by R. H. Tang
THE POWER OF NINE
©2021 RYAN TANG
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ALSO IN SERIES
THE HEAVEN’S BOXER
THE POWER OF NINE
THE FONT OF LIFE
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
FROM THE PUBLISHER
ALSO IN SERIES
Groups
LitRPG
LitRPG 2
Thanks for all the work Skypes
Stay Mysterious!
1
"Julian! Julian! Hey you! Over there! Julian! Are you Julian?!"
The last sentence was a deafening shout instead of a question.
Julian jerked away from the bulletin board, then frowned. He didn't recognize the voice excitedly screaming his name.
Seeing the person calling for him only added to his confusion.
He had no idea who that man was.
Julian had only just logged onto Overdrive a few seconds ago. Typically, only his buddy list would have been notified of his presence. But this strange man had identified Julian immediately.
Perhaps this was someone he'd met at the Forever Fortress who'd later changed his appearance?
It certainly wouldn't be one of the Forever Brothers. After countless hours training with them for the upcoming Selection, Julian knew all the skilled Spell Titan enthusiasts well enough that he'd see through any flashy disguise. A few players, like his friend Emma, used anonymous Guest Accounts, but otherwise, the appearance you showed on Overdrive had to be your own.
Julian didn't know anyone that jacked.
Not even his roommate Tyler, a college basketball starting center, was anywhere near that muscular. The pilot pointing rudely at him looked like a character straight from Dragon Ball Z. The other man's hair was dyed a furious pink, and he wore an uncomfortably low-cut martial arts gi with the sleeves torn off. His enormous pecs and arms glistened in the bright lights of the lobby. It looked like he'd oiled himself before logging on.
His other garments were a bizarre and inconsistent mixture. He wore a lobstered gauntlet on his right hand, and a long two-handed broadsword trailed down to the ground from the opposite hip. But in sharp contrast to the knight's weaponry, a samurai's twin swords—one long and one short—hung from his right side. To top it all off, the strange man also had a spear tied across his back that Julian instantly recognized from his dad's beloved wuxia movies.
Despite the other man's overwrought appearance, Julian couldn't help but feel jealous of his incredible physique. Because of Overdrive's full body scan, Julian knew that the man's explosive muscles had to be real.
Julian bit his tongue and stopped himself from asking the first question that'd sprung to his mind—how was it even possible to get so strong? He'd been trying to put on some muscle for the last two years to mixed results. Julian was definitely in better shape than he'd been in high school, but he was still a long way from where he wanted to be.
"Julian! Answer me, Julian!"
Julian smiled hesitantly.
What was with this guy?
"I'm sorry, have we met before?"
The other man drew the two-handed sword with a casual flourish. Despite its size, he waved it around like it was nothing more than a flyswatter. The in-game strength estimator had accurately projected the other pilot's enormous power.
"You don't, but you will soon!"
"I'm sorry?"
The other man's response made no sense. The pink-haired pilot pointed the sword at him and scowled.
"Just pretend you asked who I was!"
The pink-haired man exhaled and then slammed his foot on the ground. Julian was reminded vividly of the Chicago Bulls logo, which was bright red and breathed smoke through its nostrils. This guy looked almost comically angry.
"Julian, I challenge you to a fight! One on one—no teammates, just an honest duel!"
A notification popped up in front of him.
ACCEPT CHALLENGE?
Opponent: DISTINCTIONMAN50000
Battle Type: Ranked 1v1
Oh.
Julian knew who the pink-haired man was, but only by reputation. He probably should have guessed it as soon as he'd seen the eccentric outfit. DISTINCTIONMAN50000 was a famous streamer, but not the kind Julian enjoyed watching.
There were a wide variety of streamers.
Some of them were coaches—mechanically unskilled but scholarly pilots who taught counter-strategies and reviewed newly added parts. After resolving to improve his game knowledge, Julian had been watching them more and more recently.
Other streams were humor-focused—the broadcasters would lampoon poor gameplay or highlight funny game interactions or bugs. Some players had a huge fan base just because they were gorgeous women. Julian had a huge e-crush on World Championship semi-finalist Lilac.
DISTINCTIONMAN was technically a streamer who focused on his gameplay. As a close combat specialist, Julian had heard of him before. However, most high-ranking pilots considered the celebrity streamer a total idiot.
DISTINCTIONMAN50000 wasn't popular because of his skills. If Julian remembered correctly, he was just in the top two thousand—a decent pilot, but nothing special compared to the players cho
sen for the Selection.
