The Briefing

Mike didn't even notice when the ship lifted off and left the orbit. That's how smooth it was.

By the time he realized and looked outside the window, Proxima Centauri D had already become a pale dot in the distance.

Not long after that, the announcement that they would be entering FTL shortly came, and Mike watched as the distant stars started to become thin lines as their speed approached impossible levels.

He watched the scene for a while before his watch started to buzz.

Seeing this, Mike turned it on and saw that he was being invited to an online meeting. As soon as he picked, a holographic panel appeared with three sections. One section contained a series of smaller screens, and when Mike looked, he saw the miniature versions of the other students on the ship, with all of more joining rapidly.

What was funny and sort of cute was that it wasn't their 'actual' faces, but small chibi versions of them that popped up on the screen.

The second section was the selfie camera for Mike to see himself, and it was split between how he normally looked and the chibi version of himself, with round cheeks and big blue eyes.

'Not sure why this is a thing, but I kinda like it.' Mike smiled a little.

The last section was empty, but Mike was pretty sure that's where Beatrice would appear.

That's also when he registered that pretty much everyone was talking over themselves, asking questions, calling out for their friends, or just being trolls.

Mike drowned all of it out and looked at the different students projected, and soon enough, he found Theresa and Kris with their chibi versions as well.

Kris wasn't speaking as his mic was muted while Theresa was having a particularly loud verbal spar with Agnes. Mike scratched his cheek.

'This is very chaotic.'

A moment later, the screen for Beatrice activated, and sure enough, a small chibi with a unique marking on the side of its face appeared.

It was hard to take her seriously like that, but as soon as she appeared, she muted everyone, allowing silence to reign.

"Alright. Let us begin." She said with her usual curt tone.

'You know, I'm fairly certain this setup was your idea, so I'm genuinely baffled that you can keep a straight face while we all look like this.' Mike chuckled to himself but still listened carefully.

The small version of her moved to the side and created space, allowing a hologram of Naraka to appear.

"As the Vice-Principal explained briefly, you will all be sent to a region in Naraka where the beasts there should be within your ability to subjugate effectively. That said, he left out a lot of details, and it is my job to elaborate. So take notes, as I will rarely repeat myself during all of this." Hearing this, despite it being virtual, the mood seemed to shift as everyone became a lot more serious, with Mike leaning forward to pay close attention.

"First of all, your arrival." A hologram of the ship appeared near the atmosphere of Naraka marked in red.

"This ship will not touch down directly. Instead, you will all be dropped down directly from orbit into the designated area for this excursion. The reason for this is so that you lot will begin to get used to being dropped down in such a way, as with your Pathway, orbital drops are quite common." Hearing this, Mike tilted his head.

'I sort of see the vision. I can't imagine it would feel nice, though. But that's probably why she wants us to get used to it.' He hummed.

"Now." The hologram zoomed into the spot, and it was a large area of approximately 200 miles.

"You will each be sent a map of the area which you will use to navigate. The map contains three types of markers. Beast markers, Flag markers, and Supply markers." As she said this, three types of dots appeared scattered around the map.

One was red, another yellow, and the last blue.

"The red markers are for beasts. Simply put, they indicate the positions of powerful beasts within the area. The bigger the dot, the stronger the beast as well as the more points it gives. Keep in mind, not all beasts are marked. Only the particularly powerful ones, so there will still be unmarked beasts roaming around." Beatrice then gestured to the yellow markers.

"These are Flag markers. The premise behind it goes like this. There are times when you will be deployed to certain places where you need to hold down an area for a period of time, be it due to the area having important strategic importance or being rich in natural resources. These flags mimic that premise. You can 'claim' a flag, and holding it for a certain period will net you points. Different flags have different importance levels, and the more important ones will net you more points over time.

Unlike killing beasts, the points gained are gradual. So if someone can steal a flag you claimed shortly after you claimed it, your gains will be little." She then gestured to the final dots.

"These are supply markers. Sometimes, when you get deployed to an area, supplies get sent to aid you in your endeavors. This is a similar premise. Supplies are scattered around the area, and they all hold valuable equipment, from armor repairs to tools and gadgets, to even free point tokens. Either way, they are a good thing." When she finished, she fell silent to let the students digest the information.

'Huh, now that's interesting.' Mike rubbed his chin. The supply markers were nice to take note of, but not overly important at the moment.

The first two, though...

'That'll be tricky,' He tilted his head as he pondered.

If one wanted to gather a large amount of points–which was everyone–claiming a decent flag while consistently killing beasts of considerable strength was the way to go.

However, the issue with that was that other students wouldn't be sitting idly either. For instance, say you claimed a good flag and went out to kill a few beasts, it was very possible that someone could come and claim your flag while you were away, and when you returned, it's likely that you would be too exhausted to fight for your flag again.

Inversely, say you focused most of your attention on killing beasts and saw a particularly powerful beast that required some preparation to take out. You could discover a flag and claim it to earn some points in the meantime. In that case, someone stronger could find that beast and kill it before you.

In short, hunting beasts while keeping a flag claimed sounded like a tall task. However...

'That's only for people like me with little to no influence. For people like Namor, he can easily claim a flag and have his lackeys guard it while he goes out to hunt beasts, and inversely, he could stay near a flag while his lackeys hunt beasts, and then collect whatever points they earned when they returned. Or he could have them do both and chill somewhere. Either way, he could earn a large amount of points with minimal effort.' Realizing this, Mike couldn't help but smile with disdain.

"How sad." He shook his head. It's different if one worked in tandem with their allies, but to have someone do all the work for them while they just sat back and watched? Well, Mike had his opinions on that.

"Moving on, you may be wondering, how do we reach you if you are in serious danger? For that," Beatrice continued. "There is a program on your watches that acts as a signal beacon. It activates under certain conditions. One, you willingly activate it, and you will be teleported into the ship. Another way is if your vitals drop dangerously. In that case, you will be forcefully teleported. However, do know that this isn't foolproof. If you get one-shotted before your vitals can be observed or you activate the beacon, you will die.

Also, it doesn't need to be said, but if you activate your beacon or it's activated automatically, you automatically forfeit your chance to acquire any more points." Hearing this, everyone's faces turned solemn, even with the chibi looks.

'They're really putting us through the wringer, huh?' Mike thought. However, he wasn't discouraged or concerned. In fact, he saw this as an opportunity.

'If that's the case, I can probably level up a bunch. If there is no concern about something like a safety net, I can fight powerful foes that will push me to my limits.' He thought with anticipation.

"After that, be aware that we will not be observing you lot. So unless you activate that beacon, you are on your own. So I will say it bluntly. If there is anything you want to do that the academy wouldn't allow ordinarily, now is the time to do it."

And just like that, they got their green light to do some unsavory things.

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