The Undying Mecha Emperor

Ah the good old days.

The National Mecha Pilot Academy was ranked number one in the whole of the Chinese Federation.

And although I had heard about it many times in the past few days, I never truly understood the magnitude and the gravity of being the best school in a country as massive as the Chinese Federation.

They truly used the most unorthodox and the most direct method to train up generations of incredibly talented mecha pilots.

And the orientation week for their first years was definitely one of the highlights of the year.

Day one: Grand Melee.

Within a few short minutes, all the first years were finally gathered.

"Who do you think will win? I heard that our batch smashed all the records in terms of RPL score!"

"Yes, Sherry Lin scored 91. She's a real demoness! I think she'll win. Her backing is quite solid, and her piloting skills are rumored to be top notch as well! She would have no problems leading her group to dominate the Grand Melee."

"Come on, be serious. Why are we even having this conversation? Of course the Longs will dominate again, as they always did! The sheer number of participants under their banner is ridiculous!"

"I agree. Sherry's RPL and skill may be godlike, but the top combatants of the Longs aren't that far behind either. And with the top combatants almost evenly matched, it will all boil down to numbers!"

The huge bunch of ten year olds began to gossip softly among each other, and my enhanced hearing easily caught everything they said.

"The general opinion among the participants seems to be leaning toward a Long Family victory, and a fourth or fifth consecutive victory at that! Perfect. I will break their streak and show them who's the boss." I thought confidently to myself.

Of course I was confident.

Even without exceptional piloting skills, I could easily strengthen my own mecha and weaken the enemy mechas. That way, no matter how many came at me, they would all fall like dominoes.

"Who needs skills when I have such an overpowered secret weapon?" I thought and grinned to myself. "The Champion of this event will definitely be me!"

Vrooooooo-OOOOOOOO!

Everyone suddenly stopped talking and turned to face the sound of the incoming mecha.

It was the White Phoenix.

Grand Elder Shella's White Phoenix appeared in the horizon and then landed in front of us with startling alacrity.

A few of the first years ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the sight of the awe-inspiring White Phoenix.

It truly was a beautiful white mecha!

"Good morning first years. I am Grand Elder Shella, the chief supervisor for your Orientation week. My national pilot rank is 10,137. Welcome to the National Mecha Pilot Academy. Congratulations on making it here! Please give yourselves a round of applause!" Grand Elder Shella began.

The crowd immediately responded and erupted enthusiastically in applause.

I joined in the applause, but my mind was whirring rapidly.

"Rank 10,137? She was 10,252 just a few days ago!" I thought to myself, impressed at her incredible progress in such a short period of time.

"Okay, now that the feel-good part is over, let's get down to business. As many of you probably already know, the opening act of our orientation week is a free-for-all Grand Melee. I will now go straight to the description, rules and regulations of the event.

Number one. There are five thousand of you and five thousand mechas of all kinds here in this arena. Your first task is to get into one of the mechas within thirty minutes. After thirty minutes, if you're not in a mecha, you will be disqualified.

Number two, once the arena is cleared of all the disqualified students, the remaining will be allowed to power up their mechas by inserting a student token which will be distributed to you all later into the ignition slot middle of the cockpit. It's big and marked in red, you won't miss it.

Once your mecha takes more than 75% damage, the ignition slot will break your token, and you will power down. The loss of your token will signify your disqualification.

All, and I mean, ALL of your movements will be recorded by advanced cameras within the mechas as well as from a few thousand drones up in the sky. They will be used to analyze your decisions and actions and will be used subsequently as teaching material for you."

At that, Grand Elder Shella paused for a moment as a thoughtful look crossed her face for a moment.

"You are allowed to use all the skills at your disposal for this event" She finally added.

To the rest of the participants, that last statement seemed absolutely redundant. Of course they would be using all the skills at their disposal. Who wouldn't give their all in such a prestigious event?

But to me, the attitude of the school's top management was crystal clear.

They were telling me, "Show us what you can do."

"Sure thing." I thought to myself and smiled.

"Number three." Grand Elder Shella continued. "Every single action you take will be scored. Be it scoring a hit, dodging a hit, taking a hit, advancing foolishly/bravely/decisively, or running away in fear, everything will be scored. That said, don't worry too much about your score. Just try your best to remain standing by the end of the event.

Number four. Your score at the end of the event will determine your initial Year One Ranking, as well as your Overall School Ranking.

Number five. You can choose to give up by hitting the red button in your mecha that says "GIVE UP". Your mecha will immediately power down and it's armor will immediately harden by two grades. You will be completely safe from the rest of your peers who are still fighting.

Number six. The Grand Melee will end when there are thirty or less participants remaining.

And finally… number seven." She paused slightly for effect. "This is a new rule that we're implementing this year to even the field a little bit and make it more interesting.

You will gain double points for taking down the top one thousand students of the entrance exam.

Triple, for taking down the top one hundred.

Quintupled for the top three and…

Ten times for the top student. Their mechas will immediately glow blue, green, yellow and red respectively upon powering up." Grand Elder Shella said with a strange smile on her face.

The five thousand students immediately erupted in excitement.