Mech Arena : The Book

Pilot.

"Roarrrrrr!"

The loud roar of a Kaiju-level beast that was in the shape of an ape overlord rang out, its cry sending a shockwave rippling through the already fragile buildings scattered across one of the streets of Region F.

Jake started breathing hard as he tried his best to run as fast as he could, he could literally feel his heart pounding loudly in his chest as he pushed himself, desperate to get out of there as quickly as possible.

But then a smaller minion of the Ape Kaiju, clearly at the Servant Tier, screeched at him and lunged straight for him. 

Jake turned one last time, desperately wishing that he had been awakened, because if he had, he wouldn't have to run like this, in this world, where over 90% of the regions had been overrun and were now ruled by demonic beasts and Kaiju overlords, only those who had awakened into super soldiers with the power to summon their mechs into battle were considered the true chosen ones of the era.

Or so they made many believe, and Jake had been one of them, he closed his eyes, already waiting for the death he thought had finally come.

However, that death never arrived, because a gunshot rang out instead in his ears, it made him abruptly open his eyes, and when he did, what he saw made them tremble before he quickly turned behind him to figure out who exactly had just saved him.

Right in the middle of the chest of the smaller ape that had been chasing him was now a wide, gaping hole, with blood from the upper half of its body dripping down as if it were desperately trying to reconnect with the rest of itself.

"Move, boy! This area is restricted to non-awaken individual temporary"

The voice of the figure who had just saved him reached his ears, and Jake turned back to properly take in the man's figure, he was clad in a black-and-green armored suit, raising what looked like an assault-type weapon with a strap on it which was hanging it around his neck.

He kept moving around, blasting through the swarm of monkey-like kaiju minions, until the bigger ape suddenly appeared out of nowhere and slammed him into a nearby building, the impact made Jake flinch, as he had stayed behind to watch.

However, not long after, just when Jake was about to lose hope for the second time, the man emerged from the rubble of the destroyed building, this time, he was no longer in his armored suit.

Instead, he was now fully equipped in his mech armor, and the weapon he had once carried had enlarged to match the mech's size, And around him, his backup seemed to have finally arrived, as different mechs started appearing on top of the surrounding houses.

Then he opened fire on the Kaiju beast.

'That's who I want to be like—powerful enough to go against whoever might threaten me,' Jake thought.

_ _

#The next day 

Jake jerked out of bed as the timer rang, without wasting any time, he hurried into the bathroom to shower and brush his teeth before coming out and swiftly putting on his old but clean uniform, before leaving though he left some food for his pet hamster.

Jake definitely hadn't been born into this world, he had actually transmigrated into this body, though he still possessed vague memories of his past life, however he just seems to be unable to recall exactly how he ended up here. 

He didn't even know whether he had died or if his soul had somehow been forced into this new body, every time he tried to remember, the memory dissolved into a foggy blur.

What he did know, however, was that he once lived in a world called Earth, a place with steady civilization and technology growth and where life was far simpler.

Back then, Jake had been something of a gaming addict, and he constantly searched for the next challenging game, streaming his gameplay while sharing tips on how to clear difficult stages and earning money from it at the same time. 

But above everything else, there was one thing he was especially known for, it was the fact that Jake was a mech enthusiast.

Anything related to mechs instantly caught his attention, it was the only thing capable of making his eyes sparkle almost as much as a brand-new game. Then, as if some higher power had heard his wish, a new game called Mech Arena was released.

Jake became completely obsessed with it, after diving into the game, he quickly rose through the ranks and eventually became one of its top players. 

That had been the life of Jake Fernandez on Earth, a gamer who lived purely for the thrill of competition, but that carefree life was now gone.

After reincarnating into this new body, which was also named Jake Fernandez, everything had changed. Strangely, this body even had slightly more handsome features than his original one, though there were still some similarities between them.

The first time he woke up in this unfamiliar body, confusion overwhelmed him, as he stared at the reflection of his altered face and the completely unfamiliar room around him, unable to understand how his face had suddenly changed so drastically.

