[[AUTHOR NOTE: Second chapter of the day. No bonus chapters so far, as none of the sites have received five 5-star reviews.
Got to it if you want those bonus chapters, readers.]]
"For fucks sake," Stacey cursed angrily as she saw Adam drop to third in the leaderboard.
"Damn Excess Surplus, it's all his fault Adam dropped to third," Tephe said with a pout.
"While I agree it's annoying that Adam is losing to that cheating bastard, you can't deny that the match is more exciting now that those two are properly fighting and damaging each other," Aphrodite stated with sparkling eyes.
"You mean how Adam is damaging and destroying Excess Surplus?" Rowena remarked.
"Yeah, Excess Surplus energy bolts all get absorbed by the beam canceler, while the missiles are all shot down shortly after launch, "Mika said with excitement.
"Honestly, I don't think Adam is bothered about the charity match anymore and is more interested in why Excess Surplus attacked," Lorelie stated thoughtfully.
"That would explain why he is only targeting Excess Suprplus's limbs as if he's trying to disable it," Becky replied.
"He probably intends to either question the pilot, or more likely have his ship's AI hack into the suit and check the logs," Rowena added.
"You have an idea who might be targeting him?" Eri asked.
"Most likely the Bounty Hunter Guild, Becky has told me that Mr Spencer has had a run-in with them a few times now," Tessa replied.
"That is the most likely scenario," Rowena said in agreement before adding with her signature smirk, "And you know what he plans to do if that turns out to be the case."
"What?" Becky asked curiously as the other girls also showed looks of curiosity.
"Hehe, I think it will be more fun to let you wait and see," Rowena replied with a giggle.
"Not again," Aphrodite sighed as she shot Rowena an annoyed look, which made the beautiful Brood smirk even more.
💫💫💫
Spector Unit Six continued to pursue Excess Surplus while firing its 14 weapons relentlessly at its targets' limbs and thrusters.
Eventually, the pilot of Excess Surplus misjudged where one of the attacks was coming from as it tried to dodge it preemptively, only for a series of blaster bolts to tear one of the wing attachments on its back, thereby removing both a wing containing a thruster and one of the wing cannons.
As soon as the wing was blasted off, Excess Surplus went into an uncontrolled spin for several seconds since it didn't have two thrusters to counteract each other, and the one that was still attached made it rotate.
Since Adam didn't want to chance destroying Excess Surplus before Spector had hacked into it, he sent a mental command to the drones and ordered them to attack the two leg joints, since it was unlikely a shot would miss them and hit the cockpit or power reactor.
"And Excess Surplus has entered an uncontrolled spin that its pilot is no doubt trying to recover from. Unfortunately for it, this gives Spector Unit Six ample time to attack its legs without resistance as it attempts to carve up Excess Surplus even more," Honcho said in excitement.
"With this Excess Surplus is only down to his one wing cannon and any missiles he has left, it also looks like Spector Unit Six is taking this chance to close the gap on Excess Surplus, as it is heading towards it fast," Dulaebella stated as everyone watching saw Spector Unit 6 shoot towards Excess Surplus at a far greater rate of speed than it had done so far.
As Spector Unit 6 closed in on the still out-of-control Excess Surplus, Adam commanded Spector Unit 6 to reach down with its right hand to a leg compartment that had just opened on its right leg and pull out a long black tube that turned out to be a beam saber as the red energy beam erupted from the end of it.
[SciFifanboy (Earth): BEAM SABERS! THAT IS SO SCI-FI.]
[Animefangirl (Earth): Hell yeah, that's Anime.]
[RealOtaku (Earth): Oh damn, that's awesome.]
[DeverinianLordMalacoss (Deverinian 9): So his mech even possesses beam sabers.]
[Beinglittleisnotadisadvantage (Strathorp 7): It's not that surprising, beam sabers are standard issue on most mechs.]
[DeverinianLordMalacoss (Deverinian 9): True.]
Spector Unit 6 soon appeared right next to Excess Surplus, which was finally starting to slow down its spin. Unfortunately, it was too little too late because as Excess Surplus rotated and its back faced him, Adam controlled Spector Unit 6 to reach out and grab Excess Surplus on the left shoulder that was already missing the wing.
As Excess Surplus spin came to a stop thanks to Spector Unit Six, Adam sliced down with his beam sabre, which cut cleanly through the other wing, slicing it clean off, leaving Excess Surplus as just a torso and head.
"Let me go, you fucker," Adam suddenly heard as a male voice broadcast on an open com to him.
