Mech Enthusiasm
The next day I was woken up by the doorbell. Still half asleep I made my way to the door.
'Who could be visiting me at this ungodly hour?' I thought as I opened the door.
To my surprise, Nero was standing there in his white school uniform.
All uniforms comprised a white blazer, white pants, a gray shirt, and a tie. The tie color depended on the year. The first years, for example, had blue ties.
"What are you doing here? There is no school today."
"Seniors will be recruiting new club members today, and tens of stands are being set up in front of the school right now. You said that we'll go together. Don't tell me you forgot." Nero pouted.
"Of course, I didn't forget. I'll get dressed, so wait for me," I replied with a sigh.
I totally forgot about this event. The clubs serve very little purpose in the game but here they are very important. Different clubs belong to different factions and while on the surface they look like normal clubs in reality they are a part of a large web of political intrigue within the academy.
For example, in the Gold faction, the elites of the faction are all a part of the bioalchemy research club and members of their paramilitary wing are in the mech enthusiasts club.
My only option for getting certain cultivation resources is to join the faction and try to ascend to a leadership position.
The problem is that those clubs are invite-only and convincing those seniors and upper-echelon members that they should accept a weak and small noble like me is impossible.
I hope that the preparations I have made up to now are going to be enough for me to be able to join the mech enthusiasts club and then further climb my way up.
I pulled Nero away from the marine lifeforms research club where he was staring at a cute senior who was handing out fliers while shamelessly pretending to be infatuated with the goldfishes.
"You can invite her out later, right now we should try out for the mech enthusiasts club before a line forms,"
Nero blushed: "I don't know what you are talking about. I have a fiancée you know."
'I fiancée that hates you,' is what I wanted to retort but decided not to pursue this topic any further.
We entered the gym which was currently filled with many exhibitions that different clubs set up to invite new students.
The flashiest of all the attractions was a giant robot that was standing in the middle of the gym surrounded by VR pods.
This cutting-edge mech seamlessly melds sleek humanoid design with formidable technological prowess. Towering on robust, metallic legs, it possesses a head that emanates an aura of ominous sophistication clad in jet black armor plates, while its lengthy arms confidently wield a razor-sharp metallic atom splitter sword. Adorned with an array of smaller thrusters across its back, the mech exudes an impression of dynamic agility, ready to navigate any battlefield with precision. Its expansive chest, reveals an open cockpit, welcoming you into its embrace.
A real war machine.
I stared in awe as I approached the seniors who were still setting up the VR pods for the tryout.
When I arrived at the attraction, I noticed my schoolmate Ludwig talking to one of the seniors. His father had an important position in the faction, so it was not surprising to see him here.
I waved at Ludwig with a friendly smile: "Hey, do you want to join us in the tryout?"
Ludwig turned toward me with a blank face, and I could see the gears in his head turning as he tried to remember who I was. He was visibly confused about why I was acting as if we were best friends.
When he saw Nero behind me, he just assumed that I was some minor noble who served Nero.
Ludwig was the count's first son and an heir to the Almendiger family. However, unlike Nero, he did not discriminate based on status and genuinely tried to be friends with everyone.
"I was not planning on joining since I am already in the bioalchemist research club but since I have the time, I see no reason to not help you."
He obviously misinterpreted the whole situation as Nero wanting to curry favor with him, but I didn't mind, and Nero was too dense to notice the misunderstanding I had created.
"The pods are all plugged in now," said the senior with scruffy blond hair.
"I am Ludolf, the president of the mech enthusiasts club," he said while he shook my hand. His eyes scanned me from head to toe and I replied to his pressure by curving my smile so that it was obviously fake.
He must have recognized Nero and realized why we were here and was testing me. He couldn't reject me with Nero and Ludwig standing behind me but that did not mean that he trusted me.
"The tryout is a simple time-limited game of skirmish. You three will fight in mechs against three members of the club and there will be an evaluation afterward."
I sat in the VR pod and entered the virtual simulation.
[Booting system…]
[Loading world: Warzone-07]
[Choose your loadout]
I extended my hand to select the right option and I suddenly found myself in the cockpit of a mech. I could hear the sound of the mech core booting up as the robot came online and a few lights lit up around me.
I was piloting the standard model valiant V2 that most mech pilots throughout the empire were outfitted with. Mechs were created with the technology that humanity has reverse-engineered or plundered from other races.
