Moving around was a nice change from the small cell I was growing used to. It made me feel free while not being close to it at all. The cruiser had dropped me off on a prison planet for death row inmates and left, taking Carlos and Athena with it. Now I had no connection whatsoever and no name other than Black Hawk. I liked it this way. Made me feel badass.
I was currently standing in a room darker than anything I have ever seen, shoved in here by a guard that said this was the place every competitor would have to go through. It’s not like I was afraid. I just felt very… vulnerable.
That said, I stood close to the door for about a minute when a female voice started speaking. “Congratulations, Mr. Black Hawk. You have been chosen to participate in the 1000th edition of Space Hell. Please choose your powersuit and its functions. You have 10 points to spend.” The introduction was short but explained everything one needed to participate. A good format.
A luminescent light lit up in the center of the room. It was definitely a touchpad or the like where the options showed. I walked towards the light and saw that I was on the right track. Depicted on it were six models of powersuits. Shadow, which I donned before, the ultra light model, used for infiltration and assassinations.
Hermes, the light model, used for hard labor and extended work periods. Wanderer, the medium light model, focused on survival more than anything and the first powersuit made by humans. Neutralizer, the medium-heavy model, used for law enforcement and wars. Goliath, a war tank and the heavy model.
Last but most, Bastion, the ultra heavy model. It was more similar to a mecha than a powersuit and boasted extreme power, capable of changing the course of a war.
I was tempted to choose Shadow as I was used to it or Bastion since it was the strongest type. But then again, even if the power was infinite, I would have to survive, not just fight. That meant I would have to leave the Bastion to eat and the Shadow would render me almost defenseless. That meant death on Val Zarin.
After some pondering, I chose Neutralizer. It could take care of just about any predator and had durable armor that would put most alloys to shame, achievable through a method called Electric Fortification. Indeed, that video might have played a big role in diverting my attention from the lighter models, but survival above everything.
Goliath made too much noise, so that was quickly shrugged away.
After clicking on Neutralizer, it changed into some sort of shop that one could purchase stuff with points. Luckily, when one chose Neutralizer, they could choose 2 out of 3 options that were mediocre and 1 out of 2 that were quite useful.
The former consisted of Shockwave, a skill that could generate a shockwave strong enough to flip a car and send a human flying a dozen meters away. Energy armor, a thin layer of electricity that could take several blows before breaking, which would regenerate in 10 seconds. Power fist, imbuing the fist area with electricity to paralyze most creatures or powersuits with several well placed hits.
A small thinking later, I chose Energy armor and Shockwave. The survivalist option, if I say so myself.
The harder decision was between Jetpack and Machine Gun. The names were self-explanatory. I could possibly use the machine gun as a jetpack, but that wouldn’t work as well. The ammo was infinite, as it could absorb any material that was short of diamond to compress into bullets. The jetpack also absorbed heat or solar energy to create plasma that would assist in flight. The tough choice came down to machine gun. It would let me protect myself from other humans.
And checking the list of stuff I could add made me drool, but I only had 10 points. I felt like a kid in a galactic shop with only 100 credits. That said, that kid could buy some very useful stuff.
The logical side of me won and instead of burning the whole world down, I chose water purifier and food generator, both cost 1 points. The former would purify water by destroying everything poisonous, including parasites and bacteria. The latter would absorb organic elements such as bones, dead animals, insects and plants to create something edible and not poisonous. That said, it meant I wouldn’t die of malnourishment, albeit eating a not-so-delicious meal for the rest of my stay in hell. Not a bad deal.
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Then came Internal alarm, which also cost 1 point. It would send a jolt to awaken me if a hostile target approaches too closely. Also I chose Propulsion engines which would place two small energy cannons on both my ankles to let me jump over 15 meters high and 30 meters long if I could believe the information.
Then I also bought a Grappling Hook for another point. Noise nullification for 2, which created a noise in a certain frequency which would mute all my actions and everything within a meter of the armor.
