episode_0025

When Gilbert arrived at the classroom, the lecture had just begun. Professor Alexander did not say much to Gilbert, who came in late. I had received information about Gilbert from Professor Horizon a week ago, so I knew very well what kind of situation Gilbert was in.

Considering that he managed to enter the classroom, it seemed like he had avoided expulsion.

‘So you won the bet with that stubborn great sage?’

Professor Alexander could not believe that the great sage, who had never once wavered his opinion, withdrew his statement. His stubbornness was based on his knowledge. Having lived longer than anyone else, the weight of knowledge accumulated was never light.

Although the expression of stubbornness was used, in reality, the Great Sage always said the right thing, so in these situations, most of the time, the Great Sage, Professor Horizon, ended up winning. As far as he could remember, he had never seen Professor Horizon lose in a dispute.

Except this time.

Professor Alexander briefly glanced at Gilbert, who was looking for an empty seat, and then resumed the lecture that had been interrupted.

“I will start the lecture again. It has already been a month since the cadets listened to Professor Bonn’s lecture on the use of giant weapons. So far, the lectures have focused on theory, but theory that is not actually used does not help much in increasing the survival rate of cadets. So, starting today, the lecture on the use of giant weapons will begin with practical training.”

Gilbert realized that the theory lectures had been completed during the week he had been away. Since he had already mastered the necessary parts, moving on to practical training was a welcome event for him.

In Tactical Combat, the main story begins one month after entering the academy, and the first step is training in using giant weapons. Since the game story revolves around the giant soldier, the main story had no choice but to start with the giant soldier operation practice.

“Then everyone can move to the hangar.”

Hearing Professor Alexander’s words, the cadets excitedly headed to the hangar where the giant soldier was located. Rather than theoretical lectures, which were bound to be boring, the cadets could not help but be more willing to practice using giant weapons in practice.

“Gilbert!”

Gilbert, who was heading to the hangar with a group of cadets, turned around when he heard a voice calling him. There, Hans and Angelina, who had been hanging out together since the entrance mock battle, were walking towards him.

“You must be Hans.”

“It’s only been a week. Where on earth have you been without even saying a word? I was worried because you suddenly couldn’t see me.”

“There were some things to resolve.”

“The rumor I heard is that you had an accident again… Surprisingly, it seems credible.”

When I saw Hans making a fuss and Angelina speaking in a calm tone as always, I burst into laughter. When I first became possessed by Gilbert, I wondered what to do with his reputation, but fortunately, the relationship between the two people they met at the academy lasted longer than expected, so I was able to put it to rest.

First of all, it was a waste of time to recruit Gukbap Ping Chang as a colleague, and with his current reputation, it was impossible to bring in anyone else as a colleague. Even if you could recruit him as a colleague, the main character, Ian, also needed someone to recruit as a colleague, so you couldn’t just recruit him to his side.

However, it was inefficient to have Ian as a colleague, and more than anything, since he had already started to form a group within the first grade class, it was unreasonable to bring him into Gilbert’s party. Meanwhile, Angelina and Hans, who naturally started acting together even before the entrance exam, were like rain in a drought.

In particular, Angelina, who is quick to judge the situation and is good at commanding, and Hans, who could become a level 3 or higher knight if raised well, had the potential to grow beyond the original named companion characters, which was actually a good thing. Ian was able to gather his colleagues as Ian did, and Gilbert was able to form a force as Gilbert did.

We were able to arrive at the hangar while Gilbert briefly talked about the week he had been away.

The cadets lined up in four rows in front of Alexander, who had already arrived, and the cadets who arrived late also lined up in five rows behind them.

“It looks like everyone is here. Then, I will briefly tell you the topic of today’s lecture.”

Alexander brought the board from one side of the hangar and wrote down the topic of the lecture in large letters in elegant handwriting.

“The core of today’s lecture is the tactical operation of giant soldiers. Many people may think that the Colossus is only used to deal with the Colossus. There are probably some cadets currently taking the lecture who think that way.”

Professor Alexander looked around at the cadets who had pricked up their ears and continued speaking.

“However, the use of giant gods is not limited to just that. The reason is simple. The best thing about using a weapon called Colossus is not to deal with the same Colossus. This is because there are few ways to inflict as much damage as using giant soldiers against regular troops. Therefore, depending on the position, special missions such as destroying strategic magic weapons or striking the enemy’s rear are often adopted.”

