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.

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

he could easily lure students into making a

goal was to turn this test

Thibaut could fabricate a couple of scenarios where some

grudge against an incredibly talented student, like

Kevin and lost miserably, their pride would cause them to build a grudge against Kevin, not because he was strong, but

would choose to give up right away, but certain prideful and arrogant individuals would of

Kevin's overwhelming talent, they fall into depravity and despair at their inability

this point, professor Thibaut would finally make his

pact would be made, and a new

was full of

trying to get

and thus knew the general features of the surroundings, I

be on the east side

mountains, while Emma is on the south side where the desert is located...Melissa and

locations, I

to get a grasp of the main characters was not because I was obsessed with them, no, rather it's because all

me, as I have never written anything

to 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 to avoid

is to survive for 1 hour, while it does sound easy, excluding the high-ranking students, strong simulations of beasts will be roaming the map preventing

thing that

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,

that students wouldn't only focus on hiding, but actually try to develop survival skills for situations where they

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

Jin, but they then decide to work together when they encounter a

thus to make my way

head I

people were definitely going to gather at

only options I had were to either directly get killed by one of them or get used as

left me with

a hidden task so that even if

the thought of interacting with Arnold pisses me off. Moreover just because I know what

towards the center, and if I follow him there, he won't kill me, but he'll definitely find ways to make things

As for the rest?

don't even have the slightest idea of where they

leaves me with only

Complete the hidden task.

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

task was different, moreover, the difficulty of the task should be something that a rank 1750 like

if I was

I wasn't just your regular rank 1750, I decided to head to where the hidden task

I

I actually don't have a clue as

the main characters have ever stepped foot on the east side, where I currently was, I knew nothing about this place. Apart from the fact that this was

aimlessly walk to where I

of where the hidden tasks could be located,

William K. Johnson has

a notification once again

you were ignoring me

this way, I don't really see our team having more than 2-3 points

Arnold, this could be considered

be honest, I really don't

him last time was because of the annoying things that could come as a consequence of my actions. Moreover, if he really wanted to, he could use

if that

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