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.

goal was 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

so he could easily lure students into making a pact with a demon,

goal was to turn this test into

Thibaut could fabricate a couple of scenarios where some talented individuals built a grudge against each

example was building a grudge against an incredibly talented student, like

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

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

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

professor Thibaut would finally make his move by offering them

offer a make a pact would be made, and a

short, this test was full of

I was trying to get a

us, because I was technically a cheat, and thus knew the general features of the surroundings, I could roughly gauge my current

be on the east side of

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

of the main character's locations, I started

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

only predict what happened to them, but not what will happen to me, as I

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

goal 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 me from staying in a single place for

was another thing that the professor didn't

in the test, they would've never expected that the creature that was hunting them could perceive their location through their acute sense

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

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

a slight conflict with Jin, but they then decide to work together when

to survive is thus to make my way towards the center where a

my head I quickly discard

gather at the center,

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

left me

a hidden task so that even if

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

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

As for the rest?

the slightest idea of

this leaves me with only one

Complete the hidden task.

general, there were five hidden tasks placed on the map. One in the north, south, east, west,

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

if I

that I wasn't just your regular rank 1750, I decided to head

I

clue as to where the

from the fact that this was a forest-type terrain and that there was a hidden task hidden somewhere around this area, I really

aimlessly walk to where

hidden tasks could be located, allowing me to

K. Johnson has

saw a notification once again emerge on the

here you were ignoring me because of

having more than 2-3 points which

is not a bad score, but for someone like Arnold, this could be considered a humiliating score, which will result in more troublesome situations where I would have to interact with

to be honest, I really don't

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

that

some stray dogs that didn't know their place. Though, at the expense of some dire consequence