Luon frowned at the sight of the building. It looked like a huge gaming facility with its fancy sign, or convention with the hustle and bustle of the people around it, or maybe even a sports field from its structural shape. He turned at Belle confused and asked, “So what is this building.”
Belle smiled as she knew how ignorant Luon was, she loved to instruct and tease, and she said “I don’t know what do you think? Ahhh don’t leave, this place is very important, like how sports games used to be, this facility is the core foundations of all combat-related classes in Nexus University.”
Belle quickly stopped Luon from leaving after teasing him a little. The last few words she said piqued his interest as she directed him towards the building.
After passing by a crowd of people, the two arrived at the front desk.
“Welcome to Varz, the number one virtual reality simulation, and entertainment facility.” said the clerk at the front desk.
Belle then shows signs of experience by quickly got herself and Luon a room, and as they walked towards it, she explained many various details and tidbits about the facility.
Varz was a complete war building and training simulation facility to train soldiers and commanders how to battle spread throughout the whole alliance.
Based on the technology used for the incubated simulations this VR system arranges people into teams to wage war against each other.
In this war simulation, one can have a team of up to 5 people, and you start off with resource generating base known as Crypt of Heroes. The name is used in remembrance of the great people that existed in the past.
As the base generate resources over time, the commander of the squad was able to determine its usage of them. They can choose to make weapons, supplies or materials for handcrafting equipment or the very commonly made units. The Crypt of Heroes can create warriors who follow the commands of the commander, and they share all the unique traits of the people they resembled like the legendary warriors of the past.
Elves were fast and very skilled with the bow, orcs were mighty and overbearing, human cultivators were able to emit energy slashes, all of these things, as well as combat methods and strategies, were wholly replicated inside the AI system.
Of course, the stronger units were, the more resources were required to make them, and ultimately the battle is determined by the tactician.
Once the commander develops an army, he would strategically arrange his comrades and robot army into battle with the goal of destroying the enemies Crypt of Heroes.
After the basic explanation, Luon and Belle arrived at the room. Belle said she would explain the rest of the simulation and they entered together to find inside this empty white room 2 Vortex containers facing towards each other.
Seeing the Vortex container Luon begun to take a severe look around it, he grew edgy and asked, “We wouldn’t be sleeping here for a long time right?”
“Would you like to sleep for a long time? I can do that for you instead,” as she attempts to do an intimidating pose, it was very cute.
Belle saw how Luon began to evaluate the Vortex container, she shook her head, then commenced a small lesson on how to use it. Luon after hearing her talk about it grew excited, other than the BMPU wristwatch he has yet to experience any other new technology. He took her lecture seriously.
But this didn’t last long as Belle wanted only to teach the basics and quickly get into the game, she motioned him inside and told Luon to look it up later.
Luon quietly sat inside the Vortex Container and begun to operate it based on her instructions.
Luon’s surroundings suddenly changed. Apparently, after starting the machine, the transition was swift, and he was most likely asleep without noticing it.
He appeared in a small waiting room with a monitor and a couple of benches. Belle was already inside operating some machine next to the monitor. She turned and said happily “Well aren’t you a little slow, well let's start!”
Words started appearing on the screen as she pressed a button on the terminal.
[Starting sequence initiated]
[Mode - War Tutorial]
[Commander - Belle Mirande]
[Loading Tutorial Map]
Before Luon could ask about anything, the war had already started.
…
Inside the game, Luon and Belle appeared in a completely flat field. Full of green grass it shows traces of a modern soccer field layout except for the goal posts swapped with a building that looked like a cathedral, and the field is about 50 times larger.
Luon found Belle next to the cathedral and started walking towards her. Beside Belle, Luon found there laid a little tabletop map of the war.
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Belle seeing Luon come over explained that this was the map commanders use, however, the map was covered with fog as the range of sight is limited to what the units can see on the map.
She also explained that scouting is essential to expand the available vision used in the map, the most common unit for this was robotic drones to provide excellent and cheap vision. Although they had no combat abilities, these drones were quick making it very useful.
“So when does the match start? This is the tutorial right?” Luon asked as he noticed nothing is happening.
“Oh, I turned off the tutorial explanations on the settings screen, hearing that robotic voice ruins my fun and creativity,” Belle said.
'But I need the basic explanation thought' Luon and even worse Belle next words almost made him trip, “And the match starts now!”
Before Luon can ask about anything, Belle presses a button on the table top signaling that her team is ready for combat.
[War Tutorial Start] replied the system as a holographic projection quickly appeared in front of Luon from his BMPU.
The Crypt of Heroes on their side began to make a standard factory like noise symbolizing the generation of materials.
“Seeing how you are going to attend Nexus University do you know how to fight?” Belle suddenly asked.
