Second Genesis

Grey didn’t hold back his laughter. He had forgotten he did that, true—very true.

"I haven’t seen him, no. If I had, I’d probably be dead right about now." Grey said with a cheeky grin.

Brad nodded. "That’s alright," he was about to turn away when he remembered something. He pulled an item out of his breast pocket and then slid it over to Grey. It looked like folded bits of worn paper.

Grey’s lip twitched, though it was probably hard to see in all the fat rolls.

When Brad said he would share his map, he had expected a cyber link up sort of situation. He didn’t think the bastard meant an actual map.

This time, though, Grey was being a bit unfair to Brad. The only reason Grey had a digital map was because it had awakened due to a particularly tough Quest—a Rare grade one.

While Stella, Brad, and Mauve had all received a Rare Quest as well, it wasn’t a find and locate one like Grey’s had been, so they weren’t lucky enough to have one of their own.

And even if they did... sharing a digital map like that was a lot different than a physical one. You could pick and choose what to put on a physical map, but a digital one—unless your control was very good—would reveal everything and expose everywhere you had ever been.

That wasn’t something you could give a stranger.

"The hubs I talked about are on there." Brad said with what he probably thought was a charming smile. But Grey really just wanted to punch him in the face.

He held back, though. If his strength was anything like Joaquin’s, then he’d probably blow a hole through the bastard—not that the Safe Room would allow it anyway.

"You said our zone is a shitshow? Why’s that? Wouldn’t the others be the same?" Grey asked.

"Well, sort of," Brad said, "but we’re particularly bad. Some of the zones have a lot more organized teamwork. Their First Rankers took actual responsibility and gathered everyone under an umbrella to work toward a common goal.

"But our First Ranker is a homicidal maniac who killed his own team. Our Second Ranker lost his team to the First Ranker and ended up retreating into the Church to become a Priest and we haven’t seen him since. The other Zones don’t have a lot of information about the Church, so it’s hard to tell if he’ll ever come out. He might be helpful later on especially since he seemed like he wanted to be more involved, but I don’t blame him for being in hiding until he’s strong enough to handle the First Ranker.

"Our Fourth Ranker’s team is headless now—it’s speculated that he already died. Otherwise, he’s just up and fucked off too. The chaos in our Zone is so great and no one’s strong enough to forcefully pull on all the reins, so we’re kind of just stuck in limbo."

Grey raised an eyebrow. When Brad put it like that, it was no wonder everyone hated his guts. If he realized that the Fourth Ranker’s disappearance was also because he killed him for trying to steal his rewards, Grey might have even apologized.

He really had screwed everyone over.

"What about the Third Rankers?" Grey asked.

Brad revealed a sheepish grin that was half proud, half embarrassed.

"Ah, is that all of you?" Grey legitimately hadn’t known. It wasn’t like it made much of a difference to him.

Brad rubbed the back of his head and Grey chuckled.

So if he counted the ways, he had killed his own team, he had killed Joaquin’s team and Joaquin, and he was probably the biggest obstacle in the path of Stella’s team right now. Because of him alone, the progress that the Third Rankers had made was minimal.

He had stolen their quest, and had actually killed them in several loops now. Now they were probably trying to find a chance to kill him, and from their perspective, it actually made some sense.

"We want to do better, but so long as our First Ranker is around messing everything up, we’re too limited in what we can do," Brad sighed, becoming serious. "We should be a lot stronger than we are now, but because he keeps interfering in our quests, we’re weaker than a lot of the Tenth or worst Rankers of other Zones.

"If not for finding the hubs and getting a few chances to cross over, we would be even worse off than now."

Grey shook his head and sighed, but Brad took it as him sympathizing and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I’m sure we can all make it out of this if we work together, though. Oh right, if you cross over, be sure to never reveal the actual location of our city. The surrounding hour or so from the city is blacked out on our map for that reason."

Grey’s gaze flickered, but he nodded. His mouth opened but then he hesitated, weighing his own pride and his own annoyance.

"If you have a question, you’re free to ask, I won’t ask you for an arm and a leg," Brad said with a laugh.

"Have you ever, I dunno... tried speaking to this First Ranker like a normal person?"

Brad blinked, not expecting this question. Then he frowned.

He looked back toward Stella and Mauve who were only silently sipping at drinks and listening in from afar.

Brad opened his own mouth to reply. He had a strong objection on the tip of his tongue, but then his frown deepened.

He wanted to say what was there to talk about with a madman who had killed off his own team. But then he recalled that their very first interaction with Grey was an ambush.

From that point on, Grey would have had no reason to speak to him, and by this point, he might never want to speak to them normally again.

Brad didn’t have an answer and Grey just went back to eating, the conversation petering out.