour.

Crates were stacked in towering columns, tagged, coded, and ready for distribution. This was the venue for organized crime.

Here, the air itself was chemical- sharp and biting.

And then to the right stood the containment, cages.

These were not crude cages, these were engineered cages that were hardened with reinforced glass and alloy with biometric locks.

Inside were people, all Geneforms. There were dozens in each section.

Some were too weak to stand, some were kids. They all stared blankly with hollow eyes from whatever had been done to them.

Unlike Parasite’s enterprise that was barely worth tens of thousands of Neo Credits, Daddy Puff’s enterprise was easily worth hundreds of thousands of Neo Credits if not millions.

The sight of all of this triggered unpleasant memories in Leon’s head, but like him, Talia and Daren didn’t react either as they acted coldly just like the Lt. Colonel.

They were extremely professional and around them, other established guards in the enterprise patrolled constantly.

Above, walkways crisscrossed, connecting control points where overseers monitored everything through holographic displays.

Nothing escaped their sight.

This wasn’t chaos like Parasite’s enterprise. This was organized, efficient and industrialized.

This was a business.

Leon expected to see the leader of the enterprise, but Daddy Puff was not in sight and he didn’t bother to look for him.

He was locked in on the mission.

Kade kept walking as if none of it was remarkable.

"Keep moving," he said. "You’re not here to sightsee".

Leon’s crew followed silently alongside the other hired guards, quietly observing and absorbing everything.

Every detail mattered.

Soon, they reached the loading sector where the operation shifted from production to distribution.

This was where their job description led.

Daddy Puff was suffering a guard shortage after a major clash against a rival drug lord in one of the neighboring Wastes community, maybe this is why he wasn’t on ground at the enterprise today.

This is also why he spent a lot of money to contract hired security guards to protect his cargo for this round’s supply.

Leon’s crew was part of the hired and contracted guards.

The destination of the cargo?

Omnicore Megacity, Neo Solace.