Cadet Lovejoy’s brilliant last moves were noted by few. Compared to the dazzling chs destroying their rivals left and right, a worn-out ch like the Unicorn attracted little attention. It had quietly served its purpose for the few hours it remained in existence.
Ves almost dropped to his knees when he saw his pilot’s ploy co into fruition.
"You’re lucky that worked." Patricia noted calmly, as if the move was nothing more than child’s play. "The quality of your pilot and your ch gave the plan a very low chance to succeed. It only worked due to the enemy pilots screwing up."
He knew she had a point. While his pilot clearly knew his business, he wasn’t as exceptional as the ones from the top 10. The first-ranked Lovell still hopped around the battlefield with a half-wrecked rabbit ch, ambushing unsuspecting chs right where it hurted. He managed to gather an incredible amount of eight coins through sheer skill.
"While I missed out on the best, I’m quite satisfied with my current pilot." Ves smiled. He already noted down the characteristics of Cadet Lovejoy and even had access to a brief profile. Next ti he’d add a sword instead of a spear to his ch. "What about your own pilot? He’s ranked sowhere in the mid-300’s."
The difference between a pilot from the top 20 and the top 300 was a very large moat. A lower ranked pilot perford much worse in many different aspects. In the current round, what mattered most was judgent and battle intuition. Those who picked and choosed their battles wisely fared better than those who blindly blundered into unnecessary fights.
Surprisingly, Patricia stayed unconcerned. "Do you believe a ch’s performance is determined by the skill of the pilot?"
"Of course it is. A pilot is the brain of a ch."
"If that is what you believe, then that is how your ch is built."
The sentence was short and simple, but contained profound implications. If a designer believed the skill of a pilot mattered the most, he’d consciously or unconsciously designed a ch that allowed a skillful pilot to play it to its full strengths. While this might work great if you expected your ch to be piloted by an excellent pilot, in the hands of a more average one the ch would never perform to its full potential.
"I see what you an. You expected your ch to be piloted by an average pilot, so you designed your ch in a way that is simpler to operate and can be mastered easily."
No wonder Patricia dared to design a heavy artillery ch for the battlefield. Any dummy pilot with a brain could operate a slow, heavy ch with simple fire-and-forget missiles. It posed no requirents to finesse and reflexes.
A pilot only required decent judgent and a familiarity with missiles in order to operate the spider ch competently. As cadets from a renowned academy, all of the pilots mastered the basics, including those who ranked in the top 300.
However, there should be a limit to how far a dummy-proof ch could go. Ves asked a pertinent question. "Will you be able to reach the finals with such a philosophy?"
"Have the masters always apprenticed a designer who reached the finals?"
"Ah, not always."
In the history of the Leemar Open Competition, the masters usually picked up a couple of disciples from the finalists. Usually did not an always. While the masters usually liked to pick winners, they placed more importance in compatibility. As long as a ch designer had a minimum amount of competencies, they could be picked by a master even if they did not make it through the first round.
This was also why plenty of designers valued the opportunity to make it past the qualifiers. Though extrely rare, a couple of masters had once selected apprentices from those who stalled at the start of the main event in the past. It gave everyone the tiniest bit of hope, which kept the competition vibrant.
The battlefield kept raging even after the Unicorn bowed out. After all of the excitent during the mid-ga, the final hours arrived with the introduction of a couple of exceptional chs. The majority of them were either heavy chs or well-built dium chs. Even Barakovski’s light ch killer and Patricia’s spider artillery ch had to make way for these alpha chs.
The dium ch designed by Carter Gauge attracted everyone’s attention. As the top seed of the competition, he boldly spent an inordinate amount of ti on his ch. It was built like a hybrid knight. Its excellent sword and shield made it a nace at close range while its accurate shoulder-mounted ballistic guns ate up anything at range.
For all the anticipation, it did not disappoint. Even with a pilot ranked in the top 500, the dium ch moved faster and hit harder than almost any other ch out there. As its pilot beca more accustod to the awe-inspiring capabilities of his ch, he practically turned into a wild beast. His ch savaged anyone in its way, and stole coins left and right.
Even the comntators got pulled into the action. "Look at that chanical wonder! He’s at it again! This makes it the twelfth ti it destroyed a ch, and it hardly received a scratch in return!"
"How tough must its armor be in order to deflect such a powerful kinetic round?"
"I don’t know, but besides artillery, there’s hardly any ch that could deter this killing machine."
Besides Gauge’s invincible dium ch, so of the other latecors also rolled over the early birds. While so designers simply delivered disappointing chs, others made full use of the ti to submit well-armored and well-ard chs that was worth as much as four mid-ga chs.
Most of the late-ga chs utilized advanced compressed armor that went beyond the basic procedure Ves mastered. He only mastered the shallowest layer of alloy compression. More advanced thods could work with a wider variety of alloys and provide a more effective result in much less ti.
