NoveLight ™
"All 32 teams have been deployed. The GPS synchronization for all participants and humanoid robots has been completed, and the MQ-9C Aurora reconnaissance drones have also been deployed. As of now, preparations for the final mission are complete."
"Confirmed. The fortress assault operation begins at 2100 on November 6th. The first shift will end at 0600 on November 7th, after which there will be three shifts of 8 hours each until the mission concludes. Those not on duty should rest from now until their next shift, and the next shift will be notified of their timing by a vibration at 0700 on November 7th."
"General observers have no restrictions on visiting the control room, so feel free to check the status whenever you want. Please refrain from bringing in food, and keep in mind that keycard access is required to enter the mission control room, so do not forget the cards we provided in advance."
Two enormous screens filled the large auditorium.
32 green dots representing friendly units appeared. As they all converged, they formed a giant 16-sided polygon with a radius of 120 km. At the center of this polygon, a fortress-like stronghold was marked.
The various concentric red circles and red dots scattered across the map represented patrols, concealed observation posts, minefields, and humanoid snipers’ positions. These weren’t concentrated in one spot but scattered across the vast operational area.
Two giant holograms displayed this. On the left was Operation Zone A, and on the right was Operation Zone B.
It was only 9 p.m., giving most participants plenty of free time, aside from the main shift workers.
As a result, most of the personnel remained, chatting about how well they thought they would perform or watching the thermal and infrared footage from the MQ-9C Aurora reconnaissance drones on tablets and laptops.
The dots moved sluggishly. Naturally, Lorentina's eyes were fixed on the left side, where Logan and the rookie were deployed. The movement of the dots was incredibly slow, given they were being viewed from tens of kilometers above, but that was inevitable.
As the first shift, Lorentina would have to keep watching this sluggish scene until 6 a.m. She sank deeply into her chair, propping her feet up on the table.
Of course, it didn’t take long before someone tapped her on the head.
"Ugh. You’re not even trying to hide it anymore."
"Why would I? I’m keeping a low profile. Got a moment?"
"Let’s leave in about 30 minutes. It hasn’t been long since we started."
Using a sense of intuition several times sharper than a human’s, she couldn’t detect the stealthy movements.
This stealth movement was something Lorentina and Olivia shared — some sort of special ability. Unfortunately for Shark, Olivia was more skilled in this. She hadn't noticed when her acquaintance approached, and no one else in the auditorium seemed to care. Whether Olivia was approaching Shark or not, it didn't seem to raise any suspicion. Lorentina set her comms to respond at any moment, then moved a few meters away.
Since the large auditorium was crowded, they sat in a relatively discreet spot and began chatting.
"So, when are we going to watch this?"
"I’d love to watch from start to finish, but it’s not necessary. Based on the pace of movement, I’d guess patrols won’t start until tomorrow afternoon, and the participants will likely face their real challenges around then."
"My calculation is pretty close. I’ll go in at 6 a.m., get a good nap, then wake up, wash up, and by the time I’m back, it should be a pretty exciting scene unfolding. Good timing."
"Exactly."
A simple adjustment, and the two of them were now seeing the same view as Logan and Eugene — it was essentially a head-cam view. By late November, the woods didn’t look as dense as in summer, and the leaves were yellowing, while the ground was covered with fallen leaves.
There weren’t many steep mountains either. Occasionally, they saw flat hiking trails and deserted campsites, but there were still areas of danger. There were places where paths were completely blocked, followed by sudden steep inclines.
With their equipment and food weighing 90 kg, and their combined body weight averaging 240 kg, each step they took concentrated over 300 kg of pressure on an area barely the size of their feet.
And so, the problem they faced was:
Frequent slipping.
They were not walking on solid trails or paved roads but through the middle of uninhabited mountains and near gently flowing streams in the night — conditions prone to such accidents.
Naturally, the sight of this made both Lorentina and Olivia chuckle.
"It would be fun if the rookie and Logan ran into some wild animals. By the way, do you know what animals live in that forest? Probably black bears, red wolves, and wild boars?"
"If we kill a red wolf, we’ll probably get arrested. They’re an endangered species."
"Well, we’ll figure it out through conversation. Maybe one of the rookies or Logan will toss a snack and move on. I’m not sure about wild boars, though."
Given the vast area of the operation zone, wildlife handling training was essential. The brief training session from earlier flashed through Lorentina’s mind.
Meanwhile, the two were casually walking, and within just a few hours, they had covered nearly 10 kilometers. The 120 km diameter polygon started to narrow toward the center. Everyone had chosen to close the distance as quickly as possible on the first day.
