Ceres Chaos [Exosuit Progression]

“Everything is in order, Principal Athen. We still have an airtight strategy to clinch the wager. We only need two students into the semi-finals to win.” Doctor Wu took a seat next to Oliver Athen in one of the prime viewer pods levitating over the platform, allowing them an unblocked bird’s eye view of everything.

The pod was as large as a studio apartment, allowing up to fifteen to watch the match. They could either just look downwards through the clear transparent glass that made up a portion of the floor and view the match directly, or they could use one of the high-tech cameras to watch specific players.

Twenty holo-monitors were manipulated to give Oliver Athen the best view of the competition. The pod even had a ‘room-service’ function, where food and drinks were delivered by drones.

Relaxing on a luxurious chair, Oliver barely acknowledged the words of Doctor Wu, instead more focused on checking the privacy settings of the viewer pod.

Making sure that the glass was only one-way and that no one could see the two of them, he continued to read up the latest news on a separate holo-monitor.

The opening ceremony where the various participants were arriving either by dropship or hoverbus was continuously happening, but Oliver really couldn’t care less for anyone other than his grandson, Chad, his pride and joy.

Doctor Wu too seemed absent-minded as he browsed the room-service menu that he had never seen before.

He doesn’t usually watch competitions in such a luxurious style, especially those that involved disgusting repulsive outers. It wasn’t his first time working with Oliver Athen, but it was the first time he was invited here.

He was about to suggest ordering a nice alcoholic milk tea with pearls until a direct voice message interrupted him.

[Sir, Chad’s hovercar has arrived.]

Oliver immediately put down everything, watching intently as he swapped his holo-monitor’s view to that of the hovercar arriving, which had the name ‘Athen’ on the doors.

It was unsurprisingly the last car to arrive at the floating arena for the participants, with the announcer hyping it up on the general broadcast.

[And he’s here! The ultimate ‘king’ of strength and absurd power for his age, along with his equally capable teammates!]

[The Five Families college hasn’t been sitting idly since a few months ago when they won the qualifiers with the highest points, putting all their resources into this four-member team! However, as the group stage draw will be random, it remains to be seen if the team can avoid knocking each other out early in the competition!]

The hovercar landed in the middle of the arena where the other participants were all standing around, forcibly clearing a circle in the crowd. Chad Athen stepped out, standing tall and proud.

He wore the Five Families uniform which was a pure white uniform that looked like a navy officer, though his muscles could hardly be constrained by the straight cuts of the shirt. He stood tall at 2.1 meters, seemingly even larger and more domineering than he was in the qualifiers.

A few girls gulped at the sight, and a few fan clubs went crazy in the stands waving their multi-terminals that projected large holographic signs.

His teammates were of equal stature too, but their deference and behaviour when they stood together with Chad all pointed to Chad as being the ultimate leader of this competition-winning team.

They were the best that Athen had to offer, and this caused a sense of pride to well up among the viewers, despite their rooting for others. If Chad won the competition, none of the inners would have any complaints about it, only that Athen might have too bright of a future ahead.

Chad scanned the crowd of participants around him. He stood much taller than the rest of the competitors, being a veritable giant in his age group.

As he looked around, he finally locked eyes with his target. Walking forward with strength, the human crowd parted easily as he walked through the arena, heading to his goal.

[Now that all the participants are here, we will finally begin the group draw! It is my great honour to invite the owner of this planet, scion of the Dynasty of Hawthorn, Cardenia Haw… Wait a minute, it seems a large confrontation is going on in the arena!]

A young boy of 1.78 meters stood in front of Chad, like a dwarf facing a giant. He had amber eyes that shined with confidence, while his dark lean muscular body glistened in the artificial lightning. Despite the immense gap in both height and build, the young boy exuded no less presence than Chad.

As the two of them locked eyes with each other, an air of tension started to permeate the atmosphere. Even the guards in charge of security weren’t confident enough to break up the impending fight.

“You… in the qualifier, I would’ve destroyed you in that final fight! Don’t think you managed to get a draw! You’re just lucky.” Chad said to the young boy. The young boy was stunned for a while, then laughed out loud.

He laughed harder than he ever laughed in his life and turned around to snigger with his two friends without even replying to Chad! One of his friends could also barely hold in their laughter as Chad’s face grew redder.

“You can laugh all you want now, if it helps you accept the inevitable. You’re not going to even get out of the group stage! And if you do…” Chad stormed off, forcing other participants who had enclosed around the two of them to frantically dodge out of whichever way Chad was walking.

“Wow, he really didn’t know you had a few more mines laid in that church! I would’ve thought anyone that saw your videos and fighting style will know you always have a few tricks up your sleeve!” Erik laughed with Ceres, but Braton was still standing there in awe at the size of that absolute unit of a human that was Chad.

“What a shame I’m in a different category! Ceres if you meet him you must choose me as the exosuit pilot, I must prove to him my strength! His body power is just awesome! Why can’t you be more like him, Ceres?”

