The Author's POV

-Shua!

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[Rank 1750, Ren Dover, confirm access Y/N]

The helmet's display gradually illuminated, revealing rows upon rows of information. Taking a minute to adjust my mind to the sudden changes, I looked through the information and pressed Y. After confirming, abruptly, a lively jingle that felt oddly familiar began playing, echoing through my ears.

The fact that there were a lot of procedures placed when entering the virtual cabin wasn't strange. With current technology, pretending to be someone else was as easy as turning on your phone. With just some custom-made masks someone could easily make themselves look like someone else.

Fortunately, it wasn't that difficult to distinguish a villain as villains undergo several genetic modifications when making a pact with a demon. This phenomenon occurred due to the fact that the human body cannot fully adapt to the power given to them by the demons.

Imagine an empty balloon.

Now imagine yourself filling it with air. Gradually as time passes the balloon will turn round and float.

That's how the human body usually worked when their mana increased.

Now imagine the same empty balloon, but this time instead of filling it with air we fill it with water.

In contrast to the air balloon, the water balloon instead of becoming perfectly round will droop down due to the density of the water, causing its shape to change.

Now take this example into consideration and apply it to humans, where water was the energy that came from the demons.

Because of how dense the energy coming from the demons was, the weaker villain's bodies tended to undergo drastic changes in order to withstand the newly found power that entered their body.

Due to these drastic changes, a simple retina, fingerprint, and gene test could verify if one was a villain or not.

Of course, this only worked for relatively weaker villains. For stronger villains, this sort of test was useless as their bodies could contain the power given to them by the devils they made a pact with, like professor Thibaut. Fortunately, this wasn't necessarily a problem as the stronger villains didn't bother disguising themselves.

However, even though strong villains tended to avoid disguising themselves, these sorts of tests were still a necessary precaution against villains. The consequences of not checking whether someone was an imposter could potentially be disastrous. Imagine what would happen if a villain was to make its way inside of the VR capsule. He/She could potentially put all the students at risk of brain trauma if not even death.

If a villain were to suddenly gain access to the virtual equipment main control system, he/she could suddenly discharge all of the electrical power inside of the capsules, essentially turning everyone inside of the capsule brain dead.

This sort of accident occurred several times in the past, resulting in strict checks and procedures getting installed by the company creating the capsule as a result of the backlash they received from the public.

Well, what about professor Thibaut? Technically he could override the system and kill everyone present, right? Actually, he couldn't, especially since his job was extremely important.

The reason why I was not necessarily worried about him was because his primary role in the lock was to turn potential heroes into villains. He was what was called a 'manager' or an 'agent'. His main responsibility was to turn students into villains by exploiting the emotions and resentment they had towards certain individuals or the academy.

Moreover, it wasn't that easy to override the system and discharge high amounts of electricity towards the capsules. Especially if this was happening inside of the lock, where several highly ranked heroes resided. They could easily sense the abnormal accumulation of electricity making it almost impossible for this plan to work.

Plus, Professor Thibaut simply couldn't afford to perform such a high-risk maneuver to kill an individual as turning students into villains was his main priority.

If not for the fact that professor Thibaut got direct orders from the demon he made a pact with to get rid of Kevin, he would've never tried fighting him, as it wasn't his responsibility.

Just as it was not my responsibility to get rid of him. If I suddenly got rid of the mini-boss, Kevin would never go through any hardship, creating a liability for when he faced the Demon King.

Gradually the world around me started to change, and a blinding light caused me to cover my eyes.

for a couple of seconds, and recovering my bearing I found myself inside of

the room, I could see a couple of

minutes, and seeing that no one else showed up, I

total of five people excluding myself in the

was making my way towards them, some students went

K. Johnson, a pleasure to

greet me was a rather short-statured browned hair teen, with

"Rank 623 Rosaline Tluve"

Edward

956 Park Jinho, nice to

around her that made it seem like nothing interested her. Her tone was cold, giving the impression that she detested everything around her. She like me was an extra and thus I knew nothing about her, making

a serious tone. Judging from his disposition and the way he talked, I made a

probably Korean, greeted me with a modest attitude. He seemed somewhat wary of me, not sure

head to the last person, who ignored my presence since the

him that reminded people of a wild gorilla that would attack anyone at the

my head, I presented myself to

for me to actually greet him as I already knew who he was, but as to not come off as too disrespectful I made sure to at least greet him. Had I skipped over him, I might've been the target of his bullying, which I really did not want

'Rank 75, Arnold Kane'

will later be known as 'Iron Mountain Arnold' due to his iron-like defense that could

was what you called a 'Strong to the weak, and weak to the strong' type of person. A typical bully. His arrogance probably originated from the fact that he was Jin's lackey. To which I can only secretly express my disgust. You are actually proud of

to meet you, everyone, I'm Rank

"..."

the rest to process what I had said

I understood where they were coming from. I mean, 800 ranks lower than the second-lowest in the group was quite the

society where power ruled over everything else. If you were not that powerful you were looked down on by everyone. Well, this mainly applied to the lock where individuals were still young and prideful. Once they entered the real world

"Trash"

of course, Arnold, who looked at

couldn't help but lament to myself for making this

helped, it was what the readers

Fuck you, readers.

pleasure was my

quiet for now and

my rank, no one approached me, helping me avoid

can you guys hear

due to my rank reveal, professor Thibuat voice resounded across the

can hear me say

"Check"

"Check"

"Check"

"Check"

"Check"

"Check"

I will now explain the rules. Pay close

of you have entered the virtual world,

will be the

to the computer and for the most part, each group will be evenly matched. Although there are some exceptions, which I really can't

me like that! he was referring

the glares coming in my direction, I couldn't help but silently grumble

who could most likely take on a team by

Jinho, the second-lowest in the group. Well, that was if you were comparing

glared at me like that was probably because they wanted an outlet to unleash

'Immature bastards'

into a remote terrain which will be randomly generated by the

goal for today is to survive 1

awarded for those who manage to complete certain hidden

as you manage to survive for