CHAPTER SEVENTY ONE

The damage data had contained two very strange anomalies.

The first oddity was obvious - his opponent should have been targeting Jason's torso and head.

There was no reason for his opponent to gradually take him apart. Jason had only used that strategy against the Crusher because of his machine's lack of damage. Under normal circumstances, the best way to win was killing the pilot avatar by destroying the cockpit.

While some pilots built gimmick cockpits into their machines, cockpit safety came with a very high Credit cost to balance out the powerful surprise factor. The balancing Credit system placed a high charge on tactics like hiding your control center inside your Mech's leg.

As a result, experts always prioritized their damage toward the chest or head. The ideal victory involved obliterating the cockpit while leaving all the limbs and weapons intact.

His opponent's damage distribution was utterly bizarre.

Considering the total amount of damage inflicted, Jason's foe could have easily destroyed one of the two core points by now. However, she'd focused very poorly, meaning that none of Jason's parts were even in the red zone.

Of course, it was possible the other player was deliberately trying to destroy Jason's parts in a slow and tortuous manner. After all, this was a common form of taunting, very similar to teabagging in other games.

Other players like DISTINCTIONMAN also used Jason's "torture strategy" to deliberately inflict as much damage per Mech as possible to win special post-game accolades.

However, this was just a casual match.

On top of that…

Jason was working on developing a psychological understanding of his opponents. While he was still at a very rudimentary level, that was the benefit of a casual match. Although he wanted to win, it was also a practice opportunity.

As far as he could tell, that kind of swaggering and taunting gameplay didn't fit with what he knew about his opponent. She seemed like an honorable opponent, not someone who'd taunt and mock the opposition. She hadn't mocked Jason during the Tournament of Assassins either.

Her behavior also didn't fit with Jason's preconceptions about the Illusionists.

Nobody would describe the elite guild as "professional." Their constant squabbles and infighting constantly kept them just behind the true top guilds like the Hive or the Vermillion Fighters. While watching streams at the Good Game Shoppe, Jason had noticed some of the Illusionist's highest-ranking members taunting each other on stream.

However, The Illusionists restricted their greatest disdain and competitive spirit for each other. When fighting opponents outside their guild, The Illusionists dealt with their foes as directly and ruthlessly as possible.

Even though she'd been kicked out of the guild, the other woman had thus far closely followed their ethos. Jason didn't see why she'd break it here.

THUD

THUD

THUD

THUD

The illusion martial arts Paragons continued pounding Jason's screen, but he just ignored it.

His screen was displaying nothing but lies.

If he wanted to win this battle, he needed to use his brain. This wasn't a conventional battle; it was a puzzle.

He needed to stick to the data that mattered.

At the end of the day, Overdrive was only a virtual reality simulation. There were built-in limits on what his opponent could tamper with, and one of them was Jason's damage gauge. The Overdrive game system wouldn't allow players to mislead opponents in this critical area.

The full illusion seemed almost perfect.

This sort of utterly torturous illusion was a somewhat common trope in fiction. The master illusionist could kill someone in the hallucination, and then their real body would die because their mind thought they were dead.

However, the Red Minerva was a Mech.

Although it was a cyborg with some biological parts and internal organs, its brain and mind didn't exist - it was linked to the sports car-like cockpit Jason's pilot avatar sat in. It was almost like trying to psychologically torture a car - it just wouldn't work.

Even with all its senses disabled, the Red Minerva's mind remained intact.

What Jason needed to worry about was his own mind. If he flailed around like a moron or acted without thinking, he'd lose.

Jason took a deep breath, stilling his nerves. He stretched and loosened his fingers.

The army of Reality Shapers on the screen, the constant thunder of their attacks…all of it was fake.

The only thing that mattered was the health gauges.

He flicked a couple of switches, turning off the Red Minerva's sight, hearing, and smell.

Jason could see the slow and gradual damage being inflicted on his machine loud and clear. His Mech's parts flashed, indicating exactly where his opponent was hitting him as it stumbled around.

The flashing lights and slowly ticking numbers became Jason's entire world.

It was only then that he noticed the second eccentricity.

Jason's unconsciousness had processed this strangeness long before his conscious mind had.

Despite Jason's careful and deliberative nature when practicing, it was natural that something this strange could have slipped right under his nose.

He hadn't seen anything like this in years, not since the days when he was a complete beginner who had no idea what he was doing.

The parts damage distribution was completely off.

It wouldn't have been out of place at a Kid's Night at the Good Game Shoppe.

Even when players were trying to kill an opponent slowly, they would still focus their damage on specific parts to ensure that they'd eventually become unusable. Jason had done the same thing by severing the Crusher's operating system.

However, the damage dealt to the Red Minerva was completely haphazard and random.

His opponent had started off focusing on Jason's left leg, bringing it down past 80% even as his other parts remained largely healthy.

The second damage report was a stark contrast.

The other pilot had done barely any damage to the left leg.

Instead, she'd focused on the other parts, distributing damage haphazardly across the body.

It seemed like Jason's opponent was striking entirely randomly.

On top of that, the other machine had been battering away at the Red Minerva for several minutes.

Despite the thick armor, the base frame of the Red Minerva was extremely squishy. Right now, the proud Red Minerva was completely and utterly hopeless, drawn into a bizarre dream world Jason couldn't see through.

