Second Genesis

Edmun’s head turned so slowly one would have thought he was doing the worst rendition of a horror movie flick he could, the low budget kind that wasn’t sure if it wanted to be satire or go all in.

"What did you just say?"

Grey grinned.

"Show me. Show me quickly."

"Good god, old man. You sound like a hormonal teenager."

"Shut up. Hurry it up."

Grey chuckled and activated his Paladin Frame. He was almost instantly hit by a slap of pain that made his head swim.

The pain oddly disappeared after a moment as though his body had been smoothing out a kink. But when he looked at his Stamina bar, he found that it was decreasing much faster than it should.

It hadn’t even recovered to half despite his sleep, but now Grey was watching it tick down one a second. He had no choice but to hurriedly cut it off.

’What the hell is wrong with me?’

That was when Grey noticed notifications he had completely ignored. He had grown used to doing that in battle. Getting inundated with things that blocked your sight when there were murderous psychopaths on your tail wasn’t exactly conducive to survival.

Well, he had also been pissed off, and the last thing he wanted to see was someone in his chat cracking a joke or a stupid troll notification from the Genesis Games.

Now that Grey thought about it, there was a serious tone problem in his notifications sometimes.

Sometimes they’d have ridiculous descriptions like his Chad Suit, or the Frilly Pair. But then sometimes they would be super serious. It was like the system couldn’t decide what it wanted to be.

—

[Your Stamina has hit zero]

—

[Your Stamina is overdrawn]

—

[You have used astonishing mental will and anguish to persist]

—

[Your body has begun to eat into your Life Force]

—

[Status Effect {Soul Burn} is currently afflicting you]

—

’Soul Burn... well, fuck me. Whatever the fuck that means. Can Prometheus dispel it?’

Grey subconsciously tried and his mechanical jaw appeared. The Energy Reserves almost instantly hit zero, and yet little changed.

Grey had almost too many Cyber Cores, so he filled the mechanical jaw right back up and then tried again, and then again, and then once more.

But the changes were minimal. It almost felt like he was chipping away at a mountain with a screwdriver. Even if he continued, nothing would happen.

That was when the problem came to him.

’I see...’

When Grey was locked in battle with Terran, he had only managed to win because he tested Terran’s Epic Set Armor enough until he found the weaknesses. Then he used Prometheus to help him pierce through them. That was the only reason he was able to take the latter’s helm off.

The idea that Grey could find weaknesses in an Epic item, let alone a Vector Class Epic item, and even more unreasonably a Vector Class Epic item set, was ridiculous.

But as far as Grey was concerned, a Vector Class Epic Set was actually less complicated than a Proving Class Prosthetic Mech.

Treasures were, in general, less complicated than just normal mechs. The gap between a treasure and a Prosthetic Mech was impossible to fathom.

Finding the weaknesses in the set was only a matter of time for Grey, but it was during that process that he understood something.

He found weaknesses he could have exploited instantly had he been in the Vector Class himself. But in order to find weaknesses he could exploit easily in the Established Class, he had to be more intentional.

At first, Grey hadn’t understood until it clicked.

Energy Grades.

The gap between Proving Class Energy and Vector Class Energy was like comparing crude, unrefined oil to nuclear power. Even if there were weaknesses, the high quality energy could easily cover for them.

Right now, Grey was attempting to use a mech forged for someone of the Proving Class to clear a status effect he had triggered while using an Established Class Frame.

It was peak stupidity. There was no way that would work.

’No, it might have worked if the Sync Rate was higher. The power Prometheus showed when it had a decent Sync Rate with the old bitch’s eye prosthetic was unlike anything I’ve seen it do before or since.

’So I either need to give Prometheus a higher sync or a better vessel to clear this status effect...’

Grey had had the Mechanical Jaw Lineage Tome with him for a while now, but he hadn’t had the chance to actually go beyond the first page. He was thrust from one dangerous situation to the next, and now Edmun was telling him he had three days to hurry this along or everyone was cooked.

"... This is great, this is great, this is fucking, fucking, fucking great—"

’The old man really needs to work on his cussing. This is just sad.’

"—now we’re going to fill the next three months with wall-to-wall training. There’s no way they can touch you..."

Grey tuned the old knight out again. He had been going like this for a while.

Three months? He didn’t have that kind of time. There was no way the Producers would let him rest and grow for that long, not after what he had accomplished in just a few days.

And now, news of his multi-Frame status was becoming more common. If that was really why they were targeting him, there was trouble afoot now more than ever.

"Hey, old man. What the hell is Soul Burn?"

Edmun froze again. Watching his excitement drain away like a balloon wheezing through the air was truly a sight to behold. All the color drained from his face.

This was already the second time in just the last 10 minutes that he had gone from the peak of excitement to rock bottom in an instant.

"Please don’t tell me..."

Grey blinked innocently with a smile on his face.

"It’s over... It’s over for all of us... We’re finished..."

"... You know, you should get those mood swings checked out. You might be pregnant."