Chapter 84: There Are No Respawns Out Here
Chapter 84: There Are No Respawns Out Here
For the first thirty seconds, Jin entered no commands at all.
He went through the scenario twice. With the headache clouding his first read, trusting it would have been careless. Besides, rushing through an assessment built around careful choices was an easy way to fail.
[Assessment Day One: Tactical Analysis]
[Scenario Difficulty: Regular Combat Program]
[Available Beast: Iron Quality — 3-Star]
[Enemy Threat: Bronze Quality — 4-Star]
[Objective: Survive for Ten Minutes]
[Direct Victory: Not Required]
Using Meridian’s records, the simulation had recreated Glitch as an Iron-quality Grey Rock Lizard. He had Harden, strong command response, and physical development above the normal range. None of his unregistered skills were included.
The Engine gave Jin nothing, either. No records of previous deaths. No attack pattern he had learned by heart. No retries.
This run would be graded, and he would have to live with the result.
The chosen terrain was an abandoned industrial processing sector. Narrow service corridors cut between elevated walkways, water-release valves, security shutters, and broad open floors. Any of those open areas would let a faster beast catch Glitch within seconds.
For equipment, Jin had one cable, two smoke capsules, and a scent lure.
The enemy formed on-screen as a Rustrunner Houndbeast. It was a lean, long-legged Bronze-quality hunter at 4-Star, made for speed, strength, and tracking prey across long distances.
Glitch would lose a direct clash.
That did not matter. The scenario had never required Jin to defeat it.
If Glitch remained alive for ten minutes, the condition was met. The Houndbeast could finish untouched.
So Jin had no intention of fighting it. His task was to keep Glitch out of its reach for six hundred seconds.
Two fingers pressed against his temple. The pressure behind his eyes had worsened during the briefing, and the terminal light drove it deeper. Soul fatigue dulled the quick, clean calculations that normally came without effort.
His own condition had become another weakness to manage.
Kade waited somewhere behind him without speaking. The instructor would be judging more than the commands themselves. He would note Jin’s hesitation, the resources he protected, and how he reacted once his route failed.
The map offered Glitch one advantage the Houndbeast could not copy.
His size.
Jin planned around it.
Glitch moved into tight maintenance corridors and over raised walkways where the larger hunter had to shorten its steps and place its feet carefully. Open floors belonged to the Houndbeast. Cramped service routes belonged to Glitch.
At a fork, Jin deployed the scent lure. The false trail continued toward a dead end while Glitch slipped through a maintenance opening.
The two smoke capsules stayed in reserve.
The Houndbeast chased the lure all the way to the end, realized the trail was false, and turned back at once. It recovered Glitch’s real scent, then entered a parallel route Jin had missed.
The display flashed a warning. The gap between predator and prey dropped fast, and the decision timer started.
Three routes appeared.
The first crossed open ground, which made it worthless. The second led farther into the processing sector but offered Glitch no way back out. The last route was narrow enough to slow the Houndbeast, though getting there would cost Jin one of his few tools.
He made the choice before half the timer was gone.
The first smoke capsule burst at the junction. Jin sent Glitch through another service gap while the cloud blocked the Houndbeast’s sight. By the time it picked up the trail again, Glitch had reached the next corridor.
It was not a perfect escape.
It only needed to work.
When the chase entered a pipe run, Jin triggered a water-release valve. Runoff washed over the metal flooring. Glitch stayed low and crossed easily on clawed feet. The charging Houndbeast lost traction, slid, and slammed into the wall.
Farther on, Jin lowered a security shutter between them.
He made no attempt to drop it on the enemy. Crushing the Houndbeast was unnecessary. The shutter only had to split the area and force the hunter to find another path.
It adjusted anyway.
The Houndbeast crossed through a neighboring processing floor and reached Glitch near the exit. Jin had no clean route left and no time to create one.
Harden. Left shoulder.
The paw strike glanced away from the reinforced scales. Glitch suffered minor damage, turned with the force instead of against it, and forced himself beneath a pipe before another blow could land.
That was their only engagement.
Short. Defensive.
At 9:10, the Houndbeast began its final approach.
Jin opened a second water valve near a flooded pipe junction, released the remaining smoke capsule, and ordered Glitch through the runoff. The smoke removed visual contact while the rushing water spread his scent across the crossing.
The Houndbeast searched the wrong half of the junction.
The timer hit zero.
Beneath a maintenance platform, the simulated Glitch stopped moving. Several body lengths away, the Houndbeast paced through the smoke.
Jin watched the last seconds fall away.
With three seconds remaining, the hunter turned toward the right passage.
At one second, it crouched to leap.
The display froze.
[Scenario Complete]
[Survival Time: 10:00]
[Available Beast: Alive]
[Direct Engagements: 1]
[Injuries Sustained: Minor]
[Resources Remaining: 1]
[Evaluation: Excellent]
Jin settled back in his chair and finally let out the breath trapped in his chest. The cable had never been used. Glitch had taken one minor injury, but he had survived.
Behind him, Kade spoke. "You had chances to attack. You could’ve lowered the shutter onto the Houndbeast, or trapped it when it lost its footing. Why didn’t you?"
"The objective was to survive."
"Explain."
"Either trap would’ve forced Glitch to remain near a stronger beast, and the timing had to be exact." Jin glanced at the final result. "It looked like an attack opportunity. Really, it was a chance to gamble."
"What’s the distinction?"
"Attacking wouldn’t help complete the objective. It would only give the enemy one more chance to get close to my beast."
Kade watched him in silence for a moment.
"Most first-years waste that scenario trying to win a battle they were never told to win. Noted."
From Kade, that was probably praise.
The following two scenarios progressed more quickly.
In the second, an injured civilian had been stranded inside the territory of a hostile beast. Jin approached under cover, moved according to the beast’s stamina cycle, and selected a slower extraction path that stayed clear of its core territory.
The shorter route offered a better completion time. It also risked both Glitch and the civilian for a handful of extra points.
Midway through the extraction, the civilian’s condition worsened. Their movement speed fell, and each timer warning made the fast route look more appealing.
Jin continued to reject it.
He concealed the civilian inside a collapsed storage bay, used Glitch to draw the territorial beast away, and did not return until it had fully committed to the opposite side of the sector.
The detour hurt his efficiency score and consumed more time. It also kept the civilian outside the beast’s striking distance. Glitch never had to defend an impossible position while burdened with someone unable to flee.
Getting himself to safety would only count as half a success.
Jin brought them both out and took the lower rating.