CHAPTER SIXTY ONE

"Ahhh..."

Jason briefly took off his virtual headset and stretched.

He blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted to his surroundings. Moving from the Overdrive server to real life was always a bit of a surprising transition.

He couldn't start crafting just yet. He needed to gather more information first.

He took a quick glance at the front desk.

Jacob wasn't sitting there at the moment, but Jason could hear him talking to someone else in the other room.

Jason glanced at the clock.

It was three o'clock now.

It sounded like some of the trading card game players had just arrived at the Good Game Shoppe after getting out of school. Jason walked up to the front desk and leaned against the counter.

He'd wait for Jacob to get back before asking for advice. He didn't want to rush the other man when he was working with customers.

On the surface, Jason had a pretty clear-cut idea of what he wanted to do.

His primary goal was creating a tanky set of outer armor outside the Red Minerva. The outer layer of armor would increase his machine's weight and allow him to use wrestling moves.

However, his Mech would also have the capability to eject the armor to regain his usual speed.

The combination would significantly increase his versatility and offensive power. It would essentially allow him to use two different Mechs at once.

Of course, that versatility also came at a price. Overdrive Mechs were balanced around the 50,000 Credit Cap. Aside from stages that allowed high-powered Giga Mechs, there was always an upper cap on a machine's striking power.

In this case, Jason would have to empty out his entire weapons depot. If he wanted to create this outer tanky armor, he wouldn't be able to hide weapons up his sleeve.

However, his machine would also be able to equip stationary weaponry like the Vampire Brawler's shoulder cannons and arm-mounted harpoons. The additional power would definitely come in handy.

Unfortunately...

Jason didn't know where to start.

He had no crafting experience!

High-level experts like Vile built their Mechs from the ground up.

They built the machines from scratch, deciding everything from the internal pistons and wiring to the location of every thruster and weapon to the outer coat of paint.

Other builders, including Danny, heavily customized a pre-existing frame.

After battling alongside the machine for a while, Jason recognized that Danny's Lucky Duck was clearly based on the spherical Guardian X frame. Normally, the Guardian X Grunt frame was a heavily armored sphere with spindly limbs and a few built-in weapons.

Jason recognized the rough contours of the outer frame and the spindly limbs, but Danny had dramatically transformed everything else. The Lucky Duck's weapons system wouldn't have been useable without dramatic changes to the internal wiring.

On the other hand, Jason had only made very simplistic changes thus far.

He'd simply been taking items and then either equipping them to his Mech or feeding them to the Blazing Avarice.

Indeed, the biggest transformation to his machine had come automatically.

He'd gained the Blazing Avarice system and the Red Lamia transformation because of the Genetic Splicers. While the battle had been difficult, adding the parts onto his machine hadn't taken any skill on Jason's part.

Jason's most prominent "crafting" effort was creating the Legerdemain Blade. Creating the sword had been an extremely simplistic process.

This was a much higher level of work.

On the outside, it seemed like Jason had done an impressive job creating the Vampire Brawler.

However, he'd simply purchased high-quality defensive items and then equipped them to his Mech. Creating a special ejectable suit of armor was a different story. There was no such pre-set item. Jason would have to build it from scratch himself.

Fortunately, Jason thought Jacob would be able to help.

The game store owner had seen countless machines while hosting Overdrive tournaments. After working with Vinnie, Jason knew how important it was to trust other people in their area of expertise.

As he waited for Jacob, Jason continued sketching out possible ideas.

If possible, he wanted to introduce additional gimmicks.

The versatility provided by the wristbands was exceptionally impressive.

They allowed Jason to freely change up his handheld weapons. He wanted to maintain that ideal even if he switched to a heavier machine.

Even though they were difficult to use, the Vampire Brawler's shoulder cannons were powerful. Jason wanted to continue wielding them even if he ejected his armor.

What if he developed weapons that could both link onto fixed hardpoints while also serving as handheld weaponry? Jason started sketching out a new weapon, an assault rifle with both a pistol grip and a docking port.

His art was completely and utterly terrible.

He represented the Red Minerva using an inaccurate stick figure, and he showed the armor by drawing boxes along his machine's arms. His depiction of his guns would horrify any firearms expert.

Fortunately, none of that mattered very much.

The key was just getting his ideas down on paper.

Afterwards, Jason started sketching several possible docking points for his weaponry. In addition to shoulder-mounted rifles, it'd be interesting if he could equip weapons that empowered his kicks.

After all, the new armor form wouldn't solely be used for wrestling attacks. Jason intended to incorporate other martial arts and close combat techniques into his upgraded machine.

Eventually, Jacob walked back from the other room.

