Chapter 52: The Surveying Competition Begins

Despite how Rick had blundered, Melissa never once mocked him about the breakup. She just listened, patted his arm sympathetically, and helped him get comfortable after all the training. Rick slept like a rock. When he woke he didn't feel quite as miserable, but he'd gained no added clarity.

For a day he kept exactly according to the plan, sleeping when needed and focusing on recovery otherwise. Melissa occasionally brought food over, watched their favorite movies, and teasingly called him a mallard head. Emotionally he was still frustrated and mentally he knew that he was facing a serious challenge, yet he slowly found himself feeling somehow better.

By the end of the day, he had no aches and pains at all. His portfolio hadn't improved, but it had recovered from the over-training and so he was ready. The numbers still didn't make sense to him, so he likely didn't have a handle on the Dark Blood Kettle yet, but he'd done the best he could.

As it came time for them to go, Rick found himself fussing around the apartment. There was nothing left to do, so he fiddled. Melissa was doing some kind of final meditation that cast her void aura around her, as they intended to use it in the actual fight. They'd worried that her control wasn't good enough to avoid distracting him, yet her aura always passed over him harmlessly. He actually felt more comfortable with it around, like the void flame was just having her hanging out in the same room.

"Not long now, huh?" Melissa opened one eye to look at him, then smiled. "I assume we're not biking for once?"

"Yeah. We need to arrive fresh, plus there's always a chance Jack might try to ambush us early. He's under pressure to win the competition too."

"Sounds good to me. Maybe stop pacing around, though? Come here and sit down."

He might have taken her up on it, but at that moment there was a knock on the door. Both of them frowned and Melissa retracted her void aura. Rick advanced to the door carefully, his body and aura prepared for a fight. When he opened the door, however, he discovered Lisa waiting on the other side.

"Hi, Rick." She gave him a nod and a friendly smile. "Melissa told me the competition is today."

"Yeah." He knew he should say something else, but wasn't sure what. Lisa stood awkwardly, one hand in her jacket. Bizarrely, part of him imagined that she was holding a gun and had come to assassinate him.

"Sorry that I can't fight alongside the two of you, but I really don't have any experience with this kind of melee and I'm afraid I'd just get in the way."

"No, it's fine. You've already done plenty for us with all your support."

"Still, I wanted to wish you luck. And give you this." Lisa pulled out her other hand, revealing a clear plastic bundle. Inside, he saw a familiar red cloth and quickly realized that it was like his old jacket. "Uh... I knew you liked that jacket before it got so torn up. I couldn't find exactly the same type, but this one looks similar and it's rated higher, defensively."

"Thank you, Lisa. This means a lot." He took the package from her, looking over it with a slight smile. There was an awkward truth, though... "I don't think I should wear it for today, though, because I'm pretty sure it'd get torn apart again."

"Oh, I understand, that's fine." Lisa seemed just a bit disappointed, but at that point Melissa emerged from the apartment to greet her.

The two women chatted cheerfully while Rick got out the jacket and looked it over. It did look good, and he could feel that a bit of ether had been woven into the fabric, so it'd be durable. Not strong enough to survive Jack's assault, however, and it'd be a shame to lose Lisa's present the same day he got it.

At the end Lisa hugged Melissa, urging her to be careful. Afterward there was an awkward pause, then Lisa hugged him too. It was brief, but it felt right. He was glad that he hadn't somehow managed to push her away too. After that Lisa flew away, leaving Rick and his sister to go find transportation to the site of the final surveying competition.

Unlike the others, this competition took place quite some distance from Branton and its location was obvious before they even got close: a wall of green aura cut through the wilderness, marking out a boundary. Rick couldn't see the ends of the wall, lost in the hills and turns, but the area within must be huge. Fortunately, there was a clearly marked gate relatively close.

When they stepped out, the taxi sped away, leaving them with no choice but to go forward. Not that there had ever really been a choice. Far too much of his life rested on this one event: not just surviving, but managing to win if he wanted to keep his job.

It didn't help that so many competitors were already gathering inside. He saw familiar faces like Pan Zhou, but also plenty of new ones who must have been hired to join the teams. One figure was simply a blur of aura, as if their very identity had been redacted. By comparison, Rick and Melissa felt a bit outclassed. There was no sign of either Jack or Damian, but before they got far, the woman in the green pantsuit approached him with her tablet out.

"Thank you for coming on time. We need you to approve your outside supporters, sign this waiver, and then wait until the Vice President officially starts the competition."

He glanced at the tablet she extended, and though he felt a twinge when he saw Emily's name there, otherwise it was exactly what he expected. After he signed, the woman glanced up at him and Melissa as if noting the missing person, but said nothing. When she was about to move away, Rick spoke up.

"Sorry, is it rude that we never asked your name?"

"No, I prefer it that way." With that, she turned away, leaving them milling around with all the other competitors.

Since they were all waiting, there was the potential for conflicts or conversation, yet the wilderness was strangely quiet. Even the normal sounds of nature seemed to have been suppressed, and Rick wondered if there were any animals in the region. Though he'd grown used to the aura walls limiting the landscape, he suspected that the effects went deeper.

