Nice to Meet You
Hey there.
Rule 1. This is a real situation. Stay alert at all times.
Rule 2. If you wish to forfeit, shout “I surrender” or fire the single flare provided to each participant.
Rule 3. Instructors may disqualify you at their discretion if they determine you are in danger. Be aware of this.
Rule 4. Do not rush!
※ CRITICAL INFORMATION ※
The exam continues until only one person remains. The playable area will gradually shrink at set intervals. Shrinking zones are marked entirely in red—escape immediately! Remaining inside will result in elimination!
Everything else must be handled on your own. Victory does not require defeating opponents directly. Claim success in whatever way suits you.
Special rewards will be given to the final ten survivors.
It was one of Mirinae Academy’s traditional events: the survival test. Open to the entire student body, it made up ten percent of the first-years’ end-of-term ranking evaluation—an important class. Even if someone dominated and took first place, it wouldn’t dramatically change their life, but there was no downside to doing well.
Getting the solo survivor reward would be better than whatever the top ten get, though.
Even if circumstances forced me into party play, as long as my combat ability met the conditions I could still operate solo. To make that possible, I needed to move quickly and snatch up as many scattered pieces of the pie as I could.
Which means I need to start moving.
The most important order of business in a survival scenario was food, shelter, and clothing. Without food you couldn’t move, without shelter you had no safety, and without clothes your vitals were far too exposed. This created a massive information gap even among first-years. Mirinae Academy always opened the first semester with this survival test; it was practically a set tradition. Anyone who didn’t know that would panic. Being dropped onto a remote island wearing nothing but a school uniform was enough to send most people into a meltdown.
But if you had prior information, you could prepare. And that preparation was usually monopolized by the nobles. In practice, most nobles claimed the top spots in this test while commoners were eliminated early in droves. The result fueled class conflict, giving nobles an excuse to pressure the commoners over their poor performance.
That would be inconvenient.
When playing solo, the most important thing was to always think several steps ahead. If I ran around like an idiot relying only on my own strength and got into danger without any backup, I’d just die. Game over. Straight to the afterlife express ticket.
To prevent that, I first had to resolve the deep-rooted class conflict within Mirinae Academy. Therefore, the top priority for this test was simple.
Drop a huge number of nobles.
The commoners were already suppressed by the nobles’ aura from the moment they enrolled. If their morale dropped any further here, it would be catastrophic. I needed to forcibly drag most of the commoners into the upper ranks and fill them with confidence.
I can manage that much.
There was only one reason I could be this confident: the ten years I had spent living as a wild man. The odds that any noble or commoner had ever chewed tree bark or fashioned clothes from leaves? Zero percent. I was the only one who could proudly declare himself the ruler of this island.
And the first thing I needed to do to make that happen was simple.
Conserve stamina and rest deeply.
It was the “fucking hold-out” strategy—also known as zonber.
Chew. Chew. Chew.
The edible mushroom I thought I had cooked properly suddenly released a strange aftertaste. The clear warning that spitting it out immediately was the only way to avoid ruining my body made Benras finally eject everything in his mouth.
“Ptui! Ptui! Ptui! What the hell is this? What’s happening all of a sudden?!”
Third day on the uninhabited island. Benras could no longer endure the repeated cycle of wilderness life and finally exploded.
Out of 1,523 participants, roughly 800 students had been eliminated. It seemed like a lot, yet nearly half still remained, and the rate of elimination had slowed dramatically. Only the truly tenacious were left.
“I can’t even light a proper fire… I can’t eat or sleep comfortably… I can’t even rest properly…”
The thought that enemies surrounded them from every direction weighed on Benras and most of the students on the island. Some formed teams to stand night watch, but those groups quickly fractured. The moment anyone showed their back, they were ambushed and suffered even greater injuries.
The only silver lining was that he had gathered some first-aid supplies and emergency rations thanks to prior information. Originally he should have had a high-grade down sleeping bag and a one-person tent enchanted with protective magic, but both had been destroyed during combat.
Stealing, being stolen from, fleeing, chasing—the cycle continued without end. In seventy-two hours he had only slept five. His body was naturally reaching its limit. No matter how much training they had done to enter Mirinae Academy, none of it had prepared them for actual survival. They had been able to prepare in advance, but no one had expected it to be this harsh, so there had been some complacency.
“First day, first class… does this even make sense? With no time limit…?”
A crazy survival test that continued indefinitely until only one person remained. Benras desperately wanted to shout surrender, but his pride as the seventh-ranked student in the year refused to allow it. He intended to endure with everything he had and aim for first place this time.
Kim Seokcheol, was it? I’ll definitely crush that bastard too.
Whether by fate or misfortune, Benras and Kim Seokcheol—ranked seventh and eighth—had ended up sitting next to each other. With Lee Seokhyun right in front of them, Benras had somehow found himself trapped among commoners.
“That is truly unacceptable.”
A noble sandwiched between commoners. Such a thing could never be allowed.
First… I need to secure a shelter.
Benras calmed his emotions and coldly reassessed the situation. He still had medicine and food, and his uniform was intact. The only thing he needed now was a hiding place. Most caves were already occupied by teams, so approaching them would be difficult. That left climbing a tree or digging a hole.
Digging consumes too much stamina. A tree is safest.
Plus, being in a tree would let him secure a good view—killing two birds with one stone. No worries about beasts climbing up, and he could rest comfortably while maintaining visibility. Benras’s face brightened with the brilliance of his own idea as he began searching for the tallest tree, dreaming of a hopeful future.
Found one.
After spending roughly two hours, he finally discovered a tree that ranked among the taller ones on the island. The surrounding silence was so complete it sent chills down his spine, but he told himself it was nothing. He even imagined that he alone had discovered this spot despite the huge number of people.
Yes, this is what it means to be a noble—personally pioneering an unknown land. Just like Professor Kerar.
Wasn’t he taking the first step of a great adventurer right now? Benras savored the happiness in his heart as he slowly climbed the tree. Dreaming of safety, of a happy ending in the form of excellent grades, he ascended as if climbing a rope to heaven.
One hand, then the other. When he finally neared the top—
“Spiderwebs…?”
Benras saw pure white spider silk stretched all around. Just how large a spider would be needed to wrap such thick threads around a tree like this? It was disgusting, but he steeled himself to fight if necessary in order to secure a nest. He continued climbing.
And the moment Benras reached the very top of the tree—
A shiver ran down his spine.
He sensed an unfamiliar, overwhelming pressure. The feeling that his neck could snap at any moment. The ominous premonition that his next action would be the last of his life.
“…Uh… uhh…?”
The thought of using his abilities didn’t even occur to him. The instinct to survive flooded his entire body, yet his strength was steadily draining away. He had not yet learned how to maintain composure when hope was brutally crushed and despair took its place.
“Ughhhhh…”
His hands and feet trembled violently. He wanted to scream surrender right then, but his body was paralyzed and refused to obey. An entity that could instill this much terror without even confronting him directly—Benras knew what it was.
Because it was—
“Ughhhhuuuuuhhh…?”
The sixth-ranked first-year.
“Why can’t you speak properly, Benras? You were running your mouth so much down below the tree.”
The representative speaker.
“Still… I was planning to go find you, but you came to me instead. Thanks.”
The guy who sat right next to him.
“L-L-L-Lee S-S-S-Seok-Seokhyun!!!”
“That’s right. It’s me.”
It was Lee Seokhyun.
The words “Nice to meet you” seeped into Benras’s ears like a death sentence.