Jay didn’t have time to think and just sent the license to the guy. He looked so happy when he got it, he thanked Jay many times then left to test out some mech with his new license. Jay wasn’t sure what’s going on but it’s not his problem now.
Jay went to log off and the area changed again. He came floating in space, this is a neutral area that you could rest in before selecting a world or game you want. Jay selected Iron Body, a mech game that’s popular in this star sector.
With a variety of modes, both aspiring Mech pilots and designers start off here. Jay even saw in his curriculum that he had to play this at some point but he dropped out before that could happen.
“Welcome to Iron Body, which type of player are you? A designer or a pilot”
“Designer”
“Please enter your name”
Jay simply enters Jay in here, nobody gonna know that he is Jay Rolona since there is much more Jay out there in the universe. He finished the registration in about 2 minutes and the game booted up. His surroundings change from a white space into a Mech building warehouse.
There are all kinds of tools Jay could play with.
[Quest - Get start with virtual space]
[Detail - Make your first virtual mech and sell it to 5 people]
[Reward - upgrade token]
His assumption was proven correct as the quest system popped up. He smiles and looks forward to finishing his quest.
In Iron Body, he could build whatever mech you like and sell it on the market, but you still need to buy a virtual part using Money. It could be in-game currency or a real one. Since most of the components have to be scanned into the game, the inventor would like to make some money.
Jay didn’t mind it much since the game gets you started with a basic mech-building component such as an Electric battery and medium mech frame. You could customize it using the tool available in the warehouse. Then after you are done building the mech you could put it up for sale in the market. They can buy as much as they want and the game will take a commission fee.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to build a mech yourself, you could buy other people's creations and modify it. The game will let you know how much deviation is done and give the original designer a modest cut of the deviator sale. Which Jay didn’t plan to do. Now that he confirmed the system is working inside the game he needs to know if his specialization works here too.
However, Jay hit a major roadblock here. He didn’t know how to use the specialization he got. Sure he knew that it could manipulate something but he didn’t know how he could apply it.
Maybe I just have to build a mech?
The free parts that have been given are parts that used to build 3 separate mechs. A lightweight long range mech, a medium close rage mecha, and a heavy medium-range mech. They use a sniper, a laser sword, and a light machine gun repectively. All of them make a well-rounded experience for a beginner mech designer to learn the basics.
Jay wants to follow it closely and see if his knowledge could build the intended mech without a guide. He starts with a medium build mech.
The [Iron Body: swordplay MK II] is a mech that relies heavily on getting close to its opponent, its long and medium-range damage is minimal but its close rage capacity is highly respected.
recommend Build level: Beginner mech designer+
Jay closes the window after reading the description. He only needs a direction to follow and he will get there by himself. Hopefully, he gets it right.
First off he starts with the pilot seat, the only thing Jay is confident that he can get right. Jay assumes that if the mech wants to get in close combat, it needs more flexibility and speed than its opponent so he would design the control scheme based on that. After deciding on what to do he went to work, making a control panel and joystick control. There is more flexible control out there but it wasn't included in the free pack.
After he was done with that he discovered a problem, the design might not be compatible with his final product since he designed it for an imaginary mech. His dropout energy is overflowing as it’s such a rookie mistake that he shouldn’t be making…. If he was not a drop out.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
He then turns his attention to another thing, first the arms. The sword that he was given was a 1-meter-long laser sword that could reach 7 meters when activated. The sword doesn’t have much weight and relies on the user to get close to the opponent to deal any damage.
So he designed the arm to have a sphere rotation that could rotate however you want. Give the freedom to the pilot to surprise the opponent and sometimes even themselves. Jay was worried that the joint wouldn’t be good enough but the sword is quite lightweight.
Next, the legs, Jay has heard before that the leg is a crucial component to a sword-wielding mech so he went for a bipedal leg that bends backward. IIt’s a design that has a foldable ground lock. When it is activated it brings a claw down the side of its leg to hook on to the ground. Lastly, he reinforces the whole leg with more armor just to be safe.
Now that he has finished the limb, he needs a body. The arm has already been decided that it could bend in a spherical shape so Jay is debating whether to put that on the legs. Ultimately he went with a normal leg joint since he would ruin his stance on the leg being important. It could only move back and forward like a normal one. The body shape mimics that of a human torso but is slightly bulkier. The pilot seat will be housed in the middle of the chassis.
Now that he got the whole picture. he could decide on a much better controlling system. Since the arms can rotate beyond human capability he chooses to make a side joystick that has a hand-control grip at the tip. Where you can insert your whole hand to control the mech hand. The mech head is a rectangular shape with two cameras where the eyes should have been.
