CHAPTER THIRTY

After logging out of the server, the first thing Jason checked was the loot he'd earned.

Jason was keenly aware of the fact that he'd quit his job two days ago, and he hadn't made any money since.

Of course, Jason hadn't been wasting his time.

He'd earned thousands of dollars worth of parts at the Vault, but that didn't mean anything until he converted it to cash.

On top of that, Jason had assets on hand and a clear goal in mind - he wanted to win the Tournament of Assassins and establish a preferred relationship with OverManiacs.

However, he wanted to continue pressuring himself as much as possible.

He insisted on questioning himself to make sure that he was working as hard as he could.

At the end of the day, life was all about habits.

If Jason got used to simply playing Overdrive and storing up parts instead of selling them for cash, that would quickly become a very dangerous habit.

Fortunately for Jason, losing two days' worth of income wasn't a big deal.

He was very lucky to be in that position.

He was fortunate that he had savings from his time as a One Star Boss and even luckier that his parents let him live at home for free.

If it weren't for his parents' generosity, Jason would have had to take the original OverManiacs deal of selling parts at a cheapened rate until he hit the ten thousand dollar mark.

He would have lost thousands of dollars of parts upfront.

The situation reminded Jason of a parable he'd heard as a kid about a poor man who couldn't save up for a nice pair of boots.

As a result, he had to pay twenty bucks every few months for a pair of crappy shoes that quickly broke. Meanwhile, a wealthy man could buy a deluxe pair of boots for a hundred dollars.

Although the rich man spent a higher initial price, he saved money in the long run because his boots lasted for years and years.

In effect, the poorer man had been punished for being poor. When it came to purchasing necessities, being poor could paradoxically be more expensive than being rich.

Fortunately, Jason was in a decent financial situation.

However, he wanted to maintain a determined underdog mentality.

He wanted to achieve financial independence as quickly as possible.

Jason pulled up his spreadsheet again and began documenting his prizes.

After beating the Forest Map, many new prize winnings had spawned in his Inventory.

The first thing Jason noticed was the significant Credit prize.

The Tournament of Assassins was an elite map.

Considering the sheer number of Mechs the Illusionist guild won via the Salvage rule, they could afford to disburse rich payouts.

For getting past the first round, Jason had won 25,000 Credits.

The second round offered a 50,000 Credit payout.

The last and final round offered a whopping 100,000 Credit payout - enough to purchase full loadouts for two Ace Mechs.

The Overdrive Corporation allowed players to exchange Credits for cash.

However, Jason knew that translating Credits into real-life money was a fool's errand. It was far more efficient to spend the Credits on parts.

Despite his desire to make money as soon as possible, Jason planned on spending his Credits to empower the Red Minerva.

The Overdrive Corporation offered a truly draconian Credit to USD conversion rate.

A simple back-of-the-napkin comparison between the Overdrive Corporation rate and the cash players could earn for selling parts at various equivalent Credit points showed that translating Credits to dollars was an absolutely terrible deal.

In addition, the company had banned players from creating their own independent Credit to currency exchanges.

Players could sell parts, but all Credit transactions went through the Overdrive Corporation.

Overall, the Overdrive Corporation could only rip off players who didn't know what they were doing.

Only total beginners used the Credit exchanges.

Although it inconvenienced him, Jason understood the Overdrive Corporation's viewpoint.

They were under no actual obligation to exchange cash for Credits.

They'd implemented the system to add an additional feeling of legitimacy to the in-game market.

However, any Credit translation rate - no matter how poor - actually caused the Overdrive Corporation to lose money.

After all, the Overdrive Corporation could add new Credits to the game for free. It was just a line of code in the server. Meanwhile, buying out players' Credits cost the company actual cash.

Jason added the Credits to his account, then began looking through the items.

In general, prize earnings took the form of a pyramid.

The winnings were ordered by Credits, items, and then Mech frames.

