by R. H. Tang
Attacking the stage with some sort of area of effect weapon was Tigger's favored option, and probably the best idea so far. The Wreath of Flames was a rare part that incinerated all your surroundings. The gravity core generated a sprawling gravitational field around your Mech. Liefield and Diamantic wouldn't even be suspicious. Plenty of beginners blundered around with gravity cores.
Julian himself had made a similar mistake when he first started playing. It'd been one of his first equipped parts. The forcefield had seemed utterly overpowered. He still remembered he and Felix's naive interpretation.
"Wow! You can do damage just by standing still! This is awesome!"
But of course, every strength also came with a significant drawback. Although the Overdrive Corporation was currently trying to pump overpowered Mechs into the game, the balance team had historically done a fantastic job.
Seasoned pilots knew just how easily area of effect abilities backfired. Although your Mech was relatively insulated from the passive damage, your protection wouldn't last forever.
The last time someone brought a gravity core to competitive play was the round of sixty-four at the World Championships. HER01c crafted a special Gravity Spell Titan to try and counter Lilac's durable Mechs. He wanted to use her heavyweight machines against her and crush them as soon as she got into range. Instead, Lilac spent the entire match running away. It took over an hour, but HER01c's Gravity Warlock Mk. II eventually collapsed under its own pressure.
Liefield would do the same thing. He'd just hide in a corner and stonewall them with Grunts until the match was over.
This was a mission you needed fifty Mechs to beat, not just two.
Julian pulled up the shop again. There were thousands of items. There had to be something there, right?
Julian had no doubt that Tigger had already conducted a thorough review, but not even the World Championship semifinalist knew everything. And besides, you could always craft a unique item.
But what kind of item could get them out of this mess?
They needed to build a Mech with mass-firing and assassination capabilities that could also destroy the terrain without taking any damage. No such machine existed, and even if it did, there was no way it'd fit under the Credit cap.
Julian groaned as he realized an even bigger problem.
Liefield started in an allied lobby with them. That meant that he'd already know all the equipment they were using, even if they brought Grunts.
Grunts hid their parts from enemies, but not from friends. It was like an extreme version of Phillips's seemingly psychic powers. He could see what they were using and send the appropriate Grunts to devise countermeasures.
Even if they devised a narrow counterstrategy that worked against certain Grunts, Liefield could counter them by ordering different Mechs to the front lines. For instance, the regenerative ability of Hemoborn meant they performed well against sustained gunfire. They'd naturally seem like a good fit to counter Liefield's army, but their biological parts were vulnerable to germ warfare. Grunts with pathogenic weapons only appeared on a few levels on March of Grunts, but Liefield could easily command them to the front if Julian and Tigger brought cyborg Mechs.
Julian was so frustrated that he wanted to just use a nuke to destroy the entire stage.
He bolted upright. Could it be so simple?
Then he ruefully shook his head.
A nuclear warhead would kill everything in front of them, but the map could still spawn an infinite number of backups. Liefield could build his own bomb shelter.
Besides, Liefield would probably just kick you out of the lobby if you showed up with a weapon like that. Nukes weren't supposed to be available for beginners.
Waves of negativity pulsed through his brain, but it was hard to push it back.
It seemed impossible.
The absolute worst-case situation would be if he tried to clear the mission and still lost. Then he would have exposed himself to the blackmailer for nothing.
There was a sudden knock on his door.
Julian leaped off his bed and opened it.
That had to be Emma.
Too late, he realized he probably should have looked through the peephole first. His parents would have yelled at him if they were here. They were always worried he'd get kidnapped when he was a kid.
A woman he didn't recognize stood on the other side.
She was the same height as Julian, with long hair that went down to her shoulders. She had a very strong face—a pronounced jaw, broad cheekbones, and a hooked nose.
"Um, Emma?"
He recognized her as soon as she spoke and snickered.
"Yeah. Who else would want to visit you here?"
She grinned and cast an appreciative eye around the fancy hotel room.
"Or maybe a lot of people would...is this what it's like to be a bigshot?"
Julian laughed.
He hadn't seen her face before—she always used a set of pearly white Guest Armor because she disliked the body scan—but it felt like they were back in the Overdrive lobby.
"Did you eat a lot with the other pros?"
She lilted her voice and smirked.
"Ah, no. I didn't eat much."
He'd eaten a ton, but he'd promised to get dinner with her.
"Want to get burgers? I always try to get In-N-Out whenever I come back. And I'm sure you like it a lot too, right?"
His full stomach begged him to shut up.
"In-N-Out sounds great!"
13
When they pulled into the parking lot, the food smelled so good that Julian couldn't help but order more. Now he was glad that he and Tigger had eaten in the car.
If the cashier looked at him funny for ordering twice, Julian would have been incredibly embarrassed.
He knew it was a pretty irrational feeling. He was sure that plenty of people got burgers twice a day. Besides, it wasn't like he'd ever see the cashier again after today. But ever since he was a kid, Julian had always worried about how others thought about him.
