He didn’t expect much from that encounter. Maybe he would get some sales? who knows. What he knows is that the mech building system highly values mech building. And it could get into the virtual space which is like an add-on but more invasive. Jay feels like this Mech building system is more and more impressive by the minute.
This is like a state of the art tech from sector 1…. It can’t be right?
Why would a state of the art tech from sector 1 be here out of all the places? Conticus II is a mining planet that’s part of the Yulan star sector. A fairly new star sector with a history spanning only 4000 or so years.
This is a place considered to be the F-class of the universe, barely could be called a civilization by their standard. Most of the people here are descendants of an escapee or a businessman who couldn’t fight the market. The chance of sector 1 state of the art technology here is 0.0000000000001%
Did I win big?
Still, he couldn’t answer, if this is indeed a state of the art technology, it would mean that someone must have dropped it. He couldn’t see a reason why this thing would be given out for free. There must be a price or there might be someone looking for it.
This piece of equipment can make anyone a mech designer with little to no effort. They only need to endure the pain that it gives, but that’s certainly less painful than cramming a whole mech design inside your head normally.
If Jay were to lose this, he would be angry. If someone from Sector 1 wants this tech back, they could just forcefully take it from him. Even a normal citizen there is much more powerful than a leader of this planet.
Jay wouldn’t stand a chance with such a person.
He keeps his thoughts to himself and walks back home in silence. Back there he could enjoy another cooked meal. This time it's “chicken meat” as their advertisement said. But when he went to set up the table a notification came in.
[Congratulations you just finished [Get started with virtual space!] quest]
[You’ve earned 1 upgrade token]
That’s nice!
He didn’t expect that this meal would feel this much better. The chicken even has more flavors when he eats it after he gets the quest done. He quickly checked the Snaky streaming account, and to his surprise, it had been streaming for some time.
12 wins 7 lost
Streamers like to put their win and loss on their screen to catch people up on what they have been doing. And on the screen, Snaky was pulling all kinds of maneuvers, the [Weird arm] has many layers to its control. And Snaky has been taking advantage of how strange it is. Not only does he have good control but he could also pull some tricks with his opponent.
Snaky discovered that the legs could grab onto many things and the arm could make that maneuver many times more unpredictable. Right now his leg is grabbing onto another mech leg and the [weird arm] body is lying on the ground. The opponent tried to shake him off with a gunshot but the laser sword was faster.
It bisects his opponent in half, earning his 13th win.
I never knew the mech could do that
That was the difference in synchronization rate and a difference in experience. When he first thought of the mech, he imagined it could be a dirty sword man that could strike in impossible positions but he never thought it could be this dirty, Jay quickly sent him a message.
“Thank you for trying my mech! Never thought it could do that”
“Oh yeah! Danny’s friend. Thank you for the mech.. your name is Jay right?”
“Yep, was it good?”
“It was fantastic. Well, it couldn’t match up to a really well-built mech but it dominated the shabby and normal mech. Maybe I could even push for Gold! Also, could you add a back camera to the mech? It would be nice to see what I’m hitting and preferably a tracking system for a range weapon.”
“Oh, sorry forgot to add that, Maybe in the next build.”
“I like to see what you come up with! You rock!”
Jay feels a sense of accomplishment. He feels good whenever someone appreciates his hard work. Even with the system he still has to put the mech together by himself. So it’s rather great that someone enjoys it.
He opens his Iron Body account on his smartwatch and sees that they brought 17 copies of his mech. Someone actually spends their money on his mech. It’s the first time they didn’t buy it for art.
To buy a mech in Iron Body one has to top up their in-game money for the mech. So What Jay got was real, in-game money. Some even made a living selling virtual mechs. Some even made real-world connections with it and many would be glad to sell their mech online since it was cheaper than running a company and safer than hiring people and buying a real license
Should I go there? No
Jay would be stuck with the Iron Body game. And he didn’t like the sound of his career being tied to a game. Another point is that he would need a ton of money in advertising to compete with other mech builders out there and he only had about 8000 left to his name. It’s an improvement but it is futile in the grand scheme of things.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
He still has his debt of 1,000,000 Gib which has never been clear. Jay would like to use this time to stack up money so that he could pay them whenever they found out that he was not dead.
When he was checking his mech account he also also scrolls past an advertisement for a mech competition. The detail is a bit vague but it said that only the apprentice mech designer or lower could participate. The prize is a 5,000,000 gib and a tutor under an Omnicorp mech builder for 1 month.