The ordering went from smallest to largest in value.

The awards were all assassination-focused, befitting a map focused on guile and thievery.

The on-theme prizes were another reason why the Tournament of Assassins was such a fun and highly lauded map.

Even players like Jason, who lacked assassin equipment, could make deep runs by growing stronger after each stage.

The first items on the list were the basic items.

Basic items were conventional weapons without any special abilities. Their efficacy depended entirely on the quality of the item.

Jason's magnum pistols were an example of a basic item.

Although their massive calibers meant they inflicted tons of damage per shot, they offered no additional benefits.

In contrast, Jason's Ghostfire Dagger qualified as a special item. Its double-hit effect granted bonus damage that wasn't reflected in the weapon's pure stats.

Despite their lack of unique abilities, Jason always respected basic items.

They were all he had as a One Star Boss.

On top of that, the Tournament of Assassins was a top-rated map.

Unofficial stages didn't use the Overdrive Corporation's star rating.

However, each independent stage of the Tournament of Assassins was equivalent to a five-star challenge.

The quality of the basic items was in line with the map's difficulty. Their raw stats meant they were more powerful than many low-tier special items.

There were a few thieving-related items, such as lockpicks and a trap detection system.

Jason eagerly equipped the picks to his machine.

Since the devices were so simplistic, they cost almost none of the Red Minerva's Credit Cap. The main cost was finding a place to store them, but Jason had his wristbands.

As for the trap detection system, Jason left it to the side.

He already had a better alternative in mind, one that would take full advantage of his Hemoborn Mech's cyborg nature.

The last basic item Jason added to his Mech was a silenced pistol.

In order to accommodate his new handgun, Jason removed one of the high caliber magnums.

He was tempted to replace both his magnum revolvers with silenced pistols, but he judged it was more important to include some variety.

After all, there would be times when circumstances forced Jason to attack directly.

If his cover was ever blown, he wanted an item with more stopping power.

Jason dismissed the remaining options.

There were plenty of high-quality knives, but nothing as impressive as the Ghostfire Dagger.

Jason had hoped to find an armor buster like the one he'd lost in the Vault, but so far, he hadn't encountered one yet.

For now, it wasn't worth spending his limited Credit cap on a backup knife, especially because one of the special items was so incredibly appealing.

Like the Red Lamia's Vault, the Tournament of Assassins offered special items that didn't appear on the actual stage.

Although it was a player-created map, the Illusionists had implemented a similar rewards system of rare drops.

In Jason's opinion, the first item was a must-add.

The Mindmeld Garotte was a perfect fit for both the Red Minerva and Jason's cunning fighting style.

In real life, garroting somebody meant strangling them from behind. Of course, most Mechs couldn't asphyxiate.

As a result, the Mindmeld Garotte didn't target the machine.

Instead, it sought to block off airflow to the pilot's cockpit.

Wrapping the Mindmeld Garotte around a machine's cockpit for two consecutive minutes guaranteed victory. It was essentially an alternative win condition item.

Of course, this alternate win condition was extremely tough to accomplish.

Just like in real life, the Mindmeld Garotte wasn't a particularly subtle weapon.

You might be able to sneak up on someone with it, but they'd quickly realize that they were choking.

The same thing happened in Overdrive.

The other player would receive an asphyxiation warning on their screen. As a result, they'd try to break free through all possible means.

However, this was where the Garotte's special ability came in.

In the in-game Overdrive lore, the Mindmeld Garotte was psychically linked to its user's mind.

The pilot could control the massive rope as easily as if it were one of their limbs.

In real life, the Mindmeld Garotte wasn't actually plugged into Jason's brain, a gameplay decision he was rather thankful for.

As much as he wanted to use a powerful weapon, he'd feel pretty violated if his Overdrive headset could read his thoughts.

Instead, Jason simply needed to sketch out the rope's path on his screen.

Normally, ropes were an extremely tricky weapon.

