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

by R. H. Tang

  Julian hated playing against those players, which was why he'd programmed another secret gimmick into the new Starlight R.

  He raised the Sword of All and pulled it back. To everyone watching, Julian seemed like he was planning to charge.

  Six3r fell back in a straight line, firing and firing. If Julian tried to shoot, he would have to weave back and forth. But since it was so clear that he was planning on charging, the best option was to gain as much distance as possible.

  Julian aimed and fired.

  The beam saber generators at the edge of the Sword of All doubled as beam guns. Pink lightning skewered the enemy machine, and Six3r crashed defeated onto the floor.

  His victory wasn't pretty, but it was a victory.

  Shortly after that, Julian heard a loud explosion, and then a golden pillar of lightning burst into the air several corridors away from him. He took a look at the corner of his screen. The scoreboard had updated.

  Active:

  Seedster: 30 points

  Julian: -8 points

  Phillips: -54 points

  Eliminated:

  Six3r: -3 points

  Leontime: -21 points

  Birthday: -45 points

  Seeing Phillips's score hammered home how far behind she was. He just hoped they could catch up. From what Julian could tell, the Power of Nine's Ace Form seemed incredibly powerful. The strange drone cats seemingly boasted the same strength as the main Mech—the fact that they could hide items in their mouths kept Phillips's cards hidden until the final moment.

  Julian moved towards the pillar of smoke, which had fled back down to the lower corner. He still had to remember the key to the mission. If Julian didn't destroy the rocket, there was a chance Seedster could simply finish the maze and win.

  Julian turned a corner and saw the Power of Nine's core unit.

  He gasped.

  The olive green Mech was identical to the Grunt mode.

  The only difference was the new cat-like drones. A pair of them stood sentry in front of the badly damaged machine, which sat with its legs crisscrossed in the corner. Their mouths were closed, and their hidden weapons still weren't revealed. The first cat was a mottled gray tabby. The second was black as night.

  Should he attack?

  Would he be able to discover the secret to Phillips's abilities?

  Instead, Julian took a deep breath and pulled up the status report. Ace Mechs had to provide significantly more information than a standard machine. Perhaps he could deduce the secrets to Phillips's powers.

  - General Data -

  Pilot: Phillips

  Machine: Power of Nine (Ace Form)

  Class: Kingbreaker

  Sub-class: Support

  Designation: Ace Unit

  - Statistics -

  Melee: C-tier

  Shooting: C-tier

  Speed: C-tier

  Maneuverability: C-tier

  Defense: C-tier

  Cohesion: S-tier

  - Weapons -

  Cat Drone (Full Custom) [x9]

  - Abilities -

  N/A [Kingbreaker Class]

  The statistics were barely better than the Grunt version. Other than that, Julian gleaned no new information. Even an idiot could have figured out that the machine had cat drones.

  Outsourcing everything to the drones also kept Phillips's strength hidden from the statistics screen. Based on what he'd already seen, there was no way Phillips's Mech had only a C-tier in both of its combat stats. The One-Shot Laser alone was worth at least a B-tier in Shooting.

  He left the core unit where it was and continued moving towards the plume of smoke, but ultimately, there was no need for Julian to take action. An enormous explosion rocked the southwest portion of the map, and then the points screen updated. Seedster had fallen.

  There was a loud clank as the Power of Nine rose to its feet. Julian whirled around. There was a sudden white flash as the olive green Mech's eye cameras re-activated.

  Julian raised his Broadsword of All, then threw it aside.

  He needed to keep Phillips alive.

  In a single smooth motion—so elegant that Julian barely noticed when the Mech started moving—the Power of Nine drew a pair of claws from the box on its left shoulder and slashed.

  The knives went clear through Julian's cockpit.

  He blinked.

  He'd deliberately let Phillips destroy him, but the ease with which she'd dispatched him was still shocking. He doubted his third secret weapon—the armor obliterating Last Resort Cleaver—could swing the matchup.

  Her strength was truly incredible.

  He needed to get much stronger.

  The scoreboard updated.

  Active:

  Seedster: 33 points

  Julian: -1 point

  Six3r: -3 points

  Leontime: -21 points

  Phillips: -39 points

  Birthday: -45 points

  Julian instantly locked the Starlight R in again. By now, nobody was using the last-second switch trick. There were no more pretexts. They locked their Aces in too.

  The Mechanical King's tip told him that the next mission was puzzle-solving.

  Julian scoffed.

  Yeah, right.

  28

  The rest of the matches were much the same. If Phillips was swarmed, she died without unleashing even a single attack. Whatever abilities she had didn't work if she fell prey to a multi-directional attack. But so long if Julian kept them off her, she was free to gun them down with her drones.

  The expanded maps were the easiest. Phillips was utterly unstoppable on mazes or treasure hunts, stages with countless corridors and paths for her to hide. As soon as the central box-like unit slipped away, the cat drones were free to hunt. Phillips's attacks were brutal and efficient. She anticipated her opponents' moves seconds before they made them and then nullified their attacks with a single perfect weapon.

