The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4839

Despite the huge amount of arena space inside the Clive Arena, it was impossible for the Davute Star Tournament to allow hundreds of thousands of mechs to compete against each other in the qualifying rounds.

Instead, a large amount of projected screens hovered in the empty arena, providing the spectators who attended the tournament in person a good view of the battle royale-like matches where thousands of virtual mechs sought to beat each other up as soon as possible!

The Clive Arena could literally hold millions of spectators in the stands, but since no physical mechs would be coming to blows against each other during the first few days of the tournament, not all of the seats were occupied.

In fact, Ves guessed that most of the tickets for this phase were sold for dirt cheap prices. The majority of people who attended in the first day were budget-conscious tourists who couldn't afford to attend the truly good tournaments.

It didn't matter too much. Virtual or not, the high-fidelity visuals along with the huge amount of people present in the Clive Arena created a boisterous atmosphere!

Plenty of groups were shouting slogans or the names of their favorite mech pilots as the grand melee commenced!

Ves wished he could have sat in the middle of those crowds, but it was far too dangerous for him to expose himself to other people this way.

This was why he and his two children had entered a VIP booth that did everything possible to protect his privacy.

Dozens of guards surrounded him from almost every side. After the incident that took place earlier this week, his security detail took no chances. His original honor guard therefore became augmented with elite infantry soldiers taken from other units.

Their overt presence along with their constant alertness caused the atmosphere in the VIP booth to become a little tense.

Fortunately, his children were accustomed to the presence of guards and did not remain bothered by their presence.

Their attention had been stolen by the free-for-all matches!

"Wow, look at those mechs chasing after that poor rifleman mech!" Marvaine exclaimed. "Half of them got crushed after they got lured into a landslide!"

Ves directed his attention to one of the projections. A free mercenary mech pilot called Jason Ridholm had chosen to pilot a rifleman mech, which normally did not do so well during these kinds of matches. Ranged mechs were simply too vulnerable against attacks up close.

However, it looked like Jason had a plan coming into this tournament. He attracted the attention of enemy melee mechs and lured them into terrain traps. If he was lucky, he could even force his pursuers together and cause them to fight among themselves!

This granted Ridholm's mech an easy opportunity to take potshots at the distracted melee mechs.

Ves looked increasingly more impressed at how Ridholm managed to fell five mechs through this fashion. The mono-colored generic mechs of his competitors all cracked and collapsed as they succumbed to the physical rounds fired by a gauss rifle.

As an experienced mech designer, he could judge that Ridholm likely piloted a highly mobile rifleman mech. They were some of the riskiest mechs to pilot as they constantly danced at the edge of danger.

Andraste looked impressed as well. "I don't really like marksmanship, but even I can tell that he is good. His mech is not only firing its rifle while it is on the move, but the rounds often strike the holes in the armor of his target. He's so accurate!"

The hit rate was only around 30 percent, but that was already an impressive feat when both sides were on the move!

Just as Jason Ridholm's rifleman mech started to kite a sixth melee mech, an unexpected calamity struck.

The hilly alien landscape where this fight took place abruptly transformed into a soggy swamp region.

The terrain randomizer had struck again!

According to the rules, any piece of terrain in the virtual battlefield would transform into other forms of terrain on a completely random basis!

Flat plains of land could turn into snow-covered mountain tops where mechs found it difficult to find solid footing.

Active volcanoes where lava oozed on the ground could turn into dense alien jungles that were filled with trees that were powerful enough to resist mech attacks.

Jason Ridholm had taken advantage of this once when his targets got caught in an inconvenient transition, but now the appearance of a deep and festering swamp had screwed him over!

The mech pilot did not give up. His rifleman mech tried to traverse through the muddy and wet terrain as fast as possible, but it was a pity that the legs of his slender ranged mech weren't as strong as the ones of his pursuer.

The generic axeman mech relied considerably more on raw power than speed to defeat its opponents. This meant that all of its limbs possessed more mechanical power, which came in really handy as it was able to power through the swamp with much greater efficiency.

In the end, the axeman mech resisted the handful of gaus rounds that struck its left leg and chopped up the rifleman mech with a flurry of axe strikes!

"Awww!"

"That's not fair!"

Jason Ridholm may have been downed, but he was not yet out of the fight.

In another part of the expansive virtual battlefield, an identical rifleman mech respawned after a short delay.

The mech pilot's score had dropped from 5 to 4, which didn't really sound like an awful penalty.

The true cost of defeat soon became evident as Jason Ridholm commanded his rifleman mech to move forward.

Most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference, but Ves minutely narrowed his eyes as he observed how Ridholm's mech did not perform as well as before.

All of the technical parameters of his machine had dropped by exactly 5 percent. Only a couple of parameters such as sensor range and traversal speed had remained unaffected.

The penalty of getting killed would become more severe after every subsequent death.

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