Divine Milking System Chapter 193 | You Weren’t Skilled, You Were Lucky

Silence fell across the room.

Belle, never one for silence, raised her hand.

"Yes, Blue Hair whose na I should know but don’t?"

"Belle Zhao." She rolled her eyes. "And it was different than the simulations. More... intense. The air felt wrong. Like it was too heavy in my lungs."

Dr. Cross nodded. "Dinsional pressure differential. Your body literally rejecting the environnt." She looked around. "Anyone else? Mr. Glasses Who Looks Perpetually Constipated?"

Jordan scowled. "Jordan Kim. The entities seed more intelligent than the simulation versions. They adapted to our tactics."

"Correct! Simulation AIs are based on observed behaviors, but they can’t replicate the true alien intelligence of fracture entities." She pointed at suddenly. "How about you, Handso New Kid I Definitely Don’t Rember Being So Fit?"

I felt heat rise to my face. "Jace Monroe. The Reaper we encountered seed to analyze our abilities and target our weakest points. It felt almost human in its tactics."

Dr. Cross’s smile faltered slightly. "Reapers. Nasty business. Higher-functioning than most entities. So researchers believe they retain mories from previous incursions."

She tapped her lectern again, and the screen changed to show a monstrous humanoid figure with too-long limbs and a split face. Several students gasped.

"This is a Tier III Reaper, captured on cara during a Tokyo gate incident last year. Only one hunter on the team survived, and that was because the Reaper let him go. We don’t know why."

The room grew quiet. Dr. Cross let the silence hang for a mont before clearing her throat.

"So! Anomalous gates. Let’s start with Void Gates – tears in reality that appear as Tier I or II on sensors but contain much higher threats inside. They’re characterized by their dark appearance, lacking the typical luminescence."

She continued her lecture, describing various gate anomalies – Flux Gates that changed properties during clearing operations, Echo Gates that looped hunters through the sa environnts repeatedly, and Nested Gates that contained smaller gates inside their fracture spaces.

I took notes diligently, recognizing that this information could literally save my life soday. Beside , Belle doodled in her notebook while Jordan wrote down every word like it might be on an exam. Naomi’s notes were organized with color coding, and Misato simply stared ahead, likely recording everything ntally.

"Now, here’s the real kicker," Dr. Cross said, pausing for dramatic effect. "The FGRA claims they can accurately classify about 97% of gates. That remaining 3%? That’s where hunters disappear."

She walked to the edge of the stage. "Let’s do a little reality check. You’ve all been through the simulators. You’ve run the training scenarios. So of you have now experienced an actual gate. So tell honestly – was it easier or harder than you expected?"

Hands rose tentatively around the room.

Dr. Cross pointed to a muscular Amber student in the back. "Mr. Protein Shake?"

"Uh, it was pretty much what I expected. Hard, but doable with proper teamwork."

She nodded, then pointed to Maria, the Elite Ten mber. "Ms. Santos?"

"More difficult. The ntal pressure was sothing the simulations don’t replicate well. The feeling of being watched by sothing inhuman."

"Good observation." Dr. Cross pointed to a short Obsidian girl with glasses. "Ms. Overthinking Everything?"

"Tina Lee. And honestly? Our gate seed easier than the simulations. The entities were stronger but less nurous."

Several students nodded in agreent.

An Amber boy near the front raised his hand without being called on. "Yeah, I thought it was going to be way worse. The simulations are designed to break us, but real gates are manageable if you know what you’re doing."

Dr. Cross stopped moving. The playful warmth that had filled the room a mont ago vanished like soone had flipped a switch.

"What did you just say?"

The boy went pale. "I... I just ant the Tier I gate our squad cleared last week wasn’t as bad as—"

"Not as bad." Each word ca out flat and precise. Dr. Cross walked down the steps toward him, her heels hitting each stone with asured rhythm. Click. Click. Click. "Manageable." She stopped right in front of his desk. "Easy."

Nobody breathed.

"Your na." Not a question.

"D-Damien Porter."

She looked at him for three long seconds. Then she placed both palms flat on his desk and leaned forward.

"Well, Damien Porter, allow to clarify sothing." She placed her palms flat on his desk, eyes locked on his face. "Gates are extinction-level events wearing the mask of routine missions. They’re dinsional fractures that permit entry to things that violate every rule our reality is built on. Since the first recorded appearance, they’ve claid thirty thousand hunter lives. Conservative estimate."

She straightened. Her gaze didn’t leave his face.

"Last year, six Diamond-rank professionals entered what the sensors tagged as Tier IV. Combined field experience north of a hundred years. Equipnt worth more than this building. Every contingency planned."

Silence filled every corner of the amphitheater.

"Three minutes after breach entry, the Gate collapsed. Recovery teams found nothing. Not bodies. Not gear. Not even the standard residue pattern you get from complete biological breakdown. They were erased."

Her gaze swept the lecture hall. "And you, a first-year student who cleared one single Tier I gate with your squad, think gates are easy?"

She walked back to the front of the room, her posture perfect, her movents precise like a predator.

"You’re alive right now because you got lucky. Not skilled. Lucky." She looked each student in the eye as she spoke. "That luck will run out. Probably sooner than you think."

She pressed a button on her lectern, and the screen behind her changed to show statistics. Death rates by year, by tier, by hunter rank.

Dr. Cross let the numbers speak for themselves. Her smile returned but the warmth was gone. What was left belonged to soone who counted corpses instead of victories.

"Still confident about your future, Mr. Porter?"

"N-no, ma’am."

"Smart." She turned away from him, addressing the entire class now. "The instant you convince yourself you’ve figured gates out is the sa instant you write your own death certificate."

She tapped another key. The screen cycled to individual case studies. Nas, photos, final operational reports.

"These hunters thought they understood the rules. They learned different."

The images changed. Each one showed soone young. Soone who probably sat in this exact lecture hall once. Soone who believed they’d be the exception.

"You want to survive?" Dr. Cross walked between the rows again, her voice carrying clearly. "Accept that you know nothing. Accept that every gate is a gamble. Accept that the only thing separating you from the recovery bag is luck and preparation, in that order."

She stopped at the front of the room.

"Your first gate was a success. Congratulations. You beat the tutorial level." Her expression went flat. "Now cos the part where the ga stops holding your hand."