First paycheck.

I'm starting to understand why they wanted to see me deal with a bunch of wolves at once in the simulator. As the giant crocodiles exited the lake, the situation on the shore became more and more chaotic and while it was still far from the mess that happened in the simulator, because my Titan is not on it's best state failing to dodge could be fatal, and even if I didn't die, the bill would surely kill me, so getting hit was not an option.

As I slowly retreated, firing at every moving target that tried to approach me, I started getting frustrated by my poor aiming that failed to score a single critical hit. Sure, it still hit their heads, but with their heads being that big, even if I shot blindly I would end up hitting it anyway, the problem was that I was aiming at it's eyes, if I could hit them, it would take them down with a single shot, but, as I said, it was not happening, making me was bullet after bullet until their thick cranium got crushed after a hundred or so shots.

Titans have an automated aiming system that, as long as you lock the target, it will move the arms automatically and shot correctly even if you are moving around. I tried activating it, but it didn't make any difference. It appears that the problem is in the aiming system or the Titan needs some adjustments on its arm. Something should be lose as there was no pattern for the miss of the bullet, so, probably, as the Titan was moving around, the arm was shaking with it, instead of automatically counter balancing to correct the aim.

I have no idea how good Gary is, but I'm quite shocked someone could pilot such a mess and be able to fight anything properly. As the misses continued to accumulate and my patience reached it's limit, I suddenly let our a shout and changed configuration to melee combat, letting go of the rifle and grabbing my knife. If shooting doesn't work, penetrating their heads with the knife should do the trick.

"Fucking garbage! Taste my knife!!"

I ran toward the crocodile in front of me and jumped to the side, to strike it's eyes, but different from the simulators where the crocodile had a fixed set of animations that could be exploited, this one in real life followed me no matter where I went, making it impossible to reach it's back.

(Since going right and left are not working, what about up?)

It was then that a crazy thought passed through my head. Continuing to do the same thing expecting different results was madness, but doing what I planned to do was not that far. I stopped circling around it and charged right at it's direction and as it twisted it's head and tried to bite me, I activated the jumping function, jumping right over it's head.

"Take this!"

Everything that goes up goes down eventually, and, with the help of my back boosters this eventually arrives faster than ever. As I passed it's head, making it lose it's view of me, I quickly dropped down on it's back, not caring about the damage my dozen tons Titan would do, then, just as I landed right on it's back, I pierced my knife through it's eyes finishing it off.

"Sigh... Finally, it's down!"

The time it took for me to finish it was about the same as I took shooting a hundred bullets on it's head. On the good side, I hadn't wasted any bullet, on the bad side, the damage made to it's corpse was comparably higher, making its value go down.

As I looked around for the next target, I notice the rest of the crew was already finished and they had been watching me finish off my fight.

"Boss, I don't know... The newbie may have a bit of potential, but it's still far from enough to join our team...maybe we should look for someone else?"

"Seems like he is another one of those simulator champions. Without a descent Titan, they can't do anything at all..."

"Well, at least he didn't made us rescue him like the last one."

"Yeah, but he ruined most of his preys..."

Hearing their strong criticism, I felt quite embarrassed, but I needed the money so I decided to take the beating with a smile on my face.

"I'm sorry. It's my first time piloting this model outside the simulator. I will be sure to improve on the next time."

They didn't seem too convinced, but B.B. intervened in the last moment, saving me from further bashing.

"All right, guys, the boy is new, give him some time to adapt. Elise, I remember when you joined us, you were unable to do a single kill in your first battle, and Mike, I still remember the time when you froze in fear after being attacked by a giant cockroach! Everybody has a rocky start, the boy here is no exception, so give him a change to see how it turns out."

"Hmph!"

"...All right B.B., your team, your rules."

"Hey man, I'm not trying to-"

"I know. Whatever, I'm tired, let's just carry these guys and go to bed."

As Mike mentioned it we still had to carry all our preys back to Earth, or else we would get nothing at all. Thinking about this, I looked back at the battle field and scratched my head.

"Hey guys... how the hell are we going to bring all these back with us?"

...

As the sun rose up behind the buildings, we returned for the seventh time to the gate.

"Here it is. Twenty Giant Deinosuchus corpses. This is the last one of them."

"Dei-what?"

"Deinosuchus. It's official name."

"I think it was just giant crocodile."

"Man, shut up for a moment. Leave the questions for later."

The guy in suit who was talking to B.B. ignored Thomas' comments and brought out a case full of money.

(Wahhhhh! Are these monsters' value so high!? There must be millions here!)

"Here you go. 400 for all. Contact me again if you need my services!"

"Sure! See ya."

(Oh! 400! Nice!! .... Wait!? 400 bucks!? 20 bucks for each crocodile!? Isn't that too cheap!? That doesn't even pay the fuel we used!!! What the hell!?)

The team said good bye to each other and we went our own ways. B.B. gave me a ride back home and as we arrived he called me out.

My mind was still in loop trying to understand how anyone could make money out of this so I didn't pay much attention as B.B. suddenly threw me a small pack of money and patted my shoulder.

"Here Newbie, you got 3 of them so 60 to you, plus another 10 for the check up on all out Titans, I was going to take a piece as the rent for the Titan, but since you repaired it, I ended up adding instead. Thanks for your hard work."

"Eh? Ah... T-thanks..."

As I looked on my hands and noticed a thick money pack where each money bill was worth 100 dollars, I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing, so I quickly counted them down, right in front of B.B..

"Ten, Twenty... Seven hundred?! That's 70 thousands dollars! Didn't you give me too much!?"

"Hahaha! If you want to give it back, I will always accept free money, no one here will force you to accept your paycheck!"

"I will accept it! I will gladly accept it! Thank you very much!"

"Good! Don't worry. There is no mistake in your payment at all."

"If you guys get this much money, how come you have no money for your own Titan's maintenance!?"

"That's.... well, I got to go now. Have a nice day."

"Hey! Don't run away! Give me out the answer right now!"

"Cya!"

"Come back here! B.B.! Come back here!!!!!"