But about ten minutes later, a large influx of memories assaulted him, and when he woke up, he was well aware of the fact that this wasn't his body, the real owner seems to have had enough after his parents death and committed suicide.

Clearly, this was another world that was similar to the one he once lived in, but there were many differences. For one, despite being similar, it was ten times bigger due to a phenomenon that happened and changed everyone living inside it.

And its technological advancement would put his old world to shame by a very large margin, there was also the fact that in this world there were powers.

But while they had powers, they also had enemies, alien races and many other breeds that waged war against the human race of his new world. 

In fact, in their current world, humans held the least land, while the rest was overrun by demonic beasts and other fantasy races that Jake would have only seen in games.

_ _

Today marks over three months since Jake had transmigrated into his new body, and right now he is far more knowledgeable about the world than he had been when he first woke up.

For one, his parents had been 3-star Rare cybernetic soldiers of the city he lived in before they died in a Kaiju attack on the city, which made him a war orphan, the only thing he inherited from them was a weird-looking necklace, which he had always worn.

He was a student in Region F of Phoenix City, and the reason he seemed to be in such a rush was because today was the day they would be taken to the Core of the city for the awakening of the power that could decide if they would finally become soldiers who could rise and surpass their current situation, leaving the penniless Region F for better and richer regions,

or live an ordinary life and remain unable to ever leave the worst regions of Phoenix City.

_ _

Luckily for him, Jake was able to get into the room before the teacher arrived.

Immediately the teacher walked in, everyone went silent, though they were all looking straight at him, it was clear that each and every student in the class was extremely nervous.

Seeing the class so quiet and his students visibly nervous, he decided to do something about it.

"I can see you all are shaky, but since there is still some time before we move out, let me tell you all a story. I know you must already be tired of it, but I'm still going to tell it either way." The teacher standing at the front of the class said.

Hearing him mention repeating a story he had already told before, the whole class immediately erupted in disagreement, and that was because they could swear he had told this story more than a hundred times.

It was almost like he was using the story to torment them now, and with the way he told it each time, they could practically follow him word for word, that was because of how many times they had heard it, but it was clear that regardless of what they thought, he was still going to tell it, and there was nothing any of them could do to stop him.

Seeing his students finally speaking up made him smile as he began speaking again.

"Okay now, settle down, my story goes like this: back in the old days, the human race was prospering in all fields so much that it seemed we were going beyond time itself, and then the great apocalypse happened."

"The meteorites that brought mana into our world fell in different places knocking many people unconscious, and with it everything changed, animals started to transform; in fact, they were the ones who were the fastest to adapt to the mana."

"Meanwhile, humans on the other hand took quite a while before we understood how much we could do with this new prospect that allowed us to awaken powers."

"And just after we finally began to understand our powers and started fighting against the demonic beasts to reclaim the lands that were lost on the day of the great meteorite strike, dungeon portals began to appear, and foreign races from outside started to invade our world."

"After seeing the better condition of our world and the fact that we had only just begun to understand the concept of mana, many of them waged war and tried to conquer our world. Luckily for us, as much as they were enemies, a few became helpers who pushed for a stop-fire treaty to be signed and allowed humanity time to grow to this stage, where we can now fight against all forms of threat to the human race."

"Now—"

Just before he could continue, the door slid open and the Dean showed up.

"It's time for the kids to move," the Dean said.

The teacher turned back to look at his students, who were about to face the moment that would determine their fate, and sighed.

"Time's up. Let's go to the teleportation station in the middle of the school hall," he said.

They all stood up, some tried to act smug and confident, while others did their best to hide how nervous they felt. There were also those who dragged their legs behind, not wanting to be among the first to get tested after they reached the Core of the city.

They clearly didn't feel confident that they were going to awaken, so they chose to stay back and watch everyone else go first, hoping to calculate their chances by comparing those who awakened and those who didn't.