Edited by: Kuro and Lille

After confirming that Grey’s body was able to handle his rations, he didn’t worry about the food and decided to worry about something more important. 

Grey exited the cave and made his way to their mechas. He first went to Silas’ mecha. He checked to see if anything was usable. He found that a lot of the metal was still intact even though they were up in flames yesterday. Unfortunately, they were in pieces and it could be seen that the mecha could no longer be salvaged. 

Grey touched the metal that had cooled down and found there were all sorts of lumps and bumps in them. The cool metal on his skin felt different from the fires that erupted when they crashed. 

He took the ones that he could use and put them in his system space. He also went to the place where his poor mecha was, and found that it was a lot more damaged than General Silas’. There wasn’t a lot that he could take. It could be seen that the quality of their mechas was different. It made sense, the original Grey was a simple soldier compared to the almighty General.

When he got back to the small cave, he found General Silas with a fever. It seemed his body was still trying to fight the wounds even with first aid. He rushed over and did some temporary fever relief. He wiped his body clean and dry, then put a cold cloth on his forehead. He grabbed it from his emergency supplies in his system space. He also gave General Silas some fever medications to help it go down. He didn’t have a lot so he had to be careful. 

“Grey… Grey…” General Silas called out, voice hoarse because his mouth was incredibly dry. 

Grey felt a chill go down his spine. It was like General Silas already knew it was him and not the other Grey. 

“I’m here, don’t worry. Do you want some water?” 

His dazed blueish-green eyes looked over at Grey and felt comfort in seeing him.

He nodded and reached out to grab Grey’s sleeve. “Stay with me. Don’t go.” 

“I won’t. I will stay with you.” 

Hearing those words, General Silas obediently drank his water and fell right back to sleep. He still had his hand grabbing Grey’s shirt. Even if Grey wanted to move, he couldn’t because General Silas put all of his strength into holding on. 

‘He’s really cute.’ 

[You must be happy you found him so quickly.]

‘I am. I’m just not happy that this body was ordered to kill him…’ 

[Still can’t access some of ‘Grey’s’ memories?] 

‘Nope. I can’t.’

[This universe is really hindering everything. I also found a little bit of the Villain System that has tried to latch on to us, so I will do my best to get rid of the virus from the Villain system, but I can’t do anything about the universe’s plot. You will have to make do with what you can for now.] 

System 225 was trying to negotiate with the guardians of this universe when it encountered the Villain System’s virus. He got rid of most of it but some parts of the virus were hiding.

Grey comforted General Silas while he chatted with System 225. He held General Silas’ hand while patting it with the other. It had a slow rhythm to it. 

Suddenly, he heard a combination of chirping and buzzing sounds. It was a peculiar sound that Zergs made. 

“System 225, how close are they?”

[Scanning… Scanning complete. They are less than 30 meters away from the cave.]

Grey kissed General Silas’ hand and felt it loosen. He slowly took his arm away from him and made sure that he was hiding behind a rock. This rock was further in the cave, away from the entrance.

He then went to crouch behind a rock closer to the entrance. It was large enough to hide behind. He went through his inventory to see if he had any weapons. He rummaged around his belt and pockets and found a strange metal box. It had a slide switch on the side of it. He flicked it up and a blade shot out of it. It was much bigger than the box, like twice the size, and it had a strange red glow to it. He couldn’t tell what the blade was made of. 

Grey thought it would do and readied himself. He wanted to see what the Zerg looked like before rushing over. He had to be sure that he could take care of them while protecting the cave. He would protect this cave even if it cost him an arm or a leg! 

Moments later, two large Zergs came into view. They were giant praying mantises but they had four arms instead of two. Two arms on its back and two arms in the front. Unlike regular mantises, the ends were large scythes. Its eyes were large and red, upon closer inspection, he could see sections of the eyes that were looking in multiple directions. 

‘System 225, can you analyze their weak points?’

[Of course! Analyzing now… 3… 2… 1… Analyzing complete. There are two ways to kill them. The first way is to kill these Zergs by decapitation. Even a slight cut to the neck will regenerate so cutting off the head completely will stop that. The second way was shooting their heads, i.e. their brains. You have to make sure you destroy their brain or they will regenerate quickly.] 

‘Alright, thank you.’ 

Grey was closer to the entrance of the cave. He waited for the Zerg to come closer and rushed out of the cave with his large dagger. The two Zergs were alerted by the sound of Grey and screeched. They rushed over to him, scythes moving fast, trying to cut him down. With so many arms, Grey had to dodge them as quickly as possible. 

He used the physical energy his body had and felt his strength and agility increase. He also activated his spiritual energy to enhance his thought process. He used it to predict their movements and quickly went behind one of the Zergs. 

