The Greatest Mecha-Chapter 76: Aspiring For Greater Heights

Priscilla and Alto sat sat on one of the benches that stood by the road side, the bench was long enough to carry a dozen people at once, it was made of a metal and covered in soft foam. Alto felt a little awkward being with her, it was already annoying that he was lost already but now he was with a other person who seemed lost. What gave him comfort was that they had the same location in mind. He looked over at her to see that she looked a little too confident for someone who was was lost.

"Have you perhaps been here before?" Alto asked, breaking their minute long silence.

Priscilla laughed at his question and said. "You are terrible at starting conversations, no I have now been here before. That aside I would advice you buy yourself a new pair of clothes."

Alto cocked his head in her direction with a confused face. "But my clothes are fine, I brought extra."

Priscilla looked at the people across the road and around them as she addressed him. "Look at them all, they all wear the pristine garments that carry the emblem of the planet or at least one of its prime colours like the white, the sea blue and golden lines. When they found you without these in the crowd they turned on you like an insect. These people act like that to outsiders, you might think they have a right to do this."

"Actually I don’t." Alto chirped in.

Priscilla continued nonetheless. "The honest truth is that they are the scum of this planet, the lowest of the low. The real rich ones and the tournament itself is over there." She gestured to the sky, Alto looked up to see another city above the one he was currently inside. This city was floating, held together by chains of roads intersecting and crossing each other, magnificent skyscrapers that shone like gold down on them. "I know, looks cool doesn’t it?"

Alto marveled at the sight, he could not see the exact structure of the floating city but the view from beneath seemed just a as priceless. "Who actually lives there?"

Priscilla gave him an up-tight look and paused for seconds before speaking. "Now that’s a dumb question. Who else would live there except the wealthy pioneers of this world. I have to talk god about them even if I don’t want to, can’t tell when you’ll be hauled away for treason or something."

"You seem awfully calm for someone who’s lost", Alto said without taking his eyes off the sight above him.

She smiled and gave him a light tug on the shoulder. "My friends will track me here on my wrist comm. So are you a born genius who was scouted or did you get here on your own."

Alto had noticed how she had deviated any question pertaining to her personal life and he aimed to do the same. But surely he could not tell her he was affiliated with the professor, she was too much of a big deal and he could not say he was a genius either. For all he knew she could be the true genius there, but what did a genius even really mean. So he answered truthfully, "Actually I’m a nobody hoping to become somebody through this, honestly I’ll be glad if I make it into the top 500, I believe I will be satisfied if I achieve just that."

He waited to see her reaction, he wondered if her perspective of him would change to become more positive or whether it would regress down a negative path. A few seconds passed with Priscilla saying nothing and her face showing no visible change, until she spoke after a long while. "Not even the top hundred, I would never rank myself so low. But then again the competition will be hellish to begin with so we can’t really know where we’ll placed as we progress."

Alto nodded in understanding, at least she did not shun him. "What about you, where do you think you’ll place."

To this she smiled and responded almost immediately, "Without a doubt I’ll be taking one of the top three spots in this competition."

Alto gasped openly to show his shock, there was no way he could measure her intelligence but what she was saying might have been true if she dared say it with that level of confidence then she must have meant it. Or was she bluffing? One look at her face told him otherwise. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

"That’s great to say with that amount of confidence, I really envy you." Alto said truthfully, "Would you mind if I asked you a question now?"

Priscilla gave him a bright nod and said. "Ask away Alto."

He continued. "What do you know about the competition?"

She looked forward to the road where a hover bus stopped to pick up a few passengers, she watched them walk in an orderly manner before saying. "It’s brutal, many people get dropped from the preliminaries but I figured you knew that. I don’t perceive you as a dumb person so I’ll just say this, don’t make any friends here. They’ll be out to sabotage everyone."

Alto nodded. "Noted." He noticed her trembling a little, "It’s chilly out here isn’t it?" He handed her his coat which she looked at for a very long time making him feel awkward. "Please take it?"

Priscilla looked back to the hover bus that was almost full and said. "I don’t want your sympathy, besides you need it better than I do. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate the gesture, I just don’t want it."

Alto wrapped his coat around her shoulder regardless much to her surprise, before she could protest he spoke up. "Sorry for being forceful then, I’m not giving it to you because of sympathy or anything like that, I’m just paying you back for saving my skin back there." He looked at her and observed her a little, she kept mute but he could see that her body appreciated the gesture.

Priscilla but her lower lip for a few seconds, her thoughts elsewhere for a few seconds. A few minutes passed and they silently kept each other company till a group of people dressed in uniforms called out to her, apparently they had tracked her there. Priscilla looked greatly relieved as she gave Alto a kind smile and said, "So this is where I leave you, I really do hope I meet you in the finals."

Alto smiled back and said. "It seems you have grand aspirations for me, I do hope I reach that far though I doubt it."

She gave him a long hard stare, her eyes yearning for something but she said nothing before excusing herself and walking back to her friends, leaving him behind to himself. Alto was not bothered being alone, he did not have to wait long before Eleven found him much to his surprise. When he asked how Eleven found him he gave a half hearted response, "I tracked you here." Alto did not push much further, he had had a stressful day as it was. They both walked up to the massive scraper that reached into the heavens where all participants would enter into the competition, entering it the inside was as massive as an amusement park with very impressive gadgets like flying bots zipping through the air. There was a long line of people, mostly a mix of young and old of both genders. Alto identified them to be the participants of the competition, "That’s a lot of people." Alto said calmly, "I wonder just how much they make from this alone."

Eleven tugged Alto on the shoulder. "This is where my work ends, you’ll go up front and sign up. Then you’ll be taken to your quarters I think."

Alto felt a bit bummed that he would be separated from his companion on foreign land. "So where will you stay."

Eleven raised his hand and ruffled Alto’s hair, "Hey now, it’s bad for a little brother to worry about their senior. I’ll watch your performance in the arena." He gave Alto what appeared to be a slight smile before waving at him and walking away.

Alto raised a cautious eyebrow and asked. "What arena?" With his luggages in hand he continued till he reached the front of the line where he met the receptionist and after confirming his identity he was sent into an elevator, in it were a small number of future competitors, the golden interior of the elevator spoke volumes to the wealth and splendor of Zen Utopia.

The elevator shot up at a speed that put any high speed vehicle Alto had seen to shame, it moved with the force of rocket thrusters propelling it into the air. As it rose up higher he could see the rooftops of the skyscrapers of the power part of the city. Alto pressed down his hand on his chest and he could feel it thumping hard against his chest, "This is it." He told himself.