The first five hours of the test had passed, announcing that half of the time was already gone.
Those who survived until this point found themselves in an ancient, half-ruined city.
Collapsed buildings and leaning towers were everywhere.
The sounds of battles echoed throughout the city.
But not everyone liked to fight head-on.
On top of one of the tallest buildings in the area stood a handsome young man, his hair and eyes the color of dark wood.
His eyes swept over the entire city like a predator searching for its next prey. His presence was almost imperceptible; unless one stared carefully at that location, they would never notice him.
In his hand rested a bow, an arrow already nocked.
He was the one ranked fifth, a participant whose origins traced back to Castelta.
Kyle.
Kyle possessed two abilities.The first altered his eyes, allowing him to see over vast distances and perceive the world in slow motion.The second allowed him to erase his presence and silence any sound he wished.
He stood there, observing the people moving through the streets below.
Then he found her… his new prey.
A group of three people moving through a slightly exposed street.
His pupils contracted as the image of the group zoomed in within his vision. His hunter-trained mind calculated every possibility, extracting the optimal trajectory for his arrows.
Then his muscles tensed as he raised the bow and aimed at the group. At the same time, his vision slowed—or more precisely, his perception accelerated.
As he drew the arrow back, just before releasing it, his essence flowed into the arrow and fused with it. In the next instant, it slipped from his fingers and shot forward at terrifying speed.
Yet the arrow made no sound. It was silent, fast, and perfect.
And it wasn't the only one.
Kyle released two more arrows in the following instant.
The three arrows flew in absolute silence at insane speeds, crossing hundreds of meters in mere moments.
They reached the group that had been walking peacefully, and before the targets could even realize what awaited them, the arrows struck with brutal precision.
Heart. Neck. Head. One arrow for each.
If not for the defensive barrier that activated at the final moment, they would have died without ever knowing how.
Kyle did not celebrate his successful hunt. To him, the outcome was inevitable. He simply began searching for other unlucky prey.
And he found them.
Some alone, others in small groups—but all shared the same fate.
One arrow. One kill.
As he searched for his next target, he noticed someone else roughly four hundred meters away, standing atop a lower, inconspicuous rooftop.
A young man with black hair, black eyes, and a striking appearance sat there… seemingly resting, as if he had forgotten he was inside an ongoing battle.
The moment Kyle saw him, he understood.
His hunter's instinct warned him.
That person was not prey… he was a monster.
Then Kyle noticed something else near the young man—more precisely, another monster.
Standing nearly seven feet tall with a heavily muscled body, it moved toward the resting youth. In the next moment, the two stood facing each other.
...
Inside that building, Caius sat leaning against the wall.
Recently, he had been running and fighting nonstop, so he decided it was a good time to take a brief rest before things truly ignited.
His armor bore several small tears here and there, evidence that he had already fought real battles before reaching this place.
But in the next moment, he sensed a powerful presence approaching rapidly and pushed himself to his feet.
Standing before him was Garon—the human tank.
A monster that represented the pinnacle of raw physical strength and durability in this test, and one of the few declared to be at the mid-second rank.
Caius and Garon stared at each other in silence, each considering their next move.
Then Caius smiled.
"Hello there, big guy. You do know it's still early for us to fight, right? This would leave us too exhausted to finish the test."
Caius took a step back.
"So how about we each go our separate ways?"
He waited with a friendly smile on his face, while Garon stood there without a single expression.
Then, in the next moment, Garon snorted.
"An insect that thinks it can face me… how amusing."
He sneered as he advanced toward Caius with heavy steps.
'Should I just turn around and run… but this musclehead is incredibly fast,' Caius thought.
He knew Garon's reckless behavior from the game, so he understood that negotiation was pointless—yet he had tried anyway.
"My cursed luck," he muttered. Fighting Garon here would drain an enormous amount of his energy.
While Caius was still thinking, Garon did not hesitate.
Essence surged through his body, his terrifying muscles contracting like a beast ready to tear its prey apart, and then he launched himself like an arrow toward Caius.
In a single moment, he was upon him, throwing a punch capable of shattering bones.
Caius had anticipated this. He knew that even he could not withstand Garon's blows head-on.
And fighting was not an option either.
So he adjusted his stance slightly.
He did not even draw his swords—they would be useless against this monster anyway, especially with his steel-like hardening ability.
This time, essence surged through Caius's body in massive quantities.
He reinforced his body, then gathered the essence at the end of his left fist. It did not merge with his muscles or body; instead, it condensed there as raw essence.
When Garon's fist reached him, Caius did not dodge. Instead, with a precise motion, he struck Garon's wrist with his other hand.
The blow did not injure him, but it was enough to deflect the punch.
Then, with his other hand, Caius delivered a direct punch to the monster's abdomen.
Garon did not tense up.
He had intentionally left his defense open. After all, such attacks meant nothing to him.
He smiled like a demon as his armor and skin hardened where the punch was about to land.
"Fool."
That was the thought that crossed Garon's mind.
Caius's fist collided with Garon's body, producing a loud metallic clang. The moment his fist made contact, Caius released the essence he had gathered—directly inside Garon's body.
Garon's expression shifted from amusement to pain.
He felt as if his organs were tearing apart and his bones were shaking before his massive body was sent flying like a gigantic projectile, crashing through multiple walls one after another.
He did not stop until his body slammed into a ten-story building, causing it to collapse on top of him.
Dust rose everywhere, swallowing part of the city.
Moments later, massive chunks of rubble were thrown aside as Garon emerged from beneath them.
His body appeared intact, but thin lines of blood leaked from his mouth.
His eyes searched for Caius, but he was nowhere to be found.
"You coward!" Garon's roar echoed through the city.
At the same time, Kyle's eyes were locked onto the fleeing Caius.
A stunned gasp escaped his lips before he could stop himself.
"Dangerous… he's extremely dangerous."