Chapter 76 - Meeting GameGo Gamers (1/2)

Gray and the rest of the Steel Wolves bought mechs and gear for Paul, Stacia, Xyra, and Caleb. They ended up spending 15,400 merits leaving their team with a meager 505 merits combined. The Whisper Mk 01 ended up being cheap enough compared to the Blitz Mk 01 that they could get two of them right now instead of one Blitz Mk 01. The expensive piece of equipment was the special compressed alloy armor shield that the Hoplite got as an extra as well.

Cupid Mk 01 – 1800 merits

Hoplite Mk 01 – 2200 merits

Hoplite Compressed Alloy Shield – 3000 merits

Hoplite Spear with Grenade Launcher Accessory – 1000 merits

Whisper Mk 01 x 2 – 6000 merits

Whisper Jammer Accessory x 2 – 1400 merits

Total: 15,400 merits

Gray looked at the total bill, he felt depressed with only 505 merits left for the team and thought "I know they say that you have to spend money to make money, but it still hurts…"

Exploiting player created missions, they were able to get only 350 merits a day currently. After today's first round of exploiting, Gray, Stacia, Geoff, Yurika, and Caleb each received a notification that they had ranked up to Corporal finally. Since Paul and Xyra hadn't completed as much matchmaking as the other 5 members of the Steel Wolves, they were still at Private 1st Class.

"Sweet, wonder what kind of privileges we get!" Geoff said excitedly.

"Probably access to more mechs and weapons and increased rewards for matchmaking and missions now from what we've seen already." Gray said.

When they exploited the player created missions for the 2nd time today, they noticed that as Corporals they could now assign a mission for 20 merits each instead of just 10 merits. After this round of exploiting, Xyra and Paul both became Corporals as well.

Gray took a peek at his rank window and saw that Private 1st Class required 1000 merits to reach and Corporal took 1500 more merits. "It looks like it will now take us 3000 more merits to reach Sergeant, I hope it doesn't grow exponentially" Gray muttered.

"Yes, we need at least one more data point to accurately determine the formula for the amount of merits required for each rank. Unfortunately this also assumes that it is following a formula instead of being set values." Caleb said analytically

"Basically we just need more merits no matter what, right?" Paul asked.

Gray nodded and said "Yes, so let's get to matchmaking! I want a new mech too!"

As everyone walked over to the simulator pods, Gray received a private message from Yurika and thought to himself "She's right next to me, why not just speak to me instead of sending a message?"

Gray curiously opened the message and did his best to hold back his surprise to avoid alerting the others. Gray read the message again to himself just to make sure he didn't misread it: "Gray, get my mech next and we'll have another training session together, but without mechs."

Gray glanced at Yurika and she smiled and winked at him. His morals were being tested right now and he really REALLY wanted to take her up on that, but then he remembered the beating she gave him last time in a mech and thought it might be better not to. On the other hand, they wouldn't be in mechs and her physical strength was much less than his, maybe he could take her.

The proverbial angel on Gray's shoulder was saying "Do what's best for the team", but the proverbial devil countered from his other shoulder saying "There is no 'I' in 'team', but there is a 'me'", then the angel kicked the devil off of his shoulder and said "Do what's best, maybe she's testing you on that!" Gray had to agree, plus the way his moral angel vaulted over his head and ninja kicked the devil was amazing.

Gray replied to her message saying "As much as I would truly enjoy that, I'm not the only one on the team so I need to prioritize the team over just you and myself."

Yurika read the reply and then smiled and nodded at Gray again and sent him another message "Good to hear that! You are still fit to be our leader!"

Gray almost smacked his own face when she admitted that it was a test of sorts. He wasn't sure if Yurika was just messing with him now or if she was just that conniving.

Suddenly Gray got another message, but this time it was from Stacia. "Gray, can we please spare some merits so I can accessorize my Cupid Mk 01? I can cook for you sometime if you agree!"

Gray looked at the proverbial devil and angel on his shoulders and saw that they were actually discussing something this time. Both the proverbial angel and devil stood up and the angel proclaimed "We have reached an agreement that you should take up this offer!"

Gray replied to Stacia with "Maybe, let's see how much we make in matchmaking first as Corporals."

Instead of pouting like Yurika does when she doesn't get her way, Stacia just looks down as if she was embarrassed for even asking. Gray felt bad since she looked sad and sent her another message. "How about you make a dish all of us can share and we'll ask everyone else then if they mind sparing the merits in return."

Stacia read Gray's second reply and her face smiled brightly and she nodded excitedly.

Gray smiled back at her and sent her another message "I'll bring it up after we get done for today, getting everyone hungry will help your case I think" which made Stacia giggle slightly.