His opponent could have easily cut off the outer armor before attacking the vulnerable insides.

His machine shouldn't have been this healthy…

Why was his opponent attacking like a total noob?

Jason hesitated for a moment, then he clicked on the overall line and activated the Red Minerva's speaker.

"Hey! What's up with your aim? Seems like you can't hit for crap!"

The words felt awkward coming out of his mouth, but he pushed through.

These kinds of bluffs and taunts had been a big part of playing at the Good Game Shoppe. Although Jason had just met the other player, he did feel strangely friendly towards her, particularly because of her ambitious attitude.

On top of that, he could try and gather information…

She just laughed and kept haphazardly attacking him.

"Shut up dude…who do you think you are?"

His screen kept flashing, and his health kept dropping.

"Man, what an amateur trick. I was in the Illusionists until you got me kicked out dude!"

She tittered loudly, and then there was a loud bzzt noise as she shut off her speaker again.

Jason laughed and shook his head.

He should have known that she wouldn't fall for that.

She'd displayed nothing but exemplary mental focus.

Just like with Vile and Danny, Jason felt a great deal of admiration. No matter what the circumstance was, he could respect an excellent player.

Jason was stuck figuring it out himself.

Perhaps it was one of his opponent's parts…

He'd only caught the briefest glimpse of the enemy machine when the cloak opened.

So far, Jason's mental calculations regarding his opponent's skills were largely intuitive. Since this was an unofficial battle, the scanner hadn't activated.

However, a Mech could only equip 50,000 worth of Credits.

If Jason added everything together, he could figure out the items that his opponent was using.

Before entering the illusion world, Jason had only seen a handful of parts, but they were all extremely valuable.

The cloak was thick and intimidating, but it could only be used for defensive and stealth purposes. The heavy wrapping was nothing more than a large set of customized background-imitating screens welded onto a thick cloth woven from steel.

It couldn't be used to attack him, but the top-tier item was taking up a large portion of his opponent's Credit Cap. Even making a generous assumption, Jason thought that the opponent's cloak cost over twenty thousand Credits.

On top of that, the Mech had carried many Mana Gatherer Spikes – so many that it couldn't stand up properly.

When calculating Credit Costs for Ace Mechs, the first four Gatherer Spikes of a Spell Titan came free with the machine. They could equip the generators without applying it to their Credit development cost. The others came at a moderately hefty price.

Finally, his opponent had probably placed the rest of their Credits into this absurdly powerful illusion spell. Jason hadn't encountered it before, so he didn't know the price to equip it.

However, it was clearly and obviously powerful - some players might even consider it totally broken. After all, it paralyzed Jason without the opportunity to counterattack.

It didn't make sense that his opponent could equip such a powerful ability while already using the cloak and carrying so many additional Mana Gatherer Spikes.

The solution was obvious.

His opponent's ability came with a severe downside.

Overdrive was a game of trade-offs - there was no such thing as a totally unbeatable Mech. Even legendary one-of-a-kind Mechs and items had a significant downside.

For example, the Blazing Avarice wasn't allowed to copy ranged weapons and was restricted to an internal memory of eight weapons at a time. This was a fundamental restriction imposed on the powerful ability in order to balance it - no matter how skilled Jason grew at customization, he couldn't change the limit.

This level of illusion was completely and utterly unprecedented. Jason wasn't able to see or hear.

If he had to guess, that level of illusion had to have an equally punishing cost on its caster.

Jason was only theorizing, but his speculation was backed up by the damage chart.

His opponent was thrashing around more or less randomly. They knew where Jason was, but they couldn't see very well. It was possible they only saw a faint outline of his machine.

On top of that, his opponent wasn't carrying many other items beneath the cloak. Based on Jason's loose Credit calculation, it simply couldn't afford to.

It was probably casting the illusion with some kind of summoning focus, but other than that…

Considering the tiny amount that Jason's health was going down, it was possible that the Spell Titan had no weapons at all.

She may have simply been using her fists or some other sort of very light damage item.

Jason checked one last factor, then nodded as he pieced together what he needed for a counterattack.

In light of all that information, he could take this bizarre risk.

He entered his commands.

ARMOR PURGED

The Antigone Armor clattered across the hallway, and Jason stood again.

His health bar continued going down.

Now that he'd lost his armor, it went down faster than before.

However, the damage counts were surprisingly familiar.

By now, Jason was incredibly comfortable with the Red Minerva's strength and capabilities. He'd fought with the same frame for countless battles.

That knowledge meant he knew how various weapons would interact with the Red Minerva.

He knew how much damage a sword could deal if it entered his arm at one angle versus another. He knew how to subtly turn and angle his body to turn would-be fatal strikes into less grievous wounds that would empower his strategy.

The damage report would answer all his questions.

What kind of weapon was his opponent using?

What angle was she striking at?

Most importantly - where was his opponent?

The Spell Titan relied entirely on its outer cloak to defend itself, and activating the illusion revealing its Mana Gatherer Spikes.

If Jason could hit one of the spikes or strike his opponent's fragile cockpit, he'd instantly win the battle. If he could just puzzle out the invaluable data from the flashing lights…

His screen was useless – he had no idea what the illusion ability forced his partner to see.

Instead, his knowledge would be his eyes and ears for the match.