Chapter 2: The Mad Tournament.

"Welcome to the MAD tournament," the official paused before continuing, "Where aspiring mechanics clash with each other, using their wits and designs, to prove they are a cut above the rest....."

The continued on about the history of the coalition and various feats they achieved on their rise to become one of the galactic overlords of the sector.

"Now usually we let you use your own designs for the tournament but this year, we change things a bit, this year the all the participants have to choose a design from the few designs that will be provided for you. you will not be even given unlimited resources this time, There can only be a particular amount of armor and circuit elements in the M A design."

This announcement shook every single one of the contestants, the MAD tournament was difficult but never this difficult. They were used to participating with a design that they were familiar with and in the previous MAD tournaments they just had to tweak their design that they were already familiar with but this they were asked improve upon a completely unknown design.

"I know this change has increased the difficulty of the tournament, Just know this the rewards the winners receive this tournament is the reason for the sudden jump in difficulty. Well the rewards are the same as the last tournament only this time you might have chance to be the official student of an Enlightened Mechanic."

The final statement made every single contestant stop their complaining and look forward to giving it their all. They all came here hoping to become a disciple of a master mechanic but now they have a chance at becoming the disciple of an enlightened mechanic. The hierarchy of mechanics were actually quite clear, the first tier was a Trainee Apprentice like Race, then came Apprentice mechanics who advances to become a Beginner Mechanic. After a Beginner Mechanic one can advance to become an Advanced Mechanic and finally after years of studying one can earn the title of Master Mechanic.

But becoming a Enlightened mechanic is not that simple. Though hard, one can become a Master Mechanic by spending years on studying, researching, creating new designs. To become an Enlightened mechanic one must create something that can be said to be a pioneering work. Something that can change how the entire mechanic discipline progressed.

Getting a chance to be taught by one such individual, will allow mechanics access to a lot of resources and studies that they didn't dare to dream of. They could even get access to researches and data that they would otherwise never know even existed. And best of all working under a great mind like an Enlightened Mechanic will definitely hasten their improvement and growth. Reaching the standard of a Master Mechanic is guaranteed.

The Mechanic from the coalition continued with how the tournament is to take place.

"The participants will have 3 days to study the design of their chosen type

=> Each the M A will be separated into Combat and Support.

=> The Combat M A's will be further divided into Close Combat, Ranged and Mixed Types.

=> The Support designs will be put into a virtual scenario and evaluated on how well it performs.

=> The Combat Types will be pitted against the same type in a virtual duel. The winner will Advance and the top 4 design will face against Other combat types as well. This will result in the final standings of the tournament.

The Host official continued ,"The participants will have 3 days to study as well as modify the design of their chosen type. I like to stress on the fact that no separate time given to study the design . Let the tournament begin in 3...2...1."

And then the transparent partition between each contestant turned into an opaque yellowish golden wall which then turned metallic grey, making sure that no participant can see what another participant is making. Then each participant was given the above choices and Race without hesitation chose the close combat type.

Then from the middle of his room a light blue box emerged which opened to reveal the armor he must optimize. And Race just like every other contestant stood in awe of the armor and its design that was displayed. The audience was confused as to why all the contestants were stunned. The details of the armor was not shown to the general public.

In VIP suite in the virtual center the hosts and officials of the tournament were watching the feed with a smile on their faces. One of the older gentleman spoke " Look at the youngsters, stunned from just seeing the designs for the first time."

And then a middle-aged man replied," Well they can't be blamed for it. Even though they are simple designs, they were made by an Enlightened. They are lucky bastards for being able to even see such a marvelous work at such a young stage of their carrier. Lets see how long it will take them to snap out of it."

For mechanics seeing such a sublime design is a blessing, But sometimes too much of a blessing can be a curse. In this case, where they were in a tournament in which every single second counts being stunned will cost them very dearly.

Race was the first one to break free of the design's beauty and started study it, rather than just admiring it. Being the first to take action, he caught the attention of all the spectators including the attention of those in the VIP lounge. Even when various apprentice mechanics were still immersed in the beauty of the design; a 16 year old trainee apprentice has began to thoroughly study the design.

They were unable to believe what they were seeing, Even master mechanics took a good minute to break from the charm of the simple yet intricate design the Enlightened mechanic created. So they were only able to come with one explanation.

" The kid has not even begun his career as a Mechanic , So he probably was not able to appreciate the genius of the design. But still keep the video feed from his workstation pinned, What if he is a diamond in the rough, we don't want to miss him."

Then a beep of a communicator was heard in the suite. The host Mechanic accepted it after muting himself from the VR chat. After a quick conversation with someone who was higher in ranking than him he came back and said to the group, "The Enlightened seemed to be interested in the boy, She asked us to get that boys details. And their is another demand as well".

"What is it ?" Asked another gentleman in the suite.

" She asked if the boys design completes two of the performance benchmarks with higher ratings than the original design and the design does not suffer more than 10 defeats then his design should be pitted against a design that the Enlightened makes."

" WHAT, WHY?", The entire suite was stunned, "Not even Advanced mechanic can hope to hold out against a design an Enlightened mechanic created".

" I don't know, ok. How can we try to guess what goes on in their heads." said the mechanic." This only happens if he is able to complete the performance benchmarks with higher rating than the original design. An APPRENTICE TRAINEE IMPROVING UPON A DESIGN MADE BY A ENLIGHTENED MECHANIC!" said yelled another one.

"What are you yelling for?, there must be a reason why the Enlightened one has decided upon this arrangement. Lets wait and watch. Its not just for him though anyone able to achieve the condition will be given this opportunity."

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Even After about ten minutes after Race has woken up from the stupor, most of the other mechanics where still standing stunned and then an announcement sounded waking every mechanic up.

" To Every Participant , We would like to Inform that if your able to achieve an outstanding results then you get a chance for your design to spar with another design made by the Enlightened Mechanic. So do your best."

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In the VIP suite:

"Now that should be enough to wake up everyone. Otherwise the entire tournament would have been very boring to watch. With this there will be some competition. So now lets see what they will do next."

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Race who was seriously working hard to learn the design, smiled hearing the announcement.

"Hehe" chuckling in his mind Race thought, " They needed to do something to wake up the rest and this announcement was the perfect method for it, If not for having memories of various events that questioned reality itself, I to would have taken a long time to shake free."

After going through the design a few times, Race grew frustrated. " Damn this design is far too perfect for to make a change to it at my level, What can I do, what can I do". He thought about everything but nothing could provide a viable solution. Then he had a sudden spark.

" No harm in trying that out". Race then walked up to the production panel and inputted the copy of the original design. Before the confused gazes of the public, A marvelous piece of armor came to being. And Race proceeded to wear it.

And under the gazes of trillions of viewers, Race donned the state of the art armor.