The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3472

Chapter 3472: Beginning of the G-Aena League

While Ves toured the latest starship to join his fleet, another group of Larkinsons were readying themselves for their first big public display of might in the Red Ocean.

The G-Aena League was a much more massive affair than the High Tide Tournament!

The latter was a small-scale affair that was mainly organized by a single company and lasted only a single day. Mech design tournaments centered around Journeymen also weren't as significant as those where Seniors and Masters displayed their formidable prowess.

In the same way, most single mech tournaments generally didn't attract too much attention either. While they were cheaper and easier to organize, the entertainment market was flooded with countless different tournaments that simply pitted a single mech against another mech.

What truly got people's blood pumping was seeing armies of mechs colliding against each other!

Humans generally feared war, but loved to witness the action at a safe distance. Large group mech battles might not be as real as actual warfare, but they were still thrilling enough to satisfy the same urges!

On the opening day of the G-Aena League, the huge Fortas Major Arena had been transformed into a massive parade ground.

Sixteen different battalions dispatched by various pioneering organizations introduced themselves in front of a crowd of tens of millions of fans and hundreds of millions of remote spectators from both the Red Ocean and the Milky Way!

The sheer amount of people viewing this massive competition was completely unlike anything the Larkinsons had experienced!

If not for the fact that they trained and rehearsed their public performances, the Larkinson mech pilots taking part in the parade would have collapsed from stage fright by now! Just because their clan patriarch was good at playing to the crowd didn't mean these clansmen could keep their cool.

Just a single mistake during the parade could cause the Larkinson Clan to become a laughingstock in two different galaxies!

"We can do it, men." Commander Casella Ingvar addressed the mech pilots that were about to show up in front of the enormous audience. "We have fought against pirates and military forces. We fought and survived an encounter with a powerful ace mech. How can these threats possibly compare to a distant crowd? Remember your training and focus on your mech. We're only walking around in a circle. Nothing more."

Certain mech pilots needed more encouragement than others. While the Avatars and Vandals still tried to repress their nervousness, the Swordmaidens, Penitent Sisters and Ylvainans displayed no doubts.

Casella quietly shook her head. There were still too many differences between the mech legions. Mental fortitude was an important quality and it appears that the latter three groups were significantly ahead in this aspect.

Though the Avatars and Vandals obviously needed to work on this area, she knew that her Sentinels fared even worse. Once this tournament was over, she intended to go back to her mech legion and find ways to address this shortcoming.

As the loud and dramatic media personalities continued to hype up the audience of the G-Aena League, the time had finally come for the mech battalions to hold their short but important parades!

Five different battalions went ahead and moved onto the massive open field of Fortas Major Arena. A diverse array of mechs bearing different colors, markings, mech types and symbols moved forward in neat, perfect columns.

Each of them were dispatched by pioneers that came from different parts of the old galaxy. Two came from the galactic center, 5 came from the galactic heartland and 9 came from the galactic rim.

Clearly, pioneers who originated from the more prosperous parts of the old galaxy possessed less of a desire to take part in this spectacle.

Although the publicity was nice and the prize pool looked juicy, anything could happen in these chaotic battles. There were plenty of incidents where ugly defeats or embarrassing displays dealt considerable reputational damage.

What made large-scale group mech combat tournaments so special was that the emphasis laid on the collective rather than the individual.

In solo tournaments, a floundering mech pilot who got knocked out in the first round mostly bore the blame for his bad showing.

In group tournaments, more emphasis was placed on the organization the mech pilots hailed from. In a huge tournament like the G-Aena League, the hundreds of mech pilots were largely anonymous faces to the audience.

It was a lot easier for people to regard them as extensions of a larger group!

This was why only 16 battalions ultimately applied to take part in the G-Aena League. A lot more pioneers could have submitted their own forces to the roster but balked at the risks.

The richer and more well-connected pioneers had better channels to complete their objectives. Only the more desperate and fame-hungry pioneers accepted the opportunity to perform in events like these.

"You're up, Larkinsons!"

Commander Casella Ingvar transmitted a simultaneous command to all of the mechs. Each of them began to step out of the large waiting hall and entered the main field of the arena that they would soon fight their first arena battle.

The scale of the arena was enormous and unlike anything the Larkinsons had seen before. A hundred cubic kilometers offered plenty of space for a thousand mechs to maneuver against each other. Combined with the advanced terrain transformation features, the arena could prepare any possible battlefield for the combatants!

As the column of Bright Warriors, Ferocious Piranhas, Valkyrie Redeemers and other machines entered everyone's vision, the Larkinsons attracted a lot more attention than the other tournament participants!

[What are those mechs and why are they so special?!] A layman commentator asked.

[The sixth battalion of the G-Aena League consists of mechs and mech pilots dispatched by the Larkinson Clan. Though the clan is new, it is led by a unique Journeyman Mech Designer with several accomplishments to his name. The mechs you see before you are the household machines of the clan. Each of them are so-called living mechs, which have become popular in the Larkinson Clan's home market.]

[Living mechs are noted for their excellent responsiveness and piloting comfort. They are also distinguished by their ability to influence the minds of mech pilots via their 'glows', which can best be described as auras that project in fields around the individual mechs. The reason why the Larkinson Battalion is attracting your attention so much is due to the concentration and overlapping effects of all of the glows projected by the Larkinson mechs.]

[How mysterious! There are truly an endless variety of mechs in human space. Does this have any effect in battle?]

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