As we entered the room with our weapons, the light was in the room was turned on - it was the exact same room where we had our simulation test for the previous part of the exam. In front of us, there was a chests with four pairs of console goggles in it.
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"Welcome, Jun and Araka," it was Tesa who greeted us again, "This is Tesa again. Welcome to the combat simulation arena, where you will have combat with two full time SAIR agents using the weapon you chose during the training. Before the session begins, let me talk about what will be the rules for the session."
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Right above of us, a score board appeared from the back of the roof. On the board, a series of numbers were displayed right above our respective body outline. "The following combat session will be an endurance session, in which you will pass the exam if you 'survive' the combat as the countdown counts to zero. You will be evaluated based on how much damage you took during the session, as they will display right above you. The damage will be calculated based on how your weapon would interact the sensors on your tight suit, with each part of your body had own designated 'sensitivity' toward the weapon. In order to "survive", you need to maintain your damage taken below 60%, or if any one of you had gone beyond the threshold, the session will end and you will receive a yellow armband."
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"So what is the use of the goggles for this session?" Jun asked.
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"We will talk about it after your opponents arrive. Oh, here they come," while Tesa was talking with us, two girls wearing the same uniform as us walked toward us from the door on the opposite side of the arena: both of them seemed to be around the age of university students; one with tanned skin and short blue hair who had a fit build like a track-and-field athlete, while also wearing a white hairpin that was very similar to mine; and the other was in light brown long hair with a hint of pink, and was also quite tall.
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"Hello, nice to meet you!" The girl with light brown hair greeted with us first and displayed her ID, "I'm Otanaku Marinda(烏海 美林多) , ID IT1237723."
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"And I'm Peni Hakasa (北依 夏雨), ID SH1002893" the other girl who shorter hair also introduced herself. While I was expecting her to be outgoing from her athletic appearance, she seemed to be more calm than I expected.
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"Anyway, both of us are currently working with the SAIR North, Second Division, tasking the north-eastern part of the nation," Marinda continued. "It's our pleasure to host the combat training session, and regardless the result - you guys are just amazing!"
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"Ugh, Marinda-sa, could you tone down for a bit," Hakasa said.
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"So you are Araka, Peni Araka, right?" Marinda said.
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"Yes, nice to meet you, Hakasa-sa and Marinda-sa," I greeted her back in return.
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"Hakasa, is she your relative?" Marinda turned her head toward
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"Well, that's a bit confusing," it seemed to be that Marinda had put Hakasa in a weird position: "but I would say I definitely heard about you here and there, Araka, since we're in the same clan." That would make sense as she might heard it from someone who participated the clan festival.
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"And you're Jun, Jan Jun?"
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"That's right," Jun nodded, "It's my pleasure to meet both of you, Hakasa-sa and Marinda-as."
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Just as we finished our introduction, Tesa reappeared in front of us and started talking about the upcoming combat simulation session.
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"Hope you guys have already got familiar with each other by now," Tesa said, "Without further ado, let's start with the basic rules and grading schemes about the upcoming combat simulation session. The following combat simulation session will take place in this exact room, with rendered environments and theme-based obstacles. The goal is to inflict enough damage upon the opponents that either one from the group was disqualified. As mentioned before, the session is an endurance game, in which you need to maintain the damage you took during the session below the threshold. For the damage percentage, it will be calculated based on three criteria: the effectiveness the of attacks: the parts of the body that were hit; and the type of weapon the attacks came from. For example, a small scar on the shoulder would inflict less damage than a through-wound on the core; while a sword wound would more likely to be critical than a bullet wound. Meanwhile, there are three exceptional cases to keep in mind: for any effective attack on the head and the neck, regardless of the type of weapon, the damage will be automatically set to 125%, with immediate disqualification of the target; for any attacks take place right above the heart and other critical organs, the damage will hover around 60% to 125% depending on the effectiveness of the attack; and for any attack on sensitive areas like the crouch and the hip, there will be no damage on the opponent, as these areas are off-limit."
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It was straightforward, I thought, just like some video games I played before.
