The Duke's Worthless Daughter Awakens an SSS+ Guide Core

The holographic battlefield advanced into its active combat phase with a sudden flicker of light. Merianah watched quietly as the blue markers representing her platoon slipped cleanly into Utility Access Route Seven-B, disappearing entirely beneath the ruined industrial district.

Their movement remained disciplined and orderly on the screen, preserving the absolute silence she had demanded from her virtual troops. Meanwhile, immense chaos erupted across the other simulations in the arena.

Candidates who had charged blindly through the city’s main avenues found themselves pinned down and trapped almost immediately by the reactive enemy forces. Warning messages flashed relentlessly above dozens of terminals, painting the stadium in a grim red hue.

[Enemy Reinforcements Detected.]

[Ambush Initiated in Sector 4.]

[Friendly Casualties Increasing Rapidly.]

One by one, entire virtual squads disappeared from the simulated battlefield as the automated enemy overwhelmed them. A noble candidate slammed his fist against the plastic command console in sheer desperation, his face pale.

"Fall back to the starting point immediately!" he screamed at the interface.

His remaining soldiers attempted to execute a hasty retreat, only to discover that the previously collapsed suspension bridge had completely cut off their escape route. The system responded mercilessly to his tactical oversight, terminating the exercise without delay.

[Mission Status: Failed.]

Another ambitious applicant ordered his platoon to push much deeper into the volatile western district, firmly believing the civilians were still hiding inside the designated residential shelters. His digital troops breached the first reinforced building with weapons drawn, searching the dark rooms frantically.

Then they moved on to clear the second structure, and then the third, but every single location remained completely empty. Precious minutes of simulated combat time had been completely wasted searching abandoned ruins that lacked any strategic value.

Behind his advancing vanguard, heavily mechanized enemy patrols quietly closed the encirclement and cut off his logistics.

[Friendly Unit Destroyed by Enemy Armor.]

Frustrated groans and curses echoed throughout the massive arena as candidate after candidate faced sudden elimination. Colonel Serena silently observed the unfolding string of failures from her elevated vantage point on the command platform.

"They are blindly chasing the objective markers instead of reading the actual terrain," she noted quietly to her staff.

"They are foolishly allowing the battlefield to dictate their decisions rather than taking control of the situation."

The younger tactical officer standing beside her nodded grimly, adjusting his glasses as he reviewed the casualty data.

"They never once questioned why the civilians were supposedly still waiting in a highly contested frontline zone," he observed.

Serena folded her arms tightly across her chest, her expression severe.

"They accepted the initial intelligence report exactly as it was presented to them by the system," she concluded.

Far below their position, Merianah’s simulation unfolded in a completely different manner. Her small reconnaissance squad emerged cautiously from the damp maintenance tunnel directly beneath the western district.

The four stealth soldiers remained perfectly concealed inside the long shadows of a heavily damaged utility station, their sensors scanning the immediate perimeter. Merianah activated their live observation feed, shifting her perspective to their ground-level cameras.

The water purification facility appeared on her display, its reinforced concrete exterior looking completely abandoned at first glance. It featured broken windows, severely damaged piping, and no visible movement along the perimeter walls.

Several candidates on the neighboring platforms glanced toward her screen and chuckled softly among themselves.

"She picked the completely wrong location," one noble murmured, shaking his head.

"There isn’t even a single life sign showing up in that empty building."

Merianah ignored their mockery completely, keeping her absolute focus locked onto her console. She expanded the range of her advanced thermal scanner, filtering out the environmental heat from the burning structures nearby.

Several seconds passed in tense anticipation as the algorithm processed the dense concrete layers. Then, tiny clusters of distinct heat signatures began to materialize deep beneath the lower subterranean levels of the utility facility.

First one cluster appeared, then five, then twelve, and the number continued to climb rapidly as the scanner deepened its resolution. Within a moment, the counter stabilized at exactly thirty-two individuals hiding in the reinforced basement.

Immediately afterward, Team Alpha transmitted its official battlefield report directly to her primary terminal screen.

[Reconnaissance Report Received.]

[Civilian Life Signs Confirmed.]

[Estimated Survivors: 32.]

[Enemy Sector Awareness: Negative.]

Only then did Merianah issue her next set of precise operational commands to her waiting forces.

"Team Alpha, secure the lower entrance to the basement immediately," she stated clearly. "Do not engage any passing hostiles unless your position is directly discovered."

She shifted her attention toward the remaining thirty-four soldiers of the main platoon who were still waiting patiently inside the tunnel.

"Main force, advance into the facility now," she ordered, tapping the movement grid. "Utilize Formation Delta to maintain maximum defensive coverage."

The blue digital markers moved forward immediately, responding to her input without a single moment of hesitation. Unlike the frantic, erratic troop movements filling the other simulations, her soldiers advanced in disciplined silence through the underground corridor.

They performed no unnecessary firing, made no wasted motions, and left no positions exposed to the enemy’s aerial scanners. Watching the tactical display from the command deck, Colonel Serena’s expression gradually became much more serious.

"Notice something unusual about Candidate Twenty-Seven’s data," she instructed the technical crew.

The younger officer looked carefully at the telemetry displaying Merianah’s current statistics, his eyes widening as he realized what he was looking at.

"Her casualty count is still at zero." He paused, thoroughly impressed by the readout.

Serena nodded slowly, her interest in the silver-haired young woman reaching an all-time high.

"She has managed to advance farther into enemy-controlled territory than almost any other candidate in the room," the colonel emphasized.

"Yet she hasn’t lost a single soldier to a hostile ambush."

Another tactical officer nearby frowned as he looked at the lack of red casualties on her map, finding it highly unconventional.

"But she hasn’t eliminated a single enemy unit either," he countered, pointing at the pristine red markers patrolling the main streets.

"Exactly," Serena responded, her sharp eyes never leaving Merianah’s battlefield.

"Because eliminating the enemy force was never the primary mission parameters given to them."

Below them on the floor, the blue platoon quietly emerged from the underground maintenance shaft directly inside the purification facility’s basement. The civilian markers lit up one after another in bright green as the frightened survivors recognized the arriving rescue force.

A new, high-priority notification appeared across Merianah’s command screen, updating the parameters of the simulation.

[Primary Objective Updated.]

[Civilian Contact Successfully Established.]

[New Task: Escort Survivors to the Extraction Zone Safely.]

Merianah studied the new objective parameters without changing her calm expression.

"The civilian rescue operation has only just begun," she murmured to herself, her mind already calculating the return route. "The truly difficult part of leadership is getting everyone back home alive."