The heavens boxer, p.1
The Heaven's Boxer, page 1
part #1 of Overdrive Series
THE HEAVEN'S BOXER
Overdrive Volume 1
© 2020 by Ryan Tang
CHAPTER ONE
"TO ME! TO ME!"
The crimson mechanical hawk soared effortlessly through a hail of unrelenting gunfire. The Overdrive World Champion - vermillionangel - was revered for his incredible control skills. Although the unit was an exhibition rental, he moved the avian Mech as if it were his own body, as if he'd been born with metal wings and Eternium talons rather than arms and legs. Even the few shots that hit him failed to inflict significant damage. He gently twisted back and forth, deflecting the gunfire off the laminated coating at the top of his wings and protecting the thin feather-knives.
Red lightning pouring from its talons and beak, the Paragon-class strafed the bunker three times before the defenders finally drove him away with a volley of missiles. The hawk fled back toward the skies, elegantly spiraling through the clouds as it drew the enemy fire away from its slowly advancing teammates.
Julian grinned with almost childlike excitement and leaned closer into his screen. The Vermillion Flier was awesome.
The current match was an exhibition promoting the game's most skilled Mech crafters. The stars of the top four World Championship teams were facing off against four Fortress Masters - veteran pilots the Overdrive administration had hired to create Fortresses, the equivalent of dungeons in traditional role-playing games. Unlike the game's infinitely varied mission mode, the objective of a player vs. player Overdrive match was simple.
Eliminate all opponents.
Vermillionangel wasn't using his usual machine, the Vermillion Draco. However, the skilled crafter who'd created the exhibition Mech had evidently incorporated the inaugural World Champion's combat data. Repeated frontline assaults encapsulated vermillionangel's daring playstyle.
Julian pulled up the status screen at the bottom of the audience dashboard and analyzed the Flier's statistical information. The machine was perfectly suited to the World Champion's head-on fighting style and love of Wild-type Paragon units.
- General Data -
Pilot: vermillionangel
Machine: Vermillion Flier
Class: Paragon
Type: Wild
Designation: Ace Unit
- Statistics -
Melee: A-tier
Shooting: S-tier
Speed: S-tier
Maneuverability: S-tier
Defense: B-tier
Cohesion: S-tier
- Weapons -
Vermillion Beak (Full Custom)
Judgment Cannon (Full Custom) [x3]
Angel Wing Finale (Full Custom) [x4]
Vermillion Feather Dagger (Full Custom) [x20]
Vermillion Feather Epée (Full Custom) [x6]
Vermillion Talons (Full Custom) [x6]
- Abilities -
Liquid State Eternium
Vermillion Thunder
Vermillion Judgment
A diorama of the nearly impeccable Mech accompanied the full report. The Flier proudly cawed on the right-hand side of the screen. Because of vermillionangel's swift commands, the Vermillion Flier had spent most of the match as a nondescript orange-red blur. Now that it was standing still, Julian saw just how beautiful it was.
The machine was all a single color - vermillion from head to toe, befitting its pilot's name - but the careful engraving demonstrated the crafter's meticulous approach to detail. The wings looked biological rather than mechanical. Save for the keenly honed edges at the tip, the feather daggers and epées were identical to real feathers.
Vermillionangel's signature mono-eye sensors flared like golden bonfires across the Flier's body. There were five in total. One cyclopean eye blazed just above the beak at the center of the finely wrought head. The other four swiveled around the body on specially constructed tethers, providing perfect vision no matter the angle.
Julian felt a brief spark of jealousy. He wished he could be that good. Julian was ranked just beneath the top five hundred, but there was a massive gap between a reputable player and the World Champion.
He had no idea how vermillionangel could process five separate camera streams in the middle of an intense close-quarters battle. If Julian tried piloting the Flier, his head would explode. Even skilled scouts and support players only used vision-enhancing technology, such as scouting drones or security cameras, during stake-out operations.
Most pilots only built their machines to maximize combat skills, but the Flier was also a work of art. Julian wondered how much it would fetch if its crafter sold it. Overdrive's in-game economy was growing by the day. The other day, his favorite streamer - TiggerLuvr888 - had sold one of his Mechs for just over a thousand dollars in a charity auction. There were even a few crafters who'd quit their day jobs to design Mechs full-time.
