The remnant of the double-layered storm slowly subsided.
The sky was beginning to clear up, returning to the usual backdrop of evening as most of the micro-machines already moved on after nibbling on all they could find in the region, laying waste to the entire first layer of Kain's defense grid.
The dome protecting the cargo trailer was too tiny a target for them to stop and focus on, and so they moved on.
That was what saved the life of the scavengers, but things don't always go according to plan.
DING!
~----~
[Net-Signatures Detected: 6 entities approaching!]
~----~
'Net-Signatures? What's that?' Leon quickly moved to the edge of the dome as he peeked out, and amid the backdrop of the receding storm, he saw them... human silhouettes composed of flickering light and nanite clouds.
Human silhouettes!
"What?!"
Leon couldn't help it as for the first time in front of this crew, he lost his composure completely because this was something that completely boggled the rational mind.
A storm, despite how exaggerated it was could be explained by physics, geography, and math, but this?
'What is that?!' He didn't say it out loud, but the question was written all over his face, reflecting his shock at the current situation.
You couldn't blame him.
Yes, Leon knew that he was signing up for something dangerous when he agreed to help Talia, but this was something that he had never done before.
Yes, he'd been in this world for days already and he had encountered Neon Beasts. But those were still in the realm of understanding, though crazy still.
The only Neon Beasts that he had encounters with before now were those that were naturally created by the world, mostly mutated versions of animals that he was used to. And even if they were strange, they were not too strange.
But what in the name of weirdism is this?
'Human silhouettes? Are they ghosts?'
Kain answered his silent question.
"Echo Sirens". The mechanical lifeform said in his usual mechanical tone, but it sounded grim.
Ever since the storm ravaged the first layer of his defense grid, his mood plummeted completely. Leon felt like this was no longer the Kain that he knew.
Leon looked at him, silently pleading for a detailed explanation.
Kain didn't react but he explained. "They're a type of Neon Beast that are born from failed NetRunners".
"You mean…?"
"Yes," he nodded grimly. "What you are seeing are not natural Neon Beasts, these entities are NetRunners that failed to ascend to the next rank".
That added a whole new twist to the situation.
Shocked, Leon looked again and when he did, he saw the 6 entities in a new light. He didn't just see mindless beasts or ghosts, rather he saw intelligent lifeforms that were corrupted, trapped, and suffering.
Watching them, one thought entered Leon's mind. 'Death is solace'.
'Is this what Talia will become if she fails?' His mood plummeted even further as he began realizing just how messed up this world was.
The 6 Net-entities didn't stop their approach due to his thoughts. They approached with great speed inside the receding storm.
They were like Wraiths, formless- just flickering light and nanite clouds. They had illusory white cloaks around their bodies, hiding their legs, hands, and body, only exposing their blurry head.
They had no mouth, no nose, just ghostly green flames in the place of their eyes. They reminded Leon of the Ghostrider.
They didn't walk either, but they also didn't have a ghost bike. Instead, they floated above the ground, surfing through the storm with great speed.
Watching them move filled Leon with goosebumps.
The illusory ghostly green flames bore down on the living entities before them menacingly with hatred and boundless corruption as they advanced.
Under the weight of that glare, Leon shuddered. Not just out of fear, but also out of pity at the fate that befell these humanoids.
But even as his morality and humanity prevailed at this moment, his professional tendencies and curiosity were still raising their head in the background.
'Can they be experimented?' he thought. 'Maybe, I can give them a form of solace other than death'.
As soon as he had that thought, all the Echo Sirens collectively glared at him.
'W-what?!' Leon staggered back.
Yes, he was an MMA enthusiast, but emphasis on enthusiast. Yes, he fought valiantly against Talia and Kain. Yes, he was special, he had a System, but that System didn't give him the ability to fight wraiths.
No, it gave him the ability to Construct and Deconstruct. He was a Mechanist! And in that moment, Leon truly knew the nature of his Class.
And he also knew that he was screwed.
"F*ck! So how do we fight them?" He looked around, flustered.
"We can't," Kain shook his head grimly.
Leon's jaw dropped in a silent, 'WHAT???!'
"They're Net-entities," Kain continued. "Physical attacks don't affect them, only NetRunners can damage them".
'We can't fight them! What the hell? Then we're just waiting to die?!' Leon almost grabbed Kain, losing his composure when he caught on to a keyword. 'Only NetRunners can damage them?'
He instinctively looked at Kain again who continued.
"Maybe if I had a computer, I can also try hacking them because they're digital entities, but NetRunners have high willpower and cybersecurity defense".
"…" Leon stared blankly.
Yet, this was when he noticed that someone else was moving.
He only noticed now because in the end, this was his first time involved in anything remotely this violent and he was flustered. He could fight, he sparred with his friends, but it was mostly in controlled settings.
He had never fought in an octagon before, not to talk of in a battlefield, and this was not just any battlefield, this was a battlefield involving Echo Sirens!
