Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary-Chapter 253 Scoring System and Schedule

After the conclusion of the expected and honestly baffling eighth round, the final participating ship took their turn in the first event.

Compared to whatever everyone had just witnessed beforehand, this last round was far more normal.

The vessel finished the course at eighteen minutes and fifty-two seconds, and once the penalties for being hit were added, their final score ended up being exactly twenty-three minutes.

"I’d say that second place is not bad. We did pretty well, and the only one that beat us was Ravasz Dynamic’s craft, which is clearly built for speed." Kasandra said, nodding her head in satisfaction.

Avery agreed with her and was pleased with the outcome. He obviously would have liked to have been in first place to secure an early lead, but second place was plenty good enough considering that there were still a number of other events in the competition to go.

However, just placing high in every part of the competition was not going to guarantee a ship getting chosen as the winner.

Each event in the competition was worth twelve points for first place, ten points for second, eight points for third, six points for fourth, four points for fifth, three points for sixth, two points for seventh, one point for eight, and absolutely nothing for ninth.

Except, that was not the end of the scoring system that had been set up.

Ultimately, this entire thing had been set up to decide which corporations’ vessel the Alliance Police would be adopting as their new standard small class ships.

This meant that the higherups wanted some say in which of the companies’ entries that they went with.

So, an anonymous panel of thirty judges from the upper ranks of the Alliance Police held thirty percent of the maximum obtainable points that could be distributed as they saw fit.

Naturally, this could easily sway the rankings at the very end of the competition.

It would be possible to maintain a decent lead in first place, and still not end up being chosen simply because the top brass of the Alliance Police liked another vessel more.

Still, it stood to reason that the better showing a ship had, the more likely the unknown judges would give their support.

’Probably only the top three at the end will really be in contention to be chosen. Maybe up to the top five if the scores are close and only off by just a few points.’ Avery thought, having quickly done the mental math in his head.’

Of course, all Avery could really do was trust in his own skills and the Dauntless’ capabilities.

He would not really lose anything if Storren Corp.’s vessel was not chosen, so the pressure was not particularly bad.

The only reason he had to try and win was the nebulous bonus he had been offered should he do so.

What he was hoping for was another discount on the cargo vessel turned carrier he had ordered. He still owed three hundred ten million Krenin on it, and that was no small sum of money to obtain.

"We just received another transmission from the competition staff. Looks like it’s the schedule for the next few days." Kasandra said, pulling up the message on the main viewscreen.

So far, all the information Avery had been given was the time for the opening ceremony and to be ready for the first event sometime afterwards. Also, that at some point the identities of the pilots would be revealed on the third day.

The organizers were keeping most of the details close to the chest to avoid any leaks that might give any of the competitors an advantage. Though considering the performance of Stifur’s ship, Avery believed it was likely that the closely guarded information was already finding its way out.

"I figured as much, but the first event was the last thing we needed to do today. We’re free to do as we like until tomorrow when we’ll have the second and third events."

Avery continued to read and found that the third day would only have one event early in the morning and the rest of the time after would be for the introduction of each corporation’s pilot.

There would be scheduled interviews with the media and a few other appearances that he and all of the others would have to attend.

Fortunately, this was only necessary for the pilots and not any supporting crew. That would allow Kasandra to sit any public appearances out. It was best that they avoided broadcasting her whereabouts to the entire Dramid Alliance, considering she had people hunting her and her brother.

"Oh my word! Is this for real!" Kasandra shouted as she read the details of what the fourth day entailed.

Since this was the halfway point of the competition, it was being treated as rest day without any events the pilots and their crews would need to participate in.

Yet, that did not mean that nothing was going on.

This entire thing was a massive spectacle for the public of the Dramid Alliance, so obviously something to keep their attention would be occurring each day. freewёbnoνel.com

On the fourth there were going to be network analysis of the competition, projections on who was likely to win, and more things of that nature.

Obviously, that was not what had interested Kasandra. She could care less about such things.

What had drawn her attention was the main event of the fourth day. A promotional concert meant to draw more awareness to the competition and retain the interest of the public.

To have the greatest effect, the event organizers had prepared the current most popular musical artist within the Dramid Alliance. And someone that Kasandra was a big fan of.

"It’s Nianni Taador, Avery! We’re going to get to meet her. I can’t believe it." Kasandra said, raving with excitement.

(A/N: Refer to Chapter 91 for the first mention of Nianni Taador.)

Both she and Jasmine had quite the collection of Nianni’s songs. Even having put up posters of their favorite album covers in their rooms.

Avery himself enjoyed listening to her music and had plenty of it downloaded onto the Dauntless’ computer. Though, he was not anywhere close to as much of a fan as Kasandra and Jasmine were.

Considering that he was one of only nine pilots participating in the competition the concert was promoting, Avery was going to be receiving a backstage pass and would be able to meet with Nianni if he so wished.

Since Kasandra was part of his crew, he would be able to bring her along, but that meant that he had to go as well.

’Seeing as how she is this excited, there’s no way that I’ll be able to avoid going. The problem is whether I should invite Jasmine. Right now, she should be undercover at the Department of Education. Pulling her out so suddenly probably wouldn’t be for the best.’

Nevertheless, Avery could envision the consequences of not even offering the chance to Jasmine considering that this was an opportunity to meet her favorite singer.

Pulling out his terminal, he crafted a short message that only contained the necessary details and sent it off.

Only a few seconds later did he receive a reply.

Jasmine was obviously upset, since she had sent an emoji of a doglike cartoon character ripping its hair out in frustration. Unfortunately, she was too busy to go and needed to stay where she was to continue searching for leads on the case that her mother had given them.

"Well, that’s too bad about Jasmine. We’ll have to take a lot of photos to show her later." Kasandra said, having pulled out her terminal and started fiddling with the camera settings to make sure that it would capture the best photos.

Avery wondered if that would actually just make Jasmine feel worse, since she would be forced to see what she had missed out on. But he knew that nothing he said was going to stop Kasandra when she was this thrilled.

"Ah, maybe we can make friends with Nianni and try and see her again some other time. That way Jasmine can meet her as well."

"Let’s try and be realistic about this Kasandra. She’s the biggest singer in the Dramid Alliance. This is just another concert of many for her. We’re getting to meet with her simply because it’s part of her job prompting the competition." Avery said, trying to curb Kasandra’s wishful thinking.

"I know, I know. I’m just so excited right now."

Kasandra looked like she was about ready to bounce out of her seat.

Honestly, Avery wondered how the mere prospect of meeting a famous person got her this riled up. He certainly had plenty of people he admired and would like to meet at some point, but he could not think of a single one he would be as thrilled to see as Kasandra was now.

Getting up from his chair, Avery grabbed Kasandra by the hand and pulled her up from her seat.

"We’ve had an exhilarating day and there’s nothing else for us to worry about for now. So how about we work off some of that energy you’ve built up." Avery said suggestively as he started pulling Kasandra out of the cockpit.

"That’s quite bold of you. Of course, I’m more than happy to accept. This week may be my last chance to have you all to myself for a while. I’d planned on making the most of it already" Kasandra replied, flashing Avery a seductive grin.

With both of them on the same page, the two of them headed to Avery’s room and spent the entire night indulging in passion.

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