Chapter 9
As soon as the professor started the simulation, my surroundings began to change.
Lush, dense trees began to appear from beneath my feet, followed by soft, crumbly soil that slowly sank my feet.
My vision was gradually obscured by towering trees that began to rise from the ground at an amazing speed.
Reaching forward to touch a tree, I was amazed at the real feeling spreading through my fingers. Running my hand along the tree trunk, I felt like I was touching the lines and wrinkles of an old man's face. It has an uneven surface where I can feel the flaking nature of its dark outer shell, it crumbles and peels, with a crackling sound at the slightest pressure exerted by my fingers. motion.
It feels like I'm touching the real thing.
It doesn't feel like I'm touching a pile of code, but a real tree.
"Really attractive…"
[Rank 1751 Sirius - Team Score: 6]
As I was busy being mesmerized by how realistic the trees were, a notice popped up in front of me.
Seeing the notification, I quickly swiped left to dismiss it and fell into deep thought.
The game is very simple.
Each student gets one point, and every time a teammate dies, that team loses one point.
Teams that reach 0 points are then automatically disqualified and thus lose.
The only way to gain points is to complete the hidden missions available on the map.
At the end of the test, there will be a ranking of the teams that match their achievements.
The main goal of this test is to survive for 1 hour.
Although it sounds easy, it is not. If it was that easy what kind of test would this be?
The lack of information provided by the professor is intentional because this essentially means that there is only 1 rule.
And that's to 'survive'
Each person is directly given a weapon, which is automatically given to them depending on the weapon they registered on the first day of the academy.
In my case, a dagger was in my hand.
[Teammate William K. Johnson has passed away - Team Score: 5]
As I was thinking, I saw a notification once again appear in my view, making me smile faintly
If things go this way, I don't really see our team getting more than 2-3 points, which would put us in the middle.
[Teammate Park Jinho has passed away - Team Score: 4]
I'd better go before someone else reaches the hidden quest before I do.
-Rustle! -Rustle!
Run towards where I think the quest is hidden.
Standing in front of the small lake, look at the crystal clear water that neatly reflects the rays of the sun and the brilliant green vegetation surrounding the calm lake. The animals can be seen peacefully sharing their surroundings with other animals as they slowly drink the crystal clear water from the lake.
In the middle of the lake there is a small lilypad with a red flower neatly nested on it.
Diving into the water, I swam towards the flower in the middle of the lake.
Watching the lake guardian approach him, Sirius kept his gaze fixed on the lake guardian as he calmly summoned his dagger.
'You are mine.'
This is the perfect opportunity to test out my' advanced stats.
I slowly swam closer to the lake guardian.
'Dash!'
[You have activated 'Skill: Dash'.]
[Your movement speed has increased by 30%. One Mana will be used every minute while active.]
Along with those messages, I' body became faster as if an booster had been activated. I quickly approached the lake guard.
In a flash, came before the monster.
Taken by surprise, the guard hurriedly used his sharp teeth to bite.
However, thanks to his increase in speed, his movements now had a certain composure to it. I easily dodged the digestive juices and charged towards the guardian's head.
Slash!
I dagger slashed the guard's eye.
Roooooaaaar!!!
The guard roared and staggered.
I didn't miss this opening.
As soon as the guardian staggered, I quickly approached the top of its head.
It went crazy and struggled everywhere, but I won't let those blinding attacks hit me.
Now standing on top of the spider, I began stabbing the guardian in the eye with a dagger.
The stab! The stab! Click!!
ROOAAAARR!!!
The stab! Stab!!
ROOAARR? !!
It struggled continuously, but I persisted to the end and continued to stab my dagger into the guard's head.
"Keu, keu-ru-ruk!"
The guard began to stagger dangerously. Apparently it's broken now. Seeing that, my hand accelerated.
And finally, the guardian's huge body began to slow down.
However, Sirius did not let go. No, he just continued it, until the guard was definitely dead.
The stab! Stab!! Stab!!!
"Keuruk. Keureureureu…. "
Along with the last gasp of the guard.
"Phew, it's finally over!"
After killing the guard. I swam towards the flower in the middle of the lake.
Squeezing the flower gently in I hand, the flower instantly turned into light particles that floated above my head.
[Ranked 1751 Sirius +1 (Lake Trial): Team Score: 5]
…
"Four more minutes"
Checking the remaining time, I quickly ran away from where I was hiding.
Right now my plan is, find a safe spot, rest for 3 minutes and move on to the next point.
By constantly changing my location, making it harder for 'hunters' to find my exact location.
Even though the 'hunter' has been tracking the scent, it doesn't mean that it will only focus its attention on me.
No, it will obviously go for the easiest prey.
With about 90 students inside the map, with a limited number of 'hunters' present in the map, the hunters programmed through the computer system will only go after what the computer thinks is the target Easiest to hunt.
If it is presented with two choices, prey A and prey B, the hunter will go to the easiest target by default. If prey A is constantly changing positions more difficult to hunt than prey B, who is hiding in the same place without moving, then it will definitely go looking for prey B.
So. Over the past 19 minutes or so, I have been constantly changing my position.
'Hunter' is not something I can take on.
Each 'hunter' is an exact replica of the famous beasts that can be found after the second cataclysm.
Each beast present ranged from G-Rank to D-Rank, with only a handful of students able to fight or escape.