The last three points went to Cybernetic blades which would produce two ultra hard knives resembling hidden knives from movies which cost one and the rest for an A.I that would keep me company. Its name was Zero and it contained all the information about the participants and their chosen armor and skills. I could have bought it for one, but the allure of listening to music during my offtime was the best. Zero would alert me if anything approached too close, which utilized the hidden cameras on my armor I otherwise couldn’t utilize. My Internal alarm also used this, vastly improved by A.I. All in all, I was ready to survive the death game.
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“Mr. Adams, the conference is about to start.” A woman said from behind an intercom. A middle-aged man sighed as he quickly stood up and walked towards the door to his office. It was that time again. The time to plan the next stage of Space Hell, the currently trending reality show. When life has lost its sacredness, the majority of the human hegemony would take pleasure in watching others fight for their life.
It was merely a form of entertainment for them, while the prisoners would willingly or unwillingly participate in the tournament. The fact that only 54 people actually completed the game in all of 999 editions isn’t reassuring in the least.
The first few games before the ninth edition, when the radar system was established, ended in a draw simply because only a few people met and the numbers couldn’t dwindle at all. Unfortunately the nanomachines in their blood would evaporate it if more than one participant was left standing in the end.
However, this time the limit was raised to 10. This would in turn stimulate the players to form small teams and help each other. All for entertainment and the money.
It left a bad taste in his mouth. But what could he possibly do to stop this barbaric madness?
The door opened to a room with a giant table in the middle and several people filling the seats Adams recognized as influential people. The director was standing at the other end whereas the other end was left open for Ryan.
They waited for several minutes, some fiddling with their watches while some readied their writing board to take notes. The ten meter long table was thus filled with the elite of the society, the cream of the crop.
The director stood up as the projector above the table activated, generating a 3-D image of a solar system. She was an older woman with her hair tied into a bun and always wore her trademark white suit and long skirt.
“First and foremost, I want to thank Mr. Adams for having us over in his office on Clorania. As you might know this is one of the closest planets to the planet dubbed as Green Hell, and also one of the larger prison planets.” She pointed towards a planet and it zoomed on.
Although realistic, it lacked color, and was in plain blue.
“The 1000th edition Space Hell allows 10 winners, as you might know already from… sources. That means it could become a team fight in the end. And if it yields great results, we can make it so that every other edition would have, let’s say 5 winners. Are there any questions?”
“Does that mean the prize money would be divided or lessened by any significant amount?” It was the director of a Cerebro Academy. Although young, he was one of the most dangerous people in the known galaxy in that his academy functioned as a training place for psionic. He would mostly try to scout a talented psionic and sponsor them to win. It worked once and has turned into one of the nightmares of criminals.
“Of course not, Mr. Cerebro. We make far more money than the prize. To be exact, at least 20 times that.” She explained as she tapped on the planet and it zoomed on again.
“I would like to ask a question as well. As you might know, I am always looking for good pilots and such, can you estimate the number of Bastions in the game and their pilots?” Director of the Edgar Pacification Corp asked. Her company was one of the best powersuit and mecha building companies. It still boggles Ryan’s mind to think of how the Director created the council and was the leader instead of these people, not to mention he himself was an influential figure as well.
“Indeed, there are quite a few. I remember 5, might be more than that.” She said as Miss Edgar nodded her head. She wasn’t a member of the family, as she took over while working as a branch company director, but most people called her that for convenience sake.
“This time around, we have spiced the competition up by adding 10 willing participants, including Scream Jazar, Father Paul, The Nameless and ‘Lucky’ Simon.” The director said with a smile.
“No way!”
“Jazar, that Jazar?!”
“HOW?!”
“Quiet, please.” She said. “As you might know, both Nameless and Black Hawk are in the competition, albeit the latter was arrested instead of willing to. On Earth a month and a half ago.”
Ryan hated it when his plans failed, and Hawk getting caught while stealing the artifact was one of them. He could have become the director and stop this madness. Now that both of them were dead, it was impossible to get his hands on it by any conventional means.