CHAPTER ONE

The earth thundered as Jason's opponent pounced wildly towards him. The enemy Mech's face split apart, revealing a mouth filled with finely honed razor sharp teeth. Powerful pistons worked furiously as the titanic maw crunched over and over again.

Metal screamed each time the razor sharp teeth scraped against each other.

His opponent had utterly ridiculous amounts of biting power.

The conclusion was obvious.

It would only take a single hit for this giant machine to kill Jason's cyborg partner, the Red Minerva.

The One Star Boss's eyes narrowed.

The enemy's parts were powerful, but the construction was disjointed.

The teeth chipped slightly every single time they came into contact with each other.

Overdrive was a game of trade-offs. Players couldn't build all-powerful machines. Instead, they had to carefully design a build that fit their playstyle and preferences.

One such trade trade-off was between sharpness and durability. Sharpness increased the amount of damage players dealt, but finely honed edges were also easier to destroy.

The once razor sharp teeth grew duller and duller with every single chomp. The enemy pilot had temporarily maximized his machine's biting power, but he probably had to replace the teeth after every single fight.

The longer Jason dodged his opponent's attacks, the weaker the enemy machine would become.

Jason's hands tightened against the controls.

He had another winnable fight, but he couldn't make a single mistake.

It was almost impossible to fight opponents on even terms as just a One Star Boss. His opponent thought that Jason was just an AI pilot, but in reality, Jason was one of many expert players who'd signed a secret contract with the Overdrive Corporation.

In the past, the Overdrive Corporation had spent millions of dollars developing their in-game AI, but the program remained incredibly exploitable. Overdrive's machines were simply too complicated. There were millions of weapons, thousands of frames, and hundreds of different stages. Trying to program everything into an AI as a recipe for disaster.

Eventually, the company finally gave up and simply hired players to control map bosses.

At the time, the job had seemed like a dream.

Jason could play Overdrive for a living!

Unfortunately, standing in as a One Star Boss had plenty of pitfalls.

Famous players and streamers like DISTINCTIONMAN50000 and Dr. Badlands had been hired with great aplomb as celebrity Player Killers. They were celebrated superstars with world famous machines. Those elite players traveled Overdrive's countless planets and colonies, challenging whoever they pleased.

As a One Star Boss, Jason had signed a strict non-disclosure agreement, and his game experience came with significant restrictions.

For one thing, discretion was paramount. Jason couldn't communicate with his opponents. He was restricted entirely to Overdrive's in-game emotes.

Even worse, Jason wasn't allowed to customize his machine or grow stronger. His Mech was trapped at a low power level. As the One Star Boss of the Towering Crag, Jason's Mech was the Red Minerva, a fierce cyborg dragon. The red dragon was swift and powerful, but her defenses were painfully weak.

As a result, skill often didn't even factor into his battles.

Depending on their weapon choices, his opponent could simply defeat Jason in a single shot with a weapon like a Heat Bombardment Ray or the Particle Splitter System. Clearing stages as fast as possible without wasting time was a staple of high-level play.

Unfortunately, their time saved was Jason's time wasted.

Jason's contract put him on-call between the hours of 12PM to 12AM every single day, Monday through Sunday. Apparently, there was a Korean pilot who lived on the other side of the world who acted as Jason's counterpart while Jason was sleeping.

Sometimes, dedicated mappers - professional loot hunters who wanted to clear stages as quickly and efficiently as possible - would kill Jason fifty times in a single hour.

More than the time wasted, Jason hated seeing the Red Minerva get blown up over and over again.

Despite the Overdrive Corporation's strict restrictions on the draconic cyborg, she was still Jason's partner. Sometimes, it felt he was just letting her down.

The demoralizing scene had gotten to all of the other One Star Bosses. Few of them played their matches earnestly.

Jason always heard his colleagues moaning to each other as they left their rooms for lunch or dinner.

