by R. H. Tang
"Darren. Do you remember me?"
A moment later, Felix let out a cry of delight.
"Oh, man. Yeah! How are you, man? It's been a long time! Are you playing on the European server now?"
"Yes! I'm on the European server!"
After their outburst of popularity, the Overdrive Corporation was rapidly expanding all around the world. The Asian server had released to great aplomb just a few weeks ago. It'd been almost half a year since the European server came out.
Felix took an excited look around.
"Is anyone else here? How did the qualification for foreign players go?"
Darren angrily shook his head.
"It didn't go. We were not invited here."
Although he'd been friendly enough when he met Felix, the tall man now clenched his teeth so hard that Julian thought they'd crack. Despite his thin frame, Darren seemed very intimidating.
"A lot of guys on my server are good enough to be here. We need some European Fortresses. But they only let one person from our server come. It's just me. I came to show our strength as the special representative."
"Oh man, how did you get picked for that?"
Darren proudly thumped his chest.
"I was number one on the server."
Felix almost leaped into the air with excitement.
"Oh, man! Number one on the whole server! Dang!"
Felix laughed.
"Then again, I shouldn't be surprised. I mean, you hit the top 150 here playing from across the world. That must have been almost impossible. How hard were you lagging?!"
Darren beamed at the compliment.
"You can't even imagine! It's so much easier! My machine can actually move!"
Darren provided his information and then passed the security checkpoint.
As Felix and Julian pulled out their passes, Julian asked his friend just how skilled Darren was.
"To be honest, I'm surprised he's the best on their server, but it's hard to judge people playing across the world, right? He must have been lagging extremely hard. He lives in Denmark, and the server is in Chicago!"
"Yeah, that's a good point. What was gameplay like?"
Since he was on a different server now, Darren wasn't in the Database.
"Good. Darren was a sturdy and reliable player. Above-average control skills, good team player, really doesn't make a lot of mistakes or have holes in his game. We got along pretty well because he had the same approach. The main difference between us was that he used tanky machines. He liked being able to take a few hits—probably just in case he couldn't react in time."
Felix made a face.
"The problem is, if he had control skills similar to mine with severe lag, it's hard to say just how good he'll be."
"Yeah."
If he could make the top hundred and fifty with extreme lag, Darren had to be a dangerous player. Julian was a little worried about matching up against him. On top of that, there might already be a separate European playstyle. A similar thing had happened in other esports.
Julian and Felix were both allowed inside.
Julian gasped.
There were so many players inside the dome. Although five hundred players out of millions was a tiny percentage, it was still five hundred people. The center stage was packed.
As they slowly filed in, Felix pointed out other people who he recognized.
"That guy's one of my rivals, Sunshine89. He's a former pro from the MOBA scene."
MOBAs, or Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, was a game genre fairly close to Overdrive—players battled against each other in teams and aimed to destroy enemy objectives. Of course, most MOBAs involved controlling your character with a mouse and keyboard, meaning that there was still a significant translation. On top of that, most of them didn't require independent loot grinding. Overdrive's popularity came from combining aspects from multiple games and then slapping amazing Mechs on top of it all.
"He's good. Plays support, also a shotcaller and game knowledge guy."
That made sense.
Even if the controls were different, keeping a cool head remained of paramount importance.
It was similar to why Tyler was growing so quickly. Julian wondered how his friend would do on the school team. Winona was a very capable shotcaller, but she preferred a democratic style where the other three players were constantly feeding her information. Tyler would be a good fit.
When Sunshine89 caught Felix's eye, the two glowered at each other. Julian could almost feel the tension in the air.
Felix maintained his gaze until the balding man left. Then he sighed.
"I'm higher ranked, but he's catching up. Not sure how much longer I can stave him off. He made the Selection after just a few months of gameplay after all. And he's got so much experience."
Now that Overdrive was growing rapidly, there were more and more players moving in from other games. That'd happened in other esports too. You always had ex-pats from other games, usually average pros who wanted to try their luck at something else. Every once in a while, though, a household name would change games, indicating a tidal shift. Fortunately, Sunshine89 was still just in the first group. He'd been a borderline starter on his old MOBA teams. It'd be difficult to defeat him, but he wouldn't be unbeatable.
"Why don't you guys get along?"
It was very unusual for Felix to dislike somebody.
Felix scoffed.
"Nobody likes him. He's a huge jerk."
They went on to greet a few other players in the lobby. A few of them sprinted over to greet them. As Julian suspected, Felix was very well-liked, making his rivalry with Sunshine all the more unusual.
Felix introduced him to them using their in-game names. Only a few bothered to ask him to address them by their government name. Julian had played with a few of them before, but almost everyone else was new. For balance purposes, most players scrabbling to enter the Selection cutoff battled against players ranked between 350 and 750.
The first pair of players was Skinner and sm0ke, two friends who'd played together since junior high. They were freshmen in college now. They were a lot like Julian and Felix, only a few years younger and with far better control skills. Their coordination and synergy made them a frightening force in the top hundred.
