Chapter 15: Virtual reality [3]   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.

As 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 exploit the feeble mentality of those who were being oppressed.

In doing so he could easily lure students into making a pact with a demon, turning them into villains.

His goal was to turn this test into a hunting party for the strong.

If lucky, professor Thibaut could fabricate a couple of scenarios where some talented individuals built a grudge against each other.

One such example was building a grudge against an incredibly talented student, like Kevin

If someone ranked in the hundred's challenged Kevin and lost miserably, their pride would cause them to build a grudge against Kevin, not because he was strong, but because of his background.

Of course, some would choose to 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 get.

As time slowly passes and they slowly realize the gap between themselves and Kevin's overwhelming talent, they fall into depravity and despair at their inability to take revenge against Kevin.

Once they reached this point, professor Thibaut would finally make his move by offering them power.

Enticed by the offer a make a pact would be made, and a new villain was born.

In short, this test was full of ulterior motives.

Walking forwards, I was trying to get a grasp of my current location.

Although 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 location.

"Since I am surrounded by trees…I should be on the east side of the map"

"Hmm, if I'm not wrong Kevin and Jin spawned on the north side on top of 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 is in my area"

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

The 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 events that will happen will be centered on them.

I could only predict what happened to them, but not what will happen to me, as I have never written anything outside of the scope of the main characters.

If 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 how to avoid them.

"My goal is to survive for 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 in a single place for too long…"

This was another thing that the professor didn't mention.

Although 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 through their acute sense of smell, resulting in many students dying without knowing what had hit them.

This was made so that students wouldn't only focus on hiding, but actually try to develop survival skills for situations where they were being hunted by an unknown entity.

"The protagonist will spend the first 20 minutes trying to get a good grasp of his surroundings before making his way towards the middle of the map, where he eventually reunites with the others."

"He'll have a slight conflict with Jin, but they then decide to work together when they encounter a beast."

"The best way to survive is thus to make my way towards the center where a large group will be gathering, but…"

Shaking my head I quickly discard the thought.

Although people were definitely going to gather at the center, that's where the strong gathered.

If someone of my rank were to go there, the only options I had were to either directly get killed by one of them or get used as cannon fodder.

This only left me with two options.

Somehow reuniting with my group, or complete a hidden task so that even if I die I will have one point.

I'll discard the first 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 the others were.

Arnold will most likely make his way towards the center, and if I follow him there, he won't kill me, but he'll definitely find ways to make things hard for me.

As for the rest?

I don't even have the slightest idea of where they could be.

Thus this leaves me with only one choice.

Complete the hidden task.

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

Each task differed 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 1750 like me couldn't hope to be able to accomplish.

Well, that is if I was really rank 1750.

Knowing that I wasn't just your regular rank 1750, I decided to head to where the hidden task was.

Well, where I thought it was.

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

Since none of the main characters have ever stepped foot on the east side, where I currently was, I knew nothing about this place. 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 regards to anything else.

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

Fortunately, I had a general idea of where the hidden tasks could be located, allowing me to have some sort of goal.

[Teammate William K. Johnson has died - Team points: 5]

As I was making 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 bitterly shake my head.

And here you were ignoring me because of my rank…

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

Which by all means is not a bad 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 interact with him.

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

The only reason why I didn't lash out 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 could use some of his influence to directly affect my parent's guild.

But if that were to happen…

Let's just say I knew many ways to get rid of some stray dogs that didn't know their place. Though, at the expense of some dire consequence that I don't want to go through.

Let's just hope he's not stupid enough to push me there…

Unless I decide to expose myself and show an overwhelming talent that rivals that of the main characters, I will have to stay low regardless of what hatred or grudge I built up.

[Teammate Park Jinho has died - Team points: 4]

Well, at least it seems that for now I no longer was going to be his main target.

I better get going before someone else reached the hidden task before I did.

-Rustle! -Rustle!

Suddenly, as I was jogging towards where I thought the hidden task was, the bushes near me rustled before suddenly a large shadow emerged from behind them, heading towards my direction.

Touching the handle of my blade, I readied my stance.

Slowly the features of the shadow became clearer, prompting me to become even tenser.

A tall individual whose body was on the muscular side walked up to me. He had short black hair, and he had a disposition similar to that of a knight.

Spotting me, he walked up to me and scanned me up and down.

"Rank 636 Patrick W. Fullham"

As soon as he introduced himself, a small window appeared in front of me with holographic information regarding the individual in front of me.

Extending my left hand, while keeping my right hand on the sheat of my katana, I smiled and introduced myself.

"Rank 1750 Ren Dover"

Similar to me, a small window appeared in front of him. Seeing the content of the window, Patrick raised his brow before suddenly sneering.

"You came at a perfect time!"

"What do you mean?"

Pointing towards the depth of the forest, Patrick tried to hide his sneer as he looked at me.

"As I was wandering around the forest, I stumbled across the hidden task, and you came at just the right time"

"Wow! You actually found the hidden task?!"

Taken aback by my excited expression, Patrick took a couple of seconds to recollect himself before his sneer finally returned to his face

He turned around and walked towards the direction he previously pointed at, ignoring me who had a visibly excited face.

"Where are we going?"

"Where else?"

"Wait, you're actually doing the hidden task with me?"

"Count yourself lucky, I needed an extra helper to complete this task, and since I couldn't find anybody else apart from you, I will generously share the reward with you"

"Oh my god! Thank you so much!"

As I followed Patrick in the direction he pointed at, I couldn't help but secretly laugh at his ignorance.

He actually left his back wide open for me to attack at any time. He was either really dumb or overconfident in his abilities.

Since my rank was so low, he probably thought I posed no threat to him whatsoever, thus making him lower his guard against me. But little did he know, that although I was rank 1750, I could end him in one move.

'He probably wants to use me as cannon fodder to help him solve the hidden task'

As I laughed at his ignorance, slowly the trees around me started to disperse, until, the view of a small lake came into my sight.

Stopping right before the lake, Patrik smiled and took a deep breath.

"Here we are"