Ceres rewatched Trissa carving the words into the skin of her opponent, slightly irked at how brutal it was, but also partially happy that Erik’s justice was coming soon.

Soon he found that he was slightly disgusted at himself for even thinking that the mutilation was okay. One should never stoop to the same level as the enemy, and especially not on an ‘innocent’ Five Families member.

However, deep down he knew that he still had to trash Maddy. He hopes to run into Maddy first but knew that chances were low, with him being the very first duel.

Fighting first meant he had a potential pool of fifteen opponents, which made it hard to prepare for as well.

It was already the next day and Ceres had been hard at work training, returning to the Thorn Chamber in space for more guidance from Instructor X. He was scolded heavily by him the moment he got back.

“What the fuck have you been learning in this training camp? You should’ve wiped the floor with their asses head-on! Do you think that you were being cool and all during the group stage? Fuck no! You should be good enough to repair it in front of their faces while fending them off at the same time! That’s what I would have done!” Instructor X smacked his head as Ceres was still forced to kneel in front of him.

“How the hell am I supposed to fight when I’m trying to repair it at the same time?” Ceres shouted back, indignant at the disrespect he was getting.

He thought that being the second one to wear the crown within less than 10 minutes meant that he was good enough.

Instructor X pulled up a video of Chad’s victory in the group stage.

“You stinky brat, look at that Chad! He didn’t even need an exosuit to smack them apart! If your body can’t handle that, then use what you’ve got! Explosives, drones, turrets, anything and everything! You’re the so-called ‘explosion expert’ aren’t you?” Instructor X went on a rant, forgetting that Ceres was fighting in an examination with controlled equipment, not a real-life battle.

Ceres groaned as he sat there listening to Instructor X espouse the finer details of the broad topic ‘back in my day’, where he went into a never-ending story of one of his majestic battles on the frontlines.

Ceres started to wonder whether this Instructor X was actually a legitimate fighter or just fluffing his way to the Hawthorns in order to land this cushy job.

What the hell did the instructor actually have to do? All he did was scold and reap more profits from the exosuits the trainees repaired. No hard work was involved.

“Anyway, enough of the scolding, more on the preparation! You got the quick repair down, though it's not very safe, but you’re still not good enough at combat WITHOUT the exosuit! Relying on technology all the way isn’t going to cut it! Sometimes when shit goes down, all you got is your body!”

Ceres just stared blankly as he had already zoned out long ago, instead thinking about the participants he had to fight, wishing he meets Maddy in the duel so he could destroy him. A quick slap to the face by Instructor X brought him back to reality.

“Okay smart boy, you got two days so time to practice! First off, as a demonstration, you and I shall have a duel! It’s simple, same format as the examination. You get knocked down; you lose. That’s it!”

Dragging Ceres into the training chamber, two ordinary workbenches were already automatically set up inside, with three damaged exosuits of varying types lined up on each workbench.

“Okay, GO!”

Ceres rapidly repaired the exosuit as quickly as he could, aiming for minimal functionality, trying to utilize his new skill of ignoring the limiters and safety measures. However, he was knocked out five minutes before even completing one part of the exosuit.

“What the fuck just happened?” Ceres woke up on the floor of the training chamber with a large headache, while Instructor X stood in front of him, grinning widely with a completed exosuit, also equally barebones but functional.

“Can’t do it as fast as me, can you? If I can do it faster than you, it means that I have more time to do more modifications, no? What if Chad repairs the exosuit faster than you, has more time to modify and his modifications are stronger, better or faster? Think hard! I won’t give you the final answer because this is a realization that you yourself must come to!” The instructor continued to berate him.

Ceres eyes widened as his brain raced through all the possibilities of the ‘final answer’. He had already come up with more than three solutions that had been lingering at the back of his mind, but maybe this time he could pull it off!

“So if the speed of my repair is slower than the enemy’s, and his parameters are better, I either have to repair faster, better or make his ‘better’ parameters irrelevant! But how do I improve my modification speed in just two days? Which of these three options is feasible?”

