Chapter 17 - Second Match

"Pilot No.8, please prepare to enter the arena."

Oh, it's me.

After hearing that from the speaker in my waiting room, I quickly got up from my couch, put on my pilot suit helmet, then walked towards the Standby room, it was the room where I entered my Mecha before entering the arena yesterday.

Just like yesterday, I met the same staff, and he also said the same thing before I entered the arena.

"Good luck, pilot."

And I nodded at him as a reply just like yesterday.

As the large doors of the arena opened, I could hear the voice of the host.

"From the left side, the great pilot who won his battle with his extraordinary sword skills. Please welcome him, Sir Denzelnas!"

As usual, he was very noisy. And my swordsmanship was so mediocre, I didn't even know it could be counted as swordsmanship.

"From the right side, a great pilot who defeated his enemy without even touching him. Please welcome him, Finic!"

I looked at Finic coming out of the right side arena entrance, he was wearing a green Mecha, with black camouflage stripes, he was also carrying a large Sniper in a weapon holster on his back.

Oh shit, i hate sniper class.

All they do is run around and shoot from a distance, and the problem is, they're fast.

We then headed to our positions, before pulling out our weapons.

This time I wasn't going to waste my time, it would be really annoying if I let this guy get away from me.

However, before the referee started the countdown, I heard a voice from the Mecha on the other side, seems like Finic wanted to say something.

"Denzelnas, I can't believe I would see you here, this time I will make you pay for humiliating me that day!!!"

What? What was this yo-yo saying?

"I'm sorry, but.... Do I know you?"

"You don't recognize me?"

"Mate, how can I recognize you when you're inside a 6-meter-high pile of metal?"

"It's me, Randolf Atler!"

"Ad*lf H*tler?!"

"Randolf Atler!!!"

Who the f*ck is Randolf Atler?

"Sorry, but doesn't ring a bell."

"You-"

"I'm about to start the countdown, pilot, get ready."

Before he could finish his sentence, the referee cut him off. Finic fell silent and didn't say anything else.

I also started to prepare and take a stance, I don't know who this guy is, and I don't care either, I'll finish this match quickly so I can go home and enjoy myself.

"3....2... 1"

Right after the countdown started, I immediately ran towards Finic, seeing that, he grabbed his gun then pointed it at me. He immediately fired and moved back, I jumped to the left and activated the thrusters on the right of my Mecha to avoid his fire.

*Whistling*

When I jumped, I could hear the bullets whistling a few meters away from me, looks like he was using a projectile sniper, not a laser. That means his remaining shot count is only 9 at most, before he needs to reload.

I just need to wait until that time comes and get closer to him, alas, I don't want to wait that long, I really want to try out my new sword, you know.

I waited for him to shoot me 6 more times, and I managed to dodge all of them while keeping a distance of about 80 meters from him, if I were closer than that I'm not sure I could dodge the projectile bullets even with the help of the system in my Mecha. If only he was using a laser gun, this would have been easier.

I'll wait for him until he has 3 shots left.

Moments later, after I dodged his shot for the 6th time, I ran straight at him, I thought to try to block his bullets with my sword.

I raised the heat of my sword to level 2 and then predicted the path of the bullet with the help of my Mecha system, and it worked.

*Bang*

I felt a little resistance from my sword, but I can handle it, I kept running towards him, he shot at me again, but this time, I couldn't handle it.

*Bang*

"Shit."

I reflexively said that when I saw the status of my armor that was shot by him, my armor status immediately stated Caution, that meant it was only a level above Critical, and in this tournament, if the armor in the cockpit part of the pilot had reached Critical level, he would automatically lose.

Damn, I underestimated the Sniper's penetrating ability too much.

Even so, I still carried out my plan, even though I was hit once, but I still kept running towards him. Now that we were only about 30 meters apart, probably because he thought we were too close, he didn't shoot me with his sniper, I could see rocket launchers and laser launchers popping out from his shoulders.

*Whoosh*

Dozens of rockets and lasers immediately launched at me.

I activated my Jesper Shield while continuing to run, I was able to get all of his rockets headed my way, and my Mecha's electromagnetic shield was able to block almost all of his lasers.