They were always complaining about how unfair it was that their opponents got to use powerful parts while they were stuck with weak frames and beginner's parts.

But so long as his opponent didn't have a weapon that could destroy the Red Minerva in a single blow, Jason knew he had a chance to win.

As the lumbering Mech continued furiously chomping its teeth, Jason hastily backpedaled, ordering his cyborg partner to flee to the very edge of the Towering Crag's wide and flat peak.

His massive but sluggish opponent chased after him, tearing apart the ground beneath its feet as it lumbered ponderously after Jason's Red Minerva.

Jason pushed down on the thrusters of his control board and set his Mech's feet.

He needed just a little bit more time and information before he could put a plan into action.

Despite the odds, Jason had two invaluable weapons.

The first was his incredible familiarity with his Mech and its home stage.

In the last year, Jason had spent so much time working that he dreamed of the Red Minerva and the Towering Crag.

The second was a rich understanding of his opponent's psychology, a skill he'd developed after fighting countless foes.

Jason fought hundreds of opponents each day, and he'd developed categories to analyze and understand all of them.

The Mech swung a massive arm. Jason elegantly pivoted to the side. The air whistled as the enormous lump of metal at the end nearly took off the Red Minerva's head.

By now, Jason had dodged long enough for his opponent's teeth to become worthless nubs. Unfortunately, the arms were just as worrisome. Like the giant's razor-sharp fangs, even a single blow would be fatal.

Jason had never fought this specific Mech before. Overdrive's machines were largely unique.

While there were a few wealthy players who used store-bought cookie cutter machines, almost everyone else tried customizing their Mechs from the ground up.

However, Jason still recognized the overall archetype his opponent belonged to.

This towering machine was known as a Giga Mech.

Its sheer weight alone could easily squash the Red Minerva like a bug. Jason could already imagine the crushed armor and spurt of red blood that would result from even a glancing blow - he'd seen the grisly sight many times before.

Jason's Red Minerva was fifty feet tall. Had the proud dragon Mech existed in real life, she would have towered high in the sky, looming almost every other modern-day war machine.

The roughly humanoid machine chasing the Red Minerva was nearly twice as tall and three times as wide. It was covered head to toe in disparate plates of armor gathered from countless defeated Mechs.

The kaleidoscope of colors rattled wildly with the machine's every move.

The Giga Mechs had been banned from competitive Overdrive play seven years ago.

Back in its early days, the virtual Mech battler had seen a complete upheaval in the competitive metagame after professional players began abusing the fact that there was no upper limit on the number of items that could be equipped.

Instead of conventional machines, which carefully balanced firepower, defense, and maneuverability, Giga Mechs were essentially battleships that completely sacrificed all movement abilities. They were covered with a hodgepodge of heavy armor and carried almost every single weapon their pilots owned.

The enormous miscreations had eventually been banned from competitive PvP play, but there were no such restrictions on maps like the Towering Crag.

Like most stages led by One Star Bosses, the Towering Crag was technically an early map designed to get players into the game - players were allowed to bring whatever Mech they wanted.

The Overdrive Corporation wanted to remove the "feels bad" effect of new players not getting to play their favorite machine. The feelings of Jason and his fellow One Star Bosses had not been considered.

The enemy Mech raised its right arm high into the air.

The machine's thrusters protested loudly as the titanic Mech attacked.

Giga Mechs weren't meant for rapid movements. Their internal engines could barely move the ridiculous amounts of armor, and the machine's pistons struggled even more to control the gigantic wrecking ball at the end of the Mech's right hand.

In fact, the main force powering his enemy's weapon was simple gravity.

The Mech wasn't trying to swing the wrecking ball. It was trying to raise its arm up to the maximum height before allowing the heavy wrecking ball to fall downwards.

The attack was powerful but highly predictable.

Jason deftly maneuvered his controls, kicking off the ground before smoothly converting his lunge into a swift roll to the side.

