008. Physical Examination (3)
008. Physical Examination (3)
Before long, we arrived at the simulation room.
Like the other facilities at Krädel Base, this place was old and poorly maintained.
The old-model simulation pod at the center bore clear scratches all over, and several of the auxiliary monitors on the walls wouldn't even power on.
Fortunately, the core functions seemed to be operational.
"Wait a moment."
I operated the control console and loaded the most basic training program.
For now, directly confirming Laika's current condition was the priority.
"......Basic Defense Evasion Maneuver Training Level 1. It's very easy, so try it as a warm-up."
"Laika's body is already all loose and wobbly though~?"
"Then firm it up. Take this chance."
"Euheng, Laika isn't clay, you know~"
Laika grumbled but entered the pod and settled into position.
A moment later, a virtual combat space unfolded before her eyes.
First came basic movement and defense capability tests.
The results were...... surprisingly good.
No, maybe 'surprising' wasn't the right word. Laika had been zipping around during the last recon mission too.
Just like then, Laika's movements in the simulation were so agile and efficient it was hard to believe this was the same lazybones from everyday life.
She deflected incoming virtual projectiles with minimal movement or blocked them precisely with her shield.
Her evasive maneuvers were clean and economical as well.
Her movements proved that her B+ rated Shield Operation proficiency was no exaggeration.
She cleared the basic programs in literally the blink of an eye.
The problem came next.
"Now for a complex combat scenario. You'll be facing multiple enemies at once."
I raised the difficulty and ran a scenario in which multiple virtual Legions attacked simultaneously.
At that, a subtle inefficiency, different from before, began to appear in Laika's movements.
Her defense and evasion were still near-perfect.
But something was off. While she skillfully blocked the barrage of attacks, she hesitated or faltered at obvious moments when she could have counterattacked.
At times, she would try to perfectly defend against even non-threatening attacks, only to expose herself to greater danger.
In the process, her offensive movements were extremely restrained.
Every action seemed focused solely on maintaining a defensive line or retreating to a safer position.
In short, she did nothing but defend.
It wasn't the first time I'd seen that combat pattern.
In the Level 1 training we'd just run, Laika had fought in the exact same way.
And during yesterday's recon mission, Laika had also prioritized 'blocking' above all else.
That combat pattern had actually worked surprisingly well in those two cases.
Against only one or two enemies, simply blocking eventually created openings to attack.
She could block what she needed to and attack safely.
The problem was this mission, where the enemy count rose to three, four, or more.
Here, even if she blocked everything she could, no opening to attack appeared.
In fact, she couldn't block every attack.
Trying to block them all inevitably left openings.
Paradoxically, her insistence on blocking everything made the damage add up until Laika received a [Failed] judgment.
She simply repeated the same pattern on the second and third attempts.
There was no fourth attempt following that.
As soon as the [Failed - Program Terminated] message appeared for the third time, Laika popped out of the simulation pod and shouted:
"There! That's all for today!"
"Don't you go stealing my line."
It wasn't even a line I was going to say in the first place. It was most certainly not all for today.
We couldn't end things on a miserable failure.
"Laika worked plenty hard~ I worked hard and still can't clear it~ Let's save and come back the year after next~"
There it was again: casually slipping in an absurd time frame.
"Not the year after next, another five minutes. Take a five-minute break and we'll start again."
"What about five hours~?"
"Quiet, and take this."
I handed Laika some water and a towel. She was sweating—or rather, leaking coolant that looked like sweat.
"Euhet, thank you."
"Good. Then while we're resting, let's have a quick tactical discussion."
"......I'm taking that thank you back. No thank you."
Not that her thanks mattered to me one way or the other.
I shrugged and continued.
"Something I felt yesterday and feel again today—you're extremely good at defense itself. You block almost every attack."
"Yeah. It's Laika's specialty and strong suit."
"Come to think of it, your Endurance stat dropped relatively less. Do you do at least some minimal training?"
"Eummm— Not really— Sometimes in my head? Like, image training?"
Image training, she said. Could something like that really prevent stat loss?
I had heard somewhere that just imagining using specific muscles could prevent some degree of muscle loss—some scrap of trivia like that.
Even factoring that in, it was an absurd way to go about it.
Yet paradoxically, that was exactly what tipped me off to Laika's problem.
"You've got quite an imagination."
"Huh?"
"You did it earlier too. During the simulation, you imagined there was someone you had to protect inside it and played accordingly, didn't you?"
"Euhit......?!"
Laika's face flushed red.
Until I saw that reaction, I'd only suspected it.
Laika's bizarre defensive pattern had looked as though she had a protected target behind her.
But I never imagined she'd actually run the simulation with such a bizarre assumption.
With someone as unmotivated as Laika, I'd expected her to passively accept the scenario she was given—engaging multiple Legions alone in open terrain.
It turned out she was actively doing something utterly pointless.
