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.

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

making a pact with a demon, turning them

goal was to turn this test into a hunting party

fabricate a couple of scenarios where some

grudge against an incredibly talented student,

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

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

themselves and Kevin's overwhelming talent,

they reached this point, professor Thibaut would finally make his move

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

test was full of ulterior

was trying to get a grasp of my current

a map wasn't provided to us, because I was technically a cheat, and thus knew the general features of the surroundings, I could roughly gauge my current

I am surrounded by trees...I should be on the east side

Emma is on the south side where the desert is

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

the main characters was not because I was obsessed with them, no, rather it's because all the

me, as I

grasp on what the protagonists were up to, I could make

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

thing that the professor

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 their acute sense of smell, resulting

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

a good grasp of his surroundings before making his way towards the middle

with Jin, but they then

make my way towards the center where a large group will be

head I quickly

were definitely going to gather at the center, that's where the

there, the only options I had were to

only left me

task so that even if I

me off. Moreover just because I know

towards the center, and if I follow him there, he won't kill me,

As for the rest?

the slightest idea of where

this leaves me with

Complete the hidden task.

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

from 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

I

just your regular rank 1750, I decided

where I thought

don't have a clue

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

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

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

William K. Johnson has died

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

ignoring me because of my

having more than 2-3 points which would put us in

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

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

a consequence of my actions. Moreover, if he really wanted to, he could use some of his influence

that were to

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