Reincarnated as an Energy with a System

Chapter 2041: After Dinner Lessons

Naysha joined Ning for dinner that evening and, without asking where else she was supposed to sit, followed him directly to the same table he had been using since arriving at the academy.

Jason was already there.

He looked up when Ning sat down, then looked at Naysha, and for several seconds, his expression suggested that the situation had exceeded whatever explanation he was willing to construct for it.

Ning placed his tray down as though nothing unusual had happened.

Naysha did the same.

Jason glanced between them once more before asking, "Is this going to become a regular thing now?"

Ning looked at him. "Eating dinner?"

"You know that isn’t what I meant."

Naysha gave Jason a brief look but did not seem particularly interested in explaining why she was there.

Jason apparently decided he did not want the answer badly enough to continue asking. He finished the rest of his meal quietly, stood with his tray, and left without another word.

Ning watched him go.

"Do you know what’s up with him?"

Naysha shrugged. "I don’t associate with him enough to know anything about him besides his name. Though I think he’s bullied."

"That much I gathered."

Once they were alone, Ning continued eating for a short while before turning toward her.

"We need somewhere private to talk without anyone else overhearing or disturbing us. Is there a study room or training space we can use without other people listening?"

"Not at this hour unless we reserve one in advance, and most of the smaller rooms are already taken. But we can use our own rooms."

"Oh. That works too. Whose room should we use?"

Naysha thought about it. "My roommate will probably be there, but I can ask her to stay in the communal area for a while if we only need an hour or two. That is probably the closest thing I have to privacy."

Ning shook his head slightly. "It would be easier if you came to my room, then."

That made her look at him more carefully.

"And your roommate?"

"I don’t have one."

"You were assigned an entire room by yourself?"

"Temporarily. I transferred late, and everyone else had already been paired."

Naysha considered that before nodding. "That would be easier."

They finished dinner and headed toward the dormitory building afterward.

Ning’s room was quiet when they arrived, exactly as he had left it. He stepped inside first, waited for Naysha to enter, then closed the door behind them.

The moment she heard it shut, Naysha turned toward him.

"Before we start, I should make something clear."

Ning raised an eyebrow. "That sounds serious."

"It is. Do not try anything stupid just because we are alone. My helmet is recording everything in this room, including the conversation, so if you decide to take advantage of me, there will be a record of me beating you, and I will be in the right."

Ning stared at her for a second before nearly laughing.

"What exactly do you think I am going to do?"

Naysha crossed her arms. "I do not know you well enough to answer that, which is precisely why I am being careful. I have spent enough time around men in military housing to understand that assuming everyone has good intentions is a very efficient way to create problems for yourself."

Ning had to make an effort not to laugh outright.

"You should probably rein in your imagination a little. I invited you here because you asked me for piloting advice, not because I suddenly developed some elaborate plan the moment I discovered I had an empty dorm room."

Naysha did not look embarrassed.

"Good. Then neither of us has anything to worry about."

"Apparently not."

Ning gestured toward the other bed.

"Sit down and tell me what a normal simulation attempt is like for you."

Naysha shook her head. "It’s better if I show you."

She had come prepared.

She sat on the edge of the unused bed and accessed her helmet before sending a recording to the room’s display. A simulated battlefield appeared almost immediately, showing the same basic training scenario Ning had completed earlier.

"My friend recorded my last attempt from the observation feed," she explained. "It is not the best angle for everything I was doing, but it hopefully shows enough for you to discern what my issues are."

"That’s way better than just listening to you talk about it."

Ning sat across from her and started the recording.

Naysha’s simulated Mecha entered the asteroid field. Within the first minute, Ning could already see why she was scoring close to three hundred without crossing it.

Her shooting was good.

She rarely fired more than necessary, and when she did commit to an attack, most of her shots landed. She did not panic when several enemies appeared either, and her target identification was noticeably better than what Ning had seen from many of the students during the test.

Ning paused the recording.

"Your aim is not the problem."

Naysha looked toward him. "I know."

"Do you?"

"I usually finish with ammunition left unless the later sections get especially bad."

"That’s true, and you are also fairly disciplined about waiting for identification before firing, which means you are not losing many points from friendly targeting mistakes."

Naysha nodded. "Then what am I doing wrong?"

Ning resumed the recording.

Her Mecha accelerated around an asteroid, corrected too sharply when another piece of debris entered the route ahead, then burned fuel again to return toward the path she had originally wanted.

Ning paused it a second time.

"This."

Naysha frowned at the screen. "I avoided the collision."

"Yes, but you spent too much fuel doing it."

"There wasn’t enough room to continue straight."

"You did not need to continue straight."

Ning rewound several seconds.

The asteroid approached again.

"This is where the mistake actually begins. You are treating your intended route as something you need to protect, so whenever the environment pushes you away from it, you spend fuel correcting back toward the same line."

Naysha looked at the display more carefully.