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.

Still, I believe it was still safe to continue with the plan that I had previously proposed as it didn't particularly focus on brute-forcing our way towards the opponent. Moreover, as soon as they would spot Jin, they would immediately realize who they were up against. After all, Jin was famous in the first years. From there, the plan should proceed as I had mentioned.

Thinking thus far, I couldn't help secretly sigh in relief.

...Good thing Jin changed.

Just imagining what would've happened if he selfishly did everything by himself almost caused me to have endless headaches.

"...Another thing that you must take notice of when in the game is that you won't know who your opponents are until the very last moment. This was decided by the academy beforehand to make this more realistic"

"Because when you are fighting against opponents in real life, chances are that you will know nothing about them as..."

Listening to instructor Sean speaking, I couldn't help but nod my head.

What he said was absolutely true.

Unless you were actively seeking the opponent, if someone attacked you, chances were that you knew nothing about them. Thus, this was a great idea by the academy as it made the test more realistic.

"...and that's why we decided to do it this way"

Pausing there and staring at some of the students who seemed to have grown more nervous due to the new developments, instructor Sean smiled kindly and said.

"Don't worry...take this as a good experience for the future. Even if you don't pass, you may use this as an experience for when you graduate from the academy. If you get nervous from just this, then how are you going to react when you enter the real world?"

Stopping there, instructor Sean smiled and pointed towards the capsules nearby,

"Alright, enough said, please make your way to your capsules. Your group and names should be on one of the monitors above the capsules. Best of luck"

Finished with what he wanted to say, instructor Sean glanced at the students for a brief moment before going back upstairs.

He still needed to host the tryouts.

Shortly after instructor Sean left, all of the first years dispersed and made their way towards their designated capsules.

Imitating them, I along with my group members, started looking around and checked to see where our group was designated.

As we walked around in hopes of finding our designated capsules, we had to be careful to not trip on the thick metal wires that extended from the VR machines. They appeared everywhere and extended from the capsules like spiderwebs.

"Here"

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

Shortly after, as we all arrived before the capsules, an instructor wearing a white uniform came up to us. Wearing thick-framed glasses, the instructor stared at the tablet in his hand for a couple of seconds before briefly glancing at us.

"You guys must be the group from class A-25 correct?"

Nodding his head, Donald responded for the rest of us.

"Yes that's correct"

Moving his head down and staring at us through the upper gap of his glasses, after a couple of seconds, the instructor turned his attention back onto his tablet and proceeded to say

"Okay, please enter the virtual machines"

-Vuam! -Shuuua!

Thereafter, pressing onto his tablet, steam slowly started rising from the VR capsules next to us as the lid slowly lifted upwards.

Seeing the capsules open, without hesitation, we quickly sat in the capsules. The capsule I was in was beside Donald and Amanda who quickly sat down to which I followed suit.

"huuu..."

After I comfortably positioned myself inside of my capsule, I took a deep breath. Thereafter, staring at my group members next to me for a brief moment, I carefully placed the helmet on my head.

...Soon my vision turned dark.

"Turning on the VR simulation. The tryouts will begin as soon as you spawn in the map."

As my vision was dark, I heard the instructor's voice ring next to my ears. Shortly after I heard the instructor's voice, I slowly lost consciousness.

"Simulation initiating, best of luck"

...

-Shua!

[Processing student information....]

[Retina scan...check]

[Fingerprint scan...check]

[Genetic data test...check]

[Loading time...57%....87%...94%...]

[User information loaded]

[Rank 197, Ren Dover, confirm access Y/N]

As I regained consciousness, opening my eyes the first thing I saw were rows upon rows of blue texts.

Thereafter, taking a minute to adjust my mind to the sudden changes, I looked through the information and pressed Y. As I had already experienced this once, I wasn't as overwhelmed as I was before, four months ago.

After confirming, abruptly, a lively jingle began playing as it echoing through my ears. Soon after, the world around me started changing as buildings and roads started constructing themselves around me.

Gradually, as time passed and the world around me started to become clearer, I could see the faint outline of a city appearing before me as the buildings that appeared from beneath the ground gradually started obstructing my vision.

As I was watching the world around me construct, a frown soon appeared on my face.

...this wasn't a regular city.

As the outline of the buildings next to me started to become more clear, I could see that they were all worn down and broken.

Rubbles and broken glass appeared all over the streets and moss and vines covered some of the buildings in the distance.

This looked just like a post-apocalyptic ghost city. Completely deserted and worn down. Almost like Chernobyl back on earth after the nuclear power plant incident.

Looking up at the sky, I could see that the sky was covered by thick grey clouds with a sparse amount of sunlight making its way down the abandoned city.

-Shua! -Shua!

Shortly after, as I was staring at the city before me, appearing next to me were Arnold, Amanda, and the rest.

Opening his eyes, Donald was the first to speak up as he looked around in confusion.

"What map is this?"

Glancing at Donald and then the city, with her hand on her chin, Amanda pondered for a little bit before curtly responding.

"Judging from the infrastructures of the buildings, it seems like we are back in the past. Right after the first cataclysm"

"It is indeed that"

Staring at Amanda, I nodded my head.

Having been born in the 1980's back on earth, I could tell that this map was set during that time as some of the infrastructures were similar to my memories of my childhood. Turning towards Jin, I nodded my head and flashed the watch on my wrist.

"Jin, you know what to do. Make sure you report everything that you see"

Without responding, Jin nodded his head and disappeared from where he was standing.

-Shua!

Staring at where Jin used to be, I turned to look at Amanda and the others.

"We proceed as planned. If possible, try taking out your opponent when you meet them, and always make sure you keep in touch in case something goes wrong"

Nodding their heads, Amanda and Donald looked at Arnold who snorted and left in the opposite direction as Jin.

...it was evident that he was dissatisfied with the fact that I was the one arranging the plans. Still, since Jin was complying, he could only hold back and do as I said.

Moments after I finished speaking, Donald and Amanda separated themselves from Arnold who moved around the city by himself. Just as I had previously mentioned, they stayed within a fifty-meter radius of him.

Staring at Amanda, Donald, and Arnold's figures disappearing in the distance for a couple of seconds, turning my attention back towards Zack, I softly said.

"Alright, we should get moving too."