Class Six had only seven students, so only four instructors took part in the assessment.
Of course, the instructors would not let their guard down just because there were fewer participants.
When they reached the first corner, the academic representative crouched and tapped the class monitor on the shoulder.
The monitor at the point understood immediately and quickly leaned out for a look.
Sure enough, an instructor at the far end of the corridor had his rifle shouldered, its muzzle already trained in their direction.
The two exchanged a glance. The monitor extended his rifle around the corner and opened up with a sweeping burst.
The academic representative immediately rolled into the middle of the corridor, raised his AK, and fired two short bursts.
Rat-tat. Rat-tat.
Beep-beep-beep-beep!
When the gunfire stopped, a shrill alarm sounded from the far end of the corridor.
At the same time, the academic representative’s wristwatch began blaring its own warning.
"Sorry, guys. I’m out first."
Brushing dust from himself, the academic representative headed out of the training facility.
He had passed the test. In ordinary combat, that was how it went: even if the student who rolled out was ruled dead, he could still qualify as a soldier in the end.
The five students behind him all watched with envy.
They continued advancing. With only three instructors left, there were clearly not many obstacles they could set up. Before long, the remaining six students reached the second floor.
An instructor was positioned on the second-floor landing, rifle aimed down at them.
The moment any of them showed themselves, they would be taken out.
Class One had handled this by having three people charge upstairs abreast.
Then they had picked their moment and eliminated the instructor.
The class monitor clearly intended to use the same tactic.
He looked back, and three students stepped forward behind him.
"Our turn, monitor."
When Class One had reached this point, two of the three had been eliminated by the instructor, and the last one had eliminated the instructor.
As a result, all three had qualified.
Class Six’s monitor had intended to use the same approach, but their marksmanship was plainly no match for Class One’s prodigies.
The instant the three showed themselves, the instructor on the landing picked them off one by one.
The last student tried to use his teammates’ sacrifice to buy time and take down the instructor.
Unfortunately, his shooting was far too poor.
Before he could even line up the instructor, his wristband let out a piercing alarm.
At the same time, the rifle in his hands stopped firing.
"Now we’ve got a problem."
The three students came back down the stairs.
As they passed the monitor, their eyes were full of dejection.
"It’s all right. You did your best."
The monitor looked at one of the students behind him, then at Adrian.
"We’ll try again."
With that, the monitor started up the stairs first.
Only the three of them remained.
Even if the same tactic succeeded this time, only one of the three would qualify.
Adrian called out to the monitor.
He had not originally wanted to reveal his true ability.
He wanted to become a special operator.
The news kept reporting that the Federation’s resources were dwindling and that it faced incursions from foreign enemies.
Adrian could not simply stand by and watch it happen.
Perhaps only special operators got to fight soldiers from other countries on the front lines.
Regular soldiers could only gather resources in domestic Battlefield Instances.
So Adrian decided he would not hide his strength anymore.
"Monitor, give me your jacket."
The monitor froze for a moment, unable to understand what Adrian intended to do.
"Trust me. I’ll get us through this."
Adrian did not explain. His gaze was steady.
"What is that student doing?"
A large screen had long since been set up in front of the observation platform in the distance.
It displayed the situation inside the training facility.
The principal sat beside Major Frost, having watched the entire assessment.
He had been very satisfied with the performances of the first few classes.
Both the trainees’ reaction speeds and their marksmanship had reached a passing standard.
But when it came to Class Five, no one had even made it past the first corner.
That had left the principal looking rather embarrassed.
Major Frost, however, had paid it no mind and had watched intently from start to finish.
"What are they trying to do?"
Through the camera feed, he saw the monitor take off his jacket and hand it to Adrian.
Then Adrian held his rifle one-handed, the jacket in his other hand.
"In close-quarters combat, you only get one chance to attack."
"Once your position is exposed, there are plenty of ways to deal with the enemy."
With his rifle at the ready, Adrian moved to a blind spot beneath the landing.
One step out from there would put him in the instructor’s line of sight above.
Huff.
Adrian let out a long breath.
Then, before everyone’s stunned eyes, he hurled the jacket high into the air.
Rat-tat-tat!
Beep!
A string of automatic fire rang out.
