7. The woman who wants to be a knight.
7. The woman who wants to be a knight.
It had already been two months since enlistment.
Now was the time when the difference in skill levels among the trainees started to show.
Standing out among them was the handsome guy, Kal.
With a handsome face, great skills, and word on the street being that he's even hung, what woman wouldn't like him?!
Eri, the freckled girl from [Dormitory] 16, started chatting the moment she plopped down on her bed.
"Did you see Kal in the cafeteria earlier?"
Naturally, as soon as the name Kal came up, the eyes of her peers were drawn to her. That's how much of a hot topic he was.
"He's good at shooting, good at swordplay... I bet he's good at fucking too, right?"
Hehehe. The women giggled while making lewd jokes. Just as the men were sexually frustrated, the women were in the same state, so these kinds of obscene jokes were exchanged whenever they were bored.
However, the leader of Squad 16, Alisa, didn't even change her expression and focused solely on meditation. Whether her peers talked about men or not, she only had one interest.
Becoming a knight.
It was her desperate dream, having grown up traveling through space and seeing countless planets and people while following her dad, a Special Sergeant in the Hell-Lugal transport unit.
The confident figure of a knight, dressed in a cool suit and walking across the pavement, had been etched into her mind forever and could not be forgotten.
- Dad, I want to be a knight too!
- Then our daughter will have to work really hard. Because not just anyone can become a knight.
- I'll definitely become a knight. So I can walk around wearing cool clothes like that too!
Of course, only after growing up did she realize how absurdly distant that cheeky cry from her childhood was.
The wall of becoming a knight was high and steep. It wasn't easy to even step across the threshold of a low-level knight order in the outskirts. In short, being a knight was a heaven-sent profession only possible for fighting geniuses.
Eventually, after three failures, Alisa changed her direction a bit. Graduating first at the training center and then taking the knight course! It was a bit of a shortcut, but if you can't enter through the front door, you have to go through the back door, what else can you do?
Anyway, with such a high and grand goal, where would she have the time to get distracted by mere sexual desire?!
A while later, the bell signaling the end of the lunch break rang. The female cadets quickly tidied up their beds and [Storage Lockers] and waited for the instructor to arrive.
Soon, the door burst open and a strict, scary-looking instructor walked in.
"Prepare for training."
The female instructor for Squad 16 liked to speak in clipped words rather than complete sentences. Once the female cadets finished preparing, the instructor said one more thing.
"Line up in the hallway."
And so, they headed to the training room for afternoon training.
This session was close-quarters combat training. It was a time that Alisa, who had put in blood-sweat-and-tears effort since childhood to become a knight, particularly liked and felt confident in. ...Honestly, coming here after competing among geniuses who were supposedly top-tier felt ridiculous. If her father's workplace hadn't been here, she wouldn't have even come to the Hell-Lugal training center.
"By the way, Squad Leader. Who's stronger, you or Kal?"
That was the biggest question her peers had. Everyone knew well that Alisa's skills were amazing, but they were curious how she would compare to the hot topic, Kal.
Naturally, the Squad 16 leader found such comparisons veeeery unpleasant, but explaining it to her low-level peers wouldn't be anything more than bragging. It was best to just act indifferent.
"Well. Is that important?"
"But you might face each other. You haven't met yet, right?"
How dare they compare me to a guy like that. Obviously, I'd win no matter what.
Alisa felt those words rising up to her throat like retching, but she barely held it back.
This is why low-level kids are...
However, she endured and endured everything for the sake of being number one. Since grades would likely include some judgment on leadership, it was better to at least maintain a decent relationship with her squad members.
"I just wish I could meet him. It's so unlucky that I haven't met him even once!"
"I've met him twice."
"Ugh, you bitch. Yeah, must be niiice."
"When I saw him right in front of me, my pussy was trembling, you know? Wow, fuck, I couldn't even speak. I was like, 'So this is what truly handsome bastards are like!'"
"Ah, I hope it's my turn today."
"Yeah, he's my boyfriend."
"Yeah, fuck off, show me your tits."
"My pussy is pinker."
"Your areolas are fucking huge, it's gross."
"You fucking bitch!"
"What, you fucking bitch."
The two glared at each other viciously as if they were about to fight, but when the instructor approached, they quietly tucked their tails between their legs.
"Prepare for training."
"Whatever."
Squad 16 also put the devices on their heads in time with the signal. They soon entered the simulation as well.
