The Race Begins

The students were quite disappointed to see it looked like a small, ordinary city. They were expecting to be sent to a totally new realm, with a completely different scenery.

After their luggage was removed from the aircraft, they were directed through this grid-like settlement. Even though he was covered in his mech, Alonso could feel the blistering heat.

The area was illuminated by Kernei's star that blazed down its golden, fiery light.

There were people that walked past them that seemed to be mech combatants. They had special symbols across their shoulders to display their ranking, which was things like stars and medals.

However, other people just looked like ordinary mech users. Even though this place was a military base, it was extensive and could've easily been mistaken for a city. There were small commercial shops in places, with supermarkets and the like.

"Are military bases supposed to look like this?" Alonso asked his teacher.

He was inquisitive about the world of mech combatants as he saw it as a world he was going to inevitably enter. He felt a strong desire to know more and more about the military and mech combatants, and the general environment felt soothing to him.

He knew it was a place he wanted to be in.

"Well, not generally. This planet has been used for decades for mech combatant academies to train students on missions. To do that alongside our regular operations, we need large, robust bases of operations. Additionally, there aren't many places on this planet that are as cold as this so we can't just place a bunch of bases all over the place. We've been forced to be selective." He explained, walking on.

It made much sense. They'd need to have a larger base to handle the number of students that would frequently arrive in this pocket realm but it seemed excessive. This military base seemed like a place someone could live their entire life in.

He really wondered just how vast human society was. If humans managed to have military bases this large in obscure pocket realms like these, he wondered how large military bases would be in the solar system.

The solar system was still the main home of humanity and the planets were referred to as the planets of Sol. Since humans had conquered various solar systems, it felt odd to call the solar system just 'the solar system'.

The workers ahead of them came to a stop and ahead of them was a metal military building. It was hundreds of metres in height and was a major dormitory was all of the mech combatants and mech combatant academy students on-planet.

"This will be our base. This is the main dormitory and the building adjacent to it will be where you will have you crystals counted. There are infirmaries, mech repair centres and other facilities in close proximity to this place."

It was an earthy, swampy green, and was surrounded by vehicles, workers and soldiers. It seemed like an important structure and had numerous elevators at the front of it. These elevators were surrounded by glass and crowd of people huddled around at their bases.

These elevators were vast enough to hold at least 50 people, so they only needed to occupy 2 different ones to transport all the students.

The ground of the elevator was also of similar hue to the walls of this tower, and once they reached high enough, an elaborate, awe-striking view was revealed.

One group of students went to the 31st floor of this building, and Alonso's group ended at the 30th.

"Here we are. Open your OSes and you should see the room that you've been given. Get everything nice and set up in your rooms then head to the central common room in half an hour." Mr Piedrabuena explained.

The large metal opening to the lift opened up and ahead of them was a long hall.

It looked like the halls of a spaceship, where there were white lights across the floors and walls. The walls were made of a gleaming, silver metal.

Just as he was instructed, Alonso was directed across this labyrinth of halls through his mech. He could connect to his school's operating system through the use of his mech. Since this OS wasn't connected to his supernatural system, he had to see the holograms through his mech's vice.

Not that he was taking his helmet down in the blistering heat anyway.

His door was made of a silver metal, just like the halls, and it slid open once he approached it.

Forms of identification had become so advanced that crime rates across the galaxy had dropped significantly. High quality cameras, in tandem with capable artificial intelligence could discern the smallest differences between near-identical mechs.

On top of that, people's faces had been mapped and logged by the state, which allowed things like this to happen.

There was a decently open space with a bed equipped with clean, white sheets at the far wall. Beside the bed were two different doors. Being inquisitive, Alonso hurled down his few belongings and rushed over to the first door to his left. It was a simple bathroom that was sleek but rather compact.

Opening the other room, he was met by a wide window that gave him a beautiful view of a neighbouring city. The buildings blended into the fiery orange dust that layered the ground. Some buildings were one floor and simple, while others towered over others.

Surrounding this settlement was a number of dunes that erected waves of dust under the slight breeze.

The room had an open desk along with a cupboard to store some belongings.

He couldn't dwell in his room for too long, however, and thirty minutes swiftly passed.

Traversing the halls through the use of its convenient indicators, he arrived at a large opening that revealed an extensive hall. It seemed like a canteen, since there was a kitchen in its far right corner, and it was illuminated by scintillating white lights.

Around him were groups of students that had already filled parts of the long tables that filled it.

More and more students soon followed, who were all still in their mechs. Some had removed their helmets but even in this building, the heat was discomforting.

"Greetings, students! After all that wait, you're first pocket realm mission is here!" Mr Piedrabuena announced to the class.

In this hall, his voice was booming and reverberated across the walls. 

"We know you are eager to explore this new realm that you're in and so, we won't hold you in here for too long."

"For this 6-day period, you are to enter the deserts of Kernei to attain as many beast crystals as possible in your allocated squads. We are aware of your preferences and your teams have been texted to you. You can attain these crystals by any means necessary -buy weapons along the way if you need to- and hold onto those dear items."

"Returning to this base, military base A3, you will have to return your crystals to the adjacent square building that we will take you to so that they can be counted." Their teacher explained.

The students had already collected into their groups because they knew who they were going to be with anyway.

In only a few minutes, the students were directed to the large elevators at the building's front wall.

Beside this large structure was a smaller building that was around as wide as it was tall. It resembled a cube, that was littered with rectangular windows.

The entrance was made up of large double doors that were metres tall. These doors were made of the same fortified metal that coated the walls.

On the ground floor, it was an open plan area with various workers hard at work. They worked at white desks that had large mechanical objects. They were mammoth cubes with open centres, that had blue lasers shining through them.

These lasers would use the information from the reflected light to identify the type of beast crystal that was within and the number of them that were inside.

"These people will be ready to count the crystals that you attain. There won't be a need to explain who you are, their robotic equipment possesses near-perfect facial recognition."

"Alright, students. Your time starts now. Your mechs should give you our preferences for where you should head to meet the most beasts. Some places will be more dangerous than others but it's your choice if you're willing to head to those places or not."

"Each beast crystal will be weighted based on its difficulty. Beast crystals from stronger beasts will make you gain more 'points'. Alas, you've had the briefing and now it's time for you to go on your mission. You are free to go as you please!" Mr Piedrabuena declared.

Following his announcement, the students almost simultaneously manifested their helmets and rushed out into the adjacent desert.