-Shua!
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[Rank 1750, Ren Dover, confirm access Y/N]
The helmet's display gradually illuminated, revealing rows upon rows of information. Taking a minute to adjust my mind to the sudden changes, I looked through the information and pressed Y. After confirming, abruptly, a lively jingle that felt oddly familiar began playing, echoing through my ears.
The fact that there were a lot of procedures placed when entering the virtual cabin wasn't strange. With current technology, pretending to be someone else was as easy as turning on your phone. With just some custom-made masks someone could easily make themselves look like someone else.
Fortunately, it wasn't that difficult to distinguish a villain as villains undergo several genetic modifications when making a pact with a demon. This phenomenon occurred due to the fact that the human body cannot fully adapt to the power given to them by the demons.
Imagine an empty balloon.
Now imagine yourself filling it with air. Gradually as time passes the balloon will turn round and float.
That's how the human body usually worked when their mana increased.
Now imagine the same empty balloon, but this time instead of filling it with air we fill it with water.
In contrast to the air balloon, the water balloon instead of becoming perfectly round will droop down due to the density of the water, causing its shape to change.
Now take this example into consideration and apply it to humans, where water was the energy that came from the demons.
Because of how dense the energy coming from the demons was, the weaker villain's bodies tended to undergo drastic changes in order to withstand the newly found power that entered their body.
Due to these drastic changes, a simple retina, fingerprint, and gene test could verify if one was a villain or not.
Of course, this only worked for relatively weaker villains. For stronger villains, this sort of test was useless as their bodies could contain the power given to them by the devils they made a pact with, like professor Thibaut. Fortunately, this wasn't necessarily a problem as the stronger villains didn't bother disguising themselves.
However, even though strong villains tended to avoid disguising themselves, these sorts of tests were still a necessary precaution against villains. The consequences of not checking whether someone was an imposter could potentially be disastrous. Imagine what would happen if a villain was to make its way inside of the VR capsule. He/She could potentially put all the students at risk of brain trauma if not even death.
If a villain were to suddenly gain access to the virtual equipment main control system, he/she could suddenly discharge all of the electrical power inside of the capsules, essentially turning everyone inside of the capsule brain dead.
This sort of accident occurred several times in the past, resulting in strict checks and procedures getting installed by the company creating the capsule as a result of the backlash they received from the public.
Well, what about professor Thibaut? Technically he could override the system and kill everyone present, right? Actually, he couldn't, especially since his job was extremely important.
The reason why I was not necessarily worried about him was because his primary role in the lock was to turn potential heroes into villains. He was what was called a 'manager' or an 'agent'. His main responsibility was to turn students into villains by exploiting the emotions and resentment they had towards certain individuals or the academy.
Moreover, it wasn't that easy to override the system and discharge high amounts of electricity towards the capsules. Especially if this was happening inside of the lock, where several highly ranked heroes resided. They could easily sense the abnormal accumulation of electricity making it almost impossible for this plan to work.
Plus, Professor Thibaut simply couldn't afford to perform such a high-risk maneuver to kill an individual as turning students into villains was his main priority.
If not for the fact that professor Thibaut got direct orders from the demon he made a pact with to get rid of Kevin, he would've never tried fighting him, as it wasn't his responsibility.
Just as it was not my responsibility to get rid of him. If I suddenly got rid of the mini-boss, Kevin would never go through any hardship, creating a liability for when he faced the Demon King.
Gradually the world around me started to change, and a blinding light caused me to cover my eyes.
Blinking for a couple of seconds, and recovering my bearing I found myself inside of a white room.
Looking around the room, I could see a couple of students from my class similarly checking their surroundings.
After approximately five minutes, and seeing that no one else showed up, I made my way towards the other classmates.
There were a total of five people excluding myself in the waiting room.
Seeing that I was making my way towards them, some students went to greet me directly.
"Rank 834 William K. Johnson, a pleasure to meet you"
The first person to greet me was a rather short-statured browned hair teen, with a somewhat lively disposition.
"Rank 623 Rosaline Tluve"
"Rank 739 Edward Smith, greetings."
"Rank 956 Park Jinho, nice to meet you"
Following William, a red-haired pretty girl who stood proudly like a regal peacock greeted me. She had an indifferent air around her that made it seem like nothing interested her. Her tone was cold, giving the impression that she detested everything around her. She like me was an extra and thus I knew nothing about her, making me assume that her cold attitude came from some sort of past trauma. Most probably faced a similar to Amanda, who like her was cold.
After Rosaline, a black-haired youth with square-shaped glasses and neatly combed hair greeted me in a serious tone. Judging from his disposition and the way he talked, I made a mental note to myself to not interact with him in the near future. Not very fond of such straight-laced individuals.
Lastly, Park Jinho, who seemed to be of Asian descent, most probably Korean, greeted me with a modest attitude. He seemed somewhat wary of me, not sure why...
Turning my head to the last person, who ignored my presence since the beginning, I tried to greet him but I was promptly ignored.
With a fairly tall stature and a muscular upper body that did not lose out to any professional bodybuilder back in my world, was Arnold Kane. he carried an intimidating aura around him that reminded people of a wild gorilla that would attack anyone at the smallest sign of provocation. His hair was cut in a buzzcut and his eyes were tightly knit together in a frown.
Shaking my head, I presented myself to the rest.
There was no need for me to actually greet him as I already knew who he was, but as to not come off as too disrespectful I made sure to at least greet him. Had I skipped over him, I might've been the target of his bullying, which I really did not want to have any part of.
