Second Genesis

Grey pushed the existence of Frilly Pair out of his mind and stuffed the item into his back pocket. It was too useful to get rid of, but also too ridiculous to actually wear.

He didn’t need to read anyone’s mind right now. Plus, he was coming up on his own series of cleared ruins. Hopefully, those bastard Producers had hidden them well enough that no one had taken what was his.

’Finally here.’

Grey pushed through one final line of trees, once again ignoring the sea of panty emojis he was receiving. They were too cheap to send messages, but they were definitely goading him into wearing it.

’Rich pricks,’ Grey thought with a chuckle.

He wasn’t actually all that mad. In fact, if he had to, he’d wear the panties. He just had no need for them right now.

With a quick glance around, Grey felt that the only spot the treasure could be was the pillar once more, so he started pulling himself up.

If he remembered correctly, this spot was where the scythed-up octopus had been. He had only fought one other monster with "Elite" tagged on the end of it, so he actually wasn’t expecting much.

Pulling himself up the rest of the way, Grey found a black box waiting for him and grinned.

’They really did leave my treasures behind.’

Grey picked up the box.

—

[You have defeated the Octopus Wraith]

[+4 Free Stat Points Awarded]

—

Grey allocated his points to SPD and DEX evenly again, but when he opened up the black box, there was nothing but a puff of smoke. The box vanished, and Grey swatted a hand at the smoke, coughing.

"Ugh... that’s foul... Was that supposed to be a reward?"

—

[You have been Cursed]

—

[Plague of the Savages Status Effect is currently impacting you]

—

[Plague of the Savages has been greatly reduced in efficacy]

—

[Pending Quest Available]

—

Grey frowned as splotches appeared in his vision. He almost thought he had been hit by that stupid ink thing in Mario Kart.

’Just my luck.’

But he was almost indifferent to it. It was like he had just been waiting for something like this to happen.

—

Operation: Howl of the Savages

Quest Rank: Legendary

Mission Type: Choice

Objective: Uncover the secrets that lie in the Fog of Chaos.

Description: You have been tied to the Lineages of not just one, but two of the Savage Races of the Genesis World. The Spirit of Genesis has taken notice of you and replaced one of your rewards. The Savages must not be allowed to rise again, and you will pay for the sins of treasures you have taken but not understood.

Reward: ???

Note: For the duration of this Quest, the selected chosen will suffer ailments of the Plague of Savages, one that takes away one sense until they are all gone.

Time Remaining to next Ailment: 2:23:59:51

—

Grey was speechless for a moment.

’Does this mean the ailment I’m suffering right now is blindness? But I’m not blind right now. Is it gradual?’

Grey was a bit taken aback.

Also, a Legendary Ranked Quest? That was beyond Rare and Epic. Should something like this appear so early on?

’Oh fuck me.’

Grey rubbed his temples and closed his eyes. He sighed and then exhaled.

When he opened his eyes, though, the splotching was gone.

’Huh? What just...’

A ping caught Grey’s attention.

—

[Muskrat: "We’re your paying viewers, you know! If you get a Quest, you need to show us!"]

—

Grey tuned into the flood of emojis he was receiving, a ton of them a series of angry emotes that flashed.

One of them went off with a bang that sent a slight pulse of electricity through his body.

"What the hell? Fuck off." Grey frowned, trying to find the user who did that through the flood of notifications. But it had already disappeared in the stream.

These idiots could actually shock him mid-battle? Who designed these mechanisms?

It wasn’t like it was painful or anything, but it was definitely annoying. Even if it was an expensive thing to do, he didn’t like the idea of—.

Another shock ran through him, then another.

Grey stood on the pillar, his eyes filled with rage. It was just an annoying little prodding, but it felt like they were truly treating his life like it was just some sort of game.

Grey was so consumed by this that he didn’t even notice that his Energy Reserve had ticked down to near zero.

—

[Name: Grey Temolt]

[Frame: Prometheus]

[Pending Quests: 1]

Stamina: 9/10

Sync Rate: 0.01%

Energy Reserve: 0.3/3.7

STR: 12 SPD: 17

DEX: 17 INT: 11

END: 21 PER: 13

Harmonic Stats: N/A

Free Stat Points: 0

Abilities:

Body

Resistances: N/A

Combat: N/A

Enhancements: Lv1 Metal Body; Lv1 Metal Digestion; Lv1 Metal Fusion

Mind

Resistances: Lv1 Mental Fortitude

Combat: N/A

Enhancements: Lv5 Goblin Warlord Spirit; Lv1 Metal Affinity

—

It seemed his ease in shrugging off the Plague of Savages wasn’t so coincidental.

**

Caldrin couldn’t remember the last time he slept.

For an entity at his level, that shouldn’t have been such a big deal. But his Neural Frame had been working on overdrive since he noticed the anomaly that was Grey.

The situation with the Great Udon couldn’t have gone worse. It raised Grey’s popularity to an unprecedented level and even got him his first potential sponsors.

This limited how much Caldrin could directly mess with Grey greatly, and it also brought them further away from the hope of killing him before anyone found out.

Luckily, Grey hadn’t just randomly started using the treasures he got from Sabrina and the others. But it was only a matter of time.

The more treasures Grey got, the closer they were to his Dual Neural Frame being exposed.

Then they would truly be finished.

It was then a blaring alarm went off through their building.

Associate Producer Gard violently stood to his feet, his stoic appearance becoming fiercer for a moment.

That alarm only appeared for one reason.

The Legendary Grade had been breached.

Caldrin grit what teeth he had left, a bad feeling welling up in his chest.

There was no time left. He had to use the cards he had on Gard now.

There was no hiding Grey anymore.