12 Minutes: Monsters Unleashed and PvP Schemes
"Peros! Kill all the monsters you can see around us!"
Liz summoned Peros and began slaughtering the nearby monsters.
Most of the monsters looked identical. There were four in total: a massive hedgehog attacking from the ground, a giant earthworm striking from below, a huge bat in the sky, and a gigantic catfish in the water.
Since they were artificially created monsters that wouldn't attack students, there wasn't much variety to expect.
I could use my detection ability to pinpoint their locations and wipe them out in one go, but that would make the game no fun at all.
So instead, I've been keeping things just right—enough for our master's team to hover between 2nd and 3rd place.
Team 4 (Lur, Liz) - 18 points earned (Currently 3rd)
"Going pretty smoothly. I don't remember ever catching 18 monsters myself... so Thanatos must be helping out."
"You're helping us from where we can't see... Thank you, Thanatos."
Hehehe, and I get free pets and pats from our master in return. All I have to do is casually squash some bugs and keep our ranking steady.
Judging by the ratios, there are 10 teams here. Class 1 has 20 students, paired up two per team, so yeah, that checks out.
Looking at the Academy performance evaluation scores, there are A, B, C, and F grades. F goes to only 10% of students, with the rest split evenly at 30% each.
With 10 teams, 1st through 3rd get A, 4th through 6th get B, 7th through 9th get C, and the last team gets F for both members.
If 1st, 2nd, and 3rd all get the same score, there's no need to push for higher than 3rd. The moment you hit 1st or 2nd, you'll become everyone's target.
Someone might ask, "But this is just a monster-hunting game in the Instant Area—why worry about getting targeted by other teams?"
Think about it. The rules say, "Attacking a summoner in any form results in elimination."
Get it now? It's not a team-vs-team battle royale, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. If a team's summons are all killed, they're out.
So naturally, some teams will try to wipe out their rivals' summons to eliminate them. Even if it's just students, no one would miss something that obvious.
In the worst case, teams might band together to crush the top two.
What do you do then? Maintain that safe 3rd place. They won't attack us—in fact, they'll probably propose an alliance. Who in their right mind would go after 3rd?
Plus, compared to the other teams' summons, mine hasn't shown much in evaluations or elsewhere. A mysterious summon whose full power hasn't been revealed, holding 3rd place. Versus the 1st and 2nd place teams whose abilities were fully exposed during the evaluation and chats.
Which would you target? Yeah, the latter.
"Whoa, Lur! Someone's already out!"
"Where? No way! That's Team 2, who was in 1st! How'd they get taken down by monsters... Did they overdo it and run out of steam?"
Team 2 (Yuren, Magni) - 37 points earned (Former 1st*Eliminated - No more points; head to Professor Ellie)
"37 points? How much time's passed?"
"8 minutes."
"That's rough. They were leading early on, but now they'll end up last. So heartbreaking..."
"Let's make sure we don't end up like that—let's do our best!"
"Yeah..."
Hmm... With 1st place eliminated, we've bumped up to 2nd. Guess I'll hold off on killing monsters for a bit. Dropping to 4th would be ideal if possible.
Someone might say, "Then just drop to last and get off the radar!" But variables like limited monster spawns could pop up.
The other students might not know, but monster generation numbers and positions are being tweaked on the fly by Professor Ellie and that uncle Zeke.
Haha... If they kept it 100% fair, no issue, but humans aren't wired that way. They always favor the pretty students in their eyes.
-1 minute ago
"This spot's ours—we claimed it first. Go somewhere else..."
-Puuk!
"M-my summon... What the hell! This is a monster-hunting evaluation..."
"Kyaaah! My summon too... What are you doing?!"
Team 2 had been diligently hunting monsters periodically, holding 1st place. But they failed to spot the rules' loophole.
And so, they were eliminated.
Team 2 (Yuren, Magni) - 37 points earned (Former 1st*Eliminated - No more points; head to Professor Ellie)
"Haha, check it out! Operation success!"
"For real. You can eliminate teams just by killing their summons."
"With my Monster Plant, taking out the others will be a breeze."
The two approached the teary-eyed, eliminated Team 2.
"Get out of the Instant Area!"
"The book says to go to Professor Ellie."
The defeated Team 2 swallowed their tears and trudged out of the Instant Area with heavy steps.
The hunters of Team 2 were Team 7: Adam and Eve.
"Eve, who's next on the menu?"
"Hold on, let me check the book. Man, this thing's super convenient—shows everyone's rankings."
1st - Team 1 (Teren, Kim Eunhasu)
2nd - Team 4 (Lur, Liz)
3rd - Team 7 (Adam, Eve)
They scanned the book for their next prey.
"How about hitting Teren's team?"
"Nah, Adam. He's a transfer student—we don't know his abilities. Too risky."
Adam handled the fists, Eve the brains. They were twins, and though Eve's name confused people, he was a guy—clearly so from his looks.
"Then what about 2nd place?"
"That's the F-rank and class rep team. We barely know their summons' powers."
At Eve's words, the battle-hungry Adam threw a fit.
"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"
"Ugh, shut it, you single-celled brute. Didn't you see that F-rank's summon?"
Adam remembered. The terror of first witnessing Thanatos emerge from the darkness.
"Fine... skip Team 4 with Lur."
"Better to lay low anyway."
Adam exploded again.
"Argh, you frustrating punk. Keep being this passive, and who are we gonna smash?"
"We're 3rd right now. We get A just chilling."
"Cut off what's dangling between your legs."
"Sigh... fine. Start with the weakest-looking 9th place."
"That's my brother! Ahahahaha!"
Adam and Eve vanished into the forest to hunt their next target.
Professor Ellie and Zeke stood quietly at the elimination zone. Then Team 2 appeared.
"Well, well! You all look beat! It's okay—everyone gets an F sometimes in life!"
Zeke tried to console them, but it fell flat.
The two, fresh off their loss to Adam and Eve, sighed deeply and slumped to the ground.
"Monsters get you?"
"No, Adam and Eve attacked us."
"While we were focused on hunting."
Zeke stroked his chin and laughed heartily.
"Hahahaha! What naughty kids—exploiting rule loopholes!"
But Professor Ellie knew. Zeke had anticipated this—hell, he was hoping for it.
"Mr. Zeke, it's been 12 minutes. Didn't you say you'd enter the Instant Area as a monster in 10?"
At her words, Zeke did some elementary-school-style calisthenics stretches.
"Professor, sometimes you gotta give students a surprise event."
Ellie stared at him like, What the hell kind of guy is this?
"Always something happening at set times? That's for schools and academies. Real combat has no such rules."
"..."
"Kids need to learn monsters don't show up on a class schedule—1st period, break time, 2nd period, break."
Zeke said while doing push-ups, sweat beading on his forehead like fruit.
"They're not some timed lesson."
Suddenly, Zeke bolted to the bell and hammered it with both fists.
It signaled the awakening of an unstoppable beast.
"Kids! I'm coming for ya!"
Zeke charged into the Instant Area at light speed.
The students, hearing the bell, realized: Now it really begins.
Zeke sensed the nearest two summons and—
-Pow-pow-pow-pow-pow-bam!
—blasted them with his fists in an instant.
"Huh...?"
"What?"
"Team 3... eliminated~!!! Head to Professor Ellie!"
It had been just 8 seconds since Zeke entered the Instant Area.