The Power of Nine: A Mecha LitRPG Adventure (Overdrive Book 2)

by R. H. Tang

  She lifted her rifle for a third time. There was a tremendous glow as the wire transferred the Mana from Felix's spikes into Emma's machine. Felix had both of his spell charges remaining. Emma's left Mana Gatherer Spike glowed with enormous fire. It crackled and surged. Julian gasped as he saw the metal begin to crack.

  It wasn't meant to hold this much power. Her machine would be fried and possibly inoperable after this, but it didn't matter. All she had to do was hit that one shot.

  She raised her beautifully crafted Boom Staff.

  "Thunderbolt!"

  The concentrated mana rushed from the spikes through her arm, obliterating the metal as it surged down. The SPG Caster's armor melted and dripped to the ground. The wiry frame twisted and shriveled. Her sky blue gun barrel glowed with the light of a thousand suns.

  Julian gasped as the barrel jerked down at the last second.

  Felix's machine was simply too heavy.

  The blue lightning streaked through the air, lighting up the entire battlefield.

  But her aim was true. She'd factored the additional weight into her calculations.

  The shot went straight through the cockpit, eliminating the shield outside and the pilot within in a single shot.

  Julian pumped his fists as the Zane's Guilt exploded.

  "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

  The blast was so powerful it almost seemed like she'd used a cheat code. Julian had watched a lot of videos of players defeating seemingly tough bosses by using a cheat or some hidden exploit. This was different, though. Emma had succeeded due to her crafting skills.

  Emma purged her broken arm and threw aside her overloaded sniper rifle. The excessive mana had fried the circuitry and reduced the gun to a smoldering ruin.

  She cut the transfer wire apart and then set Felix's machine free.

  Felix entered the command to cancel the extraction, letting the game know they wanted to continue exploring the base rather than move on to the next mission.

  "Alright. Let's get looking. We should have about five minutes to find the hidden room."

  Felix's Minesweeper unit began slowly waded through the rubble. If anything, the destruction of the building had helped them. The crate was guaranteed to spawn somewhere inside the base. By blowing everything up, Zane had flattened the structure out to a single floor.

  Beep beep.

  Beep beep.

  Beep beep.

  "Hmmm."

  Felix paced back around again.

  Beep beep.

  Beep beep.

  Beep beep.

  There was a loud ding as he crossed the correct point.

  "It's here."

  He knelt and started digging.

  Emma moved over to help, scrabbling away with her remaining arm.

  The crate emerged. It was a bright gold chest covered in jewels.

  "Wow."

  Tyler was confused.

  "Don't you normally just get parts?"

  "No, this is new."

  The elaborate chest looked like something from a fantasy game.

  "Huh. Maybe it contains Spell Titan parts?"

  Emma eagerly tried tearing it apart, but it wouldn't open.

  There was a buzz as a warning notification flashed across their screens.

  YOU DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!

  LEAVE THE FIELD BEFORE THE ENEMY ARMY ARRIVES!

  ESTIMATED TIME: 4:21

  "Looks like we need to finish the mission first."

  "Alrighty then!"

  The grabbed the crate and hustled out of the ruined base. In the distance, Julian heard Zane's father howling in grief. In the regular version of the mission, you were supposed to fight and kill him in the final part of Level 1.

  They were probably saving him to add even more difficulty. He'd probably appear at the worst possible time on Level 2.

  When Julian clicked for mission details, a warning popped up.

  WARNING: There is no hidden loot on the next mission. Continue Minesweeper mode?

  The Minesweeper-enhanced Fortress was still a work in progress. The next mission hadn't even been built yet.

  With the mission over, the group returned to the lobby.

  Emma smiled at him.

  "I loved your slash on the roof!"

  Julian grinned back.

  "Hey! That last snipe shot made it look like you were cheating!"

  Enjoying all the awesome things your friends did was the best thing about Overdrive.

