Grey slapped the Command Class Cyber Warp onto his chest, his pupils dilated. He finally felt a bit of pressure on his mind, a stream of information flooding in.

Luckily, before he felt like his brain stem would burst at the seams, his mind quickly began to bundle the information together, breaking it down into bite sized pieces, splitting them off into chunks of memory that fit well elsewhere, and digesting it all even faster.

Almost instinctually, Grey lowered the output of his Linear and Resonant aspects of his Neural Frame, and then enhanced his Recursive and Branching aspects.

The efficiency skyrocketed and the seconds whizzed by. Then, in just 37 seconds, Grey’s eyes regained their focus and he looked down at himself, feeling a bit of awe.

His Frame had reacted like that on instinct. He had hardly had any input into it at all, but it felt like he had just gained a little insight into something.

He was used to activating Frames on their own, but he never really thought about doing the same with his Neural Frames themselves.

Now that Grey thought about it, that was probably counterproductive in some respects. Allowing his Frames to gain some aspects of Neural Frame Types they shouldn’t have was actually quite good.

For example, the defensive aspects of his Last Paladin Frame gained quite a lot from being connected to his Branching Neural Frame. And the comprehension and opponent reading aspects of his Vampire Lord Frame gained a lot from being connected to a Recursive Neural Frame.

Grey hadn’t actively realized this until now, though.

’But if I tap into Core Sync, and then I use certain aspects of my Neural Frame to enhance specific abilities...’

Grey’s red eyes glowed. He felt like he had stumbled onto something exceptionally high level. If he managed to do this, the results could be... devastating.

Well, for his enemies that is.

’Shit. Focus. One more.’

Grey raised the Dominion Class Cyber Warp. This was the last one. So long as he could incorporate this, he had a shot at doing what he needed to do.

He stared at the teleportation platform and took a deep breath. This was what he was working toward.

’I can fucking do this. Let’s go.’

Grey slapped it onto his chest and it immediately felt like his mind exploded.

Blood poured out from his nose and from between his teeth as he clenched them.

He held his breath, not because he wanted to, or even subconsciously, but because he knew that if he took even a single one, he just might lose control of whatever grip he had left.

All the while, Grey hardly thought about the information streaming into his mind.

He thought about his grandfather first. The old man couldn’t watch what was happening now, but he must have seen what was going on. Maybe for the sake of the program and entertainment, with such a big event happening, they might have even broadcast his contract without consent.

In fact, maybe that was the real reason the company name was redacted. They didn’t want to associate themselves with the bullshit they had sent him. It would prove whichever Race they were working on behalf of weak, prove that they needed pressuring tactics like this to deal with them.

On the one hand, never seeing Grey on the screen would make the old man worry.

But on the other, seeing him like this, all the time, was bound to take a toll on him.

Grey wanted to be able to prove a point, he wanted his grandfather to be watching at the edge of his seat to see what badass thing his grandson would do next, not this constant, perpetual sort of life on the edge bullshit he was dealing with instead.

He wanted to be strong, to be untouchable, to show his grandfather that there was nothing in the world to worry about so long as he was here.

After his grandfather had spent his whole life protecting him, it was time for Grey to do something other than make the old man worry all the time.

And then Grey thought about the others he had put in the line of fire. He thought about the friendships he was slowly, but finally building. He thought about Amunet and the rage he still felt toward her, rage he didn’t know what to do with or how to fix.

He thought of Thi Lan and how the first words she had said to him were in protection of a gnome she thought he was insulting, how she had signed her life away instead of running when she very well had the chance.

There was no way he would allow himself to fail.

If he had to, he would die a million times over so that those close to him wouldn’t have to experience it even once.

BANG.

Grey’s head exploded. He wasn’t able to withstand it.

But when his vision cleared, he was already back in that familiar room. And without wasting even a single moment, he slapped the Dominion Cyber Warp onto his chest again.

This time, he made it further.

BANG.

And again, his head exploded.

And again, he didn’t wait a single moment before slapping it onto his chest again.

He could already feel his soul splitting apart, he could feel his nose starting to bleed before he even slapped the Cyber Warp to his body. He could feel that there was a weight to the information, an expanse that came with the Dominion Class that he just couldn’t bridge normally.

But every time he died, he took another larger bite out of it. And every time he did, he took an even larger bite after that. Like a virus that was rapidly spreading, the information he gained leached and cancerously grew across all the other nodes of information.

Until, on the fifth slap of his chest, he unleashed a gasping roar as he crossed the finish line, his body nearly collapsing and his head feeling swollen and spongy.

’Not yet... I can’t give in just yet...’