***

Ceres was in the waiting room of the arena. It was the day of the exosuit duels, and he was the first duel to be called up. Most likely everyone else knew about the matchup because they were probably betting on it now, but Ceres was cut-off from the outside world, only waiting for the duel to start.

"Please be Maddy, please be Maddy..."

[Participant Ceres, you're up.]

As he walked out of the waiting room and onto the arena, the cheers and fanfare were much louder than Braton’s or Trissa’s! In fact, it felt like eighty percent of the arena audience was supporting him.

Ceres didn’t wave or smile at the crowd, looking stoically in front of him towards the other side of the arena, hoping Maddy walks up. Instead, a random inner walked up to the stage, a complete no-name that Ceres couldn’t even remember. Ceres had only been memorizing names such as Chad, Gwen, Maddy and Leonard while leaving the rest out of memory.

“I will show the world I am better than you! Watch out, Ceres!” The boy exclaimed excitedly, while a good majority of the arena booed and jeered at him for his absurd statement. As much as the inners hated Ceres, Ceres was obviously favoured to win here.

The boos did not dampen the boy’s pride and confidence, instead swelling it even more as he truly believed himself to be the dark horse of the competition.

[As the first duel of the exosuit repair category, let me explain the format again! Both participants have selected their weight category in the previous day and will be given three random exosuits of that category!]

[They have three hours to repair it, and fifteen minutes to duel! Participants may request another exosuit pilot to fight on their behalf, though they must be one of the participants from the other categories that has already been knocked out!]

[There will be multiple parallel duels going on, however, they will each be staggered by 20 minutes to allow for the combat duel to happen without conflict! The arena for this stage will be the desert environment, so please prepare accordingly!]

As Ceres and the no-name boy proceeded to the edge of the arena, a simple square highlight on the floor was marked for their repair duel.

The same default workshop was set up for both of them, each chock full of the tools, screws, gear, wires, crimp pins, connectors and solder as well as an entire suite of testing equipment needed to repair the exosuit. There was even a chip printer and a metal fabrication machine that could make simple plates.

Standing on their marked starting point behind their respective workbenches, the repair duel started. A three-hour timer counted down, while they were in full view of each other, being able to talk too. Ceres smiled, his hard training of being insulted while repairing finally making its debut.

Ceres had three damaged exosuits in front of him, all in the lightweight category. He wasn’t planning on going minimal barebones, as he had more than enough time to improve on it. The three hours could be used to do all sorts of modifications and loadouts to counter what the enemy was doing.

Surprisingly there was no banter coming from the opponent’s side despite the initial pride of the no-name boy. He stared intently as Ceres contemplated which exosuit to choose, intending to counter whatever was selected.

The three types of exosuits were ranger, brawler or aerial assault. There were no defensive types or siege types due to the nature of the weight category.

There was simply no justification for putting long-range artillery weapons or a massive tower shield on a lightweight exosuit that might not even be able to stabilize itself with the weight. Hence the types of exosuit or more specifically the roles that they play were very limited.

Naturally, the types could be modified to form a hybrid type, such as a brawler becoming a grenadier, a ranger becoming a sniper, or an aerial assault becoming a lancer. Exosuits that could transform during battle were a common trick as well, with modular-mounted loadouts being possible too.

The possibilities were endless, which is why the opponent was watching Ceres’ every movement, trying to figure out which type was chosen.

Ceres picked up the brawler exosuit, a standardized model produced for the military called ‘Iron Fist’.

It was a joint design by multiple exosuit design companies who collaborated for a military contract, with the final patent and design belonging to the Loeric Empire. Many of the heavy lifting and close quarters were done with brawlers, especially when fighting against slovesa raids on the ground.

They boasted heavy defences and could easily knock out any smaller exosuit. In a lightweight category, the weight and acceleration were tailored to the point such that the brawler could close the gap rapidly. It wasn’t designed to be aerodynamic enough to fly but instead relied on raw power to push forward.

