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.

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

into making a

to turn this test into a

fabricate a couple of scenarios where some talented individuals built a grudge

example was building a grudge against an incredibly

the hundred's challenged Kevin and lost miserably, their pride would cause them to build a grudge against Kevin, not because he was strong,

up right away, but certain prideful and arrogant individuals would of course not accept their defeat and seek

themselves and Kevin's overwhelming talent, they fall

professor Thibaut would finally make his move by

would be made,

test was full

get a

to us, because I was technically a cheat, and thus knew the general features of the surroundings,

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

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 is in my

of the main character's locations, I

reason why I was trying to get a grasp of the main characters was not because I was obsessed with them, no, rather it's because all the

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

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

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

was another thing that the professor didn't

most people could roughly guess 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

actually try to develop survival skills for situations where they were

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

they then decide to work together when they encounter

make my way towards the center where

head I

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

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

me with

my group, or complete a hidden task so that even if

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

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

As for the rest?

the slightest idea

this leaves me with

Complete the hidden task.

One

task was different, moreover, the difficulty of

that is if I was really rank

your regular rank 1750, I decided to head to where the hidden

I

clue

I knew nothing about this place. Apart from the fact that this was a forest-type terrain and that there was a hidden

and aimlessly walk to where I thought the hidden

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

William K. Johnson has died -

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

were ignoring

I don't really see our team having more than

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

to be honest, I really don't want to

against him last time was because of the annoying things that could come as a consequence of my actions. Moreover, if he really wanted to, he

that

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