Avery watched as a countdown displayed by his visor started at ten and began making its way towards zero.
The time for practice was over, and the real program was about to start.
’I prepared as much as I could. Now all that’s left is to do the best that I can.’ Avery thought, his new laser pistol resting in his hands and ready to be fired at a moment’s notice.
Soon the countdown reached its end, and the first AR targets created by the simulation appeared.
Immediately a dozen stationary ring targets showed up in Avery’s field of vision. The first part of the program was going to be a simple test of one’s aim.
With reflexes Avery had honed during his time learning under Urs and the last two weeks of intense training he had undergone with Kassandra and Kaiden, he raised his gun up and opened fire on the targets.
Red flashes of light erupted from his weapon’s muzzle and flew towards the floating rings at an imperceptible speed.
The intensity of the blasts had been brought down to their lowest settling and would hardly be able to harm small insects, but that was perfectly acceptable for this training environment that registered the hits as if they had been at full power. Otherwise, the walls would have ended up with melted holes in them.
’A nearly perfect score. I suppose that’s to be expected since this is like the warmup stage.’ Avery thought once his score appeared in his visor.
For each target he had only fired one shot and landed directly in the center of all but one of them. On the eighth one he was off by about half a centimeter, which was still acceptable to destroy the ring in one hit, but not quite a perfect shot.
Of course, things were not going to remain as simple as firing on stationary targets for long.
Around thirty seconds after completing the first round, another dozen targets appeared. With all of them moving around fairly quickly in set patterns.
For just a few moments, Avery carefully studied the new targets’ movements before opening fire.
Again, he only needed one blast from his laser pistol for each one to bring them down. This time achieving a perfect score and hitting each one dead in the center.
’I should have been a bit more careful with my aim during the first set. No point in moving too fast if it makes me a bit sloppy.’
Keeping himself focused, but not too on edge, Avery kept his eyes peeled for when the next targets appeared.
This time could be considered to be more the real deal.
Thirty-nine rings had suddenly surrounded him, and they were moving faster and in more unpredictable ways. It was almost a surprising increase in difficulty from the last one.
Still, Avery remained calm and opened fire.
He was unable to stay rooted in the same spot this time since the targets were all around him and flying around in whichever direction they well pleased. Other than the fact that they were not shooting back, it remained him of the drone attack simulations Urs had put him through.
’Some of them are a bit tougher than the others.’
One of the targets Avery had hit dead in the center with his laser pistol only cracked and was not completely destroyed. It seemed that this was the first stage to introduce the variable durability.
Fortunately, there was a perceptible minor difference between the tougher targets and the standard ones. So, whenever Avery found any that could survive a shot from his laser pistol, he instead whipped out his laser rifle and blasted it away without any resistance.
Once the last of the floating rings were destroyed, a buzzer rang in Avery’s ear to signal the end.
"Looks like I’ve got a five-minute break this time." Avery said with a deep sigh as he released the tension from his body.
However, the time was not only to let him recover, but so that the room could reconfigure itself.
Up to this point, he had been firing on targets in a completely open space, but that was about to completely change.
Pillars of varying sizes protruded out of the ground, and panels along those pillars started arranging themselves so that the structures resembled buildings. The next part of the challenge would be taking place in a simulated urban environment.
"A hundred twenty-eight, huh. I guess this where the difficulty really starts to ramp up."
In the corner of his visor display was the number of remaining targets he needed to hunt down.
Some were hidden within buildings, while others were floating around outside of them. This was going to be a far more time-consuming mission and require a bit more planning and luck.
Using his terminal and the visor’s built in sensors, Avery mapped out what he thought would be the best route through the course.
He had managed to pinpoint some of the targets already, but a good seventy percent of them still remained undetected. Likely stationery or patrolling the inside of the simulated buildings.
His laser rifle nestled under one arm, and his laser pistol in the other hand, Avery dashed through the course and began eliminating the targets as quickly and accurately as he could.
Running into the first building, he caught sight of one target just rounding the corner down the hallway.
Avery clicked his tongue in frustration when he saw this, since had he gotten there just a little faster, he could have blasted the thing from afar without needing to chase it down.
A few minutes later, he had cleared the building and was snipping the outside targets with his laser rifle from the vantage point on the top floor.
Thanks to the scope and its aim assist, Avery was able to accurately hit everything he aimed at with hardly any degree of error.
’That’s the last one I can get from here. Time to go into the next building.’ Avery thought, grabbing the laser cannon floating behind him and jumping out of the window.
While his heavy weapon’s propulsion device that allowed it to float and follow him was unable to keep him airborne, it slowed his descent down enough to soften the landing.
This maneuver certainly put some undue pressure on the device, but since he was being graded on speed, he was going to do whatever it took to cut down on time whenever possible.