“Of course I can fight, I am also an engineer. Or at least I can proudly claim to be one.” Said Luon with vigor.
“Oh? But I bet you haven’t taken the engineering examination yet, right? Well, that doesn’t matter that much since you claim to be an engineer so why not make your weapon.” Belle said as she smiled and thought of something perfect.
Belle then pressed on the table top desk to summon a bunch of randomized scrap from the Crypt of Heroes. Unknown to Luon this scrap was the cheapest option and most of the time they didn’t have anything good or useful.
Luon seeing the scrap got excited, this was the first time he gets to make something after awakening in this world. He dove into the scraps to make a weapon for himself.
Another man’s trash is another man’s treasure, from the scrap he managed to find a slightly damaged sword, a mana generator, a few switches, and wires.
As for why he knew what they were, most of it was based on his knowledge while the BMPU scanned and gave more details.
The mana generator absorbs mana from its surroundings, condenses and emits it outwards for many practical uses.
Luon with these scraps managed to make the mana generator coat the damaged sword with energy at rapid speeds, which makes it cut more efficiently, the only downside was that the generator was damaged. Otherwise, it would be able to last for a few days more before burning out.
Armed with his newly created makeshift sword, Luon felt like he could handle anything.
After a few moments later a group of humanoid Inzektors arrived at the base, Luon turned and asked Belle, “Still not summoning anything? The Inzektors are here.”
“Nope, by the way, I’m just going to keep saving resources, I want to summon a new type of unit, so it's going to take a while,” said Belle as she lazily sat on a chair she summoned from the Crypt.
“Then how are we going to prevent them from destroying our cathedral?” Luon asked confused.
Belle stared at the newly made sword and asked “Is that sword just for show? Don’t you have some sword skills? Why not show off for a bit?”
With those words, Luon began to prepare for battle, and as he did, he asked: “In your own terms, how long is a bit of time.”
Belle next words made Luon question her deeply “About 30 minutes, good luck!”
And with those words 30 minutes of hellishly repelling waves of Inzektors with only Luon defending started.
There are two types of Inzektors, humanoid and insect-based ones. The grand hierarchy of Inzektors was akin to how worker bees and soldiers serve the queen. It was basic knowledge in the federation that the workers were humanoid shaped Inzektors while the soldiers are monstrously large insect ones.
To maintain and grow the massive army of Inzektors - humanoid Inzektors were created, as the production of food was too complex for ordinary insect-based Inzektors.
Because of the number of humanoid Inzektors compared to soldiers, the size of the insect-shaped Inzektors grew massive creating monstrosities.
Despite having large Inzektor soldiers, as long as they're surrounded by an overwhelming number of people they can be quickly taken down. To not let their soldiers die in vain, the humanoid Inzektors are trained to be soldiers making them as strong as an orc and dexterous like an elf.
The ones that appeared at the base were those combat type humanoid Inzektors. They had a dark green carapace armor covering most of their limbs and dark green mask similar to medieval knights. If one didn’t know it was an Inzektor, it could be easily mistaken as a human with dark green armor.
These humanoid Inzektors weren’t like humans though, relying on weapons to empower themselves. Instead, they have a sharply bladed carapace protruding from above their hands.
And with that, the fight commenced.
Luon and the Inzektors clashed against each other. Out of Luon’s simulations, only his second simulation had real combat experience.
Typically he wouldn’t be able to handle Inzektors in combat, but after the amalgamation, the sword skills from the simulation transferred over making him superior in combat.
Luon smiled as dodged and sliced the group of Inzektors, within seconds they were all lying down dead with a single and accurate slice on each of them.
Satisfied Luon turned to face Belle.
“Wow for a person without enhancements you're pretty strong, well good luck for another 30 minutes. If you can maybe you could even try to attack the enemies Crypt of Heroes yourself.” Belle said surprised. She then laughed and started to relax on the chair spectating him in anticipation.
Luon wanted to say something towards her but before he could he sense the next waves of enemies coming.
He turned to face them, and after defeating them once again, another wave appeared.
Wave after wave, they appeared every minute and quite frequent, Luon slightly tired asked “Why is there so many of them? Is there no delay in between waves? And why are they slowly getting stronger!”
Belle replied happily “The tutorial was made for the group to lose! Unless you're super strong, there is no way to win it as they give the enemies Crypt of Heroes double our production income. Luckily they started with weaker enemies first before sending in the big guys this way if I save and get a bigger guy we can easily win so good luck!”
...
Luon fought and fought but the enemies were endless, and he grew exhausted. Even worse his mana generator on his weapon died out.
Just when Luon’s weapon had snapped after killing yet another Inzektor, he heard the Crypt of Heroes summoning something.
“Come out hero unit, Geno-enhanced Barbarian Berserker!” yelled Belle who was watching Luon struggle happily as she pressed a button on the panel.