"Begin accessing his logs," Adam instructed as he ignored the pilot of Excess Surplus, who had just spoken to him.
[[Affirmative, hacking into Excess Surplus.]]
[[Access Granted.]]
[[Scanning communication logs.]]
[[Information retrieved, displaying now.]]
[[Message Recieved from Drot:I agree to your conditions]]
[[Message Sent: About time, you almost missed your chance. Remember, I want triple the bounty reward as I will be blacklisted after doing this]]
[[Message Recieved from Drot: Fine, just make it public]]
[[Message Sent: That was the plan all along]]
"So it was that dickhead director of the bounty hunter guild again," Adam cursed.
"Hey, are you listening to me fucker?" The pilot of Excess Surplus asked angrily.
[[Affirmative, also it seems that the pilot of Excess Surplus is a bounty hunter.]]
As Spector replied, it displayed the same information that Sata had just shown Maiya in her private box.
"Then it seems they didn't take my warning seriously," Adam replied as he controlled Spector Unit 6 to drive the beam saber into the back of Excess Surplus and out through the front, killing the pilot as it went right through the cockpit.
[[NOTIFICATION: Spector Unit 6 has killed a rival mech pilot and is therefor disqualified from the charity match for breaking the rules.]]
"Oh damn," Honcho said in shock as he swallowed slightly before continuing, "Spector Unit Six has officially been disqualified for breaking the rules."
"That's kind of stupid, don't you think?" Raella remarked with a frown.
"You don't think he should be disqualified for killing his competitor?" Honcho asked.
"That's not the point I'm arguing, even in the main competition, a non-accidental killing is grounds for disqualification. My issue is with the fact that Excess Surplus attacked first, and with live weapons, yet he did not get disqualified or punished," Raella explained.
"I know it sounds stupid, but that's because there is no specific rule against attacking another competitor with live weapons in the charity match. Since everyone knows that it uses both simulated damage mode changes and holographic reproduction damage modes to try and prevent the mechs receiving any actual damage," Dulaebella explained.
"That's kind of a major loophole that the UMB Cup committee missed, then, isn't it?" Raella asked in disbelief.
"I would agree with you on that, and I'm sure it's something they will look into; however, it doesn't change the fact that that's how the current rules are.
Of course, if the pilot of Spector Unit Six wanted to lodge a complaint about it, he's more than within his rights. Though I don't really see him doing that since he just, you know, killed his competitor."
💫💫💫
"THIS IS BULLSHIT," Stacey shouted angrily as she saw the announcement and jumped to her feet, attracting the attention of all the other VIP's.
"TOTAL BULLSHIT, THAT BASTARD ATTACKED ADAM FIRST," Tephe added in an equally loud voice.
"Calm down," Rowena said with a sigh before continuing. "I understand your anger and frustration, but it doesn't change the fact that by killing the pilot of Excess Surplus, Adam broke the rules."
"But that pilot attacked Adam first," Tephe complained.
"We know that, Tephe, and I am just as angry as you are; however, the call has already been made," Lorelie replied.
"Well, I personally don't think that Adam's as bothered about being disqualified as all of you are," Aphrodite said with a smirk as she continued to observe the holographic screen.
"Why?" Becky asked in an annoyed voice as she slumped in her chair with her arms crossed.
"Look," Aphrodite replied as she indicated the holographic screen that showed Spector Unit 6 heading towards the sphere's hatch that the mechs had entered through.
💫💫💫
[Gunlovergirl (Earth): This is total bullshit. 😡]
[Emojisonly (Earth): 😡]
[HackerSu (Trillion): Agreed, what's up with them disqualifying Adam after he was attacked first?]
[StealthAssassin9 (Earth): Well, he did kill a fellow competitor, pretty sure that's frowned upon in most sports.]
[HackerSu (Trillion): After he was attacked, he can just claim self-defence.]
[Lizziethetruepower (Palalxia): Also, it might be frowned upon in every sport on Earth. But out here in the known universe, where death is a daily occurrence and we have sports that risk your lives, it's a fairly common thing and only premeditated killings like what the streamer did are generally punished.]
[Justiceistruth (Earth): That's kinda messed up.]
[StealthAssassin9 (Earth): Was it really premeditated? Some could claim self-defence.]
[OfficialMuriel (Aqua Primus): He literally stabbed him in the back. It might have been self-defence before that, but you can't really call stabbing a disabled mech pilot through the cockpit back anything but premeditated.]
[CEOHopkins (Earth): 😮💨 Rules are rules.]