Chapter 26 - The True Worth of An Augmented Suit (1/2)
Chapter 26, The True Worth of An Augmented Suit
Translator: Athena13
Editor: Silavin
Proofreader: p4553r
Akira started going to the wasteland again, but it was for the purpose of training using his augmented suit. He put on his augmented suit in the wasteland not too far from the city while carrying his anti-monster AAH rifle with him. In short, he was fully equipped to fight monsters in the wasteland.
On the other hand, Alpha was donned in a white one-piece, not something that one would typically wear in the middle of the wasteland. The glossiness of the dress further accentuated that it was made of high-quality fabric, and as the light shone on it, it made a drop-shadow effect that traced her body line.
Although Akira wanted Alpha to change to something that better suited the wasteland, he decided to hold himself from saying anything. He recollected her naked self during their first meeting in the ruins and her beautiful pure white dress that she wore during a previous trip to ruins when he was targeted by 2 Hunters. During both these occasions, she had a reason for wearing such a dress. Similarly, he thought that there must be some reason as to why she wore this dress now too. But more than that, he knew that she would only change her dress to something worse if he commented about it. It was quite a while since the last time he had the chance of going to the wasteland, thus he did not want to do anything that might bring him trouble.
Akira mumbled to himself that it was a thousand times better than her being naked and just a.s.sumed that it was a part of his training too.
Alpha smiled and told Akira to start the training.
“Akira, we’ll start the training for using the augmented suit.”
“Okay.”
Akira was about to turn ON his augmented suit when the suit suddenly booted up by itself. Although he was a bit surprised, he immediately realized that it was Alpha’s doing when he saw her smiled meaningfully.
“So then, what should I do?”
Alpha pointed to a location in the wasteland that was 100 metres away from them.
“First of all, walk till you get there.”
As Akira turned to the pointed direction, he could see an arrow pointing to the intended location. It was something that Alpha added to his vision. Akira was already used to it, so he was not surprised. He then started walking towards the location. He was able to get there without any problem. So Alpha gave him the next command.
“Next, over there.”
Once he arrived at his next location, Alpha gave him the next order again. He just kept on walking from one location to another for about 10 times. Thus, he started to find it weird.
“Alpha. Do I need to walk more carefully? Or maybe walk while carrying my gun? Or is it that I should not do any of those at all? Or are we still confirming the functionality of the augmented suit and we will only start the real training after that?”
“Nope, we’re already in a training session and I’ve started gathering your data too.”
“Just by walking?”
Alpha just smiled meaningfully while looking at Akira who was puzzled.
“Yep, after all, you would never realise the usefulness of my support until you try to move around without it.”
“Support? But I’m just walking normally, right? Is there anything more than that?”
Alpha smiled mischievously.
“You’ll know soon enough. Akira, try to walk over there, but this time I’ll turn off my support. Actually, I’ve been adjusting the power output of your augmented suit. So then, go ahead and feel for yourself how great my support is.”
Akira had a bad feeling as he saw Alpha smiling at him. As he tried to step forward, he immediately tripped over. The moment he swung his leg, he accidentally kicked a boulder powerfully and sent it flying, the kickback made him rollover.
He was stunned as it happened. He tried to stand up by thrusting his right hand on the ground, but his right hand went deep into the ground right till his wrist.
He then tried to pull out his right hand by pressing the ground with his left hand, but he pulled so hard that he was thrown back and almost fell on his back, so he tried to readjust his position in panic. But instead, it completely disrupted his balance as he fell down again. And when he tried to get back up on his feet, he pushed too hard and tripped again.
After that, he tried to be careful and moved slowly, so he was somehow able to get back on his feet. But when he tried to step forward, he could not keep his balance and was about to fall down again and used all of his strength to keep himself standing.
As Alpha watched Akira trying to move so slowly and carefully, she smiled as if she was enjoying it.
“Now you get it, right? If you can’t control your augmented strength, you can’t even walk normally, you know. The reason why you don’t usually fall down when you walk is because your body unconsciously adjusts your centre of gravity. It is a very crucial part of the training to be able to walk wearing your augmented suit, you know. I’ll turn my support back on, so you can go ahead and walk without worry.”
Akira started to walk carefully. But this time, he could walk normally, thus his face turned stern as he smiled bitterly.
“I can’t even walk without your support, huh? Does everyone who uses an augmented suit for the first time go through this? Did all of them go through a lot of training to turn from not being able to move around to be good enough to use it for combat? Until I finish the whole training, I think it’s better if I don’t use this suit, you know?”
“That depends on each augmented suit. Usually, high quality augmented suit can be paired with high-level software enabling the user to adjust the power output of the augmented suit. There’re a lot of augmented suits that can be used normally right from the start. There are also augmented suits that use the installed auto-balancer as their selling point. The higher the power output, the more control you’ll have to exercise when you do a fine movement. For example, even if you have enough power to send a vehicle flying, it’ll also send yourself flying if you can’t control its power. So it’s not just about the output power, but having the function that would help the user to use it normally without any problem is also one of the indicators of how good an augmented suit is.”
Akira looked interested as he listened to Alpha’s explanation. He then realized something.
“So it means that you are adjusting its power output when it moves, right?”
“Yep.”
“That’s amazing.”
Akira looked genuinely amazed. The difference when he had Alpha’s support and when he did not have it while using his augmented suit was crystal clear to him.
Naturally, Alpha was satisfied with Akira’s reaction.
“But that’s not all, you know. In order to make you realise just how great my support is, I’ll have you work hard. Okay?”
“Roger that.”
