Trudging through the sand, Cain was sweating heavily. The planet the students had arrived on was a desert planet. It had been about 4 hours since they had landed, and so far, just as the teachers said, they had encountered only F-rank monsters. There were a few E-rank monsters, but they had managed to avoid them.
"Being an extra is nice. Right now, the main characters are trapped in some ancient tomb and are busy fighting for their lives, while all I am doing is defeating some weak monsters," Cain thought, feeling a sense of relief.
So far, Cain's team had killed 14 monsters, with most of the kills credited to Selena. With a flick of her hands, she impaled the monsters with ice, making it look effortless. Excluding Selena, the rest of the team had only two kills, and they had to work together to take down each monster. Cain didn't put in his best effort, trying only enough not to seem entirely useless. Unfortunately, with nothing else to do, David found it amusing to make fun of Cain.
"Hey shrimp, walk faster! You are slowing us down," David taunted, and the others joined in laughter. Selena, however, remained indifferent and continued walking ahead.
'Huh, I just want to beat the shit out of this guy. What did I do to him?' Cain thought, trying to ignore the mockery.
Throughout his life, Cain had been self-conscious about his height, and hearing David's comments was pushing him to his limits.
'This guy is starting to annoy me. I just want to beat the shit out of him, yet if I do that, we would lose points from teamwork.'
As they pressed on, David's taunts persisted, and Cain was about to snap when Selena finally spoke up.
"Hey, stop talking. You are starting to annoy me," Selena's tone was icy, shutting David up immediately.
As they continued walking, the desert seemed to get even hotter instead of cooler. Cain was grateful he had prepared for the conditions, but the others seemed to think it was just an exploration mission.
'Well, it's more of a survival mission. We're gonna be stuck here for 3 days. In a few hours, the school will cut off communication with the students' Z-Watches. They want to see how we handle stressful situations, but of course, they'll be monitoring us from a distance.'
'As soon as the school cuts off communication, chaos is gonna ensue. It'll be a battle for resources, and teammates will turn on each other. Friends will become enemies, and they will never be the same again.'
After another 2 hours of walking, the exhaustion was evident among the team members.
"Hey, why are we still here? Didn't the teachers say we'd only be here for 5 hours? We've already been here for 6 hours," Pickle complained, panting heavily.
He wasn't the only one tired; nearly the whole team was fatigued, including Selena.
"I'll try to use the emergency button. Maybe something is wrong," Josephine said, sitting down from exhaustion.
The Z-Watches were equipped with an emergency button that would inform the school if the students were in danger, and the school could track the students through it. As Josephine tried to send a message, she realized something was amiss.
"Hey, every time I send an emergency report to the school, it just shows an error message on my watch," Josephine said, looking increasingly worried.
"Let me try. Your watch is probably malfunctioning," David said as he quickly attempted to contact the school.
"It's not working for me either."
Fear and panic started to set in as the thought of being stuck on the planet filled their minds.
"If we're gonna be stuck here, we have to collect food. Who knows how long we'll be here?" Cain suggested, looking at his team.
"Hey, shut up, shrimp! You're just going to be dead weight anyway," David retorted, smirking as the others nodded in agreement.
"I say we leave him here; he will only slow us down," David suggested with malicious intent.
"NO," Selena intervened, putting a stop to their heartless plan.
"This could be a test from the school. If we leave him, we might lose points."
Before they could argue further, vibrations rippled through the ground beneath them. Selena immediately sensed the danger and jumped away, but a massive worm, the size of a train, emerged from the sand, its hundreds of teeth bared as it lunged at her.
"Shit!" The perilous battle was about to begin.