Jonathan had expected a competitive learning environment. He hadn't expected people he had never met to find trouble with him out of nowhere.

And he'd never met this guy. Jonathan would've remembered the smirk if he'd seen it before.

His would-be challenger cut a unique figure. He was at least as tall as Jonathan, at least as broad at the shoulders as Philip, and didn't look like he had skipped any days in the gym since the onset of puberty. Back in Jonathan's previous life he would have had major colleges knocking at his door begging him to play linebacker.

He also had silver piping on his uniform shirt, which Jonathan suspected was the cause of this altercation. He didn't look like the kind of person who was happy playing second fiddle to anybody.

After sizing Jonathan up for a long moment, he clicked his tongue dismissively and turned to Philip. "Anderson. I thought if anybody could take the top spot from me it would be you."

Philip gave him a grin. "Don't worry, Worthington, you'll have a chance to look up to me once the rankings come out."

"Not likely."

Worthington shook his head and turned back to Jonathan. "Don't get too comfortable with that gold trim. As soon as challenges open up I'll be there to knock you off your pedestal."

Jonathan shrugged. He'd been surprised that the instructors had put him on top to begin with. Obviously the initial rankings couldn't be expected to hold all year.

There were various official competitions held by the school that awarded merit points, as well as the personal challenge system that allowed anybody dissatisfied with their ranking to challenge somebody above them to a duel. Jonathan had always known that he'd only be able to hold onto the top spot if he was strong enough to defend it.

Besides, he'd come out ahead in the end no matter what. Once he was out in the military using a real mech in the real world, he'd experience a meteoric rise thanks to the Divine PilotSystem. In the meantime, it would hardly be a hardship to be an ordinary student at an extraordinary facility like the Royal Academy.

On the other hand, Jonathan didn't like having somebody interrupt his lunch to insult him right to his face. He wasn't as hot-headed as the average teenager, but he still had his pride.

"Talk is cheap," he said. "I'll be impressed if you can back it up."

Worthington gave him a hard stare. Jonathan held his eyes, calm. He'd think twice before picking a fight with a guy like Worthington in a dark alley, but they were in the middle of the Royal Academy. The academy encouraged a competitive spirit among its students, but extracurricular physical altercations would be harshly punished. After all, your performance in a brawl didn't have much to do with what you could accomplish as a mech pilot.

A moment passed. Jonathan was just starting to think that Worthington was really going to take a swing when insead he turned his head to the side and spit. With that, he turned and walked away.

Jonathan eyed the little glob of spittle on the ground, then looked up to see Philip grinning at him.

"Chad's gonna remember you," he said.

"You two know each other?" Jonathan asked. Philip and Chad Worthington certainly didn't look like friends, but they did seem to have some familiarity.

"He's been number one at Orion Prep for the last three years," Philip said, "while his brother was number one at the Royal Academy."

Jonathan thought back to that impressive end of year melee. "His brother fought with the wolf mech?"

Philip nodded. "The way he sees it, Chad has some big shoes to fill."

Jonathan waved a hand dismissively. "I'm not here to be his stepping stone."

"That's the spirit!" Philip said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Show him there's a new number one in town."

Jonathan sighed.

Really, they were already being put through a grueling course load, packing in a normal education together with mech pilot training. Jonathan felt a little stressed out just reading about the class schedule. He didn't understand how other students still had the energy to pick fights on their own time as well.

"You can expect his lackeys to send a bunch of challenges as soon as the system opens up," Philip said. "Once you kick them around some, the challenges will slow down."

One person winning one duel wasn't enough to overturn the rankings. A whole pack of people chipping away at Jonathan's lead, though, could cause quite the tumble if he didn't have his act together.

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Students were ranked based on their accumulated merit points. Right now, they only had the initial merit points that had been awarded based on the instructor's initial evaluations. Once school started, students would be able to earn merit points by performing well in exams, by completing their homework assignments, and by accumulating achievements in the virtual world.

One of the reasons Philip had been so eager to plow through the initial test and gain access to the virtual world was so that he could get a head start on the process. Most of the truly valuable virtual quests wouldn't be available until school started, but even accumulating small amounts of points could add up to something meaningful over time. Not to mention that Philip could use this time to lay the groundwork that would allow him to complete the high value quests quickly once they were opened up.

Jonathan wasn't worried about such things. He still felt that the most important thing was to establish a solid foundation of basic mech operation skills. After all, solid skills would keep him alive once the fighting was for real, while accolades earned in school would only ever be a bullet point on his resume.