Even though I have the ability to destroy it, I'd be better off using a move strategy to avoid it.
-Ding!
A sweet, melodious jingle rang in my ears as I prepared to move to my next location. Suddenly my body froze and blue text appeared in my field of vision.
[Time remaining 00:00:00 - Congratulations on completing the test. you will soon be logged out of the capsule]
"Ah.. the time is finally up"
Slowly the trees, the sky, the animals, everything around me began to disintegrate, turning the whole world white.
Squinting, I could see the remaining students who had survived, far away in the white world.
It seems there are only about nine students near my area.
Now that I look closely at the entire white world, including my area, there aren't many students left.
Although the map is very large and I can't see clearly how many people are alive, with no obstacles blocking my view, I can make a general inference about the difficulty of the test, based on the number of people. The student survived until the end.
I estimate that a good 60% of the original 90 students in the simulation were killed.
[Ehm..ehm..can you hear me?]
Suddenly, Professor Thibaut's voice rang in my ears, making me listen attentively.
[Okay, I want to say a few things before letting you out of the capsule]
[First, congratulations to all of you for surviving this test. This test is specifically designed to test your adaptability in a foreign environment and how well you can survive in the wild.]
Even though this bastard is using this test as a means to cause disorder among some students, the test is still very good. He changed a few things here and there that might create some conflict among the students, but the test is really a good way to help students adjust to the foreign environment.
[Although many of you have survived by mere luck or through some scheme, in the end what really matters is not how you won, but if you won. So for those of you who made it to the end, I congratulate you. Considering how difficult this test is, surviving in this simulation is a proud achievement. Squeeze your chest and lift your head out of the compartment]
[That's enough, next… when you exit the sleeping compartment at the top of the classroom, you can find a large screen where the group leaderboard will be displayed]
[Although there will be no extra reward this time since it's still your first week, you can still brag to your friends about being first in your class]
I feel like a lot of students would actually brag about this.
Considering how proud and arrogant most people are in this world, over the next week or so I would expect the egos of the top 5 team members to go through the roof.
[Okay, I think I've said enough. I'll kick you out of your cabin one by one, so don't panic if your vision suddenly goes dark]
[Once again, congratulations to those of you who survived]
Just then Professor Thibuat's voice disappeared and gradually the students began to turn into light trails that disappeared from the virtual world.
[Logout Y/N]
A sign out button appeared in front of me.
Without any further thought, I clicked.
- Oh!
My vision suddenly went dark, and my consciousness slipped.
-Phhhhhhh
Slowly the cap of the capsule I opened, released white steam in the process.
Using the edge of the pill as a fulcrum, I slowly exited the capsule.
Feeling eyes on me, I turned my head and looked.
Arnold, who was a few bullets away from me, glared fiercely at me.
- Clap!
"Cough… cough… Give me your attention!"
Professor Thibaut appeared to draw everyone's attention towards him, including Arnold.
"Okay, once again congratulations to those who passed the test"
"I'll keep it short because we're short on time. If you look up, you can see the respective rankings of your team."
Towards a large screen placed in the center of the classroom, a large table was displayed on the screen showing us the respective team rankings.
=== Team Ranking ===
Group 15
Score: 8
Result: No casualties + 2 Hidden Quests
-
Group 9
Score: 7
Result: No casualties + 1 hidden quest
-
Group 4
Score: 7
Result: No casualties + 1 hidden quest
-
Group 5
Score: 6
Result: No casualties
-
Group 1
Score: 5
Result: 1 casualty
-
Group 7
Score: 4
Result: 3 casualties + 1 hidden quest
-
Group 10
Score: 3
Result: 3 casualties
-
Group 13
Score: 3
Result: 3 casualties
-
Group 11
Score: 2
Result: 4 casualties
-
Group 8
Score: 1
Result: 5 casualties
-
Group 2
Score: 1
Result: 5 casualties
-
Group 14
0 point
Result: Party wipe
-
Group 3
0 point
Result: Party wipe
-
Group 6
0 point
Result: Party wipe
-
Group 12
0 point
Result: Party wipe
-
==========
"The sixth overall?"
It was a rank or two higher than I expected.
The top 15 group is Kevin's group.
His teammates not only survived, but also completed two hidden missions.
Emma's team ranked second, with her completing one of the hidden quests. On the other hand, Amanda ranked third, and surprisingly Melissa, who was on the same team as Jin, was fourth.
The reason for their low ranking is simple. Because of Kevin, Jin couldn't get any more points and Melissa, who wasn't as strong as she was smart was powerless trying to complete the side quest.
In the end, all of their teammates survived, but no extra points were awarded to their team.
Fifth place, group 1, is Troy's group who, despite not completing any hidden missions, had 2 fewer casualties than our group.
"Of the 15 groups here, four have been wiped out. This result is much better than last year, in contrast only four groups survived."
"I know some of you are shaken thinking you will be kicked out of the course, but I lied about it. I want to pressure you to take the test seriously. So you are all safe."
Hearing this part of the speech, the students who were wiped out by their team breathed a sigh of relief.
"It must have been stressful to think that they failed a course on their first week."
"Okay, looks like we're running out of time so you can all leave"
Checking his watch, Professor Thibaut smiled and sent us off.
At the end of class, I headed towards my dormitory.
-Click!
Entering my room, I lay down on the clean mattress and fell asleep.