The Terrorway

"Even though Sebastian could walk, it didn't mean that he was in any position to walk. So, naturally, I had to carefully prep him to move through the alley.

Especially since all the entry points were located in the most deadly street in Dark Paradise." He explained.

"Saving Sebastian was literally the worst thing you could have done when you showed up, wasn't it?" She asked.

"Correct."

"Did you know that it was the worst thing you could have done?" She asked with sharp eyes.

"Correct."

"Don't keep saying 'correct' like it's a universally justifiable answer.

Just when I was starting to believe that trouble finds you, you go and remind me that you're equally responsible." She asserted, sighing with a sense of defeat.

"...Incorrect?"

"No, don't do that either! Tell me about the alley. You said it was one of the most dangerous locations in Dark Paradise. What was it called?" She asked curiously.

"I'm not sure what your team called the alleyway outside of that building, but on the street it was called 'The Terrorway.'" He replied, saying the name without the slightest hint of shame.

"The… Terrorway?" She asked, furrowing her brows. "You mean like, smashing the words 'terror' and 'highway' together?" She asked in confusion.

"...I think so." He commented, cringing inwardly.

"That's extremely… tacky." She remarked, wincing in the process. "Were any of the other street names less horrendous?"

"No." He replied. "Absolutely everything about Dark Paradise was equally awful."

"Don't you think that's a bit of a stretch after what you just told… actually, I'll trust your judgment."

She was about to say that street names couldn't possibly be worse than what happened to Sebastian.

She thought better of it, however. It didn't take her long before realizing that Grey was always modest about these types of responses.

If he said the street names were as bad as his welcome party, she definitely didn't want to know what they said.

"Anyway… you made it to the 'Terrorway,' it was empty while I was there. What was it like?"

"You know that tourist strip in the middle of every major world city?" He asked casually.

"It was kind of like that, if you replaced the shuttle rentals with slave rentals, the clothing stores with death gear shops, and the massage parlors with… scratch that, the massage parlors were the same as always."

"..."

The woman looked at him with dead eyes after hearing this.

"I'll never forget the store called 'The Moms and Pops Shop.'"

"That's... I'm not going to touch that." She said, wishing that she never asked about this godforsaken wasteland, to begin with.

They shared a brief moment of silence after that.

"I'm probably going to regret asking this, as I've only ever regretted asking this question, but…

…what happened next?"

"Three Brawlers tried dry mod us turn us into sex slaves." He replied casually, as if it was only natural.

"Were you in the alley less than five minutes before this happened?" She asked with depleted eyes.

"No, luckily it was around six minutes." He countered.

"You say that like it's a huge improvement compared to your first incident…" Her words were dripping with an exceptional level of sarcasm.

"I think so. If the time it took for people to attack me were like the stock market, that'd be like… a 20% gain, yeah?

It had only been in Dark Paradise for a few hours. That growth rate is phenomenal." He explained, face deadpan and lifeless as ever.

The woman glared at him with a 'hah hah, I'm going to strangle you,' sort of look after she heard his argument.

"So let me guess, you told them to 'fuck off' again?" She asked sarcastically, remembering the first incident.

"No, I didn't." He replied.

Her eyes came to life with curiosity and suspicion after hearing his reply.

"Then what did you say to them?" She asked.

"I told them to kill themselves."