The other man beamed from ear to ear and greeted Jason like he was just seeing him for the first time that day.

"Hey! Do you need anything?"

Jason nodded.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you had any experience with crafting."

Jason flipped his drawing over and explained what he was thinking about.

"The last few days, I've really been in a groove with my Vampire Brawler. I love its forceful attacks, and the size allows me to incorporate Vinnie's wrestling tactics. I know some of the stuff like Blood Transfer can't be ported over, but I wanted to create a similar suit of armor for the Red Minerva. Have you seen anything like this before?"

Despite Jason's bad artwork, Jacob had no problem recognizing what Jason was trying to draw. However, he didn't quite understand the point.

"Wait. Why would you just equip heavy armor on the Red Minerva? Wouldn't it make more sense just to keep using the Brawler?"

Jason shook his head and pointed at the drawing again.

"No, I don't think I'm depicting this right."

He smiled to himself as he drew lines emanating from the square boxes. It was like a kid drawing a cartoon.

"I want an ejectable set of armor that will allow me to shift modes. So I'll enter the fight as a heavy wrestler, but I'll be able to remove it and revert to my usual speed and assassination tactics. I think this kind of mixed strategy will help me succeed in the Tournament of Assassins. Players won't know how to deal with me if I can freely shift up my playstyle."

Now Jacob understood what was going on.

The big man nodded in appreciation.

"Ah! I see!"

He pointed at the page again.

"And then these rifles..you want them to be used in both modes, right?"

Jason nodded.

"Yeah, exactly."

Jacob pointed at the armor.

"You know, you could go even further with this armor re-use idea. What about these plates here?"

He pulled out a pen.

"Do you mind if I draw something?"

After Jason nodded, he started sketching out discreet shapes inside the boxes. Unlike Jason, Jacob had serious artistic talent. It only took him a few strokes of his pen, but he'd soon traced out a shield and a pair of gloves.

"Something like this...I know you usually try to keep your hands free, but having parts of the armor turn into weaponry can be a good option. After all, you can't easily re-attach everything once you reject it. You might as well try to re-use some of it. If you don't need it at the time, you can leave it on the floor."

Jason nodded in appreciation.

It was a pretty good idea.

He wouldn't necessarily want to go straight to the Blazing Avarice after dumping off the armor. There was a chance he'd like to fight with a rifle and shield, especially if he was running away from a close combat specialist.

Jason tapped the paper.

"Do you have a good model for this build? I have a lot of ideas, but I don't know how to actually implement it in the server."

Jacob thought for a moment, and then he brightened up.

"Yeah! I have! It's a lot like the Pack systems Grunts are using these days."

Jason started.

Ah!

He should have known to look at the esports side of the game for inspiration.

Pack systems allowed Grunt machines to change their equipment on the fly in four-on-four matches. Unlike Ace Mechs, who approached battles with pre-set equipment, Grunts could adjust their armaments after seeing the stage.

As a result, Grunt experts prioritized versatility.

For example, they could equip special underwater equipment for stages like Sea.

The most versatile Grunt Mech was the SPG-Warlock. The unique Spell Titan Grunt could adjust not only its outer equipment but also its elemental focus. The powerful Mech switched up its magical abilities to best fit the stage it was battling on.

Fortunately, mappers like Jason didn't have to follow conventional esports rules. If he wanted to, Jason could develop separate armor sets for the Red Minerva that operated just like the Grunt's Pack systems. He could switch up his equipment to best suit his stage and opponents.

He pulled out his phone.

He felt a little awkward asking her, but Wendy would know what to do. He sent her a message via his Overdrive app and asked her to send him some Grunt schematics.

To his surprise, she responded nearly immediately.

WindyWendy222: Yeah! No problem! What specifically were you thinking of?

Jason pulled out his phone for a bit and did some light internet research.

He prioritized Mechs that were well-known for using the Pack system. Mechs that excelled at the 4v4 esports meta always had docking points for packs. Meanwhile, proprietary Guild Mechs like the Dehua or the Bandit rarely used add-ons.

Jason sent Wendy the list.

Devourer22: I was thinking of the CWT-141 Zombie, the SPG Warlock, and the Guardian X

Wendy sent the schematics a moment later.

WindyWendy222: Here they are! I don't use these too much, but you're lucky I had them all lying around.

The docking system was relatively easy-to-use and understand.

Jason felt like he could definitely replicate it on his Red Minerva. It'd be a simple matter of adapting similar parts and installing a special program onto his machine.

Quickly ejecting the equipment would be a different story.

Only the SPG Warlock had a pre-developed system for ejecting parts.

However, Hemoborn and Spell Titans had incredibly different internal systems. Out of the four Mech classes, they were probably the most different. Jason would need to put serious work in if he wanted to translate the ejection system.

