An hour later, Grey’s stamina had recovered to nine of ten and he felt it was good enough to leave.
"Don’t forget to come again." Barkeep Ji called out. Even with his back facing him, Grey could practically hear the amusement in his tone.
Grey looked back and gave the frog man a wink. "I’ll come back with a few heads. Do you buy corpses?"
Barkeep Ji laughed. "That depends on the sort of corpse."
Grey had been completely joking, but Barkeep Ji didn’t seem to be at all. His steps couldn’t help but pause for a long while.
"Hey, barkeep. How expensive is your most detailed map of the ruins?"
The frog man grinned ear to ear. "The most detailed map covers about 70% of the ruins. It costs 57,500 credits."
Grey took a breath, seemingly having already expected the steep price. He nodded and then left the Safe Room.
...
Grey was immediately on alert the moment the cool night air hit him. He was ready for anything. A sudden arrow, an invisible dagger, maybe a meteor falling from the skies?
He didn’t get any of that.
What he did get was a few flashes from the forest line.
’Is there someone in there?’
He only just had the thought when a young man walked out with hands held high over his head.
"Please don’t kill me. I was just curious about the outpost."
Grey raised an eyebrow. The young man had definitely seen better days. There was a huge gash down his leg that ate right into his Nexis Suit, his face was covered in blood, and the only weapon he had was a broken blade in his hand.
How he had made it out so far was a miracle in itself. He was probably lost.
Despite the thought, Grey didn’t lower his guard.
"Go ahead. Nothing to do with me."
Grey turned to the left and made distance from the young man.
"Thank you, thank you."
Grey peeked over his shoulder to find the young man still sending furtive glances at him from time to time. The latter rushed up to the doors and put a palm up, his body tensing.
’Am I really that scary?’ Grey thought, chuckling to himself.
The young man began to shake from head to toe. "No... No... please no..." he moved his palm away from the door and then pressed again, then did it again, and then again.
Grey’s steps paused. ’He’s locked out of the Safe Room.’
Looking at the gash in the young man’s Nexis Suit, Grey suddenly understood.
Nexis Suits were sturdy, he had kicked with them enough to know. But they weren’t indestructible.
If you damaged yours, you were out of luck.
Now the young man was stuck hours from the city, heavily injured, tired, probably thirsty and hungry too, but he couldn’t enter the Safe Room even though it was right in front of him.
It seemed that Grey wasn’t the only one who would experience the pain of not having a Nexis Suit. There were probably a lot of people who had damaged their Nexis Suits by now and would be out of luck until they scavenged enough money to buy another.
BANG. BANG.
"Let me in! Let me in! I’m right here!"
Whatever fear the young man had had for Grey seemed to have evaporated in the face of despair.
"Hey, hey, you can help, right? Are you the one blocking the door? I swear I don’t believe what everyone is saying about you, please don’t punish me like the rest of them. Please!"
There was something about watching a grown man cry that left Grey feeling particularly uncomfortable. He had been so focused on his own problems that he had completely missed the fact that everyone in this Zone had been stripped of the lives they had once known and thrown into this hell with him.
Some were adapting better than others, and he tended to interact more with those people because they were the only ones who dared to come after him. But the vast majority... were probably like this guy.
"Please!" he took a step toward Grey and then hesitated as though he had somewhat come back to his senses.
"The problem isn’t me, I can’t block anyone from entering a Safe Room." Grey said with a shake of his head. "Your Nexis Suit is torn so you can’t communicate with the system properly. If you focus on your Neural Frame, you should be able to establish at least a small spark. Good luck."
The young man should have a much easier time of it than Grey had had. At least his Nexis Suit was built for him, even if it was damaged. Grey had had to interface with a suit that wasn’t designed for him at all.
He could barely save himself, he wasn’t going to go around trying to help other people.
With those words, he slipped into the forest.
...
Grey weighed his curved saw blade in his hand. The foliage was thicker here than he expected, but he could only guess that this was what happened when you tried to move toward the Fog of Chaos.
By this point in the registration phase, the Fog should be settling quite heavily. But thanks to the outpost, it had been pushed out further.
Honestly, Grey still wasn’t 100% certain of exactly what the Fog of Chaos did.
The Great Udon had said to assume it was a poison that killed you on contact, but there had been a slowly descending mist on the ruins for a while now that seemed to be just fine.
That, of course, didn’t stop Grey from wearing his Rare Holy Item.
He had waited until he was outside of the outpost and out of range of immediate enemies before doing so. Something itching at the back of his mind just told him that he shouldn’t reveal his multi Neural Frames so obviously.
That was hard to do when every bit of his movements were seen by people watching him with a camera. But he could only do his part and hope for the best.
Luckily, thanks to the bracelet, he wouldn’t have to worry about stamina for now. There was a +50% boost plus recovery stacked atop of it.
But a boost he had underestimated before was the night vision. He could see everything so clearly right now.
Which was also why he knew that this forest was thicker than he was used to.
Usually a few dozen meters, at most, separated ruins. But now he had been walking for a bit with nothing to show for it.
The moment he had the thought, Grey came to a stop, his eyes narrowing.
Under his feet, there was a cobbled stone. It was chipped and completely flat. Had he not had night vision thanks to the bracelet, he would have completely missed it.
’Is a ruin close? Or would I be stepping into one?’
Grey slowly pressed his foot down with hints of caution. Battle was why he was here anyway, right?
There was a shudder and Grey could swear he felt an electric shock run up his foot.
Then he felt the sensation of falling, but when he tried to catch himself, his vision swam and vertigo slammed into him.
His knees suddenly bent but it was like he had taken a step on a staircase expecting there to be one more when there wasn’t.
—
[Congratulations, Genesis Candidate! You have triggered a Rare Arc Instance! Good luck and don’t die! :)]