CHAPTER FORTY ONE

Jason blinked in surprise.

He could hardly believe his eyes.

He'd seen this woman's picture countless times before.

Of course, there was a bit of a difference this time.

Normally, she was just an image on the wall, the backdrop for Wass's absurdly wide mouth and ruthlessly gesticulating index finger.

Vile was fairly tall - about five feet and eight inches.

The forty-year-old woman's waist-length blonde hair was already starting to turn a little gray. She wore a pair of wire-rim glasses - wide and circular with a pink frame.

Although this was the first time Jason ever saw her in person, he wasn't surprised to see that Vile had a faraway and pensive expression on her face.

The shy Fortress Master always seemed like she was thinking about something else during her public appearances.

If Jason hadn't seen her picture so many times, he never would have guessed that she was a famous person.

Most of Overdrive's biggest stars - vermillionangel and DISTINCTIONMAN chief among them - had extremely loud personalities.

They were the standard sort of professional player who made just as much money via their charisma as they did with their gameplay.

Vile was different.

The quiet lady had been an English teacher for many years before rising to fame. Unlike the other pros, she hadn't anticipated a life of Internet stardom.

It was unusual to see an older competitor in Overdrive, but it wasn't totally unknown.

Unlike other competitive games, it was possible to get by on mediocre mechanics if you excelled in other areas.

Various cunning tacticians like TiggerLuvr888 rose to the top with great shotcalling and specially built Mechs that specialized in area-of-effect attacks.

On the surface, Vile was similar to the other older players who'd risen to fame.

Like her other older competitors, Vile excelled at strategic movements and loved using mass-fire bombardment Mechs.

In fact, she was the initial pioneer of the Giga Mech strategy.

Her enormous whale Hemoborn, the Moby Dick, had blasted all of its opponents to smithereens before the rise of similarly large machines like the Smoulderhulk or the Roaring Castle.

However, Vile's control skills couldn't be underrated.

Although she was probably one of the oldest pro gamers in many games, she excelled at high-speed duels.

Her current machine was based on the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Befitting her background as an English teacher, her machines were all based on characters from novels.

The Mech could shift between a burly brawler and a high-speed attacker, and its freewheeling versatility thoroughly proved her skills.

She was a prodigy who couldn't be compared to others.

It was unbelievable to see the strongest Fortress Master just sitting around in the Good Game Shoppe.

She saw Jason staring at her and briefly gathered herself before waving back.

"Hey. I wanted to test here, but I was late. Do you mind playing me for a spot?"

Her voice was very soft.

Jason immediately responded.

"Yes. I would love to."

He couldn't wait to see what kind of machine she was testing.

Vile was an absolute fanatic about her Fortress, and she was proud of her undefeated record.

She was always adding new content to fortify her defenses further.

Very few players ever managed to beat the main map. Only elite guilds like the Hive, the Vermillion Fighters, and the Illusionists managed to get past every obstacle.

Even then, none had ever beaten her in the final boss fight afterwards.

She almost certainly had an amazing machine in store.

After Jason agreed to the battle, Jacob grinned and walked over to them.

The big man's smile split his face from ear to ear.

"Excellent! Excellent! Miss. Vile, I think you'll enjoy your fight against Jason. He was always one of the best players here, and he actually just got back from working at the Overdrive Corporation!"

Vile made a confused face.

"Really?"

She tilted her head to the side and stared at him.

Jacob went on.

"Yes, yes. You might not know him as he wasn't down in Los Angeles. Instead, he was in the San Francisco branch!"

Vile repeated Jacob's words.

"The San Francisco...Oh!"

She started for a moment, and for a brief moment, her bespectacled eyes widened in recognition.

The Fortress Master lifted her hand to her mouth and stifled a laugh.

At that moment, Jason realized that she knew who he was.

That wasn't particularly surprising.

The Overdrive Corporation did its best to keep the hidden bosses a secret.

At the end of the day, paying people off by giving them a job to laze around and be bad at video games was a very successful strategy.

Even disgruntled employees like Jason kept the secret because he didn't want to get banned from the game.

In Jason's Overdrive-obsessed mind, getting banned from the game he loved would be way worse than getting taken to the cleaners in a ruinous lawsuit.