[Quest - Scarping Forge]
[Detail - Get into Scarping Forge competition]
[Reward - 100 Mech points]
The system seemed to be very excited when Jay read that information. Jay thinks that it was most likely the Omni Corp offer that interests the system. He checked the criteria out and from what he saw, he could easily apply to it if it wasn’t for 1 condition.
He has to have a pilot buddy
The mech designer could apply as a team but they also have to have their pilot to control their mech. The competition also offers the pilot a nice reward, An opportunity to train at the Yulan main Mech pilot university. Which guaranteed that if you finished the course you’d be at least a planar mech pilot.
That position comes with wealth and powers, an aspiring mech pilot would want to become a planar mech pilot someday.
Jay has one pilot in mind, the only one he knows. He called up the guy.
“Hey wanna participate in Scarping Forge competition?”
“Oh I heard about that, many of my classmates have applied but I don’t like it much, Just not my style ya know,” Snaky said “Thank you for the offer though.”
“No worry, call me again if you’re interested”
Jay's first option is gone, he goes to a second one which he is quite reluctant to do since this guy would absolutely request a mech art from him.
Do I have to do the quest?
The reward isn’t that good for Jay right now since he is also sitting on a lot of points. However, Jay thinks that this is most likely the first quest in the series of quests. If he has to guess it would need him to win the competition.
Whatever
He has nothing better to do right now, So he does what he always does and follows the system. He calls up Zaud.
“Hello, ready for another project?” Zaud asks brimming with excitement
“No, I just want to ask you if you could help me enter the scraping forge”
“Oh, the new competition by the Omni Corp?” Zaud muse “That would certainly interest a young mech designer but I’m afraid my museum already has a representative…”
“I could do more art for you right now..”
“But” Zaud changed his tune when he heard that “I could advertise for you to a pilot that might be interested”
“I couldn’t be your representative? I could give you more art”
“I’d love to have those,” Zaud said with a hollowing tone “But sadly, this spot is very reserved, they paid much more than your mech art could produce. However, I could still hook you up with some pilots”
“That sounds weird…” Jay said, “Never mind what do you need?”
“Since it’s not much work on my part, I only need one mech art from you,” Zaud said over the smartwatch
“Before terra mech style?”
“Preferably,” Zaud said, “I’ll end the call here, if you need some funds just tell Josh. He will also be the one managing your advertisement, hope you get a partner soon!”
Jay ends the call with a smile. It’s not guaranteed but he wouldn’t lose much if he couldn’t get in. A second later he received a mysterious call number, He assumed it was Josh.
“Hello”
“Hello,” The voice sounds unenthusiastic “Stop scamming my master.”
That is not the direction I expected…
“Your boss is not that dumb, right?” Jay retorts “And he’s the one that suggests working with him and besides he values my work.”
“My Master is smart but not when it’s art,” Josh said with slight disgust “I know people like you just want to leach off my master. Call him, apologize to him and I will let this slide. we won’t meet again.”
“Is this a Prank?”
“Does it sound like one?”
“.....”
Josh seems to be very mean toward lower rank, Jay has seen these guys all the time but he didn't expect to see it here. Jay is dumbfounded at how this guy and Zaud could be so different.
“I don’t think your master would like your attitude”
“You don’t know my master,” Josh said angrily “He would be glad that I kick out a junk like you from working with him.”
“I don’t think you could disobey your master though?”
“Last chance,” Josh said “If you call my boss now we could be on our separate ways, if not you’re gonna hurt.”
“Is that a threat? Aren’t you scared that I will record this and send you to your boss?”
“You blew it.”
“What!?”
The call ended and Jay couldn’t be more scared. Why the hell is Josh so hell-bent on getting rid of him? Jay couldn’t put a finger on the reason but it doesn’t seem to be a simple hatred. If he was a C-class hater, he would just tell the C-class off but never kill him.
Will I die a second time!?
Jay rushes out of his room and checks down the hallway, no one has come yet.
Is this just a prank?
Jay wouldn’t bet on it. Josh sounds too serious to just be a prank. He looks again and then decides to escape to a different part of the city. Jay assumed that Josh knew his address already, Even he, could find the address of a random citizen he met before. josh could properly do that or better.
Jay taps his smart watch and tries to send the call over to Zaud but the Net doesn’t seem to connect. Either Zaud's battery died, out of the service area or He put the watch on busy mode. In any case, Jay couldn’t reach Zaud.
That’s why Josh was so confident
He knew that Zaud couldn’t answer his plea and by the time Josh's men hunt him down it would all blow over. Jay would only be remembered as another insignificant mech artist. This is too convenient, isn’t it? Jay grits his teeth and quickly moves himself to an elevator.