Bit by bit, the constructor produced part after part, component after component, slowly building their gun design. Nox, Clover, Ayesha, and Lexend were practically pressing their faces to the glass.

"Do you think the construction will be finished in time?" Lex looked at the clock.

"I seriously hope so." From Nox's perspective, the machine was putting their abomination of a gun together much too slow. Part by part... If the constructor was able to make mistakes, then they would have been out of the race a long time ago.

"So what's you're idea again? A bouncing bullet? Sounds crazy." Ayesha twirled her hair. "Why not a laser?"

"Firstly, it's a beam. It just appears to be a bullet because it's so fast. And secondly..." Nox smiled. "Sometimes the craziest ideas are the best. Besides, we tried to make a laser." He winced. "Trust me, it did not go well."

With a lack of anything to talk about, they waited in silence.

2:00

1:59

1:58

1:57

The constructor put together a component and put it onto the partly-finished gun.

0:59

0:58

0:57

0:56

The constructor put together another component and put it onto the partly-finished gun.

0:39

0:38

0:37

0:36

The constructor put together yet another component and put it onto the partly-finished gun.

0:29

0:28

0:27

0:26

The constructor put together yet another component and put it onto the partly-finished gun.

"Bro!" Clover shouted in exasperation. "Why can't it build the damn gun faster!"

"Having trouble, it seems?" Ariel strolled over. "Me and my team have already finished ours." He revealed a sleek, black rifle, held steady in his hand. The gun's black matte finish gleamed faintly.

"A rifle, it seems?" Nox looked at before rolling his eyes. "All you did was memorise the stock rifle distributed to all infantry units. You didn't change a thing. I wouldn't be surprised if the teacher disqualified you."

“The task was to destroy the targets, not come up with any new designs. Compared to mine, yours looks like utter trash.”

Nox’s group held his breath as the clock ticked down to the final seconds.

0:08

0:07

0:06

0:05

The constructor put one of the final pieces of plating onto their patchwork pistol.

0:03

0:02

0:01

The constructor's hatch opened, presenting their newly-built gun. A collective sigh left the group.

Ariel didn't bat an eye. "Hmph. Looks like there'll be a competition after all." He turned on his heel and walked away.

“Alright, students! Equipment off!” Mr. Fender commanded. All the equipment around down suddenly powered off. Those groups who were still constructing their weapons were suddenly cut off, leaving them with a part-finished… Things.

“Damn.” Lex perked his head up. “A few more seconds and we would have been them.”

“Out of twelve groups, four are out already?” Mr. Fender shook his head. “Should have known. Anyhow, we will continue our lesson.” The shooting range behind him lit up. “Should we begin?”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Obviously, the weapons they made were not going to be handled by them. They had no training, of course, and there was always the chance that the TechFrame did not catch an error and the gun exploded. Instead, a robotic hand would fire them, behind a protective glass.

The first group loaded the gun into the hand and stepped back. Nox looked at it - a pistol, much like theirs. Except Nox’s creation was much chunkier.

The hand moved behind the glass, and pointed it towards the first of the five dummies. Its finger rested on the trigger - before the gun fired.

Well, it didn’t fire. It blew up.

The flames blasted across the dummies, but surprisingly, they didn’t flinch. Even behind the glass, Nox could feel the small shockwaves bouncing against the walls of the classroom. [Holy crap. Imagine if we were holding them!]

Mr. Fender appeared unfazed. “I asked for a gun, not a grenade. Next!”

Warily, the second group stepped forward. As did the third team. And the fourth. Time and time again, the patchwork guns that the students had cobbled together either blew up, fell apart, or simply didn’t work at all. The cycle continued until Ariel’s group stepped forward.

As Ariel slotted his gun into the metallic holder, another arm dropped down from the ceiling, this one holding the main body. [It would be silly to hold a rifle with one hand, anyways.] Nox thought. Ariel smirked as “his” creation was taken into the firing chamber. There was a short hum as the rifle powered up - before releasing a volley of red bullets slammed into the dummies. After the rifle powered itself down, all that was left were the reinforced metal rods holding the targets upright. A few tatters of some kind of cloth were left smoking on the floor.

Mr. Fender turned to the latest group. “Finally, something that works. And your name is…?”

“Ariel of clan Steelrite, sir.” He gave a short bow. “Personally, I found the task quite easy.”

Their teacher raised a brow as Nox quietly sighed in exasperation. “Quite easy? I suppose you found it easy only because you copied the exact design of an infantry soldier’s AVG burst rifle?”

Ariel’s smirk froze. “The task was to destroy the targets, right? Sir.” He quickly added at the end.

