Room 36.
It was etched in bold letters so that no one could miss it.
Felix, with a determined expression, twisted the knob and entered.
He had achieved the bare minimum even after he studied so diligently, but this was to be expected.
At least, he thought so.
He viewed himself as someone without talent.
Only through hard work could this talentless self of his traverse the path at similar speeds that others moved at.
Due to his results, he was ranked somewhere in the bottom of the camp.
Stepping into dorm room 36, he was greeted by a 5x8 meter space, measuring eight meters in length and five meters in width.
There was a single bed jammed against the wall, with a student already present, laying on it.
After passing through security, they were given their identification card that could only be used within military zone #91, along with the dorm and room which they were situated in.
Thereafter, they were brought straight to a large hall for the orientation.
Therein, although he spent some time looking for Anon and the others, he was one of the earlier students to head back to their dorm.
Yet, this fellow defeated him in that race.
"Oh, you're here," The boy had dark brown eyes with black hair.
He was taller than Felix, made more obvious when he slowly got out of bed. After rising to his feet, he towered over Felix by a good bit.
Seizing up Felix, he grinned, saying, "You'll sleep on the ground, alright."
Toward this towering fellow with dark intentions, Felix swallowed hard.
The guy before him was at least 6'4 and was muscular, much bigger than Felix himself who only stood at 5'9 and was more skinny than anything else.
Though humans in the current world could be considered evolved versions of their old selves, the disparity between any two individuals remained, and there were obviously cases of bullying.
In fact, it had only skyrocketed in this era.
The era of hope, of lasting, was the first era after the desolate age.
Humans had changed, or more accurately, the vileness within humans could be revealed slightly more with less repercussions.
In the camp of ten thousand, there were two absolute rules.
No sexual relations between a man and woman, and no killing.
Without saying it directly, students knew that the instructors were basically saying, "Anything else goes."
Felix meekly nodded his head.
What was he to do?
Fight back?
He'd get his head embedded into the ground before he even realized which of this bastard's fist was about to land on his face.
Seeing such an obedient little brat, the black-haired boy chortled aloud, "Hahaha, good, good. I like you. From now on, you are my, Alek Slavutych's, person."
Because they were of the lowest ranks, their room was crammed.
With such little space, and three individuals, of which, the third didn't seem to care much for Felix either, their time together was anything but great.
"Oh, it's lunch already." Alek grinned whilst glancing at his watch.
He lazily lay in bed, glancing toward Felix, who sat in the corner of the room.
"Yow, would you mind going to the cafeteria and bringing back some lunch for us...?!"
The third individual, a young man with grey hair, slightly taller than Felix but much more muscular, slowly rose from a push up position and looked towards Felix whilst asking this.
He asked in a tone that made it clear he didn't care for Felix's opinion.
"Y-Yeah..."
Clicking his tongue, Felix got up to his feet whilst shaking his head.
Inherently, he wasn't the type to want to be looked down upon, but he was no masochist either.
If he deliberately rejected them, he would just end up with a beatdown.
He was physically weaker than them, and he was no martial artist either, so he naturally intended to bring back lunch for them.
"Yow, bro."
The grey-haired boy stepped toward the door, preventing Felix from exiting as he adopted a scowling face and asked in a deep voice, "Shaking your head like that? And clicking your tongue with that kind of attitude? What, do I look like your little sister or something?!"
He grabbed Felix by the throat with his right hand, retracting his left. That hand descended from above, slapping Felix across the face before returning from the opposite direction to backhand his other cheek.
The second slap caused Felix's lips to bruise and blood to spill.
Without a second thought, he flung Felix to the side and growled, "Hurry and bring back some food. I'm fucking pissed because of you, and I'm hungry too. For fuck's sake, I could just kill you right now."
Towards Felix who slowly caught himself, the grey-haired boy sent a kick that sunk into Felix's side.
Groaning in pain, Felix swallowed the mouthful of blood that rose from his throat and blinked a couple times to catch himself.
His head was buzzing as he stood up and stumbled his way out of the room.
"Heh."
Alek turned to the grey-haired boy, asking, "Why're you being so hard on him, Dorion..." Though he said so in a carefree manner, it did not hide the genuine curiosity in his voice.
Dorion's facial expression didn't change much.
He dropped to the floor and began a round of pushups as he said simultaneously, "He looks like a fucking fag, moves like a fag, talks like a fag, so naturally, I'm fucking pissed just from seeing his face."
"Not gonna lie, I was just testing him when we had met, but he really just accepted sleeping on the ground." Alek chuckled, "Never expected to meet such a pushover in the legendary camp of ten thousand…"
"Me neither." Dorion laughed and groaned simultaneously as he alternated between clap push-ups and regular push-ups.
Meanwhile, Felix made his way to the male dorm for top-ranked students.
In what felt like a sick joke, he realized that low rankers weren't even allowed into the cafeteria until the top hundred students had their lunch.
Those top hundred weren't permitted inside until the top thirty had eaten. And the top thirty couldn't have lunch until rank one—who happened to be Anon—gave the go-ahead.
In fact, on the first day of the camp of ten thousand, Anon was either trying to stack his sleep, or cultivating, so he had no time for lunch.
When lunch arrived, it passed without anyone getting a meal.
Truthfully, it was the workers of military zone #91 who enjoyed themselves during that time.
By the time three o'clock arrived, Felix had remained outside, awaiting Elissa's permission.
But it was only him; others had long realized that rank one wasn't going to have lunch.
If he didn't return with food…
No, even if he did, after taking so long—hours, in fact—he was bound to face the wrath of Alek, and even more so, Dorion.
But going back without lunch after such a long time, heh, more than just suffer, he was in for a hellish time.
And yet, Elissa emotionlessly ordered him to head back to his dorm.
"M-Miss, I'll head to my dorm right away, but please, let me at least get a lunch box."
Felix hurriedly said, "There're two guys in my room who're just picking fights with me. Please, miss, as an adult, I'm sure you can find it in your heart to help a child, right?"
He was only sixteen so in all intents and purposes, he was indeed just that, a kid.
Elissa stared at him for a while.
Under her gaze, Felix unconsciously trembled, and her voice made him tremble even more.
"You're weak, so you kind of deserve it."
Elissa frowned. "There's that pathetic scent coming from you... It's sort of disgusting, and it lingers. No matter how hard I try, I can't get the stink out of my nose, and it's maddening. So just leave, please."
She lightly outstretched her hand.
Her fingers delicately touched Felix's chest, yet he was sent hurling over a dozen meters away, crashing into the dirt of the military zone.
As he skidded across the ground, his head thumped against the earth multiple times, jarring his brain and causing his mind to buzz.
By the time he came to, blood was leaking from his nose, trickling down his lips and chin as he struggled to rise to his feet.
Covered in dirt and his own blood, he shakily made his way back to the dorm.