The camera is connected to the pilot room to give them a visual of the outside world. The hand grip also had a leg control built into it for convenience. The mech coming along nicely now he only needs a battery and thrusters.
A close-range mech without a thruster is a death sentence since he wouldn’t be able to close in on the enemy. Jay wouldn’t want his first combat mech to suffer such a terrible fate.
He combed through some battery types and he got a compact one with a slightly small design with an efficiency trade-off. His Mech aimed to close in on the enemy so he imagined it needed a burst of energy for the thruster and quickly finish off the enemy. The small battery achieves that by being lightweight and easily slots into small space.
The battery easily fits onto the back of a mech slightly below the pilot room. It seems dangerous but With this set up Jay could make the mech go as fast as possible. He then put 4 thrusters on its back, so it could adjust its position slightly. And he put another 2 thrusters into each of its legs.
Almost done…
Jay looked at his creation in awe, he spent about 9 hours putting all of this together. And if he didn’t hear the professor wrong, 9 hours for a beginner mech is not that bad. All that‘s left for him to do is final testing and adjustment.
The mech chest opens and Jay hops onto the mech . He donned a headgear that would connect him to the head camera and sync him to the mech.
“Syncing with the pilot… 57%...”
“Ready to launch”
The control feels a little dull and the synchronization rate isn’t that good. Jay didn’t mind it though since he wouldn’t be the main target of this mech. His hand gripped into the hand grip and started the engine.
“Ready”
Jay feels excited as the machine roars to life. The warehouse disappears, replaced by a big open space that has many tests for your mech capabilities. The mech takes his first step and Jay immediately feels that the balance is slightly tilted to the back. And the arm joint felt a bit funky. He notes down the thing that felt wrong and starts flying. Its speed is pretty fast for a medium mech as the thruster work together and launch him into a dummy mech. His hand reaches out and produces a sword from inside the arm. Many dummy mechs were cut to pieces by his laser sword. Almost nothing could block that Laser at that distance.
Jay is satisfied with the mech he has made and he hops off it. He fixed his error and went for another ride, this time it felt much better. Jay tested and fixed the mech about 5 times using up the two remaining hours to the fullest and ended up with a finished product. For the finishing touch, he also gave him a pistol gun for use at mid-range. And outfit moresord to the torso of his mech.
[Please give your mech a name,]
“Weird arms”
[Weird arms]
[Class: medium weight mech]
[Grade: C-]
[Build by Jay Rolona]
[A cobble-up part from the Iron Body series. Its main feature is its arm that can reach unpredictable places. design mainly to be used on terrestrial land and have minimal to low threat at anything range longer than close range. Could be called an original project since it didn’t share a vision with the Iron Body: sword play]
On one hand, he felt pretty good about making an original mech and on the other hand, he also felt disappointed that he didn’t follow the original. He opens up the finish [Iron Body: sword play] to see where they differ.
The main difference he could see is the arm. The Sword play uses a standard human joint for both arms and legs. They also didn’t use the bend backward leg and stick with human one. It was very standard. It’s like a sword mech number 5th. However, Jay can’t deny that it’s a solid choice since the medium mech could close in on the enemy and slash them into pieces while taking some hits.
Satisfy with his work Jay put the mech up on sale.
Is someone going to buy it?
Jay watched as the mech he listed a moment ago got washed by a thousand different mechs. No one gonna seen his mech and buy it at this rate. Maybe he just had to wait.
Wait…
Jay remembers the pilot license that he gave the guy. He typed it in the search and it came up. Seems like the guy has already registered his license. Jay calls him through the net.
“Hello”
“Sup”
Instant reply
“I’m a friend of Danny, he said you could do him a favor”
“Oh yeah! anything for Danny. Whatcha want?”
“I’d like you to check out a mech called Weird Arm by Jay and recommend it to the other 4 people. Would it be alright?”
“That's it? No biggie, I’ll do you one better and livestream it. People are going to love the mech! Anything you wanna sell?”
Jay didn’t think that the guy was a streamer, he checked his ID and found it. Snaky Bite has around 100K followers, and always live streams Iron Body. His rank is about Silver but he sells his personality.
“Nope, just checking it out would be enough”
“Ok! Say hello to Danny, it must be hard to get his hand on this license. tell him that Snaky wants to hang out sometime when he’s not busy OK?”
“Sure, I can do that. Have a nice day.”
Jay leaves the call feeling a bit guilty, The guy seems like a nice person. But he’d like to have his free upgrade token. The Danny guy should thank him for doing his job.
Jay makes sure to log out before exiting the capsule. He didn’t want to end up like Danny