NoveLight ™
"Th-the snake has split into two...!"
"You’ve got the energy to spout nonsense right as you arrive. Well, it’s not entirely incorrect... Let's at least introduce ourselves. This is Jin, whom we brought in recently."
"Communication program activated... Nice to meet you, Cartographer. I’ve heard about you from the Archetype."
"Snakes! Aahhh!"
As soon as Kato arrived, he was spouting nonsense.
Of course, there was no one there to call him out on it. Everyone was just chuckling—mainly because they were all people who were used to that kind of thing. Harmony, who was standing next to him, had known for a while that Kato had joined Yujin’s school, and Lorenatina… well, who knows if she cared.
Meanwhile, Jin blinked and reached out to Kato. Turns out she was offering a handshake. After chatting for the last few days and collecting basic social data, it seemed like it had paid off. Thanks to her incredible logic circuits, she quickly picked up on things after I showed her some videos.
I wasn’t sure if she was intentionally using that tone, though.
"Anyway, I know this might be a little shocking right after you arrived, but I believe you can probably guess what’s going on. We’re going to be trained together from now on, so I hope you both get along."
"Wait, was this supposed to be an escape mode, or some sort of matchmaking game?"
"I’m not sure if Jin will take a liking to you, Kato."
Of course.
The viewers were going overboard. From what I could tell, they were acting like they were hundreds of thousands of grandfathers. Honestly, I was the type who taught just the basics and then let them do whatever they wanted. So, if Jin took a liking to Kato, I’d let her go.
Although, whether that was likely or not was a different matter.
Moreover, my focus was elsewhere.
"If you get seriously hurt, maintenance will be quite difficult..."
"Is it really more troublesome to damage me than to damage you, Archetype?"
"Well, I suppose that’s true."
"…Now that I think about it, you make a valid point. I’ll do my best to avoid bodily damage during combat."
Although I had a body that could barely be pierced, aside from the grenade launcher in the bunker and the .50 caliber machine guns in the customs area, I’d be torn to pieces if hit by such things.
Moreover, the new arms, legs, and tail I’d attached weren’t as durable as the original ones. They were probably only a little tougher than a human’s. Unlike humans who could use a Grizzly medkit or similar, Jin wouldn’t have that luxury.
Even so, minimizing damage to the main body while inflicting maximum damage on the enemy was a combat strategy shared by me and the rest of the team. Based on the performance of the combat logic circuits when we fought Harmony and Lorenatina last time, I would need to teach it all over again.
After a quiet chuckle, I rummaged through the Gear Box and pulled out something, handing it to Jin.
"Don’t worry. I’m not sending you out unarmed. It’s a Class 6 bulletproof vest, so wear it properly. The weight limit shouldn’t be much of a problem."
"Wow, bulletproof body and a bulletproof vest? With this, I feel like I could take at least a few shots from an NSV machine gun."
"You’d be wrong. Even if you can take a few shots, it won’t help much if you’re sprayed with 700 rounds per minute. It’s a bad idea to walk into the line of fire of a machine gun."
First and foremost, safety, and secondly, safety.
While explaining where we’d be heading, the structure of the map, and the resources we’d need for this mission, Lorenatina, who had been laughing from behind, added her own comment.
"I thought we’d just be shooting guns and running around like last time, but it looks like something more interesting is about to happen. This always happens when we’re with the little one."
"Yujin’s always like that. Always attracting strange things, huh?"
"…I can hear you."
Of course, I couldn’t deny it.
But regardless, Kato had already made all his preparations and came to visit my base. Meanwhile, Jin, who had been laughing and chatting, was now fully equipped with the gear I had handed her. It was a bit sloppy, so I had to personally adjust the positioning of the gear and the lengths of the straps.
One thing I realized was that Jin wasn’t exactly experienced when it came to preparations for combat like this. It was her blind spot. In hindsight, it wasn’t such an unreasonable oversight.
Given her own tanking ability, plus the ballistic shield and mini-gun, it wasn’t like she needed to know much about CQB, grip, or firing techniques. A few shots from the mini-gun and the enemies in front of her would be wiped out, cover included.
Conclusion:
"Looks like Kato’s going to have to help out a lot more than I expected. Can you do it?"
"Uh… I’m not sure?"
"Well, learning combat strategies is easier when teaching someone else than practicing by yourself. I know you’ve made a lot of training videos for the newbies, so maybe you have a knack for teaching."
"Ah, well… if you say so, then I guess I’ll do my best."
As expected, Jin and I exchanged looks, and she nodded.
Jin, who had bowed her head, spoke:
"Please take care of me, Kato. Let’s learn a lot."
"Er, okay! I’ll do my best!"
Good. I was passing the work onto him.
But just as I thought that, I turned my head slightly, and there was Lorenatina, whispering something to Harmony. I was curious about what they were talking about, but if I didn’t need to know, I didn’t bother paying attention and focused back on the front.
It occurred to me that maybe Jin was like Harmony. Although, considering her body, she was likely to learn faster than most. Still, until I saw the result, I couldn’t know for sure.
The first map was a high-value research facility.
"Alright, let’s start moving. Jin, once we enter the map, don’t even think about trying to go down a different path."
"That’s unnecessary concern. I have no reason to stray."
"Good. Let’s go."
Already, I was curious about what would happen next.
"That little one with all the tricks…"
"I’ve been thinking, but Yujin seems to be evil in these little ways."
Yujin's evil nature was far from ordinary.
Today, Yujin's notorious reputation only grew.
