His head didn’t feel it but his body felt it, no he lacked the feel of it. The simulation pod saves him from a sudden demise and Jay needs to act fast. hours is barely enough for Jay to rewire the whole thing. The [ mech recycler I] helped him tremendously in adapting each part together.
The Yarman wire felt clear to him.
“Jay, what's wrong?” Sally is slightly worried, Jay seems like he is about to die.
“Nothing”
He lied and went to work. Frantically would be an understatement. His brain goes into panic mode trying to connect the wire and redo many parts. The [Double dangers] took on a better look with every new wire being connected.
“S..should I call the medic?”
Sally gets more worried when Jay goes faster and faster into building the mech. It looks nothing like the guy she knew before, Jay works like a machine trying to save itself. In Jay's perspective, he did everything I could muster to do. Rewiring the part to fit together.
[Warning your brain will shut down in 2 hours]
An hour passed like a bullet and Jay finished his rewiring of the mech. It connects flawlessly and works together as it is supposed to. His solution is not to break down the Yarman wiring but to make other wiring into a Yarman one. Jay went so fast that the wiring looked like a snake sliding on top of each other, the whole nest of snakes.
I did it… but it’s not enough.
This is the only C grade he needs to go beyond this to avoid his death. His only option is to push it to be graded to get the upgrade token. He is stuck, in his opinion, his mech is already perfect, it works and it’s perfect for Sally.
Is it thou?
Is it perfect for Sally? or was just working enough to get a higher grade? He needs something more, a perfect fit for her, or push this piece into extraordinary. He wants to make more than this, make it his masterpiece.
He looks at the mech, it has been through extensive use and each part is a secondhand part. a question popped into his head “Could this be turned into a masterpiece?”. Then he shakes his head,
No, I have to turn this into a masterpiece.
[Warning your brain will shut down in an hour]
2 hours in, he finally got something. a faint trace of brilliance. A number faded into existence, he saw this before but on a larger scale. his brain couldn’t remember but he felt it, this is something extraordinary.
For a brief moment, Jay eyes didn’t move, Staring at the numbers numbers. his mind wonders whether this is real or it’s just his brain that is about to shut down. He knew something, something was there for him to grasp.
His hand moved the tool and began to modify the mech. He changed parts and tweak things, more than he would normally do. A faded trace of the number guided him somehow, he saw it all over the place like street graffiti. When he does something, it either disappears or becomes higher. The emch is becoming something more at a rather fast rate.
10 minute remaining
Jay laid all of his tools down. The mech that emerges from this has something different. This is his creation but he is unfamiliar with it. The little change here and there made it a different mech with the same parts.
If the last one looks like mishmash junk, this one looks like a proper mercenary mech. However, it’s missing something. Jay replaced the main sub-machine gun with a chainsaw but still kept it on the torso.
I need something more
He felt like he was missing the last piece, something that tied all of this down together. Something to complete this entire mech. He turns to look at Sally, who is also looking at Jay. her worried eyes met his.
A flash of inspiration hit him, he knew what was missing. He begrudgingly summons a paint and colors the whole mech. A shade of pink mixed with trim black lines shower the whole mech. When he was done, he could finally call it his masterpiece.
[You have completed a quest.]
[You’ve just earned 1 upgrade token]
[Dual dangers]
[Class: Medium weight]
[Grade: A]
[Build by Jay Rolona]
[A mix-up of many different mechs. design to survive the first round of Scrapping Forge. Have a high responsive time for a mech that was assembled from different broken parts. Design specifically to be compatible with Pilot Sally Kert. Its pink color begged for other people's attention.]
”Wow…”
Sally marvels at the pink masterpiece. Jay still doesn't like the color, but the mech is too perfect to change it.
[Warning your brain will shut down in 5 minutes]
Jay also got reminded of his mortality. The quest reward has already gone into his inventory and he quickly uses it.
[Bigger brain]
improve brain capacity to 200 making it harder to forget information.
He brought it in a heartbeat, or he would not have one. This time his brain didn't hurt, it's just that his mind felt more at peace. He lay down, exhausted from the work he had done. His real body is not in fatigue but his mind is.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Are you OK?” After he lay down Sally came in to check his condition, no matter how you look at it Jay is not OK.
“I’m fine… Just a little tied”
“Are you on drugs?”
“Heck, no” Maybe before he died but not now.
“Then what the hell was that?”
“I don’t know”
He would like to brag but his mind is too exhausted to come up with a snarky reply. The blurry number has all disappeared leaving him with a sense of emptiness.
“Just try out the mech while I rest.”
Jay closes his eyes and sleeps in a simulation, the first time he has ever done so.
“Are you really OK?”
“Just go on”
—---
“Lady Shaona…” The bodyguard wakes her up from her trace.
