Gaston continued instructing Yumina until the last slide of his presentation. Disconnecting his device from the projector, he switched off the connector, he then said. “Since we’re done with the orientation, at least the first part of it. I have to make sure that your records are kept straight.”

Gaston held up a hand. “The first thing is your marksmanship skills. Now, I know that they have footage of you in action during the defense of Tokyo bay. Think nothing of this other than another formal test,” he brought something up in his AR-module. It was her record that was rather outdated. Since the consortium would ask him to reevaluate her skills sooner or later. He might as well do this now. “Then we must reevaluate your Breaker abilities.”

“My breaker abilities? What does that mean, Gaston-san?”

“It means that your grade is going to be reevaluated,” Gaston thought for a moment that she didn’t understand what he meant for a second. “Think of it as a double-check of your abilities. Sometimes the fluctuations of the ichor running in your body could change, causing changes in your bioenergy. Since you’ve officially become licensed, your record should still be up to date. Thing is, ever since the trouble in the States where there were syndromes of people turning into mutates. The Consortium wants an update of your records. Don’t worry, everyone has to do this, I’m just making you do this now while we have time.”

“That should be in Vermont, right?” her voice has become rather amiable. Gaston came to realize that this silly girl was rather friendly. Though he had thought she was a delinquent when she rudely didn’t greet Ayumi and him. He came to realize that she was probably just nervous when they met on the first day.

“There were multiple split-realm openings. It caused a simultaneous chain reaction that made the ichor in the area cross a critical state. Once it reached a certain state, the effect caused a bioreaction that turned the citizens in the area into mutates. Thankfully, there were multiple Breakers in the area of Vermont, hunting down a Type-3. They also meet multiple BRAWLER-Types and HUNTER-Types which have made the situation complicated for the citizens.”

“So why the mutation?”

“Hmm, have you been educated with regards to how many units there are when there is a SPAWNING?”

“I have.”

“Vermont was met with five Creature Corps. That should be about one hundred fifty thousand creatures in Vermont and we aren’t counting the people who mutated after inhaling impure ichor that we might as well call miasma. The event took four days to contain, and by the time it was over. About two hundred breakers were suffering from Corrosion Syndrome. Some even turned into New Mutates or Subhumans. America has quite the number of Independent Breakers, and though many are not attached to Companies that cater to their needs. There are a few who didn’t have their ichor’s bioenergy measured, causing them to suddenly turn into half mutates, causing them injury and harm, which intervened the AETF and the Otherside Research Intuition into a must. Because of this, it is advised that every breaker will have to display their ichor’s bioenergy levels every time they are deployed or at least send their data to the nearest Consortium for evaluation.”

“I see. So all I have to do is to release my bioenergy for a moment, right?”

Gaston nodded. “We should do this so we can take the day off.”

The two went out of the room. There were returning employees who crowded the hallways. Seeing the pin on Gaston and the rookie. None of them barred his way or acted like juveniles wary of someone who entered their territory. Although the Babaika Lions were rather informal because of the attitude of their Commander and Captains. They didn’t let go of their professionalism which made working with them rather comfortable. Even Boris acted like a gentle giant to him, then again, it was probably why someone would join this company. A company made by eccentrics would attract the same flock.

The shooting range inside the base was constructed with poured concrete, and the floors are smooth reinforced concrete that was somewhat slanted up the shooting targets. The farthest target was 50m away from the firing lanes. Most of the panels were empty and no souls were hanging around except for the operator of the control booth who was also the quartermaster.

“Oh, Rookie, and Adjutant,” the man thumped Gaston’s shoulder. He raised his lips, curling them into a smile. “Ah, orientations are always good, yes, yes, you’ve come here to evaluate the Rookie, no? Bah, where are my manners? Yasha Baranov, Quartermaster of the Babaika Company’s Japan Branch.”

“Gaston Hardy,” he greeted back with a thin smile. “I need Yumina here to do full auto. I assume that you have both targets? Give her the fastest and if possible, I would like to test her reflex.”

“Aye, full controlled auto, and reflex test it is then,” Yasha bobbed his head. He walked back to the armory and manipulated the entrance to the armory. The armory and the indoor shooting range were connected. The armory revealed T1 to T3 gear that is commonly used by the troops. FN-SCAR variants were common gear because of how many mods you attached to it now and that these were modified.

Yasha lugged the supply cache out, closed the armory, and carried it to the firing line. “I usually would smack someone’s head when they ask if they could go full auto in the building, but I shall make an exception since the Adjutant wants to give the newcomer a reflex test. Lass, you will be shooting down targets that imitate the movements of the HUNTER-class. I ain’t going to joke about this, but this concerns your life, and I’ve seen enough Breakers take this too lightly. Hmm, I don’t need you to tell me how a gun works, now, no?”

Yumina took the rifle. She checked the sights, zeroed it in, and then manhandled it to get a feel of the grip and the weight of the weapon. Yasha walked back to the control booth and spoke on the intercom. “Fire test shots, lassy.”

Yumina moved next to the firing line. She looked down at her sights and shot the targets that appeared. Gaston nodded at the sight of her superhuman strength easing the recoil of her shots. Every target that appeared was shot right in the mark. After emptying a magazine, she placed the FN-SCAR variant back on the cache.

