CHAPTER FIFTY

Jason's current Mech, the Vampire Spell Titan, blasted into space alongside its newfound allies.

To Jason's surprise, he didn't hear the familiar bzzt noise of an automatic sealing suit, a special feature Hemoborn used when flying in outer space.

Under ordinary circumstances, living beings couldn't survive in outer space on their own. However, strictly enforcing that protocol would nullify an entire Mech class.

As a result, the Overdrive Corporation had compromised by giving the cyborgs a special sealing barrier that allowed them to breathe in space. The barrier covered the machine's body and had the same toughness and durability as the Mech's base defenses.

It was essentially an attempt by the Overdrive Corporation to wave away the lore fail and allow Hemoborn enthusiasts like Jason to continue using their beloved Mechs.

At the end of the day, it was important to remember that Overdrive was a game. Fun was more important than realism. For similar reasons, Overdrive featured in-game sounds in space even though it technically should have been totally silent.

Jason had used the Red Minerva for so long that he was used to blasting off into space and hearing the familiar sealing noise.

However, this machine was not a Hemoborn.

Although the map's grand prize - the instant regeneration buff - could be applied to both Hemoborn or Spell Titan, this alien-looking machine didn't have a single ounce of flesh. As a result, it had none of the Hemoborn class's weaknesses.

It was a reminder for Jason that he needed to familiarize himself with all Mech classes.

As he moved, Jason carefully shifted the limbs from side to side. He was keenly aware of Vile's previous maneuverability with the Devoted Monk, and he wanted to emulate similar moves.

The process of moving his Mech's arms around and stretching them to their maximum was almost like a warm-up.

This warm-up procedure was another reminder of how lucky Jason was to encounter Vile.

Although Jason had practiced many of his weapons and techniques with great diligence, there were certain areas where he didn't even know how to get started. Jason's familiarity with the Red Minerva had come via simple brute force. He knew the Mech's limits because he'd played with it countless times.

However, now he knew there was a faster way to improve. Copying the famous Fortress Master's techniques and adding them to his own repertoire would further his growth.

Jason glanced at the players around him and continued warming up his Mech. He wanted to play well for them, but he also had to balance that out with his own improvements.

Using his current weaker machine instead of the Red Minerva was a bit of a risk, but the week's time allotted him significant leeway to practice.

If anything unfortunate happened to him, he would use his personal game time to catch up with them.

In addition, players were allowed to change their machines whenever they landed on specific maps. Based on the current guide, Jason and his friends would be stopping at several different stages. All of those would be opportunities to re-evaluate his Mech's build and frame.

Danny's group soon settled into a loose formation.

Although none of the players said anything in particular, Jason soon lowered his own speed to keep up with everyone else.

The Spell Titan's speed was unimpressive.

However, this was a ragtag group of untrained players and sub-optimal Mechs. Many of them had weakened their machines with inadvisable changes.

On top of that, the slow Belcher dragged down every machine's speed. The high-powered artillery Mech's movement speed was a mere D.

But despite their low skills, Danny's organization knew how to play as a team. Without a single word, they automatically settled into a loose formation.

Danny, the Belcher, and the Kingbreaker Grunt Mech Jason noticed earlier flew in a wide ring around the rest of the group. The O-Flier circulated around this trio. The high-speed defensive ring was ready to support any one of them if the need arose.

Next, the rest of the group created two concentric circles within this larger outer circle.

Jason frowned.

On the surface, the outer machines were actually quite weak.

Danny was currently re-rolling his weapon repeatedly until he found a good item. While the Lucky Duck clearly had a spectacular upside, its reliance on luck was a heavy restriction.

Meanwhile, the Kingbreaker Grunt was just a standard Guild Wars issue Grunt unit. It was a solidly built machine, but its strength topped off at the Bandit's level.

Jason pulled up the Mech's data on his Status screen.

