Time's On!

Sy noticed familiar faces in the crowd, cheering for him and Laira. They were the neighbours and fellow tenants - people who were in the Fanick's mech facility during the storm. The only ones who were not present were Emma and her adopted children, and also; Mina and Niel. It seemed that surviving together created a bond that did not fade away so easily.

With the mysterious 4th Grade Mech Specialist unwilling to show himself, it was left to the announcer to relay the rules for the tournament.

"The tournament will be held five hours realtime, giving us a whopping twenty-five hours of nonstop mech action in the virtual reality. UGC is an adaptive host application and can successfully bond with other softwares such as the simulation engine of Steel Arena. Now, we can enjoy a virtual competition as realistic as that of real life!" The announcer started.

"Ten hours of virtual reality will be spent to the first round of the tournament, and fifteen hours to the second round. There has been some revisions on the contest."

Upon hearing this, the contestants glanced at each other. They had been informed days ago that the tournament will have three rounds. They concluded that due to the lack of time, the tournament was now reduced by one round.

"The two rounds will be dedicated to the Imperator III, which will be a great model for our young mech specialists.." The announcer smiled, and patiently waited as the contestants began discussing amongst themselves with excitement.

Years before the Imperator III was born, The Empire of Durn was plagued by defeat in the battlefield. It was also within these years that was regarded as the 2nd Mech Wars - outposts and human settled planets were riddled with the carcasses of thousands of mechs.

One mech specialist vowed to the current emperor of that time, to build a mech worthy of the empire, and would dedicate ten years of his lifetime in developing the mech. When the mech was released, it became an exemplary figure for every mech specialists. Although, it did not excel in anything, it did not exhibit any weakness. Good armour, good firepower, good mobility and powerful engines coupled with a competent reactor. A good pillar for a mech army.

With this, the empire started expanding its borders. Even though they lost the aerial battles, they compensated with their main army which was composed of the Imperator III - and it proved to be incapable of being defeated in a decisive battle. A land base mech army could be devastating. Guerilla Tactics could work, but if left uncheck and unchallenged, it could just move on to the next city and conquer it.

The Imperator III was a 3rd Gen. Tier 3, and has seen one of the longest service in history. Even after the first 4th Gen was released, the aging mech was still capable as long as they were grouped together. When the standard changed with time, the Imperator III still rightly deserved its place in the mech specialist's book of honours.

The base version carried a standard energy rifle and could be switched to rapid fire or single concentrated energy blast for sniping. An adequate boosters that could propel the mech for a small distance, a good way to reposition into higher grounds. Its exposed reactor would be the first challenge for the young mech specialists as they would need to plug it with additional armor platings, before they started modernizing its components.

"Now, now.." The announcer finally found that it was his moment and continued, ".. five hours would be dedicated into customizing the mech, and another five hours for our young pilots to display their skills in a battle royale. The second round.. Oof! Whatever condition the Imperator III was after the first round, our young mech specialists has to repair it. Even if the time was doubled, it will be a pain if the mech of their pilot was utterly turn into dusts. If such scenario happens, there's only disqualification! HAHAHA!!"

The contestants begrudgingly glanced at the announcer.

"The boring part is finally over! And our young graduates should be able to figure out the rest," The announcer turned to exit the stage, "Let the games begin!"

To the cheers of the huge crowd, the amphitheatre reshaped itself in order to provide the space needed for the competition. The contestants were divided by transparent borders in order to spark their competitive spirits whenever they looked to their neighbours and see their progress.

Laira saw this as an opportunity to organize her team. Seeing that Sy was weary, although she did not know the reason, she was still confident as she suggested, "Sy.. Theon and I can handle the first round. You go rest."

Sy turned his sight on the crowd. There were over 400,000 right now, and he could see that if this was a bigger event, it could easily turn to millions, or even billions. He could not imagine the noise when done in such a mass density of people, as this number was already deafening and most exciting. He agreed with Laira after seeing the fabricator designated to his team which was similar to the one in his virtual workshop - he then searched for a place to close his eyes for a moment.

"What is this? It seems Logria's mechanic has exited the stage, and only the extra from Gelia was left to customize the Imperator III of their team!" The announcer said, prompting the crowd to glance at the retreating figure.

"BOOO!" The crowd from Gelia showed their disapproval.

"Is it because he's a mechanic and more useful to the second round?" Some of the spectators speculated.

On the family reserved collum where the Runeries were situated, Gregory was even more confused by this action. He wanted Vulcan44-- Sy in action. The Straggler S1-2 was a masterpiece of a machine. Although he had yet to taste the cockpits of the current gens, he doubted that they were as sophisticated as the Straggler S1-2's.

"Laira made a good decision." Grandfather Theodore commented.

"That young man.. he is mentally tired." Granduncle Charles added, observing the stage below.

"It would have been good to witness the Imperator III in an organized battle. But since it's a one man team, let's see how the grandniece fare against pilots from the academies." A wider remark came from Granduncle Romulus.

After all, Laira had chosen her older sister's footsteps by joining the Little Auxillary - which not only produced one, but two ace pilots in Mina Fanick and Genevieve.

Meanwhile, the contestants below carefully discussed their next move. Ever confident, one specialist from the team of Pyr Prime exited the stage.

"Pyr Prime did not want the insult, and also ejected one of their member. We might be seeing a rivalry here!" The announcer jabbed, causing other teams to also remove a member.

"What are they doing?" Laira rolled her eyes. There was no point in throwing out a member just because one team did it. What she suggested to Sy was a tactical decision, not some showboating.

Nearby, Theon was sweating buckets. He was not confident alone. The Runerie was doubtless, but why did he have to get dragged into it. Why did she have to suggest Sy to rest and make him go at it alone?

After a moment, he regained his composure and planned ahead. He guessed that only a limited number of components would be available, which would prove to be correct. The young mech specialist had always excelled in the inner structure of mechs. The problem was the manual labour of the huge mech - which would reveal his weakness in assembling the outer parts. A single arm alone could weight thousands of tons. He grimaced at the thought.

"Theon! Make sure your mech don't fall apart after taking its first step! Hahaha!" A nearby specialist from the arctic world Callum, taunted behind the transparent screen.

This jive caused Theon's self esteem to plummet. His face darkened.

"What the f*ck?!" Laira scoffed at the sorry looking teammate. "Did you come all the way here just to show how pathetic you are!?"

"It's not li--" Theon stammered. He gritted his teeth with creased brows. The pride of his manhood was severely wounded as Laira was of noble birth and possessed a quality that no common women held. As such, hearing that he was just a weakling in her eyes had hurt his ego. Who wouldn't want to show off around a woman with the best of quality and earn their admiration?

Laira was at the end of her teen years - just a year older than Gregory. Even though she was like a child when around Sy, she was more mature when around peers of the same age or even older.

"You take that back! I'm not pathetic!" Theon demanded while the other specialists secretly watched them with the corner of their eyes.

Laira did not show any sign of remorse, replying in a cold voice, "I'll take it back if you perform." She turned to the clock located on top of them and pointed, "Time's on."