Immediately after leaving the nightclub, Leon snuck into an alley where he finally removed his mask and kept it on his bag.

He slipped through the alley and emerged in another lower street.

Only when Leon confirmed that he was not being followed did he take a deep breath. It was already night but down here in the Lower Streets, it was impossible to tell because of the neon lights illuminating the streets.

Leon also noticed that the bioluminescent fog that always engulfed the world at night in Neo-Tokara was not in the city.

'They have technology in place to filter out the fog and ADE corruption?'

After that idle thought, his eyes quickly became sharp.

'Over 168 Neo Credits in a single night,' he thought. 'That's more money than I've ever seen in this world, but it's not close to being enough to fund my ambitions'.

Leon finally understood why Brad was always crying for funding. 'To be a creator in this world no matter the field is expensive as f*ck'.

He sighed. 'I don't even know how many raw materials 100 Neo Credits can buy, a hunch tells me it's not much at all'.

He quickly scrunched up his face. 'Do I need to play the friend card again? Do I need to beg the Lieutenant to loan me materials and pay back later?'

Despite how shameless he was, Leon still felt a bit of second-embarrassment at the thought. 'No, I can't resort to borrowing'.

In the end, he decided to take things one step at a time.

'First, I need to pay for a hotel where I'll be staying,' he thought as he walked down the street. 'But I can't be doing my construction work in the hotel, it's no longer just pistols and drones that I'm constructing'.

'Now, my ambition and ability is bigger. I need a base, or at least a caravan'. He thought seriously.

'But before all that, I need to create a bank account first'.

He quickly made up his mind.

"Davis, how many banks are in Leviathan Quay?"

DING!

The mechanical voice of the A.I sounded. "Master, there are 18 Banks in Leviathan Quay".

Leon was stunned. '18 banks inside 1 city?'

Davis continued. "Of the 18 banks, 12 of them are local microfinance banks just in Leviathan Quay. 4 of them are big banks with branches in both Sprawl Delta and Verdanthold, the other cities of the Geneforge Clans".

"The last 2 banks are international banks with branches across most of all the cities of the world".

"Master, do you want to create a bank account?"

Leon nodded.

"If so, then I recommend you create an account with any of the 2 international banks. You can use them in any city of the world for transactions".

"What are their names?"

"Raenest and Ecobank. Both are international multi-city banks, both are also reliable but Raenest has a reputation for faster bank transactions and swifter customer service and response".

"Then Raenest is it," Leon quickly said. "How long will it take you to create an account with my identification details?"

"Less than 5 minutes".

"Ok". Leon nodded and located a bench by the side of the lower street to sit on, waiting for his A.I to complete the process.

While waiting, he mapped out his plan and next steps in his mind.

A little more than 4 minutes later, the A.I lit up with a new holographic screen through the smartphone.

[Congratulations! Your international Raenest Account has been created successfully!]

[Account Name: Thomas Riley]

[Account Number: *******070]

[Account Balance: 00:00:00]

The moment the A.I projected the holographic screen, Leon picked his smartphone and sent the account number with the account name, bank name and his ring name to the contact number belonging to Picasso Lifestyle Club.

Less than 2 minutes later, his smartphone beeped with a notification.

DING!

[Credit Alert!]

[Your account has been credited with 170 Neo Credits!]

[Account Balance: 170:00:00]

Leon quickly guessed that the first parts of his balance before the colon represented currency in Neo Credits, the two zeros on the second colon likely represented pounds and the two zeros on the final colon represented cents.

He was surprised as he stared at the credit alert. 'They rounded it up to 170 Neo Credits?'

'Is this their way of currying favor with me?'

Leon didn't object to it at all, rather, he even encouraged it. 'Why not just send me a thousand Neo Credits? That way, I'll do anything that you want'.

He chuckled. "At least I'm no longer broke".

"Davis, I need a hotel. Do the sorting with an acceptable combination of comfort and affordability in mind".

DING!

The A.I displayed more than 20 hotels.

Looking through all of them, Leon directly eliminated all the hotels in the Lower Streets. They were more expensive than those in the Upper Streets.

Davis didn't even bother to show hotels in the floating districts, Leon simply wasn't rich enough to look that high.

Of the 8 hotels left in the Upper Streets, Leon did a game of elimination and finally, he arrived at a final target.

[Grand Deluxe Hotel]

He clicked his tongue. "Grand Deluxe Hotel it is".

Once Leon made his decision, he quickly ascended the staircase inside one of the pillars supporting the Upper Streets and ascended back up.

Leon didn't go to the hotel immediately, instead, he turned to walk back towards the train station. He intended to retrieve his bike, but then Davis spoke up.

