CHAPTER 58
"Okay, this is an absolute disaster." The instructor dragged his palms across his face in exasperation at what the Aspirants were all doing.
The boots, as soon as they connected with the feet of the wearer, were designed to work with intent.
All the students had to do was think of which component they needed to engage and the gear would activate.
What was left on their parts was the delicate art of control so they didn't crash; however, currently, they were all doing the exact opposite of what was required.
The training ground was a chaotic mess of confused teenagers stumbling over their own expensive equipment.
— Sir? I think my boots are broken. It's not turning on.
— Same here.
— Turn on, you damned boots!
Some Aspirants were kicking the ground repeatedly, trying to get the machinery to work, but to no avail.
In short, nobody was able to get the gear to function, and they were just trying every desperate method possible to make it work.
The silence of the machines was deafening compared to the loud complaints of the class.
Van, on the other hand, was just staring at the footwear.
His mind was spinning like a cogwheel, trying to see what crucial detail he might have missed from the demonstration.
Ray was just staring at the ground blankly, wondering what mental trigger was necessary to get the boots to activate.
Kai was rapidly tapping his own pair as if he was knocking on a door or something, hoping for a mechanical response that wouldn't come.
'I could tell them how to get it to work but I can't spoon feed them all the time; they need to think for themselves. The battlefield is unpredictable and they need to adapt,' the instructor frowned as he stared at the failed attempts at activating the boots.
He remained stationary, crossing his arms while watching the struggle.
'Think Van, think. We didn't see the instructor push any buttons when activating his boots, heck! He didn't say any magic word. In fact, he was speaking to us the entire time. So how did he get the boots to work?'
Van pondered while examining every nook and cranny of his equipment along with that of Kai, who stood three metres away.
'... He never said anything. But I could see his eyes focused as if he was concentrating… wait! Did he will the boots to activate with his mind? But how?' His eyes lit up as the theory flashed through his mind like a bolt of lightning.
"If it's true, there's no harm in trying," he muttered under his breath.
Closing his eyes, he inhaled and exhaled sharply.
Then, he focused his thoughts, visualizing the boots activating and propelling him upwards into the sky.
It didn't take more than a second for the boots to activate with a soft hum, causing all eyes to turn towards Van.
The instructor's brows knitted as a small, imperceptible smile flashed across his face.
"I…I did it! It worrrrrrrrked!" Van's words dragged on as he suddenly vaulted off the ground, shooting into the air forcefully.
The suddenness of the propulsion caught him completely off guard.
"Ahhhhhh! Daddy, mummy!"
"Have you forgotten they are dead?" Ray mocked from below in a dark chuckle as he watched his friend shooting into the air.
"Shut up, dumbass! I know, I know… someone save meeeeeee." Van began crying out as he was unable to control the boots.
His mind was failing for a moment, panic overriding his logic.
'Wait… deactivate, damn it!'
The boots obeyed instantly and soon enough, he was seen free falling from the sky at full speed.
The silence returned, replaced by the whistling of wind as he plummeted.
"Aaaaaaarg! I'm fallllllling!!!"
Ray's teeth tightened as he bent his knees, ready to explode forward to catch his friend before he hit the hard earth.
But someone beat him to it.
The instructor!
Earth wriggled beneath his feet, shooting him into the air and making him look like a surfer riding a wave of soil.
Swiftly, he caught the falling Van and then surfed back down, putting him on the ground.
The Aspirant was seen huffing and panting.
His heart was pounding hard with dread as, for a moment, he thought he was about to die.
"Mind telling the others how you got the boots to work?" The instructor asked, his voice steady despite the rescue.
"Haaa…Haaaa… just—just will it to activate with your mind. Haaa….haaa… it seems it has an advanced AI chip that is somehow connected with our mind as soon as we put the boots on."
"All we have to do is will the gear to activate and deactivate at our command, but the actual control and usage are left entirely to us," Van explained mid-pant as sweat clung to his face in shimmering beads.
For a moment, the instructor's eyes widened as he stared at the young boy, who wasn't older than fifteen, in absolute shock.
'Amazing! He deduced the mechanics of the system from just the first usage? How wonderfully vast is his brain? What an incredible asset he could become for the military.'
The moment Van finished speaking, boots whirred awake across the training field with smiles flashing across the Aspirants' faces.
Learning from Van's mistakes, they carefully willed their equipment to hover above the ground, but unfortunately, theory and practice were two different beasts entirely.
"Ack!" An Aspirant suddenly shot off from the ground and crashed back down like a failed rocket.
His face smashed into the rough earth with a painful yelp, sending a cloud of dust billowing into the air.
This was the norm as the majority were unable to get the hang of the propulsion.
While the more impatient students were now trying to emulate the instructor and perform the cool actions he did in the air, the results were consistently messy. As usual, those attempts ended in them crashing to the ground… hard!
Trisha… as aloof as ever, managed to get her gear to function as she now hovered in the air a metre over the ground, her expression remains stoic.
Kai too was now able to suspend himself in the atmosphere with a triumphant smirk on his face, enjoying the small victory.
But Ray, on the other hand, had a wide grin on his face as he analyzed the situation.
'The secret to getting this thing to fly is precise control and the distribution of even weight amongst the boots. That's why…'
He vaulted off the ground like an arrow let loose from a bow.
The next second, he halted mid-air with shocking stability. He didn't go too far like Van, neither did he remain too low like Kai and Trisha.
He was positioned above them all with one leg pointed down and the second bent the same way the instructor did during the demonstration.
"Impossible!" The instructor exclaimed in shock as he gazed up at Ray, who smirked proudly at the stunned crowd.
The next second, the boy smashed his bent leg downward, an action which forcefully rocketed him upwards as his breathing steadied.
Instantly, the left slit activated, veering his body to the right in a sharp arc.
Then he performed a graceful spin, causing his head to point toward the ground for a terrifying moment.
Everybody's mouths were agape at what they were seeing.
A flawless use of the VMS gear at just the first try? It was a feat that defied every training metric they knew.
Ray rocketed downwards with increasing velocity, and before he collided headfirst with the earth, he spun once more.
Positioning his feet downward, he deactivated the boots at the perfect interval, allowing him to land smoothly on the dirt.
He stood tall under the amazed gaze of every single soul present.
"Ho-how? Even Captain Raze— the master used a whole day to achieve this flawless level of use. So… how?" The instructor was in total shock at what he had just witnessed, his mind reeling from the display of natural talent.
Ray just shrugged nonchalantly, as if he had simply performed a basic exercise.
"I just have a pretty sharp memory. I only need to see a movement once to use it myself."
'A monster.' Kai smirked inwardly, not knowing how much closer he was to the truth about Ray's true nature.
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