Second Genesis

Grey looked around and it didn’t seem like anyone was coming anytime soon. He wasn’t sure if that was because the house was so large that the commotion didn’t register, or if it was something else.

He walked to Silva’s body first, turning it over as he looked for a few things.

’Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.’ he pulled Silva’s long suit jacket up and eventually found a ring of keys hooked to the man’s body. ’Jackpot.’

Grey took it and put it away into his inventory. Since his Skrill Mask was out, he had the space.

Then he moved to Stella’s body and began to turn it over as well. He was looking for something very specific, and yet not specific at all.

He wasn’t sure if he could read notifications Stella had gotten while she was alive right now. But he needed an inkling of something. Maybe a special item with a description he could work with, or anything tangible for that matter. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Grey didn’t care about propriety anymore, he was more focused on survival. If they tried to make him seem like a pervert, then so be it.

He checked all the pins and bobs on Stella’s body. She had turned a pen into a bow, so maybe there was something else.

Grey actually wasn’t interested in her treasures, he was interested in their descriptions. He managed to find a dagger that was expertly hidden in her other boot. But even after stripping her down to her Nexis Suit, there was nothing else.

’The Nexis Suit is too skin tight to hide anything.’

Grey shook his head. Even something like a Cyber Warp would be attached onto the outside of the suit as per his understanding.

Since there was nothing there wasn’t a point in pulling her out of her Nexis Suit.

Grey moved on to Mauve and then Brad, but he didn’t find anything but hidden weapons on them as well. As far as Grey was concerned, they weren’t just poor, they were useless.

’Nothing. That probably means whatever they used to gain Baron Giyoto’s favor was already handed over to him.’

Grey had already known that this possibility was high, but he didn’t want to leave any stone unturned.

’Now where the hell do I go? These keys better not just be for opening bathrooms and urinals or I’m making his skull a piss jar.’

The first place Grey went to was Giyoto’s office. However, he found that the french doors were locked.

This was actually a good sign in Grey’s estimation.

He started using the keys one after another until one finally managed to both slip in and unlock the doors.

Grey slipped in, closing the french doors behind him. The glass that covered them was opaque, so it would help. Hopefully since no one had come running after all the commotion, there wouldn’t be anyone coming. Or at least they were so weak that they’d be scared and hiding.

Regardless, having a little caution wouldn’t hurt.

He locked the doors, hoping that they were sturdy enough to not actually break on a couple of impacts.

Grey started going through the office, moving drawers and opening cabinets. There were quite a few and they were all filled with paper work. Everything ranging from lease agreements to what looked like government contracts for materials.

One would think a Baron stuck in a city wouldn’t have all that much to manage, but it seemed like while in the societies Grey was used to a Baron would manage actual land and territory, here they kind of did the same, but only insofar as leasing land and signing agreements.

They were almost like temporary owners of pieces of the city, and they did what they saw fit, but only within the laws and structure of the city itself.

Grey didn’t have time to go through everything in detail, but until Grey got his hands on them, Giyoto was actually quite organized. Everything in his territory was probably in great, working order.

Also, Grey could see that he had a lot of what seemed to be land rented to the "less fortunate", people with lesser or only semi-protected status within the city. They weren’t part of the Savage Races like Globb had been, but given their status, they might as well have been.

’Temporary status... these are Savage stamps? Lesser beings...’

There seemed to be a few rankings that Grey couldn’t be bothered to parse apart right now. All that mattered, though, was that there was nothing of great importance here, nothing that Grey could take advantage of anyway.

’Fuck, I haven’t read this much since Ms. Hallow’s class. Fuck that woman.’

Grey tossed another pile of papers away.

’Hm?’

As his hand was scraping across the bottom of a drawer, he felt something.

’False bottom?’

Grey yanked the drawer all the way out, only to frown. There was nothing here.

He punched a hole through it.

Still nothing.

What was it he had felt just now?

’Weird. Did I imagine that? No, there was definitely a tactile feedback of some sort.’

But there was nothing here. He had literally punched through the thing, and even in the shards left behind, there was nothing else.

Grey began going through the last of the drawers, and maybe to test something, he subconsciously moved his palm across the bottom of one of them to see, but nothing happened.

He shook his head, thinking that he had really made something up in his mind.

But then, as he went through the last of the shelves, he felt it again.

Grey frowned. He was about to pull the entire drawer out again, but then he thought better of it. This time, he only pulled the drawer out enough that it was still connected to the desk, but just about to fall out. Then he removed all of the papers and ran his hand through it again.

’Yes. It’s still there. That feeling. Shit. Did I ruin it?’

Grey looked at the other drawer and pushed it back in. He traced his hands around the hole he had punched.

At first, he didn’t feel anything, but then came a slight pulsing wave.

’It’s there.’

Grey nodded to himself. It seemed that he had been correct. There was some sort of circuitry here that was similar to a Nexis Suit. But it only worked when connected to the desk itself. And now he had punched a hole through that circuitry thinking it was a false bottom.

’Fuck.’

Grey clenched his jaw.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath.

He didn’t believe that he had screwed up this bad. If he could make a Nexis Suit that wasn’t even his own work, he didn’t believe he couldn’t make this thing work even with a hole through it.

’Come on, Grey. Focus up.’

He closed his eyes once again, feeling a flow of connection run between himself and then the circuitry.

That was when he realized... this thing wasn’t nearly as complicated as a Prosthetic Mech. In fact, it was all too easy.

Not only was it easy, but he was pretty sure he could guess what the pattern of the circuitry he had just hole-punched out. And if he did that...

A click rang through the room.