Auntie Jang had always stressed it. You should study hard. But even more than that, you should make sure not to ignore your own health. Sleep enough hours. Eat proper meals. Because if you aim to do your best, you have to feel your best.

The sun hadn't even risen yet, the sky outside still pitch black. The practical midterm would begin at 8am sharp. So Suho was eating a hearty breakfast, up and alert, in preparation for the test.

Pit sat beside him, nose pointed towards his bowl of rice and obnoxiously sniffing. He knew there was no chance of getting any table scraps. But he insisted on acting like this every time anyway.

By the time he finished eating, dawn had begun to color the horizon. He did the dishes, hearing bits of commotion filter in from outside—other students finally getting up, doing their morning routines, and squeezing in last-minute training.

The dishes clattered to their place on the drying rack as Suho shook off his hands. He glanced at the clock on the stove.

7 AM.

He turned and started packing the things he’d need for the midterm.

⊕

Ever since the entrance exam, Suho hadn't seen all the second years in one place at one time. But now they were gathered, waiting in the same stadium they’d taken their previous exams in, crowding the arena floor.

A sea of swords and spears poked up over their heads. Suho squeezed through the crowd, his size making it difficult. The bag and spear on his back didn't help. They weren't allowed to pack things that were explicitly for survival—like fire starters or pots that would become available in the store instead—but he’d made sure to bring all his notes and reference books with him. They were making his backpack bulky, bumping into people as he passed by to get a better view.

There were murmurs of annoyance, but no one cursed at him too loudly. Their attention was elsewhere. The cadets’ heads craned upwards, watching the floating countdown timer. There were only a few minutes left until 8am, when they’d be transported to the island.

The instructors and test proctors were gathered in the stands, waiting too. Because once the students were moved, this stadium would become the site of their live monitoring of the exam. Although the midterm was of great importance to the students, it was of even greater importance to them.

Hunters were often a national matter. South Korea had always been in the top 10, sometimes even the top 5 nations in the world when it came to the prowess of their hunters. But compared to the others that ranked up there, it had been a long time since they’d last awakened an S-rank.

Their rank was slowly falling. The hunter community had been waiting forever for a breakthrough. The people too, wanted to be reenergized. They wanted new blood. Someone who could represent the next generation and show the world that Korea was still a force to be reckoned with.

More likely than not, the solution would come from National. The teachers here were in charge of making sure that happened.

At ten seconds to 8am, some students began counting down. Many others only mumbled under their breath, or, like Suho, stayed quiet altogether. Waiting and watching. Feeling as if the change of each number took longer than the last.

Zero.

A huge magic circle activated under their feet, encompassing the entire stadium floor, engulfing them in a harsh white light. There was a wave of surprises voices, and then—

The light snapped off. They were gone.

Slowly, with a cascade of clicks, a floating grid of hologram monitors began to flicker to life where the students had just been.

The professors settled in above in the Tank, ready to watch.

⊕

Suho opened his eyes to the familiar sight of a forest. It was lush and green, feral flowers and trees from dungeons dotting the landscape amidst the native foliage. He recognized some plants from his village, but others were foreign to him. It was interesting, the similarities and differences he could see. The kinds of feral monsters and flora that had integrated with his hometown were pretty carefully managed by him and the elders. But here…

Everything had been allowed to run wild. It was as close of a simulation to the inside of a gate as the school could get.

Suho unclipped the spear from his back and headed into the trees.

KOREAN NATIONAL ACADEMY MIDTERM EXAM (SPRING)

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DAY 3 OF 10

Not everybody felt so calm about this place. Especially not Oh Jihyuk.

He trampled through the underbrush, swearing the whole time. Many cadets of the academy came from rich families. But his was rich, one of the few that could stand on par with Yuna’s, and the fact that he had somehow managed to survive to the morning of day 3 alone in what felt like the most inhospitable wilderness in the world was already a miracle.

He wasn't weak. But he’d basically slept through his survival core classes and barely passed them, so now he was scraping by on the berries and fruit he’d found during his travels, gambling on whether or not they’d be edible. Some had been delicious. Some had made him feel sick. But he had no other choice. Just because he’d brought the plant encyclopedia as suggested didn't mean he could utilize it properly. They all looked the same to him.

He cursed at himself for not buying more rations from the store when it opened on the first night. He’d only purchased a single day’s worth, determined to save up his points to reach the passing mark instead. But now he was hungry, and the store wasn't going to open again until the fifth night—another nearly three full days to go.

Jihyuk stopped for a second, bracing against a tree. He raised his wrist and pulled up the leaderboard. A hologram projected from his smartwatch, showing the empty rankings.