[It looks like this competition is going to be amazing! Ceres vs Chad is what we all want to see, especially 999 Casino Athen, which will be opening a whole new series of bets once the group draw is finalized! But now, I’ll like to invite Cardenia Hawthorn, owner of Athen, scion of the Dynasty of Hawthorn, to say a few opening words.]

The main broadcast swapped to a camera drone focused on Cardenia, who was sitting in a prime viewer pod similar to that of Oliver Athen, except it was a private Hawthorn one too.

She sat in a different elegant noble dress that had too many frills, and her face looked pristine and sharp as her green eyes stared into the camera.

Flanked by Senia and Zachary who stood in their formal attire behind her red and green throne-like chair, she began her speech with a passionate voice.

[This year we of the Dynasty of Hawthorn are proud to see the younger generation grow up once again and serve their duty to the planet and nation. The Loeric Empire will take care of all its citizens, as will I.]

[We hope to use the results of this competition to further enhance and improve our education system here on Athen - so that future children may reap the benefits and strive to have a better life! Let the competition begin!]

At the end of the short speech, a resounding applause echoed through the underground cavern, with holo-numbers appearing above each participant’s head.

[Now, the arena algorithm will randomly assign the participants into their various groups! Each category will have 16 groups of 64 participants, where only ONE participant can come out for the group! If they get placed into the same group as their schoolmates or former allies, there can be teaming-up in the match, but only one participant will be allowed to win!]

The number 13 appeared over Ceres’ head, while the number 8 appeared over Erik’s. Ceres spun to quickly try to look at which group Chad, Gwen and Leonard were in.

However, he didn’t need to look for long as their personal multis eventually beeped with a notification. Their grouping had been sent directly to them. Ceres heaved a sigh of relief as he noticed none of his friends’ names was in the same group as his.

Out of the participants, only two from the orphanage were exosuit repairers: he and Erik. The chances of them being placed in the same group were terribly low.

He was also equally relieved when he didn’t see Chad Athen placed in the same group, no doubt a deliberate action by the examination group who wanted to save the last fight for the very best.

Killing off one of the two exciting contenders early on in the competition will lead to a drastic drop in viewers, so true random allocation was never the case in such circumstances.

“Oh shit! We got the same number Trissa! And you too Ceres! What do we do?! I’m not going to give up that easily, you’ll have to fight me for it!” Braton started jumping around them with the number 13 labelled above his head too, which Trissa had too.

A large collective sigh came from the group, even Trissa, as Braton hyped himself up on imagined scenarios of him beating down his friends, grinning to himself.

It was immediately deflated when Ceres explained that the three of them were each in their own category: Braton for melee, Trissa for ranged and Ceres for exosuit repair. Erik laughed, having a different number.

Till now, the group stage’s format had not been mentioned yet. Ceres hoped that it wasn’t a single round-robin, as that would take ridiculously long. Viewers would’ve also dropped off from burnout, especially after continuously broadcasting the most boring matches.

The examination council knew very well that only a few of each category was the best, and everyone else was mediocre. Hopefully, the format would be something advantageous to Ceres. He had a few hidden cards from the training camp and prayed that he wouldn’t be forced to show them off.

[The group format in the exosuit repair category for this year will be selected by voting! The formats up for selection are the most exciting ones, and we hope that the viewers will choose wisely what they want!]

[First format: Race!]

The format wasn’t as simple as the name implied: it is a no-holds-barred race. One could even teleport to the finish line if he wanted to, but he also needed the ability to build a teleportation device that could perform instantaneous jumps.

Even if he knew how to build it, the amount of time needed and the almost guaranteed target painted on his back made the attempt too low of a chance.

The race was a simple route, almost straight through a thousand kilometres on the surface of Athen, some of which boasted expansive savannahs and blistering hot deserts, not to mention the vicious wildlife.

The biggest obstacle was obviously the participants themselves. Exosuit repairers will be each given the exact same damaged exosuit and asked to retrofit it with a list of components from a shared stockpile before setting off on the start line.

There were absolutely no boundaries, it was each man for himself even when they were repairing.

[The race will take place on the outskirts of the city, curving through some of the old ruins and a good majority of the mining fields! If you want to see a veritable ‘bloodbath’ race, this is the format to vote for!]

[The second format: Maze!]

Similar to the concept of having no rules, the maze format placed participants in random locations in a 3D maze, forcing them to navigate their way out of a large building that had random monsters and chests placed inside.

The one who reaches the exit first wins, but if no one exits within the time limit, the one with the highest points collected from chests, monsters or other participants will win.

It was an outright battle of skill, stealth and wits.

[Alliances and betrayals form and disappear fast in this format, making it a dramatic scene of chaos within an enclosed space!]

[But lastly, the third format: King of the Jungle!]

In a simple game of ‘hold the crown’, whoever holds the crown for the longest period during the given timer wins the game! The limitations were only the boundaries of the playing field and the rule of no killing.

Sometimes the boundaries of the playing field could expand into a massive area, such as the mining tunnels that had depleted veins, or the ruins of previous zones that have been abandoned.

[Now voters, you have a minute! Which format should the exosuit repair category have?]