The next morning, Aditya woke up and while he is showering he looked at the interface, particularly the chatroom.
‘Guys, I spent one hour in the Strength AIP and only got one attribute point increase. When I checked my strength, it seemed like nothing changed at all.’ One of the lower ranked guys said.
‘What? You stayed for one hour? When I used the AIP only three people were on the list and they didn’t even make it past fifteen minutes. I only made it past half-an-hour. Just when I thought I was a badass, I got a notification saying, we should at least get one hour for the attribute increase.’
‘Hehe, I took the Dexterity AIP, to increase my agility and balance. I stayed for two hours. I can easily see the difference.’
Various people are talking about various AIPs they took and gave out a lot of information.
“Finally, someone is talking about the AIPs. I wonder why they took so long.” Aditya muttered to himself as he looked at the chat.
[Well, the game assistants wouldn’t let them.]
Aditya freaked out and looked around.
“Ram?” He spoke out loud and looked at the holographic old man who is floating behind him.
[Yeah, Kid. How are you? Enjoyed the time I was not here? It seems like you got used to it pretty well.]
“Used to it? I am not used to this whole shit show. I am getting exhausted with all the pretending I have to do.”
[You seemed to be good at pretending. I didn’t feel like it.]
Aditya just sighed and said.
“Where did you go? I tried to call you several times yesterday, but you are nowhere to be seen.”
[Well, that is the price for the hint I gave you. The hint for that bug limb.]
“If you give me a hint, you will disappear for a day?”
[Depends on the type of hint. This one is small. So, one day. There are some hidden hints that I could give you in special circumstances. If you take the hint from the Game assistant, you would not get any help from the assistant for a while as a price.]
“Another shitty rule in this shitty game. So, why did you say the Game assistants wouldn’t let them. They still spoke out right?”
[Mostly because it is a waste of time.]
“Waste of time?”
[Yeah, have you observed? The people in top ten barely messaged at all, even in the lower ranks not many people are messaging. The rest are communicating eagerly trying to get to know each other and they are using the information as bridges and it is a useless thing to do.]
“Why?”
[You would understand in the future. Just don’t send messages and share information casually, only message when you have something important and make it on to the point with no bullshit.]
As Ram is explaining, Aditya looked at the chat group and noticed that many people are calling for the rankers in the AIPs, even his name is being called out. Luckily, the private chat is not available, otherwise, it would have been flooded by now.
Everyone is asking for tips on how to get such a high ranking in AIPs. When Aditya thought about how he got it, he couldn’t help but shake his head wryly.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
There is no such thing as tip in this. He stayed away from them because he is aversive and he made sure to endure all the pain and kill them because he hates them to the core. That is it.
He closed the chat and finished his shower while talking to Ram.
He got ready even before the others woke up and got to his notebook. He noted down somethings regarding the AIPs. He got some information from all the messages. After it was done, he took out the book he got from the library for the club test.
The syllabus is not actually that big. It can be learned in one day easily. So, he didn’t worry too much about this examination and just studied for a while.
Soon, his roommates woke up and got ready, they went to the classes. In the break time, Aditya and Venkat studied the test syllabus together and went back to the dorm in evening.
Everything went normally for that day.
That night, Aditya looked at the timer once again. There is less than a day left. Around twenty-two hours. He is nervous and anxious. From what he saw there are a lot of things that could become enemies in the game this time.
The termites, mosquitoes, ants and rats. All of these things are mentioned by the players in the chatroom before.
He doesn’t know if all of them will become the enemies or only one of them will. After all, in the first round, only mosquitoes came after him even though the vegetable market is bound to have a lot of other creatures that could fit the criterion.
So, he expressed his doubts to Ram.
[I cannot give you a definitive answer. But you should not deduce anything regarding the next rounds based on the first round. The objectives might be different and the circumstances might be different and that includes the enemies too.]
Even though the answer was vague. Aditya felt he should be preparing for the next round carefully and it would be better to look out for more enemies.
That night, he couldn’t sleep properly and only got an hour. He went to the morning jog and got ready. But this time, Venkat was awake by the time he returned from the jog and started studying for the test.
They decided to take the test the next day.
They got ready and went to classes and all the while, Aditya just stared at the time.
[The time is not going to run faster if you look at the clock like that. In fact, it would give you perception of running a little slower. So, the wait would be much more unbearable.]
Ram even remarked from the side.
“I know hot shot. But I cannot help it. There is a possibility that I would die tragically in a few hours. So, forgive me for my stupidity that was a result of this forced participation in some death game.”
He tried his best to calm himself down, but it was hard. Even the roommates whom he only knew for a few days could notice the difference.
“Are you okay?” Suraj asked him in the class as he sweated crazily in the afternoon.
“I am fine.”
“Are you sure? You are sweating like crazy.”
“I am really fine.”
Aditya repeated, but he couldn’t calm himself down and the more he spoke the harder it became. He couldn’t help but tap his feet on the ground and tap his pen on the desk.
He got some weird looks from the people sitting in front of him, but he could only grit his teeth and endure it.
He thought he got used to it, by how calm he acted in the past few days. He felt like he could just pretend his way towards this round too. But he is obviously wrong.
Time passed and soon the classes were over.
“Venkat, I would like to stay back and watch the tests in SAE club. Would you like to come?”
“No, I am going revise once more. I am not confident in taking tomorrow’s test.”
“Okay then, bye.”
With that, he sent him off and went to the shed. That day is the test for Junior Year students and this particular test is to decide the deputies of the teams who will lead various parts of the project.
They not only had to prove their direct technical skills, the also need to help their teammates use their skills to their maximum so that the work would be easier.
But currently, the test is mostly focused on the technical skills and it is going to go for a long time.
As the test progressed, everyone moved here and there to various workshops within the college. They are using the four strips of mechanical workshops as they wished and the spectators are also following different teams to see what they are going to do there.
Aditya did the same, but instead of choosing a team. He chose the workshop. The Machine shop and the carpentry workshop. He waited there as he looked at the people using the lathes, drilling machines, milling machines with utmost enthusiasm.
But he couldn’t focus on them as he only looked at the timer and occasionally at the internal combustion engine laboratory that was opposite to this. Since the lab is not useful now, it was closed down.
As he paced around anxiously, all of a sudden, the holographic screen as large as a flatscreen TV appeared in front of him along with Ram.
[The round will begin in ten seconds. Get ready.]
Ram said and Aditya looked at the numbers going down.
He walked towards the entrance of the Carpentry workshop and looked at the pile of old wood products.
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ROUND BEGINS]