Second Genesis

"FUCK!"

Grey slammed a fist against the cave wall, gritting his teeth hard. He couldn’t believe that he had died in such a stupid way, and this time he had no one to blame but himself.

In his defense, he hadn’t been aware of his surroundings at all. It had felt like his body was transported to a completely new place, so he hadn’t realized that he was still standing right where he had picked up the ring from. By the time he noticed, he already had an arrow in his throat.

But maybe what triggered him more than his own stupidity was that even though this ring had followed him back this time, he still hadn’t been able to pick out a weapon. His hand phased right through it like it did every time.

The dreams he had of this ring standing in for the Nexis Suit had been dashed.

Grey took a breath and forced himself to calm down.

—

[Loops Remaining: 0]

—

The words flashed before him and he knew for a fact he hadn’t dreamt it up.

’The punishment is flame extinguishment... is it referring to Prometheus?’

The fact this item was mentioning loops at all made Grey realize that the reason for his revivals was probably related to it. In that case, if it was saying he had zero loops left, then that meant he couldn’t die again no matter what. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Grey had a feeling that it was more complicated than that, but unless he got the Complete Introduction Phase as a reward and this damn thing gave him the information he needed, all he could do was guess.

’Safe Zone Tutorial. I need it.’

Pivoting on his foot, Grey dashed away.

...

Less than a minute later, Grey was bending over Ray’s corpse and pulling his body out of his Nexis Suit. Then, he turned and rushed away to the safe room, conveniently taking along the latter’s longsword.

When he made it to the safe room door, he ran a hand through his hair to slather some gel on it and grit his teeth.

’I hate all you sons of bitches,’ Grey cursed in his mind before quickly sliding the sleeve of the Nexis Suit over his gel-covered hand.

At first the jolt was subtle, but then it quickly began to burn.

As fast as he could, Grey pressed a palm to the door.

"OPEN, DAMMIT!"

There was a soft click and Grey was forcefully teleported in. He stumbled, but just barely managed to catch himself.

Even so, the first thing he did wasn’t look around. He hurriedly ripped the Nexis Suit off of him, grinding his teeth in pain. But an entire arm of his looked as though his flesh was burning in patterns of bolts of lightning.

One part of Grey thought that this would be a really cool tattoo back on Earth. Another part wanted to slice his arm off at the shoulder to escape the pain.

Grey took deep, whistling breaths trying to soothe the pain, and only then did he finally manage to look up and find the face of a bastard he wanted to pound in more than anything else right now.

Well, maybe that sanctimonious holy-knight-esque bastard was still number one, but only this guy was in close proximity right now.

Fitz.

The safe room looked almost like a bar would, except rather than having moody lights and warm wood undertones, everything was flashing in stainless steel. It was like a bar-met-hospital sort of ambience that made Grey feel a bit weird.

At the bar itself, Fitz sat on one of the stainless steel stools, and across from him was a... thing Grey could only describe as a giant frog with a double chin for its double chin.

The giant frog stood like a human. In fact, other than being quite a bit fatter than any human could manage, it did mostly fit the bill of their race. The only real difference was the fact its head and neck were swallowed up by frog-like features.

Fitz was looking over at Grey and was placed on his immediate guard. But he still tried to smile and greet Grey, though Grey was looking at the barkeep frog.

"Hey, you. Are you the information wizard around here?"

The barkeep blinked, its eyes alternating between horizontal and vertical eyelids. It had been about to welcome Grey, but it didn’t expect something like this. Usually it had to spend some time settling in the people who came here and calming them down.

He was one part "information wizard" and another part therapist, apparently.

"Ah, yes," the barkeep croaked. "I am Barkeep Ji, your guide for the Tutorial Zone 1132-234. Pleasure to be at your service."

"There’s a reward for how fast you can clear this Tutorial Zone, right? Like a game?"

"Ah... yes, this is correct," the barkeep croaked. He was a bit confused about how Grey knew this, but it wasn’t that large of a leap to make if someone realized that they were trapped in such a game-like world.

"Alright, then I need some speed and quickness from you."

There was a flash and a petite young woman appeared by Grey’s side.

May.

"Um, young sir, this is not how this works. When the Tutorial is active, all timers are frozen. There is no need to rush or worry."

Grey raised an eyebrow. Really? Then why is it that these two always disappeared for so long? Unless it was the case that they stayed for a period of time even after the tutorial?

Well, they had looked like they came out as a team, so maybe they had taken their time to flesh out some rules about their cooperation. That would make sense.

"Alright, then before any of that, do you have replacement gear for me? One that fits, I mean."

"Apologies, young sir. Replacement Nexis Suits must be bought, and they cost a pretty penny. It is unlikely you would be able to afford such a thing for a long while."

"FUCK!"

Grey realized he hated everything about this world.