They presented a high risk with only a mediocre award.

Jason had only grown comfortable performing advanced tricks with the Red Minerva's hiking ropes after lots of practice.

The Mindmeld Garotte greatly simplified things.

There was no need to carefully calibrate throws. Even if Jason's opponents dodged him, he could simply change the rope's math midair.

He could also adjust the rope's shape at will. The item could also be used as a whip or lasso.

In addition, the item was just like the Ghostfire Dagger - it was a compact item Jason could store in his partner's wristbands.

There was no need to use one of the Blazing Avarice weapons system's all-valuable slots.

Jason equipped the Garotte to his machine for now, but he intended to customize the weapon even further.

He'd greatly increased the strength of the Red Minerva's ropes by twining them together.

The process had allowed Jason to even topple the mighty Smoulderhulk.

Although the Mindmeld Garotte was much more powerful than Jason's basic hiking ropes, that didn't mean there wasn't room for improvement.

Jason was almost as excited to see the second special weapon he'd earned.

However, this wasn't because he wanted to equip it to his Mech.

Rather, it was the absolutely perfect item to sell.

Although Jason knew that selling items was important, picking what to keep and what to give up was still an agonizing process.

It was nice to see a simple and clear-cut decision.

The Wrath of the Flame Gods was an utterly gorgeous sniper rifle.

The thin and elongated weapon was painted bright red from stock to barrel.

Equipping it to a machine would automatically boost their Shooting statistic to the A-tier, even if it didn't carry any other weapons.

The Wrath of the Flame Gods absorbed heat from the nearby air and then compressed it into a single powerful fireball.

The longer the user charged the gun, the more damage the shot would inflict.

On top of that, the unique scope automatically provided guidance on enemy weak points. Critical areas were highlighted in bright red.

Even better, the high-powered rifle only cost 8,000 Credits to equip.

The low Credit cost was utterly imbalanced with the item's power level, which meant it sold for enormous amounts on the open market. The Wrath of the Flame Gods was just as valuable as the Dragonbane Sword.

The Credit system had two meanings.

The first was rather obvious - it was the cost to purchase an item from an in-game shopkeeper.

This was always the case for basic weapons.

For example, Jason's old Level One Sword had cost 1,000 Credits to purchase from an Overdrive shopkeeper. It was a crappy and weak weapon, but that meant it was also very cheap to equip to a machine.

A Level One Sword would deduct 1,000 from a Mech's Credit cap, whether the 10,000 Credit customization cap for Grunts or the 50,000 Credit customization cap for Aces.

That was very straightforward.

However, there were two ways to cheat the Credit Cap and equip items far more powerful than the established rate.

The first was special abilities and customizations.

A Mech's innate abilities ate into the Credit Cap, but only for a very small amount.

For example, the Blazing Avarice had a Credit Cap hold of 1,500. Meanwhile, the Pestilent Snipe had a minuscule Credit Cap hold of 500.

That meant that Jason was able to equip two absurdly powerful abilities for just 2,000 Credits.

The Blazing Avarice's flame replicas alone were worth tens of thousands of Credits. The Valorous Ji alone would have cost 15,000 Credits to equip as an ordinary item.

However, the second way to cheat the system was equipping items with low Credit values that could not be purchased at an official Overdrive store.

For example, most special items, including the Wrath of the Flame Gods, couldn't be purchased from NPC shopkeepers.

Although the official price was 8,000 Credits, that obviously wasn't the case.

For rare drops like the Wrath of the Flame Gods, the Credit cost wasn't a reflection of the item's worth.

Rather, it was simply another statistic, much like the gun's damage.

In this case, players wanted the Credit statistic to be as low as possible, which would allow them to equip many powerful items.

Plenty of professional crafters melded parts together to develop unique creations that could be equipped onto Mechs for exceedingly low costs.

Paradoxically, a low Credit score on a special item actually indicated greater value!