However, as I looked from behind the pile of rockets that my Jesper Shield was blocked by, I saw Finic aiming his Sniper at me.

Fuck, my Jesper Shield wouldn't be able to hold off his Sniper bullets at this range. At the last moment, I decided to return all the rockets in my Jesper Shield to him, then sacrificed my Mecha's left arm to withstand the bullets.

"Left arm power lost."

I heard such a warning from my Mecha's system, but I ignored it and continued running towards Finic. I couldn't see the expression on his face, but I'm sure he was surprised.

He would probably think that I would back off and dodge his attacks so that he would have time to recharge his weapons, well, to be honest I didn't want to do that either.

I could also see a few rockets hitting him, but the damage didn't have much impact.

The moment I managed to close the distance, I immediately took out the Thermal Blade from my right hand, and raised the heat to Level 3, this time, the blade of my Thermal Blade turned black and I also got a warning.

"Power usage is overkill."

I ignored it and swung my Thermal Blade at Finic from above quickly with the help of the thrusters on my Mecha's back, perhaps due to panic, Finic tried to stop my blade with his Sniper.

However, my Thermal Blade cut through the Sniper like a tofu, and because of that, I also hit Finic's armor, because Finic managed to step back a little and dodge it, the cut was not too deep.

Since we were so close, I decided to pull back my Thermal Blade and use the AP cannon on my Mecha's right hand to fire at Finic's armor that was hit by my blade earlier.

Perhaps because Finic was still shocked by what happened just now or our distance was too close, he couldn't dodge the attack and took it head-on.

"Pilot Denzelnas Win!"

And I automatically won because the armor on the hatch door reached Critical condition.

"Wow, what a spicy match. Despite Sir Denzelnas having lost one arm, he managed to turn the tide! Incredible!"

Without hearing the host finish speaking, I walked towards the entrance of the Arena.

Today's match really sucked, I underestimated the penetrating ability of those Sniper bullets, and I underestimated the importance of good Mecha armor.

Looks like I still have a long way to go until I can have a powerful Mecha and become a good pilot. Thankfully the repair costs this time were covered by the Imperial government, I'm sure the cost to repair this hand must have been quite expensive.

While in the Standby room, I checked the condition of my Mecha, turns out the condition is worse than I thought. My Mecha's left hand was completely damaged, there were 2 fingers missing, and the palm was punctured to the extent that I could see the AP cannon hidden inside my Mecha's left hand, I was lucky the cannon did not explode.

The armor on the shoulder is also quite damaged, I can see it bent quite badly due to the bullet hit earlier, the power that my Mecha has is also left around 30%, apparently using a level 3 Thermal Blade uses quite a lot of power, huh.

That means I also have to replace my Mecha's main engine to a more power efficient one, I really need a lot of money.

Why does it always have to be about money? I don't know if I should hate money or if I should love it.

After greeting the staff in the Standby room, I walked to my waiting room to rest, my match today was over.

While lying on the sofa, I thought about tomorrow's semi-finals, by the way, there were only a few participants in the Beginner Division, so it wouldn't be surprising if I already entered the semi-finals tomorrow.

Only the Advanced Division has quite a few participants, but I don't know about it because I'm not really interested, and also, the prize for the winner of the Advanced Division is also the same as the Beginner Division. You might think that's unfair, but from what I've heard, the rules have always been like that, and no one minds.

A few minutes later, I decided to go home, but before I could get out of the waiting room, I got a call from my mom.

Ah damn, this must be about the match earlier.

I picked up the phone and immediately heard my mom's worried voice.

"Hiro, are you okay!?"

"I'm fine, mom. You don't have to worry."

" Don't lie! I saw your hand fall off during the match."

"Mom, that was my Mecha's hand, not mine. I didn't get scratched at all like I said yesterday."

"Really?"

"Yes mom, trust me."

My mom was silent for a moment, before speaking again in a worried tone.

"Wait for mom, I'll be there, okay?"

"Mom, come on, you don't have to do that, I'm fine. I'm about to go home anyway."

