The Author's POV

Going down the stairs, we soon found ourselves beneath the arena grounds. Inside of a large spacious room that looked to be the size of a football stadium.

Glancing around, I couldn't help but be amazed by what I saw.

The whole room was filled with capsules. Endless amounts of capsules. If I had to estimate, I'd say at least over a couple hundred of them.

...just imagining the costs made me shudder.

Observing the capsules from the distance, I took special notice of how the capsules were arranged..

The capsules were grouped together in groups of six as they each faced outwards and were positioned in a way that they formed a circle. Behind them, large monitors with numbers displayed on the screen could be seen.

Next to the capsules, people clad in white uniforms holding onto some tablets and doing regular check-ups on the capsules were a common sight.

Staring at the scene before me, I couldn't help but be amazed.

'...so this was the VR arena.'

It was a truly spectacular sight. The machines were far bigger and more advanced than the ones in the virtual class I took at the beginning of the year with professor Thibaut. Moreover, with them being more advanced than the ones in the VR class, we didn't need to wear those tight and uncomfortable suits.

"Everyone, please look at me for a moment"

Just as I was busy admiring the underground VR area, instructor Sean, who was announcing moments before, appeared in the middle of the room as he gathered everyone's attention towards himself.

"Great"

After seeing everyone turn their attention towards himself, with a satisfied smile on his face, instructor Sean continued speaking.

"I will make this short. As most of you already know, you will soon be facing each other in the virtual world and the game that you will be playing will be the codebreaker game."

Pausing and staring at all of the first years, instructor Sean continued.

"Since I've already explained the rules of the game beforehand, I will not explain them again. This time, I will tell you a few of the things that you should be careful of"

Raising one of his fingers, instructor Sean said

"First things first, everyone that participates in the game will have their strength suppressed to G rank by default.."

Pausing and noticing that a commotion was about to erupt, raising his hand and speaking louder, instructor Sean continued speaking.

"Before you say anything, this was a decision that the academy has made in the last intra-academy tournament, and there is a specific reason as to why we chose to do it that way."

"In short, it's so that we can see the student's actual skills instead of just watching them dominating the opponents through ranks. This is so that we can provide a fair..."

As I listening to instructor Sean speak, a frown involuntarily appeared on my face.

...this completely changed the playing field.

Right now, the chances of us winning diminished by a lot. Although Jin and Amanda were skilled, if the opponents played their cards well, we could very well lose this game if we were not careful enough.

Moreover, as soon as they would spot Jin, they would immediately realize who they were up against. After all, Jin was famous in the

thus far, I couldn't help secretly

...Good thing Jin changed.

would've happened if he selfishly did everything by himself almost

know who your opponents are until the very last moment. This was decided by the academy beforehand

life, chances are that you will know nothing

to instructor Sean speaking, I

he said

nothing about them. Thus, this was a great idea by the academy as it

decided to do it this

to have grown more

this as an experience for when you graduate from the academy.

instructor Sean smiled and pointed towards the

make your way to your capsules. Your group and names should be on

Sean glanced at the students

to host the

left, all of the first years dispersed and made their way towards

group members, started looking around and checked to see

designated capsules, we had to be careful to not trip on the thick metal wires that extended from the VR machines. They appeared everywhere

"Here"

couple of minutes into the search, waving his hand, Zack pointed towards a set of capsules next

capsules, an instructor wearing a white uniform came up to us. Wearing thick-framed glasses, the instructor stared at the

be the

Donald responded for the

"Yes that's correct"

through the upper gap of his glasses, after a

please enter the virtual

-Vuam! -Shuuua!

rising from the VR capsules next to us as the lid

the capsules. The capsule I was

"huuu..."

inside of my capsule, I took a deep breath. Thereafter, staring at my group members next to me for a brief moment, I carefully

my vision

will begin

was dark, I heard the instructor's voice ring next to my ears. Shortly after I heard

best of

...

-Shua!

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the first thing I saw were