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.

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

lure students into making

was to turn this test into a hunting

could fabricate a couple of scenarios

building a grudge against an incredibly talented student, like

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

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

gap between themselves and Kevin's overwhelming talent, they fall into depravity and despair at their inability to take

reached this point, professor Thibaut would

make a pact would be made, and a new villain

test was full

to get a grasp of

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

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

wrong Kevin and Jin spawned on the north side on top of the mountains, while Emma is on the south side where

good grasp of the main character's locations, I

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

will happen to me, as I have never written

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

sound easy, excluding the high-ranking students, strong simulations of beasts will be roaming the map preventing me from staying in a

that the

they would've never expected that the creature that was hunting them could

was made so that students wouldn't only focus on hiding, but actually try to develop survival skills for

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

they then

my way towards the center

my head I

at the center, that's where

go there, the only options I had were to either directly get killed by one of them or get used as cannon

only left me

hidden task so that even if I die I

Just the thought of interacting with Arnold pisses me off. Moreover just because I know what will happen, doesn't mean I know where the

if I follow him there, he won't kill me, but he'll definitely

As for the rest?

the slightest idea of where

me

Complete the hidden task.

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

the other, in 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

I was really rank

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

I thought

a clue as

stepped foot on the 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

could only harden myself and aimlessly walk to where I thought the hidden

where the hidden tasks

Johnson has died - Team points:

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

you were ignoring

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

Arnold, this could be considered a humiliating score,

to be honest, I really don't

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 some of his influence to directly affect my

if that

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