  Felix pulled up his status screen and saved their progress so the four of them could rechallenge the mission once Level 2 was developed. From the looks of it, they'd be some of the first successful challengers. That'd been an incredibly difficult mission.

  The prize had better be worth it.

  Felix yawned.

  Julian blinked.

  He just realized how tired he was.

  "Let's figure out what was in the crate so we can head to bed. It better have been worth it!"

  The crate opened, and an enormous message flashed in front of them.

  CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE WON THE CRAFTER'S PRIDE (x4)

  Emma made an excited noise. She loved crafting. Julian wondered what kind of item was the Crafter's Pride. It sounded like there were four of them, one for each player. Could it help him in the Selection? Would it help him beat Liefield?

  He scrolled to his inventory and started searching for it.

  Felix made a frustrated noise.

  "Huh. This is weird. It's a box inside of another box. It still won't open. Look at this description."

  Julian reached the item and frowned. The award was a shining gem in the shape of a crate.

  CRAFTER'S PRIDE: Are you a crafter? What is your pride?

  Felix and Emma typed furiously away at their keyboards, but nothing happened. All Julian heard was the bzzt of constant error messages.

  That couldn't be right.

  But when Julian tried, the same thing happened.

  Error: Wrong Condition!

  Error: Wrong Condition!

  Error: Wrong Condition!

  Felix yawned again, then sighed.

  "We need to go to bed—it's going to be a big day tomorrow."

  Their group grimaced.

  They did not doubt that the Crafter's Pride was some kind of awesome power, but what good would it do if they couldn't figure it out in time for the Selection?

  "We can't stay up all night figuring this out. A fresh mind will help more than any weapon."

  As always, Felix was right. It was incredible how he could stay calm no matter what was happening.

  Julian wanted to punch a hole in the computer. Of course, that'd be a great way to get eliminated from the Selection, so he didn't do anything.

  He clicked it again a few times until Felix glared at him.

  "Log. Off."

  Julian sighed. He pulled up his status screen to log-off, but before he could, the second line of the match record appeared.

  Julian's jaw dropped.

  To commemorate players who succeeded in Fortress missions, the maps remembered the triumphant teams. A similar graphic had been added for the Minesweeper mission.

  UNIQUE TEAMS: 2

  That was nice, but nothing special. He didn't expect many players to have completed the map. Not only was it difficult, it was also entirely new. Based on the frequent use of cut scenes and rule-bending, the stage was still under development.

  But it was the next line, the one that detailed the individual players, that made Julian's jaw drop.

  TEAM 1: Phillips, N/A, N/A, N/A

  TOTAL INSTANCES: 42

  Wait. What?

  That mission had been incredibly difficult. Even with such a strong team, they'd only barely scraped through.

  But Phillips had cleared the mission forty-two times all by herself.

  How was that possible?

  That'd been one of the hardest missions Julian had ever played.

  He remembered what Tigger told him earlier.

>   "Try to look for an in-game solution."

  But Julian didn't know where to start. Was the Crafter's Pride an in-game solution to Phillips's so-called psychic abilities?

  Perhaps that was the case, but then what was the explanation for her clearing the map so often? There was no way her Power of Nine could have done it. Even if she used a One Shot Laser on Zane, there was no way she could have cleared the rest of the map by herself. The Artillery Units would have crushed her.

  Not even an Ace unit could have done it. You could only go so far with 50,000 Credits.

  When they re-emerged from the virtual world of Overdrive, Emma shook him roughly on the shoulder. Seeing her in real life was still quite a surprise. Whenever he heard her voice, Julian still expected to see the plain white Guest Armor.

  "Don't get in your head about it. I'll get to work tomorrow and try to figure out what this is all about."

  "Did you see that thing about Phillips?"

  "Yeah."

  "What did you think?"

  "Maybe she's a map tester?"

  Right.

  Emma was still convinced that Phillips was an employee of the Overdrive Corporation. There was a lot of logic to that.

  It wouldn't surprise him if The Mechanical King invited skilled workers to further test his Selection candidates, especially with his hoped-for publicity push.

