[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 89: Steed

After explaining the rules, the executive retreated and allowed others to direct the first round. A guide brought every designer to their allocated QuickForge system.

A marvel of engineering, every QuickForge cost as much as a hundred mech workshops. Its impressive capabilities allowed for almost instant fabrication of any device as long as its complexity did not exceed a certain standard. Though insufficient to mass-produce any currentgen mechs, it had no trouble in pumping out two-hundred year old designs.

"These are the toys that the students of Leemar can polish their design skills." Ves guessed. The Carnegie Group didn't design these QuickForge units for a simple competition. "How I envy those who gained the chance to study here."

Designers who spent a lot of time with these miraculous systems could gain a lot of proficiency in working with real mechs. Though the assembly process was massively simplified and sped up, it still provided much more hands-on experience than working with simulations and projections.

Once everyone reached their assigned stations, they waited for the signal to start.

"Three, two, one, go!"

Everyone rapidly engaged the QuickForge system. The students from Leemar had a distinct advantage. They used their familiarity with its systems to immediately start fabricating a frame. Sophisticated assembly arms flash-produced the alloys in midair, kept aloft by the most precise antigrav emitters.

Impressed by the speed of which these systems produced a frame, Ves hurriedly tried to catch up.

"Right. If I want to finish a frame at the fastest speed possible, I'll have to go for a light mech."

Though he preferred to design a versatile medium mech, its larger mass and size meant it took more work to get it running. A light mech not only had a reduced material requirement, its limited loadout meant it only needed a couple of small components to make it fully functional.

As Ves wanted to make his mech count in the first half of the round, he focused on improving his mech's peak capabilities. It needed all the performance it could get in order to remain competitive with the mechs submitted a few hours later. The battlefield fortunately featured small resupply depots where mechs could supplement their ammunition and energy, so mechs with shorter running times still had a chance.

After a brief consideration, he therefore picked a sprinter mech. He rapidly scanned the list of pre-made components and picked out a laundry list of limbs and internal parts. He particularly paid attention to the legs. Drawing from his experience with the Octagon series, he focused on prioritizing agility instead of top speed, though not to such an extreme extent this time.

"In the early stages of the free-for-all, it's more important for a mech to be able to avoid damage. The less damage it incurs, the longer it will last."

Some mech designers chose to go for the opposite strategy. They built a crude heavy mech brimming with armaments. Such a heavy brick relied on its immense armor and firepower to deter others from taking it on even as it sluggishly transported a coin. The tiny light mechs like what Ves had in mind gained no advantage in taking on such monsters.

Though fairly safe, their limited speed and mobility meant that these lumbering oafs had a lot of difficulties finding coins. They could only cover a limited area. Even if they spotted a coin, any rival mech could easily snatch it before the heavy mech reached the spawning point.

"Heavy mechs are just a dead-end in this mode." Ves concluded. Only heavy mech specialists had a way to make it viable. Anyone else only risked their downfall if they played with something they didn't fully master.