To be honest, it was the same in Overdrive. The game had plenty of flamers—players who harshly criticized their teammates. It was easy to get frustrated when your teammates played badly or, even worse, stopped trying altogether. Julian had flamed people before too, but he always felt awful about it afterward. He'd never be able to shamelessly rip people off like Liefield. He couldn't even properly flame people like DISTINCTIONMAN for being jerks.
Emma ordered too, and the two friends stood sort of awkwardly by the counter.
It was hard to know how to start the conversation.
Julian wasn't sure whether they should talk about playing Overdrive or not. That was definitely the crux of their friendship, but now they were hanging out in person. They could talk about Overdrive or play games any time they wanted. Hanging out in person should be different, shouldn't it?
He'd managed to be appropriately talkative during the car ride, asking questions about how often she traveled to LA and what it was like living with her mom, but now that well had run dry.
Finding things to talk about was a lot harder than figuring out what to do in-game. Julian needed to do drills on conversations. This was why he only had four or five friends.
Their food arrived.
"Want to eat outside?"
"Yeah!"
That was the good thing about California. It was around 8 now, but it was still fairly warm out even though it was February. She took their tray and carried it outside, a smirk playing around her lips.
"So, how was your first day?"
"Good, there were a lot of good players there. A bunch of the people I encountered were way higher ranked than me, but I managed to compete against them."
"Oh, that's weird. I thought everyone in the Selection played together."
"Not really. There's still tiers in the top five hundred—like I'll rarely encounter someone at 150 or higher."
Despite Emma's skills, she still hadn't played a ranked ga
me. Guest Accounts couldn't play on the ranked queues.
"There's also grinders who normally don't play ranked who hop in just to qualify. I ran into one today, and something pretty weird happened."
Julian hesitated for a moment, wondering how to best phrase it. He didn't want to spend his first time meeting Emma speculating about psychic powers.
The competing claims battled back and forth in his mind. She couldn't actually be psychic, could she? Sunflower said that Phillips was a cheater, and that seemed reasonably likely. But Tigger insisted there had to be an in-game explanation.
Maybe Emma would know what was going on.
"Alright. Don't make fun of me for this, alright?"
Emma looked at him strangely.
"Okay."
"She said she had psychic powers."
Emma didn't laugh. She just looked even more confused.
"What do you mean?"
"She battled someone who immediately jumped straight into the air as soon as the fight began. It was a completely random move to bait out her One-Shot Laser, but somehow, she knew he was going to do it."
"Wait, what? She used a One-Shot Laser?"
Emma was an incredible sniper, but not even she would risk it all on a weapon like that. Her SPG Caster's signature weapon, the Boom Staff, only had about 70% of the power, but at least it could reload.
"Yeah, and she never missed with it either. It was crazy."
"Did she just use that every match?"
Julian paused.
She hadn't. If she could really predict all movements, she would have simply destroyed the Starlight R with it.
"No. She only brought it against bulkier machines. Artillery units and stuff like that."
Emma's frown grew deeper.
"I still don't think I'd want to risk it. That's pretty incredible. I wouldn't say that makes her psychic, though. It sounds like she's just good at aiming. Think about it. If someone ejects their armor, the force of that is going to push them in a specific direction."
She made a face.
"I hate to admit it since I'm not confident enough to take that shot. But it's possible. It's not psychic powers or anything like that."
She grinned.
"Did she really spook you that badly? Maybe she was just saying she had psychic powers to distract you guys."
"That's what Tigger said too—that it was some gamesmanship. But her movement predictions weren't the weirdest thing. She could figure out people's items too. No matter what happened, she always had the perfect counter. I get that happening in a Grunt vs. Ace matchup, but not Grunt against Grunt."
He told Emma about Phillips's duel with Sunflower, where she nullified a beam whip with Diffuse Spray.
Emma whistled.
"Wow. She's really digging the bottom of the barrel."
As a top-tier crafter, Emma knew nearly every item in the game. That also meant she knew just how weak and situational Diffuse Spray usually was.
Emma sighed.
"Have you considered that she's just cheating?"
"That's what a bunch of other people said too. But I just don't get it."
Julian took a deep breath.
"I brought that up to Tigger, and he told me to look for in-game solutions first. When I thought about it further, the cheating theory just didn't make any sense. We're playing on custom rigs from the Overdrive Corporation. That means there's no way she could be using an aimbot. Her item countering ability is pretty weird, but I don't…"
Julian trailed off as he remembered Tigger's claims about a hacker. Could Phillips be the hacker? If she could see into other player's Overdrive accounts, that'd explain her item predictions.
"What's up?"
Julian shook his head.
"Tigger told me someone was spying on pros. I thought that might be Phillips, but I don't think that theory makes sense either. According to Tigger, the hacker was blackmailing people to collect stream revenues. Someone that ruthless wouldn't bother playing against people. They'd just force them to leave the server."
Emma raised a finger.
"Alright. I'll get back to that later, but that's not the only way someone could cheat."
"But The Mechanical King was watching us!"