  If Phillips was an Overdrive Corporation employee, that'd explain her psychic abilities and how she'd cleared the map so often. It was like Emma said—the company would know what machines enemy pilots used. On top of that, map testers had to run through Fortress missions repeatedly to ensure they were up to the company standard.

  It was hard to say.

  The other possibility was far more frightening.

  What if she was just that good?

  Julian's head felt like it was about to explode, and Emma could tell.

  "You're thinking about a lot of stuff that you can't control right now, aren't you?"

  Felix snickered.

  "That's the story of his life."

  When they got back to the parking lot, Emma waved Felix off.

  "Don't worry. I'll drive him back."

  "Sounds good."

  In the car, they spoke a little more about Overdrive and the added difficulties of this year's Selection.

  "It's pretty stressful. I feel like I was just getting my footing on the old Selection, and now there's a lot more to deal with. The Mechanical King said there's going to be a big focus on fan interaction, and according to Tigger, there's going to be a lot of power creep in the game pretty soon."

  He shook his head.

  "That, plus Liefield, plus whatever is going on with Phillips. It's a lot."

  Emma nodded sympathetically.

  "It does sound like a lot. At the same time, it's what you have to do. You're trying out for an exclusive job."

  "Yeah."

  She dropped him off at the hotel.

  "Want to get dinner again tomorrow?"

  "Yes! Definitely!"

  By now, all the food he'd eaten had really caught up to him. Julian half waddled back into his hotel room. He barely took off his clothes and got into the shower. He wasn't just stuffed—he was also incredibly tired. After a full day of travel and Overdrive battles, he'd stayed up another two hours to struggle through the Minesweeper Fortress map, and all for nothing.

  He stumbled onto his bed, but without his friends around him, his worries soon returned. Desperate for some sort of distraction, he pulled up his phone and loaded up his streaming app. Listening to a relaxing stream had lulled him to bed more times than he could count. Unfortunately, his go-tos weren't available. Lilac was competing in the Selection, and Tigger was undoubtedly working out a way to defeat the Heaven's Boxer.

  The only popular stream was DISTINCTIONMAN's.

  Against his better judgment, Julian clicked it. The pink-haired man was chewing out another of his teammates in the post-game lobby. Despite his gimmick on fighting one-on-one battles against Selection candidates, the truth was that his glass cannon machine would only ever work in a four-on-four situation.

  "Well! You know what I was going to do! So why didn't you just play a pure support? We lost because you were too selfish to adapt!"

  "Are you kidding me? You're telling me that I can't adapt? I already changed up my Mech for you! You're the one who always plays the same machine!"

  "Well, enjoy your free loss! Everyone on my stream knows that it was your fault!"

  Julian felt a pang of sympathy for the other player. He'd fallen prey to a DISTINCTIONMAN fan bombardment before.

  "Alright, my most honorable fans. That's enough of pro sheep for now. Let me show you how to get rid of your Grunt unit. That way, all the meta slaves in your games will be forced to give you the Ace position!"

  He jabbed his finger right into the screen.

  "Never succumb to the meta slaves! Do what you want and crush their precious meta into the ground!"

  Julian rolled his eyes but didn't turn off the stream. He was pretty interested in how DISTINCTIONMAN removed his Grunt unit. He knew it was some sort of bug, but he'd never seen it in action before.

  "To do this trick, you need to partner up with a friend. If you guys need a partner, feel free to match up in the chat! I will be working with my friend Doug. First off, you need to find a free zone."

  The free zones were the exact opposite of the orderly lobby. In a free zone, you could get attacked at any time, including ambushes.

  "Now, let me sully my Account with a Grunt unit before I meet him."

  DISTINCTIONMAN bought the cheapest Grunt available, the Overdrive Standard, which only cost 500 Credits. The Overdrive Standard was the default unit you were gifted at the start of the game—Julian suspected that DISTINCTIONMAN might have been the only person ever to buy it.

