The afternoon's battlefield maneuver training was led by Falco.
In the simulated city ruins, Cage frantically dodges various simulated attacks.
"Watch your right!" Falco's voice came through the headset. "You were ambushed here by the mimics last time."
Cage quickly rolled away, narrowly avoiding the simulated attack.
"There's been progress." Falco's voice carried a hint of approval. "At least this time you remembered to keep moving."
During a break in training, Cage asked curiously, "How do you guys always remember how I die every time?"
Rebecca happened to be passing by and chimed in, "Because the way civilian officers die is always particularly...educational."
This made Cage genuinely embarrassed.
The third training session was a weapons familiarization course.
Rebecca showed Cage around various heavy weapons, and when Cage clumsily handled a heavy machine gun, she couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Relax, it won't bite. But if you fire it like that, I can't guarantee it won't crush your balls."
She gently corrected Cage's posture: "You need to do it like this, use your waist! Looks like you used to be very popular with the bar girls."
Cage was a little overwhelmed by Rebecca's teasing. After all, he was just a civilian officer, and he couldn't stand Rebecca's style of constantly spouting dirty jokes.
——
After a day of training, Cage was so exhausted that he collapsed on a chair in the cafeteria.
Dorio pushed a high-protein meal in front of him: "Eat it all. We'll continue tomorrow."
Sasha sat down beside him with her tray and asked curiously, "Seriously, which is harder, writing propaganda or actually fighting a war?"
Cage thought for a moment, then smiled wryly and said, "It's painful to revise a work repeatedly, but now I'd rather revise a hundred pieces news."
The team members were amused.
Even Maine's synthesized voice carried a hint of amusement: "Unfortunately, in this loop, you will indeed have to repeatedly 'modify' your performance."
The training continued day after day.
Cage's body gradually adapted to the high-intensity training. Although he was still thrown around by Dorio every day, had his tactical mistakes pointed out by Falco, and was criticized by Rebecca for his weapon handling, he could feel himself improving.
During a break one day, Cage couldn't help but ask, "Why are you willing to help me like this?"
Rebecca, without looking up, wiped her plasma cannon and said, "Don't flatter yourself, Willie. We're just carrying out a mission."
But Dorio handed him a bottle of water and said calmly, "Everyone has their own starting point. The important thing is that you're willing to keep going."
Maine stood at the edge of the training field, his eyes gleaming.
He knew that the time loop could restart at any time, and these training results could be reset.
But seeing Cage go from being clumsy at the beginning to gradually becoming more skilled, and seeing the team members go from giving formal guidance to occasionally cracking jokes, he felt that these efforts were meaningful at least in this cycle.
Cage, despite complaining about how hard the training was every day, never missed a single training session.
He began to understand that these seemingly cold-blooded warriors each had their own personalities, and he began to truly believe that he might be able to break free from this cycle of death.
——
As training entered its second week, Cage had largely adapted to the daily high-intensity physical and tactical training. That morning, when he arrived at the training ground as usual, he found the two Iron Guard prototypes already activated, with Valerie and Jackie standing beside them.
"Let's change the training content today," Maine said to Cage. "You need to understand the most important firepower platforms on the battlefield."
Valerie walked toward the standard cockpit-type Iron Guard and opened the hatch below the breastplate: "Come on, Cage. Let me show you what a real war machine is like."
Cage nervously climbed the ladder and crawled into the relatively spacious standard cockpit. The cockpit was filled with various display screens and physical control sticks, completely different from what he had imagined.
"This is the model Jackie usually drives," Valerie's voice came through the internal communication system. "It uses a traditional control mode, which is more suitable for beginners to understand the basic operating principles of the Iron Guard."
Jackie added below: "First, familiarize yourself with the basic operations. Use your left hand to control balance and movement, and your right hand to operate the weapon systems. Pay attention to the energy readings and armor status on the instrument panel."
Cage carefully pushed the control stick, and Iron Guard took a heavy step. At first, his operation was very clumsy, and Iron Guard walked unsteadily, which made Rebecca, who was watching from below, laugh out loud.
"Relax, Cage," Valerie instructed. "The Iron Guard has an automatic balancing system; you don't need to overdo it."
After a morning of practice, Cage was able to get the Iron Guards to walk steadily and perform simple tactical maneuvers. The afternoon training shifted to simulated combat.
"Now, try to coordinate with the Iron Guard," Maine said from his command post. "Dorio, you're in charge of ground support. Rebecca, long-range fire support. Cage, your task is to protect the Iron Guard's flanks."
On the simulated battlefield, Cage pilots the Iron Guard, following Valerie's neural-connected Iron Guard. Dorio clears away approaching mimics on the ground, while Rebecca uses a simulated plasma cannon for long-range attacks.
"Watch the ten o'clock position," Valerie warned. "Three mimics are approaching."
Cage hurriedly switched the Iron Guard's weapon system, but due to his unfamiliarity with the operation, by the time he finished aiming, the mimic was already close to a dangerous distance.
"Too slow," Jackie pointed out over the communications channel. "In a real battlefield, this delay would be enough to damage Iron Guard."
Dorio arrived just in time and dealt with the mimics using her incendiary gauntlets. "It's your duty to protect the Iron Guard's blind spots," she said through the communicator, "to anticipate the enemy's movements."
In subsequent training sessions, Cage gradually mastered the rhythm of cooperating with the defender.
He began to learn to observe the battlefield situation, move to advantageous positions in advance, and coordinate with Dorio's ground operations and Rebecca's fire support.
"Very good," Valerie commented after a successful coordinated operation. "This time the reaction time was reduced by forty percent."
During a training break, Cage climbed out of the cockpit, his body soaked in sweat.
"How's it going, Willie?" Rebecca teased. "Much more exciting than writing, right?"
Cage wiped the sweat from his brow and gave a rare smile in return: "It's definitely more fun than sitting in the office."
In subsequent training sessions, Cage received more opportunities to practice playing as a defensive stalwart.
Sometimes it happens in a simulator, and sometimes it happens in a real training field.
He began to understand the tactical value of this heavy equipment on the battlefield and learned how to better coordinate with the Iron Guard drivers.
"Remember," Maine concluded after a training session, "the Iron Guard is not just a weapon, but a fulcrum on the battlefield. Your task is to ensure the safety of this fulcrum."