57: Chapter 52 The Mysterious Faceless Man

The training area after school was even livelier than during classes.

The simulation capsule lobby was packed with people, and everywhere new students were lining up waiting for capsules.

Huge banners were still plastered across the corridors: "Simulation Exercise Countdown: 3 Days."

Just looking at it was enough to make one's blood pressure spike.

Kaiwen had arranged with a few classmates to go to the training area's simulation capsules ahead of time to familiarize themselves with the equipment, and Kiana and Bronya came along as well.

However, Mei seemed to have some matters to attend to, so she didn't come along, merely reminding them to return early after finishing their training.

Kaiwen didn't think much of it, as Mei usually liked to busy herself with such trivial matters.

The noise in the training lobby pulled her attention back.

Everywhere were new students waiting in line for capsules; some were studying the control panels, others were discussing team arrangements for the exercise with classmates, and in the corner, a few lower-grade girls were leaning over the railing peering into the simulation capsules.

Bronya hugged her terminal and scanned the area, quickly finding a few vacant capsules.

Each of them found one, pulled open the capsule cover, and lay inside.

The simulation capsule was a bit larger than Kaiwen had imagined, resembling a horizontally placed capsule with its inner walls covered entirely in silver-gray cushion pads.

As Kaiwen lay comfortably, the curved lid overhead slowly closed, and several tiny sensor patches automatically attached themselves to her temples.

Then a low prompt sound rang in her ear, and her field of vision slowly darkened.

One, two, and immediately after, countless specks of light flew out from behind Kaiwen, slowly converging into an image.

But the converged image was not quite what Kaiwen had imagined.

There was no simulated battlefield, no targets, and no UI interface for a training scenario.

She was standing in an absurdly vast and empty space.

Beneath her feet was a flat, smooth metal floor that extended all the way to the edge of her vision, boundless and endless.

Overhead there was neither ceiling nor sky, only a deep gray spreading out in all directions.

Kaiwen slowly turned around in a circle.

No classmates, no Kiana, no Bronya.

It was completely empty.

It was Kaiwen's first time using this equipment, and she wasn't quite sure what entering normally should look like.

But no matter how one looked at it, this place didn't look like a simulation scenario for new students to practice in at all.

Just as she was thinking this, several huge screens lit up out of thin air in the distant space.

Very far away, visually estimated to be at least several hundred meters.

And standing beside the screens was a person.

Across such a long distance, facial features couldn't be seen; one could only see his fingers leisurely swiping across the screen, seemingly debugging something.

In the entire space, besides Kaiwen, there was only this single person.

Kaiwen hesitated for a moment, then still walked toward that direction.

After getting closer, Kaiwen discovered that his face couldn't be clearly seen not because of the distance, but because his facial features were shrouded in a faint layer of light and shadow, leaving only a blurry outline no matter how one looked.

But his overall aura could not be concealed.

When standing there doing nothing, his back was straight, his fingers rested on the edge of the screen, and his movements were as composed as flipping through a book in his own study—neither looking like a student nor like an ordinary technician.

Kaiwen stopped a few paces away.

The man raised his head from the screen and turned his face to look at her.

The movement was very natural, but the instant his gaze fell on Kaiwen's face, his fingers swiping the screen paused for a moment.

It paused for just a moment, quickly resuming its original rhythm.

"This lady." He bowed slightly, his voice low, his speech pace composed, "How did you get in?"

Kaiwen shrugged: "I don't know either. After lying into the simulation capsule, I opened my eyes and ended up here."

She looked around at the boundless emptiness, then glanced at the screen in front of the man: "Are you the tester in charge of debugging?"

The man did not answer immediately.

He looked at Kaiwen for a moment, then let out a soft chuckle.

"You could say that."

The man turned around, his fingers swiping twice on the screen.

The space behind Kaiwen suddenly began to change—a row of targets rose out of thin air on the distant gray ground, evenly spaced, forming a straight line from near to far.

"The shooting parameters of this shooting range haven't been fully calibrated yet." The man's tone was very casual, as if chatting about an insignificant trivial matter, "I need someone to actually test-fire a few rounds so I can get accurate feedback data. Unfortunately, no suitable person has come in."

He paused and turned his head to look at Kaiwen: "Since this lady has come, I wonder if you are willing to help with a small favor?"

Kaiwen glanced at the row of targets, then looked at the man.

Anyway, she was idle, and she was indeed curious about what kind of feel this set of equipment had when shooting.

"Sure, let's try it."

The man nodded slightly, his finger tapping gently on the screen.

A flash of light crossed the air in front of Kaiwen, and then something landed in her hands.

Heavy, one on the left and one on the right, two uniquely shaped pistols.

Kaiwen lowered her head to look at the things in her hands, stunned for a moment.

Dual pistols?

This shape... she felt somewhat familiar with it, or rather, it slowly coincided with a certain character's weapon in her Remembrance.

Kaiwen raised her head calmly, re-examining the man in front of her whose face could not be clearly seen.

Composed, elegant, debugging data alone in this strange space.

Coincidence?

She already had a vague guess in her heart, but she wasn't quite sure.

But Kaiwen did not show any abnormality, weighed the gun in her right hand, and then honestly put down the one in her left hand.

"Uh, two guns. To be honest, I've never used a gun; let alone two, even one is a bit much for me."

Hearing this, the man fell silent for a fleeting moment.

Then he chuckled softly, as if talking to himself:

"Is that so... You don't know how to use a gun."

He withdrew his gaze, put his fingers back on the edge of the screen, and casually said:

"You're quite similar to a friend of mine."

"When she had two guns back then, she also chose only one. Even the reason was identical."

There was no change on Kaiwen's face; she merely raised the gun in her right hand, gestured at the nearest target, and said: "Is that so? That's quite a coincidence."

"Then, how should I cooperate with your testing?"

The man waved his hand.

"No need."

He swiped the screen a few more times, the row of targets slowly sank back into the ground, and the gun in Kaiwen's hand also turned into specks of light and dissipated.

"The data is already enough." His tone was very calm, making it impossible to tell whether he was satisfied or disappointed, "Thank you for this lady's cooperation."

Kaiwen watched the gun in her hand vanish out of thin air, and clenched her now-empty fingers.

It ended without even firing a single shot?

It seemed that man was indeed the one.

However, she didn't dwell on it; could this person possibly trace her through the network cable?

However, her heavy makeup seemed to need to be applied all over again.

"By the way, I got separated from a few companions when I came in. Do you know where they are?"

The man slightly turned his head, as if thinking for a moment.

"Your companions, huh."

"I roughly know where they are. As a reward for helping me debug, allow me to send you over."