Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

It was the fourth day since the start of the competition.

Thankfully, there were not any difficult events that Avery would have to fight through today, since it was a day of rest for the competitors.

There was nothing on the schedule that any of them had to do, though it was expected that everyone would show up for the promotional concert that would be featuring the Dramid Alliance's biggest talent, Nianni Taador.

"Okay, what do you think of this one?"

"I think that it looks great. Just like the previous five." Avery said, mumbling the last part under his breath so quietly that even Kasandra did not hear it.

Being as excited as she was, Kasandra was trying on different clothing while attempting to figure out what she wanted to wear to the concert.

She was a pretty big fan of Nianni's work, and since this was a rare opportunity to meet the famous singer, she wanted to make a good impression.

Of course, Avery had been dragged into her room to judge the outfits that Kasandra wanted to try on, but after the fourth one, he was beginning to lose interest.

Kasandra had set up a partition in her room so that she could surprise Avery with each of the outfits and get his opinion on each one.

Except, if she had not done this, he might have paid more attention.

He had seen her in a state of undress plenty of times before, but he certainly was not tired of it. And he doubted that he ever would be.

After the eleventh outfit, Avery became convinced that Kasandra was just messing with him.

She probably already had figured out what she wanted to wear, since the clothing she started putting on after the eighth one were more eclectic than what she was usually liked.

Considering that she was teasing him now, Avery decided to pay her back.

The more outlandish the outfit she put on, the greater the praise he heaped on it. Telling her that she should defiantly wear it to the concert.

"Fine, I'll stop. This isn't any fun anymore." Kasandra said, with an exaggerated pout on her face.

"I don't know. I think that I was starting to get into this. Surely, you've got something else to show me."

Kasandra started shaking her head, but then she looked up and gave Avery a mischievous grin.

"Actually, I do have one more item of clothing I want to try on. Wait there for just a minute."

For some reason Avery had a bad feeling about this.

When Kasandra came out from behind the partition again, what she had on could hardly be considered clothing.

All she was wearing was some very thin lingerie that left little to the imagination and accentuated her womanly charm.

"Wow!" Avery said, gobsmacked for a few moments. "But I don't know if we have enough time for that right now. We do need to get going soon."

Avery was practically in a trance as he stared at her, and although he knew that they might be late, his suggestion that they did not have time was only a bit of token resistance.

"You're right, we don't." Kasandra said before disappearing behind the partition.

This had been her way to get the last laugh, and it had certainly worked.

Now Avery just sat there with his mouth wide open and feeling a bit frustrated.

"I'll get you back for this later tonight." Avery swore to himself.

A couple of minutes later, Kasandra appeared wearing the third outfit she had tried on.

This was composed of a pair of baggy black pants that she had tucked her tail inside of, a thin gray shirt, a dark blue jacket that covered her arms but was short and only went halfway down her torso, and a stylish hat to cover her ears.

Just in case, she had covered up her most distinguishing features to prevent any of the people from her home from being able to recognize her.

"I'm ready."

"You've got the equipment Grito provided us with, right?" Avery asked, wanting to make sure that she had not forgotten due to putting so much attention on her apparel.

"Obviously. I've got everything tucked away and hidden."

Naturally, weapons were not allowed to be brought onto the premises of the concert venue. At least nothing obvious.

That was why Avery had prepared some gear that would be useful in a fight just in case.

It seemed unlikely that there would be any trouble, but he had found himself ending up in unforeseen battles a bit too often lately and was going to be ready.

There were a lot of people with a grudge against him and his team, and he would not put it past some of them to try something when they knew he would be unarmed.

Now that they were prepared to go, Avery and Kasandra exited the Dauntless.

They had already landed in the designated hangar at the concert venue for the competitors. All they needed to do now was head to the special seating area that had been designated for only the competition and certain sponsors of the competition.

There they would have the best view of the concert in the entire venue.

Every step that they took closer to their destination, Kasandra seemed to become buzzing with more excitement.

"I feel so conflicted. I almost want the concert to end quickly so that we can actually meet Nianni, but I always don't because I want to watch her performance for longer."

"That's quite the conundrum. Of course, we don't have any say in the length of the concert." Avery replied.

Soon they reached the security checkpoint and had to walk through a scanner meant to detect any weapons.

Fortunately, the gear that Grito had created for them did not register as such.

Avery was questioned momentarily since he had an abnormally powerful energy source on him, but he got away with saying it was just meant for recharging his terminal, tablets, and other mundane electronic equipment he had stuffed into a backpack he was carrying around.

Of course, its true purpose was for something else, but Avery certainly would have been forced to remove the item if he explained it's intended use.

Once they were inside, the two of them were taken to a private seating area for important attendees.

There they found some rich looking individual surrounded by their entourages. No doubt these were some of the sponsors of the competition.

'Cerise Gunvald is here with some other military looking types, and Katarina Trix and her crew that look like thugs have already taken their seats.' Avery observed.

These were the only two other competitors that had already arrived. The others either had not made it yet, or they did not intend to show up.

It was a bit odd to see the top and bottom of the rankings together. The two sides were as far away from each other as possible. Like they were both somehow repelling each other.

'Well, they could not be more different.'

Deciding not pay the other competitors any more mind, Avery headed over to his designated seat and sat down. With Kasandra naturally following suit and sitting to the right of him.

On a table to the side of their seats, they were able to order some drinks and snacks free of charge. Everything being offered was of pretty good quality, though nothing too special or expensive.

Around another half hour passed by and more of the competitors slowly arrived.

Everyone but Atlas who was representing Stifur eventually showed up. It seemed that the second ranked competitor was not going to be making an appearance.

Not much later, and the first opening act of the concert began.

Though not on the same level of popularity as Niani Taador, the first group to appear on stage was a famous band with a high level of notoriety in the central region of the Dramid Alliance.

Their music was pretty good and certainly served the purpose of hyping up the audience that was composed of well over ten million people.

At one point Kasandra had even started teasing Avery when he began unconsciously moving his head in time with the beat.

After the first band came the second opening act.

This time it was another famous group that was composed of five singers each from different species.

They were a group well known for their wide range thanks to the different vocal cords of each of their members.

It would not be wrong to say that they were the five best singers for each member of their species. All coming together to make some truly impressive and unique music.

However, while both of the two opening acts each could have been the main performers in most shows, today that honor was going to the most popular songstress in the Dramid Alliance. The renown Nianni Taador who's music had reached and touched trillions of people.