"But still-"

After that, it took me a few minutes to convince my mom that she didn't need to come here.

**********

On the way back home, I encountered some strange things. People on the side of the road were running around like I'd seen in those dinosaur movies.

Out of curiosity, I decided to stop my car and get out. I decided to stop some of the people who were running, and asked.

"Hey, mate. What the heck is going on? Why are you running?"

The man turned to me and blurted out in a panic.

"There's a group of armed men attacking the Soladinium fuel station over there!"

I looked in the direction the man was pointing, and could see the fuel station that was about 2 blocks away from me using the assistance of my pilot suit helmet.

"You mean the building that-"

By the time I turned around to look at the man, he was already gone.

Bloody NPC.

I then got into my car and decided to take a closer look, but before I could get any closer, the police had already arrived and blocked off the road to that place, I could also hear some gunshots, looks like some members of the police had already made gun contact with the attackers.

Out of curiosity, I decided to get out of my car and ask one of the officers at the roadblock. Apparently I wasn't the only one who wanted to take a look, although many people were running away from this place, but there were also some who chose to come closer and watch.

"Officer, may I know what's going on?"

The policeman I called turned around and had a surprised expression when he saw me, probably because of the pilot suit I was wearing.

"Ah, Yeah. We don't know yet ourselves, But what we heard from the witnesses who saw the attackers coming, they said that the attackers shouted Hell Diermo before opening fire. It was the same word used by the terrorists who did the suicide bombing last night."

"Did they come here as well to carry out a suicide bombing?"

"We're not sure either, but since there was no explosion so far. Then it should be-"

*Boom*

Before the officer could finish his words, there was a sudden explosion from the direction of the fuel station, we looked over, and we could see a large amount of fire and smoke.

"Well.... I'm pretty sure that's the bomb, Officer."

"Yeah....I can see that. Sorry, sir. But I need you to stay away from here."

After that, the police told everyone there to leave immediately, including me. I didn't choose to interfere and let the police do their job, even if I wanted to, I still wouldn't be able to interfere because I'm not an Official Pilot.

*********

"I'm home."

"Welcome back."

Alicia, Melissa and Luna answered at the same time.

Once I got home, I immediately headed to my room. As I passed through the family room, I could see Alicia and Luna.

"Where's Melissa?"

"The kitchen, she's cooking lunch. By the way, that was pretty hard, wasn't it?"

Luna asked me that with a grin.

"Nah, it was pretty easy."

"Ahaha, don't lie! Even though your Mecha's left hand got broken like that."

Luna said that while chuckling.

I swear, one day, I'm going to give this girl a lesson.

"Are you okay?"

"Ah yes, I'm good."

"Great."

Alicia smiled before continuing.

"Hurry up and change your suit, lunch should be ready soon."

"Oh, okay."

I went up to my room while thinking of Alicia who had been smiling at me more and more lately. However, I quickly put that out of my mind and took off my pilot suit, before going down to the dining room.

When I arrived at the dining room, Alicia, Melissa, and Luna were already seated at the dining table.

"Wow, today's lunch looks pretty good."

I said that before sitting down, that's because today's lunch looked more delicious and luxurious than usual.

"Melissa did this as a reward for your hard work in the match today."

"Luna!"

Ah... So that's why there were so many meat dishes...

I then looked at Melissa and said with a smile.

"Thanks, Melissa."

Hearing my words, Melissa blushed and averted her eyes before saying in a small tone.

"Just eat it."

Her reaction is pretty cute, it made me smile unconsciously and wanted to tease her again.

"Really, I'm really grateful, Melissa. I'll take you out next time."

"I told you to just eat, dummy!"

This time Melissa said it while shouting angrily, but because her face was flushed with embarrassment, I couldn't feel her anger at all.

"Stop it, Hiro."

"Ah... yeah, sorry."

Before I could tease her again, Alicia stopped me.

"That's right, hurry up and eat. I'm already hungry."

"Okay, okay."

Luna also urged me to eat.

After that, we all enjoyed our lunch while talking about small things.

I wish these peaceful days could continue, but considering the plot of the novel, I doubt my peaceful days can remain like this.