The total strength of first year students in the Origin academy were now inside the vast and seemingly endless mana simulation room. The room had a very diverse terrain, some parts were plain lands while others were mountains, deserts heck there was even dense jungles and a coast.
The students who were teleported inside the room were enthralled by this endless beautiful scenery and couldn’t shake their eyes from it. The air inside the room was heavier than usual, the reason being the mana density was twice as normal.
Some of them mainly from the D and E section had some difficulty to make themselves accommodate in this mana dense atmosphere but they were able to do it after a few minutes and now they began exploring this place.
Several groups were going randomly in any direction. Their only aim was to find the treasure and be the number one on the leaderboard, ah yes there was a huge floating leaderboard in the blue sky of the room and it was showing their ranks which right now was the same for all of them.
Their watches were also linked with the leaderboard meaning that every single of their movements was being recorded and displayed outside making it even harder.
Ah yes when someone asked Laura about the rules to be followed inside the room she showed a smile and said,
“There are no rules, oh and don’t worry you can’t be really harmed in the room as it is merely a simulation.”
That was true there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to survival of an individual in this world, one has to use every trick and treat in their books to stay alive. Some might have their pride and arrogance but it doesn’t really matter when you are dead does it?
Majority of the first year have not seen how vile this world could be and have that rosy sunshine picture in their head and that was something the administration wanted to correct about, they need to be more aware about their surroundings and what’s better to do it but in this situation.
That was the reason Laura said there are no rules here.
Akira was teleported in the far west corner of the room where terrain was that of an abandoned city, broken and decayed buildings, streets with moss growing on it, streetlights with rust eating them and an eerie silence. It looked like he was alone here or maybe just a few of them were thrown in at this place.
“So it’s an abandoned city, not bad I was preparing for something even worse.” He said and began walking in the old and worn out streets, every step of his made a loud sound which reverberated.
“If I am not wrong Richard and his group are somewhere in the southern corner near the mangroves. They will take some time to come to the center.” He was not sure why but somehow he was able to remember every single location of the hidden treasure and the main cast's location too.
“Hmm should I aim for a top rank or be content with something average? Let’s decide on the move.” He said to himself and walked towards the city center where if he was correct something good was hiding in.
When he reached there it was the exact same scene from the game, a stage was built in the middle of the road and on the stage several hanging ropes were present. It was the execution stage, back in the days when discrimination against demihumans was at it’s peak they used something like this.
The people used to buy demihumans slaves and when a slave committed a crime he or she was hanged in public without any trial hence leading to the name execution stage. It was also due to this fact that there was a hidden treasure underneath that stage.
But there was a problem, he was not alone, there was already a group present there and it was a seven member one meaning they outnumbered him seven to him and those are quite bad numbers.
There’s also this fact that currently everyone’s strength is suppressed to tier 2 and no skills or spells could be used as they were also negated by the room. So he did what he could, he hid behind an old and dilapidated building and watched this group in their bidding.
He was almost sure of them not finding the treasure but then again anything could happen in these places so it was better to watch first. The group was most probably a mixed one, some were from B section while others from C but nothing less than that.
“Yo Chris I don’t see anything man.” Said a fat guy who was sweating profusely.
“Fattie don’t make excuses just search the area.” Chris, a boy with blonde hair and blue hair said, maybe he was the leader.
“Are you sure? I don’t see shit man.” Another guy with black hairs and black eyes, with a bow on his back said.
“Eww what in the hell is this Chris?” A girl who also had blonde hair and blue eyes jumped and ran from her place, apparently her hand had touched a bread which was molding.
“Maria, are you okay?” Chris too ran from his place and took her in his embrace.
“Huu Chris there’s green bread there.” She said with tears in her eyes.
“Aww don’t worry Maria I won’t let anything happen to you.” Chris said and she blushed.
Akira who was watching this had his mouth opened and eyebrows twitching in anger,
“Kids these days are so cringey.”
“Oi Love birds we should move from this place, there’s nothing here and the time limit is only three hours.” Another guy with blue hair said and they all nodded.
“But I do feel that something is here.” Chris protested.
“And we searched just let it go Chris.” Blue haired guy replied and maybe he was the leader?
“Okay.” Yep he was definitely the leader.
And like that they went away from the place and after waiting for fifteen minutes or so Akira came out of hiding and went to the place where after some searching he found the treasure, it was a small flute and upon touching it glowed and gave a plus five points for him.
He stuffed the flute shaped object in his pocket and looked in the sky where the huge leaderboard was present and his name was on the top, rank one.
“Ehh? I wanted it to be good but isn’t this too much?” Well now there’s nothing he could do now so he decided to move on and leave this place.
But before he could,
“Didn’t I say that we don’t need to do anything.” A deep male voice came from behind.
“Haha never knew you were so intelligent Dave.” Another voice came.
“Huh, are you doubting me Kazuya?” Dave shouted.
Akira on the other hand was thinking where these two idiots were hiding and how he could get out of this situation.
“Are you the one named Akira?” Kazuya asked while pointing a finger at him.
“Nope.” He replied and tried to walk away from that place but it wasn’t going to this easy right?
“Oi oi where do you think you are going? We saw you getting that treasure, now hand it over and we will let you go.”
“Seriously? You do know that it’s cheating right?” Akira tried to argue while thinking how to get out of this mess.
“Cheating?” Kazuya was panicked at that and turned his gaze at Dave who too was looking uncomfortable but said,
“What cheating? Miss Laura said there were no rules in here so taking stuff from you is all by the rules.” Dave argued and Kazuya was thinking about something and suddenly his eyes widened and he made a knowing face and said,
“Wait, what was your name again?”
