The Condition

Grey's heart thumped violently when Mavis threatened to kill him in an unknown way. Her language indicated that she was warned of [players] in advance, and considering that people shouldn't meet her for years, she probably knew things others didn't.

At a minimum, he could tell she threatened to delete his account permanently. The thought made his vision hazy.

However, he recovered quickly, accustomed to living with constant threats to his life.

"You're waiting for us transmigrators, people unafraid of death, to kill Levi Mauser." Grey asserted brazenly, "Well, it'll be a minimum of two years before anyone's qualified.

Then you must wait for them to locate you, find him, and do the job. It'll likely take half a decade or longer to find and kill him."

Mavis narrowed her eyes. "So? What's it to you?"

"I can disclose Levi's location right now." He smiled, panning the walls, "I can also cut that timeline to eighteen months if you let me amass power."

They were in a large room the size of two football fields with twenty-foot walls lined with guns and suits of every variety. Some walls had shelves containing grenades and other handheld equipment, and a hanger had modified skycruisers and ground equipment.

All of it was illegally modified. It was an illicit lethal wonderland.

Mavis's eyes glided to the left before she lowered the cannon, putting it on the table again. "Tell me, kid. Do you know why this place is called Lockjaw?"

Grey studied her expression for a moment before answering honestly: "No."

"Lockjaw is a symptom of tetanus." She replied with a venom-laced smile, "It stiffens the jaw until people can't talk.

And the thing about tetanus is that it's incurable. Once a person gets it, they have that symptom for life and die if they ignore it."

The teen gave her smiling eyes, amused by the analogy.

"You think that's funny?" Mavis asked with a bone-chilling glare, "It seems you think you're invincible, after all."

"It is funny, Mavis." Grey replied calmly, "The place I'm from is small. We can't hop planets and lightyears, so your niche threat is the expectation I've lived with my whole life."

"Is that so?" She asked dryly, "Well, as long as you're aware we'll kill you over and over until you die forever, let's get to business.

What are you doing here? You sure as hell aren't here to kill Levi Mauser."

"To bleed transmigrators out of egregious sums of money by selling them your weapons, of course." He replied charmingly, "You would be shocked—"

"No." Mavis scoffed instantly, "Do you think I'd be in this basement if I could sell weapons to the public? Suicidal and stupid, I see."

"Exactly. You're here because you can't sell on the surface." He remarked quickly, cold sweat dripping from his shoulder blades, "I can and have unique circumstances.

Your weapons are as inexplicable as my people, which means we can take responsibility, thus diverting attention from you. One transaction is worth such a boon, is it not?"

She started to disagree but stopped when he exploited her unique knowledge of his people.

"One transaction? What do you want with the short-term capital?" Mavis asked.

"I need powerful equipment and a minimum of 90 million zecta to buy a private rifter to get to Planet Lasco." Grey replied honestly, "Negotiating with Lockjaw solves both of those problems."

"Your survival rate is already 10% at a maximum here, yet you want to go to an orange planet?" The woman laughed sharply, "Do you know how fast you'll die there?"

"I do; hence I'm risking my life to acquire cheat equipment." He replied dryly.

"That's honestly your reasoning?" She asked strangely, partially convinced, "You don't care about our billion zecta bounty or the Spider's Legacy?"

"Correct." Grey replied honestly, "I'll take care of your problems and accept the bounty but will not accept the legacy."

"Do tell, kid. What's so valuable on Planet Lasco that you'd turn down a Legendary Class Legacy for?" The woman asked with a predatory smile.

"An obsure and rather despicable Silver Class Legacy." He chuckled, making her eyes widen in shock, "Anyone capable of surviving Lasco would turn it down, but I have plans for it."

"You're one wild kid." Mavis chuckled, following a minute of dead silence, "Lucky for you, I dig that.

Sit down. If you didn't come here with a half-baked plan, I'll let ya live. Who knows, if it's good, I'll exploit the shit out of you to make you regret asking."

"I'd love to." Grey smiled, calming his beating heart.

***

"I'll accept your deal if you're stupid enough to accept my terms but Lockjaw won't provide an advance." Mavis said sternly, staring at the teen after discussing his proposal, "There is no way I'll back something so absurd and your million deposit won't scratch your ambition."

-

─┈━═[Contract Initiated]═━┈─

NPC Mavis Vine [Level 186] has made you an agreement contract:

Purpose: Allow Greed to Buy Mavis Vine's Weapons for Resale

Terms: …

Contract Note: You're a fuckin' idiot, kid.

Do you accept the offer? [Yes/No]

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-

Grey nodded and then closed his eyes. "While it's not much to you, I wouldn't come here looking for this agreement if I only had the entrance fee."

-

┌─┈━═[User Menu]═━┈─┐

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├═[User: Greed

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├═[Legacy: None]

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├═[Title: None]

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├═[Entity Type: Untranscended]

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├═[Class: None]

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├═─═[Stats]

├○

├═─═[Skills]

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├═─═[Items]

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├═─═[Finances]

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├═───═[Zecta: 31,706,600]

├○

├═─═[Info]

├○

├═─═[Social]

…

├○

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-

"I have thirty two million zecta to spend, including the million deposit." He said straight-faced.

