Shackles Of Reality

"What do you mean? I called dibs on him first" Justin argued. "Why are you calling dibs on him like he's some commodity, and besides you guys are already late, he's the head instructor's" Ms Evelyn stated calmly bursting their bubble.

"Gulp, you can have him Gwen" Justin offered with a fake smile.

"No no, he's all yours" Gwen replied.

"Look at that, he's climbed up from the seventeenth rank to the eighth rank in the individual rankings" instructor Charles stated.

Hearing that, Ms Evelyn turned to her right, where a holographic board was displaying the rankings.

They read;

1. Aurora De Silva → Seventy two eliminations.

2. Ashley Wellington → Thirty five eliminations.

3. Damien Ashbourne → Thirty three eliminations.

4. Quinn Darkheart → Thirty two eliminations.

5. Edward Hargreaves → Twenty nine eliminations.

6. Seraphina Wellington → Twenty six eliminations.

7. Lily Greatwoods → Twenty four eliminations.

8. Adam Walker → Twenty three eliminations.

9. ...

12. Victor Crimson → Nineteen eliminations.

..

..

15. Owen Hargreaves → Sixteen eliminations.

...

Ms Evelyn smirked subtly seeing that six of her students were in the top ten. Though that goes without question, they are the special class after all.

As they countinied monitoring, a voice broke the silence.

"No this won't do, they're spread too thin, it'll be a miracle if the remaining cadets encounter themselves before the end of the test" Justin said with a sullen expression.

"What do you propose then?" asked the lead instructor.

Justin then proceeded to give his idea. "Are you sure it'll work" asked Gwen. "Of course, trust me, will you?" he said with a shady smile.

"Nice idea, I like it" said the lead instructor before he bought his smartwatch to his mouth once again and started;

"Attention cadets, there are approximately twenty four hours till the end of this test, so how about we make it more fun. See that 'golden beacon?'" he said tapping a hologram in front of him.

Before he continued: "That's the center of the virtual world you're currently occupying, and the entire space of the virtual world will slowly keep shrinking towards the center. Be careful, if you make contact with the boundary, you'll be instantly eliminated. The boundary will be closing in to the center about forty five miles every hour. Good luck".

Meanwhile back in the ruined city, a few minutes before the announcement, Adam decided to leave the area where he had just unleashed 'quake pulse' in caution of the commotion drawing unwanted antention.

So he ran towards the direction he came from, but just as he got out of the city's boundary, the announcement started, as the announcer spoke about a golden beacon, in the direction of the apocalyptic city Adam just left, a gigantic golden pillar appeared and when the boundary was mentioned, a hazy mist appeared about two hundred kilometers in the direction he was walking to

"Just when I thought all I had to do was avoid the big guns" Adam muttered and turned back towards the city, from his estimations, the golden pillar should be about a thousand miles away from his current location, so he started walking there as there.

'I guess they did this because everyone is spread out too thin or some people decided to hide till the end of the test' he guessed and continued walking. Suddenly he sensed something or someone moving very fast towards him with a gold ranked aura.

"It better be an ally" he muttered as he took a stance that could enable him to escape if it was an enemy. Soon someone appeared in his line of sight, seeing the person he inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

"So you're still in" Ashley said. "Did you expect me to have been eliminated by now?" asked Adam.

"Yes, your rank doesn't exactly leave much to be imagined" she answered. You of all people should know that rank doesn't define prowess" he argued. But she merely said "Let's go, the boundary will be here in a few minutes".

"Fine".

They walked for leisurely for the next six hours without as much of a single word shared between them. Meanwhile Adam knew it was merely the calm before the storm, the boundary was pushing everyone to the same destination.

"Someone's coming" they both said looking to their left simultaneously. soon a guy appeared with black hair and purple eyes. Looking at his chest, they both saw the number twenty four.

"Lady Ashley, I didn't expect I would meet you here" he said in a crisp tone.

"Likewise, Mr Silva" she replied.

'Silva? as in from the same family as Aurora? Well his eyes are also purple, if that's anything to go by' Adam thought.

"If I may ask, lady Ashley, why are you going around with this dead weight?" he asked gesturing to Adam.

'surely he doesn't mean me' Adam thought but his face was blank.

"We should just eliminate him" he said and instantly disappeared from his spot to behind Adam. He raised his arm to strike at Adam but a sword of light appeared between them.

"Since when do you make desicions for me Jayden De Silva?" Ashley asked coldly. Sure he was from a big family of the same status as her but that doesn't give him the right to make desicions for her.

Even in his family, he's not a direct descendant, meanwhile she was the granddaughter of the Wellington patriarch, her father will be the next and then followed by her.

She knew his attitude since they were kids as they've met in the numerous banquets for the scions of the great families to get to know eachother, always trying to enter the group of direct descendants.

Meanwhile Adam was fuming, 'This bastard, if not for Ashley I'd have been eliminated. Jayden De Silva huh, I'll remember you. If they had been in different teams he would have understood that there were no hard feelings but....wait, could it be that he likes her?' he thought not knowing he was massively off track.

'If that's the case then I've got to tell owen, he has a love rival and he doesn't even know it, tsk tsk, can't afford to let my bro get his heart broken, yeah that's it I've got to tell him quick'.