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"Here are some important precautions for the upcoming simulation session. For the following session, your simulation consoles, as placed in the chest in front of you, will automatically adjusted to a comfort and fitted position once you put it on. Please make sure your simulation console goggles is on for the whole time unless instructed, as they are necessary for the rendering of the combat environment. During the simulation session, the usage of physical weapons other than the designated virtual weapons, such as body parts, physical rods, and the console itself, is prohibited. Any intentional physical attack on the opponents outside of the simulated environment, especially on the console googles, will trigger the halt of the session. If there is any emergency take place during the session, please follow the instructions carefully. If you have any question, please ask me now for clarification. If you feel you're fully informed about the rules and evaluation scheme and are ready please say 'affirmed'"
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"Affirmed"
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"Affirmed"
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"Affirmed"
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"Affirmed," I nodded and said.
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"Now, please put on your console and stand right at where you are. We will set the environment up shortly."
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As instructed, I put on the console goggles. As expected, the goggles stick onto my head just as I put it on, and everything in front of my eyes became pitch black. After a while, I found myself in a space very similar to the layout of the arena, except everything was white.
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"Welcome to the combat simulation session," the speaker of the console started talking; "Please give us a second to confirm your identity."
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"Authentication completed. User: Peni Araka. Please stand at your position until we finish rendering the combat environment. At this time, please feel free to stretch yourself," as the console finished its announcement, a progress bar appeared in front of me showing the progress of the rendering.
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After several minutes, the progress bar had been fulfilled.
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"Render complete. Setting up in 3,2"
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"1"
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As the countdown came to zero, the space in front of me turned into an absolute void as bright as the sun. As the brightness slowly faded away, I found myself in a completely different setting; instead of the empty in-door space we just arrived, I was "teleported" to a wet construction site where construction equipments, cargo containers, and materials littered all over the place; judging from the puddles on the bumpy ground, it was clear that a heavy storm just passed. The atmosphere was much better than the AR console I had at home - as I could feel myself immersed with moistures and smells of wet dirt, while the boundary between my eyes and the rendered environment became invisible.
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Out of curious, I looked around to see if I was able to find Jun. It didn't take too long to find him in a completely different appearance: a black zipped hoodie with the SAIR logo saying "SAIR TeSeKa" written on the chest with a navy blue shirt beneath, while paired with a pair of black pants.
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"Araka - you look - you look kind of attractive in this uniform," just as I was thinking about Jun's new apparel, Jun had already commented on mine.
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I looked onto myself and into the puddles in front me, finding myself in the same outfit as Jun - a zipped hoodie with the SAIR logo with a blue sweatshirt underneath, paired with a pair of asphalt grey leggings for the bottom. For some reason, I found myself "attractive" in my new appearance, as it fit perfectly and highlighted my body outline.
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"Ugh, thanks, I should say," I responded, "but you look quite cool in that outfit too."
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"Welcome to the combat simulation," it was Tesa's voice that coming out from the console's speaker, "hope you guys find yourself familiar in this new environment."
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"It was very realistic, Tesa," Jun commented.
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"Thanks for your feedback. This combat environment is rendered based on actual locations of past missions of the SAIR. It's important to highlight that everything in this environment is recreated in 1:1 scale, and most items other than the construction equipments are operational and accessible."
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As Tesa was talking, a sandbox hologram appeared in front of me, resembling something like the layout of the combat environment. It was a maze-like map littered with cargo containers and construction equipments. "In this simulation, you will play the role as the SAIR agents whose goal was to eliminate the enemy within this inactive construction site. As you may have noticed from the 3D hologram, the enemy had laid the construction site with obstacles such as containers and construction materials.
Since the mission took place right after a storm, the humidity is relatively high, and the ground is still wet. For your opponents, they have already been placed on the other end of the site. For this mission, your opponent, Hakasa and Marinda in this case, had been familiarized with the terrain and were able to track down your movement. As such, please proceed in the space with caution and take full advantage of the terrain during any encounter in this session."
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The mission sounded quite straightforward, I thought. However, one question remained in my head - if the opponent knew every single move of us, how could we defeat them if we were greatly outmatched by the opponents, especially someone who had just touched their weapon?
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"Could you give us more information about our opponents?" Jun asked, "it seemed to me we were quite outmatched by them."
