Before Ethan could proceed to the next stage, the scenario around him changed and became black again. The door behind him suddenly opened, revealing the figure of a very angry Emily.
"You did this?" Ethan asked. "Why?"
"You dare ask why?" Emily raised her voice. "You left me talking by myself, and you ask why? At least have the decency of warning someone before ignoring them completely."
"Tsk," Ethan clicked his tongue. "Alright, I will ignore you. Now close the door and activated the simulator again."
"Don't give me orders," Emily said. "You are the newcomer here, so how about showing some respect to your veterans? I already lost the first class of the day thanks to you, and I won't lose any other."
Ethan was pretty sure that he would have to start the free mode from the stage one, so it would be a waste of time to keep ignoring Emily. She would just keep repeating the same thing over and over again. As much as he wanted to enjoy the simulator as soon as possible, Ethan would have to leave that for later.
"Fine…" Ethan sighed. "Guide me through the rooms of this place and tell me everything I need to know."
"… Did someone already tell you that you have a bad attitude?" Emily said with her face red with anger.
"Probably. I can't say that I remember the face and name of all of them," Ethan shrugged. "So, don't waste my time and hurry up."
Maybe it was his imagination, but Ethan could see a dark aura forming around Emily. Given that Ethan could feel a lot of mana concentrating around Emily, it probably wasn't his imagination. Regardless, a girl's anger wasn't something new for Ethan since he had an older sister, so he wasn't fazed by it. It would be weird if it could faze him. After all, he had the blood of millions of demons on his hands.
Emily repeated every single thing to Ethan again, and this time he paid attention to it since his evaluation of the summoned heroes' school skyrocketed thanks to the VR simulator. Still, aside from the VR, the only interesting things he could find in that area were the classes. He could apply to a number of them, such as magic, swordsmanship, and summoning techniques. The variety was great since the number of heroes increased a lot in the last few years.
The stadiums outside were like the VR simulators. Still, instead of putting the students to fight against monsters, they would be able to fight each other and even students from other countries. In fact, using the stadiums was pretty common since it was good to evaluate the level of heroes of other countries and even motivated people all over the world to train more.
"It looks like an online fighting game tournament," Ethan muttered. "I wonder how that became a thing. It doesn't matter if you saved a world or two. Pain is annoying and can be traumatizing."
"We can't really get wounded in those simulators," Emily explained. "Everything that we may experience there is just something generated by a high-level illusion spell that reacts to our thoughts. You may suffer some mental damage, but I didn't hear anyone of even fainting while using those."
"Is that so…" Ethan said. "It makes me wonder until when those mock battles go, and I assume they stop after the fighters receive just some scratches."
"The fight is over when one of the sides receives enough damage to knock them out in the real world," Emily said. "That being said, in the simulator, the pain felt is like receiving a slightly powerful liver blow."
"What if both parties wanted to fight more?" Ethan asked.
"Then both parties can kill each other somewhere else, not in the simulator," Emily said, a bit annoyed since she didn't expect that many questions. "Since you returned recently, you don't know this, but we are valuable resources of our countries. Even a weakling like you can have some use, so we can't afford to kill each other just for the thrill of a real fight."
Resources… Ethan didn't like the sound of that, but in the end, he stayed quiet about it. He was pretty sure his sister wasn't knitting for the military, and sometimes she would do dangerous things. Although it was for the sake of the world and their country, it didn't change the fact that Ethan felt that they were being used instead of being treated like real allies.
They had power and sometimes could become even more powerful, which was Ethan's case, so he could understand the feeling of the other side a little. Before being summoned, he was just a boy who liked to play games and pretty often felt jealousy and sometimes hated for those who could do things he couldn't. It was basically the same thing.
"What?" Emily asked. "You look like you didn't like what you heard, so why don't you say something?"
"Is the food around here cheap?" Ethan asked.
"Don't change the subject…" Emily sighed. "Anyway, you can find pretty much anything you want to buy in the recreation room and the cafeteria. However, sometimes, you will need to wait for a bit, and it should be just a few minutes before what you buy is teleported to you."
As weird as it sounded, those who had the wristwatches could open those screens in the walls freely and thus buy things from there. The cafeteria was just a place where the students could eat and watch the food being prepared. In any case, those things had many uses aside from monitoring the returnees.
"Most classes are divided by levels, and of course, your rank determines the classes you have access to," Emily explained while they were crossing the floor where most students were having their classes in the F zone. "You can join a course at any moment, but you can only graduate from it after passing a test, and those tests are the quickest ways to increase your rank."
Ethan wasn't even a bit interested in that. He knew more or less the path he had to walk and the things he had to do in order to recover his powers, so taking those courses seriously seemed a waste of time for him. Still, he had to consider that they might help him control his powers, mainly the magical classes.
Regardless, Ethan ended up messing the with the menus on the walls while Emily was explaining everything to him. To test what she said about buying things, he ended up buying a strawberry sundae. After receiving a certain message on his wristwatch, the sundae appeared, and it floated in front of him. Of course, that made a vein begin to pulse on Emily's forehead.
Thank you for using our services.
Your remaining balance is: $ 99.990.00
"Mmm…" Ethan said, a bit surprised. "Someone is being really generous."
"How can you eat that so early in the morning?" Emily asked. "If by seeing that you can't understand how our lives are valuable to the country, then nothing will make you understand that."
"Do you want some?" Ethan asked. "I can order one for you as a reward for showing me everything about this tower."
"No…" Emily sighed and then left. "Just don't cause problems, and that will be enough."