Grey’s gaze flickered wildly. But the more he thought, the more he calmed down.

He knew exactly how to find Giyoto. He knew exactly where Giyoto was too.

Back in his own Zone.

This wasn’t a problem. If anything, this was a great thing.

Something else also slotted into place easily as well.

It was no wonder the Instance Grey got the Mech Soul from was filled with so many people from so many different zones.

It seemed that the closer you got to finishing Chapters, and then further on into arcs, the more your "map", so to speak, widened. Grey had to defeat the strongest expert of Zone 234 just to finish Chapter one. Finishing Chapter two, then, probably required something in a middle-stage city like the one he had defeated the Old One in.

Finally, the third and final Chapter of the arc probably required defeating the Goddess herself, and that would all conclude arc one.

The people who ended up stuck in that Instance with him had probably ended up accidentally skipping a ton of steps. If not for him, they would have all died, the Instance would have reset, and then it would have allowed yet another large batch of people in.

But that competition was exactly what their advantage was.

The stronger alien races, when they entered said Instance, would have to fight it out against one another for supremacy. They would also have their own contribution rankings.

Grey had taken over 99% of the benefits, that was why he had ended up with the key to the final Chapter of arc one. But because he didn’t know what it was and didn’t know how to take advantage of that, he had left it with Baron Giyoto.

Because of this, Grey had both ended up way ahead of the alien races, and somehow way behind at the same time.

Everyone remained silent as Grey thought, but Barkeep Ji’s grin was only growing wilder. He stared at Grey like he was looking at the most perfect specimen.

So sharp. Every time, he walked in here like a bumbling fool and yet he picked up on his clues faster than everyone else did.

Grey didn’t notice Barkeep Ji’s gaze, though. He realized that his shot at saving Thi Lan was right there. He could even kill two birds with a single stone.

If he could clear arc one, then he would release Thi Lan from her contract obligations and open up a method for him to teleport to the other zones to save the others as well.

But, to clear arc one, he had to clear Chapter two first. The question was... what was Chapter two?

Grey had read the tutorial introduction more thoroughly since his first skim through. He knew that skipping Chapters was impossible. But if Chapter two was as involved as Chapter three was, he just didn’t have the time.

If he went around trying to figure out what Chapter two was, he would just end up overshooting his own self-imposed deadlines and then everyone would die.

’An arc. It’s a story. It all has to be intertwined.’ Grey’s eyes glowed. ’The story... the story... the story...’

Grey suddenly stood up so violently the bolted bar stool he sat on was nearly ripped free from the ground. He got a warning about property damage, but he ignored it.

He got it.

Everything was intertwined, it was just that he was locked into one chaotic struggle after another so it was impossible for him to see it until he zoomed out.

What was the information he knew?

He knew that the Trolley Dukedom was destroyed in the past. How did that happen? It was because the Giyoto Empire was being attacked by Dark Kin and the Holy Empire was late to help.

As a result of that, the Giyoto Empire was destroyed and the Valdi and Enphro Dukedoms took the opportunity to lay the blame at their feet and destroy them.

What else did he know?

He knew that Baron Giyoto was allowed into the Holy Empire and given an honorary noble title in penance for the Holy Empire’s failure to help an ally.

He knew that Zone 234 had a Dark Kin infiltrate and take their highest position, someone that Giyoto wanted dead without a shadow of a doubt.

He knew that the Dark Kin had infiltrated other regions of the Empire as well, including the mid-tier city he had fought the Old One in.

The Dark Kin were encroaching more and more, and Giyoto seemed to be preparing something in order to deal with and counter them. Something he had been preparing for a very long time.

What did his gut tell him?

His gut told him that the Holy Empress was in on all of this from the very start, that she intentionally allowed the Giyoto Empire to fall for her own purposes, and now such an infestation was growing in her empire and her response seemed to be so very... lukewarm.

But what was odd about this Holy Empress was that Grey had killed one of her daughters in her own city, and yet instead of taking personal action, she just appeared like a giant in the air and... stared.

The lines were being connected one after another and Grey saw the map of a complex web of stories laying out before him one after another.

Grey didn’t say anything after he stood up. Instead, his eyes immediately shifted over to his map. He was looking for something, a connection, some important thread.

His eyes landed on Zone 234. It was right next to the border of the former Giyoto Empire. Out past it was nothing but blackened, chaotic lands.

His eyes then landed on the mid-tier city he had found the Mechanical Jaw Spirit in. He knew exactly where it was because it overlapped with one of his old maps, a map he had traded for specifically to get to the spirit.

And then his eyes landed on the Holy City in the middle of it all.

Grey’s eyes darted back and forth, and suddenly a pattern began to form. A pattern he had seen before.

A pattern that was outlined on the body of the incomplete armor in Giyoto and Globb’s possession.

And that was when the last piece of the puzzle clicked into place.

The underground catacombs beneath the church of zone 234.

Grey’s head snapped back and landed on Nebb.

His irises almost entirely swallowed his pupils, constricting them so finely they nearly vanished.