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"That's a very good question, and I will give you a bonus point. Even for full time SAIR agents, it would be good to know about your opponent's skills and weapons forehand,"after the introduction about the combat environment, the hologram changed into a figure that resembled the appearance of Hakasa -her right hand was holding a traditional sword with rough, unpolished blade, and her left hand holding a shield. Interestingly, instead of wearing the typical SAIR combat uniform, she was in a rather "athletic" apparel - wearing only sport bra and racing briefs beneath her unzipped hoodie, while paring with a pair of red crew socks and sneakers - she looked like a track and field athlete coming right out of a competition.
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"Let's start your first opponent, Peni Hakasa, a Rank 2 Agent from the Combat and Rescue Branch of the SAIR North Second Division. Hakasa is currently seeking for the instructive agent rank as she had gained enough experience for the qualifications. She is specialized in speed assaults during close combats using traditional blade weapons, notably the Akenamaji(星陣劍), which is a type of thin blade sword with irregular edges. Even prior joining the SAIR, she had trained in sword art for years under the instruction of a well known sword art master, and recently got her certification as a registered Jisou(劍術 sword art) warrior. Her primary weapon is a modernized Akenamaji named Yunzen (雲成) , which was crafted from a full piece of Memorum ore (鳩石, Kushikei), and a MKT-12K Smorkium Alloy Shield as the secondary weapon. While the sword may seemed to be outdated in modern combat environments with weapons like laser blades and modern firearms, keep in mind that a certified Jisou (sword art) warrior like Hakasa could inflict much more damage on the target even during a crossfire. As such, please don't let your guard down and keep in mind of her speed attack that could came out anywhere."
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She was indeed a worthy opponent, I thought. Since her abilities were quite similar to mine, I better make sure I could at least dodge her while also protecting Jun from her attacks.
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Meanwhile, Jun seemed to be distracted by Hakasa's appearance, as I could see something "popping out" inside his pants.
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"Hey, Jun, could you behave yourself for a bit?"
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"Haha," Tesa said, "It's not a big deal actually, as she was quite liked by young adults
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"Let's talk about your second opponent. Otanaku Marinda, a Level 2 agent from the Combat and Rescue Branch of the SAIR North Second Division," the hologram transformed into the appearance of Marinda: she was wearing the same SAIR uniform while pairing with a pair of black leggings with purple stripes; on her right hand, she was holding a pistol.
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"Marinda is the sorcerer of the Itsho (一舟) Task Force of the SAIR North Second Division. While initially worked for the Research Branch, she was transferred to the Combat and Rescue Branch two years prior. At this point, she just finished her training on adapting to the combat environment. As such, today's session will be the perfect opportunity to test her skills she learned in the adjustment training. Her registered special skill is field detection, which allowed her to detect different type of force fields, while she is also learning on using her skills during combat environments. Her main weapon is the KP-11 Pistol, which is capable of launching both conventional ammunition and smokescreen bullets. While her familiarity with the combat environment may not be on the same level as Hakasa, it is important to still consider her as a worthy opponent since she had performed well on all metrics during the training, and she was also sensitive to any movements of the opponents."
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Field and motion detection? That sounded like something that only exists in fantasy games and novels, I thought.
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"Wait, Tesa, may I ask a question?" Jun seemed confused, "Why would the SAIR have such position if we are talking about advanced technologies. Shouldn't that be something opposite of scientific developments?"
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"Actually, not only we have sorcerers, but they also played an important roles in our missions," Tesa said, "You will have a chance to talk with Marinda to learn more about this role. Anyway, do you have any last minute questions before we start?"
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"No," Jun shook his head, and I followed.
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"I see. So let's get it started," as the introduction came to the end, the hologram and the display in front of us disappeared - this was the time when the combat session finally began.
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"Jun, do you have any plan?" I asked, while warming myself up for potential encounters.
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"I indeed have something in head, but first I think we first need to keep ourselves moving, as the opponents could hunt us down any time from now," Jun suggested.
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Without further delay, we headed straight into the "maze".
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"So Jun, what's your plan?" I asked while checking my surroundings seeing the opponents had already arrived.
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"Sara, do you remember the abilities of Hakasa and Marinda?"
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"If I remembered correctly, Hakasa basically has the same abilities as mine, with the exception of her using a physical sword rather than a laser blade; as for Marinda, there was nothing particularly interesting about her other than able to launch smokescreens."
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"Don't forget Hakasa was also carrying a shield as a secondary weapon, which means your weapon might be blocked during close combat," Jun suggested, "if both of our opponents coordinate well, neither of us could launch any effective attacks on them, as my attacks would be blocked by the smokescreen and yours would be blocked by the shield."
