The moment Reiko dove into the gravitational field area, the installed magi-devices hummed to life.
A crushing gravity of 10G slammed into her.
Her effective body weight increased tenfold. The thirty-kilogram Reiko was suddenly carrying three hundred kilograms.
"Oh! Lady Reiko’s pace has dropped, as expected, but she is still moving forward with certainty!"
The ground had been reinforced with meticulous applications of Hardening and Toughening, yet it still dented beneath her feet as she advanced. Her speed hovered around twenty kilometers per hour. At that rate, it would take her thirty-six seconds to cover the two hundred meters.
However, the gravity was expected to intensify further in, making it easy to predict that her speed would only continue to drop.
When she was about a third of the way through the zone, the second-place runner, Rubina’s Alice (Bib #10), plunged into the same area. Alice’s movements slowed instantly, but she pressed on, undaunted.
"Don't give up!" Rubina’s cheering voice rang out across the stadium.
By the time Reiko reached the two-thirds mark and Alice was one-third through, the rest of the pack finally caught up. Marikka’s Hanako (Bib #13) and Lordtoss’s Momoko (Bib #12) dove into the gravitational field.
"Oh, Marikka-sama’s Hanako is keeping up a remarkable pace!"
"Well, of course," Sion added to Luckhart’s commentary. "Hanako has undergone several rounds of improvements."
"In a situation like this, an automata that has accumulated experience and undergone multiple refinements definitely has the advantage," Stayhart agreed.
Reiko herself had four hundred years of experience to draw upon (though she had been in dormancy for nearly a hundred and forty of those years). During that time, Jin had never overlooked even the slightest glitch or flaw, constantly correcting and refining her.
"That’s exactly why everyone looks up to Reiko-chan... Lady Reiko. They all want to get even a little bit closer to her level."
As the commentators spoke, the remaining participating automata plunged into the gravitational field one after another.
Initially, 10G was manageable for most. However, once they passed the midpoint and the field reached 30G, their movements slowed visibly. A thirty-kilogram unit now weighed nine hundred kilograms.
"Look at that! Lady Reiko is just twenty meters from exiting the gravity zone! Alice, Hanako, and Momoko are giving chase, but it seems catching her is impossible!"
Reiko was now sprinting through a zone where the gravity hit 50G. For her, that meant her thirty-kilogram frame now carried the weight of one and a half tons. Despite the incredible strain, Reiko wasn't just walking—she was running.
"Incredible! Absolutely incredible! Ten meters left, nine, eight...!"
"The others are clearly struggling now."
Once they passed the 30G threshold, every unit’s footsteps became heavy. Even for high-spec automata, having their weight multiplied by thirty was a punishing trial. Among the followers, Rubina’s Alice and Marikka’s Hanako were maintaining the best momentum. Lordtoss’s Momoko was also fighting hard.
As for Reiko:
"Lady Reiko has three meters to go... two... one... She’s out! There’s nothing left to block her path!!"
The moment she cleared the gravitational field, Reiko accelerated with such explosive force that she seemed to vanish from the audience's sight.
A heartbeat later:
"GOAL!! First place goes to Bib #11, Lady Reiko!!"
A thunderous ovation and a wave of cheers washed over her.
Behind the winner, Alice and Hanako were locked in a desperate battle for second.
"Keep going! Alice!!" Rubina shouted with all her might. Marikka, meanwhile, watched the heated contest with a gentle smile and a quiet, focused gaze.
From the 40G mark onward, the movements of every unit slowed to a crawl. They were all carrying over a ton of weight. Nave (Bib #1), a large male-type, had a base weight of seventy kilograms, meaning he was struggling under three and a half tons at 50G. While his frame was sturdy enough to avoid being crushed, his feet sank deep into the ground with every single step.
"Bib #10 Alice was holding a slight lead, but here comes Bib #13 Hanako! She's closing the gap... They’re neck and neck!!"
The two units were of similar build, but Hanako’s underlying power—refined over time by Marikka—seemed to give her the edge over Rubina’s Alice.
"She’s passed her! Hanako overtakes Alice to take second place! She clears the gravity zone and... GOAL!! Alice follows right behind her!!"
Once they cleared the gravity field, the final stretch to the goal was over in a flash.
"And a moment later, Bib #12 Momoko also takes the GOAL!!"
With that, the top four were across the line. A significant gap had opened up behind them, as the remaining units struggled through the 40G-plus sections of the field. Even so, not a single one was crushed or rendered immobile.
"Fifth place is Bib #6, Liddel! And sixth place is Bib #5, Allen!!"
"They did well," Sion remarked.
"It seems being small-class... or rather, having a lighter base weight, was a distinct advantage in that final gravity zone," Stayhart noted.
True to his observation, the larger automata were the ones trailing.
"Seventh place is Bib #2, Merry! Eighth place is Bib #4, Shal! And ninth place is Bib #7, Leila!"
"You're right. Lighter frames definitely helped here."
While Leila wasn't a girl-type, she was a female-type and significantly lighter than the male-type participants.
"Tenth place, Bib #3, Melanie! Eleventh, Bib #1, Nave! Twelfth, Bib #9, Cyrus! And thirteenth place goes to Bib #8, Clark!!"
The final rankings almost perfectly mirrored the order of the units' physical size, from smallest to largest.
"That was a thrilling race."
"Indeed. My heart was in my throat during that gravity segment."
The audience, watching with the naked eye, had clearly enjoyed the slower, more tactical struggle of the gravity field more than the supersonic speeds of the first race, which had been almost too fast to process.
"It really is more exciting when you can actually see the competition unfolding," Sion said. "I think we should consider adding more spectator-friendly events like this from the next tournament onward."
Her suggestion was met with another burst of enthusiastic applause from the stands. It seemed that holding these sorts of competitions alongside the Magi Craft King/Queen Competition perfectly suited the tastes of the Onogoro Island residents.
In the years to come, many more competitions—both official and unofficial—would be held here on Onogoro Island, but that is a story for another time.
A fifteen-minute intermission was granted for the maintenance of the automata before the next event began.
"...Everything looks good. No abnormalities," Jin said after inspecting Reiko. Naturally, she was in perfect condition.
"You look fine, too. Keep up the good work," Marikka told Hanako. She, too, was in top form.
"Yes, no problems here. I'm counting on you for the next one," Lordtoss said, finding Momoko to be in good health.
"Ah, the joint clearances have loosened up just a tiny bit. I’ll need to adjust those," Rubina noted. She finished servicing Alice in under five minutes.
The other participants finished their maintenance in similar timeframes. No one felt that fifteen minutes was too short; every person present was a skilled engineer capable of performing a full check and minor repairs in that window.
Finally, the time came for the weightlifting.