DING!

"Master, the train station is already closed".

"Already?" Leon was surprised.

"They close around 6:00pm unless there's a late night transport".

Leon nodded in understanding, then he turned the other way and left.

A few minutes later, he entered the hotel. Grand Deluxe Hotel was an old-fashioned 4-story building hotel, but their standards were relatively high.

After speaking with the receptionist, Leon paid for Room 36.

A night in this hotel cost a staggering 3 Neo Credits, 50 pounds!

After making his calculations, Leon decided to pay for a week's stay which cost him 24 Neo Credits and 50 pounds.

Leon almost cried when he sent the money. 'Staying in the city is not for hustlers like me who are still trying to make it in life'.

Leon's heart bled for his money as he entered the room but the moment he went in, seeing the luxurious bed with clean sheets, a 100-inch TV for entertainment, and the soft sofa in the room, he quickly forgot about the price.

He grinned. "Now this is what I call a room befitting Thomas Riley".

After placing his backpack down, he didn't lie down to sleep as he sat down on the sofa instead. He still had things to do.

With Davis's help, Leon searched for any place not too far from the hotel where he could use as his temporary mechanic workshop.

There were specialized warehouses but the moment he began seeing prices like 40 and 50 Neo Credits for a week's hire, Leon immediately lowered his standards, and finally he saw something that his pocket could afford, a caravan.

The caravan was old and abandoned but its owner still wanted to rent it for 6 Neo Credits for a week's hire.

It was bigger than the caravan that Alexander Cain once rented for him, Rex, and Kain. It was dirtier but Leon could easily clean it.

After completing the payment through the psionic network, Leon finally contacted Sergeant Tyla, sending her the coordinates to drop the raw materials for the Lieutenant's Rifle commissions.

After doing that, he left the hotel with his backpack and walked towards where his newly rented caravan was.

Along the way, he spent 8 pounds to buy a vacuum cleaner.

Leon thoroughly cleaned the caravan, making it conducive for his work, then he left to purchase a work table and a single chair.

Unlike in Community G, unless he was willing to walk all the way to the outskirts of the city, he would not find scrap metal or wood lying around easily to be able to personally craft a work table and chair.

He spent 12 pounds to buy a wooden table, and further 4 pounds to buy a wooden chair. With these, he finally got the caravan set for work.

More than thirty minutes later, a light-armored brown military truck drove in front of the caravan.

Sergeant Tyla came down with 2 soldiers accompanying her.

After exchanging pleasantries with her, Leon directed the 2 soldiers as they carried metallic crates of raw materials into the caravan.

Sergeant Tyla looked at the E Rank Mechanist. "There are raw materials for 15 Rifles here, the Lieutenant expects at least 10".

She looked at the time.

[09:19pm]

"How long before we can get the Rifles?"

Leon smiled. "You can come tomorrow morning, as early as possible".

Sergeant Tyla was stunned. "They'll be ready by tomorrow morning?"

Leon nodded.

Though she was skeptical, she didn't voice her doubt as she nodded and promised that she'll return tomorrow by 9:00am for the goods.

After that, she entered the military truck with her subordinates and they quickly drove off.

When Leon entered the caravan and closed the door behind him, he looked at the crates of raw materials with a melancholic expression on his face.

'Ah, it feels good to just construct and not worry about money'.

Lieutenant Johnmark's decision to send raw materials for 15 Rifles but demand only 10 meant he was still judging Leon with the standards of regular Mechanists, but from the beginning Leon was never a regular Mechanist.

He was confident that with his System, despite the difficulty of the blueprint, there would be no material losses and he could construct 15 Terra Nova 71 Rifles with the raw materials.

But Lieutenant Johnmark didn't know this and Leon wanted to keep it so.

With his experience working with Kain and Rex, Leon already had a general idea of the ability of normal Mechanists.

His guess was that a regular E Rank Mechanist should be able to craft between 8 to 10 Rifles with the available materials. An exceptional Neo Mechanist should be able to craft 10 easily, and when in a state of flow can craft up to 11 Rifles.

Since he already bragged to the Lieutenant that he was the greatest Mechanist alive beneath D Rank, Leon didn't want to underwhelm with his performance, he also didn't want to over-perform.

This was why he decided to craft just 12 Rifles, he'll keep the rest raw materials for himself and use them to craft other constructs.

The moment Leon was done finalizing his plan, he started working.

Construct!

…

Hours later, Leon finally returned to his hotel when it was almost midnight.

For him, a long day finally came to an end.

At the same time that he returned to his hotel, a certain terrorist finally also returned to a hidden underground base.

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