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.

to further divide the line between the 'competent' and 'incompetent' students. This was so that he could exploit the feeble mentality of those who were being

easily lure students into making a pact with a demon,

turn this test into

Thibaut could fabricate a couple of scenarios where some talented individuals

building a grudge against an incredibly talented student, like

hundred's challenged Kevin and lost miserably, their pride would cause them to build

right away, but certain prideful and arrogant individuals would of course

and they slowly realize the gap between themselves and Kevin's overwhelming talent, they fall

reached this point, professor Thibaut would finally make his

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

test was

trying to get a grasp of my current

cheat, and thus

trees...I should be on the east side of

the mountains, while Emma is on the south side where the desert is located...Melissa and Amanda should both be on the west side near the

good grasp of the main character's locations, I started

I was obsessed with them, no, rather it's because all the events that will

them, but not what will happen to me, as I have never written anything outside of the scope of the

I managed to get a good grasp on what the protagonists were up to, I could

1 hour, while it does sound easy, excluding the high-ranking students, strong simulations of beasts will be roaming the map preventing me from staying

that the professor

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

try to develop survival skills for situations where

protagonist will spend the first 20 minutes trying to get a good grasp of his surroundings before making his way towards the middle

but they then decide

to make my way towards the center where a large

head I

going to gather at the

I had were to either

me with two

reuniting with my group, or complete a hidden task so that

of interacting with Arnold pisses me off. Moreover

the center, and if I follow him there, he won't kill me, but he'll definitely find

As for the rest?

slightest idea of where they could

this leaves me

Complete the hidden task.

One in the north, south, east, west, and center of the

sense that the goal of each task was different, moreover, the difficulty of the task should be something that a rank 1750 like me couldn't hope to

that is if I was really rank

rank 1750, I

where I

have a clue as to

nothing about this place. Apart from the fact that this was a forest-type terrain and that there was a hidden task

harden myself and aimlessly walk to where I thought the

where the hidden tasks could

has died -

I estimated the hidden task was located, I saw a notification once again emerge on the corner of my view, prompting me to

were ignoring me because of

our team having more than 2-3 points which would put

someone like Arnold, this could be considered a humiliating score, which will result in more troublesome situations where I would have

I really don't want to involve myself

could come as a consequence of my actions. Moreover, if he really wanted

that were to

I knew many ways to get rid of some stray dogs that didn't know