The encampment was in shambles. From the residual impact of Grey’s battle alone, several had died. There was simply no stopping it.
It was already difficult to simply exist in the Fog of Chaos that was here. Honestly speaking, a large part of the reason why they even camped out here in the first place was as a show of strength, an attempt at proving themselves before the ultimate leader was chosen.
In actual function, they were all weaker and constantly leaking stamina every moment they spent here.
But now they were all approaching him. Why? Grey had no idea.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. He did have some idea. He just wasn’t very interested in it.
That, however, didn’t stop his eyes from lighting up when he saw Mauve again. On the one hand, he was happy she survived. On the other, seeing such a hottie really put a smile on his face.
Had he been ignoring her the last few loops? Sure. But a man had to have priorities, no? Didn’t women love a man with purpose, anyway?
"Well aren’t you looking gorgeous."
Mauve froze, and then her lip twitched. She was still reconciling that Grey was a minor and didn’t even know how to navigate that, but that wasn’t the reason for her awkward reaction.
There was a real, genuine fear in her chest.
Before, she had already known that Grey was strong, but she hadn’t been there to witness his battle with Terran. There was a real difference between someone who still seemed to be somewhat within human limits, and then someone who could shoot into the skies like some sort of plane and come down crashing hundreds of feet to just a few broken bones.
Grey had been moving so fast during that battle she literally couldn’t track him with her eyes.
At this point, everyone here knew how absolutely worthless their tournament was. What Mauve hadn’t expected was for them to suddenly follow her and Brad after she had gathered up her courage to approach him.
What she expected even less, for some reason, was for Grey to still be the very same Grey. He looked at her with bright eyes and an almost childish fascination with her beauty.
Mauve really had no idea what he was looking at. Her hair was a mess, there was simply no way she could get access to any makeup around here, and her face was probably covered in grime and soot from all the battle.
Part of her almost felt like Grey was pulling her leg.
Mauve cleared her throat. "Are you alright?" she asked with a hint of hesitation in her tone.
"Me?" Grey laughed and patted his chest. "I’m solid as a rock. In fact, I could fight three more of those."
Grey could definitely not fight three more of those. Right about now, his stamina was blinking red, but he’d be damned if he told Mauve that. Where would all his cool points go?
"That good..." Mauve said softly. After a moment, she took a breath and seemed to regain her composure. Her expression settled down, she clasped her hands before her hips, and she looked up at Grey with a calm gaze. "Do you know why they came?"
Grey raised an internal eyebrow, looking from Mauve, then to Brad, and then beyond to the groups from other nearby Zones who had stopped a close enough distance away to hear what was going on, but not close enough to show disrespect.
Among that group, Amunet’s was the furthest away. In fact, Grey was pretty sure that at their distance, they couldn’t hear a thing. But, probably for good reason, they didn’t dare to approach any closer.
What was interesting was that Alvin’s group was quite on the closer side of things as well. Though there was no Alvin to speak of and his team had most definitely seen Grey slaughter him in front of everyone in this loop.
The reason he was noting all of this now was because he knew Mauve well enough to understand she had a sharp political mind herself. She understood sacrifice, timing, and grasping opportunities. There was definitely a reason she wanted to speak of all of this out in the open, and it didn’t take a genius to figure it out.
"They all came for Joaquin." Grey finally said.
Mauve’s eyes flickered with something. It was well concealed, but Grey was almost sure that it was... delight. Almost like she was just that happy to have guessed correctly.
"The recap episode." Mauve said as though she was just now realizing.
"The recap episode?" Grey played along, chuckling on the inside. Did he care about any of these people or leading them? Absolutely not. But what could he say? Making a beauty happy was a guilty pleasure of his.
"They mentioned our Zone number in the recap episode, Zone 234. I don’t think that was a coincidence or an accident. I have it on good authority that Zone numbers are heavily protected. They act almost like coordinates.
"The Genesis Games takes place on an impossibly large scale, and often that scale acts as protection until you start getting into deeper Chapters and arcs."
"So you mean that now that they know our Zone number they’ll keep coming?"
"I don’t know. But if three showed up today, and there are probably billions if not more participants in the Genesis Games, there’ll almost certainly be more soon. Even if it’s not today, or even tomorrow, one day we’ll have to fight these aliens.
"And if they start this powerful, they’ll only get stronger and stronger."
"Well ain’t that bout a bitch." Grey clicked his tongue as though he hadn’t already realized any of this.
Brad just scratched his head to the side, falling for their little scheme about as well as everyone else. Honestly, Grey didn’t even really note that Stella wasn’t there. Well, she was, but she was standing in a kind of no man’s land a few paces away as though she was both with and not with their group.
Grey yawned and stretched his back out. "Welp, sucks to suck," he said, looking out to all the spectators, "I honestly don’t think anyone here is worth the time or effort."