Grey raised an eyebrow. "Trouble? Trouble how?"

Though he wasn’t as ignorant as he had been before due to his conversation with Brad back a day or so ago, Grey still didn’t know much of anything about the dynamics between the zones and the trouble that might cause.

If he had to guess, that was probably what it was all related to. All of the big troubles had already been handled by him. As for what he considered big problems, that was, of course, the envoy, Calixan, the Dukedom.

Whatever this was... he had a feeling that it was a lot smaller.

Did these three even know that he had completed Chapter one? For that matter, what did his completing Chapter one even mean for them? Would they benefit from that because they were from his zone?

Were the Chapters and arcs zone specific? Or was it a wider scope?

Honestly, Grey had not a single clue about any of this. He wanted to ask Barkeep Ji, but that woman had come instead.

"There’s a movement forming at the hub that wants to unite the zones controlled by Earth. The gap between us and the other races is too large, our only advantage might be numbers." Brad said.

"And that’s a problem how?"

"Because it will be a hierarchal system we won’t have much of a say or control over. There are a limited number of Instances, a limited number of regional and territory bosses, a limited number of treasures to go around.

"We’ve already cleared about as many ruins as we could around the city without having to fight in areas that are too Fog of Chaos-dense. But it will take time to clear the more risky areas, and those are probably the regions with the better rewards.

"If we join this alliance, we’ll be at the bottom of the totem pole and we’ll effectively be slaves in everything but name." Brad finished.

"Mm." Grey nodded.

That did sound like it sucked, but what was he supposed to do about that, exactly? Was he supposed to fight against what would assumably be thousands of people all on his own?

Well, thousands was probably still too low an estimate.

Even if he assumed that only those between like 18 and 30 were taken from Earth, that was still almost two billion people. And even if he further assumed that the alliance proposed here was only for nearby zones within a certain bubble of influence, he wouldn’t be surprised if they were talking on the order of hundreds of thousands of people.

Of course, most of them had almost certainly died. The Genesis Games were too treacherous and there was danger around every corner. Grey himself had been targeted by the Producers for no reason, who was to say that others hadn’t experienced the same fate?

The purpose of a Cracked World was for no reason other than to provide entertainment during the early stages because all the other races, families, and organizations that participated in these games had optimized the starting arcs to hell, making them repetitive and boring. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

They didn’t even see them as real people, more like guinea pigs they could poke and prod at.

But that was even more reason for Grey to be focused on growing as strong as possible as fast as possible.

Brad, Stella, and Mauve were asking him to care about ruins he had stopped caring about a long time ago.

The rewards he got from the ruins were so pitiful compared to what he got from Instances and boss battles that it was a complete waste of his time. He didn’t even look at the rewards he got from them these days. He just casually cleared them then tossed whatever Uncommon trash he collected into his inventory.

Even that monkey tail he had gotten had too quickly become useless. Its ceiling was only 100 STR. How was he even supposed to use that in the sorts of battles he got caught in?

Brad’s eyes dimmed a bit when he saw Grey’s lack of interest. They weren’t idiots, they knew that the games Grey played practically froze them out entirely.

They probably only knew a fraction of what Grey got up to, but if he monopolized 99% of the rewards from the Instance he saved Megan in, maybe he already had Legendary or better items.

Why would he care about the ruins? Why would he drag himself down for their sake?

"Can you let me talk to him alone for a moment?" Mauve asked.

Grey saw a flicker of what might have been pain a moment after Brad reacted with shock. Even Stella’s gaze flickered with a complicated look when she heard Mauve’s words. But both of them ashamedly lowered their heads in the end and walked away.

Grey blinked, his eyes regaining their focus from his thoughts as he looked at the caramel-skinned beauty in front of him. He had always felt that Mauve was gorgeous, and he hadn’t exactly hidden that fact either. Apparently she had picked up on that, too.

Well, not that it would take a genius.

Grey chuckled. "Is this supposed to be a honey trap?"

"If that’s what you want it to be." Mauve said very seriously.

There was a flicker in Grey’s eyes. Mauve was maybe in her early twenties, she wasn’t short, probably around 5’8", maybe 5’9". She looked like the sort to have worn glasses that didn’t survive the first hour in this hell hole. Her disposition was seemingly soft and quiet—one that hid a clear hidden edge to it, apparently.

It was almost always the quiet ones. She had let Stella lead, and then even Brad, but after just a couple of days they had both bowed out of her way. Even watching it from afar, Grey found it impressive.

And those amber eyes of hers... they were beautiful.

"But, I have a much more appetizing proposition for you." Mauve said coolly. "Even if I give you what you want, you’ll just get bored of me after a couple of weeks, maybe months if I’m lucky."

"Oh?" Grey asked.