Then he continued his training and kept following Alpha’s orders. Walk slowly, walk faster, run slowly, sprint, quickly get on feet after lying on the ground, stand on his hands and get back on his feet, sprint and then make a sharp turn. His movement slowly s.h.i.+fted from doing light manoeuvres to those that fully utilized his augmented body strength.
Normally, one would need a long time worth of training with such a low functionality augmented suit before they could do any of those manoeuvres. But Akira did not realize that as he kept moving around normally. He could not even grasp the fact that he was able to do that only because of Alpha’s superior support.
After finis.h.i.+ng his morning training, Akira went to have a light meal. He was eating Hunter’s ration that he packed in his rucksack. It was cheap and nutritious, although it had no taste, it was enough to at least fill his empty stomach.
As he was chewing on the hard-to-chew tasteless fried dango-like thing, he unconsciously complained about its taste. And when he realized that he was complaining about how bad it was, he just laughed bitterly.
[Although I’ve always been thankful to even have something to eat until today, now I’m complaining about the taste, huh. It seems that I’ve become too used to living in luxury.]
Although he was criticizing himself, he was also glad that his life had turned better than before.
“Alpha, what to do for the afternoon? Are we going to continue with the training?”
“We’ll have shooting training in the afternoon and then melee training after that.”
“Melee training? Uhhm, do you mean like training how to kick and punch the enemy in close range?”
“It’s just standard training including how to use your rifle in short range. First of all, I’ll have to teach you martial arts and train you to use it against humans. You’ll also have a mock fight against me.”
Akira looked confused.
“…What are you talking about? I can’t touch you… Wait, I can’t touch you, right?”
Akira was a bit surprised as he wondered whether she got a corporeal body. So just to check, he extended his hand towards her. But just like always, his hand went through Alpha’s body.
As he confirmed that she did not have a corporeal body, he was puzzled as to how they were going to do the training and it was shown in his face. Looking at that, Alpha just smiled.
“You’ll understand when we do that. So just look forward to it, okay?”
Although Akira wanted to know badly, it did not seem like Alpha would tell him now. Thus he continued eating his ration while making a questioning look.
After he finished his food, Akira started his shooting training as scheduled. He could feel a weird sensation coming from the thick gloves that he was using to grip his rifle. Since he was still in the process of getting used to it, he started by aiming at small rocks rather than images of monsters.
He carefully took an aim at a small boulder 100 metres away from him and pulled the trigger. The bullet flew out of his rifle, hit the small boulder precisely and sent it flying.
Akira smiled as he knew that he did well. He then moved to the next target, aimed carefully and pulled the trigger. This time also it was a bullseye, and the next one too, and the next one too. All of his shots were accurate.
“Oh! You’re doing really well today!!”
Akira was in a good mood due to his unexpected result in the shooting practice. Even Alpha complemented his result while smiling.
“In that case, I’ll increase the distance of the target gradually.”
“Okay.”
Akira then aimed at his next target more carefully than before and pulled the trigger. Then the bullet flew straight and hit that target.
Since then, his consecutive targets became further and further away from him every time he hit the previous target, and he did not miss even a single shot. But suddenly, his good mood vanished.
Akira realized that his targets had become so far from him that it would normally be impossible to hit them accurately. But even so, weirdly enough, all of his shots still accurately hit those targets. He a.s.sumed that it might be because the augmented suit absorbed the kickback from his rifle, so his accuracy had increased.
And after he accurately shot a target that was 500 metres away from him, he turned to Alpha and asked her a question.
“Alpha, you’re doing something here, aren’t you?”
Alpha just smiled which confirmed Akira’s guess.
“I’m giving you my complete support.”
“…As I thought.”
Although he already guessed that it was not because his shooting skill suddenly went up, it was still frustrating when he heard it. He could only smile bitterly after realising the fact.
“After you moved your aim around the target, I controlled the augmented suit to make some fine adjustments. And when you pulled the trigger, I also adjusted your stance and centre of gravity. I also make a small adjustment to your augmented suit to completely absorb the kickback too.”
“So you can even do that too, huh.? That’s amazing… Hm? Doesn’t that mean that I don’t even need to do shooting training at all?”
“Nope. The better you can aim, the less adjustment that I need to do to make an accurate shot. Moreover, there may be occasions in the future, where you will have to fight without your augmented suit or when I can’t give you my full support. That’s why you still need to train.”
“Well, that’s true, alright then.”
“Since I can adjust your stance to the most effective one to shoot now, so your training will even be stricter than before. After all, with the augmented suit, you can shoot while being in a variety of positions. I’ll train you so you can shoot accurately even when you’re running, or when you don’t have visual confirmation of your enemy, or when you’re in a tight spot. Don’t worry, even if you’re too tired to walk, I’ll use the augmented suit to a.s.sist you in walking, so you can train without worry.”
“…Be gentle, please.”
Seeing Alpha say something so scary with a smile, Akira winced a bit. Alpha then turned serious and said.
“Now then, since you know that I can give you my support when you shoot thanks to the augmented suit, I have something that I need you to know.”
“What is it?”
“At the moment, I cannot do anything more than giving support by adjusting your movement through your augmented suit. Which means that I can help you do what you want to do, but I can’t ignore your wish and make you do something that you don’t want to do. But if you agree, I can configure your augmented suit so that it can give me full control over your body. Thus I would be able to move your body without your will. Of course, I promise that I will not do anything that will bring you harm. But even so, there are pros and cons in doing so, so listen to me closely and think carefully before making any decision.”
Looking at Alpha who was making a serious face, Akira remembered the time when she asked him for permission due to some annoying rules. As he realised that it must be something that she needed in order to give him her full support, he firmly replied back.