The shrilling scream from the music tower pierced through the air, causing the temperature to drop all around them.

Watching as Erik was taken away by the cloaked people, Aureolin returned to speaking as though nothing had happened.

"Look at the people around you," she said. "They say the people you surround yourself with will be who you become. These people are who you will spend the rest of your three years with. So be sure to choose your friends carefully.

"Do you wish to make a name for yourself at MW Academy? Or are you fine with spending your three years like trash, living like 208 and those with even lower of a rank than him?"

While her bluntness prompted obvious discontent among the student body, no one dared to verbally voice their complaints after seeing what happened to Erik.

"The next test will be exactly two weeks from now, and we expect to see improvements. Since this is your first test, the bottom twenty students on the ranking board will be let off with a warning. However…" She cast her gaze toward the music tower on the hills, a glint flashing across her eyes.

"It'll be a different story next time."

She peered toward the students below the stage, lips forming a smile.

"We have high hopes for you all—do not let us down."

The morning announcement ended with twenty minutes left before the first class. With the crowd slowly dispersing, Celio turned towards Edris.

"The professor didn't have to humiliate the lower ranks like that." He frowned. "And the players. From the looks on their faces, it doesn't look like they'll actually heed her warnings either."

"Not a wise move. The players, I mean." Edris shrugged. "I wouldn't stay in the bottom ranks if I were them."

"You mean…"

"Aureolin said although they'd be let off this time with a warning, next time will be different," he said. "We can deduct reasonably that she means punishment by detention. Or something of similar extent."

After hearing the scream from earlier, he suspected there were more to the punishments here than the ones they're accustomed to in the real world. That said, rankings may also play a more crucial role in this school than they'd imagined.

"The five rules, main quest, affinity levels, and now rankings…" Celio frown dragged deeper. "It just keeps getting harder, doesn't it?"

"Head to class for now. We'll stick with the original plan," Edris said. "Be especially on guard to avoid anything that may lower your affinity. The last thing you'd want right now is to end up with a screwed mentality."

After parting ways with Celio and the others, Edris decided to continue his campus exploration. Ace had left with Aureolin after the latter insistent for him to shadow her throughout her classes.

Given their current goal to scout information on all aspects of campus, her proposal nicely aligned with Edris's plans, so he gladly waved the white-haired man goodbye.

Aside from the academic classroom building, other main infrastructures on campus included a cafeteria, a gymnasium, a library, a building for faculties, and the music tower.

After learning from Ace that it was the site for [DETENTION], Edris decided to head to the tower first. It was on the northern edge of campus, on a hill of reeds.

Weaving through the reeds and rushes that spiked double his height, the man almost got lost several times before finally reaching the tower's base.

He pushed past the tall grass, just in time to witness the tower's arch door swing open.

A student stumbled out of the tower, followed by two cloaked people behind him. They pushed him to the hard gravel, closing the door behind him.

Edris lowered himself in the reeds, observing the situation from afar.

The student, with his uniform wrinkled and his face bleached of all vitality, stuck his head into the nearest bush and emptied his stomach. He coughed so violently that Edris thought his organs would flow out the next moment.

The student wasn't given a chance to recover as the cloaked people yanked him back onto his feet, onto the pathway down the hill.

"Class has already started. You are going to be late," one of them said.

"The professors will be angry. You're a student. Students go to class," the other echoed.

The cloaked people had voices grating and toneless, like scraping sand on the bottom of an empty well. If dead people could speak, they'd probably sound like them.

Edris narrowed his eyes. Floating on top of the student's head was the number "216."

The student's identity matched with who Celio said had cheated during the test. From the looks of it, his automatic fail had thrown him straight to the bottom of the ranking.

If 216 was the last spot on the ranks, this meant there were 216 first-year students in total at the academy, with half as players and the other half natives.

Edris tapped his lips, thinking.

After the three disappeared into the reeds, he stepped out into the light and strolled toward the tower. Brushing his fingers past the bricks, Edris examined its structure.

The music tower was the only infrastructure on campus that was not built maroon. It stood on the top of the hill, watching over the rest of campus like a star in the dark.

The thick, white bricks blocked out all internal activity from the outside view. The only way to get a sense of what went on there was to either ask someone who'd entered before or physically go in yourself.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Edris glanced at the sign at the tower's door front.

NOTICE

TO ACCESS THE MUSIC TOWER, YOU MUST FULFILL ONE OF THE FOLLOWING REQUIREMENTS:

1) BE IN THE STUDENT ADMINISTRATIVE ASSOCIATION

2) BE ACCOMPANIED BY A PROFESSOR

The first option was out of the question, and his gaze lingered on the second option. Edris began to think.

It was times like these that he missed having his pink fluff database by his side.

He snooped around the tower for another while, and after seeing that no one else was coming out, Edris decided to turn his attention back to the rest of campus.

He gave the tower one last glance, casting his gaze into the sky, trying to see its ends. The tower was so unbelievably tall up close that he suspected the student's view of the building from the dorms was an illusion.

The next moment, Edris froze.

