Second Genesis

Grey released an audible sigh.

He crossed his arms and looked up to the skies. From time to time, his thumb would rub at his chin as though he was getting ready to summon his iron jaw on short notice.

It was definitely a risk to not wear it like this. He had made an assessment of his situation and decided it wasn’t worth the potential hostility he would receive from the Holy Knights. But now he was starting to wonder if he should just say fuck it.

’Hm?’

Grey raised an eyebrow. This time, The Great Udon didn’t manifest in their city itself. Rather, he was just on the screen that appeared high above.

Looking to his side, Grey frowned when he saw that the sheen of grey and black that covered everything had frozen the likes of Silva in place. Though he could move himself, he was restrained to a very defined area.

When he tried to take a step forward, his toes hit against something sturdy but invisible. Grey didn’t test it out, but he had a feeling he wouldn’t be anywhere near breaking whatever that barrier was anytime soon.

So he obediently stood in place.

’I hope these bastards don’t screw me over.’

Grey’s thumb passed over his jaw one more time. This time, his intent pushed for his mechanical jaw to manifest, only for him to get stone walled.

His eyes narrowed. ’Fucking hell, I really should walk around with it everywhere if they can just freeze me out like this.’

Still, Grey managed to maintain his calm. He had a feeling that he knew what was about to happen. Plus, if they could just outright kill him like this, why wouldn’t they have done it before?

"The Registration is now officially closed. Those of you who have failed..." The Great Udon sighed, shaking his head. "... Your path forward will be much more difficult from here on out. But don’t lose hope! There’s always a chance regardless of your circumstances so long as you fight with your heart!"

’Is that code for them becoming slaves or something?’ Grey wondered to himself.

If registration allowed you to become a citizen, and not registering meant you lost that opportunity... well, long story short, Grey doubted that these sadistic bastards had any sort of immigration asylum seeking process.

They would probably be jailed or end up with a status lower than dirt.

"However, today isn’t a day to celebrate the weak, it is a day to raise the strong and place them on pedestals of awe and worship! Today we begin one of my favorite segments, the Recap Episode.

"I had to really push for them, friends. The Producers were on my back, thinking that it was far too early. But so many unexpected things have happened. Shocking heroes have risen up and unexpected boons have been claimed. How could I not pounce on such an opportunity?

"My blood is roaring through my veins!"

The excited stomps of The Great Udon’s audience shook the screen. Or, maybe that was some post-production magic.

Grey was fairly sure that this wasn’t live, it was pre-recorded. The jump cuts were obvious to his eye, and if there was going to be a recap, someone had to have edited at least that portion.

Soon, Grey was proven correct.

"Let us begin with my favorite highlights! I’ve picked three participants to give the Udon War Cry. These may change every week, they may not change until the very end. But these three are participants I not only believe have the strongest chance at victory in these Genesis Games, but also those whose spirits have caught my attention.

"THE FIRST!"

The Great Udon suddenly roared, his voice making Grey feel like his blood was rolling through his chest and like his brain might start to spill out of his ears.

The screen flickered and a woman appeared. She wielded not just one spear, but two of them. As though that wasn’t enough, her back was adorned with a crisscross of four blades, two hilts coming up and to the left and right, while two more hilts came out downward to the left and right.

She wore a pleated skirt of clattering metal plates, her hair a twin pair of pigtails so long they danced like an intertwining length of two rivers behind her.

The woman was as valiant as valiant could be, right down to her thighs that somehow both seemed to have the softness of the fairer sex and the heft of a pair of legs that could squat a mountain.

But other than being humanoid, there was little else about her that was truly human at all.

She must have been at least seven or eight feet tall. She had just a single bulging eye on her forehead, the slots where her eyes should have been having small divots and indents, but nothing other than smooth skin besides that.

Her lips were an unnatural shade of violet. Not the sort that came from lipstick, but a color that was well and truly her own.

She moved no less valiantly than she looked. She crushed the head of a shark humanoid with a foot, using its blood to glide around the floor as though its corpse was better used as a skateboard than buried.

In flashes, her spears arced as she smashed right through a gate, a pair of cyclones roaring out from her thrust and shattering everything in her wake.

The BOSS she faced hardly had time to look up before her spears slashed down, splitting it into three pieces.

Just like that, a creature on the same level as the Last Goblin Swordsman was killed before the Genesis System could even finish introducing it.

With a twist of her wrists, her spears spun in her palms and she threw them to the ground.

She grabbed at the shark warrior’s neck, grasping it in her palm and then crushing it. Even as the Loot Box formed in the background, she hardly gave it a glance, her jaws unhinging as she chomped down on its head, ripping its eye and a large part of its brain out in a single bite.

The images flickered and flashed.

She was suddenly locked in battle with a behemoth twice even her size. And yet, she kicked its knee so hard its bones splintered and broke free of its skin, jetting out in a blinding flash of grotesque white that was quickly drenched in crimson.

She decapitated the creature in a single blow.

The images flickered again and again, one battle after another as the Great Udon let it all speak for itself.

Grey hardly reacted to any of them. These people were strong, yes. But time would tell who was strongest...

Until the last clip.

The woman sat on top of something formed of golden plates, munching on yet another skull as blood drizzled down her chin.

But those so-called "golden plates" weren’t normal. They were the plates of an armor. A very familiar armor. One that Grey had already seen before.

An Armor worn not by someone of the Proving Class, or even the Established Class... but one worn by someone two whole tiers above at the Vector Class.

She was sitting on a Holy Knight, the city around her in complete and utter chaos.

She had completely destroyed her own Zone.

The Great Udon’s laughter filled the air.

"This is my first choice, Clarri Orne of the Orne Clan and Race!"