Ves also learned from the designers in the waiting room that the best armor also underwent highly classified chemical treatnt. Certain chemicals added before or after the compression process interacted strangely with so of the exotic materials incorporated in the alloys. These reactions increased the effectiveness of the compression procedure, resulting in thinner, lighter but much stronger armor.
"The chemical formulas are highly prized secrets. They are one of the core possessions of a ch design company. So even build an entire dynasty around their formulas." Patricia noted succinctly. "Entire research departnts might spend decades in order to co up with a single formula. The decent ones have a market value of trillions of cols."
This was on an entirely different level. These kinds of core technologies were highly prized assets that only the most formidable organizations were able to possess.
Soone like Ves could only ever purchase a license for the outdated formulas that have long been leaked. Even then, the prices were harsh.
The first round finally finished at the end of the day. This ti, the amount of destruction exceeded last year’s result. Many chs hadn’t been able to gather a sufficient amount of coins.
The threshold for passing turned out to be around six deliveries. The only problem was that a bit more than a hundred chs had delivered at least six coins. This ant that so might pass and so might fail.
Ves bit his lip as he anxiously waited for the score counters to tally the final results. Finally, the sorting finished.
VES LARKINSON - REDDY LOVEJOY - 89th
"Yes!" He raised his fists. He passed the first round due to having delivered the coins faster than many others who gathered the sa amount. This was another minor rule that gave preferential treatnt to those who risked submitting their chs early.
He looked at the scores for the few people he knew. Surprisingly, the combination Alyssa Lynch and Richard Lovell earned an impressive rank of 32nd. Considering that Cadet Lovell piloted one of the worst chs on the battlefield, that was an incredibly heroic feat.
As for Patricia, her domineering artillery ch blasted its way into the 70s. While her spider ch easily demolished any opposition, its traversal speed was as slow as a snail so it barely gathered seven coins.
He checked the nas of anyone else he knew. He finally spotted Barakovski’s na way up at the 19th rank. She achieved a much better result than him even though she submitted her light ch a lot later. Her well-built ch hunted down many badly built chs and ruthlessly robbed them of their coins.
As for Carter Gauge, he did not disappoint. His dium ch only ca late, but its overall excellence proved even more tyrannical than Patricia’s light ch killer. No matter the quality of its opposition, as long as it had a coin, it quickly died. With its suprely optimized sensors, it had no trouble tracking down coins. In just a couple of hours, its pilot easily gathered nineteen coins.
"This guy is in a different league than us." Ves noted as he stared at the top score. "He should be participating in events organized by first-rate superstates. Why is he slumming it with us?"
Patricia nodded in agreent. "You’re right, but It’s a political ga. The Gauge Dynasty wants to press down the Carnegie Group’s liveliness by emphasizing their deeper roots."
None of this concerned Ves, so they quickly dropped the subject.
Now that the main event had concluded, the audience started to return to their hotels. A few designers were invited up on stage to talk about their chs in the aftershow, but Ves had no interest or expectation that he’d be invited up there.
When Ves t Dietrich back at the entrance of the arena complex, he took an irritated Lucky from his grasp. "There now, we only have two more days before we can go ho."
"A lot of girls have been petting him." Dietrich explained Lucky’s bad mood. "He’s never gotten a proper rest. But hey, I’m not complaining. He’s a great chick magnet."
Ves shook his head. His pet might look like an adorable cat, but his claws could cut right through a solid piece of armor.
"What do you think about Lovejoy? He’s the sixteenth ranked pilot at the Abelard Academy. Is he better than you?"
"I’m a marksman, and he’s a swordsman. We’ve got different specialties. His basics are very solid. I have to admit he’s got a better reaction speed than . He’d chew up if he gets into lee range. Still, he’s obviously too green. Any rookie pilot is no good until their lives are put on the line."
"Well hopefully that won’t matter because they’re all cadets. They haven’t graduated yet."
Dietrich shook his head and pointed at Richard Lovell’s na. "You’re wrong. There’s a couple of pilots who are different. This guy is the most obvious one. Every move he makes is focused on ending lives."
That sounded ominous. Ves had no familiarity with Alyssa Fill. She courageously designed and submitted an extrely rushed design in two hours in order to claim the best pilot available. Soone who took such a daring risk had to have so real capability. Her gamble worked, and she now had sole possession of the number one pilot, which gave her a great advantage in subsequent rounds.
Every formidable designer made it through the top 100. Those freeloaders who passed the last qualifying round while doing nothing all crashed and burned in front of an audience of trillions. Ves was relieved he made it through the first pass, but he was a little disappointed he hadn’t reached a higher score. The impressive achievents of his rivals had taught him that he was far from the best.
"I’ve got a good enough pilot, and that’s what matters. It doesn’t matter if my ch gathered six or nineteen coins. It’s enough to make it through with the best pilot possible."
He look forward what tomorrow had in store.
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