Chapter 378: Addict.

Chapter 378: Addict.


The worst trap in the simulation was the spawning enemy. They appeared out of nowhere and always had a weapon ready to fire. After dying to them more times than he had bothered to count, Dante developed the ability to sense their presence, keeping his acceleration active just so he could evade the point blank shot that always got him.


With his head tilted away from the pistol that had been pointed at his head, Dante remained momentarily frozen before his eyes regained focus, and he glared at the fully geared soldier attempting to adjust his aim. With his perception and motor functions still enhanced, Dante grabbed the pistol, ripping it off the man’s hands as he got up.


He took aim just and squeezed the trigger. He then lowered his hand and squeezed it again and again and again. When he slowed his perception down to normal speeds, he saw the soldier get shot in multiple places at the same time, staggering backward before tumbling down. Sadly, said soldier was nothing but an virtual character created for the simulation, so killing him didn’t feel anywhere near satisfying.


BEBEEEEEP


A loud whistle echoed just as Dante was about to start running again, and a screen popped up in front of him.


[


TIME OUT!


You have failed Simulation No. 129


]


"DAMN IT!!!"


Dante raised his arms in the air and screamed at the top of his lungs. Collapsing to his knees, he began pounding the ground furiously, cursing ll the while.


[You don yet?]


Larry’s voice came just as he began to calm down, accidentally reigniting Dante’ rage.


"One more time!"He jumped to his feet and rushed back toward the start of the course, but world was suddenly swallowed by darkness, and a moment later, he found himself staring at a white ceiling.


"Nope, that was the last one."


The lanky doctor had tore the VR headset off his head and was looking down at him with unfiltered disgust.


"C’mon, man! Just one more time!" Dante cried.


"Cut it out already." Larry turned away. "Never took you for the type to get addicted to stuff like this."


"The hell do you mean addicted! This is just training!"


"Then get your own equipment and train all you want. Or don’t. It’s probably for the best if you avoided this stuff."


Two weeks had passed since the surgery. Despite having healed completely a few days ago, Dante had yet to leave the Workshop, and he still adamant on denying the true reason. Anyone looking could tell he got addicted to the simulation. He spent all his time jacked to Larry’s exocore, going through the simulations again and again until he mastered them.


He skipped meals, sleep, and even IRL exercise in order to maximize the time he could spend challenging the simulation, ignoring the mental strain he was putting his mind through. At first, Larry thought nothing of it, believing he would get bored once he finished all the challenges. He had underestimated the simulation, however, and watching Dante’s progression grind to a halt, Larry knew he couldn’t tolerate the matter any longer.


"Damn that son of a bitch!" Dante cried. "If it wasn’t for him, I would have made it by now!"


"I don’t see why you’re so insistent on going through with this. The scenarios in those simulations are far from realistic."


Beyond Simulation No. 100, the situation each simulation included became increasingly ridiculous. The traps are triggered so close to each other that it become nearly impossible to successfully evade most of them if the same scenario were to play out in real life.


Not that one would encounter such things in reality. The simulations were designed to train the perception and reflexes of the user, and because of that, each had more than one way to complete them. Things would have been entirely different if the goal was to prevent the user from progressing.


"I just wanted to finish it..."


Simmering down, Dante closed his aching eyes and relaxed his chair for a while.


’Volcan, eject.’


[Right away.]


Feeling his limbs move again, Dante reached for the back of his neck as he stood up and pulled the cables connected to his port. The faint that followed the insertion and ejection no longer bothered him as much. He guessed it would only take a couple more weeks before it becomes something he no longer pays attention to.


"Don’t you need to start on your new gig soon?" Larry asked. "Or... what? Don’t tell me you’re so loaded that you don’t need to work anymore."


"Not... really." Dante sighed. "I already told you about the trouble I got into, right? I needed to lie low for a while."


Nothing in what he heard from Rose and the others suggested that the Daggers had sent people to search for Finn, but according to Viktor, they were looking for the two men Dante had imprisoned a while back, both of whom had suffocated while he was in the coma that followed his brain surgery.


In other words, it seemed like it was safe to wander outside once more. Dante wasn’t in a hurry, however.


"Well, I won’t say I don’t sympathise with you, but you better go lie low somewhere else." Said Larry. "I want to close your tab already. The Clinic had been closed all this time. I haven’t made anything while taking care of your ass."


Dante clicked his tongue.


"You could have left anytime, you know? It’s not like I needed constant monitoring."


"Of course you did. These are experimental neural implants we’re talking about, and one that has been upgraded through some magical process. There is no way to know what could have happened."


"... you just want to charge me more for the after care, right?"


"Of course." Larry scuffed. "As of now, your total is five million, six hundred fifty two thousand Gold. I’m adding a thousand Gold for each hour I have to look after you."


"Five-"


Dante choked on his own words and almost collapsed to the floor.


"This is a brain surgery we’re talking about, kid." Said the doctor. "Of course it would cost at least that much."