Of course, the situation wasn’t as smooth as expected. The minimal moonlight meant it was far more troublesome to figure out their location compared to during the day, especially in a national forest filled with mountains and forests with no distinct landmarks.
Moreover, the competition organizers had ensured they couldn’t easily determine their position or the target’s location, with EMP devices scattered around to disable military GPS systems.
What they had were maps, pens, protractors, rulers, compasses, and other basic tools.
Despite having mastered map-reading skills long ago, it didn’t make the terrain any easier to navigate. There were plenty of cases where the paths were cut off, or trees grew so high that it became difficult to see the surroundings.
Lorentina and Olivia had left the room earlier and entered a nearby rest area, enjoying hot meals while continuing their conversation.
"After 6 hours, the average distance covered is about 14 km... I think the real defense line starts at around 28 km, right?"
"On the first day, it doesn’t matter how far we go. Everyone will have a rough time starting around then. As I said before, I think that’ll start happening by tomorrow afternoon."
"We might encounter other teams, or we might go even further."
Patrols or concealed posts.
Those who brought reconnaissance drones — if they didn’t get destroyed by jamming or anti-air missiles — could pinpoint the positions of humanoid robots patrolling the area and break through the defense line, or they could draw the patrols near other teams to cause interference.
The goal of the final mission was survival and completing the objectives, but there was no rule against interfering with other teams.
Naturally, there were countless ways to harass other teams.
As they exchanged thoughts, Olivia suddenly seemed to remember something.
"...By the way, wasn’t the platform broadcast supposed to start around then?"
"That’s right. The sensors should be working fine. There’s no risk of exposing identities or missions... although it does feel a bit political. There's a major election tomorrow."
In short, this broadcast was essentially a love call from the U.S. Department of Defense, heavily dominated by the Republican Party.
With the Republican candidate Ernest Shepard knocked out by Henry’s punch, it was clear the Democratic Party would dominate for at least eight years, and once Henry, who had evolved into a mega-trident figure, finished his term and stepped down, he would be treated as a deity.
The Republicans would likely face a long period of darkness, so a big mission broadcast could be seen as a preemptive dance, a way to show they were still trying.
Lorentina casually commented:
"Well, since humanoid tech isn’t widely commercialized yet, I doubt Henry will immediately initiate massive disarmament... but I get the reasoning."
"Anyway, for high-level operators like us... we’ll be controlling the humanoid robots remotely. There’s no real reason to step outside ourselves. How that plays out, I don’t know."
"Either way, given that we can’t escape the robot framework, we still have a long way to go. High-power EMPs, jamming, virus infections, and hacking threats will quickly become pressing issues... and since the Icarus and Artemis technologies from the other world were brought here, that’s still unexplored territory."
The technologies brought from the other world — how would they shake things up in the U.S.?
Perhaps due to the dawn or the weariness pressing on their bodies, or maybe just because it was a hard question, neither of them responded immediately. After a while, only silence filled the room.
This world — the world shattered by war — seemed predictable, with Russia and China likely to break up in a few years, and global dominance being reconstructed around the U.S.
But this place wasn’t the same. They both leaned back on the sofa, predicting an uncertain future.
After a deep sigh, Shark spoke up.
"Well, we should head back soon. See you later."
"See you later."
They tidied up the room and disappeared in different directions.
The cold darkness enveloped Georgia.
After cleaning up the room, the two disappeared in different directions.
A cool darkness enveloped Georgia.
"... The sun will rise soon."
"I'm hungry. Let's eat."
"That's a good idea."
Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away, somewhere in the mountains. The two calmly unzipped the side zipper of one of the modular military packs and took out their combat rations.
Meal times were important.
"After eating, I suddenly felt like I was going to have anorexia... It's quite unfamiliar to walk around with a weight of nearly 100kg after just lounging around for a while."
"I'll check the situation later, and if I feel like I have some time, I'll just go back and rest for about 30 minutes. Right now, I've been moving for almost 12 hours and nearly 29km. Actually, I have to slow down a bit from now on."
Second day of the infiltration mission, 12pm.
As if the cold air from yesterday was a lie, the sun rose again in the sky and poured sunlight that didn't seem to be between late fall and early winter on the world. The sweat that flowed repeatedly soaked into my clothes, dried, and on top of that, the dirt and dust that grew from walking on the mountain path clung to it.
15 hours after starting the sleepless maneuver, I still had plenty of time. Considering that I had climbed the mountain with no path several times at 2km/h while carrying 90kg of military gear, it was an absurd level, but the cheat key called the Manifestor made it all possible.
