Cracks in the armor

You smile as you are holding the latest scimitar shotgun and pretending to be mowing down some geth. The Volus shopkeep laughs and asks, “Want to take it for a test drive? You can borrow the shooting range if it helps.”

Your eyes shimmered as you tried to be paragon with your answer, “I will take you up on our offer. Might as well give her test drive before any real action.” The shopkeep hits a button and the wall to your right starts to move to reveal a training course that you never knew existed. The Volus chuckled and said, “Have fun in there,” as you walked into the side room. You thought about putting up the shield but doubted that the simulation would cause any damage or inflict any real pain. The walls closed behind as the shotgun display turned on revealing that it was no longer in safe mode and orange polygons appeared on the other side of the to simulate enemies. You smile as you say, “Let’s give you a proper test drive~”

Being a natural vanguard, you quickly made your way forward as you wanted to see the stopping power of the shotgun. You saw the programs shooting shots at you, which they did have a physical presence of hitting your armor but like you thought it didn’t take any damage or feel any pain. You quickly zoom forward and hit the first one with a blast of the shotgun. The shotgun kick-backed into your chest as you swear you heard a crack but figured it was a sound effect of the simulation. You continue on feeling the tickling effects of the gunshots of the fake enemies, which you wished that’s how all gunshots felt in the heat of battle. You did a few more blasts of your shot gun and heard a few more cracks, this time the cracks sounding a lot more damaging. You smile as you think the gun really does seem to get more powerful with every shot.

With a few more shots and cracks of enemies going down, you get to the last one and feel the last bit of gunfire hit bare skin. You think, (That was weird…Maybe simulation has it feel like it’s touching the skin to simulate wounds.) You quickly make your way to the last one and get ready to line up a shot when he drops a grenade right at your feet. You quickly take him out but not before taking the simulated explosion. You cough as the smoke envelopes the tiny space before the air vents turn on to clear the room. The Volus shuffles into the room and says, “So how was it? I figured you would enjoy a little bit of harder comp…” He stops mid sentence as you make your way closer to him with a smile and holding tightly onto the shotgun.