The tactical operation of the Giant God Soldier was like that. The Giant God Soldier was a war weapon with clear limits of maneuver, and the tactical uses of such a war weapon were endless.

Even if it was a mission that could not be solved with human power alone, it was possible to solve it if there were excellent knights and excellent giant soldiers.

That’s exactly what Professor Alexander meant in his lecture. It was to instill the idea that although it was right to deal with a giant god soldier, it did not mean that it would be the most efficient.

The moment you get stuck in a frame, limits are set and you see only what you want to see.

In fact, when he was on the battlefield, it was not uncommon for him to receive special missions and lead giant soldiers alone to attack key enemy bases. Although the risk was high, when successful, it could change the unfavorable battlefield.

“To add a little more story, if you are assigned a special mission like this, there are cases where the knights on board have to get off the Giant Soldier due to its size. A representative example is utilizing the autonomous function of an artificial spirit to perform a mission with the support of a giant soldier.”

Attacking bases or rear raids were rare, but when retrieving information as an additional mission, there were often cases where the knight had to personally disembark. The advancement of technology to produce artificial spirits has helped in planning such active operations.

As Professor Alexander was also an outstanding engineer, he was employed on many special missions and developed numerous majors. The battle that resulted in him losing an arm was one of many such operations.

“Today’s lecture will be conducted on the assumption that you have been assigned such a special mission. I will accept applicants first.”

Gilbert, who had been quietly listening to the lecture, was finally able to realize that the main story was progressing.

Although the events that occurred differed slightly depending on the player, it was in this special mission lecture part that a character who could be said to be the first boss of the official main story appeared.

In particular, the protagonist is selected as a trainee first regardless of his grades, and due to the jealousy of Cook Jan Scott, the first boss, he becomes a training partner and faces a boss battle. The reason for jealousy varied depending on the performance of the entrance mock competition.

When he gets the best grades, he is jealous of Ian, the main character, for all sorts of strange reasons, such as because he is better than him, and when he gets worse grades, a guy with inferior skills is popular with the face of a gisaeng brother, and a fight breaks out.

Gilbert looked at Ian, who was standing with a relaxed expression, for a moment, then looked at his first boss, Cooke Jan Scott.

As expected, the first to apply was Cooke Jan Scott.

Professor Alexander gave him the right to nominate and instructed him to choose a partner to practice with.

Looking at Ian’s skills and judging from his skills, it didn’t seem like Ian would lose, but even if he lost, it would be the driving force for his growth, so it didn’t really matter what the outcome was.

Gilbert, who was thinking about leisurely watching the two practice, made eye contact with Cooke Jan Scott at that moment. At first, I thought we had bumped into each other by chance, but I realized it was not an illusion because of the intense glare he gave me, almost like a glare.

At that moment, Gilbert sensed that something was wrong. When should you decide on a partner? Why are you having a snowball fight with yourself? No matter how much I thought about it, there was only one.

“I will do it with Cadet Gilbert Lionheart.”

“Please let Cadet Gilbert come forward.”

Gilbert clicked his tongue at the fact that his intuition was correct and stepped forward. When I saw Ian in passing, the first thing I saw was that he was upset that he couldn’t do it.

He walked slowly to where Cooke Jan Scott was, stood side by side with him, and looked at Professor Alexander.

My head was spinning, but I didn’t give myself time to think.

“I will give each cadet a mission. Currently, at the mock training site, an environment for data theft has been created, as explained earlier. The two people can each perform the task of stealing data or preventing data theft. The situation has made it impossible to carry out the mission using only giant soldiers, so please keep this in mind. Do you have any more questions?”

“No.”

“Me too.”

Professor Alexander nodded at the two people’s answers and proceeded with the practice.

Gilbert, who was heading to the mock training ground aboard the Giant God Soldier, was embarrassed by the sudden development of the situation, but first cleared his head except for the task at hand. It happened anyway, and adapting was something he had always been good at.

Gilbert, who was given the task of stealing data, took the position of data stealer.

I let out a long sigh-like breath and concentrated my mind.

I didn’t know why the main story was turned on me and not on the main character, Ian, but I had already experienced something that didn’t progress like a game. Rather, if you think about Cooke Jan Scott’s jealousy, it was natural that he would only be jealous of those who came first in the entrance mock competition.

Gilbert quickly pulled the control stick as he heard Professor Alexander’s mock training exercise begin.