Grey woke up with a start, completely taken off guard.

He died? How? When? What happened?

He blinked for a long while, almost as though to try and make sure he was really seeing such a familiar room around him. He had been so confident after he figured out how to snatch the alien’s Ability, only for it to end that way nonetheless?

The frown on his face tightened.

’Wait.’

Grey thought of something and sent his mind into his Cyber Space. A familiar small little flame was sitting there, flickering above. It bobbed when it saw him almost in greeting.

"What happened? How did I die?"

A pulse came from the flame and Grey rolled his eyes.

"You’re a real piece of shit, you know that?"

Another pulse.

"No. I’m not going to give you credit for reviving me. I’m half convinced you need me for something you’re going to trap me in a death loop for eventually, so you can take these thanks and shove them up your ass."

Another pulse. This one, Grey was pretty sure, meant "fair enough."

He scoffed.

The flame’s response to his question had been "you’re weak." But he already knew that much, he just wanted to know what the hell happened. Was the gap really that large? How was that even possible?

Did they not all start at Proving Class? And if they didn’t start at Proving Class, then who decided to set these rules?

It just felt like the Genesis Games were here precisely to help you advance. What was the point of joining if you were already a broken powerhouse? Something wasn’t adding up.

The flame began to pulse.

Grey blinked. It was trying to convey something pretty complicated right now. It took several tries before Grey felt that he got the gist of it.

"You’re saying that his Frame has a higher sync rate with his body than mine does? Why didn’t anyone tell me I had to worry about sync rate with Frames too?"

Grey felt like he got scammed. It was no wonder there was such a gap between "perfect" Frames. There was probably a hidden stat on all of them that he hadn’t noticed until now.

"So if I’m not of the right race, there are certain Frames I’ll never be able to use properly?"

The flame pulsed. It was saying yes, but there was yet another complication in its tone.

Grey scoffed when he understood its meaning. "What the hell do you mean I have you? What do you do?" 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

The flame seemed offended and began to gesture wildly with its flickering embers.

"So mechs." Grey said, shaking his head. "Basically you’re not the useful one here at all, I still have to make it."

The flame went into a tirade.

Grey chuckled inwardly. At this point, he was just trolling the little guy a bit. He had to vent his frustration on someone, and that didn’t seem like it was going to be the alien anytime soon.

Right now, he had three Frames. One was made for Dark Kin, the second was made for... goblins? Grey honestly wasn’t sure. As for his Helion Frame—or what was now his Dark Solveign Frame, it was probably made for some elemental creature like that floating cloud of lightning he had seen on the Great Udon’s recap.

He had the talent to use his Frames, but he was making up for a lot with his intuition. There were some things that couldn’t be bridged without proper sync rate.

The flame pulsed.

Grey frowned. "The Last Paladin is a Frame compatible with humans?"

The flame pulsed in confirmation.

"Oh..."

Grey felt even worse about that. He had landed a clean blow with Last Paladin activated and it did nothing.

The flame pulsed again.

"Only certain humans?" Grey asked. "You’ve really got to be more specific than that."

The flame started releasing pulses that reminded Grey of something.

Horns?

"Oh, you mean that I need more of that potion?"

The flame pulsed in confirmation and Grey had the whole picture.

The Frame was compatible with Humans and was the one thing he wouldn’t need to use a mech to bridge the gap with. However, it needed a high caliber of human. Meaning, Grey needed to get as close to the pinnacle of humanity as he could before he saw the truly powerful effects of the Frame.

But he had no idea where to get it.

The main empire’s city, maybe?

Grey’s gaze flickered and he thought of using that treasure from Frantz again.

’If I can’t defeat the slimy alien fuck right now, and for some reason getting Amunet to come faster makes it appear faster, then using it might be my only shot.’

Grey took a breath and exhaled.

He was really rolling the dice here. He only had seven shots left and he just got one-shot by that alien. If he wasted another by going into the maw of the empire, then he would basically be left with six at that point.

But if he didn’t take risks with more loops left, then he wasn’t exactly going to have a shot here at all.

That gap wasn’t something that he could close right now.

If he did go to the city, though, he would only have 24 hours before the loop reset on him. What was he going to do with it?

Grey pulled out a familiar bracelet and it morphed into a pendant that almost looked like the head of an arrow if someone was gaudy enough to make them out of gold.

Grey stood up.

"Grey?" Mauve called out.

"I’ll be back." Grey said absentmindedly.

Of course, he was lying through his teeth. If he was back anytime soon it meant that he was screwed.

Though, he still passed by and killed that fuck Alvin again. He really couldn’t stand the look of that guy.

When he was outside the hub, he activated and set it to return to the last location Frantz had been.

’This is going to be a doozy.’