Shortly after that, Julian met goldenangel, the younger brother of the World Champion. Goldenangel was even more handsome than his brother, which left Julian shaking his head in disbelief. The two Korean men looked like they should be modeling instead of playing Overdrive.
The lively pilot smiled and explained he was indebted to Felix because of an incredibly tight battle to get into the top thirty. After a brief and exceptionally excited conversation—one where Julian didn't get a single word in—goldenangel whirled away to meet the rest of the players.
"Wow. It's not often I meet people as energetic as you."
Felix laughed.
"Yeah, isn't it great?"
After Goldenangel, Felix introduced Julian to a slovenly and unkempt man with a lazy slouch and an awkward smile. Edgar had a mop of filthy hair, and he smelled sort of funny. Julian was a little glad when the burly man didn't ask to shake hands.
Felix explained that Edgar was a skilled frontline tank who ranked in the top ten.
"Wow."
Although it didn't necessarily mean that Edgar was a top ten player on the server, it was a clear mark of skill.
The best pros rarely played on the ranked ladder because of their time scrimmaging. On top of that, some players focused on grinding and only played rank to make the Selection. There were always some hidden gems among the grinders.
Before Julian could meet anyone else, the whole room suddenly turned and gasped as a black limousine pulled up to the door.
"It's him!"
"It's The Mechanical King!"
Although the flashy entrance suggested the Overdrive CEO, it was Dynamic who stepped out of the car.
The short pilot grinned impishly as he sw
aggered out in a three-piece suit. He was followed by two butlers who wheeled his luggage after him.
Julian gaped.
Dynamic must have been obscenely wealthy.
The young sniper eagerly waved once he saw Julian.
"Julian! Glad to see you kept your spot. I would have been mad if you fell off after taking me out."
The two shook hands.
"I'm going to take you out this time."
The two rivals grinned at each other.
"Bring it on."
Perhaps Dynamic had diversified his gameplay as well. Julian had defeated him with a classic counterstrategy. He made a mental note to study his opponent's most recent games.
The flashily dressed pilot swaggered off as his butlers hurried him behind him.
TiggerLuvr888 and Brandon entered the lobby, completely engrossed in conversation. Typically, the sight of two superstars would be greeted with excitement, but this time, the assembled players were competitors, not fans.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief when they saw that Tigger was wearing a guest lanyard.
It was common for pro players to visit the Selection. Although the Overdrive Corporation got the first pick of the litter, players like Tigger could always grab the runner-ups for their pro teams. That was how vermillionangel built his squad for the last World Championship.
Then there was a loud groan when they saw that Brandon wasn't wearing one. The skilled Grunt pilot was a competitor.
"Oh, no."
"Well, that's a Grunt spot gone."
"What! How am I supposed to compete with the Master of Minions?"
Julian laughed.
It was one thing hearing the casters say it, but having a regular player call Brandon the Master of Minions in real life sounded so overdramatic.
Felix cursed under his breath.
Julian was a little surprised. Perhaps Brandon had just gotten tired of the drama of finding a World Championship team. He'd fought to the runner-up slot at last year's World Championship only to get cut by his team, Caliber Gaming.
When Brandon saw Julian, he beamed and waved, but Tigger only gave a curt little nod. The big man was acting like he didn't know Julian at all.
He must have still been trying to remain discreet.
What exactly could be worrying the seasoned player so much? Liefield, the pilot who'd hijacked the Heaven's Boxer, was a total nobody. It wasn't likely that he had powerful friends in the game administration.
But before Julian could worry any further, The Mechanical King arrived.
7
The Mechanical King strutted to the very center of the stage, clapping his hands excitedly together. After a while, he scowled and motioned for them to join him. Julian held off an eye roll as he started slapping his hands together as loudly as he could.
Felix was pretty open about his opinion—he thought that sucking up to The Mechanical King was a crucial part of succeeding as a professional player. The Overdrive Corporation CEO was notoriously open-handed with his favorite pros. Felix was even afraid of criticizing him in his Overdrive text messages. Julian wasn't sure how accurate that was, but it was best to be as polite as possible. If Julian became a Fortress Master, The Mechanical King would effectively be his boss.
Some bosses made it very obvious they wanted to get sucked up to. The Mechanical King was an annoying and often overbearing game presence, but Julian could understand it. Before the rise of Overdrive, he'd been a widely mocked and discredited game designer. Now he was at the top of the esports world, and he wanted everybody to know it.
The Mechanical King gestured at the chairs, and the five hundred Selection candidates hastily left the center stage for their stadium seats, maintaining their loud clapping all the while.
The Mechanical King's long beard stretched from the edge of his ears down to the center of his chest. Sadly, his grand facial hair couldn't disguise how much he resembled a weasel. Although everyone else on Overdrive was subjected to the body scan and strength estimator, The Mechanical King used a hidden cheat to give himself enormous muscles. His in-game avatar was a hulking six and a half foot tall titan.
That cheat hadn't worked in real life. The Overdrive CEO was of average height and average build. He reached the stage, then noisily cleared his throat. The sound reverberated through the stadium even though Mechanical King didn't have a microphone. He must have been broadcasting using the battle box speakers.