However, the hidden bosses evidently weren't a big secret to people inside the company.

Jacob clapped his hands for a while, calling for the tournament's attention.

"Hey! Would anyone like to see a special match?"

The regulars lounging around at the tables turned and looked at them.

The few high schoolers, who were staring raptly at the current match, suddenly realized that they were in the presence of one of Overdrive's most legendary players.

One of them sprinted forward to ask for a picture.

Vile obliged, turning scarlet as the younger girl took a selfie with her.

Before long, the crowd started cheering raucously.

Normally, players looking to get an extra match would log into the warm-up computers at the side tables.

There was no need to disturb the players fighting on the actual display.

Indeed, the current fighters were the only players who didn't acknowledge Vile's presence were the two players inside the battle pods.

The battle pods were largely soundproof, and players couldn't realize what was happening outside.

The pods would only open up if there were an emergency, such as a fire.

The players in the store waited with bated breath for the match to finish.

Normally, players excitedly cheered for their friends.

Even bystanders wanted to see good plays. The awesome three-dimensional projection meant that anyone could get drawn into the fight.

But in this case, players just wanted the game to end as soon as possible.

Jason glanced at the players around him.

He felt a little nervous.

Normally, Jason didn't really care what the people around him thought.

However, he'd never anticipated that there would be so many people.

On top of that, he was playing one of the best players on the server.

But after a few moments, Jason shook his head and decided not to worry about it.

He wouldn't know how good Vile was until they battled each other.

Since leaving his job as a One Star Boss and upgrading his Red Minerva frame, he hadn't lost a match.

Of course, he'd never battled a player of Vile's caliber before.

She was on a level even higher than the Vault boss pilot and the Illusionist Guildmaster who'd managed the Prince of Thieves.

However, there was no need for Jason to spook himself unnecessarily.

Before long, the two players on the stage finished their match.

Jason and Vile loaded in.

Jason immediately picked the Red Minerva before adding the watchdog genes at the second breakpoint.

Initially, Jason had still considered testing out the two frames even further.

However, the sheer power afforded by the smell and hearing abilities had swayed his mind.

On top of that, he was up against the toughest opponent he'd faced in his life.

Although adding the watchdog genes was a risky process that would lower his machine's defenses, Jason knew he needed to go all out to defeat Vile.

After playing so many matches against a One Star Boss, Jason knew that it was important to maximize your Mech's ceiling when up against a stronger player.

Adding in the watchdog genes lowered Jason's floor - even with a fantastic roll, he would take increased damage from enemy strikes.

However, the upside was more important. Using the enhanced smell and hearing abilities would be extremely taxing.

However, he needed his machine at maximum strength in order to defeat an opponent of Vile's caliber.

When matching up against a stronger opponent, the best strategy was to swing for the fences.

The hangar arms injected a series of large syringes into the Red Minerva.

The creature reared its head back and then let out a long and proud roar as the increased strength flowed into her body.

When shifting between the Red Minerva and Red Lamia forms, Jason's partner was first covered by a shroud of red light.

The Mech shifted in the same way that a Pokemon evolved.

The in-between process was very rapid, and the morph happened in a matter of seconds.

However, that was a built-in ability.

This permanent transformation was much more gradual.

His machine's muscles rippled as the watchdog's strength was added to the Red Minerva's.

In most games, a dragon would have been stronger than a dog.

However, the watchdog was specially bred for raw strength.

On the other hand, cave dragons specialized in speed and digging.

Because both Mechs were in the first two tiers - Reality and History in particular - the watchdog had greater power.

It seemed like Jason had received a particularly potent roll on the offensive side.

His partner's muscles were now incredibly dense and concentrated.

Her Melee statistic was now firmly in the S-tier.

The increased power was a significant boon to a close combat machine.

Her blows would land with even greater force, and she'd come one step closer to taming the ridiculous momentum of the Titan's Macuahuitl.

On the other hand...

The Red Minerva's defensive roll was below average.

As Jason had expected, some of his partner's hardened scales began dissolving.

Coarse red fur grew out to replace it, once again reminding Jason of the theory that dinosaurs had feathers.

Although the thick fur would help protect Jason from enemy attacks, it wasn't nearly as effective as scales.