"Yeah, but he could have been in on it. The equipment only means that a regular contestant like you can't cheat. She could be a game administrator, or she could be someone the Overdrive Corporation hired to test other pilots—like some sort of human obstacle. You know, something like 'let's see who can beat this player.'"
She threw her hands into the air.
"For all we know, she could be The Mechanical King's girlfriend!"
"That's a good point."
There were plenty of ways to cheat in front of The Mechanical King. Just because Julian had gotten better at thinking outside of the box didn't mean he'd think of everything.
"So did anyone manage to beat her? What happened?"
Julian grinned.
His fears about Liefield were still lurking at the back of his mind, but talking to Emma was exactly what he'd needed.
It felt good showing off.
"Actually, I figured out how to beat her."
Julian explained how he'd used the Minesweeper to determine her items.
"Dang! That's a smart one!"
"Yeah, I figured I'd have an advantage if I figured out her items. I was even able to unequip our new swords to bring out the Minesweeper."
Emma's smile grew even wider.
"Nice! Great call to keep those safe for another day."
"It was pretty weird, though. In the end, she just brought a bunch of needle missiles."
"Huh?"
"Yeah, she fired them out, I cut her in half, and then that was the end of the game."
She shook her head.
"From what you told me, she clearly knows way too much about the game to just bring a bum item like that. Is that what you and the other pros were talking about?"
Julian let out a bemused laugh.
"No. We didn't have any time to talk about that."
"No, we were talking about Liefield and the Heaven's Boxer. It's crazy how much I have to update you on."
On top of Phillips and Liefield, there was also the Overdrive Corporation's shifting design philosophy and The Mechanical King's rumblings about searching for publicity-focused Fortress Masters.
"Wait. Tell me about the hacker first."
Right.
There was the hacker too. All the factors made Julian feel like his head was about to explode.
"I don't know too much about it, to be honest. Just what Tigger told me. Someone is blackmailing pros. A few minor players he knows have been extorted for about a fifth of their stream revenue."
"What are they blackmailing them about? They're just gamers, right? There shouldn't be too much on them."
Julian explained what Tigger told him. To his shock, Emma wasn't remotely surprised by Tigger's claim that almost all pros were former boosters.
"Yeah, I just assumed it was already happening. I mean, just taking a look at some of the players we scouted, they just don't look that good. Like think about Dynamic. He's top 300? I'm way better than that guy! Better at shooting and better at designing Mechs. He's probably a rich boosted guy!"
"Alright, Dynamic is rich, actually, but he definitely isn't boosted."
Emma laughed in disbelief as he told her about the limousine.
Although Dynamic clearly could afford it, he wasn't boosted. Julian had only defeated Dynamic after two weeks of extensive training alongside Emma. If Julian looked at their overall records, the wealthy sniper had a massive advantage.
Emma's accusation was just a sign of how skilled she was. If Emma hopped into ranked games, she'd easily reach Julian's level. He'd brought it up to her before, but she'd turned him down.
She said she only wanted to play Overdrive for fun. The idea of becoming a well-known pilot mortified her.
"Okay, Dynamic might have been a bad ex
ample. But yeah, I mean, I'm not surprised. I just thought it was already happening. In fact, I thought you were doing it. It's just easy money!"
Technically, he'd paid for their dinner with the proceeds of his legal boosting.
Emma went on.
"Like, okay, I would say that it sucks for people who lose chances at the Selection or can't get a ranking because they ran into a booster. Like that definitely sucks. But like…"
She trailed off.
"Alright, this might sound ridiculous, but what about like someone whose job it is to downsize companies? Like I've gotten fired before, and someone got paid for recommending that I get fired. Like with boosting, at least it's just their rank in-game, and it's way easier to just queue up for another game than to find another job, right?"
Huh.
"That's a good point."
Julian would have qualified for the last Selection if it weren't for boosters. That had absolutely sucked, but he wouldn't have been a real contender anyways. At least he hadn't lost his livelihood.
"Plus, there are a bunch of people who pay to get boosted in real life, too! I see total idiots at the restaurant all the time!"
"What do you mean?"
She smirked.
"Take The Mechanical King! That guy is definitely boosted. He can't code, and he isn't the person designing the maps. So what's he doing? He's just getting boosted!"
Julian laughed and laughed. Almost everyone in the pro scene called The Mechanical King a doofus, and after his speech today, Julian was inclined to agree.
"He's not even the person who popularized Overdrive! That was the people in the community! Like, did you start playing because of The Mechanical King?"
"No, I started playing because Felix saw vermillionangel's stream."
She snickered.
"Yeah, see? The Mechanical King just paid people to boost him to the top of the gaming world! Plus, a bunch of people just boosted him up for free! Anyways, I think boosting sucks, but I can't blame people for doing it."
"Have you boosted people before?"
Emma scowled.
"No, but I would. I don't have a highly ranked main account, so I have no credibility!"
She shook her head.
"Anyways, back on topic. What did Tigger say about The Heaven's Boxer?"