  DISTINCTIONMAN entered his Hot Pink Hotness and then flew to a free zone, where he met a friend using an almost identical Ace unit. Both Mechs were glass cannon close combat machines, although his friend's had slightly different weapons and was painted neon green instead of pink.

  "Alright. Here's what you do. First, you open up a trade option."

  A graphic popped up above his head as he offered a trade to his friend.

  DISTINCTIONMAN offers: Overdrive Standard

  DISTINCTIONMAN wants: Nothing

  His friend refused the trade.

  "Now, what you need to do is spam this trade as fast as you can."

  DISTINCTIONMAN offers: Overdrive Standard

  DISTINCTIONMAN wants: Nothing

  DISTINCTIONMAN offers: Overdrive Standard

  DISTINCTIONMAN wants: Nothing

  DISTINCTIONMAN offers: Overdrive Standard

  DISTINCTIONMAN wants: Nothing

  DISTINCTIONMAN offers: Overdrive Standard

  DISTINCTIONMAN wants: Nothing

  "In response, your friend will attack you. Of course, if someone is trying to give you a Grunt, they should be attacked, so that's fine."

  His friend swung his sword, lopping off an arm.

  "Make sure your friend doesn't kill you here."

  DISTINCTIONMAN didn't fight back. He just continued spamming the trade.

  Eventually, there was a loud clunk, and the Mech fell out of the sky, crashing to the ground.

  DISTINCTIONMAN drew his swords and smashed it to pieces.

  Then he pulled up his inventory, revealing an empty Grunt slot.

  "Here's how it works. Normally, you can't destroy your machines, meaning that you would be stuck with the Standard. But in a free zone, you can enter a battle at any time, meaning that various game mechanics coded as Abilities can be exploited."

  Julian snickered. The fact that so many things were still coded as Abilities showed that the Overdrive Corporation hadn't yet adapted to its sudden success. The game's popularity had exploded in just a year, and there were plenty of errors that still needed to get ironed out. However, the development team seemed like the
y were currently focusing on fixing issues with the Reality Shapers.

  Everyone had seen hilarious clips of randomly dropped Mechs that came with the Spawn ability, which was normally used to generate loot on maps. The Overdrive Corporation couldn't fix the Spawn bug without the games' entire economy collapsing, so players just dealt with the 0.01% chance of finding a Mech that would have it.

  Mechs with the Spawn ability would glitch out and phase through walls. Their constant mutations forced them to drop all their weapons and bumble around moronically.

  The Donate Ability was similar. It wasn't used for battle—it was actually the crux of the in-game trade system. A Mech with the Donate Ability would immediately get traded to the enemy team as soon as a battle started. Pros sometimes used it to train if they wanted to start 1v7 matches.

  "Overdrive trades are coded as split-second battles where both sides had the Donate ability. By spamming the Trade icon in a free zone, I'm activating Donate in the middle of a battle. There's a safeguard to prevent this, but spamming the notification while you get attacked at the same time confuses the system. As a result, it treats the Grunt unit as an opponent, allowing you to destroy it."

  It was pretty fascinating. Just as Julian suspected, DISTINCTIONMAN knew a lot about Overdrive—he just put his knowledge to use in the most selfish way possible.

  Julian set his phone aside and then rolled back into bed.

  But with his distraction gone, his negative thoughts immediately returned.

  Phillips had definitely been holding back during their battle. What if they fought again?

  Liefield had created an impossibly difficult map by combining the Heaven's Boxer with March of Grunts. Was there any weapon that could defeat it?

  What about the hacker? Would the full-motion suit keep him and Tigger safe? Was stopping Liefield worth the risk?

  What if The Mechanical King tested them on fan interaction tomorrow? There was no way he could compete with people like Felix or goldenangel.

  Julian rolled over in his bed, desperately trying to get back to sleep. He opened up his phone and poked away at the Crafter's Pride, but no matter what he did, nothing happened.