By this time, my feet, which were about to develop horribly large blisters, were still fresh, and the average case of extreme muscle pain, pouring sweat, and half-consciousness was not so much for us. Instead, I was a little thirsty and often hungry.
"Drink water sparingly. What does it taste like?"
"Senior, you're carrying a 15L extra-large hydration bag, right? I like Gatorade."
"It's ordinary."
Of course, 90kg was only the weight of my military gear. If you add up all the items hanging from my body, it would be 120kg.
Fortunately, however, our appetites were really good, and the more we ate the combat rations, the more our weight went down. Of course, as I said last time, we didn't eat garbage like MREs, but rather all the RCIR, the French military combat rations, so the quality of the food wasn't that bad.
If I had brought MREs, I would have felt like I was accumulating bombs in my body every day. That’s what I thought.
After 50 minutes of movement, I rested for 10 minutes. However, strictly speaking, this was more about finding a way than resting.
The moment I reached a suitable location, I would check the perimeter, then take out a large cloth from my multi-purpose pocket, then find a fairly steep place, fix the cloth, and then happily scatter fallen leaves to make a small hideout. It wasn’t very effective, but it was very cost-effective for the time.
I unfolded the map and checked my current location. Unlike yesterday, I had to be very careful about my movement route from now on. I had to avoid minefields at all costs, and if I was caught in a hidden outpost, a patrol would come out. The barbed wire area was much easier. I could just cut it with subsonic bullets or nippers.
“It’s been about 5km since I entered the unidentified area, but I still haven’t seen any signs, so I guess I should say I’m anxious….”
"If we keep going like this, we can arrive at the fortress in a dozen hours. Of course, judging by the tail, that's definitely not going to happen."
"That's right."
"It's a bit much to say that nothing happened at all."
That's right.
Just before dawn, at around 6 AM, while we were having a late meal, a wild boar sniffed around us and became our guest. According to the wild animal information we had received in advance, there were things that could be killed and things that couldn't, and the wild boar was clearly the former.
I wondered if something similar would happen in the future, but whatever. I decided not to worry about that.
Finding our current location through various methods wasn't that difficult. It was especially easier if there were hiking trails mixed in among the moving routes. Being able to find our location for free through stakes or signs was a huge advantage. The other teams seem to be moving similarly, but whatever. We just go our own way.
10 minutes passed in an instant, and while Logan was checking the waypoints he had marked, I retrieved the cloth, shook off the leaves, and folded it neatly into my multi-purpose pouch.
We were currently on one side of a low ridge, and far away… about 1km to the northwest, there was a mountain range with an average height of about 700m.
I heard that some teams have side missions where they sweep away the humanoid robots wandering around the highlands and occupy the base on the highlands, but when I saw it from the side… I was glad we didn’t do it. It must have been really annoying.
“Now that I think about it, what is our mission?”
"I can't ask the other teams, but that's just how it is. What did the shark bastard say in the pre-briefing… that some teams know the side mission in advance, and others find out later? We're clearly the latter."
"I hope it's not too much trouble…."
At that point, I shook my head. The reason I said this was really simple. It was because I felt like the fate that awaited us in the future would not be smooth.
Since we weren't on a picnic, I deliberately lowered my voice, and if possible, I chose a path with few fallen leaves… but I wonder.
What will happen?
And at that moment, a sudden sense of foreboding came over me.
Immediately after that, a dead tree about 7m behind us burst open with a loud thud.
───!
"…!"
"This damn thing…!"
Dissipation and cover.
Fortunately, there were many places to hide around, so I quickly fell down. Anyone could tell that it was a sniper shot. Judging by the error of several meters, it was likely that they had no intention of hitting it in the first place. If we interpret this differently, it was highly likely that they adjusted the point of impact through elaborate calculations.
Then, after a few seconds, the military terminal they had brought with them vibrated faintly and displayed a hologram.
The contents were as follows.
-[Notice: Side Mission <Sniper Encounter>]
-[Notice: Identify the location of the enemy sniper within 2 minutes and 30 seconds and succeed in countersniping.]
-[Notice: If you fail to perform or fail the mission, one of the sniper team members will be judged as having at least light injuries and up to serious injuries.]
-[Notice: Countdown begins
[Start.]
"...Yes. How could it be easy? This is going to be crazy, really."
"That's right."
The TAC-50 anti-material rifle, which had been nothing more than a heavy lump of metal for a dozen hours, was finally ready to do its job.
Logan and I simultaneously loaded .50 caliber rounds into the chamber and pushed the bolt forward to close the chamber.
The full-scale search began.