“You good in there?” Ges asked while I strapped myself into the machine.

I nodded, “Thanks, I think I got it. The controls feel familiar at least.”

He grunted, “Alright then. I’ll start the ship combat simulator from the outside. You’ll be piloting a standard combat corvette. I’ll give you some time to get used to the controls before I launch the combat program.”

“Got it, thanks.”

The door of the capsule then closed and the machine booted up.

Incidentally, the simulator had a similar design as the VR Capsule back in my World so I didn’t really have a hard time adapting to it.

I then relaxed in the chair and a system message popped up in front of my vision, indicating that the machine was starting up.

Soon enough, I found myself in the cockpit of a ship and I immediately started the boot up procedures of powering the ship systems.

A voice came over the intercoms, “Test, test. Is this working?”

“Hey Ges, reading you loud and clear.”

“Good. Been awhile since these have been used actually so I won’t be surprised if there’s some things that aren’t working properly. Anyway, like I said, feel free to fly around a little and let me know when you’re ready. You’ll be facing multiple waves of hostiles with increasing difficulty with each wave.”

“Thanks. Just give me a minute.”

I took a moment to look at the console in front of me.

The layout was pretty similar to my ship so I had no problems acclimating myself to it immediately.

I did a quick check of what the ship was equipped with.

A standard energy shield, short range boost thrusters, a medium range energy blaster and a medium range kinetic blaster.

Hmmm… No anti-missile countermeasures?

I checked the exterior cameras of the ship to see that I was in an asteroid field.

Ok, I can deal with that if there's at least some cover.

I fired up the engines and checked the power levels of the generators.

Ugh, not that great it seems… I'll have to sacrifice a little shield energy to give max power to my engines.

Well, I'll have to just make do with the cards I'm dealt.

I pushed the throttle forward and the ship began to move, I could even feel the artificial gravity pushing me back in my seat as the virtual ship accelerated.

I did a few manoeuvres with the ship, dodging and weaving through the asteroid field until I got used to the controls.

“I'm ready,” I spoke to the intercom.

There was a grunt coming from the otherside right before my ship sensors started beeping about high energy signatures appearing at the edge of my radar.

Two red blips materialised on the map screen.

Instead of turning my ship to face them, I turned tail and flew towards the closest asteroid.

The two enemy ships gave chase and I swung to the left of the giant space rock.

Keeping the map in my peripheral sight, I saw that the two ships had chosen to split up to the left and right of the rock in an attempt to pincer me.

I immediately fired the side thrusters and turned my ship around, relying on the inertia boost to keep me in place while I spun.

The ship that had been chasing me had to swerve away in order to avoid colliding into me and fly out into open space.

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I cut off the boosters, just as my ship aligned itself perfectly to fire at the first enemy ship.

I squeezed the trigger and fired all my weapons, the space suddenly alight with the glow of blue energy and orange kinetic blasters.

The projectiles crackled against the shields and the enemy ship attempted to swing around in order to bring its own weapons to bear.

Unfortunately for it, turning like this only presented a larger surface area for my projectiles to land on and the shield protecting it soon fizzled out of existence.

My projectiles tore through the enemy ship's hull pretty quickly after that, its engines sputtering before dying and leaving it as a floating husk in space.

I pushed the throttle lever and engaged my boosters again, propelling my ship forward to avoid a barrage of energy blasts that came from the second ship that finally arrived from the other side of the asteroid.

I sucked in my breath and engaged the reverse and side thrusters, swinging my ship around in an arc that brought me behind the second enemy ship, ignoring the Gs pressing down on me as I did that manoeuvre.

Making sure the enemy ship was in my crosshairs, I then pulled the trigger and fired all my weapons on the enemy ship.

The shield only held up for a moment before it was also reduced to scrap.

I let out the breath that I was holding, right before my sensors warned me of more enemies appearing.

Interestingly, there was only one enemy.

Remembering Ges's words about the difficulty increasing with each wave, I remained cautious of this new enemy and made sure I still had the asteroid as a shield between myself and the new ship.

I floated myself out a little from behind the float so that I could have visual on the enemy ship.

My caution bore fruit as a laser shot out from the enemy ship's main gun and struck the asteroid I was hiding behind, chipping several pieces of the rock away.

Great, it has a long range laser type weapon and it's out of my range right now.

I descended my ship behind the asteroid right before another laser pierced through the space my ship had been just moments ago.

If this was a normal engagement, I would be pinned behind this rock and I might be forced to rush out and rely on my shields to tank the shots from this enemy.

But since this was a simulation… I was counting on something else to happen instead…

Sure enough, a few seconds passed before the red blip on my map started to move again, its AI probably commanding it to chase me.

It was then just a matter of hiding behind the rock and waiting for the enemy to appear before gunning it down.

At this range, its slow firing laser definitely couldn't beat my blasters so I could just fight it head on without taking much damage.

My shields were just beginning to recharge after that engagement when my sensors beeped again, this time warning me about the arrival of three ships.

Judging by how two ships immediately made a beeline towards me while the last one hung back, the composition of their armaments should be a combination of the first two waves.

Instead of hiding behind the asteroid like before, I engaged my thrusters and boosted myself away.

The three ships immediately gave chase as I flew towards a cluster of asteroids that was floating nearby.

A few lasers hit me from behind but I wasn't too worried as my shield held.

I slowed down and flew in between two asteroids that marked the entrance to the cluster, right before I killed my engines again to turn my ship around with my back facing another asteroid.

The first enemy ship had its boosters set on max power to chase me and was thus unable to stop in time when it entered the cluster.

I watched with satisfaction as the ship crashed against the surface of the asteroid, the shield instantly collapsing from such an impact and opening the enemy up to my blasters, reducing it to rubble.

The second ship managed to slow down in time but it was impeded by the first ship's rubble to get to me, forcing it to swerve away to avoid crashing into it.

Needless to say, that simply showed its vulnerable bottom to me so I just took that as an open invitation to open fire on it.

Soon enough, there were two broken husks of ships floating in front of me.

The last ship did not enter the killzone I set up since the debris was blocking the way so I spun around and flew out of the asteroid from under the last enemy ship.

The AI detected my movement and turned towards me, their lasers firing as soon as I came into view.

At this distance, they were already in range of my blasters so I simply returned fire, destroying them just like I had with the first laser ship I encountered.

I let out a breath, wondering how many more waves of enemies I had to face.

That was when my alarms started blaring even louder and I looked down at my map…

What… The… Fuck?

You remember how Ges said that the difficulty will increase with each wave?

Yeah… I was expecting it to be a gradual increase which has been the case for the last three waves so far.

So why in the hell are there twelve enemies on my radar right now?!! What the fuck?!

And I’m even getting alarms that were warning me about missile lock-ons?!! I don’t even have anti-missile countermeasures!! What the fuck is this?!

Hello? Ges?! Is this a bug?!