The Author's POV

Soon after the professor initiated the simulation, my surroundings started to change.

Thick lush trees started appearing from beneath my feet followed by soft and crumbly soil that caused my feet to slowly sink.

My visibility slowly started getting blocked by the towering trees that started sprouting from the ground at an incredible speed.

Extending my hand forward to touch a tree, I was immensely surprised by the realistic sensation that spread through my fingers. Running my hand along the tree trunk it felt like I was touching the lines and wrinkles of an old man's face. It had an uneven surface where I could feel the flaky nature of the dark exterior, that crumbled and peeled, with a crackling sound at the slightest pressure exerted by my fingers.

It almost felt like I was touching the real thing.

It didn't feel like I was touching a bunch of codes, but an actual tree.

"How intriguing..."

[Rank 1750 Ren Dover - Team points: 6]

As I was busy being mesmerized by how realistic the trees were, a notification popped up in front of me.

Seeing the notification, I quickly swiped left to discard it and fell into deep thought.

The game was simple.

Each student had one point, and every time a teammate died the team would lose a team point.

The teams that reached 0 points would then be automatically eliminated and hence lose the game.

The only way to gain points was through completing the hidden tasks available on the map.

At the end of the test, there will be a ranking list that ranks the teams in accordance with their performance.

Taking a good look at my surroundings, my teammates were nowhere in sight.

In fact, although the professor never mentioned this to us when briefing us on the rules, I already knew that everyone was going to be separated from each other.

Well, I was the one who created the scenario in the first place.

The main goal of this test was to survive for 1 hour.

Although it sounded easy, it was in fact not. If it were that easy what sort of test would this be?

The lack of information provided by the professor was intentional because this essentially meant that there was only 1 rule.

And that was to 'survive'

Each person was directly given a weapon, which was automatically given to them depending on the weapon that they had registered on the first day of the academy.

In my case, a sleek black katana rested on the side of my hips.

-Shua! -Shua!

Swinging it a couple of times to adjust myself to the weight of the sword, I nodded in satisfaction.

It feels identical to the katana provided to us by the academy.

Sheathing the katana back into the scabbard, I warily glanced towards my surroundings.

When telling us the rules, the professor never mentioned anything apart from the fact that you must survive, and the more teammates survive with you at the end of the test, the more points your team had.

He purposely left out the details in regards to killing, and because of this, the students automatically assumed that killing was allowed.

Which was his true purpose.

'competent' and 'incompetent' students. This was so that he could exploit the feeble mentality

he could easily lure students into making a pact

was to turn this test into a hunting

couple of scenarios where some talented individuals built

building a grudge against

and lost miserably, their pride would cause them to build a grudge against

up right away, but certain prideful and arrogant individuals would of course not accept their defeat and seek revenge at every

between themselves and Kevin's overwhelming talent, they fall into

reached this point, professor Thibaut would finally make

a make a pact would be made, and a new villain was

this test was full

get a

map wasn't provided to us, because I was technically a cheat, and thus knew

surrounded by trees...I should be

on top of the mountains, while Emma is on the south side where the desert is located...Melissa and Amanda should both

locations, I started

reason why I was trying to get a grasp of the main characters was not because I was

happened to them, but not what will happen to me,

get a good grasp on what the protagonists were up to, I could make a rough estimate on the timing of the events, and how

excluding the high-ranking students, strong simulations of beasts will

another thing that the professor

roughly guess that some sort of creature would be hunting them in the test, they would've never expected that the creature that was hunting them could perceive their location through their acute sense of smell, resulting in many students

that students wouldn't only focus on hiding, but actually try to develop survival

first 20 minutes trying to get a good grasp of his surroundings before

Jin, but they then decide to

make my way towards the center

I quickly discard the

definitely going to gather at the center, that's where the strong

rank were to go there, the only options I had were to either directly get killed by one

me with two

task so

Just the thought of interacting with Arnold pisses me off. Moreover just because

towards the center, and if I follow him there, he

As for the rest?

don't even have the slightest

leaves me

Complete the hidden task.

hidden tasks placed on the map. One in the north,

was different, moreover, the difficulty of the task should be

I was

regular rank 1750, I decided to head to where

where I thought it

have a clue

Apart from the fact that this was

myself and aimlessly walk to where

general idea of where the hidden tasks could be located, allowing me

William K. Johnson has died - Team

I saw a notification once again

ignoring me because

having more than 2-3

score, but for someone like Arnold, this could be considered a humiliating score, which will result in

I really don't want

things that could come as a

that

I knew many ways to get rid of some stray dogs that didn't know their place. Though,