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.

before, Professor Thibaut's goal was to further divide the line between the 'competent' and 'incompetent' students. This was

he could easily lure students into making

goal was to turn this test into a hunting party

couple of scenarios where some talented individuals built

grudge against an incredibly

would cause them to build a grudge against

would of course

overwhelming talent, they

professor Thibaut would finally make his

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

test was full of

I was trying to get a

technically a cheat, and thus knew the general features of the surroundings, I could roughly gauge

be on the east side of the

and 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

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

get a grasp of the main characters was not because I was obsessed with them,

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

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

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

thing that the

the creature that was hunting them could perceive their location through their acute sense of smell,

focus on hiding, but actually try to

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

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

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

head I quickly discard the

gather at the center, that's where the

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

left me

task so that even if

me off. Moreover

make his way towards 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

this leaves me with

Complete the hidden task.

placed on the map. One in the north, south, east,

the goal of each task was different, moreover, the difficulty

I

I decided to head to

I thought it

don't have a clue as

east side, where I currently was, I knew nothing about this place. Apart from the fact that this was a forest-type terrain and that there was a hidden task hidden somewhere around this area, I really had no clue with regards to anything

to where

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

has

my way towards where I estimated the hidden task was located, I saw a notification once

you were ignoring me because

this way, I don't really see our team having more than

not a bad score, but for someone like Arnold, this could be considered a humiliating score, which will

honest, I really don't want to involve myself with him

annoying things that could come as a consequence of my actions. Moreover, if he really wanted to, he could

if that were to

rid of some stray dogs that didn't know their place. Though, at the expense of some dire consequence that I don't want to