Iris stepped up to the main podium. She pulled a handful of heavy silver badges from a wooden box.
"You survived the rupture zone," Iris barked over the stadium speakers. "You drew viewers. You hit the metrics. You are Jaegers now."
She tossed a badge to Iharu. He caught it, pinning the metal directly to his custom red chest plate. Hiro accepted his with trembling fingers, letting out a massive exhale of relief.
Iris stopped in front of Caleb. She dropped the heavy silver badge into his taped palm.
The digital screen lit over him: [CALEB MERCER] [COMBAT VALUE: RANK C APPROVED] [RANK C: JAEGER] [TIER-TWO GEAR CLEARANCE: APPROVED] [SPONSOR BOARD ACCESS: OPEN] [PUBLIC SYNC RATE: 1.2%] [LOCALIZED OUTPUT REVIEW: RESTRICTED].
He ranked up. The base pay doubled. The military grid still failed to explain how a one-percent scrubber kept producing Rank C output in bursts, leaving him as a walking anomaly carrying a restricted file.
The arena speakers emitted a single override tone.
