Grey walked out of the city, the cascade of emojis falling like rain out of the corner of his eye quickly getting annoying. He waved them away and they minimized, then he focused himself.
What Grey didn’t realize was that minimizing things like that shouldn’t have been so easy. The people sending in emojis now had paid very good money to interact with the participants. Even if it put said participants at risk of being distracted, the Producers would make certain that that interaction remained pure.
Unfortunately for them, Grey’s interaction with the Genesis System was no longer built on their Nexis Suits, but instead the pinky ring on his finger. The only reason he kept May’s Nexis Suit at all was because it was useful in battle to have such a sturdy, rope-like item on his person. And he didn’t want his enemies to know what he had.
If the Producers really were targeting him like Muskrat seemed to have implied, then it was probably best they still think he was at a great disadvantage.
Grey didn’t hesitate on his route. He had his map, and he had already traveled this route not just once, but twice now.
The first ruin he cleared was the Skrill Ruin, and he had gotten the Skrill Mask from it. So there shouldn’t be another treasure there, from his understanding.
If the items were being purposely hidden, then it would only start from the second one onward.
Grey made it to the Skrill Ruin quite quickly before slowing down.
’That’s weird. I could have sworn there was that...’
Grey reacted on instinct, shooting backward first as an arrow passed through right where he had been standing. It was like every inch of his body had stood at attention. Before he could even consciously make a decision to act, he was already moving.
Because of the loops, Grey had started making a habit of remembering the bigger details. He didn’t have an infallible memory, but he found that if he focused on the crucial details, tying them to certain senses like sight or smell, his memory wasn’t all that bad.
After gaining the Looping Necklace, things he wanted to remember were reinforced continuously, making it even easier for him to remember.
So when he stepped into the Skrill Ruin, Grey knew for a fact that there should have been a gash in the stone where the chainsaw had gotten stuck.
Though it was quite dark right now and small details could be easily missed, there was no missing something that big—not with the moonlight still beaming from above with a full face.
That put Grey on alert. But what he couldn’t understand was the correlation.
Grey subconsciously looked toward his map and his eyes narrowed.
There was a thin film over it, and the more he focused, the more the rippling waves of the film became obvious.
And then the illusion completely shattered.
’Shit.’ Grey cursed.
What the hell was this? He had never run into such a thing.
Another arrow came for Grey and he hurriedly ducked. They were moving too fast and it was hard to keep track of them in the darkness. Who was targeting him? It didn’t seem to be a monster of the ruin; otherwise, they would be forced into an enclosed space.
Grey lurched back up to his feet, cursing his terrible luck.
PENG.
An arrow flashed through the skies and appeared right in front of Grey, moving so fast he didn’t have the time to dodge it completely.
It rebounded against his iron jaw, skidding off its side with a spark and coming with enough force that Grey’s head whipped to one side, rattling his brain inside his skull.
’Fuck me.’
Grey knew exactly what was coming.
Right on cue, the Looping Necklace activated. The bout of dizziness increased severalfold, the vertigo so strong every fiber of Grey’s being wanted to vomit up everything he had eaten just an hour ago.
’Get up! Get up! Get up!’
Grey had no idea if his real thoughts were as coherent as he heard them. For all he knew, he was slurring them, churning them out even in his own mind as a mess of nonsense.
But he didn’t know what to do.
The Looping Necklace was making his head spin. He had nothing but a dagger on his person. There was no armor, no support, no tricks he could use. He couldn’t even try to run around and hope that the archer missed; his stats were so low that compared to the marksman’s usual targets, he was probably moving at the pace of a snail.
"FUCK!"
Grey’s jaw unhinged and he roared.
His vision was too blurred to see it, but the final arrow was already upon him. As he roared out in defiance, it had already slipped into his open maw, ready to run right through his throat and out the back of his spine.
But then came the flame.
Turbid and chaotic, they swirled within the skies almost as though they were impotent. Compared to Grey’s fury, they might as well have been a sprinkle from a poorly closed faucet.
And yet, the result was anything but.
The arrow’s power turned to ash, and when Grey’s jaws closed around it, it snapped like a twig, breaking beneath the might of his bite.
Grey hadn’t even done it on purpose. The unhinging of his jaw had been so low that it even covered part of his chest, the location the archer had actually been aiming for.
But the result spoke for itself.
—
Uncommon Arrow—Piercing Rain—Devoured
—
Grey felt power surge through his jaw and suddenly his vision completely cleared.
—
[Ability Detected. Modifying Status Screen]
—
[You have awakened the Body Enhancement Ability {Metal Body} to Level 1]
—
[You have awakened the Body Enhancement Ability {Metal Digestion} to Level 1]
—
[You have awakened the Body Enhancement Ability {Metal Fusion} to Level 1]
—
[You have awakened the Mind Enhancement Ability {Metal Affinity} to Level 1]
—