But as time went on, Jason realized that the situation was worse than he'd expected.

All of the scales gradually vanished, and the defensive layer was soon replaced entirely by fur.

Jason tsked.

The end result moved his Defense down to the C-tier, a substantial drop. He was back to where he was before he'd absorbed the Red Lamia genes.

Earlier, Jason had re-rolled his machine's statistics until he got a low defensive roll. He'd wanted to ensure that he was still comfortable with the changes even if they hurt his Mech.

It seemed like he'd inadvertently been preparing himself for his actual result.

However, his machine's significant offensive boost largely offset the defensive downside.

In the worst possible roll, which Jason had prepared for, his partner would have lost a full grade in Defense in exchange for no improvement in his Melee stat.

In this case, Jason was richly compensated for his defensive nerf.

The skewed statistics posed problems, but they also presented a viable strategy - Jason could simply kill his opponents before they killed him.

Of course, Jason's benefits weren't restricted to simple stat changes.

He'd also gained all three breakpoint abilities - increased smell, increased hearing, and the powerful four-legged mobility mode. Those abilities were the main reasons why he'd genetically modified his cyborg partner.

However, Jason also received one last benefit he could never have anticipated.

Just as he was about to pull up the full statistical profile, the Red Minerva's eyes both flashed blood red.

Normally, Jason was accustomed to seeing a single red eye.

His Mech's scanner was already set at the default red color for Hemoborn, and it flashed whenever the Red Minerva processed enemy data.

However, this deeper crimson color was the result of a special ability.

ABILITY GAINED: BLOODLUST (LEVEL 3)

The Bloodlust passive was a relatively common ability among the Hemoborn class.

Mechs ranging from Zombies to Watchdogs could equip it. However, it was not one of the guaranteed rolls.

Jason had simply gotten very lucky.

He'd gained the powerful offensive buff as a bonus to his other power boosts. Now, he could inflict increased damage to opponents with low hit points.

At the moment, Jason's Bloodlust boost was solely at Level 3. It was much weaker than the original version used by the Maximum Watchdog sample,

Fortunately, the ability would gradually level up over time the more he used it.

Jason pulled up his Mech's full statistical profile and smiled.

It'd just been a few days, but he'd gone a very long way.

As a former boss Mech, the Red Minerva had always been classified an Ace-level machine, meaning that it could carry up to 50,000 Credits worth of items.

The Grunt and Ace split was based on mecha anime.

Aces were commander models or prototypes.

Grunts were simply mass-produced peons.

Normally, even a weak One Star Boss would still be considered the commander of its stage.

However, the old Red Minerva was weaker than most competitive Grunts.

Even though Jason could equip up to 50,000 Credits worth of items, he was restricted to weak and underwhelming options.

Now, Jason had a unique machine with many powerful items and special abilities.

Even though he was up against a very tough opponent, the sight of his familiar partner greatly boosted his confidence.

-- General Data --

Pilot: Devourer22

Machine: Red Minerva

Class: Hemoborn

Sub-class: Attacker

Designation: Ace Unit

- Statistics -

Melee: S-tier

Shooting: A-tier

Speed: A-tier

Maneuverability: S-tier

Defense: C-tier

Cohesion: A-tier

- Weapons -

Magnum Pistol

Silenced Pistol

Mindmeld Garotte

Ghostfire Dagger

- Abilities -

Olfactory Perception [Level 10]

Auditory Perception [Level 8]

Bloodlust [Level 3]

Blazing Avarice Weapons System [Signature Ability]

Pestilent Snipe [Signature Ability]

Like the Red Lamia transformation, the four-legged mode wasn't listed. It wasn't an attack - it was just an ability the frame had. Any machine that was comfortable running on four legs could do so, but it wasn't necessarily described as an ability.

Of course, that didn't downplay the ability's actual strength. Frame-based abilities were one of the best ways to catch opponents off guard.

Jason confidently locked in his machine.

He fully expected Vile to pick an equally powerful Ace of her own.

Instead, Jason glanced over and saw a plain white machine holding a pair of curved knives.

He frowned and pulled up the machine's profile.

What the hell?

Vile's choice was just a simple Grunt.