Training Camp # 6
Training Camp # 6
We moved and searched while maintaining presence concealment.
Just imitating my friends like this was a huge help. How to hide my body. How to move carefully. And also how to locate monsters. Every single piece was vital, practical knowledge that soaked straight into my brain.
Learning it while actually moving my body in the field made it genuinely satisfying. I must have the temperament of a technician.
"..."
But, how should I put this.
Something felt strange.
"Huh?"
What should I call this feeling?
Doing this gave me an inexplicable sense of familiarity. I did serve in the military, sure, but I'd never done this kind of training... The training I got was mostly humping a pack up a mountain until I was dead on my feet, or digging in and sitting in a position for days on end.
I'd never trained while maneuvering like this.
—Ding.
[Skill increased by 1]
And then the notification sound rang out.
"..."
All I'm doing is watching my friends and copying them, and my skill is going up.
This is a little weird. Stats go up this easily? Does that mean I've got that much talent overflowing? I was happy, but my explosive growth rate scared me too. If I become an S-rank Awakened at this rate... I definitely won't be able to live an ordinary life. I'll literally have to live as a hero.
Whatever the case, I could feel very clearly that I was focused on the present situation.
How many times in my life have I ever displayed this level of concentration? That's probably why my stats are going up. The moment my stats increased, I felt a subtle thrill.
I can do even better.
Anyway, I was watching my friends with that kind of extreme focus when—
"Kim Geun-cheol?"
Leona's voice tickled my ear.
"Huh? Leona?"
"Did you suddenly get all tense? Relax a little. Why are you concentrating so hard?"
"No, Leona. Relax, nothing. I'm treating this like it's real and being as serious as I can. If I relax now, it's all for nothing."
"Oh-ho, is that so? That's Kim Geun-cheol for you. Worthy of praise. Heh heh heh."
Leona's smiling face felt really familiar. Comfortable and familiar. As if we'd known each other for ages, it was that friendly.
A smiling face really does suit her best.
"More than that, Leona. Now that we're really moving together and I'm seeing stuff and experiencing it firsthand... I can feel my skills shooting up like crazy."
"That's only natural. There's no better training than watching and experiencing. Later, once you can maneuver properly, Kim Geun-cheol, these memories will be a massive help."
"Definitely."
I hadn't even been in the training that long and my skill had already gone up by 2 stat points.
Which means it's helping that much. Carrying out an operation here felt so familiar, but that's probably because my stats went up.
Tactical and combat knowledge was soaking in like a sponge.
If my mana and proficiency in using it get a bit higher, I think I'll be able to copy them pretty closely. No kidding, I really might have a talent for being a hero.
"We've got monsters up ahead."
"Yeah."
Up front, Si-hoo was doing some kind of hand signal.
It was a signal to check our surroundings, then launch a surprise attack and take them out.
—Fwoosh!
It wasn't particularly hard. After a quick sweep of the perimeter, we launched our attack, and the hologram monsters were wiped out with total ease.
* * *
After moving like that for a while.
"Contact."
We finally located the target.
"They've gone and built themselves a whole fortress."
Leona, lying prone beside me, said that. We were crammed into a tarp spread out on a building rooftop, watching the front. Anyway. Up ahead, the monsterkin had established a position.
—Grkurkugl.
—Rrrruk.
With several dozen F-rank monsters, no less.
But those monsters looked a bit unusual. How should I put it... like bio-turrets? The monsterkin was surrounded by those bio-turrets, its eyes glowing fiercely as it scanned all directions.
The thing had a head like some kind of octopus, with eyes wrapped all 360 degrees around its skull. That thing's definitely got its security locked down tight. What is it, some kind of Argus?
"Those bastards prepped that setup properly."
"Tell me about it. It looks pretty tricky."
Yu-ri and Si-hoo said, impressed.
The monsterkin had literally constructed a fortress just for itself. It had deployed multiple long-range attack-type monsters, and placed meat-shield monsters outside them to block any charge.
Likewise, to bog down heroes, it had also sparsely positioned close-combat-type monsters with high mobility and attack speed.
Break through that head-on?
That'd be really tough.
In the first place, even punching through the turrets' firepower seemed hard.
"Tch. Honestly, you take care of something like that with howitzers. But since we came here on our own, there's no helping it."
"Howitzers, huh. Leona, you said that E-rank monsterkin is a mage type? Can't it block howitzers?"
"Nope. Even if an E-rank monsterkin puts up a barrier, it can't stop a barrage of howitzer fire. They've conveniently all clustered together, so we just need to mark the coordinates and report back. Best case is to just blast the whole building apart."
That would definitely make it easy.
But isn't it kind of wrong for heroes to just go around smashing buildings? I learned that in an emergency you have no choice, but you need to avoid destroying buildings as much as possible.
"But we don't have howitzers right now. We have to handle this ourselves."
Si-hoo said.
