The Greatest Mecha-Chapter 82: Zen Utopia Floating Stadium

The next day Alto woke up to the sound of an alarm, he had been so tired from the previous day that he had fallen into a deep sleep which was very unlike him. He managed to change in time before the times of ten minutes elapsed, he met the other one hundred and ninety nine participants in the hallways, all looking as tired as he was.

He suppressed his yawn and followed the glowing arrows that appeared on the walls a few seconds later, it acted as a guide on where they should head.

On the way Alto could pick a few chatters from the group, he had expected most of them to still be shaken and afraid to speak after the events of the previous day. To his surprise there were some who openly expressed themselves like they were on a casual school vacation.

"I’m so glad I made it this far, we finally get to perform in the arena in front of a huge audience." Said a boy with fluffy brown hair.

The girl he was talking too wore the proud uniform of the zen Utopia college so Alto guessed they were mates. "Not just that you moron, all of the silver seat will be there. It’s the only chance we get to show them our worth, truthfully I think I can take second place after Calvin Lunarian of course. My parents have spent billions into my education and they expect results."

Alto tucked his hands in his pockets and tried not to listen to their conversation, he wanted to keep a level head before the next test which he believed would be the hardest one yet. By skimming the tens of thousands down to two hundred in just a few days, the reputation of the most powerful planet in the galaxy was not to be trifled with. This did not mean that they had lost completion, it simply meant that they had taken any obstruction to the real competition.

Alto though on what the young girl had said earlier, the silver seat would be there. Not just the professor but all of them, he knew what the professor was like but he had to question what the other silver seat were like. Now that he thought of it he never really saw the mech designer side of his mentor, how then would he prove he was worthy to be in the top ten?

Before them a huge metal wall stood unmovable, blocking their path but the glowing arrows on the wall kept pointing towards. No one stopped, only continuing forward.

As they heated the wall it hissed out and started to open up, it cracked and exploded into billions of rays of swirling light and clouds of smoke. Alto recognised this as the same portal the mech engineering department had back on planet Soto. From the looks some of the two hundred finalists had on their face he could tell it was not something common on anywhere else.

Alto overheard someone say something that caused his body to tremble. It was the voicr of the same boy who had with fluffy brown hair, "You know if you’re caught with a cheating device you will be thrown out, right?"

The young woman with him laughed oddly, showing the intent that she did not find his joke amusing. "Don’t test me like that Laurence." The boy backed off.

Alto paused as he watched the other participants start to walk through it, he wondered what the boy meant by what he had said but soon came to the conclusion that the portal had a way to scan someone for cheating devices which must have included mechanical aids or cheating apps on the wrist comm device. Or perhaps even the mech designer protocol. freewёbnoνel.com

Hot sweat started to break on Alto’s forehead at the thought that the mech designer protocol would be found out by the institution. What then would he do? Would they throw him out, would the app be deleted or would it be taken from him.

In that moment he was faced with his greatest fear, the exposure of his most powerful tool. And that fear was a swirling mass of space sanding in-between him and his destiny.

By this time everyone had gone through the portal leaving him behind at the other end, Alto swallowed hard, his hands tensing by his sides, his eyes reflecting the swirls of colourful light. As much as he was terrified by losing the system he knew he had to move forward, if he stayed behind for too long he knew he would most likely be seen as suspicious.

Alto took in a deep breath and prepared to move forward, he took the first step then the second, just as he was about to touch the portal something held him back. He could feel it tiny threads pulling against every muscle in his body and restraining him.

It took him a moment to realise what it was, Alto had been so crippled by the fear of losing the system that all the veins and muscles in his body tensed to the point that they had frozen up. Alto had never experienced this fear before, it made him question the competence of who he was without the software. He was nothing before it and without it, would he still be... Nothing?

Despite going through all of the tests on his own and with the knowledge he had gained through his months of hard study, Alto was still afraid that he would lose it all with the system.

The irony of it being that the only thing standing between him and his goal was not the fear of losing the mech designer protocol but the fear of what he would become if he lost it.

Justin McClaire who was somewhere in the background approached him but did not come too close as to make himself known. He looked at Alto for a long time and tapped on his comm device to bring out the information he had on him. After a moment he cleared his throat and spoke. "You are way in over your head backwater, faced with your future before you, you panic."

Alto took in a deep breath and took the first step forward, his body crossing through the portal and emerging at the other end. The first thing that greeted him was the cacophony of noise and the beams of light coming from the huge stadium filled with people. It’s size as big as multiple states strung together, what made it even more overwhelming was the fact that it was filled to the brim. The cheers of excitement from them, the lights, the huge signboard in the middle that hovered in the air highlighting the events of the day.

Alto froze up at the sheer number of people that could exist in one place at the same time all for this one singular goal of knowing who the best upcoming mech designer was. He looked down at his wrist comm device, luckily it was still there and since he was not found out for having the mech designer protocol he felt a bit of relief but would there be changes to the system when he would try it again in future.

Only time could tell.

Alto caught someone waving at him, before him were groups of five were scattered around. The person that waved to him was Priscilla, he walked up to her where a group of three waited. On the ground was the number eleven given to them as a team.

"It really is a group project." Alto said to himself.

Priscilla gave a cute smile as he joined them.

Unfortunately Alto was not met with as much enthusiasm as he had hoped. "Are you sure this wimp is worth it, he came in so late we almost had to forfeit."

"Just don’t fall behind."

Priscilla stepped in to defend him but words enough would not be enough, luckily it seemed they all respected her more than they did anyone else in the group.

Justin McClaire appeared a minute later standing on a small disk that hovered in the air, as he spoke the stadium quieted and his voice could be heard at ever corner of the stadium.

"Citizens and great elites of Zen Utopia, we are now going to begin the fourth round to decide who will be part of the top ten brightest minds of mech designers in our galaxy, I trust we are not all here just to watch. In this test, the young mech designers of two hundred will be in twenty groups of five where they will work together to construct a mech to do battle against the rival group in front of them. They will both be able to see the mech being created by their opponents giving them the time they need to counter, but all within a time frame of two hours. They will be provided with some needed mech parts to make this easier.

"These mechs will be piloted by some of our brightest young mech pilots in the galaxy each training to achieve world life recognition.

"There will be building and destruction. So begins the round of the battle of five minds."