-- General Data --

Pilot: WindyWendy222

Machine: Dehua - Wendy Custom

Class: Kingbreaker

Sub-class: Melee

Designation: Grunt Unit

- Statistics -

Melee: A-tier

Shooting: C-tier

Speed: C-tier

Maneuverability: C-tier

Defense: A-tier

Cohesion: B-tier

- Weapons -

Generator-Linked Beam Saber

Generator-Linked Beam Shield

- Abilities -

N/A

Wendy's Grunt was built on plain and simple principles.

The Dehua was a special close combat-focused Mech that resembled a traditional Chinese soldier. Although the Mech struggled with its speed and maneuverability, it was built from strong and reliable metals. It was known for hitting hard and having high durability.

The unsubtle but reliable Mech was almost the opposite of the Illusionist's usual Grunt machines. This soldier-like machine was used by another high-ranking guild - the Vermillion Fighters.

The Vermillion Fighters were led by the famous angel brothers, goldenangel and vermillionangel. The dashing close combat specialists had won the 4v4 esports World Championship last year, and they'd finished second only to The Hive in the last Guild War.

Wendy's customized version featured two changes.

The first was that both weapons were linked directly to the machine's generator.

A generator-linked beam sword was more robust and boasted higher cutting power than a conventional beam blade. The direct transmission of particles allowed for exceptionally powerful attacks. In Jason's study of pro players, he knew that there was a rising star who used similar weapons.

A generator-linked weapon essentially added additional power in exchange for additional risk. It was one of the purest examples of Overdrive's system of trade-offs. Cutting the wire could cause a backlash that destroyed the entire machine.

However, the player would only receive benefits if they were skilled enough to protect the wire.

Wendy had gone one step further by adding a beam shield to her machine. The large shield operated on essentially the same principle as the sword - additional defense in exchange for additional risk.

However, the most unusual aspect of Wendy's Mech was its coloring.

Normally, the Mechs used by the Vermillion Fighters were all painted bright red.

They were the most strict about coloring among any guild. In fact, even goldenangel, the team captain's brother, had shifted to using red machines while playing with his brother's organization. He'd only shifted to his usual gold and white after leaving the organization.

However, Wendy's Mech was sky blue and white with a paint coat that deliberately evoked a mildly cloudy day. The custom paint job demonstrated both her skills and her stubbornness.

You needed to make many organization requests before getting a custom-colored Dehua. More importantly, you had to be pretty good for the organization to even bother paying attention to you.

If she'd gotten noticed by the Vermillion Fighters, that meant Wendy had to be a pretty solid Grunt pilot.

As for the Belcher, the Mech was a solid and reliable machine. The pilot had made some intelligent modifications to upgrade his Mech, but it clearly wasn't anything particularly special.

-- General Data --

Pilot: DRT Owe 1

Machine: Big Bad Belcher

Class: Hemoborn

Sub-class: Wild

Designation: Ace Unit

- Statistics -

Melee: C-tier

Shooting: S-tier

Speed: D-tier

Maneuverability: D-tier

Defense: A-tier

Cohesion: A-tier

- Weapons -

Missile Spray Launcher (x2)

- Abilities -

Stench Level 8

Bloodlust Level 4

Explosive Belching

DRT Owe 1 - whose real name was Owen - clearly knew the Belcher in and out.

His modifications had all been extremely intelligent. In particular, his focus on buffs was an excellent fit for the machine.

The Stench buff added a forced random effect of enemy attacks missing. In the in-game lore, the sheer bad smell of the Hemoborn distracted the pilot. The result was essentially a barrier that helped protect the machine from close-ranged attacks.

Meanwhile, Owen had also equipped the infamous Bloodlust Bonus, allowing his machine to deal additional damage to wounded foes.

The last ability, Explosive Belching, was unique to the Belcher frame. It allowed the pilot to eject some of the overgorged dragon's stomach material in a forcible explosion of disgusting flame. The ability was almost like a cruder version of the Pestilent Snipe.

While the Pestilent Snipe was an ultra-concentrated sniping attack, Explosive Belching was a wide-ranging area of effect attack.