Watching it and reading it was a far different reality from experiencing it and facing it.
This was why he lost control of his emotions, but as he noticed someone move, he finally managed to calm down.
It was the other NetRunner of the crew, the Synth with black hair, Ghostwire.
'Yes, he's a NetRunner'. Leon thought, calming down.
For the first time since he knew him, Ghostwire left his monitor wall, and from somewhere, he already materialized a gigantic 1 meter long heavy Rifle that he held with both hands.
Leon noticed the Rifle earlier, but because Ghostwire blocked it with his body inside the cargo trailer, he never really had the chance to properly observe it.
The Rifle was sleek- black with blue designs. It had the symbol of the Freegrid Collective attached to it, and Leon's engineering instincts could not help but quickly notice what seemed like a regulator close to the trigger.
It was just like the regulator of an electric iron, and it had 3 slots.
On the first slot which seemed to be the default and where it currently was, there was an image of a hammer. On the second slot, there was an image of a human brain. And on the third, there were two numbers, 0 and 1.
'Code?' This was the first thought that entered Leon's head.
"Brace!" Kain warned and knowing exactly what would follow next, Rex walked briskly towards Talia's body, activating his defensive gadget that triggered an energy shield that engulfed his body and hers.
The others braced, then, Kain opened a breach in the dome.
WHOOO…!
The remnant energy of the storm rushed inside, but it was weaker now, almost harmless as they shrugged it off.
Then, Ghostwire walked outside the dome.
Watching this NetRunner walk outside with his black windbreaker, letting his black hair dance in the wind, Leon felt his heart palpitating.
With nimble footsteps, Ghostwire approached and climbed the rock that was close to the cargo trailer with the confidence of a veteran soldier.
On top of the rock, he set his Rifle down, wore a pair of visor googles, and switched the Rifle's regulator to the third slot with the 0 and 1 image, then he laid down on the rock and took aim.
Leon watched from the breach in the dome, slightly stunned. 'Is that what I think it is?' His heart was palpitating as the explanation of the System once again floated back to the forefront of his head.
'The NetRunner is a digital class!'
Then when the System first explained it, he thought he already understood what it meant but only now did Leon realize that he was about to truly understood what the NetRunner Class was all about, at least the combat aspect of the Class.
Ghostwire channeled his ADE as a dark green energy revolved around him, concentrating on the long Rifle, then he pulled the trigger.
Just as Leon expected, what came out was not a bullet.
What came out was illusory, like fragments of a programming code being compiled by a compiler. But instead of translating from machine code to high level language, it directly translated the code into reality in the form of illusory fragments.
These illusory fragments in the form of barely decipherable alphabets in the air was what shot out of the Rifle.
BZZZT!
The recoil jerked Ghostwire backward.
Leon looked into the storm, and he saw the illusory fragment of alphabets engulfed in dark green ADE smash into one of the Echo Sirens.
The Siren shrieked, and Leon felt his head buzz.
~----~
[You have been attacked by the scream of an Echo Siren!]
[You're temporarily suffering from distorted perception!]
~----~
In Leon's perception, he saw the world expand and contract, then spinning like that one time when he got drunk.
He seemed to hear sounds in the background.
BZZZT! BZZZT!
When he finally snapped out of it, his face was grim as he noticed that Ghostwire already released two more shots.
Looking ahead, he discovered that 3 of the Echo Sirens were already beginning to lose their form, fragmenting into light and clouds as they wailed in pain even as their soul was liberated.
Not just that, he noticed that Daren was already moving.
Leon didn't understand at first till his System lit up.
DING!
~----~
[Bio-Signatures Detected!]
~----~
Leon almost sighed. 'My inexperience shows'.
In that moment, he also understood. 'I made the right decision to join Talia's crew'.
Maybe this was not how dangerous the world was always, but he was pretty certain that if he encountered any of these alone with his current companions not present, he would have been a corpse already.
Afterall, as a Mechanist, how exactly was he supposed to fight the Sirens? He didn't have a computer to attempt remotely hacking them yet.
The storm alone was enough to kill him, not to talk of literal wraiths that physical attacks could not kill.
He realized. 'You can't survive alone in this world'.
He realized something else as he looked at Ghostwire. 'A NetRunner's Neural Core is innately capable of turning thoughts into executable code, right? It's just like how Mechanists become capable of using Construct and Deconstruct'.
'It's how they can remotely interface with networks, and it's also how they can attack'.
'That Rifle,' he looked at the weapon. 'It acts as a compiler. By switching the regulator to the third slot, it becomes capable of compiling and translating the executable codes being projected by Ghostwire's ADE into code attacks!'
His eyes twinkled. 'What a unique system!'
He shuddered in excitement after making all these realizations.
On another side, even as Ghostwire dealt with the Net-entities, even more already arrived as Bio-entities emerged.
Daren and Brick met them head-on!