Due to the long-distance nature of space combat, however, brawlers are not used except for boarding actions between warships and are used only in specific scenarios in large-scale battles. On the ground, however, they excel at guerrilla combat due to the low maintenance and part requirements, not having any complex machinery or ammunition requirements.

One major downside was that the exosuit arms were not designed for precise aiming, preventing them from using ranged weapons effectively. Close-quarter weapons such as shields and flamethrowers were easy enough to aim, so brawlers could be seen using them as well.

The no-name boy jumped to work as he saw Ceres start analyzing the brawler, quickly selecting his exosuit. He chose a missile ranger for his medium-weight category, intending to blow up the brawler from a long distance.

“Wait a minute, it’s only been ten minutes into the duel, it might be a feint?!” The no-name boy thought to himself, looking over to Ceres’ workbench before he got started on repairing.

However, he saw Ceres already testing the arm frame of the brawler on himself, already having minimal functionality.

“What?! He has already repaired the arm?! Shit, I can’t waste time - I have to start now!” He dove into his work, scrambling hard at listing the components necessary and focusing on repairing the damage done to the exosuit. He was so engrossed over the next 20 minutes of repair that he didn’t realize that Ceres had already swapped to another type, the ranger.

The exosuits in the competition were all standard military issue, hence a similar designation of ‘Iron Bullet’.

It had a generic rifleman configuration, with arms designed for precision and legs able to sustain continuous strafing while the waist provided increased stability while moving on the ground.

A reaction wheel installed into the back of the frame with additional mini thrusters around the upper and lower body ensured that the frame could fight in mid-air and space as well. The armour was airtight to prevent leaks of air, and it also worked to prevent dust from entering.

Ceres wasn’t planning to keep any configuration related to space though, as the combat arena was the desert.

He had to design the exosuit to be able to handle the high heat plus utilize the open area and prevent the exosuit from being easily damaged by sand erosion and dust accumulation. Sand was coarse and dirty and gets everywhere.

The quick swap didn’t fool the audience, however, who was clearly enlightened by the announcer.

[What a brilliant swap! Ceres had only repaired the arm of the brawler, but immediately put it on the side while repairing the ranger - and it seems like the opponent has no idea what is actually going on!]

The no-name boy took peeks at Ceres over time but didn’t pick up the finer details of what Ceres was doing, not having enough mental capacity to load two designs in his head at the same time.

He continued focusing on making his missile as large and as devastating as possible, making it impossible for the brawler to avoid, dodge or survive the explosion! “Hehe, I’m going to blow the shit out of him and steal the ‘Bomber’ nickname!”

The three hours went by quickly, with most of the audience having diverted their attention to other duels. It was boring to watch two nerds go head-to-head by printing a circuit board out or fashioning a metal plate automatically, especially if they didn’t understand what they were seeing.

In the meantime, the other duels were also happening in parallel. Many of those who stayed weren’t watching Ceres or Chad, but Leonard Athen.

His insane skills of refurbishment almost brought the exosuit back to its perfect state in less than an hour. His hands were a complete blur as he swiftly placed components in sequence like an automated machine in an assembly line, as though he already knew which exosuit was coming in advance.

A good amount of attention was also placed on Maddy Seras who became notorious in the competition due to Trissa’s actions the day before.

He seems completely unfazed by the death threats and insults from the outers, while his repair skills seemed to have improved yet another notch compared to his previous showings. His exosuit repair and modification style was brutal and accurate, aiming to deal the most damage to the enemy insidiously.

It was a vastly different way or perspective than what most twenty-year-old kids had. Many who entered exosuit repair were more focused on making the exosuit perfect, but Maddy emphasized perfection on the maximum damage that could be inflicted and for the right scenario rather than being generic.

With the three-hour time limit for Ceres coming to an end, his exosuit was now ready. The arena began to fill with sand, forming the layout of the duel.

The first exosuit repair single combat duel was about to begin!

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