Julian had no chance of joining them.
As much as he wanted to get a job working in Overdrive, he was terrible at crafting. He simply lacked the patience and delicacy. The most powerful part he'd ever created was an 80% Custom, and that had been with his friends' help. Felix and Edwin had done almost all the work helping him make the Starlight R's latest sword.
After he finished marveling at the Champion's machine, Julian turned back to the main video. Rather than skipping to the most recent moment, he chose to continue watching from where he'd paused the stream.
Vermillionangel's gambit succeeded. With the enemies distracted, his team's sturdy Kingbreaker class Grunts charged, spewing an unceasing barrage of explosive ammunition.
A swarm of flames engulfed the enemy bunker. There was a loud internal clanging. Without a doubt, the defenders inside were trying to escape, but the metal and stone roof crumbled before they could.
That was the cost of hiding behind cover for too long. There was no truly safe terrain in Overdrive. Anything, even an entire space colony, could be destroyed by the right weaponry.
The attackers cheered.
Then a guttural roar instantly silenced their celebrations.
When the smoke and rubble cleared, there was only a single machine remaining on the other side.
Even though everyone knew that Vile, the strongest of the Fortress Masters, would use a Hemoborn class, Julian still gasped. Her machine was a horror of rotting flesh and pristine metal.
For a moment, the world froze.
Then a poisoned heartbeat echoed through the air.
Julian winced. His fingers tightened against the screen, and his skin turned bright white. Julian had played Overdrive since the beta test, but Vile's designs still spooked him every time he saw them.
As he'd expected, Vile was the only player in the exhibition piloting a Mech she'd created herself. Her crafting skills were legendary. She was the number 1 crafter and the number 1 Fortress Master. As an employee of the Overdrive Corporation, she was forbidden from competing in the World Championships. Still, considering the difficulty of becoming a Fortress Master, she was a champion in her own right. A showdown between vermillionangel and Vile was a match between the greatest attacker and the ultimate defender.
Disgusting bits of rotting meat dripped to the floor as Vile's machine reloaded. Unlike any other class in the game, Hemoborn were cyborgs built from a mixture of biological and metal parts.
Julian hastily pulled up the status report on Vile's machine, wincing at the diorama on the right-hand side. Vile had put just as much care into her Mech's aesthetics as the Vermillion Flier's crafter - it was just that Julian found the Fortress Master's tastes utterly repulsive.
Like her usual Frankenstein-inspired unit, her new Hemoborn class echoed a character from a traditional novel. Based on the split type, it must have been a Shifter, a versatile machine that could transition between variable forms.
—General Data—
Pilot: Vile
Machine: CWT-02 Hyde
Class: Cyborg
Type: Artillery/Attacker
Designation: Ace Unit
- Statistics -
Melee: S-tier
Shooting: S-tier
Speed: S-tier
Maneuverability: S-tier
Defense: S-tier
Cohesion: S-tier
- Weapons -
Smoothbore Flesh Cannon (Full Custom)
Hyde Gore Bazooka (Full Custom)
Machinegun Fingers (Full Custom) [x10]
Reinforced Steel-Infused Jaws (Full Custom)
Spine Whip (Full Custom)
Jekyll Blade (Full Custom) [x2]
Cackle Wings (Full Custom) [x4]
- Abilities -
CWT-78 Jekyll
Horror Level 10
Stench Level 10
Regeneration Level 10
Bloodlust Level 10
Julian reread the parts list twice just to make sure he understood what everything did. The Hyde was armed to the teeth. Although the Credits restriction on Ace units was far more lenient than the cap on Grunts - 50,000 Credits vs. 10,000 - it was still hard to believe that Vile could incorporate all those weapons onto a single unit.
It was only after taking a closer look at the diagram on the right-hand side that Julian understood. Vile's skill was extraordinary. The Full Custom weapons were smoothly integrated. When the Hyde transformed into its Jekyll mode, the Flesh Cannon and Gore Bazooka shifted into the Jekyll Blades. The Hyde's armor-plated ribcage detached and became the four Cackle Wings, providing the Jekyll with increased mobility.