He slashed at the area between the head and the thorax, successfully lopping off its head. With one down, he easily cut down the next one. 

They were easy right now, but he knew that there was power in numbers with Zergs or insects in general. He could easily get overwhelmed if there were more of them. 

‘Are there any other Zergs in the area?’

[There is none nearby for 100 meters.] 

‘Perfect.’ 

Grey did his best to get rid of the bodies and kept the scythe-looking arms. He felt that he could use them as weapons just in case he lost his… Well, it was just reassurance. He liked to be prepared. 

Afterward, he made his way back to the cave and sat next to General Silas. The man was still sleeping and his fever had gone down. He looked comfortable even though he was on the ground. The commotion outside didn’t wake him up at all. 

Made sense to Grey. There were some worlds where God System slept like a log. 

He went back to holding on to General Silas’s hand with one hand and drinking water with the other. 

*****

A couple of days later, while raining, Silas’ fever spiked. According to System 225, it was 103°F (39.4°C). It was dangerously high... If he couldn’t decrease the temperature and stabilize Silas’ condition, it would be big trouble for him.

Grey scrambled through the first aid kits they both had and found some more Acetaminophen to help with the fever and any body pains he was having. 

“Here, drink this.” It was water and his medication. 

Even though Silas felt a bit muddle-headed, he still obediently drank everything Grey gave him. Silas’ unwavering trust in him made his heart warm. 

“Grey… I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, don’t worry Silas. We will make it out alive. You must rest and heal up. Leave everything to me.” 

“Hmm.” 

His body was really hot, but he wanted to be near Grey. He already knew that this Grey was different from the original Grey in this body’s memories. This Grey was his long-time, world-hopping lover.

That thought alone gave him comfort.

After Silas fell asleep, his fever began to die down. It was sitting at 100°F (37.7°C). It stayed like that until morning and finally dropped down to 99°F. 

‘It’s a relief that his fever went down…’ 

Grey lacked sleep because he was taking care of Silas all day and night. Even so, he kept his eyes open because he had to set up some traps around the cave. 

He felt that there was going to be a large battle coming so he needed to be prepared. His gut was usually right so he followed it with no questions asked. 

It was really strange that the same Zerg types just sent themselves to him. Even after their death, they just sent more Zergs as if to overwhelm him with numbers. Each time though, he successfully warded them off.

‘Where are all these Zergs coming from… Can you check it, System 225?’

[Unfortunately, I can’t. Zergs don’t use technology so it’s impossible for me to pick up on their signals.] 

That was a shame. System 225 also couldn’t scan areas far away from Grey. It was a limitation that Systems and Hosts had in each world. It would expand as they got more powerful but it still had limits. 

When the rain stopped, Grey made his way out of the cave. There were puddles everywhere. Luckily, the cave was slightly elevated so they didn’t have to worry about water flowing in. 

[What are you doing now, Grey?] 

‘I need to get some boulders and put them near the top of this mountain. After activating the trap, I should be able to make a perfect semi-circle around the entrance.’ 

He had to get boulders that were big enough to protect the cave. Small enough to sit on the mountains without causing a landslide, but heavy enough to squish Zergs into pieces. He wondered where he could get boulders like that without having to go too far… 

He also needed to find some materials to make a rope. He wanted an emergency exit for Silas. It would be secured at the top of the mountain and he would be able to wave down any mechas or spaceships. 

[There’s a lot you have to do.]

‘That’s true. At least I don’t have to worry about food or water. If I did, who knows if Silas would be safe with me gone all the time.’ 

Plus, he didn’t find anything edible on this planet. According to System 225, a lot of the plants and animals were contaminated with harmful chemical make-ups. The water found here was also questionable. All of this and more were reasons why this planet was uninhabitable. 

Grey looked around to see if he could spot some boulders but they were being blocked by trees. The trees weren’t too tall, but they were abundant. They had crash-landed in a jungle. There were a lot of mountains, but he could see a large tree in the distance. It was so large, it seemed to cover half of the planet. They were a bit far from it but it still looked large. 

‘I’ve been wondering about this for a while, but what the heck is that tree over there? How did it grow so big?’

[I’m not sure. I can’t scan it because it’s too far away.] 

‘I have a bad feeling about it. Trees that grow that big for no reason are suspicious.’ 

[I agree, but we don’t have time to go over there and check what it is.]

‘That’s true. Let’s just hope that there’s nothing wrong with that tree.’

Grandpa Marky: I'm a bit late, but for me, it's still Sunday LOL. I actually had a huge burst of inspiration and I'm almost done with Arc 12 heehee, I should probably finish tonight :D Can't wait to write Arc 13. Then the main story will be done. Also, my step bro said hi. XD Anyway, that's it from me! See yall next week ^_^