“Why are you acting like an idiot Kazuya, can’t you read the leaderboard and the only name with a point after it?” Dave said while rubbing his temples.
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“Damn! Dave, he's Akira, the one we have been hearing about.” Kazuya literally screamed at this point.
“Wait the rapist and molester who stalks girls and then kidnaps them?” Dave blurted out and this made Akira drop his face.
Just what in the world was going on? He knew about the rumors going in and around the academy but seriously? A rapist? He hadn’t even had his first kiss yet much less losing his virginity.
“Yes, yes he’s the one who has been stalking girls in the academy.” Kazuya added and now both of them had their faces distorted in anger.
“Guys those are merely some rumors and they defin-” He wanted to say but to no avail.
“Shut up you bastard! At first I thought you were a normal student but no you are an abomination and we gotta teach you a lesson.” Both of them cracked their knuckles after saying that and started moving forward.
“I have heard that he’s is E section, right Kazuya?” Dave asked his friend.
“Yeah and we are in the D section so we can completely kick his ass.”
Kazuya replied and both of them were now standing within a two meter radius of Akira.
“Believe me you don’t wanna do this.” Akira said and backed down.
“Oh we are doing this and no one can stop us.” These guys were acting like they had a personal grudge against him but that was not the reason.
These two were actually jealous of Akira, well jealous of the fact that he had sex with women which was totally false and here they didn’t even had a girlfriend despite of the fact that they were in D section while he was a mere E section guy.
At Richard’s side he and his group were in a swamp area with a thick fog shrouding the visibility. He could feel that his strength was suppressed by an external force and the same was true for the rest of his friends.
“Lily, are you okay?”
“Ah, yes but I can’t see much in this thick fog.” She was standing next to him.
“Me too and that’s why we should get out of this area as quickly as possible.” He said to her and his team members.
“Shin, go ahead and scout the area.” He told the ranger of his group.
“Of course, that’s my speciality.” Shin had a thin stature but his senses were acute and extremely sensitive making him the best fit for a ranger.
“Lily, what do you think about the location of treasures?” Richard asked her.
“Hmm I think that they should be scattered around the room and each should be in a different terrain and oh yes we should go towards the center of this room as everyone would be doing the same.” She was quite right and he nodded to that.
Shin who was scouting ahead came back and reported his findings which were that this entire area is a big swamp but just a few kilometers ahead the terrain magically changes to that of cold Iceland and there’s something twinkling there.
They were making their way ahead to Iceland when the leaderboard in the sky changed and someone’s name came to the top. They stopped in their tracks and looked at who was lucky one to get a treasure and add one point.
It was Akira’s name and that surprised a lot of people due to his bad reputation and the various tags but the most shocked person was Lily who couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Richard standing next to her saw this and asked her,
“Is it the same guy you told me about?”
“Huh?” She couldn't hear what he said due to her focus on the leaderboard.
“Is he the same guy?”
“Ah yes he’s the one.”
“Lucky guy if I must say, he found one of them quickly.” Richard said and thought about something.
“Hmph! He can only rely on his luck.” She snorted and that made him chuckle.
“Hehe look at your face so full of anger. Just what in the world did he do to earn so much ire from you.” He commented and they moved forward.
“He-” She wanted to tell the exact thing but stopped as the memories of her and Akira which she had tried to forget rose up again and made her uncomfortable.
She didn’t wanted to remember anything about him but somehow at the mention of his name all the good and bad things again rose up in her heart making it tremble but when she thought about ‘that’ incident all of it was replaced by pure anger.
It was a good thing that he had tried not to contact her since the last month or so, otherwise she didn’t know what she would have done. But somewhere in a deep corner of her heart there were questions regarding this silence of his.
Richard clapped his hand which made her snap out of her thoughts and look at her surroundings which were now made up of large and endless ice sheets covering the horizon. They were no longer in that swamp and the weather was getting chilly.
They walked for some time when Richard saw a glowing object on the ground and on closer inspection it was a panda shaped key chain which upon touching it gave him five points.
The leaderboard had changed and now there were three groups and one individual having one point each. One group was Richard's, the others were Aurora’s and Drake’s which was expected from the likes of them.
“Yay we found one.” Lily exclaimed and showed a blessed smile which captivated Richard and made his heart skip a beat. He blushed a little too but managed to hide it.
“Yeah, let's move on.” He said and went ahead without anyone else with him.
“Hey, hey where are you going?” Lily shouted but he didn’t stop.
On Akira’s side the two boys Kazuya and Dave were lying on the ground. They had a few bruises on their face, their eyes and ears were swollen and turned blue and were now regretting crossing paths with him.
“I told you this was a bad idea.” Akira said while tending to the injury on his hand, he could have used the Ring of Regeneration but as all of this was shown outside so he had to hide that.
“Just ho- how are you so strong?” Dave asked.
“I am not strong you dumb-asses, you guys are pathetically weak.” He said and went away from the place.
“Dave..”
“Kazuya..”
Like that their bodies vanished from the mana simulation room, when someone’s health dropped below a certain level they would be automatically kicked out of this room, it was a safety mechanism. Akira knew about that and hence he only injured them to a point where they would be sent out.
Now he had crossed the abandoned city and was in the dense jungles where he was walking forward and trying to reach the center of this place. He had already one of the treasures which guaranteed good results so now he could relax and move at a leisurely pace.