Chapter 29: Training Pod

Words : 1183 Updated : Sep 10th, 2025

Chapter 29: Training Pod Luca discovered one crucial thing about him. He was uncoordinated. And it was to the level of a person having two left feet. Every student had to finish the solo shooting module using the training pod. When the other students heard about it, they easily jumped in to begin the assessment. On the other hand, Luca had to copy the other students to get into one. Although he'd heard of similar devices back at Tesseris, he had a feeling they were worlds apart in development. True enough. He was suddenly inside what looked like a cockpit. He panicked when he saw the array of buttons as well as the screens before him. Were they all expected to know all this?! If his guess was right, this was probably a simulation of a mecha cabin. Luca's hand trembled when he realized his severe handicap. He initially thought that they would teach first before doing anything relatively hands-on. But he was wrong on all fronts. "Host, I'll show you a projection of the keys with labels. If I got the model right, these should be the controls." Luca felt relieved at D-29's input and focused on looking at the overlay. According to D-29, there were six rounds in total, with 50 targets per round. The six rounds were divided into three sets of operations: pure manual, pure spiritual, and combination piloting. The targets would start with stationary targets and then eventually to a round with moving targets. It was here that Luca felt bad about never playing hooky back as a teen. Had he played like the other kids, he would've had a better grasp of shooting games. Many would kill to be in a simulator that is this realistic, but that was not for him, whose hands kept on getting entangled without the muscle memory for something like this. Count on him to make pills, but not click on keys. His aim was great, as he found the joystick more comfortable, but he was too slow! After getting one target, Luca would miss the one immediately following it, so he only ended up with close to half of them. "Tsk." Then came the purely spiritual piloting. For the first time today, Luca felt happiness in his heart. He wanted to exclaim in joy as he easily hit all the targets. The initial connection felt odd to him, like suddenly integrating into a device, but after operating like this, he realized that there was hope for a better life. D-29 was so proud of its host that it even recorded a snippet of this particular round. Maybe this way, the host would forget about his earlier embarrassing results. Luca was sad to move on to the next round, only to remember that he was supposed to combine both operations. He thought he was going to be fine. But this was when the disaster started. Luca's mind and abilities worked too fast for his hands. And the lag time made him miss most of the targets! His expression was getting worse and worse as he couldn't sync up his body and mind. Luca's solution was to wrap his spiritual tendrils around his fingers, forcing his slow fingers to match the pace of his consciousness. It looked odd, extremely odd, but it saved the last 12 targets. Luca would have gotten a zero had he continued shooting like earlier. But none of the earlier issues mattered once the real exam started. In the face of grotesque creatures shrouded in black miasma, Luca's problems suddenly seemed trivial. Before the countdown finished, the targets that nightmares were made of prowled around him. Luca's alert level jumped so high he was almost palpitating. These hulking creatures that dripped with inky ooze reminded him so much of the dungeon monsters. But these were way worse. And these were just projections. They were being trained to fight these? Is this what a corrupted beast looks like? Luca wanted to ask those questions, but when the countdown finished, and the barrier lifted, Luca could only avoid the closest jagged spine that attempted to impale him. And he had a sinking feeling it would hurt like hell. Just being jostled around the virtual cockpit sent him reeling in pain. If any of these creatures managed to penetrate the virtual mecha, he would be done for. Luca's survival instincts kicked in. D-29 witnessed the birth of a human octopus. The Host realized several things, including how the monster wouldn't just die from any hit. They had to be hit around what looked like the forehead. Then, he realized that it was impossible to keep up with the speed of these monsters. But the exam format refused to allow him to connect with his spiritual power and only had the buttons out. Then Luca realized he just needed more and faster 'fingers.' So, Luca materialized his spiritual tendrils. Like an octopus playing the piano, Luca mobilized as many tendrils as there were keys to manually click on the buttons. And anybody who could use visual resonance would marvel at how he used his tendrils faster than his hands. Luca was panting by the time he finished with the fourth round. His back hurt from being jostled around while the virtual mecha showed a bit of damage here and there. Thankfully, the next round was the spiritual operation. When consciousness integrates with the virtual mecha, the operations are all done with the stream of consciousness. There was no need to materialize the tendrils, and the mecha's response would be instantaneous. The only downside was the spiritual energy consumption. While he had fine control of his powers, he hadn't gotten back his old reserves. And Luca was aware that it was already taking a toll on him. He wondered what would happen if he didn't get to kill the beasts. Would he be mauled into a virtual death? But Luca didn't want to experience that, so he fought tooth and nail in the sixth round. The synchronization was better not because Luca's hands caught up but because his spiritual powers had to take a step back. He was very slow, finishing the monsters while having to tank a few hits. And his right leg seemed to be a favorite. Luca kept on wincing, cold sweat forming on his forehead, but he continued. And Luca had become deathly pale by the time he got to the 50th beast. "Host! Are you alright?" "Not exactly." More like not at all; he wanted to just pass out or drink some spiritual water, but he was inside the cabin and couldn't do that. Luca was reminded of his first week here as he wobbled out of the pod weakly. Students like him were strewn randomly around the room. He saw the instructor looking over at them as if expecting this. "Welcome to the Mecha Combat division." "I hope to see the same enthusiasm tomorrow." Luca wanted to throw up.

Chapter 29: Training Pod

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