The System (2)

Alonso simply rushed out of the gym and began to run through Sago City.

He ran, even with his training equipment and schoolbag on. With this, he continued to run for miles and miles, unwilling to halt.

His eyes remained glued to the track ahead of him, but his mind struggled to focus on the task at hand.

Hovering cars soared past him and aerial vehicles manoeuvred between the skyscrapers beside him.

The streets were bustling and hard to navigate but this did not discourage him.

He finally arrived at a wide and tall tower, made of a pure, white material. Across it, there were vines and vibrant foliage that fluttered under the breeze.

Arriving at his apartment floor, he barged in and brushed past his parents who were in the kitchen beside the door.

"Welcome back… Alonso?" His mother asked.

She had brown hair and hazel eyes. She wore a white and red apron and had plates in her palms, then she turned to her husband.

He was stood in the kitchen along with her, and just shrugged upon noticing her glance. He was taller, at around 6'1, and had black hair just like Alonso.

"Must be about his mech. It's been eating him up ever since those mech commissioners barred him from getting one." His mother said, with empathy in her tone of voice.

"Of course. I'd feel the same." His father said with a harsher tone.

Having a mech-less child pretty much never happened in society, and it was an embarrassing thing, especially for a mech combatant.

Mech combatants, specifically male ones, would usually pass on their knowledge and skills onto their children who were in mech combatant academies. Due to Alonso's situation, none of that could happen.

No matter how tough his father could seem, he loved his child. While Alonso felt pain, he felt that same pain for him.

All he did was shake his head, before wiping his face.

Alonso remained in a chair opposite his desk, with holographic panels surrounding him. He would usually surf the web, catching up on the latest information behind mech technology, and watching intense mech battles.

Mechs were also used as a form of entertainment, where mech users would battle and fight in various leagues and tournaments. It became a lucrative industry, and even interplanetary competitions existed.

He didn't do a thing and just blankly stared at all of these panels. He wasn't taking in anything he was seeing but was constantly thinking about his mech-less self.

Raising to his feet, he had a quick shower and stormed out of his apartment again, entering the streets. He would usually do this to just take his mind off things, while listening to music so loudly that he couldn't even hear himself think.

He entered the central park of the city, which was filled with various wildlife and nature.

Upon human expansion into the galaxy, life was swiftly starting to decay away as humans dumped their waste in landfills and oceans.

Before it was too late, humanity decided to conserve life in various places and ways. Now, most cities possessed lush, large forests and parks in the midst of urbanised land.

As he walked, he just chuckled to himself, while tears welled up in his eyes. They slowly ran down his cheeks and he couldn't help but laugh to cope.

"Damn it. Out of everyone in the galaxy, it had to be me." He whispered to himself, entering an alleyway.

It cut off from the busy streets of Sago City and did a decent job at blocking out the noise from its entrances.

Walking past a large bin, he accidentally tripped up on a loose rock to then slam into it.

Slam! Clank.

He remained still for a moment and just broke out into laughter upon doing this. Wiping his tears, he just readied himself to continue his wanderlust stroll.

However, there was an odd noise from a large metal that was within the bin. In curiosity, he opened its lid to see a black bin bag, with a peculiar shape.

It seemed to be filled by a single object, and he couldn't help but open it. Getting dirty hands was of the least of his worries right now and upon opening it, he was startled.

It was a mech core. When mechs weren't attached to a human body, they would be stored in the form of a 'core' that consisted of a cylinder of material, where its diameter equalled its length.

Mechs were made up of nano-size cells and were thus amorphous. It just turned out that that became the standard method of holding a mech that wasn't bonded to a human host.

Mechs that were bonded to hosts were sometimes even contained in this form for periods of time when it couldn't be worn over the skin.

'Is this just an odd replica. This can't just a be a mech surely?' He wondered.

Mechs were not cheap to produce. Even after centuries of maximising the efficiency of their production by various societies across the galaxy, its general structure meant they required expensive machinery with exceptional accuracy, precision, and reliability.

No one would dare just throw it away.

Slowly extending his arm to touch it, he remained cautious. His finger suddenly made contact and nothing happened.