“Let’s switch to your multi-functional weapon,” Gaston instructed. Yumina reached out to the pack on her waist, then unsheathed her MF-gear, deploying it to its gun-form.

Her MF-gear’s gun form was similar to a Hei Rifle. The gun-form fires plasma rounds instead of ballistics. She checked her MF-gear, adjusted the switch, and turned the safety off. “That reminds me, Gaston-san. Do I have to do a combat simulation as well?”

Gaston brought up his wrist pad, looked at the time, and then craned his neck to Yasha. “Do you have a facility like that?”

“Of course,” Yasha’s tone felt like he was insulted. “It is stated in the regulations lately that we must have one. It is the size of a basketball court, it’s just next to us.”

Gaston nodded. “Nano-forges are truly a blessing.”

“Isn’t it? Creating facilities like this would take years before those, but our advancement in technology is truly astonishing, no? I used to own those cellular phones, and now we use these things like this. Aiya, look at me, trying to feel so old.”

Yasha should be nearing his fifties. Gaston was only in his mid-twenties, but he did experience using those old phones which had buttons on them. One of those phones was even legendary for its quality. But he didn’t have an interest in phones, and recently he didn’t carry one and just relied on his wrist pad and the AR-module more. Gaston sighed. He said. “We’ll have you do three rounds in a simulation room. The first two rounds are going to be the Type-class, then we’ll move to a NAMED-class. Yasha, is the simulation an augmented module?”

“It is augmented, so she might receive shocks as well when entering the simulation. The drones will hold me back, naturally, but the sting will be real.”

“Got it,” Gaston moved and signaled Yasha to start the testing. The targets appeared and unlike the previous target, they were moving around the firing range while not following any set patterns like the previous targets. Her gun-form usually would spit out the exhaust clip to vent the heat sink of her gun-form. Most of the time, she barely hit the target, and there are times she would miss. Considering that the targets were moving like speeding cheetahs, and were not letting her take it easy. Her hitting them was good enough.

“Hmm,” Gaston recorded her test results, then uploaded the results to the database of the Babaika Lions for processing. Since he was recording a member of their company, he had to go through these processes before they would send it to the Consortium. When he was at Wyoming, serving as temporary staff for a Breaker Company, he made the mistake of sending a recording to the Consortium. He was lectured because of the ‘breach in privacy’ that he didn’t dare to make the same mistake. Most of his experience in seven years had always been about avoiding said mistakes. Then again, he was one of the many Independent Associates that the Consortium and the UEDF have. It was only recently that he started caring about his work performance.

He sent the footage to the database of the Babaika Lions and made a request form to send it to the Consortium.

“Let’s move to the simulation now,” Gaston said.

Gaston was led by Yasha inside the simulation room. Yasha and Gaston stood in the control room. The control room had a lot of equipment, and many of them measured the vitals of the targeted breaker, and the status of the drones projecting the monsters. Yasha, who was preparing the simulation, warned Yumina. “Lass, I know that this is nothing but a simulation, but if you get cocky, I’d be terrible. Adjutant, shall we start?”

Gaston raised a thumb. Yasha took the mouse, operated the software installed, and accessed the simulation controls. The room behind the control room suddenly changed into a virtual environment. Before long Yumina faced the Type-class entities. She at first distanced herself from the entities, then, she swung her sword-form, cleaving the virtual entities coming at her. Yasha controlled some of the drones, making sure that they were following the behavior of the Type-class.

His eyes on the monitor showed her vitals. Gaston recorded the spikes on her ichor level. Her ‘sparticles’ were rather volatile. It would rise from low to high erratically, and the more she faced the Type-class. The more she has control over her bioenergy. The more the ichor that was running on her veins cooperated neatly with her body, her bioenergy was mostly stable.

“Bioenergy stable, her combat abilities are experienced, and she knows how to keep away from the enemy when she can,” Gaston muttered. Yasha, who was controlling the simulation, started the next round, producing HUNTER—class entities to attack her. She narrowly dodged their attacks, then initiated a counterattack. You wouldn’t think of her as a rookie, seeing how she knew how to assess her enemies, observe them, and find the best point of attack.

The industry wasn’t that old. Only decades have passed since the establishment of this system. There are many aspiring monster slayers, and there was no one who didn’t want to become one of their bodies that were compatible with the mutation. Usually, rookies would stumble about, trying to impress their evaluators, but seeing Yumina’s performance, Gaston understood a little why the Babaika Lions recruited her.

Yumina rolled to dodge the virtual entity, sprang to bounce off the walls, and then brought down her sword on the last drone. The synthesized voice announced the end of the simulation. The nano-drones then began to clean the simulation room. She walked out of the room, then sat on a resting bench, sweating, and looking at Gaston expectantly.

He had already started processing her results. He handled his wrist pad and then sent a confirmation request to the database. He faced Yumina, and said, “Your results are satisfactory, you’ll be re-graded depending on the result of your orientation. Your bioenergy and your ichor-intake are nominal so I see no problem. Hmm, good job in this orientation, Yumina.”

“Really? Thank you so much, Gaston-san!”

A smile appeared on Yumina’s face. It was a rather childish smile that gave the feeling of youth. After orientation, Gaston decided to treat her for a job well done. Yumina wanted to refuse, but after Gaston insisted, he managed to get Boris to come, the three went out of the base and decided to find a place to eat. There was no harm in getting to know them.