“Who’s that guy?” She points her finger at Jay who’s now sleeping. This guy caught her attention when he finished the mech. It’s an apprentice-level mech made by a guy who is not an apprentice. If her guess are correct this guy just got a high rank specialization, a tier 5 at least to create that mech.
“Jay Rolona, a Gambling addict who has just turned his life around recently. He is a Drop out from the Conticus mech academy, designer division after his parents pass away. He got a lucky break with his mech art piece and used that connection to get here.”
“Sound awfully like a guy with a system”
“But that only happened recently” The guard took into account that the system should have arrived here much earlier.
“True but I have to keep an eye on him. That mech is almost perfect in its grade.”
A mech is separated by its grade and by the maker. An apprentice mech designer could design a Galaxis mech but it would be just an awful imitation. It couldn’t rival the complexity or the quality of a mech that has been designed by a Genius. Even the most barebone regional mech designer is much better than the top apprentice.
Not only do they have differences in experience but also specialization.
“I will have someone look over him then”
—--
Jay woke up many hours later, still feeling tied from his mech building. He checks his time and many hours have passed, actually, it’s almost time for the battle royale.
“Finally waking up from your slumber?”
“Did you hit me?”
“What!?”
“just an old fairy tale.” Jay brushes it off “When are they going to start?”
“About 30 minutes, they are setting up the broadcast”
“Are you ready?” Jay asked looking at her
“Ask yourself”
“Am I ready” He looked down at himself.
“You have to be” She let out a chuckle opened a menu and slid into Jay's face “We could select where we want to drop in. The simulation will begin with a space payload circling the atmosphere of Hazeen-35 planet. Where do we want to drop in?”
“What do you think?”
“The Hazeen-35 is made up of 4 zones, a Lava zone where they have an active volcano, an acid swamp zone that had been a past civilization fucking up. An ocean with many mining rigs and automation defense and a big crator that is ¼ of the planet. In my opinion, Out mech has the best chance in Volcano”
“Why?‘ Jay asks further.
“The crator is just a big duel ring and if we don’t have long-range weapons, we are just target practice, the Ocean has an automaton machine, and we don’t want to be caught off guard when fighting those. The Acid is another good option but it’s much safer than Volcano so much more people would be there. hence Volcano is our best option.”
“Sure”
Jay didn’t have any knowledge about this so he just took Sally's wise word. She also seems delighted that she got to drop into the Lava Zone for some reason. They use the time left to change the mech to offer better heat resistance and discuss the plan with Sally.
The dual dangers change drastically when he adds, a chainsaw to the mix. Its mid-range capability is now its Laser rifle. The mech aims to ambush opponents and hack them in half with the big chainsaw. If the opponent is caught off guard, it’s a guaranteed kill.
However, this was only his feeling that made that mech, he didn’t know if Sally would like it at all.
“How’s the mech”
“It’s great,” Sally answered without missing a beat. “The control is much better than before, like it’s a whole different mech. How did you do it?”
“I just got a divine message from god to build it for you”
“Oh, what a delightful event. Pope, hit me with more your your blessing.” She rolled her eyes and changed to topic. “I only got practice against A.I. bot, UCN doesn’t want to spoil our mech.”
“Maybe it’s for the best”
Sally could have revealed the mech otherwise and someone might counter her. The chance that we are running into each other is low, but never zero. It’s better safe than sorry. Another reason that the UCN didn’t let the already-built mech participate might have to do with a surprise factor. A grand reveal when the battle royal begins.
“Attention all participants, you have 20 minutes before the competition starts. Make sure to finish your mech and prepare to rumble!”
Jay doe one last virtual checkup to see if he missed any wire or system that could spell their doom and it seemed perfect. He doesn’t believe that he didn’t miss anything. After this competition, he needs to look into what he does through a replay system.
“All done”
Jay I'm done right the competition is about to start.
“Times up! let the competition begin. We will transform your warehouse now!”
Sally hops onto the mech and synch up with it. A staggering 91% syn rate with the mech said it all. Jay looked at the stats while his warehouse transformed into a spaceship. a window slides open revealing the outer space with a distance stars shining bright.
It circled the planet below them.
“Sally Kert syn up, requesting permission to depart off port to the planet —--”
Jay smiled at their antics. She didn’t need to do this but Jay could play along.
“Permission granted, I will provide support. Good luck shorty”
The big mech turns to him ramping up its chainsaw.
“You are breaking character Mechernary Sally.”
“...”
She silently walks off to an atmosphere-drive capsule made more mech. The 20-meter-long pod with a thruster covers the whole mech body. The average mech is 10 meters tall, so the thing fits right inside. The pod moved by machine to a giant rail that would catapult the mech into the planet's atmosphere.
“Initiating launching sequence”
“100%”
“Launching in 5”
“4”
“3”
“2”
“1”
“Good luck, shorty”