Interlude XXVIII

(Larry Yo-Boy)

"Well that just happened, a federation of the most powerful federation of mechanoid warriors have temporarily banded together to form the Gundgnam Style Force, the odds on favorites to win the Mechanoid Warfare competition. The group Mechanoid Warfare Competition. The Space Mechanoid Warfare Competition, and of course the Space Group Mechanoid Warfare Competition." A dejected Larry stated.

"In fact, the only competition that the combined might of Nebula's Gundgnam Style Force are now the odds on favorites to win everything are the non-suit related battles, and of course the Mechanical Warfare selection, as their suits are currently deemed to be too advanced to meet the noted criteria to apply for that category."

"Also, with Dr. Spiritlight officially pulling out of all magical, Qi, and other non-combat suit related combat operations, the odds on favorites for those competitions now fall to other planets. Including Xinxian-ing Polar's Rising Ascendance for Physical Combat, and for Team Combat competitions. With Magical Combat falling to Diasphoria's newly crowned Magical Alliance. With it being a fifty-fifty split between the two different worlds for Mixed Team Combat."

"To put it in layman's terms, things have never looked better odds wise for people to make money by betting on BiPrism. In fact, there have been some Congressional inquiries lodged as to whether Dr. Cassiopia Spiritlight was bribed or otherwise coerced to avoid partaking in these non-combat suit related events in order to create more controversy." Larry stated.

"That is all of the Alliance news that I have at the moment. As we get closer to the actual competition, I will of course be working with fellow content creators for Xinxian-ing Polar, Diasphoria, and of course Nebula to determine how our chances of advancing appear."

With that the counter that noted the time until the first competition could be seen ticking off until the time of the first competition could be seen in the background.

"That said, we do have a few rules that have been handed down. Rather than worrying about levels and gear when a contestant is to be transported into the staging areas. Everyone will be running what the creators are calling a Sympathetic Avatar, which is labeled as 'a basic level 1 construct with no gear that can grow and level based on your actions taken.'"

"What this means is that the contestant will log into or connect with this Sympathetic Avatar, where their full consciousness will be focused. In that Avatar the only thing that will transfer are bloodline abilities, Merits, Flaws, and any Skills that the user can remember to integrate with during the synchronization process."

With that Larry paused, and smiled brightly, "now my days of gambling are well past. But, if I still had the itch, I'd say this process seemed to mirror a certain someone's Simulacrums, wouldn't you?"

There was a pause before Larry continued. "Of course, these benefits would only help a synchronizing Dr. Spiritlight who fought without a suit that would effectively rot under their direct touch. Making it so Dr. Spiritlight will be one of the most powerful starting Avatars there."

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"Also it should be noted that the more violent you are with your Avatar, the more powerful you can become. As the experience you gain from killing other people counts towards leveling your Sympathetic Avatar, which can prove to be vitally important from round to round."

As Larry spoke his face seemed to darken as he seemed like he did not want to say this next part of the rules, but felt it was worth noting.

"It should be noted that there are extra bonuses towards winners and winning teams. Any person who wins a competition that is individual or group related can get a one-time transfer of their Sympathetic Avatar with all updated Merits, Flaws, Skills, and levels gained from Planetary Positioning competitions and transfer them 'as-is' to one of the Core Planets."

"There it was, the carrot, one that threatens to break apart team cohesion and capabilities. For a lot of times those that enter these competitions are the best that a particular world have to offer, meaning once the best win one competition and move on, the odds are that future team based events will suffer from trying to find people to cover down and fill the new holes. This adds a lot more wrinkles to parlay bets for people thinking of betting everything on the mighty Gundgnam Style Force from making a clean sweep of all four Mechanoid events."

From there Larry provided to offer more insights and feedback into the topics already covered, but for the most part these were the core concepts covered during his three-hour podcast. A podcast that saw a huge ratings boost as people who normally followed other servers suddenly found their way to his service for an honest take on what was happening, and on what the released eighty terabyte competition rules ledger implied.

***

(Prince Lee)

Prince awoke to find himself stuck inside an incubation chamber. For a moment, the thought he was swimming, or stuck in a vast pool of water. Only to find out he was.

That's when first panic, then a calm rationalization settled in as he realized that despite his being submerged in a calming watery substance, he was not drowning. It took only a second for his mouth and lungs to highlight the reason that he was not drowning was solely due to long flexible rubber tubing that went down his throat and sealed off his nose and mouth.

Kicking.

Prince moved, or rather tried to move his arms and legs only to find that they were restrained. The moment he moved, the sensors monitoring his body for signs of life flashed awake. Systems that had been in hibernation mode, suddenly flared to life with alarming speed.

"Relax, your body is still recovering from the injuries you sustained." The scrolling text came to him.

Seeing the text in its flowing non-acceptable script, Prince knew this was the work of his AI.

"Good, you have questions, but for now know that your work has been cut off. Funding for the Diversity Project has been cut off due to newly proposed government cutbacks."

Seeing the words, Prince's eyes grew wide as he wanted to scream. He even tried to do so, only to be cut off by the medical tubing that was in his throat forcing fresh air in, while filtering out his bad air. Moving his hands he felt a slight burning sensation as skin that had been healed suddenly ripped apart, only to be coated by the odd aloe water that he was submerged in.

His arms and legs were still restrained, but he moved his hands in a rhythmic way that his AI began reading as keystrokes. Once registered, it took a matter of seconds for him to type out in a split keyboard fashion what he was currently thinking about.

"You can't be serious? But ours was the only one that showed tangible results?"

"Exactly, it seems like not everyone is happy that a second Apron planet is the only one that showed tangible results."

"What of the subject?"

"You mean the great granddaughter?"

"Yes."

"She is alive, and also the sole reason that you are still alive."

"So she proved that it worked?"

There was a momentary pause as it seemed the faster than life AI model was having a hard time coming up with the appropriate response.

"There is proof it worked, that magic is real?"

"It has been concealed."

At that, a deep inner flame began to burn from within Prince's body. The watery substance that surrounded and soothed Prince's burned body began to warm and bubble as he felt his emotions getting the better of him.

"You need to relax, less you reaggravate your wounds."

At that, Prince breathed deeply, or at least he tried to breathe as deeply as possible with long tubes running down his throat.

"How long do I have here?"

"You have unlimited time to recuperate, but there is something else that you should know."

"What's that?"

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