Everyone gathered at the main training hall the next morning.
I came in late.
My stomach was still churning painfully after eating the worst food ever served in the commoner's cafeteria.
It was some kind of grey mush that tasted like boiled cardboard.
'At least for this reason, I need to rank high today,' I thought to myself, wiping my mouth with a napkin.
Healthy, decent food is a basic necessity for physical training and building a strong mana core.
But due to the strict hierarchy of Royal Genesis, only the talented or wealthy students actually get to eat well.
Even the living situations are different based on your birth status.
Melissa's current place of stay was built by rich nobles using their own family money.
They pooled their resources just to give their children a highly comfortable life away from the commoners.
The academy's official elite dorms were even more ridiculous.
They were situated on a high hill right near the commoner's broken-down buildings, looking down and mocking us perfectly.
All the top-ranked students from three years stay up there in luxury, sleeping in soft beds while we freeze.
Walking through the doors of the training hall, I immediately noticed several faces that definitely did not belong to my freshman class.
Older students were already circling the large room.
Second-year cadets had started grouping up near the walls, actively trying to recruit the most promising first years into their own personal alliances.
They wanted strong pawns for the upcoming faction wars.
Of course, the Student Council stayed right at the top of the food chain.
They stood on the raised viewing balcony, showing dominance over the entire hall.
A group of S-rank potential students from the second and third years looked down at us like we were just fresh meat ready for the grinder.
The top three scorers from today's test will definitely be picked up by them to serve as elite enforcers.
I honestly do not mind being on the council.
The perks are massive, and the access to restricted library files would help me immensely.
But there is a problem.
The council was currently being led by Luciana.
She is a highly vindictive third-year, who also happens to be the older sister of Lucien, the arrogant noble, completely humiliated by me a few days ago.
'Luciana is currently clearing a cave in the Elven continent. So at least till then I can relax.'
Ten faculty members stood in a perfectly straight horizontal line across the centre mats.
Right in front of them rested the glowing blue miracle orb.
"Silence."
Professor Blaze stepped forward.
The red-haired, broad-shouldered man raised his hand and waited for the nervous chatter to settle down.
"There are three things you must know before going into the trial today," Blaze started.
His loud voice reached every corner of the silent room.
Students leaned in closer, listening carefully to his strict instructions.
"First," Blaze held up a finger.
"You cannot just quit whenever you feel like it. A strict minimum of three hours must be spent inside the illusory trial before you are allowed to hit the exit button."
"Wha?"
"No way, where are our basic rights?" a skinny noble boy whined loudly from the back row.
'What rights?' I snorted quietly, crossing my arms over my chest.
"Two," Blaze continued, completely ignoring the complaining students.
He picked up a sleek, black watch from the table where the orb is.
"This device will be used to track your physical movements and your combat scores within the simulated world. The live rankings will be broadcast directly on the main screen behind us."
His large hand gestured toward an LED screen hanging high on the stone wall.
"The more creatures you successfully kill, the more your score increases, and the rankings will shift in real time. There is also a basic map attached to this watch to help you find the correct paths."
Students immediately started chattering among themselves again.
They pointed at the screen and whispered frantically about team strategies.
Melissa stepped much closer to my side.
Her shoulder brushed lightly against my arm, sending a brief spark of heat right through my thin uniform.
"Wanna play together in there?" she whispered, leaning up close to my ear so her breath tickled my neck.
I kept my eyes entirely focused forward.
I did not reply to her teasing at all.
"Third," Blaze shouted, forcing the room back into total silence.
"Anyone who manages to find and kill the stage boss will be ranked first overall, no matter how many basic points they earned."
A few ambitious students gasped in pure excitement.
"But here is a fair warning," Blaze smiled darkly, showing his teeth.
"Bosses are never easy. And this specific trial was designed by top mages so that you will feel actual pain just like you would in real life. If a monster bites your arm off in there, it is going to hurt exactly like the real thing. You just will not actually die."
'That is really motivating,' I thought, rolling my eyes at his sick sense of humour.
My gaze naturally drifted across the crowded room.
Zephyr was already looking right at me.
The golden-eyed hero stood near the front row, his expression totally serious and completely stripped of his usual arrogance.
We held eye contact for a long second.
Although we completely hate each other and have different goals for the future, saving innocent lives always comes first.
Spoon-feeding weak awakeners will not help them grow in any way, and it certainly will not prepare them for the real apocalypse that is about to come knocking on our doors.
But this situation is highly exceptional.
In the original timeline of the novel, the simulated boss monster was programmed to stay deeply asleep in its lair until the students actively grouped up and travelled to reach it.
It was strictly supposed to be an optional challenge for the truly brave cadets who wanted the top spot.
But A rogue mage hacked the academy's system.
In this corrupted test, exactly after those mandatory three hours pass, the boss stops waiting.
It wakes up on its own, breaks all the programmed rules, and starts aggressively hunting the trapped students across the map.
It turns a simple, safe training exercise into a bloodbath.
And since no one can use the exit function for the first three hours, the timing traps every single freshman perfectly inside the killing jar.
Yes, it won't kill them, but it crushes their motivation to fight anymore, which is even more cruel.
Zephyr gave me a very slight, almost unnoticeable nod.
We both knew what was coming.
The real test was not about killing monsters to get a shiny new sword from the principal's vault.
It was about surviving the countdown until the exits unlocked.