Second Genesis

To Grey’s surprise, he didn’t have to communicate with the system at all. For once, the item formed all on its own and landed right in his palm. He hardly noticed that he had been spawned into a familiar city square.

This time, however, Grey was completely alone. There was no one else around at all.

—

Item: Edict of Zone 234

Description: A command token of the City Lord, given to a Player with great potential. Use this item and break any single rule of the city without consequence.

Uses: 1

—

Though the description called it a token, it was a golden scroll that landed in Grey’s hand. Somehow, it felt heavier than it should have.

Grey stared at it for a long while before he grinned. He knew exactly what to use this on.

Without the slightest bit of hesitation, he raised the edict up and allowed it to unfurl.

"I would like to be registered."

A glow descended from above. A complex seal that seemed to take the form of a chimera of various creatures fused into one appeared. It descended and stamped down.

Slowly, the light vanished, as did the scroll. The latter crumbled into motes of light until nothing was left at all.

...

"What a fucking idiot."

Caldrin had been watching Grey with great interest. This candidate was fast, suspiciously so. He also had skill that was also quite odd for a world that had been broken out of its embryo so early.

Of course, there were plenty of skilled warriors of Earth, but Grey seemed to have an extra something that could only come from Mental Enhancements.

Compared to Body Abilities, or even Mental Reinforcements and Resistances, Mental Enhancements were many times more difficult to receive. It should be another several days before the very best of Earth started to receive some of them.

Unfortunately, only an Executive Producer could pull up a player’s status page. Associate Producer Gard could on special occasion, but it would require using some tokens that would be far more valuable in their back pockets for the time being.

However, after seeing Grey use such a valuable item on registering, Caldrin was glad he hadn’t bothered to send an envelope yet. Their number one player was a fool.

He could have used that item on literally anything else. Someone smart would have waited for just the right opportunity. The right timing could have easily made you the king of the zone.

’Hm, maybe there’s some potential in using this in the blooper reels. I’ll send something over to Gard. He’s an idiot, and he’s strong. He could be a good heel for this season. Not much interesting has happened in this zone yet...’

Caldrin typed out some stuff and sent it in as a pale yellow envelope. Though, he was so distracted he didn’t notice just yet that Grey had immediately started to run.

...

Grey didn’t know that he had gotten some attention again. But right now, he couldn’t be worried about it.

He was recalling the map he had seen in the tutorial and racing as fast as he could toward one of the technician profession hubs.

It would have taken forever to go around the city on his own. Luckily, he had had the forethought to remember this ahead of time.

About two minutes later, he slid to a stop in front of a small shop.

It was quite comical, actually. It was slid in between two large brick-facade homes, but the shop itself was very small and had gears, metals, and various parts hanging from the outside.

"Hello?" Grey pushed aside the heavy velvet curtains that were probably supposed to act as a door. The smell of heavy oils and burning metal hit his nose, but it was the sparks that flew and the darkness that overwhelmed his senses more.

He squinted, trying to see up ahead.

"Who’s there?"

The sound of clanging and then someone falling over echoed before the dark shop started blasting out hazard lights. It felt to Grey like he was staring into the headlights of an idiot with their high beams on.

Grey reacted like a cat with his tail stepped on, immediately retreating out of the shop. Maybe he had been through too many deaths, but he’d rather get out of the way now and ask questions later.

He held onto Ray’s long sword tightly, his heart beating out of his chest. But slowly, the lights faded from the shop and the head of a small gnome peeked out of the curtain.

The gnome had rough grey skin and was barely a meter and a half tall, if that. He had rings for both his large nostrils and a set of three earrings that hung from both of his long, sharp ears. However, his most standout feature was the fact his jaw was formed of mechanical parts, the gears grinding and sparking as it unhinged.

"You. What do you want?"

Grey recovered quickly. "I want to learn from you. I want to become a technician."

"Sorry, kid. You have to be registered first—." The gnome stopped speaking and then looked Grey up and down. "—odd... that’s not supposed to happen so fast."

Grey’s eyes lit up. This was great.

However, just as he was about to take a step forward, the gnome spoke again.

"Where is your Nexis Suit? You’ll need it to trigger the quest. If you succeed, you can join my tutelage. If not, you’ll have to find someone else. You only receive two chances to try, so make sure that you are ready."

Grey’s heart sank to rock bottom, but he grit his teeth and ran his hand through his hair one last time.

"I’m ready."

The gnome frowned, looking at Grey’s hand, then toward the Nexis Suit that was bunched up in his free hand.

"I wouldn’t advise you do that. You’ll die before the process is over. That gel you’re using isn’t designed to be used like that. Its resistance is too high. Its chemical structure won’t allow pulses to pass properly, so you’ll cook yourself from the inside out."

Grey grit his teeth, but in the end he took a sharp breath and exhaled. There were still two other shops. Maybe their process was different. He would try them first.

He didn’t bother to ask about the "right" gel to use. Even if he managed to learn about it–something he doubted the gnome would be allowed to tell him given the fact he wasn’t an official student under its tutelage–he had nothing to trade for it because he couldn’t accept any rewards without a Nexis Suit.

And even then, the "right" gel would also come with side effects.

Without a word, Grey turned and bolted away. He wanted to get this figured out before too many people made it through the tutorial. There were too many variables when others were involved.

On his way, he’d have to cross back over the city square, but that was fine. It would also give him a good chance to see if there were any new people coming in and how fast they were coming. Then he could know about how long he’d have before Great Udon potentially came by again.

What Grey didn’t expect was to hear the sound of a whistling arrow just as he was about to cross over the city square again. He didn’t have time to stop and he was already rounding a corner.

But the arrow wasn’t for him.

Grey came to a stop, half speechless, half shocked. What shitty luck did a person have to have to end up like this every time?

May fell slowly as the light faded from her eyes, the shock still very much painted on her face.

Fitz made a move toward her body, but suddenly froze and whipped his gaze over toward Grey.

’Well shit,’ Grey thought to himself.

Fitz stopped and faced him, drawing another arrow. Clearly, he didn’t want anyone to know he was responsible for this.