Chapter 11 - Running and Gunning (2/2)

"Sir, it was our first time ever in a mech even though it was just a simulation..." Gray countered to Major Valen.

"... a simulation inside a game... I'm never going to get used to thinking about it like that." Gray thought to himself as he didn't want to incur the wrath of this hard ass.

"Indeed it is your first time! That is why you normally go through a basic course introducing you to controlling mechs instead of just giving them to you! Those sorry sacks that left are probably finding out right about now that controlling them properly isn't as easy as they thought and will make their way back here crying for Big Daddy Valen to take them back in because they walked like a toddler wearing high heels!"

Gray was impressed that Major Valen could keep up his boisterous voice and say all of that without taking a single breath.

"Sorry sir, then where can we get a course?" said Geoff.

"You two sad sacks missed the start of it already when you went to go off on your own, but the second part will be in one hour. Take this material to brush up on it and I expect to see you two in the classroom at the Pilot's barracks in one hour!"

Major Valen tossed them each a data chip containing the raw content of the first class. Luckily, since it was just the first class most of the content was just familiarizing with each other and going over the schedule for future classes and training.

__________

Gray and Geoff followed instructions and made their way to the classroom at the designated time, nine other classmates were at the desks when Gray and Geoff entered. All but one of the players that had left right away were in the classroom and Gray wondered where the last one was.

Gray got acquainted with everyone else while waiting for the Major to start his course. Only 3 others seemed noteworthy to Gray as the rest were not interested in making friends as they had came with a premade group from other games.

The three others were Caleb Waldowski, Yurika Winchester, and Stacia Oldland.

Caleb came across as a bit of a dork, but he seemed to really know his stuff. Fairly short for his age, his hair was long and messy while his face could be said to be above average but Gray really couldn't tell as he couldn't judge male faces... nor was he interested in doing so...

Yurika was very interesting to Gray. She reminded him those old vocaloids from the early 21st century as she had long teal hair that she liked to keep in twin ponytails, spoke very energetically, smiled a lot, and her body proportions were a little too perfect. She probably spent a lot of time in the changing room getting it just right.

Stacia stood out to Gray because she seemed the most normal. She would also be fun to tease Gray mused to himself, but she was very cute and seemed to keep her avatar the same as herself. She was fairly short with a cute face, her hair was short and light brown as she had opted to keep it natural looking for the game. Her body proportions were also kept the same as her natural self so when she sat next to Yurika it felt like Stacia was real and Yurika was a character from a novel or something similar.

Major Valen burst in to the classroom exactly when the class was designated to start and walked up to the podium.

"Glad we are all here this time!" Major Valen said while looking at Gray and Geoff, causing both of them to sink slightly in their chairs to try and hide.

"Now, we are going to assign you to a trainer and they will instruct you in the simulator about how to interface with a mech. You can't just stick the neural link helmet on and expect it to work perfectly or even the way you want it too."

"Sir, why not just stick us in our game mechs?" said one of the other players Gray wasn't able to get to know.

"Those mechs are worth more than your puny lives and take much longer to replace than you greenhorns. We do not want them getting damaged!"

"But sir, this is only a game, just respawn the mechs if they get damaged..." said another student that seemed to be annoyed with the lack of freedom.

Major Valen was about to yell at him then calmed down and stated "Yes, this is only a game, but as a true simulation, repairs are not handled by the system and instead by technicians and 3D printers."

The other players nodded in agreement as they understood that this game was aimed to achieve extreme realism.

Major Valen looked down solemnly for a second before looking back up and getting in to the lesson. Gray swore he heard the Major say to himself "...just a game to you all"