Chapter 62
Pre-Tournament
Bang
A loud sound echoed out as a 1 meter tall robot was sent flying backwards. As it hit flew out of the arena it dissolved into pixels before disappearing. A 1 and 1/2 meter tall black robot stood in the middle of the arena. It looked exactly like a human in black armor.
Chu Shen disabled the simulation. The entire arena including the area around him dissolved like snow in sunlight before revealing a plain white surface an inch or two above his head.
He removed the metal band around his head and got out of the simulation pod. Standing in front of the pod was the same robot as the one inside of the simulation! The attendant was in a chair beside it as well.
The attendant stood up. “Alright, let’s get back to the meeting room. The meeting starts in 30 minutes. Go ahead and send Mirror of The Void back to the workshop. ”
Chu Shen nodded. “I’ll do that now.” He fiddled with the small tablet in his hands. As soon as he was done, the robot immediately straightened up before marching fluidly out of the room. Looking at it march out Chu Shen had a thoughtful expression. ‘Five days sure don’t last.’
The attendant and Chu Shen went to the elevator and arrived at the meeting room soon. Sitting down in the chair with his number, 28, he waited for the meeting to start. He played around on his tablet while waiting.
“Alright, all of the contestants are here.” The main judge walked up on stage like last time. “Now it is time to explain some specifics of the tournament.”
“There are exactly 32 people in the tournament this year. We are going to have a bracket competition with the winners advancing up the bracket while the losers battle each other for their placement in the competition.”
“First we will have the 16 beginning matches chosen by the AI’s to have the closest possible match. After that we will have another 16 matches. 8 of the matches will be the winners and the other 8 will be the losers.”
“The next day we will have the final matches to determine the exact rankings inside each group of 4. For example if you won the first match but lost the second then you will only be able to be placed in 5th-8th place.”
“After the rankings have been settled we will have placement challenges. If you wish to fight someone within the 5 rankings of you both ways you can challenge them to a fight. If you do then they must accept. If the challenger wins they take that person’s ranking. Of course, this only applies if the winner is higher ranked than the other.”
“You may challenge anyone however if they are more than 5 rankings apart from you, they can refuse to fight. For example. If 8th place challenged 3rd place, they would have to accept. But if 8th place challenged 1st place they could refuse.”
“You may challenge as many people as you want. However, if you lose you cannot challenge another person. The challenge part of the Robo games can only last for 4 hours so be quick.”
“Now that you know the rules it is time to start. We will transport you and your robots to the arena right now. There we will clone your robot and start the games. Be prepared, the games start in 30 minutes.”
“Go with your attendants to gather your robots and head to the arena. May the best engineer win!”
““May the best engineer win!”” The contestants echoed. With that they all filed out. Chu Shen swiped at his tablet a couple times before going over to the attendant.
“Alright. Mirror of The Void is coming down to meet us. He should be here in a minute or two.”
“Good. Such a weird name though” The attendant smiled at Chu Shen before turning around. “As soon as he comes down tell him to follow me so we can get you to the arena.”
“Great.” After a while the elevator popped open with a ding revealing Mirror of The Void. Tapping a couple times on the tablet the robots head swiveled to lock onto the attendant. After that the robot marched behind the attendant and stayed a couple meters behind.
“Alright, come with me.” Following the attendant they walked out of the building where there was a line of empty hover-trucks. They walked down the line to the hover-truck with the numbers 28 on the side. Opening up the back, Mirror of The Void climbed in.
The truck sank down a couple inches. After that Chu Shen and the attendant got into the cab and drove off. As they did Chu Shen glimpsed a huge crab-like robot coming out of a large door on the side of the building they just left. They quickly drove out of sight.
…………………………………………….
The arena. A large disk of flat space made of non-conductive metal. Obstacles could pop up randomly inside. Large walls, ramps, and entire buildings could form suddenly.
There was also a large crowd in the stands. The stands themselves were separated from the arena by a wall and by class 5 Vehicle Shields none of the weapons the robots here were using could penetrate it.
The attendant landed the hover-truck in front of a gray square building that was attached to the arena. “Here we are. This is the control center. Inside are various types of methods that are used to control the robots.”
“Things like simulation rooms, holo-projectors, and vid-screens are all provided so that the contestants can control their robot. Each person is filmed inside their control room and broadcasted out to the universe. Exciting right?”
“Yeah.” Chu Shen looked decidedly nervous.
“Well, most people are here to see the robots fight up close and personal. Not many people pay attention to the engineer’s until the end where the engineer’s and robots go up to receive their prizes.”
“Of course you will take your robot out to meet the announcers, Charles Kenith and Drexil Gargot for the Robo Games. Remember to wave at the crowd or something when they call your name.”
“Anyway let’s go.” Chu Shen led Mirror of The Void over to the control center. There they scanned the robots in order to make the copies they were talking about.
Chu Shen was led out to the stands of the arena along with Mirror of The Void. Outside there were other contestants with their robots. There was all kind of weird robots. His robot looked normal compared to most.
Soon all 32 contestants were gathered along with their robots. As soon as they were a large countdown appeared in front of them. The countdown started at 10:28. 10:27, 10:26. It was counting down the time until the Robo Games started.
When it reached 0 the entire arena shifted beneath them. The entire group of contestants was raised up by the ground beneath them, including their robots, until it was even with a large floating platform above the arena.
Inside the platform was a handsome blonde man and a gray skinned humanoid with a protruding bone crest on his forehead behind a wooden desk .
The blonde man spoke first. “Alright folks, this is Charles Kenith here with Galactic News. Today we are at the Robo Games. A contest where contestants under the age of 22 build their own robot to fight to the death in a series of duels.”
“Here are their contestants along with their robots, or robot unit names. Contestant number 1 Joseph Gonzalez from Sparta, age 21 with his robot The Daleks Revenge, obviously a Doctor Who Fan. Contestant number 2 Dixxilio’anios Gatoonisga from the Nugitraaiil empire, age 19 with her robot unit Frethgaalos…. Contestant number 28 Chu Shen from sparta, age 12 with his robot Mirror of The Void…. That is all of our contestants.”
Most of the contestants waved at the crowd or bowed. A couple of the non-human contestants did other things such as flaring their neck frills or shaking their tail. Chu Shen waved like his attendant suggested.
“Alright, now that you have been introduced to all of the contestants let’s get this party started. The contestants will be sitting in the dugout over there until it’s their turn to fight. Then you will go to the control room while your robot is brought out to fight.”
The gray skinned figure, Drexil Gargot, took over for Charles Kenith and pointed to a section of the stands that was right next to the control center. As a matter of fact there was even a hallway that connected them.
“While their being seated let’s go ahead and show some of the highlights from the last Robo Game.” As the crowd was distracted by the violent display the contestants robots were taken into storage while they were escorted to the dugout.
“Now that everyone’s ready, let’s announce the first contestants numbers. Numbers 28 and 6 please get ready to fight.”
- N/a
