"To make sense of the reward given to Miss Sevyn, I'll explain the rules. The rules are in itself actually quite simple: You all will be given three lives in the form of three small orange balls you're free to carry around."
The man began.
"The balls are tailored to match your vitality thanks to the scans that were performed on all of you the moment you went through our borders—to put it simply, if someone were to hit you with a blow that would kill you, a ball would break, absorbing the damage as well as most of the impact from the attack."
He continued.
"Miss Sevyn has been given an extra ball due to her results on the written exam, meaning that if she was hit with an attack that could kill her, it would take four attacks of the same power to eliminate you, whereas it would take three attacks for the lot of you to be eliminated."
Then he smiled.
"And before you ask, second place doesn't get any rewards—yes, I'm talking to you Arthur."
"Oh, looks like he's not in a chatty mood. Anyway, remember, give everything you have out there, don't hold back, fight, fight, fight!"
He said with a grin on his face, beginning to act like an overgrown child rather than one of the Lavender's Academy's heads.
"Oh, before I forget, here."
He handed Vivian a second ball, then turned to leave.
Suddenly, he paused.
"Oh, make sure you don't wander too far deep or you'll end up as prey for some monsters."
"Oh, I forgot to say, but the exam ends in exactly 24 hours, so make sure you eliminate a lot of people before the time's up."
He turned to one of the people standing close to him as if to check if he wasn't forgetting something.
The man he turned to neither replied nor moved.
"Oh—"
"Don't you think that's enough 'ohs' for today?"
A woman, one of the only two in the group, pointed out.
"Please, I was just getting to the best part." He turned back to the applicants. "Every orb gives about one point, don't forget that."
After saying those words, the man and his associates glowed in the same blinding light that appeared at the beginning and vanished.
"Please open your bags."
An instructor came to the stage shortly after the leaders left the stage.
The applicants opened the bags they had been given at his words.
"As you can see, your balls are in the bags. Keep your balls on you at all times and do your best to make sure they are not stolen, that is all."
He left the stage after, disappearing to God knows where.
….
"....It was meant to be me, not her."
A lone figure murmured.
He wasn't moving.
He sat at a corner slouched with his elbows resting on his knees, with his fingers loosely holding one of the small orange orbs.
No one approached him, instead they were all focused on the timer on the screen as it counted down slowly.
"Why? Why not me. I did everything that I had to! How could I fail so miserably that it had to be called out by one of the Thirteen figures? How could I fail so miserably that I lost to her? So what if she literally has a memory that updates itself in real time, so what if we both cheated?!"
His voice grew louder.
"Despite all my efforts! Despite every hour I spent reading for the damn test, just for second place?!
And the people surrounding him began to just watched for a few moments before their gazes drifted back to the clock counting down.
'So I guess that makes my plan even harder, unfortunately.'
He sighed loudly.
Art rolled the ball on his fingertips a few more times.
After ranting he felt a little bit better.
'And to think I based my whole plan on getting 1st in the written.'
He had to admit it, it was a blunder on his half.
And that just made it more depressing. That, and the fact that the man had to call him out as second place.
Arthur looked up.
"When is this damn thing going to start?"
Arthur murmured to himself before looking up.
'Two minutes.'
He thought.
Then, without a second thought, he plopped the orange ball into his mouth and swallowed it.
He coughed a few times.
The Academy had given them those balls to hold, clearly they weren't going to stay with the holder.
They could be stolen.
Arthur had learned of this from the game.
In the game there were some relatively strong NPCs that if you lost to them, you had to give them one of your balls.
There were also some people that would fight you, and even if you won they could escape and steal your balls.
To avoid this, Art chose to keep them in the most secure place he could find.
Besides, even if none of what he thought would happen didn't, they could still fall out somewhere.
"To think that the world's best institute for awakened doesn't have water anywhere in sight."
He shook his head in disappointment before standing up.
[Attention all applicants, the examination has begun]
The text up there changed for a split second.
[23:59:59]