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. This was so that he

could easily lure students into making a pact with a

turn this test into a hunting

lucky, professor Thibaut could fabricate a couple of scenarios where some

such example was building a grudge against

and lost miserably, their pride would cause them to build a grudge against Kevin, not because

some would choose to give up right away, but certain prideful and arrogant individuals would of course not accept

themselves and Kevin's overwhelming talent, they fall into depravity and despair at

professor Thibaut would finally make his move by offering

the offer a make a pact would be made, and

test was full of ulterior

to get

provided to us, because I was technically a cheat, and thus knew

trees...I should be on the east side

north side on top of the mountains, while Emma is on the south side where the desert is located...Melissa and

locations, I started to

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

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

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

1 hour, while it does sound easy, excluding the high-ranking students, strong simulations of beasts will be roaming the map preventing me from staying

was another thing that the professor didn't

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

on hiding, but actually try to develop survival skills for situations where they were

surroundings before making his way towards the middle of

they then

my way

I

gather at the center, that's where the strong

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

left me

task so that even if I

Arnold pisses me off. Moreover just because I know what will

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

As for the rest?

even have the slightest idea of where they could

this leaves me

Complete the hidden task.

general, there were five hidden tasks placed on the map. One in the north, south, east, west, and center of the

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

I was really

just your regular rank 1750, I decided to

I

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

nothing about this place. Apart from the fact that

walk to where I thought the hidden

idea of where the hidden tasks could

K. Johnson has died - Team points:

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

ignoring me because of

our team having more than 2-3 points which would put us

this could be considered a humiliating score, which

don't want to involve myself with

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

that were

dogs that didn't know their place. Though, at