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.

I said before, Professor Thibaut's goal was to further divide the line between the 'competent' and 'incompetent'

students into making a pact with a demon, turning them

turn this test into a hunting party for

Thibaut could fabricate a couple of scenarios where some

grudge against an incredibly talented student, like

would cause them to build a grudge against Kevin, not because

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

gap between themselves and Kevin's overwhelming talent, they fall into

Thibaut would finally make his move by offering

make a pact would be

was full of ulterior

was trying to get a grasp of my

a map wasn't provided to us, because I was technically a cheat, and thus knew the general features

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

the mountains, while Emma is on the south side where the desert is located...Melissa and Amanda should both be on the west side near the ocean, thus meaning that no important figure

get a good grasp of the main character's locations, I started to formulate a plan regarding my next course of

get a grasp of the main characters was not because I was obsessed with them, no, rather

to me, as I have never written anything outside of

the protagonists were up to, I could make a rough estimate on the timing of the

it does sound easy, excluding the high-ranking students, strong simulations of beasts will be roaming the map

another thing that the

that some sort of 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 in many students dying without knowing

actually try to develop survival skills

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

with Jin, but they then decide to work together when they

to make my way towards the center where a large

I quickly discard the

gather at

the only options I had were to either directly get killed by one

only left me with

complete a hidden task so that

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 find ways to make things hard for

As for the rest?

slightest

this leaves me with

Complete the hidden task.

were five hidden tasks placed on the map. One

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

if I was

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

where I thought

fact, I actually don't have a clue as to where the hidden task was

the fact that this was

walk to where I thought the hidden

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

Johnson has died - Team

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

this way, I don't really see our team having more than 2-3 points which would put us in the

like Arnold, this could be considered a humiliating score, which will result in more troublesome situations where

honest, I really don't want to involve myself

last time was because of the annoying things that could come as a consequence of my actions.

that were to

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