The hideous CWT-02 Hyde was something only Vile could love, but the hulking monstrosity was undeni ably a masterpiece.
Players had often speculated about a "perfect machine" where every statistic was in the S-tier. Mechs like the Vermillion Flier came close to that hallowed ideal, but they couldn't overcome the 50,000 Credit cap. Vile had accomplished the seemingly insurmountable task with her unique transforming design. The Hyde excelled in Shooting and Defense, and the Jekyll specialized in Melee, Speed, and Maneuverability.
Julian returned to the video.
The Hyde's shoulders were as broad as the horizon. No wonder Vile hadn't attacked until the bunker collapsed. Julian doubted the giant machine could even move inside tight corridors. Under normal circumstances, an enormous Mech like the Hyde would never bother ducking behind cover, but showmanship was a vital part of the exhibition matches. Both teams were trying their best to win, but they still had to adhere to The Mechanical King's requested conditions. Most lower level games - even games around Julian's tier of play - devolved into one team camping behind cover. To make the exhibition more relatable, the CEO of the Overdrive Corporation insisted on emulating the experience of the average player.
A hideously swollen tongue flicked back and forth, licking steel teeth that were jagged like a shark's. The creature's face was split in two - half flesh and half metal. A gaping gray eye - identical to a human's but fifty times larger - stared hungrily at the line of opponents. The Smoothbore Flesh Cannon and the Hyde Gore Bazooka were just as menacing and disgusting as their names suggested. The first was a hollowed-out leg grafted onto the left shoulder. The second was an enormous handheld cannon forged from bones and powered by a thumping heart. The colossal right hand, a fusion of flesh and metal swarmed by metal tubes, hefted the heavy weapon as if it weighed no more than a feather.
Just as the Vermillion Flier represented the World Champion's playstyle, the Hyde's supreme firepower embodied Vile's philosophy. The plainspoken woman believed in raw strength without any bells and whistles.
When Vile first burst into the Overdrive scene, her enormous Mechs had immediately seized the attention of the game administration. Their raw firepower and impenetrable armor led to an almost instantaneous game balance patch and a far stricter Ace Credit cap. Back then, most pilots had pursued an even balance between strength and maneuverability. Vile had eschewed mobility entirely. Her Moby Dick didn't need to move when it had the firepower of a dozen Mechs. The giant machine was soon permanently banned from the Overdrive server. It was the sort of design that was so obviously game-breaking that everyone wondered why they hadn't thought of it first.
Even after the restriction, Vile steadfastly insisted that battles were won or lost before the guns started firing. Despite her unshakable piloting skills, she dedicated most of her streams to teaching crafting techniques. Her Fortress boasted a correspondingly formidable arsenal - every level had a personally crafted mini-boss. Despite untold hours of gameplay, Julian and his childhood friends Felix and Edwin had only cleared three out of the ten levels.
Julian re-entered the match view. As soon as he hit play, the Gore Bazooka spat a fiery globule of blood at one of vermillionangel's Grunt units. The revolting bullet was a third the size of an average Mech. The deactivated Grunt slumped to the ground.
One moment, all its parts' health bars had been bright green. The next, the pilot was out of the match. It'd only taken a single shot to obliterate the cockpit in the torso, killing the pilot inside and eliminating them from the game.
Julian briefly pulled up the status screen, hoping to learn more about the Grunt's defenses. The effortless kill had looked like a glitch.
The diagram popped up on the right-hand side as the stats slowly loaded. The Guardian X's most unusual feature was that it lacked a distinct head unit. Instead, the entire Mech centered on its well-armored central spherical torso. A pair of glowing electronic eyes peered out from the top of the sphere.
