The Greatest Mecha-Chapter 52: Flash Web

Professor Alberta returned shortly after with the tickets for the game. She walked up to the game and put in the first ticket to start it up. The tabletop game roared to life, the title Flash Web could be seen over it, displayed in dark letters and connected by strands of webs.

Alto noticed the Start Game function appear on it; the professor stepped aside for him to play the game.

Alto did not bother to hide the surprise he felt just from looking at it in confusion. "I don’t know how to play it. Shouldn’t you give it a try first?" He would rather watch how she played it and adapt to it. He could see the way her eyes exploded with excitement just from staring at the game, but she quickly turned her eyes away from the game and said,

"My gaming days are over. Besides, I would like to see if you can beat my high score," she said with a kick in her voice.

"I can try." Alto tried to sound a bit confident, but he had doubts that he would be able to beat a game he had only just encountered. He also had the feeling that there was a reason behind it—a reason known only to her.

Alto initiated the game. He was curious as to what type of game it was for the professor’s eyes to light up at its sight. To him, it looked old, very old, and he could tell that no one played it much. Around him, the children and adults were more engrossed in the newer games, and the section for gamers who loved Mech Galaxy Wars was packed.

As the game started, it began by giving a tutorial since he had clicked the tutorial function. The game’s display was space in its pitch black, with billions of tiny twinkling lights in the background. It reminded Alto of his dream to one day explore space. What appeared next was a mini story about helping the spider reach his home. The story of the game itself was nothing to write home about.

When the game started, a finger-sized web appeared and a circle icon at its head instructed Alto to tap, which he did. When he tapped it, the web started to grow slowly and coil in a circle. Alto’s work was to trace the web pattern and reach its endpoint for him to be awarded points. If he was too slow, the web would fade out and points would be deducted.

Alto spent his time familiarizing himself with the game and its rules. All he had to do was trace the web line from start to finish. It seemed pretty easy to him. He did not want to waste valuable time delaying the professor, so he stayed with Easy Mode Level One, which ran down to Level Five before the Hard Mode and the Insane Mode, each with five stages.

Alto cleared the first stage of the Easy Mode with ease. On reaching the second stage, he noticed that the lines became a little faster and two webs could appear at almost the same time, leaving little interval between the completion of one and the start of another. Still, it was not a problem for Alto, as he had to use two hands to play. When he got to the third level, he was surprised by the speed at which the webs would appear. He would have to work much faster than before or they would vanish.

On reaching the third further stage, Alto was crossing out three webs at four times their original speed. This was where he started to lose points, but somehow he managed to scale through. On reaching the fifth stage, which was the final stage of the Easy Mode, the speed of everything stayed a bit the same, but the number of webs he would have to cross out increased to four. After a short while, he completed the Easy levels and started the Advanced first level. It was here that Alto suffered his first defeat. The speed of the game skyrocketed, causing him to fail on multiple occasions or panic. His muscles would tense up and he would make critical mistakes, like letting go of the web too early or not tapping it in time before it would fade away.

Alto hid the bit of frustration he felt after knowing that he would have to start from scratch. He had expected to repeat the level he had failed, but apparently that was not so. The second time he tried it, he failed at the same level. The third time he barely managed to pass, but the joy he felt soon turned to horror. The Advanced second stage was beyond him, as his eyes could not keep up with the number of webs that were now reaching right at once. With each one he canceled out, another would spring up, and the time limit on them dropped by half. Alto lost to this level without making much of an impact. This frustrated him in a way it had never before. The more he tried the game, the less pronounced his results would be, and soon he could no longer get past the fifth level of the Easy Mode.

Hours had passed with Alto failing over and over again. Fortunately, his torture ended as soon as he ran out of tickets. He was tired and frustrated and wanted to kick the game, but he controlled his calm.

He leaned over the table and stared at the bold "FAILURE" on its screen and hit back at his frustration. Alberta had sat on a tall stool nearby and observed him the whole time, and she was as surprised as she was confused. Her initial goal was to have him beat the Advanced first level in a few days, and here he was doing that on the third try, but now he was unable to. She wanted to tell him not to rush it earlier, but she waited to see how he would actually understand pressure. As a mech designer, it was always a strong quality to have—a designer that would not be compromised by frustration or negligence—and Alto proved just that.