Near the tower's tip, almost a hundred meters above ground level, (at least as far as his vision took him), was a moving brown blob. The blob trudged little by little. It looked like a person from its outline.

Edris shielded his eyes from the sun as he squinted, hoping to get a clearer view of the climber.

He blinked twice.

"…Owein?"

What was his "unrequited love" doing here instead of going to class?

"No. More importantly…"

Edris drew his head back with furrowed brows.

If he remembered correctly, all mana usage was restricted in the Labyrinth. Yet the man was currently over a hundred meters above ground.

"..."

Edris was baffled.

How in the world did he get up there?

***

Celio stared blankly at the enormously thick book in front of him. Four bold words were plastered on the cover page:

[THE STORY OF WEISHA].

His confusion was shared by all the other students present as they sat in the lecture hall, each with the same book at their table.

"What's up with this?" He poked his head over to the seven-year-old beside him.

Ives shrugged.

All students shared the same class schedule, in the same lecture halls. Currently, the classroom was packed with people.

The door creaked open, and three figures strolled into the lecture hall. Celio's eyes lit up at the sight of the familiar white-haired man, then creased his brows at the petite woman beside him.

Aureolin stood right next to Ace, their shoulders almost touching as she glimpsed him with fluttering eyes. Confronted with her actions, Ace stared right back at her with a stoic expression. He took a step away from her.

"Good morning, students."

A man with green hair strode onto the lecture stage. Leaning by the speaker's podium, he pressed both palms onto the ledge and spoke into the microphone.

"My name is Moss. I will be your instructor for this class," he said. "All of you must have noticed the book at your table. This book will lead to your success here at MW."

He gestured with a flick of the finger.

"Here at MW, we value transparency. Thus, I shall reveal to you all the contents of the second quiz in exactly half a month."

His words caused an immediate buzz among the students, some sighing in relief while others still expressing their caution toward their intentions.

"All answers to the questions on the quiz will be in this book. All you have to do is memorise them." Moss pushed his glasses up his nose, skimming the room. "However, the amount of information available will differ based on your rank."

Ives pulled the book toward her and flipped it open. Her eyes narrowed at the lines and lines of words, printed in tiny black font. She scanned the pages one by one, then halted.

"It's blank," she said.

Noticing her abnormality, Celio peered over. "What do you mean?"

"I only have the first 312 pages." She flipped to the pages near the back of the book. "Starting from page 313, everything's blank."

"Hold on." Celio stopped her mid-action. He pointed to a random page in her book. "You can't see what's on this page? It looks blank to you?"

Ives's eyes widened. "You can see words on here?"

"You can't?"

"I knew it! This ranking nonsense again!" A student, presumably a player, kicked the table as he leaned back in exasperation. "Ranking this, ranking that. What are we? Items on the market?"

Moss paid no attention to the various reactions as he knocked on the wooden podium, signalling silence to the crowd.

"The book has 516 pages in total, and all students are gifted three hundred pages worth of content. From there, each page additional represents a spot on the ranking chart," he continued. "For example, the student currently ranked 216 will only have access to 301 pages, while the top student will have the entire book available to memorise.

"You can only see the content available to your ranking. The only way to gain access to knowledge beyond your level is to have those on higher ranks personally copy down what they see in their books on yours. Only then will the content become available."

As the professor kept talking, the atmosphere in the room grew grave.

Celio and Ives exchanged a look.

If they understood correctly, the censored content in the book was an embedded feature of the Labyrinth. Like the player profile, it was information exclusive to each individual student, only allowing them to see up to their rank's authority.

The higher one's rank, the more content is available for them to learn. In a prototypical situation where everyone focused on their own books and memorised all of what was available, the rankings for the second quiz would stay the exact same.

However, who didn't want to move up the rankings?

Nobody wanted to be at risk of being in the bottom twenty in the next test, especially those currently lower on the list.

Hence existed a power hierarchy among the students.

"The rules…" Celio muttered. "It's like they're intentionally trying to make students turn against each other."

The Labyrinth's blatant hostility toward the lower ranks existed to reinforce the sense of superiority of the upper ranks.

The latter would require the former's aid to go beyond their available knowledge, but what incentives did the higher-ranked students have to help them? No one would go out of their way to donate the information to the lower ranks' books, especially when their survival was at risk.

So then, under what circumstances would the higher ranks provide their information?

If the lower ranks had something to offer in return, of course.

It was a dangerous cycle of exchange.

The players in this Labyrinth were pulled from different parts of the Adalan Kingdom. While there were players who preferred to resolve things peacefully, there were also others who thrilled to violence and found joy in dominating.

The beast tamer thought back to the group of hunters they met in the auditorium. Some of those players might have also landed in the higher ranks.

In a constant state of oppression, even if lower-ranked students managed to move up the list, would they choose to spread benevolence toward other lower ranks? Or would they indulge in the same sense of superiority they'd once despised?

"…It seems like another layer of danger has been added to this Labyrinth," Ives said beside him.

She swept her gaze through the entire lecture hall.

"The danger of the students themselves."