Mr. Fender shook his head. “True. But that is not the point of this exercise. You know the reason why XERO implemented this whole make-your-own-weapon scheme in the first place?”

“Well-”

“Of course you don’t. The point,” he explained, “was to let Vamps be creative. Order may be essential in war, but so is creativity. Grenades that home towards enemies. Flying saw blades that cut down anything in their path. Anything that the Vamp Army can take as a tactical advantage, they will take. Do you see the problem with recreating one of the most common weapons in the field?”

Ariel gulped. “Yes, sir.”

“Alright then.” Suddenly, Ariel’s team's workbench panel woke up again. Up until now, the screen on the past group simply read ‘NA’. Theirs lit up with something different.

NAME: AVG Burst Rifle EFFICIENCY: A- DESIGN: B- CREATIVITY: F

“Next!” Called Mr. Fender, as Ariel hurried back to his team.

Nox turned around. “Alright guys, so who’s-”

“Nah! I’m sure you’ll do a much better job than me!” Said Clover.

“Nuh uh.” Said Ayesha.

“...” Said Lex, as he silently walked behind their workbench.

“Ah hell nah! I hate-”

“Did I not pronounce my words clearly enough? I said next.” Mr. Fender did not look amused.

With a small grimace, Nox took their prototype weapon to the firing chamber’s mechanical arm.

“Is that supposed to be a pistol?” Mr. Fender asked. “Why is it so large?”

“You’ll see. Sir!” Nox said, as he quickly clamped the weapon into the arm. The additional arm that was needed for Ariel’s gun folded itself away in the ceiling. “Provided it doesn’t blow up, backfire, short circuit, fall apart, or cease to exist entirely.” He whispered.

“Well, let us hope it doesn’t do any of those things.” Despite his monotonous voice, there was a hint of something. Amusement? Haughtiness? Nox couldn’t tell.

[The bastard heard that? Damn his Vulcan hearing!]

As the arm took their abomination inside the chamber, Nox couldn’t help but feel… Determined. [Well, I really do want to put Ariel in his place. Whether it be here and now or in the Sim in a year’s time.]

The arm aimed the gun and held down the trigger. The installed mini-screen on the gun showed the charge of the weapon slowly going up. “Such a large charge up time is going to impact its Efficiency score.” Mr. Fender stated flatly. Ariel seems to have gained his composure again and put on his normal smirk.

When it reached 100%, there was none of the normal “pew” sound. Instead, a red beam shot out of the barrel so fast it looked like a bullet, and completely destroyed the head of the first dummy.

But it didn’t stop there.

The beam suddenly redirected itself from the head of its first victim to its next, the second closest dummy. It didn’t travel in a curve - it sharply changed direction and blew the stuffing out the second one. Then it changed direction again and hit the third one. Then the fourth one. Then the final one.

All this happened in a split second. It took a few seconds for the students to register what had happened, and then a few more for the expressions of amazement to appear.

“Soul seeking particles?” Mr. Fender looked at the damage done. “Not bad. Not bad at all. Though not nearly as good as my work when I first took this class.”

“T-Thank you, sir!” Nox sputtered.

“I would say the effectiveness of the bouncing beam cancels out the long charge-up time. The construction of the shell is amateur, but not bad for a first time. As for the implementation of the particles… Excellent.” Like Ariel’s, a set of scores lit up Nox’s workbench panel.

NAME: AIMSHOT EFFICIENCY: B+ DESIGN: B- CREATIVITY: A+

[Yes! Much better than Ariel’s score. Or anyone else's, for that matter.] Nox could hear the small cheers coming from his team.

“Well, it appears we have run out of time.” Mr. Fender looked at the digital clock. “Good effort, all… Well, most of you.” He squinted at Ariel. “Class dismissed!”

“Yo!” Clover ran up to Nox. “Your design actually worked!”

“Well, it was a team effort.” Nox smiled.

“Aw, come on!” Ayesha slapped him on the back. “You should get a medal for putting that gun together!”

“Eh, y’know…” Nox shrugged.

“Ahem.” Mr. Fender hovered toward them. “Your name is… Nox, right?”

He immediately wiped the grin off his face. “Um, yes, sir!”

“I just wanted you to know. Do you know why your concentrator kept blowing up in the simulation?”

“...No. Do you know-”

“It wasn’t plugged in.”

“Wait, the other hole was- Ah. I see." Nox was left feeling rather dumb as his teacher floated away on his high-tech chair.

“Wait, so this whole time, the concentrator didn’t work because you didn’t plug it into the batteries?”

“How would I know you have to plug it in?”

“Of course you plug it in!”