—General Data—
Pilot: TiggerLuvr888
Machine: Guardian X
Class: Kingbreaker
Type: Artillery
Designation: Grunt Unit
- Statistics -
Melee: B-tier
Shooting: S-tier
Speed: C-tier
Maneuverability: C-tier
Defense: A-tier
Cohesion: S-tier
- Weapons -
300mm Heavy Bombardment Cannon (Full Custom)
6-tube Missile Launcher (Full Custom)
Reinforced Steel Sword
Reinforced Steel Shield
- Abilities -
N/A [Kingbreaker Class]
As expected for a Grunt unit, other than the weapons it needed to fill its role, there were few custom parts. TiggerLuvr888 had painted the Mech in his signature yellow and red, but otherwise, the Grunt cap of 10,000 - as well as the two Full Custom limit - left relatively little space for personalization.
Like most Grunts, Tigger's Guardian X was rather dull. In the in-game lore of Overdrive, Grunt parts had to stay cheap for mass-production purposes. There were ways to get around the credit cap, but they involved sharp decreases to critical statistics, especially Cohesion. The Cohesion statistic judged the crafting quality of your Mech. A horrible Cohesion meant your machine might spontaneously combust in the middle of a battle. Only one professional pilot was bold enough to continually gamble on low Cohesion.
Julian sighed as he prepared to return to the main video.
TiggerLuvr888 was Julian's favorite streamer. It was hard to tell what celebrities were like in real life, but from what Julian could see, Tigger was an incredibly kind and patient guy. His calm gameplay and relaxing stream music were among Julian's favorite things to decompress with after a tough day.
Like almost everyone else playing in the exhibition, Tigger's life had suddenly transformed because of his skill at Overdrive. TiggerLuvr888 had been one of the very first esports players. He'd played competitive shooting games until his early 20s, but since then, he'd become a dad and computer engineer. Back then, gaming couldn't pay the bills. He'd more or less forgotten his youthful dream by the time Overdrive finally became popular. Tigger frequently mentioned on his stream that the only reason he'd first started playing Overdrive was that his kids played. But despite his initially casual interest and rusty skills, his talent had quickly returned. During the last World Championships, the middle-aged man had finished in the Top 4.
And despite his skill and experience, he'd died in a single shot.
That was why Julian hated playing Grunts. Ace units had a Credit cap five times higher than Grunts did. Grunts were just weak. Only a few Grunt enthusiasts argued otherwise, highlighting their unique properties like the ability to change their equipment before every match. In Julian's opinion, that was a paltry advantage.
The only advantage to specializing in Grunts was that competitive teams required three Grunts and only a single Ace. Getting good at Grunt play was an easier path to going pro, but there was no guarantee even then. The current exhibition featured only one player who regularly used Grunts - Sweetshot303, the legendary "Master of Minions." Everyone else was a star Ace player who'd converted to a Grunt just for the match.
If anything, Sweetshot was the exception that proved the rule. He'd carried his feeble team to a second-place finish at the World Championships, but he could have won the whole thing if his squad had distributed their Credit resources more effectively. If someone led your team in kills every single game, you should just make them the Ace!
Grunts were way too weak.
As if to prove Julian's point, Vile immediately destroyed the next unit with a rapid-fire barrage from her shoulder-mounted flesh cannon. As always, Vile fired in a way that minimized her need for accuracy. Instead of aiming directly for the machine, she took advantage of the terrain to bury her opponent beneath a mountain of rubble. The Guardian X had raised its shield, but there was nothing its pilot could do against an avalanche.
Julian winced and briefly turned away from the screen, cursing under his breath.
The flesh cannon's bullets looked like dismembered arms. Vile's machines were so frightening.
That left only vermillionangel and Sweetshot303 against Vile's towering Hemoborn. A graphic popped up at the bottom of the screen, reminding Julian that his information on Sweetshot had been a little inaccurate. The Master of Minions hadn't just led his team in kills - he'd led the entire tournament. However, the Guardian X Sweetshot used for today's match lacked the extensive revisions he usually made to his frames. It was a standard model, not one of his mish-mashed "Patchwork" machines that sacrificed Maneuverability and Cohesion for raw speed and power. Only Sweetshot303 could pilot his extensively hacked machines. Using one in the exhibition would have been extremely unrelatable. The last time Julian had tried using one, he'd given up after crashing five times in two minutes.
