Chapter 40: The White Blade’s First Battle
Before Damian entered into a game, he remembered that he still had yet to familiarise himself with his new mech. He hopped into the training room, his body projected into a white space where he could see the mech before him.
He walked up to it and touched it, feeling its hard exterior and contours. He was very impressed at how life-like it felt; it was almost impossible to tell that this was a game. To children like him who had recently awakened the X gene, this was a golden opportunity to familiarise themselves with a mech and gain experience.
Though using the in-game function did not translate to training in the real world, it managed to simulate a construct similar to one to some extent. But it was a good start for newbies. After admiring his suit, Damian initialized the suit-up sequence. The suit roared to life as it hissed out steam from the back. Damian’s digital self was covered in a battle suit to help him optimise with the mech itself.
Stepping into the mech, the inside was a bit warm from the mech starting up. It closed up behind him, making him feel snug inside. Damian tried to move; his legs lifted off the ground after a few tries. He started to move his hand slightly and walked around the white space room. Soon, he was running and zipping around at a fast speed. Damian felt a rush of adrenaline from using the mech. Its speed was over the roof, but every once in a while he would feel a strain on his muscles. He suspected this was because he was getting used to the mech, whereas that was not the case.
Because the mech was built with no supportive AI interface or sensors, it had no way of easing the load of being piloted. It could not regulate or optimise its efficiency to make its pilot as comfortable as possible.
Damian was an athletic boy who had grown up receiving the best nourishment from his parents, so he wasted no time in pushing the mech to do more extensive movements. He tried cartwheels, handstands, and back rolls, with the mech delivering quite well. Damian knew very well that the strength of light mechs was their speed and their weakness was their armour, so he felt it was right to test its speed.
Next, he moved to test the weapons, first starting with the laser pistols and firing a few blasts. He realised that the blasts were quite powerful but could not be used for too long before they would overheat. There was the option of purchasing an external weapon, but that was not usually recommended. Damian grew more impatient, so he decided to hop into a match as soon as he could. He was a one-star rookie in the game, so his opponent would be from the rookie match.
He scrolled into the multiplayer function and selected the one-versus-one mode. The game started to search for an opponent, which it found almost immediately. Soon after, a new screen appeared before Damian:
STANDBY, THE MATCH WILL BEGIN SOON.