Chapter 700: Legendary

Grey looked out over the silent auction hall and smiled, the monocle already sinking into his body as though it had always been there.

Lyssara-0 still hadn’t touched hers. Her fingers were frozen several centimeters away from it while the enormous golden declaration hung overhead, and that made what Grey said next all the sweeter.

"I told you before we started. I’m better, and there’s nothing any of you can do about it."

The boos that followed barely registered as he turned toward the Rank Up!.

The truth was, Grey hadn’t gone into the Integration Challenge nearly as blind as everyone seemed to think. The moment Axion-9 explained what the test actually involved, Grey had realized the Synari had picked a competition built around something his Neural Frame had been doing since almost the start of the Genesis Games.

Cyber Warps worked on almost the exact same principle.

Grey still remembered the first one he’d ever found. It was a damaged Magnetic Hero Cyber Warp, peeled off the inner thigh of a corpse after its previous download had been cut short.

He had no Nexis Suit to help him, and the Warp was already damaged, so he’d expected the process to take 4 or 5 days. He had pressed the transparent patch onto the back of his hand anyway and watched its blue circuit patterns crawl up his arm.

By the time the commotion around his Territory Boss clear ended and the first outpost appeared, the Cyber Warp was already done.

Minutes instead of days.

Grey hadn’t understood why at the time. Eventually, though, he learned that his mind had been comprehending the information fast enough to carve shortcuts through the download process itself.

Cyber Warps didn’t just hand over knowledge. They changed the Neural Frame so the body and mind could actually act on what was being downloaded. And Grey had always been freakishly good at letting that information become part of him almost as fast as he received it.

And that was all before Soul Link.

Now, his control over his Neural Frames reached into a layer he’d barely known existed back then. He could feel the changes as they happened and guide them, instead of waiting for the information to force its own way through him.

Had Lyssara or any of the other Betting Favorites reached Soul Link? Grey hadn’t known. However, he had never been all that interested in betting on what someone else might be capable of, not when betting on himself had always worked out so well.

The monocle had barely touched his skin before he knew exactly where it needed to go.

From there, everything had been automatic.

Grey stepped toward the central podium as Breejara finally recovered enough to feed the stunned audience something resembling commentary.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would love to offer an explanation for what we have just witnessed, but I fear doing so would require me to understand it first. Lyssara-0 of the Synari has just been defeated in an Integration Challenge before touching the material she was supposed to integrate."

That got a strange mix of laughter and disbelief. Grey was already reaching for the prize waiting above the podium.

The Rank Up! floated down into his palm.

He had barely closed his fingers around it when another voice carried through the hall.

"I object."

Grey recognized Aelthar before he even looked toward his bubble.

The Fire Elemental stood with his arms folded, the red-gold flames that made up his body burning far more steadily than they had earlier.

"Grey Temolt has accumulated a substantial debt tonight, yet his ability to pay it remains dependent upon an auction lot that has not been sold."

The mood in the hall shifted again.

Aelthar continued. "The Rank Up! should therefore remain in trust until his ability to settle his account is confirmed. If he uses it immediately and later proves incapable of payment, what recourse does Lyssara-0 have for the item she surrendered through the challenge?"

Grey’s smile stayed right where it was. Underneath it, though, something a lot less pleasant started to boil.

Of course the firefly bastard couldn’t just shut the fuck up.

The worst part was that there was enough logic in the argument that Grey couldn’t even wave it off. His account was millions of Blue Credits in the negative, his Elemental blueprints hadn’t gone up for auction yet, and nobody here knew if they would actually sell for enough to cover everything he’d casually bought tonight.

But that didn’t make him any less angry.

Grey looked at Aelthar for several seconds. Then, instead of answering, he reached into storage.

A glass pipe appeared in his hand.

It had been a while since he’d used the Ascent of the Fluttering Weeds. The Legendary Resonant item still looked every bit like the oversized crack pipe Grey had made fun of when he first got it.

He pulled out a bit of Ray of Shine, packed the mind-illuminating herb into the bowl, then snapped his fingers beside it.

A tongue of flame leapt from his bracelet.

The herb caught.

Grey took a long pull and held it for several seconds, letting the familiar smoke settle through him while the entire auction watched.

Ray of Shine had once helped him comprehend his Helion Frame faster than he had any right to. Right now, though, its ability to clear his head was a lot more useful than anything else.

He slowly exhaled.

"Sorry."

Breejara raised an eyebrow.

"Some idiot almost got me acting out of character."

Aelthar’s flames shifted.

Grey took another small pull, then smiled toward his bubble. "But I forgive him. His brains got fried to ash a long time ago, so expecting better would really be my fault."

The audience started reacting all over again. Grey didn’t bother waiting for it to die down before turning to Breejara.

"Muse can do whatever it wants." Most of the humor had left his voice, but the smile stayed. "If you want to hold the Rank Up! until my shit sells, hold it. I’m not going to cry about it."

Grey set the Rank Up! back on the podium.

"But remember what I said."

His eyes moved from Breejara to Aelthar, then out across the countless bubbles surrounding the stage.

"I’m better."

The smile on his face turned almost sweet.

"If something I’m owed can’t be repaid today, then I’ll make sure it gets repaid a million times over later."

Grey looked straight at Breejara.

"So go ahead."

Grey knew what battles he couldn’t and couldn’t fight. He had already seen exactly how this would play out. In fact, if Aelthar hadn’t said anything, Breejara probably would have.

That was fine. He’d make certain to pay them back later.