The light faded.
I blinked. Once. Twice.
The world loaded in.
Thick trees loomed around me, branches tangling overhead like nature's version of a barbed-wire fence. The smell of wet moss and pine hit my nose. Damp ground squished beneath my boots. Mist clung to the air.
Okay, not gonna lie. As far as school simulations go, this was borderline unfair in quality. Hero Academy must've spent a fortune—probably stolen from cafeteria funds.
I turned.
Bushes rustled.
Out came the fox.
Candice Midas, all elegant grace and icy death glare, stared down a flickering holographic map. Already calculating. Probably mentally subdividing the region into kill zones. Efficient. Ruthless. Annoyingly competent.
She didn't even spare me a glance.
Figures.
"Hey," I said, hands in my pockets. "Wanna make a bet?"
She tilted her head slightly. Still looking at the map. "I'm listening."
"It's a race. Most kills. Highest leaderboard score. Winner gets to make one request from the loser. No questions asked."
At that, she looked up. Eyes gleaming. "Fine. I don't see any reason not to."
I smirked. "Then let the hunt begin."
---
Elsewhere
Blades slashed.
Kaleb spun through the air, slicing down a serpentine beast with textbook precision. Wind magic whipped around him. His partner, Keesha, fired a beam of energy straight through another monster's skull.
Above them, the system pinged.
—Leaderboard—
1. Kaleb Orion: 10 pts
2. Rydell Djinn: 8 pts
3. Keesha Valenstein: 5 pts
…
7. Alice Levantine: 5 pts
…
18. Candice Midas: 3 pts
…
36. Axel Calford: 0 pts
---
In the Instructor's Chamber
The room was dark and quiet.
Holograms flickered across a massive round table, each window tracking a cadet. Professors watched silently as names floated and scores changed.
It was Professor Verres who broke the silence. "They move fast."
"Kaleb is already adapting to terrain variation," Mr. Zic noted. "His spell timing has improved since the entrance ceremony. Keesha complements him well."
"Rydell's route choices are impeccable," added a grizzled professor from the combat department. "He's using topography to isolate targets."
Candice's name flickered into the top twenty. A solid start.
Then someone chuckled. A deep voice from the shadows. "What about that boy… what's his name?"
A hologram zoomed in.
Axel Calford.
Still at zero points.
Professor Verres clicked her tongue. "That's Candice's partner. He's dragging her down."
"She's one of the top cadets," another muttered. "It's a shame she got paired with that."
Verres folded her arms. "Weak men who leech off others. I have no patience for them."
Only one didn't speak.
The Headmistress. SS+ ranked. The goblin-sized woman sat cross-legged on her floating chair, sipping from a juice box, smiling as she locked eyes on his screen.
"...We'll see," she said.
---
Elsewhere
A clean arc of steel sliced through a monster's neck.
+4 Points
I exhaled and flicked blood from my blade.
The swordsmanship I used wasn't flashy. It didn't glow. It didn't cause shockwaves. But it worked. I moved from shadow to shadow, [Poetic Sword] flowing like mist through air.
A low rumble shook the trees.
From between two fallen logs came an ogre—twice my size, armored in bark and bone. Rank C+. Two ranks above me.
It roared. I didn't.
What followed was a dance.
Dodges that skimmed death. Blades meeting claws. Cuts delivered to tendons, knees, underarms.
I was bleeding. Breathing hard. My glasses cracked.
But I won.
+15 Points
I dropped beside the corpse, sword stuck into the earth, chest heaving.
No time to rest.
Goblins came next. A group. Ten. Maybe more. But I'd played too many survival games to die now.
Gunshots echoed through the forest. My twin moons fired like a rhythm game. Ping. Ping. Ping. Headshots. A leg here. A stagger there.
Slash. Reload. Fire.
+20 Points
---
Instructor's Chamber
"He's... climbing the board," someone muttered.
Verres narrowed her eyes.
"…Huh?"
Axel's name jumped from 36 to 21. Then 18. Then 12.
Professor Javatte chuckled quietly. "Interesting."
The headmistress slurped her juice again. "That's my boy."
---
Somewhere in the Forest
I finally took a moment. Wiped blood from my face. Opened my status screen.
[Strength] increased.
At the top, a bar blinked:
LV.1: [-------------------79%----]
"…I can level up?" I blinked.
Ding!
[Status Window fully initialized... Complete]
[New Quest: Reach Level 2]
[Reward: +1 Trait Point]
Oh. Now we're talking.
I took it seriously from there.
Grinding. Dodging. Shooting. Slicing. Until—
[Level Up: 2]
[+1 Trait Point Gained]
I smiled.
Then something changed.
[Timer: 0:00:00]
The countdown hit zero. But… nothing happened.
"Okay?" I muttered. "Why aren't we logging out?"
Then I noticed.
The world… flickered.
The air warped like static. A glitch shimmered across the sky.
"Hello?" I looked around. "System? Log me out?"
But the sky was silent.
Then I felt it.
Footsteps.
A presence.
Not human.
A figure emerged from the trees. Tall. Thin. Humanoid—barely.
Eyes glowing. Smile twisted.
A demon.
One that didn't belong in this simulation.
It raised a hand—
And smiled.