Whose Weapon Is This?

The simulation had been running for a few hours, and so far... nothing had exploded. That alone was a relief.

Our team moved through a valley said to have the highest Core exposure levels in the central zone. Ryn led the way with his active field scanner, Kael covered the rear while humming a song that absolutely did not boost morale, and Nala remained Nala—silent, fast, and hyper-alert. I walked in the middle, scanning the path using a repurposed emergency tool I reprogrammed to also detect... potential nap spots.

"Der, are you listening?" Kael called back. "Ryn said there's a Core fluctuation two clicks east. We could reroute through that side."

"Check first if the area's clear of... reality traps," I replied, remembering how this zone sometimes warped when Core levels overloaded.

Before we could finish taking the alternate path, Nala suddenly raised her hand—a silent signal: stop. Ryn immediately moved into holographic cover, Kael instinctively readied his training weapon, and I… almost dropped my instant noodles.

Through the digital bushes, we saw it.

An auto-weapon unit — a light turret with target recognition system.

"Since when do simulations have turrets?" Kael whispered.

"Academy doesn't use live turrets in standard exams," Ryn replied quickly. "And look at the base… that's not academy military design."

I crept closer, inspecting it carefully. The turret frame... I recognized it. The bottom casing, even the screw placements—identical to a model I once tested and canceled due to a misfire bug.

I checked the side panel.And yep, there it was. A small label:

"AR-15C Auto Core Repeater – Dev Type, V.1.2"

My heart dropped.

It was my prototype.

"I never released this model from the lab," I muttered.

Nala looked at me sharply. "You know this weapon?"

I didn't answer right away. "If it's active and no longer in dummy mode, it might randomly shoot at anything with a body temperature over 35°C. That's... a fatal bug I never fixed."

Kael immediately hit the ground.

[Tessan – Academy Control Room]

Behind the simulation scenes, Tessan watched the control panels with a serious expression. The room was tense but quiet, filled with the hum of data transmissions and the soft pulses of surveillance systems. The main screen showed the central zone, with cadet teams moving through various regions.

One evaluator pointed at the screen."Ma'am, we've detected unauthorized device activity in the central zone. It's not part of any academy loadout."

Tessan narrowed her eyes. "Whose unit is it?"

Another evaluator typed quickly."Still investigating. Metadata shows hand-built ID, not mass production. But... Cadet Deren is currently the closest one to the device."

Tessan turned toward the live footage. Deren was inching toward a turret that had partially activated. She sighed deeply.

"Of course it's him…"

After a short pause, she said, "Maintain observation. Don't interfere… but send a recon drone. Stealth mode only. Monitor the turret's behavior."

She stood from her chair, eyes fixed on the screen."And... start drafting a special observation report for Cadet Deren. I want to know how many of these 'coincidences' can happen in one single day."

[Back in the Simulation – Reactions and Tension]

I stared at the turret for a long time, calculating the explosion risk if I touched the trigger panel.Explosion probability at this distance, with temperature and vibration factors? 13%.If the bug was still active? 76%.Not great math.

Ryn slowly took a field disruptor from his bag and handed it to me without a word. His eyes were sharp, but there was trust—either in my skills… or in his ability to drag my unconscious body away if I failed.

"You gonna try shutting it down?" Kael whispered, still crawling while clutching his snack pack.

"I'll try," I replied quietly. "If not… we run and pretend this was a shared hallucination brought on by Core exposure."

I crept closer, staying in the turret's blind spot. The disruptor in my hand emitted a rising frequency tone, enough to make the hairs on my neck stand.

A red light blinked from the turret's main sensor. Its digital eye slowly rotated.

My steps slowed.The disruptor's beeping sped up.

The turret began to shake gently—fully activating. The sensor rotated in full pattern.

"Target detected."

The targeting laser locked onto my chest.

"…Ah. Crap."

[End of Chapter – Failure or Genius?]

I had no choice.

In a split-second move, I jammed the disruptor into the debug socket hidden under the control panel. My left hand held the turret's shaking body, while my right injected an override code—an old patch I once used to force it into demo mode during early tests.

One second.Two.Three—

The turret stopped.

The red light dimmed, turned blue, then the entire system powered down. The mechanical frame whirred softly as its legs folded in, returning to standby mode.

Silence.Even the simulation's background noise seemed to fade.

Kael let out a cheer."That was AWESOME, Der! What was that—some kind of anti-mecha technique?!"

I turned to him and shrugged."I was just looking for the off switch," I said flatly, still checking my pulse.

Nala was still staring at me. Her expression unchanged, but now with a faint wrinkle on her brow—like she was trying to calculate how many bizarre "coincidences" had happened around Deren so far.

Ryn said nothing.But I could tell—by the way he looked at the deactivated turret, then at me—that he was reorganizing all the mental files he had about me.

And far above us, hidden in the fake simulation sky, Tessan's drone hovered silently, recording everything from the perfect angle. The system logged the data, movements, facial expressions, even the pulse rate on my wrist.

All of it... headed straight for the academy's main control report.