As the students remained captivated, a small, enigmatic smile crept across Chung Oji's lips. He rose to his feet, fixing his gaze upon Micale before addressing the assembly with his mana-amplified voice.
"Thank you, Micale, for your assistance. Now, my dear students, as you are well aware, it is a time-honored tradition that each year, we hold a competition to determine the ranking of our first-year students. This year, we are blessed with an extraordinary group of students, and to discern the best among them, we shall witness a Battle Royale."
A hushed silence fell over the entire coliseum as Chung Oji's words reverberated in the hearts of the students. Observing the tension that had settled among the audience, Oji allowed a sly smile to grace his features.
"Do not be disheartened, my dear students. Remember, even if you do not fare well in this initial ranking, you will have ample opportunity to alter it in the course of the semester," he reassured them.
"Now, let us commence with the first trial."
As soon as Oji completed his words, Alex felt as if he was being sucked into a portal, and then he looked at his back and saw a blue circled portal that was sucking him inside it. He quickly looked at his side where Ember was sitting, and to his surprise, Ember was also looking at him. Then he heard her voice, "Good luck."
***
"Where is this place?" Alex asked himself as he found himself in the middle of a jungle. He looked around him, trying to understand the situation when suddenly a hologram image appeared in front of his eyes.
<< Welcome to the First Trial: "The Jungle Kill" >>
<< Objective: Survive >>
"What?" Alex was trying to understand the objective when he heard a voice coming from above.
"HELLO, GUYS! I am your truly commentator for this trial. My name is Gavi."
"Now, let me tell you the rules of this trial. As you have already heard from our respected Principal, this trial will be a Battle Royale. All of the first-year students have been teleported to one of our academy's floating islands named the 'Purple Jungle'."
"If any of you are wondering why it's called the Purple Jungle, just look at the sky."
Hearing the announcer's words, Alex looked at the sky, and to his astonishment, the sky was completely purple.
"Well, by now, you must be well aware of why it was given that name. But that's not the important thing. Now, please move your eyes from the beautiful sky toward the horizon. What do you see?"
Alex looked at the horizon, and what he saw was, "Blue light," he mumbled.
"Yes, blue light, or to be more specific, a boundary. Inside the boundary is the 'Safe Zone'. Any student who goes outside the blue light will be disqualified from the battle."
"But that's not the only thing you guys need to worry about. As time goes by, the Safe Zone will shrink, and in 3 hours, it will continuously shrink until it covers only a small area in the last few minutes before the trial ends."
"Now, only one student can fit inside the Safe Zone at the end of the trial. So you have to make sure that the last one standing is you."
Hearing the announcement, all the students inside the jungle understood what they had to do, and so did Alex as his bright face darkened.
"Well, I guess I don't need to tell you guys what to do. For every kill, you will be given points, which will also be taken into consideration when assigning your rank. NOW, LET'S BEGIN THE SHOW," Gavi announced.
"Shall we?"
As soon as the announcement completed, a notification came to Alex's smartwatch. He opened the notification, revealing a map of the jungle with red marks indicating the other players' footprints, as well as a blue footprint indicating his position.
As he looked at the map, he saw a red footprint right beside him.
"Die!" a student aimed at his head with his hammer. But before the hammer could hit Alex's head, the guy saw a sword pierce his chest. The student looked at Alex with astonishment in his eyes and asked, "How?" before his body vanished from there and reappeared in the coliseum.
"Wow, what sharp reflexes," one of the elders said while sitting in the elders' conference.
"This child is quite talented," another person remarked.
Hearing the elders' words, the person sitting at the front of the table said, "Don't judge so soon; we have a lot of time to see how talented he is."
"Of course, First Elder."
The First Elder, Carlose Grandore, looked at Alex through the monitor and mumbled, "Another talented individual. I wonder what that monster is doing."