The design of the valiant V2 was not a secret. Humanity's enemies had managed to get their hands on the blueprints ages ago but the valiant was still in use despite that because it was extremely robust and relatively easy to mass produce.
The only way to pilot a mech was to sync your aether core with the robot's mech core. You would then control the mech with your mind through a neural interface that was enabled by aether.
If you weren't awakened, you couldn't pilot mechs which is why mech piloting was mostly reserved for the nobles since the financial cost of awakening was significant.
A fuzzy feeling spread through my body as my aether core synced with the mech. It was as if I had suddenly gained a new pair of limbs and eyes.
I gazed through the sensors on the mech's head at the wasteland that was surrounding me.
The game unfolded within the shattered cityscape. Ash and rubble strewn like shadows obscured my line of sight. The ashen-gray surroundings exuded a menacing aura, a silent witness to the havoc that had transpired. Remnants of cars, trains, and other debris littered the desolate streets, frozen echoes of a once vibrant life.
I could hear the radio suddenly come online with a screech.
"I have been spawned near a destroyed shopping mall. Where are you two?" Nero asked.
"I am right behind you," Ludwig responded.
I noticed the shopping mall and two hunks of metal hunched behind it a few meters away from my position.
"I'll scout the area since I picked a long-range loadout," I exclaimed.
I affixed the Gauss rifle onto my hand and moved toward a smaller mound of debris so that I could get a better view.
Mechs in this universe were special.
The mech core when in sync with your aether core would amplify any aether technique and would allow you to use the aether technique on your mech as if it were an extension of your body.
I was planning on testing the aether technique that I stole from Paul Allen yesterday.
The technique's name is 'Smart Targeting,' and it lets you correct the path of your projectiles after firing them.
Excitement surged through me as I manipulated the mech to climb to the top of the mound.
The moment I climbed to the top of the mound I received a hit and a blueish transparent shield flared up around my mech to protect me from the shell that was easily deflected.
I scoured my surroundings to notice a glint of light on top of an apartment complex approximately six hundred meters away.
"I am being shot at. Try to ambush the enemy by moving through the city plaza but be wary, this could be a trap," I relayed.
I switched to blast rounds and started shelling the apartment complex's foundations. My rifle could shoot about one round per second, but the shots were extraordinarily powerful.
The alloy our mechs were made out of was so tough that the only way to get through was either an atom splitter sword like the one Nero's mech carried or a piercing round shot from my Gauss rifle.
An atom splitter sword looked like a normal metallic sword except that its edges were covered with a focused energy stream that was only visible as a faint blueish luster. Atom splitter swords only existed at the size of mechs and could not be scaled down. A lot of war machines were outfitted with a version of such a blade because normal blast rounds would barely even scratch the armor plates of most mechs.
When I saw that the apartment complex was about to collapse, I switched to anti-shield rounds and waited for my enemy to come out of hiding.
When he did, I immediately fired, and I would have slightly missed were it not for my technique as the trajectory of the projectile slightly curved. I dealt a significant amount of damage to his shield before he managed to stabilize his legs enough to be able to withstand the recoil of his own gun.
He clearly never expected me to boldly shell his position despite being spotted.
He returned the favor by bringing my shield integrity down to 64% in the next few shots.
However, I could see his shield flicker which meant that my opponent was down to the last ten percent. A few more shots and I would be through.
If it continued like this, I would be the winner.
"We are engaging two hostiles on the city plaza," Nero informed me through the radio breaking my focus for a bit.
When my opponent saw that he couldn't win he marched his mech toward a suburban neighborhood through a small ruin to try to find cover.
He put the large, charred remains of the city hall between me and him thinking that he was safe.
I switched to thermal sensors and lowered the output of my Gauss rifle. Aiming above the city hall I fired penetrating shells that I then directed toward his heat signature with my aether technique.
My enemy was not expecting me to be able to shoot in an arc.
I viciously shelled his position until I saw his heat signature suddenly go haywire, his core had been hit and was rapidly breaking down.
I was about to fire the final shot and end this confrontation when the ruined house next to the mound, I was standing on, broke into pieces of brick and mortar as a mech dashed at me with his thrusters at full output.
My cockpit met its demise in a fleeting moment, the final image engraved in my memory—a metallic glint of the atom splitter sword.