"Hello! Hello! I am Drake "The Mechanical King" Dunn—also known as THE DUNN! Welcome to the Selection! Eight of you lucky players will have the honor of making a living playing the game that I created."
Julian had to fight off another eye roll. The Mechanical King had acted even worse during the World Championships. He'd stomped onto the stage and then shouted something along the lines of "don't forget that everyone is only here because of me!"
Julian took a quick look around him, and his irritation was quickly replaced with tension.
There were five hundred pilots here—maybe even five hundred and one pilots depending on how they factored in Darren—and only eight would qualify. It was a lot of intense competition. There'd be superstar-level players like Edgar and Brandon and talented specialists like Dynamic. And, of course, there were the grinders. Out of the eight players picked from last year's Selection, three had been grinders, including both Fortress Aces. The most frightening thing about the grinders was the complete lack of information on them. Most of them barely snuck into the top five hundred at the end of the season. The Database contained no information on them.
The Mechanical King beamed with pride as he continued his announcement.
"Overdrive is growing at an unprecedented rate. Compared to other esports, we are far ahead of them in the evolution process—it's like comparing a dinosaur to a skunk! It won't be about just piloting skills or building maps. From now on, my Fortress Masters will need to represent me as ambassadors of the game!"
That analogy briefly sent Julian's head spinning. Weren't dinosaurs extinct?
But what The Mechanical King had said after was even more interesting. What did it mean to be tested as an ambassador to the game?
Presumably, The Mechanical King meant interviews and fan interaction. Much of the game's publicity had come not from the Overdrive Corporation's PR team, but from charismatic players like vermillionangel, Brandon, and TiggerLuvr888.
Would Julian have to stream and interact with fans regularly? Streaming as a Fortress Master didn't sound too bad—it made sense as part of the job—but the crowd of players rushing at him still made Julian a little nervous.
"Starting the day after tomorrow, reporters will arrive to cover this event. Even better, there may even be scouts from professional teams. I'm not sure anyone has heard, but three sports teams have currently invested money in competitive Overdrive! We are far ahead of the life cycle for other esports. I would describe most other games as on the 'mortal' life-cycle. On the other hand, we are on track for a 'divine' life cycle!"
The crowd applauded as The Mechanical King flexed his muscles. At the very least, that analogy made a little more sense.
"When the scouts arrive, please be extremely polite. Hopefully, even those of you who fail in the Selection can consider this a valuable opportunity to join another organization. Networking is of paramount importance. Why, it's the only reason I'm where I am today! By networking, I was eventually able to accrue the money I needed to start Overdrive all by myself!"
The Mechanical King veered into a never-ending tangent about how he'd created the Overdrive Corporation, but only because he was so good at networking.
Julian tried his best not to tune out or laugh at the company CEO's nonsensical story.
The Overdrive CEO's loved the sound of his own voice, and his speeches were always long and ludicrous. The one at last year's World Championship had lasted hours. A lot of other players were struggling to stay focused too. Nobody wanted to be caught dozing off when the boss was talking. In reality,
The Mechanical King probably wouldn't have noticed. He was wholly immersed in his speech, moving his body in tune with the words like a classical pianist.
Nonetheless, Felix was paying keen attention, as were Tigger and Brandon. Seeing the professionalism of his fellow pros pushed Julian to stare with all his might—until he saw the person directly behind The Mechanical King on the other side of the stage.
Lilac—a streamer Julian had a massive crush on—looked even better in person than she did on camera. She was always dyeing her hair a variety of colors, and today it was bright orange. The shade reminded Julian of his in-game custom colors. That'd be one of the dumbest pick-up lines ever.
"Hey! You remind me of my Mech!"
She would probably challenge him to a battle and beat the crap out of him. Lilac was a master of using heavily armored Mechs based on real-life machines. They had deliberately funny names like BIG TANK or GIANT HELICOPTER, but there was nothing funny about her playstyle. She was a top-tier professional pilot who'd reached the quarter-finals of the World Championships.
At Julian's current level of skill, he couldn't hope to compete fairly against Lilac. He had a secret weapon, though. One of the special blades he and Emma added to the Starlight R was designed to destroy heavily-armored machines instantly. If he caught Lilac off guard with it, he'd win.
Lilac was one of the many pilots not paying attention. She picked at her nails as The Mechanical King started a soliloquy about the thrill of realizing that he was a game designing genius. The players sitting behind The Mechanical King were so lucky. None of them were paying attention to him.
"That was it! That was when I realized I would never be a nobody! I imagined it! Using a giant machine to smash through all my enemies! It was there as a sat in line for that job interview. What if I could use a giant machine to smash all my competitors? Then I'd receive the job by default! But then my imagination grew bigger. If I had a giant robot at my disposal, I wouldn't need that job! I wouldn't need to work at all!"
The Mechanical King went on and on about his giant robot fantasies. If only he had a real Mech, he could fly around the world! If only he had a real Mech, he could hide in space whenever his wife got mad at him!