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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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At first, when I heard about the field control role, I thought it would be a somewhat easier training exercise compared to the usual drills. It wasn’t a team that would falter just because I was missing, and we’d always done well in training every year, so I wasn’t worried.
However, after familiarizing myself with all the training details, the information I received on the day of the training was significantly different from what I had imagined. I thought it would involve controlling civilians approaching the training grounds and preventing access, but it also included relaying externally obtained information to our troops to designate training routes, in addition to managing civilians approaching the actual combat zone.
Of course, they wouldn’t move solely based on what I relayed. They would move fluidly, adapting to the ever-changing situation within the training grounds. It seemed the evaluation criteria for this training focused on achieving objectives while responding to unpredictable circumstances.
I felt it would be much more troublesome than I had anticipated, but by the time I received this information, I had already separated from my team members, and only the field control personnel, including myself, remained.
Yet, even after the training actually started, I didn’t have much to do. I had radio contact with the team members, but there wasn’t any incoming information, and I didn’t receive anything specific to relay, so I spent time under the scorching sun at the entrance to the training grounds.
Was it because my teammates were performing exceptionally well in the training, exceeding expectations? On the one hand, I felt that my help wasn’t really necessary. I belatedly understood why they specifically selected experienced personnel for field control, but given the current situation, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was really necessary to choose such experienced individuals.
“This is 3-3. Proceeding to the next point.”
“3-4 confirmed. Rear clear.”
My colleagues’ voices came through the radio attached inside my helmet. Since it was a report using the common channel, it was hard to consider it a report specifically for me. Even if I heard it, I had no additional information, so there was nothing I could tell my colleagues.
I just stood blankly, drawing a map of the training grounds in my head, imagining where and how my colleagues were moving. Reviewing the confirmed training content, I could only ascertain that they were proceeding without any problems.
The training opponents were Spacetroe soldiers from this region and officers from headquarters. Headquarters referred to the Spacetroe ships located in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, and the officers this time seemed to have come from the ship in the Atlantic.
Where the officers came from wasn’t particularly important. During training, all that mattered was confronting them according to the training content and achieving the objectives. The goal of this training was to score points based on the time taken upon arrival and the training content, after navigating a set course to the destination located at the mountain summit while defeating the mock combat opponents.
Despite the differences in climate, thousands of team members around the world took the same test, and there was a sort of ranking competition within it. Our team, which always did well in training, achieved good results in good training every year, so I wasn’t particularly worried.
Anyway, I thought I could just kill time like this and respond to any potential situations. However, there was one thing I overlooked. When I thought there wouldn’t be any problems, problems always arose.
After all the sparring with the Hunter Killer members yesterday, I thought there would be no chance of encountering them today. I hadn’t even considered it. The only day we could have fun was the first day, and today, the second day, we had to focus on training, so I didn’t have time to think about encountering anyone.
“Huh? Spacetroe?”
But I never dreamed that I’d run into the Hunter Killer members again on the road leading to the training grounds. And why with me again…?
Dressed in light summer clothes, unlike their swimsuits from yesterday, the Hunter Killer members were passing by the road leading to the training grounds, heading somewhere, and they ran into me in my suit.
“What are you doing here?”
On the beach, they would have naturally assumed I was there to relax, but standing in a suit on a road leading to a mountain would look suspicious to anyone. While it wasn’t a completely deserted area, I hadn’t encountered a single person until now because it was a weekday, but the first people I ran into were the Hunter Killer members.
Yu-bin looked at me with wary eyes, and honestly, it stung a little every time I received such a look from my girlfriend. But since I couldn’t reveal my identity, I had no choice but to accept it as my karma.
Unable to speak, I couldn’t ask why I was there or where the Hunter Killer members were going. I just stood there, sweating nervously behind my helmet, unable to answer their questions.
“Are you causing trouble here?”
“Dressed in a suit while pretending to be here for leisure. It’s suspicious no matter how you look at it.”
