After getting a clipboard smashed over his head, Gray had fallen on his knees like the other guy. What really surprised him was how real the pain felt and how his character reacted like a human probably would instead of just losing health from one of his statistics.

"Any more smart asses?" said Major Valen menacingly while picking up another clipboard.

Everyone shook their head.

"Good, now I shall personally take you worms around the base! I'm not your Momma so I won't be holding your hand if you can't keep up!"

A few of the players laughed at that. Major Valen leaned into those players and said, "…but I will be your Daddy and beat your sorry asses if you fall behind!" glaring at them.

As Major Valen took them around, he gave them quick introductions to the various essential locations on the base. The hospital, mess hall, barracks, mech bay, officer's quarters, pilot barracks, and training grounds were shown in quick succession. All of the players kept up for the duration of the tour, not wanting to test Major Valen's patience.

Of course, Gray was interested in the mech bay, but it seemed they wouldn't get their mechs until later. Fortunately, they could still use the simulators.

"This is a game, isn't using a simulator in a game kind of redundant?" Gray said to himself.

"To us it is, but to the NPCs the mechs are very valuable." The same guy that held Gray back from leaving earlier said.

"I guess that makes sense to them, but still, can't they just respawn destroyed mechs?"

"In a normal game, yes, but this game is truly realistic in that they need to be manufactured in a similar fashion to the real world."

"Makes sense," said Gray. "Oh, I never thanked you for stopping me earlier. My name is Gray!"

"Don't mention it. I am Geoff. I just heard that it would be better to stick with the military in this game."

Geoff and Gray got along surprisingly well. Both were laid-back gamers, after all. Geoff was the same height as Gray, but his hair was longer and lighter. Gray thought Geoff looked relatively mature for his age and was probably looked up to naturally by younger people. As for interests, Geoff and Gray were in the same situation in that they lived in small cheap housing and spent most of their salary on games. Gray was glad he met a fellow brother in arms!

Gray and Geoff ended up chatting in front of the training grounds, getting left behind by everyone else.

"Want to spar in the simulation? I've been itching to try it!" said Gray.

"Yes! We are mech pilots after all!"

Gray and Geoff walked over to the area next to the mech bays that contained the simulators. Requesting a 1v1 from the staff on duty was quick, and both climbed into their own simulator pods. Gray was expecting a generic set of controls that could be applied to all models of mechs, but as he entered the pod, the only thing he saw was a pilot seat and neural link helmet.

"Huh, a true simulator in a simulated duel in a simulated game… All these layers of simulation are making my brain hurt thinking about it," said Gray as he strapped the neural link helmet on his head.

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Gray brought up the mech selection through the neural link's interface. He was looking forward to scoping out what the latest military hardware was he could take for a drive. Sadly for him, it seems that you need to increase your rank to be able to try higher-tier mechs. "Makes sense; crawl before you walk after all."

Only one mech model was available to Gray, and it had three variants.

"The Phalanx MK 01, also known as the noob mech I heard. Essentially it is a very basic mech and a level below the mechs we will be given later from being Diamond-tier, but they are excellent training mechs. It seems the 3 variants are basically just short-range, middle-range, and long-range."

Gray opted for a middle-range as it gave him the most flexibility. He finally got a good look at this basic mech on the confirm selection screen. Essentially it was a basic model. The limbs were slightly thicker than normal, and the head had two sensor suites making it look like it was wearing sunglasses. The armor was a standard composite of uncompressed armor tinted into a military shade of green. The thicker limbs did slow it down some, but it boosted the damage each could take.

The mid-range variant Gray selected came with a standard military-grade laser rifle, laser pistol, and backup combat knife. The laser rifle was the weakest weapon, but it also was the most accurate. With a projectile velocity near the speed of light, you didn't have to worry about aiming ahead of your target.

The long-range variant came with a scoped kinetic rifle, laser pistol, and backup combat knife. The rifle it came with wasn't quite a sniper rifle as the barrel was a little more manageable, and it could hold more rounds. It may have lacked the punch of the sniper rifle, but it was much easier to move and shoot with this rifle.

The short-range variant came with a concussive blast emitter, which is similar to a shotgun, a backup laser pistol, and a combat knife. The concussive blast emitter is not very effective against thick armor. Still, only the thickness of the armor stops it, not the quality. For example, you could have indestructible armor, but this weapon would ignore it if it weren't a certain thickness. You would think this would be a more popular weapon due to the armor negating effect, but it also had drawbacks… First, the range was extremely short. Second, the projectile speed was slow compared to other weapons as sonic weapons have a projectile speed of the speed of sound. Third, the ammo was limited since each clip only had 8 rounds. The clips were heavy, so most mechs only had two extras.

It was interesting that sonic weapons were more effective in the water since sound travels further in water than it does in the air. They were not very popular with mechs since most sonic weapons were better at shaking apart unarmored targets. Still, it was preferred over a kinetic shotgun. They were usually not strong enough to punch through armor unless at point-blank range.

"What're you doing slowpoke?" said Geoff to Gray through the simulator.

"I'm just taking my time to look at all of the choices," said Gray

"You picked the same one I did because we think alike, quit wasting time, I want to trounce you."

"Shaddap, I'll… I'll trounce you!"

"Oh, that was original. I'm scared now," Geoff said with a listless expression.

Unsurprisingly, Geoff was correct, and they had both picked the mid-ranged laser rifleman variant. Both mechs spawned, and Gray felt his blood boil from excitement! Both mechs stared down at each other in a ready position waiting for the signal to begin.

----------------------------------------

Back at Alterra Corporation Headquarters.

"How are they Drake?"

"Sir, the Diamond-tier players quickly joined the game, of the 800 total, 732 stayed with the military," said Drake

The man in front of Drake was Edward Teach. He is the CEO of Alterra Corporation. While Edward gave off a very intimidating pressure, he was still a very fair man. Edward valued obedience and loyalty even more than skill, as he believed skill could be trained.

Edward was wearing a dark blue blazer and matching pants with his signature blood-red tie. The running joke was that this tie was filled with the blood of his competitors that he had crushed or purchased outright.

"Better than predicted... as promised the ones that left the military will still be given their mechs and rewards, but do keep track of them. We might need to know where they are later."

"Understood sir!" said Drake before stepping out of the office.

After Drake left the office, Edward walked to his window and gazed at the city skyline. "Now we can see if we were right all those years earlier."