"Are you coming down or not?"
Roland loosened his grip and spoke.
Lucy finally snapped out of it. After glancing at the position she and Roland were in, she quickly flipped herself off him.
Earlier, Roland had grabbed Lucy's arm, which had resulted in her straddling him.
"Mr. Roland, what exactly is going on here?"
Lucy asked immediately after landing.
Roland glanced at her but didn't comment on her obvious attempt to change the subject.
"This is our corporation's training ground. Today, nearly a hundred people are undergoing training here,"
Roland said as he slowly stood up from the chair.
"Training?"
"Yes. From those hundred people, I'll select ten who will be guaranteed entry into the corporation's departments afterward. They'll receive even higher-level training. As for the rest, they'll stay at the training base until they meet the standards."
Roland nodded. As for eliminating the losers… human resources were still resources. Wasting them would be shameful.
Lucy nodded slightly. She was familiar with this kind of system—after all, she had gone through something similar herself. Compared to these kids, though, her experience had been far harsher.
"Then why am I here?"
Lucy suddenly thought of her own situation and looked at Roland with curiosity.
"You're sort of the boss of this mission," Roland replied after glancing at her, "but also a student."
"I'll mark the people who are considered 'hostile' to the corporation during this operation. If you run into them during training, you can take them out along the way. Of course, if you encounter insignificant ones, you can deal with them directly as well. As for the students… this is the best place for you to get a firm grip on your own power."
Lucy immediately showed a look of understanding. Indeed, this place didn't consume real-world resources or cause any actual losses, allowing her to freely test her strength. She could also clearly feel that she still hadn't fully mastered this body's power.
"Then what about you, Mr. Roland?"
Lucy asked curiously.
"Mm… more or less the same as you."
Roland shrugged. An orange ring of data wrapped around him, and in an instant, he transformed into Light's form.
"You've been modified too?!"
Lucy stared at him in shock.
In her understanding, those at the very top almost never subjected themselves to such high-level body modifications. It wasn't conducive to extending their lifespan and could even lead to other complications—not to mention various hidden concerns she wasn't fully aware of.
"There's no need to use honorifics. Just address me the same way as before,"
Roland said, waving his hand.
"As for the modifications, I still need some means of self-protection. At the very least, if something really unexpected happens, I won't be completely unable to fight back."
Roland explained calmly. In truth, he felt Light was perfectly suited to his current identity. As for why…
Because the energy shield could keep him alive, and if things went badly, he could just activate acceleration and run. In this world, Roland doubted anyone could catch Yi (Light) at full speed.
Lucy nodded.
"Then what are we doing now?"
"Let's head to the operations department,"
Roland said after a brief thought.
The two of them walked outside together. Before long, Roland spotted a familiar figure.
Lucy, on the other hand, instantly felt a strong sense of danger from that person and instinctively grew alert.
"Light, Ambition—since you're both here, let's move out. Heavenly Eye has already located those guys,"
Zed said coldly as he rose to his feet after glancing at Roland and Lucy.
Roland gave a slight nod in response, though he couldn't help feeling something was off. After all… not long ago, this person had been his subordinate. Now, somehow, he'd become his superior. The feeling was undeniably strange.
As for the state of this world—it largely resembled the PROJECT world, but Roland had made some very minor tweaks for the sake of training and stirring things up.
Lucy wasn't familiar with the situation yet, so she said nothing, simply following behind and quietly observing everyone.
Soon, a shuttle-type hovering armored vehicle arrived in front of the three of them.
Zed wasted no words and went straight inside. Roland and Lucy followed. There was no one else in the vehicle besides the three of them.
As for security robots…
Those things were only good for harassment in direct combat, and Heavenly Eye had already prepared plenty of them. There was no need to bring along extra burdens.
...
"Whew… finally made it into the inner city…"
V let out a long breath and stood there with her hands on her hips, surveying her surroundings. This place was completely different from where she'd been before—steel-cast ground, clean and orderly streets, small drones floating everywhere.
And PROJECT security robots patrolling the area.
"This feels like PROJECT Corporation's vision of the city's future…"
V muttered, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
Still, there had to be some underlying conflict here. It couldn't be a place fully controlled by PROJECT Corporation, or it wouldn't make sense as a training ground.
And precisely because of that, it felt even more real.
Meanwhile, Mibs—who had been following V—had already retreated. The reason was simple: he wasn't allowed to enter the inner city.
"This place is even more tightly controlled than Night City… and the class divide is even worse. Low-level people don't even have the right to enter the inner city,"
Mibs muttered irritably. "That girl's probably going to be a real headache… tsk, lucky bastard."
With a click of his tongue, Mibs quietly returned to his own territory. Since he was the small-time gang boss of this area, he needed to make proper use of the resources at his disposal and eliminate the other competitors as quickly as possible.
...
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