Melissa was sticking close and keeping quiet, so Rick led them to a better position and kept analyzing the group. He finally spotted Damian, standing with a man in South American combat robes... and more worryingly, the woman in the baseball cap who tended to release solid walls of aura indiscriminately. Damian met his gaze and gave him the briefest of nods, though his eyes were hard.

The others also seemed to have grouped themselves into small clusters, all checking out the competition. Most ignored him. Pan Zhou seemed to look directly through Rick as if he wasn't there, instead scanning Damian's group.

Once he had looked over everyone, Rick still hadn't found Jack. Unless the man was hiding, he hadn't arrived yet, even though it was almost the time that the competition was supposed to start. Rick found his gaze wandering further, and when he happened to look skyward, he noticed that a limo floated over the wasteland. Even from a distance when he pushed his senses toward it, he felt an intense amount of power - could the Vice President be there in person?

"Bro, he's here." Melissa tugged on his sleeve and he looked back down in time to see Jack striding past the gate.

He looked the same as before, though his tattoos seemed to writhe beneath his skin. When he saw Rick, Jack drew a finger across his throat and grinned, but Rick just stared back at the threat. Much more important were the two people on his flanks: there was a man in camouflage who carried several guns and a muscular woman in a tank top who Rick thought was another competitor. He wasn't completely sure, but he thought the tattoos covering one forearm were new - perhaps payment for her cooperation.

A familiar clap sounded over the wilderness, though this time there was nothing to silence. The woman in the green pantsuit stepped up on top of a large rock and addressed all of them. "The Central States Lucrim Authority thanks all of you for your work over the past months. Though we've effectively dealt with the problem of lucrim anomalies in this region, we wanted to give all of you one last chance to prove yourselves."

Many shifted restlessly at that, since gaining that attention had been their entire purpose for taking the job. Rick just found himself disappointed to confirm his fears: after this, they were all out of a job. Given how he'd invested all his money back into himself to fight Jack, he desperately needed that final bonus so he had enough to find another job.

"We have artificially created several threats and several objectives within this region in the form of lucrim anomalies and disruptions that will produce the entities you should all remember from the initial trial. None of them will be outside the aura barriers surrounding this region. The barriers will not impede you, but passing through them will be counted as retiring from the competition. In that event, you will keep your current merits and not be allowed to return.

"Merits in this competition will be earned for finding lucrim anomalies. None are awarded for fighting the entities, but merits will be given for eliminating the artificial disruptions. No merits will ever be given for fighting other competitors, but as it is expected to be a common strategy, there is a system in place to account for surrenders."

An old man stepped closer, folding his arms. "What about if we get mobbed by the entities?"

"They will be less intense than in the initial disruption, but it is possible." The woman frowned slightly at being interrupted, but easily shifted her speech. "If you are defeated by a human opponent, you will lose your current merits but retain those earned to this point. If you surrender to a human opponent, they will receive all of your merits. Killing or permanently maiming will not earn you any merits, in order to discourage excessively dangerous tactics. Our observers will not step in during the event, but if you forfeit, you will be extracted. In that case, you will surrender all merits and be removed from consideration."

So it was a tactical test above all, offering everyone the opportunity to retreat and capture their gains or continue searching and risk losing everything. The penalties for surrender were surprisingly heavy - apparently they wanted everyone to treat this like a real war scenario. Judging from Jack's grin, that suited him just fine.

"Let me put up the merit scoreboard one more time, then I'll discuss your potential rewards." As she spoke, a lucrim panel lit up over her head.

[1) [redacted] - 261 merits

2) Pan Zhou - 245 merits

3) Kate Durham - 236 merits

4) Damian - 228 merits

5) Heidi Cunningham - 225 merits

6) Machk Bearan - 210 merits

7) Jack Ganess - 209 merits

8) Rick Hunter - 201 merits

9) Oswaln - 197 merits

10) Javiera Banks - 191 merits]

"Anyone still on the merit scoreboard at the end of the competition will receive one month's wages and an additional monetary bonus based on their score. The top ten candidates will receive double that. The top three candidates will receive a 1,000,000 lucrim philosopher's elixir. Finally, the candidate who performs best as judged by the Vice President of Remnant Acquisition will be given a rare Mesospheric Extract.

"Those are all the applicable rules. You will be transported to different entrances around the edges of the region - not all locations are equal, but you have been seeded based on your previous performance balanced against team size and the number of outside teammates. The competition begins as soon as you enter from your true entrance."

With that, they all began to move, suited officials transporting them via various techniques. Rick reflected that he now understood the team sizes: apparently there was some disadvantage for larger teams in the location seeding. He wondered whether or not Emily counted against him, then just tried not to think about it. It was time to fight.

Their official used a teleportation-style technique to move them to a location outside the aura wall. Then he raised a finger and looked at his watch, waiting for the starting time. Rick felt Melissa reach over to squeeze his hand and he squeezed back.

"Now." The official gestured to the aura wall and a gate opened. Rick and his sister hesitated a moment, surprised that there was no tone or other signal, then rushed through the gate.