Mannequin vs. Dummy
I contacted my dedicated support handler. "Hello, this is Yoon Jaeha."
"Yes, Hunter Yoon Jaeha. What can I do for you?"
"Could you get me one mannequin? The kind you usually see in clothing stores."
"Understood. Shall I have it sent to the training room?"
"Yes, please."
One of the perks of my position was having a dedicated support handler assigned to me. She handled everything from auction proxy services and procuring necessary items to commissioning equipment. Basically, she supported me across all aspects of hunter activities.
After receiving the mannequin from her, I activated the skill.
Puppetry
I finished equipping it as well. The Lv.1 Dummy and Lv.1 Mannequin I'd procured from inside and outside the Tower had identical conditions. The only difference was their type.
"So now they're going to fight each other?"
"That's right. I want to see what kind of differences there are between the entities."
"This is gonna be fun!"
Sia looked up at me with an innocent smile. 'Ugh!' I instinctively averted my gaze. I couldn't just stare straight at her either, could I?
"Alright, begin!"
Anyway, it was time to start.
Tap― Tap―
At first they were evenly matched. But as time passed, the mannequin gradually fell behind. About a minute in...
Crash.
The mannequin tumbled, then started to flee. The dummy chased after it without missing a beat. I thought it would end quickly, but then...
"Huh?"
"Whoa!"
The mannequin climbed onto the railing and in one swift motion scaled up to the floor above. When the dummy tried to follow, the mannequin blocked its path. They ended up in a standoff until the dummy grabbed some training equipment and started hurling it at the structure above. But the mannequin knocked everything aside, so it didn't pose much of a threat.
"That's enough."
It was a meaningful test. I hadn't expected it to unfold quite like this, but...
"Woooow.... Jaeha, this is actually really fun?"
"Yeah, it is."
Unlike human sparring, watching them go all-out created a much more intense atmosphere. 'If I uploaded this as a video, the views would explode.' Not that I had any intention of doing so.
"Next round, prepare."
This time it was the Lv.2 Mannequin against the dummy that had just reached Lv.2 from the previous fight.
"Who do you think will win this time?"
"Hard to say."
There was a difference between entities from inside and outside the Tower, but maybe the gap between mannequin and dummy would offset that.
"Begin."
Swish― Tap―
I thought the start would be similar. But the fight unfolded in a completely unexpected direction.
Bam!―
"Ah!"
"Whoa, what?!"
The mannequin discarded its weapon. It took the opponent's attack directly with its body and executed a tackle. It mounted the dummy, pinned its arms, and then...
Bam! Bam! Crunch!
With a headbutt, it instantly smashed the dummy's head to pieces.
"Hooo..."
"Haaa..."
My own figure seemed to overlap with the shattered dummy, making me feel dizzy. 'To think it would fight like this.'
The mannequin clearly had meta-awareness. It knew that a weapon no better than a rubber bat couldn't inflict damage on itself, nor could it stop the attack. So it chose to tackle instead. Discarding the weapon must have been a judgment based on experience. On top of that, it had perfectly grasped the difference between items from inside the Tower and those from outside. If the two entities hadn't had identical durability, the mannequin would have taken damage too.
'This confirms it. Even when affected by the same skills, entities from inside the Tower are superior.'
Looked like I'd need to get more mannequins from inside.
"Jaeha."
"Yeah?"
When I turned my head, those clear, bright eyes were looking up at me. 'What is it? Why does Sia's gaze suddenly feel so intimidating?'
"Let's go train."
"S-suddenly?"
"If you train, the mannequin gets stronger too, right?"
"Well, yeah..."
"Then if I train you, we can watch even more exciting fights, can't we?"
"Uh, um? Is that how it works?"
Sia grabbed my hand and started running.
"Let's go, quick!"
"Please check the training options you require."
"Yes ma'am."
I started with the basics. Weapons included hand axes, daggers, and hammers. Oh, rope mobility training would be good too. There was parkour as well. It'd be smart to learn that professionally. After checking off everything I wanted to learn...
'Did I go a bit overboard?'
Whatever. If I ran out of time, I could just learn the rest later. That was the complacent thought I had. I had no idea it would become the seed of disaster.
"Nice to meet you, Hunter Choi Jinhyuk!"
"Nice to meet you, Hunter Yoon Jaeha."
I never imagined I'd actually get to train under the real Choi Jinhyuk! Before entering the Tower, I'd watched every single one of his videos. Not just combat footage, but his instructional videos too. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that all my movements and basic knowledge from inside the Tower were based on Choi Jinhyuk's videos.
"I watched the footage you submitted, Hunter Yoon Jaeha. It left quite an impression."
"You watched my video?"
I'd heard from the team leader that it would be released tomorrow. So Choi Jinhyuk had reviewed it before upload.
"Yes. Then we'll begin instruction immediately."
Huh? That was it? Didn't he have any questions? Or at least some feedback?
"Normally we would start with basic physical conditioning, but given the urgency, we'll move straight into practical combat training."
That was actually a relief.
"Yes, understood."
"Answers will be unified as 'Yes.'"
"Yes!"
Noise minimization, nighttime maneuvers, concealment, infiltration, and so on. The initial basic training wasn't that difficult. After all, I'd already studied it through the videos.