Yu-bin and Yu-ra alternated speculating about why I was there, and when I turned my eyes away from their piercing gazes, I met Ha-yeong’s wary eyes. Had she always looked at Spacetroe with such sharp eyes from behind her helmet?
Receiving Ha-yeong’s piercing gaze hurt twice as much as Yu-bin’s and Yu-ra’s. It made me feel like I was really doing something bad.
“…Should we take off his helmet?”
At Su-a’s bombshell statement, I hurriedly turned my head and stepped back. If they found out I was meeting with all of them simultaneously, the situation would spiral out of control. If my Spacetroe identity was revealed here, it would become absolutely irrecoverable.
“Isn’t that a bit much? He’ll probably dislike it if we try to take his helmet off.”
“I was just saying. Who would be interested in these guys individually anyway?”
I felt relieved by Green’s words, and Su-a’s casual dismissal calmed me down a bit. But my relief was short-lived as Yu-ra, who had approached me unnoticed, glared.
“What are you doing? You can at least express it with your body, can’t you?”
I desperately shook my head, indicating I wasn’t doing anything. Normally, I would deserve such scrutiny from them, but had I become accustomed to their kindness? I couldn’t adjust at all.
As I shook my head in response to Yu-ra’s question, I turned my head at a presence I felt in the distance. The Hunter Killer members seemed to have sensed it too, as they all turned their attention to the woods at once. Recognizing the training scenario, I confirmed the presence first and identified it as the mock combat opponents moving through the forest, ascending the mountain.
It was a situation that required reporting, but I was speechless, my voice sealed away. The Hunter Killer members’ eyes turned back to me again.
“What was that just now? You said you weren’t doing anything? What is Spacetroe doing here?”
Yu-bin asked me in a sharp voice, but realizing again that I couldn’t answer, she gave up on getting a response.
“What should we do?”
“We can’t fight now, even if it’s something strange.”
Ha-yeong gave a fundamental answer to Yu-bin’s question. As she said, fighting outside the scheduled duels was prohibited. It seemed like a simple rule that could be easily broken, but surprisingly, it carried significant weight, and all duels around the world took place strictly according to schedule.
“But we can’t just ignore it.”
Yu-bin’s suspicion was justified. It was strange that Spacetroe was present in a group at a vacation spot. We had enjoyed sports together, but the time for free play had ended yesterday, and from today, we were back to our original roles as Spacetroe and Hunter Killer.
Therefore, it was understandable for them to be suspicious of a Spacetroe soldier in a suit on a mountain path. If only I could speak, I would have explained the situation clearly and sent them away. While I wasn’t supposed to speak to prevent personal information leaks, it wasn’t absolute. There were times when speaking was necessary, and there were actually cases where we spoke to control civilians present during scheduled duels.
However, the biggest problem was that the people in front of me were Hunter Killer. As an individual Spacetroe soldier, I could speak and send them away. But as “A,” as a person, it was impossible. It would be difficult for them to identify me based solely on the suit and the voice from inside the helmet, but I couldn’t leave any room for doubt.
If my identity were to be exposed, I wanted it to be through my own volition someday. That way, I felt I could prepare myself for the consequences I would face.
Naturally, things don’t always go as planned. My identity could be revealed in an entirely unexpected situation. But the current situation was one where I could avoid it if I didn’t create an opening myself.
So, what I had to do was desperately persuade them to leave and then report the movements of the mock combat opponents I had just spotted to my colleagues.
And so, an unexpected game of charades began.
“What?”
I desperately gestured to indicate that I was yesterday’s referee.
“What? Today? Now?”
I placed my hand on the spot, indicating the current location, and Yu-bin started guessing.
I then moved my arms widely, trying my best to physically express that it was yesterday, not today, a different time.
“Next? Before?”
“Yesterday, no?”
