The High Tide Tournament was a relatively smaller and unremarkable mech design tournament. It only lasted a single day, which meant that any competition mechs that the contestants managed to cobble together wouldn’t perform that well.
Even so, hundreds of thousands of people already paid tickets for this event. The short duration made it easy for many visitors of Chance Bay to take a day out of their schedule to attend a complete tournament from beginning to end.
Contestants like Ves didn’t have to go through the busy main entrance. They instead entered the large competition space from the back.
After a quick round of verification, Ves and his people soon entered a private waiting room where an attendant awaited their arrival.
The well-behaved man in uniform initially bowed in greeting. “On behalf of Hysphalin Industries, we thank you for entering the High Tide Tournament, Patriarch Larkinson. We are honored to host an impressive Journeyman and pioneer such as yourself. While you must rely on your own abilities to win this tournament, we shall endeavor to help you work without any unnecessary hindrance.”
These were just empty words, but Ves still appreciated the gesture.
“Thank you. I look forward to showing off my design abilities. I might not be the most experienced Journeymen in this tournament, but I’m confident that my mech will stand out from the rest.”
Half an hour went by as the attendant explained the rules and procedures for this tournament. He also answered a few questions from Ves.
Once Ves understood everything he needed to know, the attendant brought them to a larger waiting hall where dozens of other hopeful Journeymen and their followers were waiting to appear on stage.
“Almost everyone has arrived on time. The High Tide Tournament will commence within an hour. We will call you to step forward when the time comes.”
“I understand.”
Ves and the four Larkinson mech design students all gazed at the other groups. There was a lot of variety, which was not surprising since the High Tide Tournament attracted up to a hundred Journeymen who originated from all across the old galaxy.
Many of these Journeymen had already achieved acclaim in their careers. Their faces, profiles and accomplishments were part of the public record.
Ves could easily trace their identities and their accomplishments by using his implant to perform a search on the galactic net with the help of an image capture of their faces.
Before he studied anyone’s individual record, he first made an overall tally so that he could get a high-level overview of the competition.
At this time, 85 Journeymen aside from Ves were already present. 34 came from the galactic rim, 46 originated from the galactic heartland while just 6 came from the galactic center.
This was a relatively normal distribution as far as mech design tournaments went.
The galactic rim might not be the most prosperous place in the old galaxy, but it was never short of mech designers. The frequent wars and conflicts that took place in this less stable region also provided a lot of opportunities for them to see their work in action.
The galactic heartland was a lot more stable due to the higher prevalence of stable regimes. However, humanity’s violent side could never be completely restrained. Any wars that broke out were absolutely massive, and a lot of smaller skirmishes happened even in the quietest of times.
“Hmm, I’ll need to watch out for those six.” Ves murmured as he paid special attention to the six individuals who were brought up in a state in the galactic center. “That doesn’t mean I can ignore the threat of the other ones, though.”
He should not underestimate any Journeymen who had the courage to enter this tournament. Mech designers at this rank were generally smart people, and they would never choose to be here if they thought they could get fiftieth place at most!
The older ones who were close enough to hit the 100 year age limit were especially noteworthy.
“Michael Arven Emistes.” Ves recited the name of the oldest of the bunch.
At 99 years old, this Journeyman from the galactic rim must have gone through a lot! Even without studying his record, Ves was able to gain the vague impression that Michael was stable, steady and quietly confident in his own abilities.
Nonetheless, he didn’t carry himself like a champion unlike some of the other participants.
When Ves finally consulted the galactic net, he understood that Mr. Emistes was actually a relatively less talented mech designer.
He broke through to his current rank at the age of 56, which was not too old but certainly not very remarkable.
The fact that he hadn’t broken through to Senior after 43 years suggested that Emistes wasn’t a late bloomer at all. He was just a mediocre mech designer who proceeded at his own pace.
That didn’t mean he was a good-for-nothing. He published plenty of decent mech designs, many of which excelled in defense.
That turned Michael Emistes into an interesting recruitment prospect. The Larkinson Clan urgently needed a defensive specialist in order to design better and more functional defensive mechs!
One of the reasons why Ves was so eager to enter into mech design tournaments was to get in touch with people like Mr. Emistes.
Yet… despite the man’s attractive specialization, Ves didn’t think about approaching him. Not only was he relatively old and set in his ways, he was also registered under another pioneering organization.
Though poaching was definitely possible, Ves did not want to make any unnecessary enemies. It wasn’t worth it to go through all of this trouble just to get an older Journeyman.
As for the younger contestants, each of them were generally more remarkable than Mr. Emistes. Ves didn’t linger too long on any of them because they were all committed to other pioneers.
It made sense since these young but accomplished mech designers were prized talents. There was no way that their organizations would let them go so easily.
Ves only managed to find a few unaligned Journeymen among the middle-aged contestants. He didn’t know the reason why they weren’t attached to any pioneering organizations at this time, but they might be fishing for an attractive job offer by showcasing their skills in this tournament.