Instead, DISTINCTIONMAN50000 was infamous because of his distinct persona. He had a self-imposed code of honorable behavior, which included only piloting glass cannon melee machines and challenging everyone who qualified for the Selection.
The Overdrive Corporation had published the list of top 500 players two days ago. As the 322nd highest-ranked player on the server, Julian qualified to contend for a coveted Fortress Master position. If he won, he would get to design maps for the Overdrive Corporation full-time. According to DISTINCTIONMAN, the pilots who qualified for the Selection were soulless meta slaves. Instead of standing honorably and winning one-on-one duels, they relied on unfair team gimmicks and cheap tricks. They gave up the fun of the game just to win—if they battled him fairly, they'd lose.
It was hard to tell who watched DISTINCTIONMAN50000 ironically and who was a serious fan. The muscular man's constant rants about the monotonous nature of competitive Overdrive won him many supporters, ranging from players angry they couldn't qualify for the Selection to younger players who wanted to climb the ranks while still using their favorite Mechs. Julian had always felt the same way when he first started playing.
However, Felix, who bounced around between professional teams, hated DISTINCTIONMAN. Julian also remembered Tyler's childhood friend Brandon harshly criticizing him. If anyone had a leg to stand on, it was Brandon. The skilled pilot was the exact opposite of a meta slave—nobody else on the server was able to pilot his powerful Patchwork machines.
But Julian was a little sympathetic to DISTINCTIONMAN's point of view. Everyone liked thinking that they were secretly better than their ranking. As a broadsword user, Julian was often frustrated by the countless tools snipers and other long-ranged Mechs had to delay his approach.
With all that said, DISTINCTIONMAN's fans had a terrible reputation. Even though Julian hadn't met the pink-haired pilot in person before, he'd encountered plenty of DISTINCTIONMAN supporters. Because they emulated their hero's one-dimensional gameplay, having one on your team for a random queue match was miserable. Although DISTINCTIONMAN claimed to love one-on-one battles, the truth was that his glass cannon Mechs rarely won in single combat. It was just bluster. He and his fans spent most of their time in the random queues. The fragile machines needed a team of dedicated Support-types around them.
It was essentially a hostage situation. If you ended up in a lobby with DISTINCTIONMAN or one of his fans, you needed to play a support machine. Otherwise, you'd lose.
Now that he'd finally diversified his gameplay, Julian found himself much more annoyed by DISTINCTIONMAN than usual. Julian had always feared that learning long-ranged or support items would be too difficult, but it was just a matter of committing to it. If Julian armed his Mech correctly for this one-on-one match, it would be a free win. A battle against the famous streamer would be the perfect test of his broadened game knowledge.
Perhaps he'd even convince some of DISTINCTIONMAN's fans to learn more about the game. After all, Julian had only recently discovered the joy of a flawlessly thrown smoke grenade or a perfectly placed mine. He was sure that a lot of DISTINCTIONMAN's fans could be good players if they just started working with their random teams.
Out of the corner of his eye, Julian peered at the current time. It was just 5:40—Tyler didn't get off class until six, and Emma wasn't available tonight. She was flying back to her mom's house in Los Angeles so she could hang out with Julian in-person during the Selection.
Julian was really excited. He and Emma had spent hours playing Overdrive together without a single face-to-face conversation.
He quickly calculated the amount of time it'd take for Tyler to get back to their apartment, then nodded.
"Sounds good! I'd love to play a match."
In the background, DISTINCTIONMAN50000 was grandstanding to his stream. Most streamers switched between using a private channel that went to their fans and a public one that went to others in Overdrive, but openly boasting about his skill was a crucial part of DISTINCTIONMAN's character. After all, talking behind his opponent's backs wouldn't be honorable.
"Now, I'll show you guys who is truly worthy of the Selection! It's one thing when so-called pros can hide behind their teams and strategies. It's quite another in an honest duel! This man is another melee specialist too. It's time for an ultimate clash of blades!"
DISTINCTIONMAN50000 must have gotten Julian's info from the Database, the community-created wiki on top-tier pilots. Because Julian hadn't broken into the top two hundred yet, he wasn't high-ranked enough to consistently appear on the top players' streams. The Database was the only place to scout pilots in the second tier.
Even among the players who'd qualified for the Selection, there was still a pretty substantial difference. Although Julian was improving quickly, he knew that he still didn't stand a chance against superstars like TiggerLuvr or vermillionangel.