  There was probably a hint there, but Julian was far too busy to see it.

  The two of them fought and fought and fought, battling furiously against opponents with twice the numbers. Julian and Phillips couldn't win them all. Sometimes they caught her before Julian could stand in front. Other times, they concentrated their fire and blew the Starlight R to pieces. Three times, Leontime caught them off guard with a suicide attack at the most unexpected moment.

  But by the end, Phillips had won enough matches to narrowly climb out of the negatives. With just 13 points, she secured the third-place spot behind Julian and Seedster.

  But despite Julian's best efforts, he failed to finish in overall first place. Seedster's enormous early lead had been just enough to edge him over the top. On some stages, Seedster simply fled from the start with his high-speed Gamma Rocket. The highly mobile Mech let him play for time and protect his lead. By dragging every mission until the end of the timer, he restricted the total number of available mini-games, giving Julian and Phillips far fewer opportunities to catch up. On top of that, his henchmen had no interest in winning. Whenever the other group won the round, they were careful to ensure that Seedster scored the full fifteen points.

  It made Julian extremely suspicious. Birthday had seemed completely crestfallen after the first two matches, but now he was just a member of the Seedster alliance like Leontime and Six3r. Was he in on it all along? Had they somehow co-opted him?

  Something strange was happening, but Julian didn't know what. By the time Mini-Game Day finally ended, he felt more relieved than anything else.

  He'd come into the free-for-all competition with extremely high expectations, but the constant battles had eliminated his only advantage. The whole Mini-Game process had been utterly perverted.

  The worst part was seeing how nonchalant Birthday and Leontime looked when they left the Selection building. Some pilots were raging and throwing fits. One even said he'd kill the opponents who conspired against him. But Birthday and Leontime just shrugged and left with small smiles on their faces.

&n
bsp; Julian gulped. There was no hint of Birthday's former panic.

  Had Seedster just bought them off?

  Julian found Felix and left the building with him.

  His friend grinned.

  "Whew! It was tough, but I managed to barely scrape by with first place at the end. Some of those mind-games were insane. When to attack and when to play for the mission. I'm lucky I got out of it. To be honest, there weren't any high-ranking players in my pod."

  "Nice, that's awesome."

  At least there hadn't been any alliances in Felix's pod.

  It only took Felix one look at Julian to know that something had gone wrong, and it'd be best to talk about it in the car. On the car ride back, Julian outlined everything that'd happened. Felix was in utter disbelief, especially at The Mechanical King's bizarre ruling.

  "Oh, man. Yeah, the alliance sounds incredibly cheap, but it technically wasn't against the rules? I'm shocked he took fifty points away from Phillips for that. To be honest, I probably would have called for intervention too. How was anyone supposed to beat that?"

  "We managed at the end. Phillips was really good. She even brought her Ace machine."

  "What was that like?"

  "Same as her main machine. All hidden items. Instead of equipping everything to the main Mech, she used a bunch of drones that looked like cats. Come to think of it, the whole Mech is cat-themed. Her custom weapons look like cat toys."

  "Oh yeah, that's a good point. Did you figure out how she kept picking the right item? Or how she guessed where people would go?"

  Julian sighed.

  "No idea."

  The cat Mechs were a cute detail, but they were only aesthetic. As Selection competitors, Julian and Felix would be far better served trying to discover the source of her powers. So far, both her item and movement prediction abilities.

  "Shame."

  Julian had chances to find out more, but he hadn't taken them. He'd stumbled upon the Power of Nine's core unit several times. He could have carved it up to see what was inside, but it wouldn't have been fair.

  Felix started.

  "You know what's crazy? That's crazy, though. The fact that they all ended up on the same team. The process should have been random. How did they get all four people on the same team?"

  Julian cursed. He hadn't even thought about that.

  "Maybe they paid off someone handling the randomization? I know it sounds weird, but I felt he knew what the Selection stages would be. He had a whole strategy worked out."

  Julian told Felix about Seedster's unusual rocket Mech and their suicide bomb strategy.

  "The only reason it failed was because I had Phillips with me. And the weirdest thing happened after Birthday and Leontime got disqualified. They just walked out like it was no problem. Birthday was the weirdest—he'd seemed extremely upset after the first two rounds. Then nothing. It felt like they were hired guns—like they were here to make Seedster win, not to win themselves."

  Felix groaned. He wasn't smiling anymore.

  "God. I can't believe this. You know what else might have happened?"

  "What?"

  "Seedster could have hired more than just three people. It could be that he's got other cheaters waiting in the wings. Depending on the cost-effectiveness, it might be cheaper than bribing someone involved with the company."

  Felix pulled up to the hotel then dropped Julian off.

  "Are you and Emma going to come back to the arena again?"

  "Maybe."

  He'd go if Emma wanted to, but he was feeling extremely burnt out. The stress was a burning buzz at the back of his mind. It was such an awful feeling. He'd gotten cheated right to his face, and there was nothing he could do about it.

  "I'll let you know after dinner. I might want some rest."

  But when Julian returned to his room and pulled out his phone, he discovered that Emma wasn't available.

