Obstacle Course...

Of course, everyone understood the hidden meaning behind the host simple words.

There is no way they won't understand it, after the previous ordeal that had to go through.

However, there were also some mechanics who didn't care about those hidden meanings, after all, it didn't matter what the other says if you were already confident about your capabilities.

Eden happened to be one of those.

He was quite sure, that his design would be able to reach all the way to the end. Though, he wasn't sure about what process those soldiers were about to take.

Actually, he didn't even care.

As long as the personnel moved forward with the end goal as their target, it was fine.

Of course, it was also true for everyone else.

At the same time, on the other side of the hall, a wall rolled down surprising the contestants.

After all, no-one expected the wall to be a door.

"Show off," a girl closer to Eden snorted.

Few people nodded at the remark. Though Eden too accepted it, he didn't let them know. Instead gazed to understand what was inside the wall.

They didn't have to wait for long, as the darkroom suddenly lit up revealing hundred and hundreds of simulation pods.

So, they changed their previous method of bringing in the pod afterward.

"D*mn, they are probably gonna complete the entire event in the next hour, or two." Another mechanic exclaimed, looking at the huge number of pods in a row.

Eden also understood, what was about to happen. Unlike last time, the organizers were trying to conclude the entire event as soon as possible.

By the time, a solder completes three matches, the entire event would probably be over.

Suddenly the general ordered the soldiers to enter the pod. With a hundred and eighty degree turn, the soldiers walked forward to the simulation pods. In twenty seconds, each soldier was inside one of the pods.

Every contestant whose design was chosen for the obstacle-course was notified by their comm.

As expected, Eden's design was not chosen by the military personnel. He was pretty sure, it was because of the lack of nose, and huge wings.

"Humph," Eden harrumph with an annoyed expression. Before turning around and leaving the gathering, towards a comfortable looking chair.

"Whatever, even if they don't choose it now, you would be forced to use it later," Eden was pissed looking at the picky customer.

Just you wait. I will see what you will do when you clueless knuckle-head understand what I have got hidden inside my suit. Eden was grinning inside his head.

.....

Of course, none had expected anything from the mechanics just yet.

There wasn't a perfect calculation of who would come out on the top, just yet. However, the general who was looking over all the contestants was different.

He had been checking, their performance one by one, hence, had already gotten a very good idea of who was capable of reaching the top.

Eden too was on the list, not on the top though. He was somewhere around the top twenties. Of course, it was only his conclusion. There were a lot of chances, he might be wrong too.

However, when he was watching over everyone, he had seen Eden do manual override on the AI system and change some settings, that had shocked him to the core.

Of course, he was not supposed to curse at him, hence was the only reason, he was trying to act cool.

Or else, he would have already gotten down below to kick him right at his *ss. Truth to be told, he was fuming with anger.

"Umm, General," the host suddenly called him.

"Hmm. Oh! You called," the general replied trying to act normally.

"No.. I mean. Yes, umm, you are mumbling a bit loudly." The host remained.

"Oh! Sorry about that." The general replied trying his best to smile.

After everyone submitted their designs, from the corner of his eyes he was still gazing at Eden.

"Just you wait, you dumb*ss." General cursed inside his head, looking at the grinning mechanic seated on a comfortable chair.

.....

"Huh! Is someone cursing me?"

Eden suddenly shivered, as he felt a cold gaze upon him and looked left and right. Seeing no-one, he again leaned back, resting on a bad posture, "Whatever."

Looking at the soldiers, running on the track while shooting at the obstacles left and right he was getting a bit bored.

Of course, that couldn't be said about the audience. Watching the soldiers rush forward while shooting at weapons that suddenly appear for the ground, trees opening up with rocket-launchers, shooting at the soldiers, they were getting excited.

There were basically weapons, lots of weapons. That increased in quantity, as the closer they reached to the end.

The sky wasn't safe either, with loads and loads of air defense mechanism, loaded already on the simulation. In the end, after more than half an hour, still, not a single person had managed to complete the entire run.

Boom...

Boom...

Boom... Boom... Boom...

One after another, a huge number of combat suits got destroyed, ejecting the soldier's avatar out of the suit, with emergency module breaking off and wrapping them in a vac-suits.

However, in the environment where a player is surrounded by obstacles from all sides, the avatar too didn't manage to take a single breath.

Looking at the sight, some were feeling sad at their failure, while some were laughing their *ss off.

The first ones were the contestants, the second was obviously the audience.

As Eden was thinking of getting up off his seat when suddenly, his comm lit up, "Oh, so it's my turn."

Eden smiled looking at the comm, where he saw a soldier turning on the combat suits.

....

On a virtual simulator, a soldier with a nose-less combat suit started running towards a straight path. After reaching fifty or so meters a kinetic rifle stood from within the ground. And aimed at the soldier. With ease, he aimed his laser rifle and shot at the rifle.

With one shot, a hole appeared on the kinetic rifle making it harmless.

The soldier was gobsmacked, "What the h*ll just happened?"

Looking at the weapon in his arm, he finally saw an adjuster on the side, which was turned to the lower end.

"At least set the d*mn thing on default, idiot," the soldier crushed the mechanic before turning the adjuster to the upper section.

As he covered another fifty or so meters, suddenly two kinetic turrets shot out the ground.

Raising his rifle just as he was about to pull the trigger when...

Zoom...

Before he could do anything, a hole appeared on the midsection of both rifles.

"Huh! Wh..What?"

He totally didn't understand, what just happened? He could swear, he never even got to pull the trigger.

Finally, after he looked at the system's log, did he remembered the two extra weapons on his shoulders.

"Automated weapons are allowed?" he mumbled. However, he didn't think about those anymore.

"Whatever," he shrugged and started walking towards the end of the road.

As he crossed another thirty or so meters, three turrets shot out of the ground, one on the center with another on both sides, two meters apart.

Raising the rifle he shot at the one in the middle, before turning at those on the side.

However, the first shot covered the entire five-meter area destroying all turrets.

He jerked looking at the sight. He had been a soldier for eight years and also taken part in the border war many times. But he had yet to come across any laser rifle which was this complicated.

"D*mn it, that adjuster was for the angle," he cursed before turning it to the previous position.

Every weapon had one problem, which had been causing a headache for every weapon user and mechanics.

The heat management problem.

Of course, the weapons made by the mechanics who focused on weapons alone learned many ways to dissipate heat from the weapon.

However, the same could not be said for those who mostly focused on mechanical suits.

As a soldier, he knew about it, hence, he was trying his best to tweak its power output to a lower setting. However, after searching for another few seconds, he gave up and started using it as it is.

"If that's the case, I need to rush things up," he concluded while again adjusting the firing angle to the maximum.

If he couldn't manage heat reduction he just had to finish the task before the weapon becomes, obsolete.

Looking directly towards the end line he took a deep breath, "Here goes nothing."