“Well, we’ll see how they perform later.”
Only a few Journeymen took the initiative to approach and talk to each other. They were generally familiar with each other or came from the same region back in the old galaxy.
It was unfortunate that Ves saw no one who came from the Yeina Star Cluster and the other ones that his fleet had traveled through. Human space in the Milky Way was simply too big so the odds of encountering anyone here who came from a familiar location was minimal.
Time passed by until almost an hour had passed. Soon enough, one of the announcers formally commenced the short tournament!
[Welcome to the High Tide Tournament, an event that is sponsored by Hysphalin Industries, the number one provider of convenience in the factory!]
The announcers and commentators proceeded to warm up the crowd with the usual spiel. Soon enough, Ves and the other contestants received the signal to move onto the main stage.
“Good luck, teacher!” Maikel called.
“Thanks. Keep a hold of Lucky for me, will you? Don’t let him get into any trouble.”
“Meow!”
While attendants brought the followers to the VIP seats of the venue, Ves and many other Journeymen walked or floated up to the front stage.
Bright spotlights shone down on them from above as the audience
[Today, 94 up-and-coming Journeyman Mech Designers shall display their ability to design entire mechs in a single session and realize it with unprecedented ease and speed with Hysphalin’s latest superfab model that excels at second-class mech production, the Korok Alpha KA-35!]
A large cube-shaped metal machine emerged from the floor of the space in front of the Journeymen. All of the spotlights moved to the superfab, causing everyone to shift their focus towards this clean and modern-looking industrial machine.
[The latest product developed by the galaxy-class research and development team at Hysphalin, the newest version of our Korok Alpha series is updated with even greater ease of use and automation than before. We guarantee that any Journeyman or qualified fabricator can single-handedly produce entire mechs within hours. Best of all, the quality of these mechs will not be any less than machines produced using more traditional production machines.]
The lead announcer spent several minutes espousing the many features of the Korok Alpha KA-35.
Despite not having touched any Superfabs in his life, Ves was quite familiar with the KA-35. He had spent a lot of hours reading the manual and familiarizing himself with its operation in simulations.
He also learned more about how superfabs worked in general and what was special about the Korok Alpha series.
According to his research, Hysphalin Industries was an up-and-coming production equipment manufacturer that had already spread in many different star clusters in the old galaxy.
Now, this large company was attempting to spread its reach into the Red Ocean, hoping to capture a generous market share among the arriving mech designers who were all potential customers.
As its motto already indicated, Hysphalin put a great focus on making it as easy as possible to use its machines. Its production equipment featured some of the lowest learning curves in the market. It accomplished this through heavy automation and a high priority towards delivering consistent output.
Ves had to admit that the Korok Alpha series was the best introduction to superfabs for mech designers unfamiliar with this type of production machine. There were many other superfab models that were ten or even a hundred times more difficult to operate!
That didn’t mean that the Korok Alpha KA-35 was the best for everyone. Hysphalin Industries did an admirable job in simplifying the incredibly powerful production capabilities of a single first-class supermachine, but all of that came at the cost of control.
The machines didn’t allow for as much manual control. Even if someone insisted on taking the reins, it was quite frustrating to exert fine control over the individual operations of the KA-35.
In short, it was the tricycle of the superfab world. It was an excellent beginner machine for people to get started on a better production method, but the Korok Alpha series would never win any serious races!
[…For just 39,999 MTA credits, we will deliver you a Korok Alpha KA-35 to your doorstep within a week. We guarantee that you will be able to start producing mechs with incredible ease and convenience the next day!]
And that was the other downside of the Korok Alpha KA-35. It was a luxurious beginner superfab model but was priced as a midrange product. Its production speed and quality ceiling were ultimately too disappointing to justify paying the equivalent of a pair of capital ships for a single machine!
Once the announcers were done advertising Hysphalin’s newest market offering, they quickly moved on to the main event.
The tournament had to end within a day, so they couldn’t afford to waste too much time on distractions.
After a brief routine, Ves and his competitors approached a huge center hall where many different semi-open workshops had been prepared.
In fact, the workshops were quite minimal in their arrangement. They only consisted of a single desk terminal along with a Korok Alpha KA-35. The mech designers were expected to employ nothing else to design and make their competition mechs.
“I can work with this.” Ves shrugged.
Although there were no solid barriers between the workshops, only the spectators were able to enjoy an uninterrupted view of everything.
When Ves swept his gaze past his own workshop, he encountered nothing but hazy energy screens. None of the Journeymen would be able to peek at their rivals.
He stopped putting any thought on what his rivals might be cooking up and focused on his own work. He quickly approached the desk terminal and sat down on the floating chair.
“Now, let’s see the exact conditions of this contest before I decide on my plan.” Ves muttered.
He had already prepared several different plans that broadly outlined his design approach… He had yet to make up his mind, but would quickly have to do so once he learned what he had to work with today.