"And that's why it's a bit tight. With our party composition, breaking through head-on is pretty difficult."
No matter how strong my friends are, it isn't easy to punch through a monster defensive wall as thoroughly fortified as a fortress.
It's basically like we have to play tower defense from the monsters' side. We'd have to break through while getting the absolute shit beaten out of us.
"Hey. Leona. What if the Chairwoman was here right now?"
"Total annihilation. Just go in alone and blow everything up with one sword swing, wouldn't she? She's on a whole different realm of existence from us."
"Heh heh heh, I bet."
Of course, there are only a few superhumans that powerful in the whole country.
"Hmm, hey. Did they deploy all their forces on the rooftop?"
Leona answered Yu-ri's question.
"From what's visible, yes. Doesn't seem like a good deployment, though."
I didn't think it was a good deployment either.
"Right. Like Leona said, it'd be food for howitzers. Or maybe you could take them out with long-range sniping."
"No, Kim Geun-cheol. Long-range sniping could be dangerous too."
"Why?"
"Because if they return fire from over there, things could get very messy. Those monsters over there—they're all specialized for long-range combat. And with that many, they could probably form a proper kill net. Unless you can run faster than a bullet, it's dangerous."
Oh, whoa. Do you have to think about all that too?
Feels like I'm gaining experience points.
"Oooh. As expected of a noble young lady. You know all that? Just like that?"
"Hmph, this much is basic."
At Yu-ri's praise, Leona smiled.
"Si-hoo. But something's weird."
"Hmm? What?"
"If this is training based on a real scenario... I mean, like Leona said, there are methods, right? Howitzers and stuff. But we can't use those right now."
"Yeah. True."
Si-hoo nodded at my words.
"But if we're in a state where we can't do anything properly, like now, doesn't it defeat the purpose of practical training? You know?"
Normally heroes fight in coordination with the military, but right now we have zero support like that. It feels a little different from real combat.
"Hmm... you might have a point? Ah, Geun-cheol. Maybe this training is exactly about that."
"About what?"
"Maybe it's to see how we cope in a variety of situations?"
They gave us such a difficult task to see how we deal with a variety of situations. As I was chewing on that thought, Si-hoo continued.
"For all we know, if there are civilians left in there, you couldn't use artillery anyway. There could be survivors in that building, right? If you fire howitzers in that situation, it's murder. So, it's training that assumes a scenario where you can't use howitzers—"
"Ah! That's it! Nice, Lee Si-hoo!"
Leona shouted as if she'd realized something!
"That's it! The scenario is that there are civilians inside the building! We've got our answer. That monsterkin has hostages right now. That's why it can be out in the open like that. It's clearly been tasked with defending the area while holding hostages!"
"Oooh!"
A sound of admiration escaped me at Leona's analysis!
Hearing it, that makes total sense!
"Is this the analytical power of a cadet! Leona, you're amazing!"
"There's always a reason behind the training. Heh heh heh. Anyway, now that we've figured out the answer, let's proceed with rescuing the hostages."
"Sounds fun. If there actually are hostages, will we get a good evaluation?"
Yu-ri grinned.
Good.
Then let me voice my opinion here.
"In that case, Leona. Since the hostages will be inside the building anyway, let's give up on directly attacking the rooftop. That's probably not what it's designed for in the first place."
"Yes. We should. So how do we do it?"
Leona looked at me like she was testing me.
"What choice is there? We go in through the front door. Or we infiltrate through a window on a lower floor."
"Right. I don't think there's any other way besides what Geun-cheol said. It's dangerous, but if there are hostages, that's the way we have to go."
Si-hoo backed me up.
"That's definitely the case."
"Well, that's the plan, then."
My idea went over well, huh?
"Geun-cheol. Good judgment. For a hero, that kind of judgment is correct. If there are hostages, you absolutely have to save them. Ignoring that is something you can never do."
"Exactly. It'd be like a firefighter saying they won't go into a burning house."
"That's precisely it."
Using a firefighter as an example makes it instantly clear.
"Well, like Kim Geun-cheol said, even if it's dangerous, there's no other way. Let's infiltrate the building."
"Yu-ri, I'm counting on you."
"You're the one in the most danger, you bastard."
That roughly settled our approach.
It's dangerous, but we're going to infiltrate the interior of that building.
There are no right answers in war. There's only ever the worst possible situation. There are times you have to infiltrate enemy territory without even securing air superiority. Right now is exactly one of those times.
Without any military support, we have to defeat the monsters occupying a building and rescue the hostages inside.
"This scale is way too huge for a training exercise they give to kids."
"Well, I actually like it. Precisely because it's a difficult training exercise."
Leona's fighting spirit was burning instead.
"Then let's infiltrate from a lower floor, just like Kim Geun-cheol said. First, so the guys on the rooftop don't notice... let's go in quietly."
A true infiltration action.