After receiving the schematics from Wendy, Jason turned to Jacob again.

It took a bit before Jason realized it'd actually been pretty rude to leave Jacob hanging while he pulled out his phone. He'd just been so excited to ask Wendy for help that he'd totally forgotten about his friend behind the counter.

"Whoops. Sorry about that."

Jacob laughed knowingly and brushed it off.

"Don't worry about that. It happens pretty often.

The big man smiled mischievously.

"Sounds like you got some pretty good ideas for your build."

Jason nodded.

"Yeah!"

He pulled out his credit card and started looking for parts to purchase.

The Good Game Shoppe had special apps, including the PseudoWorkshop, that allowed players to experiment.

However, just like with HemoLovers and its genetic samples, players needed to own the parts beforehand.

The Good Game Shoppe didn't accept in-game Credits for money. You had to pay with cash.

The prices weren't the best, but after all of Jacob's help, Jason would feel pretty crappy logging onto the server from a Good Game Shoppe computer to buy stuff from OverManiacs.

But to Jason's surprise, Jacob waved him off.

The big man reached behind him and opened up the case.

Instead of taking one of the USBs, he took out a gray laptop. He opened it up, then entered a few quick keystrokes. Once he finished, he set it aside and put it back in the case.

"I obviously want you to buy parts, but I don't want you to waste your money if you're just experimenting. If you're showing up at the store to train all the time, I bet you're freelancing after leaving the Overdrive Corporation."

The other man's eyes narrowed briefly.

"You're trying to beat the Tournament of Assassins to get a deal with OverManiacs, right?"

It seemed like Jason had a pretty lousy poker face. It only took a short time before Jacob realized he'd hit on the truth.

Jacob nodded.

"I'm not going to pretend we can offer the same prices as them, so I don't care that you're selling to someone else. You gotta make a living. Plus, you're doing a ton for us. You've been a customer of ours for a long time. You know we always make money on the tournaments since the prize is in store credit."

The man smiled very brightly.

"My dad would kill me if I didn't help you out. Plus, I want to help you out too. So how about this? We'll sponsor you, in a sense. I just turned your in-game account into a master account on our computers. You can borrow parts from our inventory at any time. Of course, if you break something, you'll actually have to pay for it. If someone buys a part, I'll need it back from you. Other than that..."

He waved his hand.

"Just do what you need to do. Everyone at the store is rooting for you to win the tournament."

It took Jason a bit to process the other man's words.

When he did, he was bowled over by the other man's kindness.

However, Jacob waved him off before he could thank him.

"You're gonna owe us, though. If you ever do a stream..."

The big man trailed off.

After an awkward pause, the two friends laughed loudly at the ridiculousness of Jason doing a stream.

One of the trading card game kids walked by to ask what was funny, but both of them shook their heads after realizing it was too hard to explain.

Eventually, Jacob was able to re-establish his seriousness.

"If you ever do an interview, you better shout us out at the end."

The man composed himself.

"Here's what you should say...I'd like to thank my sponsor, the Good Game Shoppe..."

Then Jacob thought for a bit and went on. His mischievous grin returned.

"It's where I learned all my tricks. How about that?"

Jason laughed.

He wouldn't say he'd learned all his tricks here, but the store had undoubtedly helped him. Frankly, if Jacob was going to let him borrow high-end parts for free, he'd say anything.

"Sounds good."

Jason headed back to the warm-up area.

He pulled out his phone, then searched for some YouTube crafting tutorials, including some videos from TheCreativeCrafter. The man was annoying, but he knew a lot more about crafting than Jason did.

Jason now had an idea where he was going, but he still wanted to make sure he was doing everything correctly. It took another hour or so before he felt like he had a basic level of competence. The PseudoWorkshop wouldn't make permanent changes, but he didn't want to waste his time poking around when high-quality guides were available.

Besides, he wanted to make sure he did everything perfectly. Jacob trusted him and was willing to lend him the parts he needed. Jason needed to use those parts to create an amazing machine. It was just like when Stephanie sacrificed herself for him against the Green Envy - working for others was an even greater motivation than working for himself.

When Jason opened up the Overdrive app again, he hopped into the PseudoWorkshop.

The Red Minerva was lying flat on the floor. The Mech's limbs were stretched out with metal bindings. The cyborg itself was completely asleep.

Beside it was a long line of crafting tools as well as all the parts lent to him by the Good Game Shoppe.

Jason pressed a couple of buttons, and then he summoned the schematics given to him by Wendy. The Grunt blueprints illuminated the far wall of the PseudoWorkshop.

It was time to get started.