Even if he had his heart set on keeping the top spot, though, he could more or less ignore the virtual world right now. What he wouldn't be able to ignore was the challenge system. Students could challenge their higher ranked fellows in order to try to move up the ladder. They had to pay a flat fee in merit points, and then put up another chunk of merit points as their wager. The winner of the fight would take home all of the wagered points.

There were some limits on the process, intended to prevent higher ranked students from being deluged by a constant stream of challenges. There were also limits on what could be wagered. If he avoided or lost enough fights in a row, though, his current pile of merit points would soon melt away.

On the other hand, if he could win a steady stream of fights, then the gap between himself and second place would only widen. Either way, Jonathan could only deal with events as they came.

Over the next few days, Jonathan continued grinding away on the entrance exam. The movement exams grew more and more complicated. Jonathan could tell that his skill was increasing rapidly, but the demands on his abilities were growing almost as fast.

Jonathan ran across the top of a high rise building. The pounding of his mech's feet caused the rooftop beneath him to groan. He activated his mech's flight pack. Flying across the obstacle course would see him out of power before he could get halfway through the test, but he could spare enough juice to take just a little bit of weight off of each footfall. He needed it to keep him moving smoothly across the roof instead of having his mech's foot crash through and crush somebody's cubicle.

He'd failed the test that way three times.

He didn't slow down even when he started running out of roof. He planted his front foot against the edge and launched himself forward. At the same time he flared the power going to flight, adding a little bit of juice to the movement.

Jonathan soared through the air, the many tons of his mech resting lightly on his shoulders. Now in his fourth day of practice, the mech was starting to feel more comfortable than his school uniform. He confirmed his landing point and then chanced a glance behind him. The skyscraper stood out, a landmark in the city skyline, completely unblemished.

Jonathan was tired of losing points for environmental damage.

He was pretty sure he'd worked out his landing strategy. His next waypoint was a building about half the height of his launch point. The roof was angled down and away from him. He knew from experience that his mech was more than capable of collapsing the whole structure if he just tried to plant his feet on his landing spot.

Jonathan flared his flight pack again, just before landing. As soon as his first metal foot touched down he leaned forward, moving into a roll. The sound of metal continually crashing against metal seemed more appropriate for a car crash than an acrobatic maneuver, but as far as Jonathan could tell he was at least moving down along the roofline without carving out any marks of his progress.

This time he reached the edge of the building while he was still inverted. There was nothing for it but to shove out with his arms, launching himself in an impromptu handspring.

He was still spinning as he flew through the air. Jonathan was pulling on the dregs of his spiritual energy now, after the last few maneuvers took their toll. Still, he was just able to nudge his flight path, gradually slowing his tumble until it was a more ordinary fall.

He didn't have anything left to soften the landing. Jonathan and his mech crashed into the small red X painted on the pavement like a meteor. He swore he could hear the legs of his mech groan as they absorbed the sudden stop. Enough momentum bled through that he fell to one knee, bracing himself with his free hand against the ground.

Fortunately, the end point of the exercise was specially reinforced by the virtual world. If he pulled a stunt like that in the middle of a real city, he'd definitely be pulling himself out of the sewer system afterwards.

He could feel the mechanical shoulders of the mech trembling as he tried to pant for breath. It didn't do anything, of course, but it was hard for cold logic to triumph over natural instinct after such an intense experience. Jonathan took a moment to steady himself before rising his feet and taking the assertive pose of a proper mech pilot.

With a soft ding, the message he'd been trying to earn for the last two days finally appeared.

[Congratulations on passing the final movement test with a score of 100%!]

Jonathan didn't even mind that there was no other reward than the right to pass through to the next test. The sheer relief from the fact that he hadn't blown the whole run with his hard landing had a grin spreading across his face. Maybe he'd earned some bonus points earlier on.

Really, though, the process was his own reward. When Jonathan thought back to his early attempts at the test, blundering through the city more like a rampaging movie monster than a guardian of humanity, the difference from his more recent performance was like night and day. He felt comfortable in the skin of the mecha now. He barely had to think when he moved, even for the more sophisticated maneuvers. Before, even just lightening the load his mech was putting on the ground had taken a great deal of focus.

He was really starting to feel like a proper mech operator, not just a newbie fumbling around with a massive weapon system. He couldn't help but be excited by his progress.

He was less thrilled when he exited the training pod to find that Philip had gained entry to the virtual world. He was happy for his friend, of course, but it was still a little frustrating to feel like he was falling behind. All he could do, though, was put his head down and work hard on the next test.