I asked with a sigh.
"Why did you fight in such a weird way?"
"Euhehe...... Well...... it wasn't really intentional...... I guess you could call it a kind of habit?"
A habit?
"Why did you develop a habit like that?"
I asked, baffled.
Laika hemmed and hawed for a while before offering an absurd answer.
"Well...... Actually...... That image training I mentioned earlier... I use it to replay my last battle......."
The last battle she meant was probably the fight where she lost Commander Seo Se-rin.
Meaning, this girl had been endlessly replaying an image of herself successfully protecting the commander she'd failed to save.
She must have done the same in the simulation just now.
She probably didn't do it entirely of her own volition.
Rather—
"You mean you keep remembering it? The memory of that time."
"......Yeah."
Laika quietly acknowledged it.
Should I feel sorry for her, or just call her exhausting?
Whatever it was, I couldn't leave this bizarre compulsion alone.
Setting aside the fact that she'd never pass the training program at this rate, all sorts of problems would erupt in real combat too.
Most of all, Laika herself probably wasn't too happy with her current situation.
"You want to fix it too, don't you."
"......Yeah."
Laika nodded.
"Imagining it just makes me miserable. I want to learn how to let it go now. Laika does, too."
At that moment, Laika was staring at the monitor where the simulation results had appeared.
Beneath the figures for damage dealt, enemies killed, and so on, the simulated operation result was displayed.
'Unit Annihilated,' it read.
Around the time I noticed that, Laika asked tentatively.
"But I don't know what I should do. That's the part I can't figure out."
In other words, she wanted me to tell her how.
She wanted an answer, but...
"Hard to say."
The best method was to 'just' stop ruminating on the past.
She just needed to stop doing that and focus solely on the battle in front of her.
That was technically possible.
But psychologically, it wouldn't be easy.
Laika's compulsion was a defense mechanism born from trauma.
It wasn't something she could simply stop overnight just because she wanted to.
So—
"Alright. Let's just change the combat conditions entirely."
"Change the...... combat conditions?"
"Yeah. For example, trying a completely different weapon."
"Eueue......."
At my suggestion, Laika's expression stiffened subtly.
"Laika's never used anything but a shield....... Can I really learn something new at this point, I wonder."
"Ah, I'm not exactly saying to stop using the shield altogether."
Laika's phase synchronization rate with shields reached 88%.
That meant she was highly suited to and proficient with shields, and discarding such an ability to use a completely different armament was by no means a wise decision.
Still, I had to force some kind of clear change—something that would keep her from focusing only on defense.
There was a good way to do that.
"Let's change the shield."
"......Change the shield?"
Instead of answering, I opened one of the cabinets lining the wall beside the console.
It was crammed with worn-out practice weapons.
Among them, there were exactly two shields.
One was a deployable shield almost identical to the one Laika was using, large enough to completely cover her body.
The other was an attachable shield that strapped onto the arm.
Out of the two, I pulled out the attachable type and handed it to Laika.
"Try it with this one."
"Eueh......."
Laika looked conflicted.
"What? You don't like it?"
"It's not that I don't like it. I just don't think it'll block properly......."
Obviously its defense would be lower than the deployable type.
But right now, Laika's problem wasn't defense.
"The deployable shield is designed to be used with a firearm as a secondary weapon. But you like hitting things with your shield, so the attachable type suits you perfectly. Try to get past your prejudice about its size and give it a shot. If you clear it today, I'll buy you bungeoppang again."
"Guess I have no choiiice......."
Laika strapped on the shield as if she'd at least give it a try and stepped back into the pod.
Soon the simulation began again.
As expected, Laika struggled. Her coverage area had shrunk to a quarter of what it had been, after all.
Hit markers began appearing on areas she had never needed to worry about before, and she failed before she could accomplish anything.
"Eugyaaa—! Can't I just use the big one?!"
Laika's irritated shout rang out from inside the pod. After several failures, she looked ready to give up at any moment.
"Change your thinking. There's no one beside you. You just have to fight on your own. Only you."
I snapped into the comms mic.
"Easier said than done~"
Grumbling, Laika readjusted her grip on the shield.
Soon the training began again.
Falling, missing her mark, and taking hits, Laika gradually got the feel for swinging the shield.
Before long, by the fifth attempt, the timing of attack and defense began to click.
From the tenth attempt onward, cumulative damage decreased compared to when she used the deployable shield.
And then, the 14th attempt.
At last, a small cheer burst from inside the pod between ragged breaths.
"Cleareddddd!"
As if in response to Laika hopping up and down in joy, a message window appeared on the screen.
== Training Results ==
[Stats for biodroid 'Laika' have increased.]
- Strength C → C+
- Agility D → D+
- Shield Operation B → B+
- Tactical Judgment D → C-
[The skill module level for biodroid 'Laika' has increased.]
- <Rampage> Lv.1 → Lv.2
== ==