The plummeting wrecking ball missed the scrabbling Red Minerva by several feet. The giant lunged awkwardly forward, doing its best to take advantage of Jason's poor positioning, but he easily rose back to his feet and dodged the hasty follow-up attack.

Jason smiled.

The fanciful manuevers had been simple.

Jason's control was immaculate, and despite his Mech's low stats, he and his partner were right at home on the Towering Crag. The Red Minerva's biological base was a cave dragon - a flightless beast that excelled at rapidly dashing across the ground.

All Hemoborn received a terrain bonus based on their biological base's natural habitat. The Red Minerva's speed was increased by 10% on her home field.

However, like all Hemoborn, the Red Minerva's primary benefit was their mechanical grafts. The red dragon's slender limbs had all been enhanced, and the beast's durable bones were reinforced with high-quality steel.

The feet had been completely removed in favor of metal parts.

The ankles were capable of 360-degree movement, allowing Jason's partner to maintain its balance in any situation. The mechanical feet artificially emulated a mountain goat's hooves, providing near unparalleled traction, leaping ability, and balance.

Jason dashed away from the enormous wrecking ball, smoothly getting back to his feet and drawing his dulled Level One sword. The blade was blunt, but a well-placed blow at an opponent's weak point could stun them long enough for Jason to aggressively press the advantage. Jason's time as a One Star Boss had taught him to skillfully use the weapons he had at his disposal instead of pointlessly wishing for stronger items that wouldn't come.

The blade wasn't impressive on its own, but in conjunction with the terrain...

Jason's well-trained eyes scanned the ground, which was lined with cracks and upturned stones.

He estimated his charging opponent's weight, matching it with his thorough understanding of the Towering Crag's properties, particularly its load-bearing abilities.

He nodded.

All the pieces were in place.

It was time for his last stand.

He couched his feet, anchoring his left foot in front of his right. He reached for the narrow sword at his waist and then held his pose, keeping his hand at his sheath.

When players first loaded onto the stage, Towering Crag was a large and rickety mountain.

However, the top of the stage crumbled as soon as the boss battle started. An unstable peak lined with spikes was judged too difficult for a One Star Mission.

During most battles between the Red Minerva and her opponent, the Crag's peak was a completely flat stage. The plateau was meant to evoke a final showdown on top of a mountain range. Behind his massive opponent, Jason caught a glimpse of a poignant sunset, but he had no time to admire the view.

On the outside, the Crag's collapsing peak seemed like part of a cut scene. The falling stones had no effect on the battle.

In reality, the Crag was built out of relatively weak stone - stone that would crumble just as easily as the initial peak had.

However, very few players had the observation skills to realize that the stage gradually changed as both players damaged it.

Jason concentrated entirely on the floor.

The Twisted Crag map had been created before the advent of Giga Mechs. It was meant to hold the weight of regular machines.

A Giga Mech weighed over quadruple the amount of their regular counterparts. As a result, they inflicted heavy terrain damage with every move.

Normally, this fact never mattered very much - Giga Mechs almost never moved.

Conventional Giga Mechs were long-ranged damage dealers that bombarded opponents into submission from afar.

By the end of the Giga Mech meta in competitive play, pros had even eschewed legs entirely in favor of tank treads. Jason often fought those absurdly powerful builds. They simply blasted his machine to the ground in a single strike.

However, his opponent's Mech was a close combat type that sought to crush enemies underfoot with sheer force.

It was evident from his build that Jason's opponent wasn't a competitive mapper who sought to finish the stage as soon as possible. He probably thought of himself as an innovator, a player who sought to tweak the competitive meta until he found a superior evolution.

Using a battleship-like Giga Mech as a melee fighter created new and unpredictable interactions.

The match between Jason and his opponent would come down to who had the game knowledge to take advantage of those interactions.

Jason's held his breath and stilled his fingers as he aimed his sword.

