First, Xiao shopped for what she would wear in matches. For her first match, they hastily put together what she needed which was not only uncomfortable but, if things went wrong, she also wasn’t sure about her chances of survival. Her initial purchases included her suit, helmet, balaclavas, gloves and boots which all provided some level of protection to increase her survival chance with nasty accidents. Due to how persuasive Vesna was, she chose to have all of those custom made to ensure the best comfort while she fought against other mechs. Next, she bought training items like hand grippers and tennis balls. Due to the unpredictability of her matches, there was no guarantee that anyone else would bring everything she needed. Therefore, she had to ensure her training didn’t get interrupted due to her overreliance on other people.
“Is that all you’re getting?” asked Vesna.
Xiao could tell the girl wasn’t impressed with her purchases but she only wanted the basic items. She would worry about the rest once she had some achievements under her name. With their shopping done, the girl called Wattan who said he was still busy.
“Let’s go get lunch then.”
The girl led the way to the first floor where a food court was located. Normally, Xiao would be ecstatic with the choices at the food court as the food was different from her daily mundane meals. After eating the food on the shuttle, she couldn’t get excited with what seemed like ordinary food anymore.
“I feel the same,” said Vesna with a big smile on her face. “However, you’ll miss the food here once we return to our office!”
Taking the girl’s wisdom to heart, Xiao got a big meal and still wolfed it down. By the time she finished her meal, Wattan arrived with a big grin on his face. He said that he wasn’t hungry so they left the department store.
“Don’t worry about Twan! The auctions can take up to several days so we mustn’t wait for him.”
As soon as the three of them returned to the office, they all went to do their preparations. Wattan stated that he would check to ensure all the repairs were done correctly before he could study the new loadouts to see if they were feasible on the ant mech. Vesna had a bunch of meetings to attend to due to the many matches they booked. Given that Xiao was treated as the primary pilot of Zavaso, she only had to focus on her training. Having seen what she gained last time, the young woman returned to the MTS to get more familiar with the mech.
I need to learn how to fight on the move better.
Xiao knew that she did the bare minimum in the first match. She had to always keep her mech moving but that affected her weapon aiming. For the next couple of days, she trained firing on the move against both static and mobile targets. For her dummy targets in the simulation, she picked the flea mech specifically as her mobile targets. The simulator had a standard flea template controlled by simple AI. She couldn’t expect the AI to resemble a human pilot but, by giving the AI the command of always running away her mech and no heat limitation, she could practice pursuing and landing hits.
The limited weapon range isn’t making this very easy.
Her training was only interrupted when someone came to the MTS. Xiao took off her headset to see Orlan standing here.
“Sorry to interrupt but this is about your spending at the mech department store. I got the invoice for what you purchased.”
I knew Vesna didn’t get any say in the matter. I should have asked her what my budget was before I started purchasing things.
“You have a much bigger budget than what you spent. Are you sure you’re content with what you got?”
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The conversation didn’t go the way Xiao expected so she asked for clarifications. After a few minutes of conversing, she understood that Zavaso had allocated resources to the different departments. As the main pilot, she got a reasonable amount of credits which she could spend on anything, regardless if the purchase was for professional or personal use. Orlan arrived to explain the matter so they could come to an agreement.
“Are you sure you don’t have anything else that needs to be paid for?” asked the teenager.
“I don’t have anything for now. With Vesna’s help, I no longer rented a unit and sleep here in the office. I’m also using the office storage for my belongings while the food and drinks are paid for. I would rather focus on my upcoming matches than splurging for the sake of splurging.”
“I see! Then how about this arrangement?”
For the next couple of hours, Xiao found herself learning about investments. Normally, an individual became an investor once they accumulated a certain amount of credits. The amount was far too much for most ordinary people so investing was only available to the rich. Coincidentally, the amount she was given each month met that threshold, making investment an option to her. As Orlan quickly highlighted, this was a good way for her to build on her wealth so that, once she retired, she could live a comfortable life. In the meantime, any unused credits each month would be added to the pool and could only be retrieved once she left Zavaso.
“This sounds like a really good proposition! I’ll have to agree!”
Once that was completed and Xiao signed dozens of documents, the young woman asked Orlan about Zavaso or, more specifically, how it was started.
“Despite how small Zavaso is, it seems to have a lot of financial backing. I was hoping you can shed more light on my curiosity.”
“I see Vesna didn’t share much about how the mech organization started. It all starts with Anthony Kurri. Does Kurri ring any bells?”
“Kurri?”
Xiao knew the surname sounded familiar so she thought back to when she heard it.
“The same Kurri as Daniel Kurri, one of the best pilots in the world? Wasn’t he the first pilot to win the championship for light, medium and heavy mech categories in the same year?”
Orlan stated that Anthony was the grandson of Daniel. Anthony, influenced by his grandfather's success, also had the dream of becoming a famous pilot with multiple championships under his belt. Sadly, that was no longer possible following a practice accident when his mech exploded, maiming him in the process.
“His injuries were very severe! Even though the Kurri family has the resources to get him robotic prosthetics which guarantee him a normal life. However, the prosthetics forever banned him from competing in mech tournaments.”
“And he’s trying to live his dream by creating a mech organization from scratch?”
“Correct! Anthony has been planning this for many years now and all the starting funds came from his own bank account. I have been investing part of it so we will always have income should our expenses increase. Currently, he's very pleased with our performance.”
Xiao thanked Orlan for the explanation. After the teenager left, the young woman stood beside the MTS, wondering about her dream of becoming a pilot.
How does it feel to never live one’s dream due to an accident? Anthony, I’ll do my best making a name for Zavaso! Just watch! You’ll be part of a winning mech organization!
With renewed motivation, Xiao went back to her training. She only stopped for restroom breaks, sleep and meals. Otherwise, she never stopped training until she had to leave for the match. Like the first match, she and Vesna went to the port to catch their shuttle. Before her departure, she met with Wattan to discuss the ant mech loadout for the match.
“Are you sure you don't want to try out the experimental flamers, missus?”
“I am tempted but I’m also here to win. By sticking with the same loadout as the last match, I believe I can finish off the flea mechs faster.”
Xiao’s logic was that, due to the limited armor of the flea mechs, her three light machine guns should rip through the mechs even faster than she could overheat them. She could either anticipate where the flea would land to get close or she could force her opponents to overuse their jump jet to the point they overheated. Both scenarios required her to keep up the pressure so her opponents made mistakes. The young woman only hoped that her training was sufficient for actual combat. After her next match, she intended on including experimental flamers in her MTS mech loadout so she could figure out the duration and range of the weapon. The more practice she got, the better she would perform in a high pressure scenario.
“You’re the boss, missus! I’ll still eagerly wait for the day when you pick a template with the flamers.”
“I’m sure Twan did an amazing job with his designs.”