Chapter 377: Obstacle Course.
Out of the simulation, Dante had to tread carefully to confirm all that practice paid off. He moved slowly while making sure not to increase his perception, and little by little, he was able to walk around.
As he sat down to eat, no longer moving around, he decided to try his enhanced perception and data interpretation in the real world. Maybe it’s because of the difference in the amount of details, but the time slowing effect seemed far more impressive outside the simulation.
Dante understood that it’s not really time that was slowing down. His brain was just processing the data it receives much faster thanks to the help of his new MLP. Thank to the new implant, he now has the time to see things he would have normally missed, things other than the small burn marks on Larry’s white coat, or the seams in the sandwich he had brought him.
Dante felt like his doctor had switched the order of the exercises just so he could see him tumble and fall. After all, the simulation started with perception training, and if he had underwent that part first, it would have lowered the risk of him suddenly accelerating his movements without his mind keeping up with the speed.
It might just be that Larry wanted him to start walking on his own as soon as possible. Pushing a wheelchair around can get pretty annoying.
’Well, no matter...’
Next, he would be training the coordination between his enhanced perception and reflexes. Just regaining his normal range of movements will take a while, then he would have to train so he could be combat ready once more. Larry suggested that he rest for a while, stating the stating the new implants would put on his mind, but Dante didn’t want to slow down. Done with his break, Dante went right back into the simulation.
~[ ]~
Three more days have passed. Dante was starting to get used to the control of his MLP and wan now capable of running without any problems.
The next few stages of the simulation were various obstacle courses that get increasingly more difficult with each iteration. The first one was nothing more than a straight line with a few traffic cones, but after a while, the tracks became so complex they seemed like something out of those old game shows. Then there were the traps.
Be it mines, spike pits, dart launchers, spears, at some point, each of the tracks came with a few of those scattered around. To make things worse, their position was randomized, meaning they didn’t appear in the same position in each run.
The purpose of such challenges was to teach the user to activate their implants at a moment’s notice, analyze their surroundings, and evade the danger. A simple way to avoid falling for any of the traps was to keep both his perception and reflexes enhanced, but as Dante soon came to learn, doing so was just a pipe dream.
As impressive as they were, the acceleration abilities came with some rather familiar drawbacks. Simply put, using them for too long puts a significant strain on the body.
It was the expected results of pushing one’s body beyond its natural capabilities. At the moment, Dante couldn’t keep maximum acceleration active for more than a minute straight before needing to take a break. By keeping the activation time under five seconds, the mental strain decreased significantly, but the same didn’t apply for the physical kind of strain.
When he tried it outside the simulation, accelerating his movements and reflexes turned out to be much worse than Type 5-1’s instant acceleration. He wasn’t moving in a straight line in most cases, which meant he would be straining muscles he usually doesn’t rely on while running. Fortunately, that problem will be fixed once he’s a full cyborg. The same can’t be said about the mental strain, however.
~[ ]~
[Ready... GO!]
Dante kicked the ground the instant he heard the signal. The first obstacle awaiting him was only a dozen meters away—a simple track hurdle. Getting within the right range, he leaped over it with ease,
While still in the air, he head heard a faint pop in the distance, prompting him to accelerate his perception. Time slowed down to a snail’s pace, and Dante’s eyes shifted to his upper left. A pointy piece of metal was flying straight ward his head. Only a couple of meters separated them, and the bullet was still moving fast despite the time dilation.
His body was already moving by the time he decided on what to do. He tilted his head and twisted his torso, getting out of the bullets trajectory. Falling to the ground, he rolled to his feet and decelerated his perception and reflexes, returning everything to normal speed as he continued running.
Only seconds later, he felt the ground suddenly shift beneath him, so he accelerated once more. He passed the pit trap then docked under the two spears shooting toward him, pushing himself off the ground. Thinking he was in the safe, he was about to decelerate, but then another spear came flying at him from the front.
With everything around him lagging, Dante had no trouble noticing the sniper firing from a rooftop a few hundred meter away, but then three others chose the same moment to fire, forcing him to keep both his perception and reflexes enhanced, going beyond what he’s comfortable with.
Managing the speed of his observation and reactions was mentally draining. Going all out each time made it difficult to go back to normal, so Dante save that for the bullets and only accelerated a little for the other trap, reacting to them instead of almost stopping time.
Arriving at a wooden wall, he grasped one of the three rope dangling on it and began climbing. The rope suddenly loosened halfway through, showing he had picked the faulty one, which forced him to accelerate once more. He kicked the wall and reached up, barely reaching the edge and pulling himself up.
Taking a moment to catch his breath, he was about to continue running when he saw a man holding a pistol to his head forehead.
BANG!