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"So do you mean-"
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"That's right, while you get Marinda distracted, I will launch my railgun targeting Hakasa, such that at least I can have sometime aiming my weapon."
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It didn't take too long for us to enter the first intersection, which the path branched into two sides.
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"Should we take the left turn or the right turn?" I asked.
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While we were thinking, the container in front of us opened. Just after seconds, a figure rolled out of the container and stood in front of me - it was Hakasa. Without hesitation, she sprinted toward us with her sword.
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"Leave it to me!" As planned, Jun made a step forward and aimed his railgun toward Hakasa.
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Out of sudden, I heard someone else was approaching from the back. I turned my head backward and realized it was Marinda pointing her pistol onto Jun's head.
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"Watch Out!" In the split second, I screamed and braced him, rolling toward the path on the right. The energy beam that was formed at the tip of the railgun ended up created a hole on a container on the other side.
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"Jun, are you okay?" I asked Jun, who still had his railgun on his hand.
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"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just mud on my back. Did you get injured?"
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"So far, no. The bullet only scratched the back of my hoodie." I said while trying to get up. It was not the time to let my guard down, I thought.
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"Araka, You saved my life. I should be able to know if there's someone going to ambush us-"
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"We need to hide now," I tried to drag Jun into a safer spot, which was another empty container, only found out it was not as easy as I thought: "Huh- Jun, you're a bit too heavy for me-"
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"Don't worry, I can help myself."
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After sheltering ourselves inside the container, we started discussing about the next step.
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"So the encounter was earlier than I expected," Jun said, "Maybe we need to find another way to fight them back."
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"That's true. It's impossible for us to attack them from the front, as they were very well coordinated," I said.
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"Maybe we need to find a way to get them separated without letting the other one know," Jun suggested.
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"But how can we do this? If I remember correctly, Tesa said our opponents are familiar with the layout of the site, and they could easily track us down."
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"So do you know why they are able to track us down?" Jun asked an interesting question, "Think about it. There must be something on us that could leave a trace for them."
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Hmmm, that's some interesting point, I thought.
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"Maybe they put a tracker on us," I suggested.
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"That could be the case normally. However, I don't think it's the case. First, the outfit on us was purely a rendered model rather than the actual SAIR uniform. If I remembered correctly, i don't think they've put anything on us, or they would tell us forehand. Plus, if they do this, then they would easily track us down and fail us immediately, as it was impossible for us to pick a fight with a full time, well trained SAIR agents. If they really want to fail us that badly, then it also defeats the purpose of this session, which was to survive as long as we can and give us a green badge."
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"So what else could it be?" I said.
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"Araka, did you turn on your laser blade as soon as you entered the 'maze'?"
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"Of course, I need to prepare for the encounter from any direction."
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"Then maybe just turn it off for a second," Jun said.
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"Are you crazy? They are tracking us down now!" While I usually agree with what Jun said, it sounded too absurd to me at first.
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"Shhh- Araka, lower your volume now," Jun said, "In case if they find us, I can still launch some beams as flares with my railgun."
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As both of us remained silent, we could hear the steps of our opponents clearly. Judging from the echo, they were not far away.
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"Did your reading said anything?" It was from Hakasa, "How strange. I definitely saw them fleeing this way."
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"Well, the reading said otherwise. Maybe they have managed to escape and went somewhere else."
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"Wait a second," it seemed to make sense: my blade was an emitter of heat and energy, and it could be detected by some sensors, just like what I need to do during stealth missions in video games.
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After a couple seconds, the opponents seemed walked away from our hiding place - Jun was right about it.
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"We're safe now," Jun patted my shoulder and reminded me.
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"So how are we going to pass this session, or at least survive long enough before they could launch lethal attacks on us? There was no way we can attack them from the front if both of them present at the same time," I said.
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"How about this? Since we know that they're using some kind of sensor to track us down, you can just leave some random traces all around the place. You hop around the container and leave some trail using your laser blade, and I will set up an ambush site to separate them. If you happened to encounter them in the forehand, ." That makes sense, as my special skill had been the high stamina and "mobility", and the suit on me had also enhanced my ability as well.
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With our new plan, we headed out to explore the site while turning our weapon off.
