Volume 6: Mecha Contest Chapter 322 New Competition System
"Uh... didn't I say before that she and I grew up together... I was probably only fourteen years old at that time, and it was mainly out of curiosity..."
"Okay, stop talking, don't say any more, the book will be lost if you continue." Ke Lan quickly interrupted Ye Yan's recollection, "So what are you going to do now? You can't stay here forever, right?"
"I'll hide for a few days and avoid the limelight until she calms down..." Ye Yan said, and suddenly changed the subject, "How about we join your hunting group? Under the pretext of a mission, we can go outside the Ark for a month or so. By the time we come back, she should have almost forgotten about this matter."
"No, no." Ke Lan shook his head like a rattle. "Exploring ruins is a life-threatening job. If anything happens to you out there, the Ye family will expose our entire hunting group."
"I know, I know... What I mean is, on the surface I am joining your hunting group, but in reality I am hiring you as my guards. We can just find a few low-level ruins that have been explored and treat it as a trip... Brother Ke Lan, I have seen your strength at the cocktail party before. Compared to your teammates, they must be masters. With you here, nothing will go wrong."
"It's still not possible." Ke Lan refused flatly. "You may not believe it, but every ruin we go to, no matter how safe it is before, will become a dangerous place where there is no chance of survival once we enter... Even an old bird like Hound dare not guarantee that he can escape alive, so how can he take you with him?"
"Are you kidding me? If that's the case, there will be big problems in the knockout round..."
" There's a big problem in the knockout round? What does that mean?" Ke Lan asked with some confusion, but in his heart, he suddenly felt something was wrong.
"Part of the reason I came here this time is to reveal this to you." Ye Yan lowered his voice, "In order to make the game more entertaining and to get higher ratings, the entire knockout stage format has been modified... Now this venue outside is just the venue for the group stage."
"Modify the competition system, change the venue... wait a minute! According to what you mean, does that mean the venue for the knockout round will be moved to some ruins?!" Ke Lan reacted instantly.
"Yes, the venue for the elimination round is set in a C-level ruins 460 kilometers away from here... I remember the name of this ruins should be 'Sandstone Ruined City'..."
"C-039 'Sandstone Abandoned City' is a relic of the Alpha civilization discovered in the early days of the Ark's landing. It is very low in danger, and after years of exploration, more than 90% of the area within the ruins has been explored... The only feature of this relic is that it is large enough and the terrain is very complex. A rift with a depth of more than 300 meters runs through the city. The entire city is divided into two main building complexes: the upper city on the surface and the lower city at the bottom of the canyon. Between the upper city and the lower city, there is still a part of the remaining suspended structure..." Ke Lan looked at the information searched on the mobile phone and read silently.
"That damn place... What, are we planning to play hide-and-seek in the knockout round?" The Hound couldn't help but complain.
"There's a battle royale type online game commonly known as 'Chicken Dinner'. Have you heard of it?" Ye Yan asked.
"Not only have I heard of it, I've also played quite a few PUBG-style games... Just two days ago, I logged into 'Apex Prison Simulator', which is a sci-fi style PUBG game. It's quite fun, but there are too many orphans who cheat. So it seems that the organizers of the event are planning to make the elimination rounds a PUBG mode? Driving a mecha to play PUBG... this is quite new ."
"Wait... eating chicken? What do you mean by eating chicken? Roasted chicken or fried chicken? Ke Lan, can you first explain to me the rules of this game?" The Hound, who usually doesn't play games, asked repeatedly.
"'Chicken Dinner' is just a common name among players. It comes from a game called 'PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds'. After winning first place, the game would say 'Good luck, chicken dinner tonight'. To be more precise, this type of game should be called a 'Battle Royale' game, which is a game where a number of players are thrown into a limited area that is constantly shrinking, and the player or team of players who survives at the end is considered the winner."
"Tsk... It sounds like raising a Gu. Then all we have to do is hide and wait for the others to fight each other, and then come out and reap the benefits." said the hound.
"This is indeed a tactic, but generally the designers of battle royale games will find ways to force players to fight... For example, the concept of the safe zone. As the game progresses, the area available for players to move around will become smaller and smaller, and the number of players per unit area will increase. The tactic of simply retreating will not work at this time." Ke Lan explained.
"In addition to the safe zone, there is also the issue of supplies--" Ye Yan interrupted, "According to the new rules of the knockout rounds, your mechas cannot bring any weapons or additional equipment into the competition venue except for a standard combat dagger, and the maintenance points limit has been set very low, so low that everyone is almost a blank skeleton at the beginning... Whether it is guns, ammunition, shields... even things like outer armor, thrusters and replacement parts, they must be obtained through exploration in the competition area. At the same time, the energy crystals you carry at the beginning are also limited. In other words, if you are unlucky and don't find crystals in the ruins, the mecha will not go far before it is paralyzed due to energy exhaustion..."
"Although the event organizers will place a certain amount of supplies in every corner of the stadium, these supply points are very scattered, and the quantity at each point is not much..." Ye Yan continued.
"In other words, it is better to rob other contestants than to avoid fighting... Otherwise, in the finals, there will be a huge gap in combat power between the mechas that have never fought before and the mechas that have fought their way in and are fully armed... But if you choose to fight, you have to pay attention to the consumption of ammunition and crystals, as well as the risk of being persuaded to fight by other teams... There are really a lot of factors to consider." Ke Lan frowned and said, "By the way, what is the specific competition system? It is impossible to cram all the qualified teams into one game, right?"
Ye Yan replied, "Of course not. There will be a total of 64 teams that advance from the group stage. These 64 teams will be divided into four divisions. If each team sends three players, there will be 48 players in a game... In the competitions in these four divisions, as long as the participating teams rank in the top quarter, they will advance, and the remaining three quarters will be eliminated. Then the top quarter teams in the four divisions will gather together for the finals."
"Oh, right," Ye Yan seemed to have thought of something, and then said to Ke Lan, "Is there a mechanic among your contestants? The maintenance mechanic on the personnel list cannot follow the contestants into the competition venue. Replacing equipment, adding accessories, and repairing the body must be done by the contestants themselves. If there is no mechanic among the three people, it will be a big trouble."
"Mechanic... that's not a problem. The mechas were basically modified by Layton and Chi Hanfeng... but I'm a little hard-pressed to choose the contestant." Ke Lan pondered - logically speaking, his ability should be able to play a key role in this game, but the problem is that his driving skills are very average. If he replaces "unmovable as a mountain" with a blank skeleton, then before he gets enough weapons and ammunition, he is basically a burden with no combat power. Not only can he not provide any help to his teammates, but he will also become a burden to them...