Now that he had exhausted the tickets and also shown her that he had more potential than she had initially capitalized upon, she leaned closer to say a few words.

"I think I was nine or something when I started this game. Back then, this planet was a dump. I wanted nothing to do with it, and I still don’t, but I can’t just forget the memories I made here." Alto listened attentively to her, not wanting to say something and allowing his frustration to take over in the form of anger. "This game, though not official, was created for the sole purpose of fun, but it’s a bit competitive as you might have noticed. Also, I just wanted you to be able to work the first level of the Advanced level."

Alto stared at her intently and asked, "Why? What does this game help me with exactly?" He knew there had to be a catch, and he was asking now.

Alberta felt her pocket for her cigarette pack which nestled there. She knew it was against the rules to smoke in the vicinity of the mall, but she desperately wanted a smoke. She restrained herself and answered his question earnestly.

"From your time in the game, you must have noticed that the fabrication process of a mech must be extremely hard and delicate. While using the 3D printer, you have to be slow and concise. But that’s all bull when you have to build a mech as fast as you can. Mech plates come in layers, starting from the thinnest first layer to even harder layers. The materials used all have their own micro patterns which you will weave into a suitable shape. But what does this have to do with Flash Web?" She pursed her lips for a few seconds before saying, "Hand and eye reaction time, movement and precision, resourcefulness, ingenuity, quick thinking. This is a training guide to using the 3D printer. Master your timing and reflexes and all other things concerned, and you will be able to craft even sophisticated single-layer mech plates. Complete the second level of Advanced and you will be able to do double layers at the same time."

Alto pondered on her words and then compared it to the 3D printer model in the game Mech Designer Protocol, and indeed there was a similarity. "If I master the first level of Advanced, I will be able to save up on my raw materials without compromising on my quality, which will also be improved. This is killing two birds with a single stone," Alto thought to himself.

He asked the principal to get him a fresh batch of tickets. Afterwards, he started the game again and tried again, each time failing to reach the Advanced stage like he had done before. While the professor had expected him to persist, she was beginning to feel something off with him. Alto was changing somehow. It was like his hands were reacting faster with each loss.

Whereas Alto had just succeeded in forcing the Designer’s Eye into activation for the moment, and with it he could follow every web on the screen. His hand muscles would follow his mind’s thought with a bit of delay. Alto had suspected that the Eye might improve his reaction time, and he was right. The more he used it, the shorter the delay, and the more reflexive his acting was. Soon he was able to keep up with the Easy levels as well as the first level of the Advanced levels. He moved on to the second level of the Advanced levels.

Professor Alberta smiled lightly as she folded her hands. "I admire your grit, measel, but your talent is not that pronounceable," she thought to herself as she watched him fail multiple times, over and over.

The number of webs on the screen now numbered sixteen and their timer till they faded dropped to less than five seconds. It was an impossible feat at his level. Alto’s grit and continuous attacking of the game had managed to garner a lot of attention from the crowd nearby. With each loss they "oooohed," and with each win they "yaaaaaayed." But Alto was not paying them any mind.

Alto’s mind was uncharacteristically empty and quiet, the only thing moving in his face being his eyes, which were zipping about wildly. The tension within the gaming center grew as Alto held up the last ticket in his hand. They all knew what this meant. It was the final draw.

For this, Alto took in a very deep breath before slotting it in and starting the game Flash Web. He cleared the beginner levels in record time before starting the Advanced levels almost immediately. For the first level of the Advanced levels, he was able to complete it faster than he had ever done before. He was sent into the next game immediately, and it was the hardest one yet. The professor’s eyes beamed as Alto started to progress through this level. He tapped and swiped like his life depended on it. No one could breathe. Alto had long since shut the room out of his train of thought, and this had only intensified the air around him.

"WINNER!" the sound blared from the game as the second level of the Advanced levels was cleared. The entire gaming center erupted into joy. The game mercilessly took him into the third level of the Advanced levels, and Alto, being the ever-promising young man he was, took up the new challenge—but he only failed shortly after.

His Designer Eye seemed to lose all power and go off. Alto also lost his balance and collapsed, having not eaten that day. Professor Alberta caught him and looked at his tired face, her own face stricken with joy at the realization she had just made. "This boy is a peerless talent. And he’s all mine."