Grey took a deep breath, covered his face with a palm and then audibly groaned.
It wasn’t like he hadn’t thought that this might have been a possibility, but he had really focused on the hope that they could pull all of this together in the end with the least amount of resistance possible.
Thi Lan’s lip twitched. She had no idea what was going on with Grey, but was there a need to react like this?
"Why don’t you reconsider?"
Surprisingly, it wasn’t Amunet or Grey that spoke, it was actually Nebb.
Thi Lan’s expression became weirder. "Are you serious, Nebb? You’ve known him for all of two seconds, and a lot of what I know about him isn’t exactly the best."
"Mm." Amunet nodded as though in understanding.
Grey’s fingers separated so he could glare at her, but she looked away as though she hadn’t noticed.
"I just have a good feeling about him is all."
Thi Lan’s frown deepened. "What aren’t you telling me?"
"Nothing, nothing..." Nebb rolled to the back of his heels, rocking back and forth.
Nebb was clearly not the best liar.
"It doesn’t really matter if you are a good person or not," Thi Lan eventually said after realizing Nebb really didn’t want to clarify. "I have responsibilities here. People are counting on me. I can’t just leave and go off to do what you want to."
Grey still hadn’t recovered from the first blow. He looked up at the skies.
Being a leader was hard. He never really fancied himself one in the first place. Sometimes people would gravitate toward him because of his personality, but ironically enough, in this place, it had been the opposite.
His personality got him in more trouble than not these days, and that was part of the double edged sword that came with being him.
The hardest part was that Grey liked marching to the beat of his own drum. He knew that. And judging by how good Amunet had felt yelling at him a couple days ago, she knew that too.
He was so focused on what he thought was the best that he hadn’t even considered what it would mean for these people to choose to come with him in the first place.
Setting aside the trust factor, and even setting aside quote unquote "good people" like Thi Lan who seemed to want to help others, there was the matter of the Genesis Games themselves.
The zones were designed to give anyone who spawned within them opportunities. The reason Grey only faced the weakest of the aliens was because the stronger ones wouldn’t want to leave their zones and miss out on the opportunities.
Only as the Chapters concluded and the arcs progressed would there be opportunity to meld the zones further and there would be more overlap.
That was all to say that even if the next target didn’t feel a responsibility toward their zone like Thi Lan did, they would certainly feel a responsibility toward themselves.
Why would they leave and come to Grey’s zone just so that their ability to monopolize rewards would be crippled?
That was even more so for these people who were the true standouts chosen by The Great Udon.
Each one was in a position much like Grey, or Amunet had been for that matter.
In fact, wasn’t the only reason Amunet came with him because he basically kidnapped her? Otherwise, she would have gone off to do her own thing.
Mauve and Brad were already losing all of their chances to improve to Grey in the first place, so why wouldn’t they choose to follow him in the end?
But even then, there would always be more stubborn ones like Stella who refused and chose to stay behind anyway in hopes of fighting for their own little corner of the world themselves.
A heavy silence was in the forest as though everyone was waiting for Grey to organize his thoughts. Nebb seemed to have the instinct to want to try and convince Thi Lan to reconsider, but he seemed to have become a bit more quiet as well.
This was Nebb’s home as well. He didn’t really want to abandon it either.
Grey took a deep breath and then lowered his hand. Then he spoke slowly, making sure to look Thi Lan in the eye.
"If you stay here, you will die. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. It will happen."
Thi Lan’s expression became colder instantly. "That is not something you can decide."
"No. It’s not something that I can decide. It’s something that they will decide for you.
"I can’t imagine that someone like you is fighting alongside NPCs because you have no other choices. You’re doing so because everyone else in your Zone is so weak that Nebb and these two are probably your best options.
"That’s not to say that they are weak. In fact, this little fucker is speedy as fuck."
"Hehe." Nebb giggled and then quickly covered his mouth as though he realized now was not the time for joking.
"But it is to say that I see you are tired, I can see that your team is small, I can see that as much work as you’ve probably done to help them enhance their strength, I probably helped Nebb just now in a fraction of a second more than you’ve been able to help him in the last several weeks.
"Part of that is luck on my part, sure. But the main point isn’t about how much better I am, the main point is that alone your ending will be the same as every other decent warrior of a Cracked World.
"Once they finish reaping all the rewards from arc one, they’ll spread out and destroy us all.
"Those aliens I killed are the bottom of the barrel. They’re so weak they didn’t even have a Class. It would be irresponsible of me to let you stay here."
"What are you trying to say? You want to kidnap me?"
A rippling wind sent the tatters of Thi Lan’s dress into a dancing spiral, revealing her dainty feet pressed firmly against the soiled grounds.
Grey extended a hand and a blood blade appeared, his white hair gaining a radiant light.
"That’s right." He said coldly, the last bits of amusement in his gaze vanishing.