At the stadium, the children were in panic. The aliens that were always talked about on the news and in almost all forms of media were finally ready to attack their empire and humanity.
The races made sure to segregate themselves from each other, because of the deadly wars that occurred between them when they attempted to live close by one another.
The outcome of this event would most certainly not be beneficial for both parties.
What Cael was most worried about was his autonomous bot. If he couldn't acquire that damaged bot's parts, he'd lose out on that massive sum of money. He didn't have any form of fabrication ticket right now and had to get that bot before it was taken away.
They were in the large entrance hall, that was filled with around 80 students; 40 from each institute.
Cael pushed himself through the dense crowd, receiving some gestures and comments of annoyance from the people around him but he wasn't bothered about this.
He arrived behind a teacher, that was the same aged man that had directly confronted the boarman.
The warrior was currently talking to another group of warriors like him, and they seemed very invested in their conversation. They were constantly talking through comm units, and clearly had many conversations on at the same time.
This event would most certainly disrupt the stability of almost all of the Soburg Empire and even humanity as a whole.
The man initially attempted to just ignore Cael but could tell that he was standing near him because he had something to say.
He tapped at his comm unit, before turning with an expression of slight frustration.
"What do you want, kid?"
"Um, my attack bot was in the event, and I didn't manage to get it before I was forced to evacuate." Cael explained.
"Well, the boarman set off a bomb near the site. All of the autonomous bots that we could salvage were returned to the owners. If the bot wasn't confiscated beforehand for it being too dangerous, it was likely blown up in there."
Cael looked quite bummed out from that and on the inside, he was distraught. This was supposed to be his magical opportunity to advance far in not just his journey as a mechanic but also a warrior too.
The experience he could gain within the vault and even the gears he would be rewarded from his eventual wins would be invaluable. Without a strong exosuit as a base, he wouldn't be able to put up a fight.
"Okay then. Sorry for wasting your time." Cael replied, returning to the crowd of students.
"Hello students. We will take into account the results from this event more lightly and won't give detailed feedback like we intended. We are aware that a lot of you weren't able to properly showcase your abilities but we have the final rankings readily available. They will be based mainly on coins, since there was still almost half of the teams within the arena by the time of the mandatory evacuation." A teacher announced.
Seconds later, a panel appeared, highlighting the positions of the teams. There was a mixture of cheers of glee, also with groans of disappointment and fury.
Cael was near the front of these students after talking to the man at the group of teachers and so, he was able to get a clear view of the teams.
Scanning the panel from top to bottom, he found his team, snugly in the fifteenth position, out of the 27 spots.
"OH MY GOSH YES!!" He shouted in his mind, intending to head back to his teammates.
As he turned, however, he could see that a system panel was appearing.
He looked impatient as he saw the glowing projection manifest.
This was maybe his last chance at making back some of the losses that he had made.
[Quest Complete!]
[+1 Fabrication Ticket]
In his hand, a blue ticket started to fabricate out of practically nothing and he swiftly placed his hand in his pocket so no one around could see it form. Initially, it was just a projection and so, nobody could see that.
His system panels were invisible to everyone else around him, but when it materialised something out of nothing that would obviously no longer be the case.
A large number of exosuit warriors started to arrive at the scene, and they could also see that several roads had been closed off.
They could hear horns from the created traffic, as a result, and general disorder in the area. Many students didn't even think about their position in the tournament for long, and were more invested in the boarman's appearance.
It wasn't long before the students were allowed to exit, along with the instructors that followed them here. The group of 80 students were escorted in military grade airbus coaches, used to transfer military units across planets.
The airbuses slowly traversed the cluttered roads, being given space for them to pass due to their military status. They would give out verbal messages through the airbuses for people to clear the streets, so that they could be given an easy path to the nearest airport.
This was supposed to be a nightly stay, but they knew there would be no need for them to remain in Amburg any longer. Many students, along with their frightened parents, wanted their children to be within their sight as quickly as possible.
Once again, since they were an exosuit cadet institute, they were given special status upon arriving at the spacious port. The interior of the port was also chaotic, as several flights were delayed or cancelled.
The city was in true and utter chaos, as people were restless to return to wherever they had come from.
However, they were escorted into a special aircraft meant for the military. It had a sleek, grey appearance and was more like a passenger aircraft.
It was no where near as luxurious as the special commercial aircraft they were supposed to board but this was on short notice. In just 45 minutes, though, they were back in Carlo City and arrived at the institute shortly after.
There were crowds of parents ready to see their students, and many were more than grateful to see that they hadn't been harmed. Vanessa's parents weren't even present to see her bloodied physique, and Cael didn't even have any parents to pick him up.
However, that meant that he was able to leave the premises and head home shrotly after.
Cael returned to his apartment, and immediately opened the system, along with the ExoTech Marketplace.
For him to be able to fabricate the autonomous bot, all he needed was sufficient virtual metals. With such basic metals, the system would somehow be able to fabricate all of the intricate internal wiring and processor technology from thin air.
He had to spend around 1000 dollars just to acquire these metals. The metals came in smaller sizes and therefore, he couldn't take the advantage of bulk buying to decrease the cost per unit weight of metal.
Since he had bought such a small package, he wouldn't be able to maximise his reward from it as much.
Nevertheless, he swiftly revealed his fabrication and got to work, selecting the WM-01 Valiant design that he had created.
[Would you like to redeem this fabrication ticket?]
"Hell yeah I would!" He said to himself, watching the ticket vanish.
In seconds, his special WM-01 Valiant had been fleshed out from nothing at all. It appeared once again, with its trusty heated blade and shoulder-mounted energy blaster.
"Alright. Now to sell!" He told himself, looking at the marketplace to see how much his autonomous bot could go for.
Now, this task was slightly more difficult because there weren't any exact replicas of his design on the market, of course. However, using his wits and intellect, he searched up bots of a similar tier to his own bot, that contained components of similar prices.
He did so, and the prices that he saw around the panels that floated around him brought a smile to his face.
The very cheapest bot that he had seen was about 250,000 dollars, but he knew that it was at least a grade below his own. His bot literally had four arms, and the bots with extra limbs went for higher prices from the greater material used to make them.
In the end, he noticed a few bots of similar weight and grade to his own, which were sold at around 400,000 to 450,000 dollars.
With his Merchant tier profile, he placed his WM-01 Valiant model on the market for 350,000 dollars.
In mere minutes, the item was bought and he received a full 350,000 dollars right into his account.
Now, since the exosuit model was a very heavy item, it couldn't be sent through teleportation through warping of spacetime.
Instead, it would have to be delivered through the use of spaceports that hired FTL cargo ships to transport heavy goods.
This wasn't a bother, though, as the ExoTech Marketplace also had special access to deliveries like this for those of the merchant tier.
Special delivery bots arrived at the door of his apartment and retrieved the bot, which meant that he didn't have to think about the delivery of the item.
With his model gone, and 350,000 dollars sitting in his account, he wiped his hands with a keen smirk on his face and wanted to get to work right away.
"Alright, where should I begin?" He wondered.