"Trainee Yoon Jaeha."
"Yes."
"Do you have any prior training experience?"
"No, I don't. However, I have watched all of Hunter Choi Jinhyuk's videos."
Not only had I watched them, I'd even put them into practice inside the Tower.
"Excellent. Gathering preliminary information and preparing response methods before entering the Tower was an outstanding decision."
Ah, so he was praising me for studying his videos. I thought he was talking about something else.
We moved on to weapon technique training. But after watching Choi Jinhyuk's demonstration, I had a question.
"I have a question."
"Trainee, state your question."
"Aren't there more complex movements?"
While watching Choi Jinhyuk's videos, I'd also seen special forces training footage. 'The ones I saw were definitely more complex.'
But all the demonstrations he'd shown so far were single movements. At most, they were linked actions spanning two steps.
"That's because trainees are facing zombies, not humans. Zombie movements are simple compared to humans. Against such opponents, complex linked techniques would actually be a waste."
"I see."
"When dealing with zombies, you must suppress them simply and swiftly. Don't give them any chance to grab or entangle you."
These were movements designed purely for practicality. As expected, training under Choi Jinhyuk was the right choice.
After the demonstration, we immediately moved into practical drills. First came attacks against the dummy.
"Perform one hundred repetitions."
"Executing!"
Simple repetition of bringing a hand axe down on the head.
"Don't strike with just your arms! Brace with your lower body and use your core to strike! One hundred repetitions again!"
"E-executing!"
The more I repeated the motion, the more accurate it became.
"One hundred repetitions!"
"Executing!"
I could feel myself getting sharper. That said...
"One hundred repetitions!"
"E-execuuuting!"
How long are we going to repeat just this one move?!
"Execute!"
"E-execuuuuting!"
We continued until my arms could no longer lift. 'Yu Sia, that girl... leaving me here to suffer alone!'
After confirming I'd gone to train, Sia had headed off to spar with the mannequin. She'd said it was to check if the mannequin's movements were improving in real time.
'She just wants to play with her new toy!' No wonder she'd been grinning when I went in for training. She'd known it would be this brutal.
'At least I managed to endure thanks to the drinks and pain patches I brought from the Tower.' Without them, the intensity would have been enough to cause actual damage to my arms. Fortunately, dagger and hammer training were postponed to the next session.
But the training wasn't over. We simply moved on to rope and bare-body mobility training—in other words, parkour.
"Khhugh!"
"Trainee, no sounds! Climb all the way up!"
"Yes!"
When did I go from trainee to training soldier anyway?! Climbing ropes or scaling buildings with just my body was pure hell. And since I was the only one receiving training, there was no time to rest.
'Damn it, all this suffering just because of the special intensive training benefit!'
Choi Jinhyuk even doped me with coffee while pushing me like a demon. The result? The training effects were so intense I felt them in my bones. The only side effect was that I'd become a mummy covered in pain patches.
'Damn it, I should have only signed up for one per day!' Even this was considered accelerated training, so it ended here. Otherwise I really might have died.
"Report at 9 AM tomorrow, trainee."
Huh? Tomorrow too? I thought today was the end?
"Understood?"
"Yes!"
When signing up, it had been up to me. But completing the course was entirely up to the instructor. 'Ugh, it's already 10 PM.'
I'd kept Sia waiting way too long. Beep― I swiped my card at the training room door.
"Ahahahaahaha! Run, run, run!"
"What the...?"
Sia was piggybacking on the mannequin, dashing around everywhere. She even had it leap up onto the structures while carrying her.
'Oh, that actually looks fun.' Wait a second. Hadn't she said she was checking if the mannequin's movements were improving in real time?! She was just playing around the whole time?!
"Hah!"
Sia, who'd been laughing for quite a while, finally noticed me.
"Y-you're here?"
"Yeah."
I'd felt bad for making her wait, but it seemed there was no need to worry about that.
"You look like you had fun?"
"Ahaha... this? Um, it was just a mobility test...!"
"Mobility teeeest?"
While someone turned into a mummy over here?
"It's true! You know how I carried you and ran inside the Tower before? I was wondering if the mannequin could do the same in an emergency!"
"Ah."
That had happened. Back when the zombie wave was about to hit, Sia had carried me while running. Remembering that moment brought back the soft sensation. So that was when Yu Sia had carried me, huh?
"H-hmm. It was a meaningful test."
Yes, you're pretty, so you're forgiven.
"R-right?!"
Sia must have remembered that moment too, because she turned her head away.
"Sorry for making you wait so late."
"It's fine, really. I got a lot out of it too."
"You did?"
What kind of help did she get?
"Yeah! The mannequin's movements kept improving in real time, so it got harder and harder to dodge. Eventually I started getting hit multiple times from the middle onward."
"What? You got hit? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine! This is nothing. It's just a rubber bat, after all."
Zap.
When I glared at the mannequin, it casually turned its head away as if it had no idea what I was talking about. 'What kind of reaction is that? Is it actually human?' For some reason, the mannequin's reaction overlapped with how I would have responded. It suddenly made me angry. So this thing had been carrying Sia around the whole time? It wasn't actually grinning about it, was it?