Chapter 3
Chapter 3
A Rock
“143 points.”
Zeke stared at the hologram. Commoner, Deep. 143 points.
Thirteen points from various proper actions. Thirty points from precise maneuvers and high-speed movement. One hundred points for defeating the AI.
For the lower-class admission track targeting commoners and the underclass, this was the highest score in history.
It was not the first time a lower-class candidate had defeated a low-level AI.
However, it was the first time someone had reacted to bullets on their very first Titan operation, rolled across the ground, and used hovering high-speed movement to flank the enemy.
Overwhelming talent. Movement as if born to be a Titan pilot from the very beginning.
“Hah, this is a real catch. Aren’t we basically securing the kind of talent the Empire desperately needs? You’re definitely going to accept him, right?”
The junior professor kept replaying the simulation as Zeke shook his head slowly.
Of course they would accept him. There was no option not to.
That thing was raw talent. Like a sharp rock stuck in the middle of a road. If you did not pull it out, it would injure someone passing by.
Whether that pulled-out rock would be polished among the crowd or worn down until it became worthless, there was no way to know.
In Zeke’s experience, most ended up being worn down.
“Ah… h-hello.”
He’s done for.
That was the kind of gaze I could feel.
“You really did well. Malnourished, dehydrated, and even with the flu, you still managed that performance.”
“Th-thank you,”
“That was sarcasm.”
So it was sarcasm. I thought it was praise.
The man in the suit stared at me intensely. Or was it a woman? Now that my vision had cleared, it was hard to tell.
Not that it mattered. The eyes were still terrifying.
Just being under that gaze made my body shake. I could feel hostility somewhere within it.
No, maybe it was not real hostility. Just hostility I could not prove did not exist.
The person in the suit sighed deeply and pulled a chair over, sitting down in front of me with a creak.
“I don’t know why you’re afraid of me, but I’ll give you the results. Out of thirty candidates, you ranked first.”
I did not even know there were thirty people.
“Then I’m, the top…”
Before I could finish, he let out a dry laugh.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. You barely beat a low-level AI and now you want to be first?”
According to him, most commoners and underclass candidates had never even touched a Titan before. Meanwhile, nobles had already been training for years.
“No, some of them even go to real battlefields. Noblesse oblige. Nobles are thrown into life-or-death situations from childhood.”
For them, low-level AI was nothing more than training fodder. If you could not defeat even that, you were not even average. Only nobles who fought high-level AI were considered real combat pilots.
High-level AI possessed skill comparable to seasoned soldiers. Those who fought them were, in practice, the academy’s true top performers.
It was somewhat similar to the previous game. The stronger the AI enemy, the higher the rank associated with it.
I even ended up searching medieval class systems because of it.
“First, lie down and rest. Do you have a home?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Figured. Just by looking at your clothes.”
Clothes?
I looked down belatedly. I was now wearing something like a clean hospital gown. The ragged clothes I had before were gone.
“I don’t know if you can even call that clothing, so I threw it away. Was it important?”
I shook my head. It was not important at all. In fact, I felt relieved it was gone.
“You’ll be moved to the dormitory tomorrow. Then admission procedures will begin, and three days later you’ll take the entrance exam.”
“The entrance exam?”
“Your score won’t cancel your admission. If you want to aim for the top, that exam is your chance. Though that’s unlikely. Anyway, do you have any belongings?”
“No—”
“Didn’t think so.”
Why is this guy so hostile?
I wanted to ask, but his gaze was too sharp. It was obvious even without words. This man was not just an academy professor. He was a soldier.
The man looked me up and down once more and then left the room. Now all I could do was recover.
I collapsed onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.
It was an unfamiliar world, yet also strangely familiar. Outside the window, massive Titans moved across the landscape.
Titan Core.
A massive mech game known for its overwhelming visuals, graphics, and flashy combat. It was well received for its action and romance, but criticized heavily for having no real story mode.
No, it was basically a trash PvP game filled with combat-obsessed players.
The sequel to that game was what I got hit by a truck for trying to play. The subtitle was BESDA Academy.
A second installment that focused on story mode, based on feedback from the first game.
An academy setting did not seem very fitting for a mech game, but I could not stop being excited.
I had avoided all spoilers, so I only knew about the entrance event. Everything else was just fragments I could not avoid.
At least I was alive. I almost died from indigestion, but being full and hydrated felt good. I wanted to sleep immediately, but there was something still bothering me.
I sat in front of a mirror.
I grabbed my messy hair and lifted it up.
“Fuck.”
It was the same face.
I thought maybe my body had changed, but it had not. The thin arms, the unnecessarily tall height, even the slightly limp legs and weak middle finger were all the same.
“Talking to myself means I don’t stutter.”
If I had known that, I would not have picked those constraints. There were plenty of better ones that allowed smooth conversation.
But I had chosen them assuming a bad ending would not matter.
As someone who only played PvP games, I only thought about rushing a bad ending and reaching a playable stage as fast as possible.
The problem was, I did not even know what a bad ending was.
Whether the empire falls, I die, or something even worse, I had no idea.
Fear comes from the unknown.
I did not know if I was the protagonist, but if I was, just having these constraints meant ridiculous things could happen.
Even if I did not want it, I would end up at the center of events, or at least close to them.
I did not want to get dragged into events, nor did I want a passive life, but I had already chosen exactly those kinds of constraints. Ones that would clearly cause trouble later if not solved.
Let’s set goals.
One. Survive. I have no desire to die. If suicidal thoughts appear every morning, I will knock myself unconscious against a wall if I have to just to reset my mind.
Two. Get stronger. Reaching the top is fine. Removing this negative mindset is fine. I will become stronger somehow.
Three. Live normally.
This time, I will not live a life where I help others and lose everything myself.
As I engraved those goals into my mind, a sudden thought occurred.
This is still a game world, right?
“Status window.”
“Ah, and—”
“Yes, y-yes.”
The door burst open. I flinched and turned around to see the man in the suit staring at me with a strange expression.
“When you are admitted, you will be given a basic standard unit. Customization will be possible later.”
“Customization?”
Customization.
A core system in Titan Core.
Changing an arm into a full cannon barrel. Moving the cockpit core from the chest to the head. Placing hover systems in the back instead of the legs.
“But for now, only the standard unit exists. Later—”
What should I use? A noble-class greatsword build could be interesting. Mecha combat is all about romance in close combat.
“Hey.”
No, survival comes first. Nothing beats a gun. I could convert one arm into a full barrel and maximize ammunition capacity.
Maybe the full-barrage noble configuration used by barons. Or mix both. Close combat greatsword as shield plus heavy artillery. Mobility could be solved later.
“...I left the manual on the bed. What you read earlier was only a summary. The full version is over 500 pages. You should read all of it if possible.”
Hovering systems could be optimized. Or I could add propulsion units or wire-based movement systems—
Click.
I looked up belatedly. The man in the suit had already left.
Maybe I should sleep.
But something thick and hard was blocking my foot on the bed. I kicked it aside without thinking.
It was the piloting manual.
I found it the next day at noon.
When am I supposed to read all this.