[Notification: Pre-set values being calculated… Radar spawn probability and spawn numbers increased by 100%. The number of users who can join the session has been reduced to 30% of the original.]
[Notification: Session entry complete.]
"Good job, little one. You’ve prevented the sacrifice of many."
"Now, even just starting a match has become something to think twice about… Should I be happy or disappointed?"
"But Yujin, now you can’t just blindly start a match like the regular users… Ughhh!"
I let out a sigh as Harmony, in her usual manner, teasingly pulled at her cheeks. This was my reality. My skills, which weren’t bad to begin with, had been honed to absurd levels through Apex Predator, soaring endlessly.
However, unlike other modes, EU had a system where I could adjust session settings to some degree. The basic structure didn’t change, but as you can see above… the number of enemy AI could be increased or decreased. The number of users in a session could also be adjusted.
Of course, it wouldn’t work to set the AI and the user count to zero and just farm high-value items or reduce the number of users drastically to farm items in a duo queue.
The former was an offline mode, designed for new players to check out the map layout and exits, and the latter… unless it was a special case, the number of users and enemy AI was like a balancing scale.
If the number of users increased, the number of AI enemies would necessarily decrease, and vice versa.
In any case, the session settings I adjusted were as follows:
I wanted to prevent the users from joining and getting wrecked by me, Harmony, and Lorenatina while letting Kato and Jin gain combat experience. It seemed like an optimized structure.
The viewers, no matter what, started cheering and chatting away, but as soon as I mentioned that I was going to throw some of the noisy ones into the session as examples, they started praising my curriculum. It turns out, to quiet them down, firepower was needed.
Anyway, regardless of all that—
"Our little Mecha one has quite a shabby form."
"Reminds me of the time Moni dropped the magazine."
"Hey, when was that?!"
"Looks like we’ve got a long way to go..."
Jin was… a newbie.
She was a lot more of a newbie than I had expected. However, her eyes were working hard, and even though she complained a little about wanting to visit the lush forests when we mentioned the high-value research facility, it seemed like she was getting more excited now that she was actually out.
Anyway, long story short, handling the guns wasn’t the problem. The issue wasn’t about not being good with certain weapons, it was that she hadn’t received the proper maintenance and usage data on certain firearms.
So what was the problem?
"…The way it functions feels completely different."
"Yeah, you’re right."
The self-preservation instinct, fast movements, and evasion techniques that living beings would prioritize… Jin lacked those things. To be more specific, her self-preservation instinct was much weaker than a living being's.
In hindsight, I should’ve expected this. Since she was an artificial lifeform with many differences from humans, combat principles built on human standards wouldn’t work here.
As expected, this led to problems. Not even minutes after entering the session, everyone except Jin witnessed the consequences directly.
BANG!
"Ugh, why are you standing up from there?!"
"Analysis of the round shows it can penetrate not just the bulletproof vest, but even my body. Starting pursuit now."
The bullets flew through, grazing her face, shoulder, forearm, and thigh, but instead of flinching, Jin stared down the defensive troops, locked onto their positions, and as the reloading began, she accelerated sharply.
She knocked one of the soldiers unconscious with the butt of the gun, and in the meantime, Jin began firing her MK47 like a pistol. Naturally, the two enemy AI right next to her were obliterated in close-range combat.
She then looked at me, a faint smile on her face.
She was probably… feeling triumphant.
"I did it."
"Yeah, you did... ugh."
"Confirming that the Archetype’s standards are extremely high. I’ll try approaching differently in the next combat."
"Yujin, after years of grinding ranked matches, my sharp predictions say that this guy is completely—AHH!"
I knew it.
Jin, with an expression that was somewhat annoyed, walked up and relentlessly kicked Kato’s joint, and he immediately tumbled to the ground, creating an incredible scene. As expected, his left leg was dyed red in the process.
Lorenatina was laughing beside us, Harmony was giving him a hard time, and Kato, finally letting out a strange groan, pulled out a medkit from his pouch and began to patch up his leg.
Meanwhile, another thought started forming in my head.
"...It’s an unusual approach, but it’s not entirely wrong. Just like how Harmony couldn’t exactly copy my combat style, everyone needs to learn a combat style suited to them."
As I said.
At this point, it would be easy to point out how Jin’s actions were wrong, but I couldn’t confidently say "that combat style is incorrect." I couldn’t assume that by showing Jin a combat method suited for humans, she would execute it perfectly. In other words, I’d have to completely create a combat style for Jin from scratch.
It probably wouldn’t be that hard, but...
With a slightly melancholic Jin in front of me, I spoke up.
"Jin."
"Currently listening to the Archetype’s instructions."
"Can you tell me what areas need to be defended most in case of destruction, or if destroyed, will cause a significant disruption to the mission?"
"Arms and legs. The eyes can be replaced by sensors, and the central body with the power source is protected by the thickest armor. Even if hit by shaped charge shells, the internal energy shields can defend against it."
"Hmm."
I thought for a moment before speaking.
"From now on, focus on defending the arms, legs, and joints in the abdomen instead of the main body. And try not to damage the eyes. You understand why, right?"
"The Archetype values repair costs… Ugh, understood."
When I tossed a bolt at Mecha Yujin’s head, a crisp, clean sound echoed.
Lorenatina, who had been watching the whole scene, added her usual comment.
"I thought it was a hunting time with Mecha little one, but looks like it’s comedy time instead."
And so, the journey into the high-value research facility began. What would happen next was already making me curious.