Julian already had a rough idea about DISTINCTIONMAN50000's skills and Mech preferences, but he opened up the Database as well. It was best to be certain.
Funnily enough, DISTINCTIONMAN50000's machine—the comically named Hot Pink Hotness—was armed with the same weapons as its pilot. It had the same three swords on its waist with the spear at the back. The Defense statistic was just as miserable as the rumors said.
The comments section was absolute chaos. There was a colossal posting war between DISTINCTIONMAN50000's critics and fans. Angry pilots claimed he cost them spots in the Selection or ruined their climb. Others said that a single game with him was the greatest honor of their life.
To Julian's amusement, the Database claimed his opponent didn't have a default Grunt unit. If you matched with DISTINCTIONMAN in a random queue battle, it'd be impossible for him to play any role but the Ace. There was some sort of exploit that let you eliminate your Grunt unit. Julian had seen a video on it before.
No wonder DISTINCTIONMAN50000 had such a poor reputation. It was a distasteful thing to do.
"Hey! Hey!"
DISTINCTIONMAN50000's brash voice cut through his thoughts.
"Come on! Are you going to accept or not! You need to accept the notification! A verbal acceptance isn't enough!"
Julian laughed.
Right.
He'd been so excited researching that he'd forgotten to hit the button.
"Yeah, I'll fight!"
Another notification flashed across his screen, a friend request from his would-be opponent. After Julian accepted, DISTINCTIONMAN50000 suddenly darted forward and held the sword right by Julian's neck.
Julian's eyes widened in surprise. You couldn't attack or kill people in the lobby—weapons had no effect—but it was hard not to flinch at the extremely discomfiting feeling of a blade at your neck.
Julian tried pushing the sword aside, but it didn't budge. Overdrive's athleticism estimator was a strange feature that predicted a pilot's real-life strength and mapped it onto their in-game avatar. Although it was an imprecise and often-lambasted measurement, the system wouldn't have trouble guessing the power difference between Julian and DISTINCTIONMAN50000. The pink-haired man could snap Julian like a twig.
"Dude! What is wrong with you?"
DISTINCTIONMAN50000 scowled at him.
"It said Friend Request, but I wanted you to consider it a Rivalry Request!"
The strange man was wholeheartedly committed to his persona. Julian hoped he didn't act like that outside of Overdrive.
Julian accepted both the "rivalry request" and the battle before DISTINCTIONMAN50000 could swing his sword again.
DISTINCTIONMAN50000 slammed his sword back in its scabbard.
"Excellent! We'll settle it on the battlefield!"
After Julian accepted, the familiar hangar screen opened, providing him the essential statistics of his opponent's unit. The battle was taking place on Mountain 3.
The information was identical to what Julian had seen on the Database. DISTINCTIONMAN used the same Mech every match.
- Gener
al Data -
Pilot: DISTINCTIONMAN50000
Machine: Hot Pink Hotness
Class: Kingbreaker
Sub-class: Attacker
Designation: Ace Unit
- Statistics -
Melee: S-tier
Shooting: D-tier
Speed: S-tier
Maneuverability: S-tier
Defense: D-tier
Cohesion: B-tier
- Weapons -
Enhanced Steel Greatsword—Explosion Mode (Full Custom) [x1]
Solid Long Katana (Full Custom) [x1]
Generator-Linked Beam Short Katana (Full Custom) [x1]
Infinite Nullifier Spear (Full Custom) [x1]
- Abilities -
N/A [Kingbreaker Class]
All four weapons were lovingly crafted Full Customs, although the names were kind of funny. Julian couldn't remember off the top of his head, but he knew that the samurai's twin swords weren't called long and short katana. Much like DISTINCTIONMAN's slapdash honor code, the weapon's name was a lazy stereotype instead of reality.
The two katana provided nothing but raw attacking power, but the broadsword and spear boasted intriguing properties.
The broadsword was lined with oil that helped it land explosive armor-destroying hits. It reminded Julian of one of the special weapons he and Emma had prepared for the Selection.
The Infinite Nullifier Spear featured a special coating made out of Diffuse Mist, which nullified beam-based attacks. It was a creative modification that meant it'd be a nightmare to clash against the Hot Pink Hotness using beam weapons. Typically, Diffuse Mist wasn't a viable option because players could simply flee the dispersal area. Despite his eccentric reputation, DISTINCTIONMAN was an intelligent crafter.
