50 New School Life

Like a gossiping parent, the rest of the conversation within the vafeteria consisted of Eric asking many different questions toward 666, mostly related to military jargon and combat experience. Therefore, Daniel was unable to barge in on their 'firendly' conversation the entire time. In the end, he simply surfed the net using his smart glasses which he brought with him and started reading the news while the two besides him continued to chat until the sun is about to set.

When Uncle Eric finally realized the time, two hours have already passed since the three of them first entered the cafeteria. Since Eric has work early in the morning tomorrow, he needed to get back to the capital early in order to get a good night's sleep. On the other hand, since Daniel could sleep within the dorm starting today, he can simply stay there with 666 and attend the very last few days of school in his old campus virtually through Minerva's conference chat function that Eric previously used when attending the aftermath conference of the antihydrogen explosion incident more than a month ago.

Thus, 666 accompanied Daniel to bring Uncle Eric all the way to the entrance of the academy, waving the latter goodbye before the two teenagers were finally alone again.

"So... what do you normally do at this time of week?" Daniel asked. It was only then that he realized something important that he must have missed after being distracted by the other person's naked body when he initially entered the dorm room. "By the way, since today is a school day, aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Students within the elite class are allocated a few rest days that they can take whenever they want with a 24 hour notification beforehand." 666 explained. "Since I had a little excursion trip last weekend and only ended up returning this morning, I decided to take today off from normal lectures. Of course, there's also the fact that I wanted to meet my new roommate as well."

"The teachers within the academy are actually content with letting students have such a perk?" Daniel asked with a surprised look on his face.

"Well, operating a mech is quite exhausting after all, especially after a practical exam," 666 started explaining again with a monotone voice. "With students being too tired physically and mentally to go to school the following day, it would be better for them to relax so they could regain 100% of their energy by the second day instead of breezing through without gaining any knowledge at all. Also, most lectures that are not practical lessons are recorded and can be downloaded by students at any time, so it's not like a student is missing out on anything if they decide not to attend school on that day."

Daniel nodded, although still feeling a little shocked by the new reality within his heart. Since he himself is an elite student, according to what the admissions officer said, he would also be able to use this perk too!

"I usually go to the training hall at this time to practice mech combat." 666 took the initiative to speak after seeing Daniel in a daze. "It's better if you get your body and mind trained when there's nothing else to do."

Although Daniel does not have 666's workaholic attitude towards life, he himself also needed to train his own body if he were to face the next mission given by the assassin system. With his psychokinesis skill still at newbie level, he would not be able to face against another 'awakened' with combat experience especially if the latter has a special ability as well.

Since 666 is intent on going to the training hall, Daniel could only follow him since he had nothing better else to do anyways.

***

The training hall itself is located right between the shopping and entertainment district and the dormitory complex inside the valley campus of the academy. Instead of calling it a 'hall' though, it would be much more appropriate to call what is standing before Daniel right now a giant complex.

Although one would not be able to gauge the size of the training hall from the outside since most of the facilities were built underground, one would be able to see the sheer size of the thing only after taking a step through the entrance of the building.

At this time, since most students have already finished the last period of school, many of them are starting to congregate within the training hall in order to fight mock battles against one another for entertainment and also for training.

After walking through the entrance, the ground underneath Daniel started descending into a slope, while the ceiling became further and further away as Daniel continued forwards. After passing a certain point, he could now see the lower level of the training hall, which stretches out as far as his eyes could see on both his right and left hand side, each corridor being wide and containing many function rooms that are all occupied by different students, as seen from where Daniel stood through the windows of the rooms.

A circular reception area is placed at the very middle of the underground floor, with 5 different receptionists catering to the students at the same time.

666 looks as though he knew what he was doing since he directly walked past the receptionist circle and went for the elevator hall located behind it. Pressing the button for going downwards, 666 waited before the elevators and spoke up when Daniel arrived next to him.

"I'll be doing short-ranged weapons training today. Are you going to follow me, or do you have something else planned?" 666 asked in a neutral tone, making Daniel feel as though the former would not react even if he were to suddenly leave right here and now.

"I assume you need to reserve the training rooms here right?" Daniel replied. "Since I haven't booked anything, the only thing I could do now is follow you."

In response, 666 simply nodded.

When the elevator finally arrived, both teenagers walked in. Instead of pressing a button, 666 directly spoke to Minerva within his head in order to bring the two of them to their destination so Daniel had no idea where they were going until the elevator finally opened its doors again.

"We must be at least 20 floors underground, seeing how long it took for the elevator to descend." Daniel thought to himself as he followed 666 out of the elevator.

It was then that he saw what looked like a battlefield in front of him, completely throwing him off his pace due to the sheer difference in environment from where he was standing right now and before.

"What are you doing, take a weapon and prepare for battle!" 666 warned as he approached a table lined up with weapons of many sizes before him without warning. Before long, 666 have already took all the gear that he needed and is now staring at Daniel as though the latter was an idiot for not following suit.

"Can you at least explain what's happening before telling me to do this and that?!" Daniel complained as he peered at the table before him, finding himself troubled from choosing between all the different weaponry piled up before him.

"We have entered a warzone that I told Minerva to select by random before coming down here." 666 finally revealed the much need information, albeit a little too late. "The level I chose is lunatic, so do your best not to 'die' before the training module ends."

Looking at the combat GPS watch 666 donned onto his left wrist a few seconds ago, the teenager continued acting as though everything was natural when he said, "The training module will start in about 15 seconds. It will last for 2 hours. Good luck. I'll suggest that if you want to survive, do your best and follow behind me the whole way, or I cannot guarantee what will happen if you were alone."

"Wait, I won't actually die from getting shot from assailants, right?" Daniel exclaimed. "This is only the simulation, right? Right?!"

"The entire arena here is an augmented reality pod that simulates the real environment as much as possible." 666 spoke as quickly as he could as he held out what looked to be a Glock that had just came out from one of those ancient 20th century movies and crouched his knees, making a battle stance as he switched his smart glasses to radar mode.

"I'm 99% sure that you won't die after getting 'eliminated' from the training module, but I'm not sure how much of the simulation is real either... maybe you will actually see your life flash before your eyes?" 666 spoke with real seriousness. "I've never actually failed a training module before, but I can say that after being hit with a non-fatal shot from an assailant, it hurts and feels exactly like a real bullet, so get yourself mentally prepared."