He'd upgraded the machine further with various internal strengthening, moving the machine's typically mediocre defense up to the A-tier.

Lastly, the missile launchers allowed Owen to finish off injured foes without using up the Belcher's previously eaten stores of food.

Even though he felt like it wasn't particularly powerful, Jason admired the other man's build.

In fact, Jason felt like he would have used a pretty similar machine had he lost to the Red Lamia. Although Jason was proud of the rare items he'd earned, he was also keenly aware of his own dumb luck. If he hadn't beaten the Red Lamia and gained its powerful gifts, he never would have experienced his current success.

Rather, he would have used a reliable machine that complemented the Red Minerva's strengths.

Similarly, Owen's Belcher was a well-built custom model that accentuated his machine's natural good points. Although the Belcher itself was a rather mediocre base frame, the other pilot's work was extremely impressive.

Glancing at Owen's name again provided further insight into the pilot's playstyle and ethos.

Ah.

The Dragon Tamers...

The DRT tag belonged to players in the Dragon Tamers Guild, a top fifty ranked guild that focused on uncovering the true strengths of various draconic machines. The guild was not nearly as competitive as luminaries like the Illusionists or the Vermillion Fighters.

However, the Dragon Tamers made up for individual skills with their numbers.

They accepted any player interested in using dragon Mechs, ranging from true dragons like the Red Minerva and the Belcher to mecha-dragons such as the Smoulderhulk and its ilk.

Jason took another look around him.

Danny, Wendy, Owen, and then finally Steven, the pilot of the O-Flier.

Jason typed in a quick search, then confirmed his suspicions.

Steven, the O-Fliers pilot, had participated in the last four College Cup tournaments. Unfortunately, he'd lost in the first round every single time.

However, just qualifying for the College Cup was quite difficult. The Overdrive Corporation made all registered teams battle a group of company employees before letting them participate.

A skilled player like Jason would have no problem beating past the qualification team. However, it still demonstrated some degree of competence.

It took Jason another couple of minutes before he realized the pattern.

Ah!

At first, he'd been looking at the Mech quality.

However, the players were not organized by Mech quality. Rather, they were organized by skill and experience. The most experienced players fought on the outside. The less experienced players stayed inside.

The system reminded Jason of something he'd read about elephants. Apparently, they did the same thing to protect their babies from hunters. While the players in the circle weren't babies by any reasonable sense, they were newer players. Danny wanted to give them a good time so they would stay in his guild.

Most guilds operated under a hierarchy system where the weakest players were the most expendable. The BAG Guild followed the opposite protocol, in large part because Danny knew every single member of his guild.

Most other guilds left their newer players to random staffers. There was no way for vermillionangel to meet every single pilot in the Vermillion Fighters. That simply wasn't possible.

It was sort of similar to Jason's time at the Overdrive Corporation. He'd never met people like the Mechanical King or Lily Gay.

However, this clearly demonstrated an advantage of a smaller guild - there was greater loyalty for the leaders.

On top of that, Jason noticed one last pattern, one that further increased his admiration of Danny.

He let Owen, Steven, and Wendy play the Mechs they wanted to play. Other than maybe Steven, none of them were using the optimal machines for the situation. However, Danny understood that his players had other commitments.

Wendy was a mercenary, and Owen was also a member of the Dragon Tamers.

Right now, Danny had nothing to offer the other pilots. He only had an unofficial guild with no territory or benefits. As a result, he respected their lives outside of his unofficial BAG guild.

But even though these relatively experienced pilots used their own Mechs, they still respected the overall system of team play where stronger pilots defended weaker ones.

Jason sent Danny a message.

Devourer22: You want me to go to the outer ring?

Danny replied a moment later.

Rooster7: If you'd like to, that would be great!

Jason swerved his vampiric Spell Titan outward to join the rest of the group. He understood the importance of being a good guest and following established conventions.

Of course, there was another benefit to being in the outer group - you got to be in the middle of the action!

After about thirty or forty minutes of flying, the group finally found their first opponents.