Grey sighed a breath of relief. Honestly, he still didn’t want to fight The Relentless right now. Though he felt like he could at least hold his own now, there was still something special about the way the bastard had killed him the first time that made Grey feel that better stats just weren’t going to be enough against an enemy of that caliber.
He had studied enough Dominion Class raw materials to be certain of that as well. So he also knew that just knowing what the gap was wasn’t going to be enough to bridge it just yet.
He was going to need a better chance at understanding what the Dominion Class was first. But before all of that, he was going to need to clear Chapter two, and that meant dealing with someone he was pretty sure wasn’t in the Dominion Class.
Baron Giyoto.
"Alright, Giyoto man, I’ve had a bone to pick with you. Time to address it."
Grey grinned and vanished as Barkeep Ji shook his head.
There was no way they were going to let Grey be the first in a Cracked World to clear arc one, but that wasn’t the reason Barkeep Ji was shaking his head.
"Poor guy..." Ji mumbled.
He wasn’t talking about Grey either. He was talking about The Relentless.
Grey appeared in an outpost teleportation pad and hopped on one foot to the side before he stabilized himself.
"Alright, maybe I still have some kinks to work out. But all my limbs are here, at least."
Grey walked out of the teleportation platform and was going to walk straight out to see how fast he could get to the city when he stopped.
He looked over to find a very pretty lady smiling at him. But this time, it wasn’t because he was being a pervert.
It was because he recognized this woman.
This was the same half-spider lady who tried to get him to accept a sponsorship the last time. Breejah, her name had been. And if he recalled correctly, she said she came from Muse Incorporated.
Grey’s eyes narrowed.
"Hello, Grey. It’s nice to see you again. I see you’ve become more handsome."
Grey looked down at himself. He was still wearing Thi Lan’s robes as a skirt, he was barefoot, and his balls were hanging loose. Honestly, he kinda got where the Scottish were coming from. Free-dicking it was really doing wonders for him.
Though he’d imagine the chafing could get pretty bad if he didn’t use some baby powder or something.
The only items he had on him at all were the angel lady’s rod he had tied to his back and his white gloves. He looked kinda ridiculous, but he also didn’t really have the time to care about anything else.
That said, he was feeling quite ripped right now if he did say so himself. His skin was practically glistening too; he’d fit right into a vampire flick.
Though, half the reason he hadn’t bothered to get himself any clothes was because he wanted to get his tan back as quickly as possible. He looked like a fucking pansy right now and it triggered him almost as much as being fat had.
However, as amusing as his thoughts were, when Grey looked back up, he didn’t look very amused at all. In fact, he stared at Breejah with quite a deadpan expression.
This time, though, Breejah was both ready for Grey’s sharpness and prepared for a line of questions and answers. Before, Grey had caught her off guard with his astuteness and she had taken the wrong approach when dealing with him, but this time would be different.
"Muse Incorporated has been waiting for you. We wanted to give you the same offer as before, just with the pot sweetened a little bit.
"If you agree, we can help you to clear the first arc. The only thing we ask in return is that once talk show responsibilities are opened up, that you’ll make three appearances per recap week on a given show of our choice, and that you’ll use all of our products during our run. Of course, there will be certain races you cannot target, and a few candidates we have in mind that we would like you to help as well.
"So long as you can do this, we will give you free passage into the second arc."
Grey suddenly smiled and Breejah felt like things were going well. She leaned over the counter a bit to get closer to him, pressing her breasts together.
A little bit of flirting couldn’t hurt.
"And if I don’t? What happens to my free passage then?"
"Well, we cannot say. But you are our number one candidate in this empire without a doubt. If you turn us down, we would be forced to go with our second option. I’m sure you’ve heard of him, he was also on the recap episode along with you.
"To be quite frank with you, Grey, our second option is in a better strategic location because of what will occur after the first arc is cleared. He is out of the way and not directly in the line of fire."
Grey immediately knew who she was talking about. It had to be the guy who spawned in the middle of the tundra. But since Breejah wasn’t making that clear, Grey felt no need to show that he had already deduced who she was talking about.
"However, while you’re more directly in the line of fire, you’re the superior talent. We would love to bet on you instead."
Grey’s smile never faded.
"It’s interesting you say that." Grey nodded as Breejah’s eyes brightened. "Because you see, everyone has their quirks. I’m sure a bitch like you who changes her personality based on who she talks to thinks that she’s quite good at changing faces, but there’ll always be a fingerprint left behind, deviations that make you, you. You know."
Breejah stiffened, sensing a shift of cold in Grey’s tone.
"So, color me surprised when I compared the sponsorship contract you sent me, and the death slave contract a redacted company sent me just yesterday, and found the same fingerprints on both."
Breejah’s eyes widened.