The Gelitech Aqua-Challenge (World Guide, Event) (Patreon)

The Gelitech Aqua-Challenge

The Gelitech Aqua-Challenge is a sponsored event that takes place in the Mashiva Gelitech Gelarium’s mermaid habitat. Up to eight players can put on a biogel breath mask and enter the aquatic environment in an effort to grab balls and bring them back to the goal inside the Gelarium. Each ball has a prize value, and the harder it is to safely get the ball, the higher the value. Leave the pool and take home the sum of your prizes. Get too greedy, and you’ll be the pool’s newest permanent resident… or perhaps something a bit gooier!

Anyone can sponsor the Gelitech Aqua-Challenge by adding a sum of credits to the funds pool. Whenever the pool reaches 10,000 credits, that sum is set aside, and a call for players is put out. Once there are at least 4 players, up to a maximum of 8, a match will be scheduled for the next day, at either 0900 in the morning, or at 2100 in the evening. Players can register for a match right up to the start time.

Immediately prior to each Gelitech Aqua-Challenge match, the players will don biogel breathing masks. These have no function other than to reliably adhere to the wearer’s face, and to provide unlimited fresh air for the duration of wear. While the players are getting accustomed to the masks, the prize balls will float out to their designated positions throughout the Gelarium’s aquatic environments. These balls come in varying denominations, and are placed so that the higher the value, the greater the risk for the player trying to retrieve it.

Blue: 25¢, No Risk, 0 points.

Green: 50¢, Trivial Risk, 1 point.

Yellow: 100¢, Low Risk, 2 points.

Orange: 175¢, Moderate Risk, 3 points.

Red: 250¢, High Risk, 4 points.

Pink: 500¢, Extreme Risk, 5 points.

The primary risks that players face are twofold. First, touching any of the glistening black biogel ‘kelp’ will result in the player’s immediate transformation into a biogel mermaid. Once transformed, they player becomes a Gelitech mermaid model, to live and work at the Gelarium for at least three months.

The second risk is far more serious. Several voracious biogel monsters lurk in the aquatic environs. These will ignore biogel mermaids, but will try to swallow any non-mermaid they come into contact with. During a typical match, these will consist only of stationary tube worms and anemones. However, ‘special sponsors’ can pay 5,000¢ to add a mobile monster to a match. These mobile monsters are restricted to the big tunnel surrounding the Gelarium perimeter.

Anyone caught by a monster is swallowed and ‘digested’ via transformation into liquid biogel. This liquid biogel contains the still quite conscious mind of the player, and will be collected at a later date to be turned into décor items, or perhaps even a biogel suit for someone else to wear.

In addition to being able to add mobile monsters to matches, ‘special sponsors’ can pay 5,000¢ to have two mermaids assigned as ‘helpers’ for the monsters. These mermaids can attempt to physically coerce players into a monster’s maw, albeit only in a playful, relatively gentile fashion.

Of course, there has to be reward to match the risk, and players can rack up a considerable sum of credits in prize money over the course of a match. They do this by bringing a prize ball into the Gelarium’s interior pool and tossing the ball into the top of the ‘castle’ that pokes out of the water within. If a player loses their grip on a ball before getting it to the castle, it will hover in place for 5 seconds before starting to drift back toward its starting position.

The value of each ball tossed in will be added to the player’s game account, and the point value will be added to their personal score.

A player can end their run in the game at any time by getting out of the water in either the interior pool, or the fountain pool outside, between the Gelarium and Anwae Arena. The total sum in their game account will be transferred into their registered bank account. In addition, the surviving player with the highest score at the end of the match will get a 500¢ bonus prize.

In order to encourage repeat participation, annual and lifetime scores are tallied, and special championship matches are held once a year, with the top annual and lifetime players eligible to sign up. 16 slots are reserved for the highest scorers of the year, and 8 are reserved for highest lifetime scorers. Four rounds are played. The first is 3 matches of 8 players each. The 12 highest scoring players then move on to the second round, which consists of 3 matches of 4 players each. The 6 highest scoring players then move on to the third round, which consists of 3 matches of 2 players each. The 2 highest scoring players from the third round compete against one another in the final round.

Anyone can participate in Aqua-Challenge matches, though sign-up for any given match is on a first-come, first-serve basis. The only way to guarantee oneself a slot is to sponsor a match with a sum of at least 2,000¢. This will open up an option to sign up before the match is announced.