This Is Not the Life That I Imagined

"The next one is a bit different from the rest. You may need to use your other tools while activating the Holographic-Projection to reconstruct events or visualize the scenes." Professor Ada voice reached John, who had a look of confusion on his face.

 "And how do I activate more than one tool at once?"

"Good question; it is a weird approach, but they decided to program it that way. After opening the Holographic Projection, blink four times quickly to access the functions menu. Then, focus on the tool you want to use, and blink four times instead of two. This will allow you to activate two functions at once."

"That's a lot of blinking!" John slapped his forehead in dismay from all these blinking actions.

"You can make shortcuts later by adding a gesture. For now, be ready for the simulation."

John nodded. "Alright, I'm ready. What's the scenario?"

"You'll be placed at a scene involving two deceased mutant animals. Your goal is to reconstruct the events leading to their deaths using the Holographic-Projection. Remember, every detail matters."

"Understood!" John took a deep breath, preparing himself for the task ahead.

"The simulation will begin in three... two... one."

As the room dissolved around him, John found himself standing in a dimly lit clearing in a forest, where the bodies of two mutant animals lay motionless on the ground. Their once-vibrant colors were dulled, and the area was eerily silent.

Concentrating on the Holographic-Projection then blinking twice, instantly, images began to overlay in his vision. Before it broke, then a message was displayed:

(Gather data for reconstruction).

It flickered twice before disappearing. "Okay. Now which tool should I pick?" John muttered as he surveyed the surroundings.

The scene is unsettling with signs of a struggle—claw marks on trees, disturbed earth, and traces of blood.

John starts by using the Chemical-Analysis Sensors to identify the blood. As he began using another tool with the Holographic-Projection it changed and became a small icon at the left side of John's vision.

John walked close to the blood and concentrated. The faint overlay highlighted the blood and began to analyze it. "What is this? ... Three different kinds of blood! Two belong to the dead beasts and... a human?!"

He identified different kinds of fluid at the scene. Then, he changed Chemical Analysis for AR to collecting data about the disturbed earth and the claw marks.

After it was done, he switched AR for data harvesting to see if he could get any new data. There was a missing notice in the news, nothing more.

After double checking for any clues that he might have missed, John shifted his eyes and focused on the left side and the Holographic interference shown again.

 (Begin Reconstruction…)

Suddenly, John's field of vision filled with many lines as they began to arrange themselves in a specific pattern. Then a scene started playing as if what happened was happening one more time.

It showed one of the mutant animals was gnawing on a human arm. Then the other best came and wanted to steal the meat, so the fight erupted.

The second creature lunged, fangs bared, and the two engaged in a vicious battle over the grisly prize. The violence was swift and brutal, ending with both mutants lying in pools of each other's blood.

The forest faded away as the room returned to its normal state. John exhaled a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"Well done once more, John." Professor Ada said, with her smile of approval. "But we are not done yet. The last one is pretty easy to use. The simulation will start in three... two... one."

"Let's finish what we started." John changed the function to Energy-Sensors as the surroundings changed to a desolate land.

The Energy sensor overlay was pretty basic. On the side of his vision, it stated the energy it was detecting. As he continued, the energy sensor had a sudden alert about a sudden spike in the surrounding energy.

A small arrow appeared in John's vision as it pointed to the source of the energy. Moving in the arrow direction, he encountered a dungeon entrance.

The environment faded away, signaling the end of the simulation. John blinked three times, deactivating the Energy sensor. Then he deactivated his talent and turned off the Smart Lenses from his watch.

"How do you feel now?" Professor Ada asked, her voice filled with curiosity.

"Like I've just been through a mental workout," John admitted, rubbing his temples.

A mechanical arm took the device that could make him mimic movement to move in the simulation, then the chair adjusted before taking John out.

Standing up, he stretched while asking, "I got a pretty good idea of how the Smart-Lenses work. what now?"

"Did you start weapon training?" Professor inquired.

"Yeah, just started."

"Which weapon did you choose?"

"I chose a bow considering I have a melee weapon already."

"good choice. In the next two days, you can come here for one hour in the morning for studying. Continue your basic training and archery. The simulating room in the training ground is better than here. Continue to train using the Smart lenses in there. You will have a solo mission next week."

"Solo mission! Isn't it too soon!?" John became nervous all of a sudden when he heard of a solo mission.

"As long as you train seriously, you will be fine. We are short of manpower these days and need everyone to do their best. Now go and train." Professor Shooed John out of her office as soon as she finished talking.

John walked to the training ground while feeling a mix of pressure, apprehension, and determination to improve.

A weak passed in blink as John dove into his training. He was improving every day. And he learned from Professor Ada how to make shortcuts for his Smart lenses.

When he put his right hand in front of his eyes and mimicked binoculars, then blinks twice fast, it would activate the Night-Vision function.

If he wanted to start AR function, he would make a triangle with his hands, then blink twice quickly. If he wanted to start Chemical-Analysis, he would make a "C" letter with his index and thumb fingers before blinking twice quickly. He didn't assign any more shortcuts.

John's archery training went more than well, as he could hit stationary targets from 100 meters and moving targets from 50 meters.

His attributes changed from:

(STR:12. AGL:10. FLX:9.5. VIT:12. INT:11.)

To

(STR:13. AGL:11. FLX:10.5. VIT:12.5. INT:12.)

He talked to Evelyn, asking her to make a bow and arrows for him. And he discovered that he got points after finishing the last mission, and these points, beside the salary, are used as internal currency in the Bureau of Metaphysics investigation and can be used to purchase items.

Evelyn was pretty efficient, as the bow and a back quiver were delivered to him the second day. So, he had a time to get used to it.

Today would be the day when his solo mission would be issued. "Good afternoon, professor." John greeted Professor Ada from his watch while sitting on his bed.

"Good afternoon, John. I hope you had enough rest in the morning, as you will receive a mission notification soon. Do you feel ready?" Professor Ada asked with care in her voice.

"I'm a little nervous, but I think I'm ready." John replied with confidence.

"Good. After finishing the task, notify me." The call ended, and then John began filling his backpack and putting on his gear.

Ding! Ding!

He looked at the mission notification on his watch with a solemn face.

(Mission description:

 Suspicious activity was spotted near Inron City Forest. Five disappearance cases in the past week around the area.

Mission objective:

Scout the place and find what happened. If a threat was discovered, determine its strength and eliminate it if possible. If anyone was still alive, rescue them and bring them back to BMI.)