'Rank 75, Arnold Kane'
One of Jin's three main lackeys. who will later be known as 'Iron Mountain Arnold' due to his iron-like defense that could ward off several attacks from several individuals at a time.
He was what you called a 'Strong to the weak, and weak to the strong' type of person. A typical bully. His arrogance probably originated from the fact that he was Jin's lackey. To which I can only secretly express my disgust. You are actually proud of being someone else's dog?
"Pleasure to meet you, everyone, I'm Rank 1750 Ren Dover"
"..."
It took a couple of seconds for the rest to process what I had said before losing all interest in me.
Shrugging at their reaction, I could only sympathize with them as I understood where they were coming from. I mean, 800 ranks lower than the second-lowest in the group was quite the difference.
This was a society where power ruled over everything else. If you were not that powerful you were looked down on by everyone. Well, this mainly applied to the lock where individuals were still young and prideful. Once they entered the real world and actually fought against demons, only then will they realize how immature they were.
"Trash"
The first to speak up was, of course, Arnold, who looked at me with disgust.
Secretly shaking my head, I couldn't help but lament to myself for making this world full of arrogant characters.
Couldn't be helped, it was what the readers wanted...
Fuck you, readers.
Your pleasure was my suffering.
Well whatever, I'll just stay quiet for now and wait for the professor's instruction.
Fortunately, after I told them about my rank, no one approached me, helping me avoid unnecessary conversations.
[Ehm..ehm...Group 7 can you guys hear me?]
Disrupting the awkward atmosphere that developed due to my rank reveal, professor Thibuat voice resounded across the room.
[If you can hear me say 'Check']
"Check"
"Check"
"Check"
"Check"
"Check"
"Check"
[1..2..3..4..5..6, great look's like everyone is present. Okay, listen carefully as I will now explain the rules. Pay close attention because I will only say them once.]
[Since this is most likely the first time some of you have entered the virtual world, today's class will be on the lighter side]
[The people around you right now will be the group that you will work with for today's class.]
[Before you say anything, your group is balanced according to the computer and for the most part, each group will be evenly matched. Although there are some exceptions, which I really can't do anything about]
'Don't look at me like that! he was referring to Kevin and the others!'
Noticing the glares coming in my direction, I couldn't help but silently grumble to myself.
The professor was obviously talking about the top-ranked individuals who could most likely take on a team by themselves.
There wasn't actually that much of a difference in power between me and Park Jinho, the second-lowest in the group. Well, that was if you were comparing me from before I took over because right now my fighting strength was leagues above what it was a week ago.
The only reason they glared at me like that was probably because they wanted an outlet to unleash their grievances against
'Immature bastards'
[You will each be dropped into a remote terrain which will be randomly generated by the computer.]
[Your goal for today is to survive 1 hour]
[There are extra points awarded for those who manage to complete certain hidden tasks]
[This will count as a pass as long as you manage to survive for 1 hour, extra points will be awarded for each teammate that survives alongside you]
[I will give you 2 minutes to let you discuss your plans with your group.]
[Best of luck!]
[Oh~ Before I leave I forgot to mention. The last group will automatically fail this class]
-Click!
Somehow the glares towards my direction became stronger.
How the professors haven't realized that professor Thibaut was a villain was beyond me. He was obviously trying to sow discord among the groups to create grudges with each other, with the lower-ranked individuals being his primary targets.
The 'fail this class' thing is a total lie, as he had no power in regards to deciding who to pass or who to fail on the first day.
This was just an excuse he made to create a situation where a grudge could be created by making the stronger guys target the weaker individuals.
This was one of his typical strategies that made certain individuals suffer so that he could weaken their state of mind, and later on, take advantage of their weakness to turn them into villains.
If not for the fact that there were a lot of heroes present in the lock, professor Thibaut would've used more extreme measures to turn someone into a villain.
"You"
Pointing towards my direction, Arnold's deep voice resounded across the white room.
"Yes?"
"Make sure you survive, else..."
Placing his hand on my shoulder, Arnold exerted an incredible amount of pressure making me almost kneel on the floor.
-Thud!
"Ugh..."
After confirming his strength, I kneeled down as he intended and let out a fake groan.
"Understand?"
Seeing me kneeling in front of him, Arnold let out a satisfied smile and turned towards the rest who immediately nodded at him.
"Good"
While pretending to struggle to get up, I fell into deep thought.
From the exchange I just had with Arnold, I could approximately gauge my strength.
I could pretty much confirm I was still weaker than Arnold, but not by a large margin. If I had to make a rough estimate about my ranking, it should be around the three hundred's.
Fortunately, because this was a virtual world, I didn't really suffer much from the exchange I had with Arnold. But don't get me wrong. Just because I didn't suffer much didn't mean I wasn't angry.
In fact, I was furious. How dare you gorilla-like bastard use me to exert dominance over the rest?
If not for the fact that I didn't want to start shit with you and your gang, I wouldn't have kneeled down and humiliated myself like that.
I'm not like those braindead protagonists who scream 'I will only kneel to god and my parents, no one else shall make me kneel!'
I will kneel when I need to. But be ready to face the consequences of making me kneel.
Staring at his proud and arrogant face which acted as if everything was beneath him, I secretly swore to myself to make him pay ten times for what he had done to me.
'I take my grudges very deeply'
[Alright! the simulation is ready]
[I will start the simulation in 3...2...1]
-Shua!
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"
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