The teen had gotten three million from the betting, then sold four head-chopping opportunities to four elites, earning two, four, eight, and sixteen million, respectively.

He spent a comical 250,000 on the mercenaries and 43,400 on gear at Markov Military base.

"Whatever you say." Mavis said dryly, tired of arguing with insanity. She got up and prompted him to follow her. "What are you looking to buy?"

"I have ten million for a power suit, reusable rifle, the Rapture, and energy sword." Grey answered, "That's for me. I need eighteen million in flashy heavy weaponry, no matter how pointless.

The rest will go to pistols, rifles, and grenades."

"What do you mean by [no matter how pointless]?" She asked quizzically.

"I'm planning to demonstrate the firepower." Grey grinned wickedly, "I need unique weapons with umphf. Even if transmigrators can't use it, the flashier it is, the more it'll fetch. "

Mavis grinned with insanity flickering in her eyes. "So you just need something that'll melt through a war zone?"

"Precisely." He smiled shamelessly.

"Well, this baby needs an A-Series heavy mech to fire, so it's pretty fuckin' useless for a normal person." She laughed, leading him to an area with mechs and mech attachments, "But it'll certainly do the trick. I'm sure an insane boy like you can make it work."

Grey looked at the "gun." It was a plasma rifle with a ten-foot barrel with the diameter of an Earthian basketball. It had a stand like a sniper rifle that drilled into the ground for support.

The weapon was flashy and unreasonably overpowered. However—

"When I said [useless to a transmigrator], I didn't mean [obviously useless to a transmigrator]." He said hazily, "I need something I can say [can't use until] blank, not [can't use, probably ever]."

"Details, details." Mavis grinned, "This bad boy costs 28,000,000 zecta, but I'll sell it to you for one million to watch the show.

Scratch that; if you want this agreement, you're buying and testing this thing. I refuse to wait until I'm forty to see it in action.

I'm just as manic about watching it as I was when I impulse-bought it at 22."

"500,000." He replied in annoyance, visibly bothered by her words.

"You heard 28 mil, yeah?" She asked with a murderous smile, "Nah, you're not hearing well, so I guess I'll restate my price. Two million and a condition of my offer."

"500,000." Grey replied in annoyance, unwavering under her pressure.

"You think this is fuckin' negotiable kid?" Mavis asked with an insanity-twisted gaze.

"It's not; I'll buy it for 500,000." He replied straight-faced, making her cheek twitch, "Otherwise, it'll collect dust until someone buys it at a discount and travels 800 lightyears to use it where you can't watch.

Considering you're breaking our price-gouging the price-gouger agreement, I'd say my offer is fairly amicable."

Mavis scrunched her face up. "Fine! 500,000 zecta. You best risk your life to showcase its full potential, or I'll claw out your eyes and use them as a nutrition smoothie ingredient."

"Deal." Grey laughed, "I'll need transport. This won't even fit in our skycruiser, so can you deliver this to a disclosed location? It's hard enough playing slave here."

Wrath and hellfire flickered in her eyes, listening to the seventeen-year-old arrogantly asking for concessions! Naturally, she'd do that, but he was strong-arming her because he knew how much it meant to her!

"We'll work it out." Mavis said coldly, "Now hurry up; the faster I deal with your arrogant ass, the faster I'll see this thing or get my daily nutrition intake."

He swallowed nervously and nodded, aware he was on thin ice. However, he kept a smile on his face, trying to keep her amused as they shopped.

As discussed, they picked up a power suit and weapons for himself, gear for his mercenaries, and then talked about the flashiest equipment and the most practical by zecta.

Once they were finished, she gave him a strange expression, almost warm.

"I don't know what it is, but I like ya, kid." Mavis said, "You're crazy, insufferably arrogant, and a tool, but you're entertaining as a motherfucker.

It's a miracle you got to this place, so I'll help you get out of the Twisted District. I'll call for Skyhawk to make it happen."

After a few warnings, she called for Skyhawk to lead him and the mercenaries to their skycruiser. The teen couldn't help but smile at the man's expression when he left alive with escort treatment. It was comical.

Grey remained silent for the rest of the trip to the skycruiser and then Markov Military base, not answering Skyhawk's questions, which annoyed the man but didn't take personally.

Once they parted ways, the mercenaries followed him to a high-end inn within the base's walls.

"Thank you for your service." He said to Mark and the others, "I'll see you tomorrow at 9 am sharp. We have a lot to do, so make sure to put in your resignation with Sky Cab."

Without letting the group speak, he closed the door to his inn. Only then did they check their bank balances and find another 50,000 zecta.

"I'm putting in my resignation now." Mark laughed.

"Me too."

"Yeah."

"I already did."

"When?"

"Now."

The mercenaries burst into laughter as they left the area.

Meanwhile, Grey lay on the basic white bed in the inn.

-

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Are you sure you would like to log out? [Yes/No]

═─┈─═─┈─═─┈─═─┈─═

-

The teen smiled weakly, exhausted by the constant adrenaline as he chose yes, falling asleep with his helmet on as soon as the system shut off.