Of course, at first, they received various close-quarters combat training with instructors and assistants in training mode, and after a short break, they entered live-combat mode.
"I'm going to go suck Kal's dick, you bitches."
"Fuck, who do you think you're eyeing?"
"Bullshit. He's mine."
With that, the countdown began, and they scattered to random locations.
Ah.
When Alisa regained her senses, she was positioned at the defense line. Located near a certain passageway along with a surveillance turret, she first looked for her comrades around her.
The number of people she found was two in total. One man, one woman. Including her, a total of three people were assigned to take charge of one passageway.
Naturally, since it's easier to call by number than by name, they each decided on a number.
Alisa, the most model student with excellent leadership qualities, was naturally number 1, the man was number 2, and the next woman was number 3.
Alisa didn't say a word of small talk other than what was needed for establishing the defense line. However, the horny man and woman seemed to think this was an opportunity and chattered incessantly. Naturally, how could Alisa, the model student, not feel disgusted seeing that?!
Low-class bastards.
However, she didn't interfere with them at all. Whether they did that or not was none of her business. In this live-combat mode, she just had to do her best in her assigned role.
A while later, a beep-beep signal came from the unmanned surveillance turret. It meant an attack squad was approaching. At the same time, an energy beam poured out with a ppiyong sound.
Alisa first tried to check the number of enemies.
"Number 2, Number 3! As soon as you confirm the enemy positions, mark them on the map!"
Soon, dots were marked on the shared map one by one. If it were reality, it would have been impossible, but since this was virtual reality, all trainees had standard-issue body enhancements inserted. Naturally, due to physical abilities that were more than double the usual, the unmanned surveillance turret wasn't much help.
Alisa judged in advance that her comrades wouldn't be of much help, and steeled herself to face all the enemies alone. ...Honestly, she was confident she could take on five or ten of the trainees here. How could someone who wants to be a knight struggle here?!
She wouldn't let anyone pass. Absolutely not.
Whether other passageways were breached or not, she didn't care. She only thought about her assigned mission. And that was the right thing to do anyway.
Alisa felt the solid texture of the cutting sword's hilt clearly in her palm and gripped it so hard it made a kkudeudeuk sound.
Certainly, the body enhancement was called a spare life for a reason, and its effect was amazing. It was an item she had wanted for a long time, but the price was beyond imagination, so she couldn't even dare to think about it. Even the low-end models easily cost millions of Zeny, so she couldn't even dream of it. Even though her father was a Special Sergeant in the transport unit, his annual salary was only a little over 100,000 Zeny, so how could she afford millions of Zeny?
That's why everyone was trying so hard to become a knight! Once selected as a knight, you could be awarded that body enhancement. You become rich overnight. Plus, you get honor as a bonus.
While Alisa was briefly imagining a rosy future, two people appeared beyond the passageway. But one of them suddenly threw their cutting sword upward.
With a bujeujeuk sound, the unmanned surveillance turret stopped working. The cutting sword safely landed back in the opponent's hand due to the auto-return function. Seeing that, Alisa's eyes shone strangely.
That bastard..., he knows how to swing a sword.
This was definitely not a skill learned in just one month at the training center. If it were, he would be a truly significant genius. But there's no way such a genius would be at a backwater training center like this.
Alisa narrowed her eyes. Her vision, which was excellently enhanced thanks to the body enhancement, could even confirm the identity of the opponent who had just thrown the cutting sword.
Ah.
As soon as she confirmed the opponent, she couldn't help but be surprised. The guy was definitely that peerless handsome man called Kal. No matter how uninterested in men she was, his face was an appearance you couldn't forget once you saw it. ...Honestly, he was handsome enough to surprise even her inside.
For some reason, her stomach twisted. It felt like her competitive spirit was burning strangely.
He was already a man with a reputation for being skilled at the training center. Of course, Alisa also performed just as well, but for some reason, she was mentioned surprisingly little. It was because all the attention was focused on him.
...It would be a lie to say she had no jealousy at all. At the same time, it was annoying that someone inferior to her was getting such a spotlight.
I'm the one who will become a knight. I'm a different breed from that guy.
Alisa burned her competitive spirit even more.
I'll kill that guy.
So she was determined to put a period to this match.
- Who's stronger, the Squad Leader or Kal?
It seemed she would be able to answer that question confidently before long.