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"Jun, I'm thinking about one thing," I said while looking around, "do we have any idea about the exact layout of the place? I mean, if this were a real mission, then we must at least have access to some kind of map to navigate, since we won't risk our lives into our enemies' ambushes."
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"That makes sense. But if I remembered correctly, they provided some kind of 3D layout of the place, but I don't know if I remembered the exact detail-"
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"Hello," a familiar voice passed through my ears.
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"It's Tesa," Jun immediately recognized the voice and greeted her, "Hello Tesa."
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"So I heard that you're talking about looking for a map, is that correct?"
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"Yes," I said, "I mean it's hard to go around if we don't have anything to tell us directions."
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"Sorry about that. That was my mistake, since normally you should have some map to begin with for actual missions." As Tesa was talking, a scroll shaped object fell from the sky, "inside this chest is the layout of the area, please use it wisely."
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As Tesa faded away again, I grabbed the scroll and pressed the button to open the scroll - it was indeed a detailed arial view map with our location marked on the map.
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"Uhmm, interesting," Jun looked at the map and rubbed his chin, "so there are place that could be used as a critical point - how about we head there?
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I looked the spot Jun pointed at - it was a small field in the middle of the stack of cargo containers, with a large puddle in the middle.
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"That indeed looked like an ideal spot," I said, "but how are we able to bring them there?"
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"I will punch some holes on the way there with my railgun, and you can follow them once you're ready," Jun said.
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After I dismissed with Jun, I made my way to the opposite direction. It was the direction where I found Hakasa and Marinda were heading while we were hiding. While on the way, I left some marks on the containers using my lightsaber. After traversing through the landscape and made enough distance from Jun, I turned on my lightsaber again.
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As expected, it didn't take long for someone to find me as soon as I turned on my laser blade - Hakasa jumped right in front of me when I entered a dead end. This time, her shield was hanged behind her back, which made her movement even faster. I brought up my blade for combat, and even though my suit had enhanced my reflex significantly, I barely was able to keep myself in line as each attack from Hakasa seemed to be well coordinated.
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But where is Marinda? Why was she not here? Had she already uncovered our plan? I thought while my fight with Hakasa was in a tie. Anyway, I need to at least bring Hakasa to the trap first.
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Meanwhile, Hakasa was also impressed by the performance of Araka:
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She's quite impressive, especially for someone who just learned how to turn on the laser blade. Of course the performance was heavily optimized in this simulation, but I have never seen someone this young to be able to be so determined in a fight with someone who was much more experienced. Keep going, Araka, one day you will impressive everyone who seen you. I'm looking forward for you.
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Out of sudden, a beam was shot from somewhere above and landed very close to Hakasa's back. It was not effective, but clearly made a shockwave that delayed Hakasa's attack. It's the perfect timing! I told myself and ran toward the direction I came from. I was successful, as I already distanced myself from Hakasa.
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It didn't take long for me to get to see the mark Jun left me with, and I knew that Jun must be ready for the ambush.
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Just as Araka and Hakasa were heading to the empty ground in the middle of the site, Marinda was also on her way to catch up with Hakasa: My reading was saying that Hakasa had encountered one of the two. So Hakasa was not lying, these two were indeed quite promising. It's interesting for the fight to get this long, as for the qualification of the intern, usually 15 minutes should be the maximum and our evaluation would be more on the performance of the candidates; yet for this one, I felt more like a routine combat training with some promising opponents.
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Out of nowhere, a beam of light passed right above Marinda's head. As usual, Marinda checked her readings from the detection device and spotted the source of the laser beam: So one of the opponents was on the crane in the center? That's some interesting tactic - wait, was Hakasa also heading toward that direction? If the opponent was using the long range weapon, then Hakasa might be in direct impact if the use of the weapon had a good accuracy. I might have to get rid of the one on the crane first.
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Meanwhile on the top of the crane that situated right beside the empty space, Jun was waiting for Hakasa and Araka:
I think they should be here soon. Of course Araka was doing a much better job than I expected, and I was truly impressed by her reflex.
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"Jun!!" it was the voice from Araka calling for Jun. Jun stood up from the chair in the control room and aimed his railgun at the two. However, Jun was hesitate to shoot, as the distance between Hakasa and Araka was so close that one shot could impact both of them.
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"Watch your back!"