Nobody went by the listed Credit cost when it came to special items. The Wrath of the Flame Gods sold for hundreds of thousands of Credits.

It was an ultra-rare item, and Jason was truly lucky to have won it.

Even better, it would cost him almost nothing to sell the item.

The Wrath of the Flame Gods was an excellent weapon...

However, the charged-up sniper rifle was essentially a weakened version of the Red Lamia's Pestilent Snipe attack.

Both weapons operated in an identical fashion. However, the Pestilent Snipe was an innate part of the Red Minerva. As a result, it cost even less than the infamously cheap Wrath of the Flame Gods.

In addition, the Pestilent Snipe inflicted poison damage rather than flame damage.

In Jason's case, he wanted to diversify his damage portfolio. The Blazing Avarice already inflicted flame damage, as did the Red Minerva's fire breath.

It made much more sense to use attacks that took advantage of the Red Minerva's other favorite element.

With all the items sorted out and cataloged in his spreadsheet, Jason moved on to the frames.

He didn't have much interest in the Bandits, but he had some unique ideas for the guard dog Hemoborn.

On top of that, he'd also won the almighty King of Thieves Mech.

Since he'd gotten the last hit, the Salvage rule had sent the item straight to his Inventory.

He was definitely planning on keeping that powerful frame.

It was a proprietary design created by the Illusionists, and it couldn't be won anywhere else.

The best part of earning and selling items like the Wrath of the Flame Gods was it enabled Jason to keep the parts he truly cared about.

The Paragon's item stealing ability was extremely exciting.

Jason had so many intriguing ideas...

Ding!

His control board buzzed, and Jason saw he had a friend request as well as several message notifications.

Rooster7 wants to add you as a friend!

Jason's confusion only lasted a short moment.

There was only one person Rooster7 could be - the player he'd just battled with.

A quick scroll through the other player's profile confirmed Jason's suspicions.

Rooster7's most-used Mech was the Lucky Duck.

Jason smiled.

Rooster7 had been a great guy, and Jason was excited to add him as a friend. He was even eager to chat with the other player - they wouldn't have won the battle without each other.

The Lucky Duck's pilot had been a true teammate.

It was a sharp contrast to the One Star Bosses, who had no interest in working together or sharing tips.

Jason set the frames aside for now.

He cataloged the total number of Grunt Mechs he'd Salvaged onto his spreadsheet before switching out of his Inventory to his chat window.

But then, Jason's smile briefly slipped off his face as he felt a spurt of awkwardness.

Ah, crap.

Knowing somebody's in-game name was nice, but it was always awkward to call someone their screenname when they'd technically introduced themselves to you.

Unfortunately, Jason had cut the other player off right when he introduced himself and said his real name.

Jason had been so focused on stopping the crossbow Mech that he hadn't actually heard what the other player had said.

It would be awkward to ask him again, but it was better than the alternative.

During Jason's brief and ill-fated stint in college, he'd met an acquaintance in one of his classes.

Jason wouldn't go so far as to call that girl a friend, but they'd certainly been friendly with each other.

They said hi whenever they saw each other on the street, and they often sat next to each other if they had the same class.

Unfortunately, Jason hadn't been paying attention when she introduced herself.

It became increasingly awkward for him to ask for her name as time went on.

Jason wasn't a very social person, but he knew it sounded insane to ask someone for their name after talking to them for a year.

However, it was exceedingly difficult to hold a conversation with someone without ever calling them their proper name.

Jason had half-heartedly tried figuring out his acquaintance's name on several occasions, but in the end, he'd dropped out of school without ever figuring it out.

In fact, he only discovered her name a year ago when he saw her mugshot on TV - she'd gotten arrested for running a Ponzi scheme.

Jason laughed at his own stupidity as he accepted the other player's friend request.

It was his first go at making friends in a while, and this time, he'd try to do a better job of it.