As Yu-bin guessed, Green added a comment from the side, and I pointed to her, indicating that yesterday was correct. I then mimed a shirt on my body and made the referee gesture, and this time, Yu-ra got the answer right.
“Yesterday’s referee?”
Glad that my intention was getting across, I made a large circle with my arms.
“How can you confirm he was yesterday’s referee?”
Since all Spacetroe wore identical suits, it was impossible to identify individuals while suited up. As Su-a said, there was no way to definitively prove I was yesterday’s referee. But Yu-ra shook her head.
“He’s probably right. His build is similar to my boyfriend’s, so I looked closely yesterday.”
“!!!”
I froze in surprise at her words. Of course, our builds would be similar since we were the same person, but my physique wasn’t particularly unique. It was a common build, so why was she looking at me?
“You were looking?”
“Yes. His shirt looked nice, so I was thinking of getting him a similar one.”
The tension subsided, knowing she hadn’t been overly suspicious. I made a mental note to definitely wear it if Yu-ra bought me a Hawaiian shirt.
Feeling relieved, I started gesturing again.
I acted out having fun yesterday, and the members guessed correctly. Now I had to express that I had Spacetroe organizational duties today, but this was rather difficult.
“Today, you guys. What are you doing?”
“What are we doing?”
Still, the perceptive members correctly guessed that we were doing something. I mimed running, crawling, and fighting, then gestured as if an officer was grading the performance.
“Moving and fighting?”
“Physical…test?”
“Grading?”
Ha-yeong correctly guessed “grading,” and I drew a large circle with my arm.
“It seems like they’re evaluating something.”
“Is it similar to how we calculate performance statistics?”
Since intervening and fighting was impossible in the first place, the Hunter Killer members, who had intended only to figure out what was going on, seemed to accept the situation after confirming that Spacetroe had organizational duties here. They nodded in understanding.
“I guess so.”
Although they hadn’t completely dropped their suspicious gazes, they couldn’t take any decisive action, so they kept a slight distance and prepared to leave.
“It’s really hard to tell them apart. Even though we duel every time.”
“Really? I can tell a few of them apart.”
“How?”
“There are just people with similar movements every time. He’s probably one of the people we duel.”
Yu-bin’s sharp analysis made my heart sink again. Even if we all wore the same suits and helmets, it seemed possible to distinguish individuals by observing similar movements from the same opponents every week. From the way I had explained things physically just now, which likely shared some similarities with my combat movements, she had instantly figured out I was one of her regular opponents.
The problem was that her analysis might not stop here but could extend to me in everyday life, and I felt I should be careful for a while.
“Let’s go. There’s nothing we can do about it now, and we’re on vacation.”
One of the reasons I wanted the Hunter Killer members to leave quickly was that I wanted them to enjoy their vacation since it wasn’t a big deal. While it was one of the two annual training periods, I no longer felt anything unusual about the training we’d been doing for so long. It was practically a skills assessment rather than training, so there was nothing for them to worry about.
It couldn’t be helped if they were wary due to our differing perspectives, but I still didn’t want them to waste their precious vacation time on something they didn’t need to worry about.
“Let’s do that.”
With Yu-bin’s reply, the Hunter Killer members, while still observing me, went on their way. I didn’t know why they had come this way, but I felt a little relieved that they were leaving for now, and I waited until they were far enough away that they couldn’t hear my voice.
And the moment the Hunter Killer members disappeared from sight, I activated the radio inside my helmet and reported the predicted movement path of the mock combat opponents I had spotted earlier, estimating their route.
Afterwards, I exchanged numerous reports with my colleagues, including the news that they had defeated the opponents after locating them, and the training proceeded smoothly.
After the storm had passed, my first thought wasn’t relief that the training was over.
‘I’ll have to keep going through situations like this, won’t I?’
It served as another reminder of the relationship between the Hunter Killer members and me, and a sense of unease about the future began to sprout.
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Cutting it close ain’t ya bud?😁😁😁