[09:38am]

[March 21st, Year 583 A.G.]

It was a hot Friday afternoon.

Leon sat in silence inside the moving pickup truck, quietly contemplating the clues that he already got.

His priority was clear. 'I need to know what the Trial objective is!'

He tried to predict exactly what the Trial objective was.

'Year 583 A.G…' his brain whirred as he perused his history knowledge. 'From what I know, this is the year that the Freegrid Collective truly rose to power after a great war against the Omnicore Federation'.

His black eyes gleamed as he mixed his history knowledge with all the relevant clues that he already acquired.

'I'm going to Iron Reef as a mercenary… I have all my weapons and constructs,' his eyes narrowed. 'Is the objective of this Trial to participate in the war between the Freegrid Collective and the Omnicore Federation?'

Leon felt that this was likely the case.

He didn't stay speculating for long because as they approached the city, the pickup truck was finally stopped by one of the local soldiers manning the tall watchtowers around the city.

The soldiers in Iron Reef wore black military attire with green scarves.

The old-looking middle-aged captain of this mercenary squad calmly faced the soldier when subjected to his questions.

"We're the Order of Iron". He said calmly.

The moment the captain revealed the name of the infamous mercenary squad in the West, understanding dawned on the soldier's face as he welcomed them to the city respectfully before letting them in.

And finally, Leon laid eyes on the interior of Iron Reef.

Leon haven't been to the headquarters of the Freegrid Collective in the future so he didn't know how it looked.

Right now though, Iron Reef looked more like a camp in the wild than a city.

The city sprawled across a dead industrial basin that the Omnicore Federation abandoned decades ago with half-collapsed factories, collapsed mag-rail pylons, and rusted towers that were tilted like broken spears.

Leon didn't realize how much bad shape the city was in till he came close.

Iron Reef looked like a temporary camp of stubborn rebels who refused to leave. Up close though, it was unmistakably becoming a city with a sense of order.

The local militia was evidence of this.

Like Leon already saw from afar, there were no walls and no gates. There were no skyscrapers, no floating Megabases, just miles of land where rebels banded together to form a resistance against the Omnicore Federation.

The common buildings in this city were modest but they were all reinforced for shock damage and to resist aerial bombardment.

The structures were stacked and welded together for structural integrity.

There were not just stone buildings though, large swathes of this city were filled with cargo containers that were turned into apartment blocks.

But one thing about them all was that they were all heavily fortified for battle, Leon suspected that every building in this rebel city had an energy matrix- a much diminished and smaller version of Leviathan Quay's city-wide energy shield.

Most of the buildings looked unfinished, Leon guessed that extra floors were regularly added by architects in the city when new refugees came.

There was graffiti and anti-Federation symbols everywhere around the city.

The biggest and most imposing buildings in the city where reinforced military bases that served as the core of the city, they served as the landmarks and they converged on the Northeastern part of the city.

Despite the dystopian state of this city though, it wasn't toothless.

Power hummed everywhere as solar rigs, kinetic pads, jury-rigged reactors, and siphoned Federation lines fed a constantly shifting aerial defense grid.

This city had an airforce led by warships!

It was clear that most of the city's emphasis was in bulking and maximizing their military power against their enemies.

From the scorch marks and blackened spots in buildings as the pickup truck drove into the city, Leon observed damage that he suspected was dealt by the invasive species called the Omnicore Federation.

The aerial defense grid and the airforce was Iron Reef's answer to the invaders.

The city was illuminated with bright LED street lights, but this didn't hide the innate chaos and survivability that this city embodied.

Despite the chaos, there was momentum.

Leon saw distant bustling markets, he saw schools in old transit hubs and he saw children attending school even in the chaos.

Somehow, life thrived in this city.

Observing all these around him, Leon was stunned.

One sentence rang in his head. 'A rebel city'.

And that was when the silence and lack of direction since he awakened in this Trial was finally broken.

DING!

~----~

[Time Period: Year 583 A.G]

[Trial Identity: You are a mercenary that has been hired to join the brave fight and resistance of the Freegrid Collective against the Omnicore Federation for money. Your fate is to fight and survive or die.]

[Trial Theme: Ren Nora's Destiny]

>Ren Nora is not the first rebel to boldly oppose the tyranny of the Omnicore Federation. He's not the first genius to lead an army of rebels against the Federation, but he's fighting against unfavorable odds. All those who came before him inevitably died... but Ren is a stubborn man.

>For the first time in centuries, Ren Nora becomes the first man to openly go against the will of the Director-Prime, attempting to challenge the C Rank Trial and become a C Rank Ascended.

>He knows he can't hide his intentions from the spies of the Federation, so instead he blew it up and made it a public world-wide affair and trending news.

>Ren Nora has openly made his intentions known that he will attempt the C Rank Trial on March 21st. He's called on allies, fellow rebels from all over the world to support him and help him fight the good fight of freedom against the Federation.

>He's called on mercenaries. Name your price, he'll pay.

>He's declared open war against the Federation!

[Trial Task: Join Ren Nora's army, influence the destiny of the infamous rebel to make sure he survives in his open war against the Federation in a war whose outcome no matter the victor will forever change the course of history. Thrive and help Ren Nora survive a war of C Rank entities!]

[Help Ren Nora become the first "Glitch" in the history of Neo-Tokara.]

[Help Ren Nora become the first C Rank "Data Phantasm" NetRunner of the Code Phantom Specialization.]

[Objective Summary: Ren Nora dies, you die!]

~----~

"…"

"…"

"…..!"

...

[NOTE: I made a change. The date is not October 31st but March 21st.]

[Happy new month! Special Appreciation to Darks4int and Katcan20 as the last Golden Ticket givers last month! Also, Special Appreciation to Shadesworn as the first Golden Ticket giver this month, thanks man, I truly appreciate the support.]

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