The leaderboard point rankings were only put into effect at noon on the fifth day. Until then, everybody was left in the dark. But he couldn't help but feel curious, even anxious. Most students, like him, were probably aiming to reach the passing mark. They were really starting to feel the difficulty now that a few days had passed. But some, inevitably, were probably doing fine. He wanted to know. Not only for his curiosity, but for his well-being.

Those were the kids that he needed to find and team up with, if he aimed to not lose his mind by day 10. He wasn't a leech. But he wasn’t stupid.

He closed out of the window and pushed on through the dense forest. Ahead he could see the trees thinning a bit. Perhaps somewhere he could rest.

And then he started to smell something.

At first he questioned if it was real or if he was so hungry that he was imagining it, but the closer he got the more obvious it became.

Cooking. Or like something had been cooking, and the scent had faded. Grease, and meat, and a fire. Jihyuk was drooling before he knew it, and quickly wiped at the corner of his mouth before he drew in a sharp breath and stepped into the clearing.

Obviously, somebody had set up camp here. There was a tent, a table and chair, the smoking remnants of a campfire. It was methodically clean and organized. And what caught his eye was the racks and racks of some type of jerky drying on the far side.

He gulped. Glanced around. Whoever had been living here clearly had their shit together, so he had no intentions of recklessly stealing their supplies and pissing them off. But it was dead silent. He stepped closer, bowing down to look inside the tent. It was empty. Nobody was around.

His fingers twitched, stomach growling. He wanted to eat real food so bad. But part of him had better judgement than to risk inciting the anger of whoever this belonged to. He had already decided to plop down and beg them for scraps once they returned when he heard footsteps approaching from behind him.

Jihyuk whipped around in surprise, then froze in place.

Lim Suho. Everybody in the second year knew his face. And behind him he was dragging the huge carcass of a wrath bull, one of the D-rank monsters that roamed free around the exam area, and also one that Jihyuk had been avoiding for days. They were, as the name suggested, extremely aggressive even if you weren’t trying to pick a fight. But in Suho’s hands, it was just a dead cow.

Jihyuk immediately dropped to his knees and put up his hands.

“I didn't take anything!” he shouted.

Suho stared at him for a second. Jihyuk looked like a trembling hamster.

“I knew that,” he responded. “I saw you wander in.”

“Oh. Um. Sorry for being nosy…?”

“It’s fine.”

He dropped the bull, the monster’s giant head finally falling to the ground with a heavy thump, kicking up dust.

“You can stand.”

“No, no, I’m very happy here.”

It didn't even take Jihyuk a second to calculate his next plan of action. Cow = food. Suho = provider of food. Jihyuk = a nice guy who will not cause any problems for Lim Suho under any circumstances.

“Are you going to cook this?” he asked, putting on a perfectly harmless smile.

Suho nodded, pulling a meat cleaver off of his belt. He flinched slightly as the knife went into the bull’s flesh. No blood spurted out. It had already been bled.

“Wow, you’re very talented…”

Suho glanced at the still-kneeling student who was watching him with a keen eye. Jihyuk was trying to hide it, but he knew what he was here for. He had expected others to eventually get lured in by the smell.

“Do you want some?” he asked.

“P-pardon?”

“Jerky.”

He pointed to the racks they were hung on.

“I have extra.”

Jihyuk’s eyes popped wide open. His legs tensed as if to get up, but he forced himself not to move hastily.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you!”

He shot up the moment he got confirmation, turning to bolt towards the jerky rack.

Then he skidded to a halt in his tracks.

“Ah, hold on, let me…”

He raised his wrist and tapped his smartwatch. He inputted a few commands, and then—

A ding came from Suho’s. A notification read: “OH JIHYUK is sending you 3 points.”

“…You don’t need to do this,” Suho said.

“I’d like to.”

He stared at the window for a moment longer, then accepted the trade. Jihyuk smiled and turned to the jerky rack. He plucked a piece from it, hands shivering. He’d had nothing but nasty plants and wild fruits for the last couple of days. Now…

He took a bite, ripping a corner of it off with his teeth.

He almost cried at how good it was.

Suho watched him tear up from the wrath bull carcass.

Somehow, he’d ended up acquiring a weird hamster-like companion.

Their heads turned as a crunching sound interrupted the silence. Two more students, looking just as bedraggled and lost as Jihyuk, stumbled into the camp.

They stared at each other for a second. Suho glanced at Jihyuk. And then—

“Get in line if you wanna eat!” Jihyuk commanded. “And ask Suho nicely!”