  "Hey, I'm really sorry, but I'm busy tonight. Something crazy just came up. I've got a huge surprise for you at dinner tomorrow."

  She'd also spammed a couple of winking face emojis.

  That was weird. What could the surprise be?

  Then he sighed and set his phone away. It was a bummer he couldn't talk to Emma tonight. He'd been looking forward to ranting about how obscenely cheap Seedster was.

  Julian was just about to head into the shower when he heard a brisk knock on his door.

  When he opened it, Phillips was waiting for him.

  29

  Without waiting for an invitation, she stepped inside and closed the door again.

  "If you want to stay in the Selection for a lot longer, you're going to need to get stronger."

  Julian didn't know what to say.

  He was very taken aback by her bluntness.

  He stammered for a bit, and then she smiled apologetically.

  "Sorry. I don't mean to say you or your Mech are weak. You have a very nice machine for fair one-on-one matches. You're a good pilot too, and you could probably clutch a battle against two or even three people. But it's going to be everyone against you in some of these events."

  She spoke with complete certainty and confidence. It made it seem like she already know everything about the alliance conspiracy.

  "Do you know what's happening? With the alliances?"

  "I do. I was asked to join them. And it's a lot more than Seedster and the other three. If I had to guess, over a third of the contestants are in on it."

  Julian cursed.

  It sounded crazy, but it explained all the strange things he noticed. As soon as Phillips said it, he knew it had to be true.

  It wasn't just the fact that four co-conspirators ended up in their box. They also weren't well-practiced. Part of that was their lack of voice communications, but it didn't explain everything. They didn't even know each other's playstyles and habits. Instead of battling a well-hinged team of four, Julian and Phillips had defeated four talented individuals. Their enemies hadn't been a single conspirational group. They'd been matched together as part of a broader alliance.

  "What about Birthday? It seemed like he was competing honestly at first."

  She shrugged.

  "Hard to say. He was funneling points to Seedster by the end, so I don't think it matters much. Besides, he could have just gotten a message in the middle of the game telling him to take a dip. Look at this."

  She handed him a list of eliminated players.

  "Today, the bottom two of every six-man group was eliminated. One of the groups had seven people in it, and that one got rid of the bottom three. But here's the weird thing. The average eliminated player rank is in the mid-200s."

  Julian frowned at Phillips's notes, where she'd compiled every eliminated player's name and ranking.

  That was highly unusual.

  Usually, the first players to fall were the scraps in the 400-500 range.

  "I think there's someone blackmailing pro players and coordinating things behind the scenes."

  Julian started, causing Phillips to frown.

  "What?"

  "I heard something similar."

  Was this related to the person he'd heard from Tigger about?

  "I had someone approach me after the first day and offer me money to drop out. I refused, so they tried blackmailing me with boosting allegations. I make my money grinding, so nothing came of it. Someone will probably approach you too."

  Someone might have already tried talking to him. With how quickly he and Felix had rushed through in the lobby this morning, Julian hadn't given them much of an opportunity.

  He groaned.

  "This sucks. I just came here to play fairly."

  Phillips nodded.

  "Me too."

  It was darkly funny. This whole time, Julian had suspected Phillips of cheating when there'd been a far bigger conspiracy right in front of him.

  Phillips cleared her throat.

  "Before they closed down the Minesweeper Fortress Mission, I saw you'd captur
ed one of the Crafter's Prides. Have you unlocked it yet?"

  "No, I haven't. Wait. Why did they close it down?"

  "Why'd they close it down?"

  Phillips grimaced.

  "Too many bugs. I'm sure you noticed. It only got worse if you were speedrunning it."

  "How'd you do that?"

  Phillips smirked.

  "I'm psychic."

  The other pilot wasn't interested in answering questions. She cut off Julian's exclamation.

  "You need to equip the item and then enter into a game. Everything will make sense after."

  She passed him a paper with all the details.

  Julian's eyes widened.

  "Got it?"

  "Yeah."

  "Okay. Great! Thanks for your help today. Couldn't have done it without you."

  She turned to leave the room. All Julian could do was blurt out a hasty question about why she was helping him.

  "I came here to play. We can compete honestly once we get rid of the cheaters. And we haven't had an even fight yet—I could tell you weren't trying your best."

  Julian gulped.

  He hadn't been, but even with the Last Resort Cleaver he wouldn't have won.

  Phillips was right. He had to get stronger.

  She waved cheerily and then left the room.

  Julian gulped as he reread the instructions.

  The Crafter's Pride was incredibly powerful. Tigger was right—The Mechanical King was pumping overpowered items into the game. The shining gem's properties told Julian nothing about her equally bizarre positioning predictions, but it explained how Phillips always seemed to have the perfect item.

  If Julian equipped it to his Mech, he would have the perfect item too.

  Julian rummaged his laptop and personal peripherals out of his bag and set them up on the hotel desk.

  Although he'd been spoiled the last two days with the Overdrive Corporation's perfect equipment, he felt right at home as soon as he logged on. The visor pressed against his head, and the controls were a little rough on his fingers, but it felt like home.