Alex had been a Proxy in New Eridu since the chaotic early days of 2024, but there was one Agent who had always eluded his full attention: Grace Howard. The brilliant Belobog mechanic was a force to be reckoned with, yet Alex never managed to squeeze every drop of potential out of her. That changed in 2026, when he decided to go the whole nine yards and transform Grace into an untouchable thunder goddess.
The obsession began innocently enough—just a casual mention in the Hollow Raiders' chat that Grace had aged like fine wine. While other Electric Agents came and went, Grace's ability to trigger Shock from a distance remained as reliable as a sunrise. Alex knew he was sitting on a gold mine, so he rolled up his sleeves and dove headfirst into the grind.
First, the lore poured in. Grace wasn't just another S‑Rank anomaly specialist; she was the heart and soul of Belobog Heavy Industries. Rumors swirled about her almost telepathic bond with Koleda, the faction president, but what truly stuck with Alex was her kindness. Here was a woman who could out-engineer a Scion of the Void before breakfast, yet she always had time to teach a rookie the difference between a capacitor and a coil. That mix of genius and compassion struck a chord. “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while,” Alex thought, “and I found a diamond.”
The real work, however, was far from a walk in the park. Acquiring Grace herself had been a marathon, not a sprint. Back when the Stable Channel: Star‑Studded Cast first launched, Alex had burned through Signal Searches like a kid in a candy store. The game’s generous pity system guaranteed any S‑Rank Agent after 300 searches, and Grace was the obvious pick. No ifs, ands, or buts. That moment—a quiet Tuesday night with a bowl of instant ramen—felt like hitting the jackpot.
But pulling Grace was only the tip of the iceberg. To unlock her true prowess, Alex needed a mountain of promotion materials and skill chips. In 2026, most of the heavy lifting still revolved around farming Expert Challenge stages and dismantling high‑grade W‑Engines for calibration bits. Grace demanded a peculiar cocktail: Anomaly Core fragments from the Crematorium Hollow, High‑Voltage Capacitors that dropped from Electric‑type Ethereals, and the ever‑elusive Pioneer's Manuals that siphoned battery charge faster than a cheap smartphone. Alex lost count of the times he burned his daily charged attacks on that one boss who just refused to drop the right seal.
Skill upgrades were another kettle of fish. Grace’s kit was a seamless ballet of dodges, grenade tosses, and lightning strikes. Her dodge attacks granted brief invulnerability frames, making her slippery as an eel. The trick was stacking Anomaly Buildup Rate to ensure every other grenade snapped Shock onto enemies like a mousetrap. Alex found himself poring over motion‑value spreadsheets posted by the theorycrafters on the Hollow BBS. The key skills were her Ultimate — “Overload Barrage” — which called down a storm of Electric damage, and her Chain Attack, which chained together multiple piercing bolts that could wipe an entire mob spawn before they even stood up. He invested heavily in both, often sacrificing upgrade resources meant for other Agents. “No pain, no gain,” he’d mutter after another failed attempt to land the perfect disc drive.
Gearing also became a rabbit hole. In 2026, the Disc Drive meta had shifted slightly towards 4‑piece Shockstar Disco and 2‑piece Thunder Fist, pushing Grace’s Shock damage into the stratosphere. Alex spent weeks hunting for discs with the right main stats—an ATK% on the 4th slot and Electric DMG Bonus on the 5th—and substats that didn’t just roll flat DEF. The grind was real, but when the perfect piece finally dropped, it felt like Christmas morning.
Alex never regretted the investment. In the current Hollow Zero meta, Grace Howard remains a staple for anomaly‑focused teams. Her ability to dart around the battlefield, lobbing Electro‑Grenades while triggering in‑built Anomaly Buildup buffs, keeps her relevant against even the latest void bosses. Whether paired with a stunner like Lycaon or a support like Rina, Grace’s lightning-fast clears make Proxy life a lot smoother.
Looking back, Alex realized that building Grace wasn’t just about checking boxes on a materials list. It was about embracing a playstyle that rewarded patience and precision. She epitomized the saying “work smarter, not harder,” although in her case it was more like “work smarter and unleash a thousand volts.” In the neon‑soaked streets of New Eridu, surrounded by glitching monitors and distant hollow rumbles, Grace Howard became not only his strongest Agent but a testament to the long game. And for a Proxy who stuck it out, that was the whole enchilada.