Then came the shrill elimination alert.
"What the—"
The eliminated instructor, the principal, and Major Frost all went rigid with shock.
Adrian did not relax for even a second. He slowly made his way upstairs, his muzzle fixed on the second-floor stairwell entrance the entire time.
When he reached the instructor, he even patted the man on the shoulder.
The instructor’s mask concealed his expression.
But the shock in his eyes could not be hidden.
Once Adrian went all out, this sort of indoor assessment was laughably easy to complete.
They called themselves special operators, but Adrian had to admit that this world’s CQB had no technique to it whatsoever.
The second-to-last instructor was hiding inside a room.
And his exact position in that room was unknown.
But that did not trouble Adrian.
He had the monitor kick open the door first, then dove straight into the room and fired using the aiming reticle provided by the System.
That allowed Adrian to aim and shoot while still in midair.
The final instructor had clearly been unprepared and was easily eliminated by Adrian.
The last instructor’s hiding place was even simpler: he was standing at the exit of the training facility.
But the distance was more than one hundred meters, and the instructor had already aimed at the likely places where they would emerge.
The other classes had handled this the same way they had at the first corridor.
One person would lean out to identify the target, then extend a rifle around the corner and fire a sweeping burst.
Another person below would roll out and make the elimination.
But Adrian did not play by the usual rules.
As he leaned out to observe, he extended his rifle as well.
In just half a second, he aimed and fired.
At a range of one hundred meters, he raised his rifle and fired directly.
The sight left the principal on the platform and the other students watching in utter shock.
"That... that can’t be real."
It was not just the students. Even the special operators participating in the assessment sucked in a breath.
"If we ran into an enemy like that on a battlefield, not one person in our squad would make it out alive."
In the break room, the instructors who had been eliminated were all watching the feed on the big screen.
No one argued with their captain’s words.
All of them could make a hundred-meter shot.
But they needed at least five to ten seconds to aim.
Someone like Adrian, who merely tilted his head out, extended his muzzle, and fired—they had never seen anything like it.
In the end, the three remaining students of Class Six passed the assessment. Including the academic representative from the beginning, Class Six had four students qualify in total.
[Participated in an exercise. Eliminated 3 human players. Awarded 300 points.]
"You can earn points from exercises too? System, does eliminating human players earn more?"
[Yes. In Competitive Mode, eliminating a human player awards 1,000 points.]
Compared with farming NPCs, that was one hundred times as many points.
"Figures. Fighting other players pays a lot better."
Adrian had originally believed that clearing Battlefield Instances was his only way to earn points.
Based on his experience in the previous instance, he would need to eliminate ten thousand NPCs to unlock armored forces.
But if he could fight human players, he would need to eliminate only one thousand to unlock them.
"Congratulations. You have become qualified soldiers."
The students who had qualified formed up below the platform.
This time, they were not grouped by class. Instead, they formed a standard square formation.
There were thirty-six successful candidates in total.
Exactly enough to form a six-by-six square.
"Anyone who wants to undergo special-operator selection can register with me."
After the principal finished speaking, an instructor stepped forward.
So it’s finally here?
Adrian felt a surge of excitement.
As a regular soldier, he would at most gain official status to enter Battlefield Instances, and the only available modes would be Scavenge and Occupation.
As the name implied, Scavenge was like Ammunition Depot No. 4.
Such instances contained large numbers of NPCs as well as supplies.
Supplies brought out of an instance could be used in the real world.
Occupation, on the other hand, required cooperation from multiple people.
A large number of NPCs would spawn at a position.
After eliminating those NPCs, his side had to hold the position for a set period in order to occupy it.
Rewards would be calculated when they exited the instance.
Special operators were different.
In addition to those two modes, special operators could take part in Competitive Mode.
That meant fighting human players from other countries.
It was also one of the ways nations competed for resources.
"Anyone who wants to take the special-operator assessment, register with me."
Just as the trainees were about to step forward, Major Frost spoke from the platform.
"Special-operator selection is nothing like the regular soldier assessment. People can die during this examination."
Everyone stopped in their tracks.
They looked at one another.
But Adrian could not afford to worry about that. He stepped out of formation and walked up to the instructor.
"You."
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