As the Giga Mech continued lumbering over the damaged stone, the plates that comprised its armor flapped up and down. Gaps cracked in the machine's seemingly impenetrable protection as the uneven ground pushed the Mech's parts out of their usual positions.

Giga Mechs weren't supported by the competitive balance team.

As a result, it was impossible to arm them with pre-purchased parts. Instead, Giga Mech pilots had to cover their machines with scavenged armor. Rapid movements caused the patchwork armor to separate, revealing critical weak points.

Data on his opponent's base frame and equipment flooded into Jason's mind. He could perfectly visualize the damage spreadsheets he'd left back on his CPU.

Whenever he logged into the Overdrive server, Jason kept his mind as clear as possible.

Initially, he'd only done it because the game was his escape from daily life. But even after it'd become a sometimes-grueling full-time job, Jason came to realize that his serene mental state was his biggest asset on the battlefield.

Jason's mental acuity skyrocketed without the constant noise and day-to-day stresses of daily life, and he could instantly recall his diligent research. While playing on the Overdrive server, he remembered damage calculations from months or even years ago.

The Giga Mech's base frame was a lumbering humanoid brute known as the Sicko. The humanoid shape and countless weapon ports hidden under the thick armor were unmistakable.

The frame's comical name was a homage to the infamous Psycho Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam Zeta. The giant machine was arguably one of the first Giga Mechs to appear in mecha media. The towering black machine was so large that it made the protagonist's conventional Mech look small.

The base Sicko frame was renowned for its customizability. When stripped of its armor and weaponry, the humanoid machine looked almost like a bodybuilder, with exceptionally broad shoulders and thick tree trunk-like thighs. But despite its rather fearsome appearance, the build was fundamentally weak and depended entirely on its added parts.

The gigantic frame had no built-in weapons or defenses. Instead, the countless weapon and armor parts across its body allowed players to dump on every single powerful part they'd found to reinforce their machine. Competitive mappers and parts traders often called Sickos "walking inventories."

The Sicko raised its wrecking ball.

The massive shadow loomed above her, but Jason's proud draconic Mech remained perfectly still.

Although the Red Minerva's greatest asset was its acidic flame breath, Jason did not lift his head.

The flame breath might frighten his opponent, and Jason could not risk an unpredictable movement. Even a small move would throw Jason's calculations completely out of control. His opponent's armor continued flapping wildly. The ball continued slowly ascending.

Jason glanced at the creaking arm and recalled their last exchange.

How much time did he have before the ball reached its apex and fell?

Five seconds?

Three?

In comparison to the enormous wrecking ball, Jason's tiny sword looked like a mere toothpick.

As his opponent's terrifying weapon neared its apex, Jason pushed his thrusters forward. The Red Minerva took three carefully calculated steps, then lunged and drew the near-weightless sword.

After fighting countless Sicko frames, Jason had customized his simple Level One Sword exclusively for this purpose. He'd wanted a slicing weapon that could cut through tiny gaps, but such weapons were very uncommon.

Unfortunately, their rarity made them unattainable to One Star Bosses like Jason.

Jason's solution was rather simple. He'd honed down his Level One Sword by hand until it'd become exceptionally narrow. The weapon was designed to slip between the plates of his opponent's armor and strike his opponent's insides.

When it came to head-on combat, the Red Minerva simply wasn't strong enough to injure Giga Mechs. The Mech's forcibly restricted stats meant that it couldn't inflict any damage on machines with a Defense stat of rank A or greater.

Due to Jason's unique circumstances, he needed to rely on precision rather than power. He had to bet it all on this narrow blade he'd honed by hand.

As the ball descended, Jason swung.

The move happened in only a brief instant, but as always, the mere second seemed to last at least an hour inside Jason's mind.

A smile split his usually still face.

It was clear that the battle hung in the balance.

This was what he lived for, the times when victory and defeat all came down to a single moment.