Once he tried to move the object, he was surprised by its heavy weight.

He decided to move closer to try and take it, but the cylinder suddenly expanded.

The student fell back in fright but the cylinder remained stuck to his arms.

"Get off, get off!" He screamed, scurrying back to the wall behind him.

The mech cylinder expanded and slowly pulled across his limbs and body. It manoeuvred past the bags and clothing currently on him, then collected around his spine.

Bzz!

"ARGH!!" He roared, which caused some passer-byes to look into the alley.

Nobody felt the care or need to enter, and just carried on.

The pain he felt throughout his entire body was intense and distressing.

'What is this?! Bonding to a mech shouldn't feel like this should it?' He wondered, struggling to breathe through the pain.

After attempting to remain on his hands and knees, he just fell onto his stomach, as his vision blurred.

'Maybe the mech issuers were right.' He thought, weakly chuckling.

However, as he slowly shut his eyes, the pain vanished.

He started to question if he had died or not, but he opened his eyes to see was in the exact same place.

"Huh?" He said, pushing himself back up to his feet.

[Configuring…]

"What?" He asked upon hearing this message.

[System Configuration Complete!]

[Welcome to the Super Mech System]

"The super-what?" He wondered.

For one to see holographic messages, it would have to either come from a separate holographic device. He didn't possess holographic eyes and they weren't that popular after the discovery of mechs.

He had no mech helmet on so these holographs were just floating in the air, with no projection.

[Menu]

[Stats]

[Quests]

[MechMod Market]

[Inventory]

The menu to this system suddenly appeared and he was taken aback by the panel labelled MechMod market.

The MechMod Market was a galactic marketplace where people would sell items relating to mechs. Some were beast crystals, which were used in its production and also modules.

Modules were pieces of technology made in the same way as mechs that were designed to be connected to them to provide them with extra functionality.

'So how do I navigate this thing?' He wondered.

"The user must use their internal monologue in order to open the desired panel section." A robotic voice stated.

The voice sounded digital but it was still rather natural sounding. It sounded like a young man, and he did just as he was instructed.

'Stats!'

[User: Alonso Del Valle]

[User Level: 1]

[XP: 0/100]

[XP Boosts: 0]

[Mech Level: 1]

[Skills] [expand]

[Traits] [expand]

[Mech Details] [expand]

Upon seeing this, Alonso couldn't stop smiling as he saw the words mech level and mech details. He actually had a mech and he was eager to explore this new 'system' of his.

He knew that people didn't have holographic systems that came with their mechs in such complexity like he currently had. It resembled the role-playing games that humanity played several millennia ago.

'Expand skills!'

[Skills] [0]

Alonso was bummed out about what he saw but he had just received this mech of his. He was sure he would receive some of these skills in the future.

'What are skills?' He asked, tightening the straps on his schoolbag.

The sky was dimming, and the streets were getting emptier and emptier. He didn't want to stay out in the darkness and so, strolled home while delving deeper into this system of his.

"Skills are abilities that the user can gain to have an alternative pathway to increasing the mech's functionality."

That sounded rather handy. There were only 2 other ways to make your mech learn to do something.

The first way was constantly exposing it to the same phenomenon to adapt to. For example, if a person was to be in an inhospitably hot area, the mech would advance the capabilities of its coolant system or create one to cool down their human host.

'That should come in handy. I could make my mech almost like a transformer type without it having to be one!' He realised, before searching further into his mech.

'Traits!'

[Traits]

[Coolant]

[Thermal Vision System]

[Basic Repair System]

His mech seemed to be equipped with similar equipment as most mechs. They would usually be issued with a coolant, a basic repair system and an additional system like radar or thermal vision in his case.

Basic Repair Systems were designed not just to repair the mech when damaged, but to also heal human injuries through the use of nanotechnology. It would be used to accelerate the healing process and also provide synthetically produced bio-molecules to the damaged area.

He just looked at these floating panels with a smile on his face. Images of him on the battlefield, fighting for his family and people rushed into his mind. His life of sorrow and pain had finally come to an end.

Now, he could finally prove everyone else around him wrong and accomplish his dream!