As Axton fiddled with the other War Suits, the Players contented themselves with small talk. It was so much easier to talk to the people from the ‘Kurds and Wei’ Company now that they weren’t acting like cheesy B-Movie characters, and the connections between those present grew deeper than one would have expected. Sure, at the end of the day they were all competitors that were aiming to end each other so that they or their group could claim victory in this Battle Royale, but there was no point in being all-in all the time.

Times like these were perfect for lowering stress and making sure everyone knew that, at the end of the day, they were all just in this for the fun of it. After all, the worst thing that could happen to them in this game within a game was that their War Suit gets taken out and makes them have to respawn.

Despite the fact that the ‘grace period’ where attacking other competitors had lifted more than a few hours ago, those stuck here underground in a Dungeon had no intention of wiping each other out. After all, they had only recently discovered that at least one type of mob down here was mostly immune to ranged attacks, which meant that a number of the pilots (and their War Suits) were up shit creek without a paddle if forced to fend for themselves.

As Axton had put it, they all needed to play nice for now and act as a group, even if only until after they had left the Dungeon. And, while that would normally be a bitter pill to swallow, having seen Axton’s willingness to rush headlong into combat while exposing himself to any ‘friendly’ fire as well as his openness about the true nature of the tags was enough to convince at least the vast majority of Players that they could and should trust him and his word.

Add in the fact that he was willingly and freely repairing their War Suits, but also adding systems that would make it impossible for the tags to do anything to them. And, of course, if you added that he had gone out of his way to offer to install any extra add-ons that he could, and it made even the most skeptical Player come to the realization that Axton was, despite the propaganda, just a nice guy who wanted to have fun with other people.

Axton was nearly finished with his modifications anyway, and as the pilots looked over the stats and features of their War Suits their positive opinion of Axton and, by proxy, Thomas, only grew more intense. The man had, without being asked, optimized a decent number of systems and subsystems, which, at least on paper, made the modified War Suits even better at fighting.

The man was a saint, or at least acted like one. Too bad that he wasn’t interested in telling them that he had, while working on their War Suits, gathered a lot of data on those Suits, their parts, and their capabilities. Well, it wasn’t like he needed to use it now, and it wasn’t like he intended to hack them, but knowing your allies' strength helps greatly if and when they become enemies, right?

…

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Once he was finished, Axton wiped the sweat and grime from himself. It had taken only around half a day of solid work, but he had managed to finish what he had set out to do. These War Suits were now going to be completely unaffected by any malicious bullshit that the cheating bastards that made these tags would try and pull, though the same could not be said for other War Suits.

Franken and Spider-Can had also had their final modifications done, or at least the current final modifications. They, too, no longer needed to cause worry regarding the cheaters finding out that their backdoor wasn’t working as they had intended. And, to top it all off, Axton had successfully been able to copy some data from each War Suit that he had worked on.

It wasn’t anything that he could use to, say, control or exploit those War Suits. No, he wasn’t that much of a two-faced bastard. No, the data he had copied was simple stuff that would inevitably help him in the long run. Most parts came with damaged or incomplete data when salvaged, so getting data that was complete and working was a godsend to someone like himself.

Now he knew, or at least could find out, how best to use certain pieces of equipment and War Suit parts without necessarily needing to get hands-on them or trying to use those parts himself. Could he exploit his new knowledge to better fight these other War Suits and their pilots? Certainly. But would he use them in that way? More than likely he would not.

It just would not be fun or fair, and such a course of action was only reserved for people that he despised or who had gone out of their way to make him an enemy. These people, though, were neither of such things, so the data would merely act as a helpful bit of minor guidance for if and when he decided to build another War Suit. Sally Grey would obviously be interested in that data as well, so it was a bit of a win-win.

They all got their War Suits repaired and slightly upgraded, and he got some useful data and a few new friends. Like had been said above, it was a win-win for everyone except the cheaters. But regardless of ethics and the like, his work was done for now. Now he just wanted a shower to help him clean off this grease and grime.

Well, if this had taken place in reality, he would certainly have needed it, but the game was a game, and the stains and detritus that had formerly covered him from head to toe began to fade away, leaving Axton to eventually be spotlessly clean, though the sensation of being covered in sticky, greasy fluids still hung in the back of his mind.

Turning to the group of other Players, Axton gave a thumbs up and made his way back into Franken’s cockpit. The other Players packed up their camping gear and followed suit, though they were entering their own War Suits and not Franken. As Axton settled into his seat he watched the sensors and other systems come online, eventually letting him once again see the world around him from nearly every angle.

Franken turned towards the distance, lowered its stance, and let the treads on the soles of its feet peel out. As Franken moved deeper into the Dungeon, it was followed by no fewer than 20 other War Suits. It didn’t matter what type of Dungeon this was, because they would crush it and its denizens and get back to the real battle that was no doubt raging above their heads.

Axton checked the data in the cockpit about the Dungeon he and the others were in and saw the estimated minimum for challenging this place was around 5 ‘light’ War Suits. He snickered to himself as he looked back at the metal men behind himself. Oh, yeah. This would be a slaughter.

Too bad he didn’t notice that the average level that one should have been before challenging this Dungeon was, at minimum, five levels above his own.