Red Out

—Yes, by making an example out of them—

The woman developed a relieved smile when she realized that "making examples out of people" was a normal life-saving technique in Grey's world.

This fact seemed to bring her peace after hearing about what happened to Marion.

Seeing her smile, Grey sighed inwardly.

'I hate it when she assumes that I'm a good person. It always makes things… awkward later on.' He thought bitterly.

"What did you do to make an example out of them?" she asked pensively.

"That… I walked around with their weapons and one of their arms. Since they were high-class weapons, and it was a very large arm, it was highly effective for the most part." He explained casually as if he was proud of it.

"One of their arms!?" She exclaimed under her breath. The shock almost led her to wake Adam up.

Grey glided his eyes over to Adam to see if he was still enjoying his rest before gliding them back to the woman.

A nervous set of eyes were awaiting him.

"Yes, since I didn't have any faction affiliation tattoos, or body enhancements, it was necessary to show that I wasn't weak and defenseless." He explained.

"B-But an arm? Did you cut it off? What happened?" She asked with a quivering voice.

Grey sighed inwardly. 'See, this always ends up happening.'

"He ripped his own arm off; I didn't do it personally." He clarified.

"H-He what? I don't know how that makes things any better! What happened!?" She exclaimed under her breath.

Grey sighed openly. "He took Red Out."

The woman's eyes went wide with shock.

"He really took Red Out?" She asked hesitantly.

"Yes. While he was attacking me, I dry modded his shoulder with a gravity patch. When he cleaved down recklessly, it ripped apart his arm." He explained.

"After taking Red Out, he ripped his arm off in order to keep attacking me."

[Once the maximum amount of endorphins the body can create hit Eloguent's brain, he temporarily regained control over his thoughts.

While Michael was strategizing on how to handle Dikines, Eloguent opened his item storage and pulled out a red pill.

This pill was a drug called Red Out. It was an extremely expensive and taxing drug that used cutting-edge medical research to apply attributes to a user's physical body without it going haywire.

Unlike body modifications, these drugs increased the "stats" of the user's real body.

It applied weight type modifications, speed enhancements, and physical attributes like hardening to the body.

These "stats" came at a price, however. Taking this drug allowed users to push past their limits, which resulted in their bodies breaking down beyond the point of healing.

To do this, Red Out contained heavy painkillers and amphetamines, which allowed the user to push past their body's limits without their body stopping them with pain signals.

This drug cocktail could only be described as one thing—

[A suicide bomber drug]

If you took the drug, you were telling your opponent: "I'm dying and taking you with me."

Eloguent put the capsule into his mouth and bit down like it was a cyanide pill.

When Michael saw the red pill going into Eloguent's mouth, he realized that things were about to go to hell in a handbasket.

Eloguent had officially evolved into his final form: Tweak.

"I'm going to fucking kill you!" He roared as the drug hit his tongue.

Unlike normal drugs that take a second to kick in, digitally created drugs like this are instantaneous.

Despite threatening Michael, he still couldn't move, however. A devastating amount of gravity was still pushing down on a shoulder that couldn't function anymore.

If he were to rip the arm off, he would immediately start dying from blood loss.

Tweak couldn't think anymore, however. When he took Red Out, it was under the expectation he would die. He couldn't care less about silly things like blood loss or the costs of poor amputation.

The groaning animal just a few feet away from Michael used his exoskeleton's legs to hurdle him to the left at a frightening pace.

It was a lucky development. If Tweak moved to the right, he might have rolled into Michael and broken his legs.

When he ripped his arm off, blood spurted out violently, drenching Michael's face and clothing in a disturbing display of violence.

Michael was officially a walking crime scene. While this was what Michael originally wanted, it was very bad timing.

Having blood spattering on him caused distortions in the light waves around him, which meant—

"There you are, you fuckin' freak! Did you think that I wouldn't kill you once I realized your stupid tricks?"

Dikines could finally see the general position of his real body. Moreover, he had to move, but walking even a few feet from his current position would reveal his actual body permanently.

Also—

"Sebastian, use your common sense!" He whispered under his breath. Tweak had just rolled less than four feet away from Sebastian, who was still refusing to walk.

Dikines was running at him with a Claymore, Tweak would be returning any second for his cutlass, and Sebastian getting tossed out of the way would kill him.

"I'm dead."]