Shackles Of Reality

"That aside, who is that clown? asked one of the instructors gesturing to a certain hologram". "He's the scion of the Hargreaves family" said Ms Evelyn while facepalming.

"Is he seriously eating barbarian fruits?" question an instructor in astonishment. "Does he not know it's effects?" Another instructor asked as they all focused on a hologram where a boy was munching on a bloated red fruit.

The reason they were all shocked was they knew the barbarian fruit was an extreme aphrodisiac, though it's duration was only a few hours, it would bring immense pain if the consumer is not relieved. It would start from the body getting hotter, to even seeing hallucinations of your carnal desires to immense pain in the kidney.

"I don't think so, he's not exactly the type who focuses in class and even if he does know it's effects, his mentality right now while eating it will be, 'it's virtual reality not the real world, so it probably won't affect me'" explained Ms Evelyn.

"It's called virtual reality for a reason, everything is programmed to work like how it would in reality" another instructor chimed in.

"Well it's about to get to the fun part, kekeke" Justin chuckled creepily. "Hmph, sadist" Gwen chided. Just as she finished talking, the boy started touching his neck and his skin started getting red.

Meanwhile with Owen, "why is my body getting hotter?" he murmured touching his neck. 'Don't tell me it's possible to catch a fever in virtual reality' he thought as he felt his body becoming hotter by the second.

"Is it that fruit? Yeah it can only be, it's the only thing I ate this morning!" he muttered in realization. No matter how dumb he was or sometimes tended to be, he quickly realized the cause of his situation. But realizing what caused it didn't mean he knew how to stop it. "It means it's poisonous!" he thought realization dawning on him.

"Curse my luck" he groaned as he felt gus eyes becoming hazy. Soon he felt a tussle in the bushes behind him. "Who's there?" he instantly turned. There was silence for a bit after his question before a girl emerged with long wavy golden hair reaching to her waist and eyes of the same color.

"Wait Ashley, is that you?" he asked sceptically. "Of course, who else would it be but me my love!?" She asked coquettish voice. "No no no, Ashley talking like this? And what the hell is the deal with 'my love', right that's it, it must be a nightmare" he reasoned.

"Why are you silent?" She asked taking a step towards him. "Stay away from me" he shouted before he continued his mantra, "This is a nightmare"

"This is a nightmare"

"This is a nightmare"

She took a step towards him again breaking him out of his trance as he once again shouted "stay away from me". "Argh I'm going crazy, no that's it, she's the one that's got a lose screw, multiple loose screw in fact" he continued muttering frantically.

"Oh come closer and give me a hug" As she came closer to him again, he ran with all his might but she kept following after him easily until he eventually reached the end of a hill and fall down from there into the lake below.

Meanwhile with the instructors, "Hahahahahaha, he's gone insane" Justin laughed boisterously. Everyone was also laughing though not as ambiguous as Justin. Even Ms Evelyn had her lips curled up a little.

"What's with the commotion?" A deep voice asked from behind the instructors. They all turned to see a bulky man with a scar that ran from his left eye to his chin. "Ahem... Head Instructor, what are you doing here?" asked the instructor who seemed to be the leader before.

"Why, am I not supposed to be here?" he counter asked. "N..n... no, I didn't mean it like that" the instructor stuttered with cold sweat. "It's about your student" said Ms Evelyn, then she proeeded to brief him about what happened with Owen.

"I see, can't say I'm surprised, continue with your work" he said before he turned and disappeared. "Whew" they all breathed a sigh of relief. "I wonder how the cadets cope with him" said Justin. "He's so scary, even though we're all at diamond rank" said another instructor.

"We're only at early diamond rank and he's at the peak diamond rank, of course we'll feel pressured in his presence" grumbled Gwen. "To reach diamond rank, the supposed peak of power, only to discover that there are more ranks and I'm only a slightly stronger ant, was a huge blow for me when I brokethrough" another instructor sighed.

"Who do you think is gonna take the top spot of the individual rankings?" asked Gwen. "Is that even a question? Of course it's the De Silva girl" answered Justin. "What about second spot?".

"Am gonna go with the Ashbourne kid" replied Justin.

"No I disagree, it's gonna be the Darkheart kid" said instructor Charles of the bloodline analysis class.

"Is that a bet I hear?" asked Justin. "Ten thousand nexus stones" said instructor Charles. "Deal, replied Justin.

"I'm also in, I say the Wellington girl is gonna win" Gwen interrupted.

"Three way bet, the winner gets away with all nexus stones", said instructor Charles.

Meanwhile,

**Adam Walker's POV**

Time passed and before I knew it, ninety six hours had passed, the past few days haven't been the worst but we're not exactly the best either. I only found two more cadets in the past days tallying my eliminations to eleven.

But If I thought correct, which I always do by the way, the real eliminations will begin in these twenty four remaining hours. That's why I'm currently in an apocalyptic city, why? to get better hiding places.

Since the sheep's have mostly been eliminated, and the rest are into groups, in fact the fact that I haven't encountered any group till now is ...

"Speak of the devil" I muttered under my breath as I felt a large amount of different energy fluctuations from the north. I swiftly started sprinting there, when was almost there, I slowed down and stealthy walked closer and "well I'll be damned".

Cliffhanger-kun is here: if you like this novel, please leave a review and tons of power stones.