3:The First Test

In the dark and quiet room, there was a man lying on the ground. Both of his hands are cuffed and even his body is pure of scars and stained with blood. He slowly moved his body towards the light. He can’t see the things around him and the only thing he wants to go to is towards that light where he thinks he can escape. 

‘He-help me,’ the guy said to himself while looking at the door. But suddenly, something blocks the light. No, it's someone!

With his eyes that can barely see the person standing in front of him, blocking his sight, he slowly raised his face desperately looking at his face. 

‘I can’t see him!’ the guy exclaimed to himself feeling the sudden fear as the guy in front of him suddenly lowered its body to level it to him. 

“P-philip?”  Obviously, the guy was confused after seeing his classmate who is supposed to be dead right now. 

“Hello Vincent,” the  Philip guy said and slowly touched the guy’s  chin to make him face him even more. 

“H-how? You… you died right? You died in front of me!!” he said hysterically as if he can’t believe what he’s seeing right now. 

Philip smiled a little bit  and coldly looked at the guy. 

“Yes, he died…” he said and slowly looked at Vincent’s eyes that made the guy feel the sudden shivers. At that very moment, Vincent already knew what was wrong with that guy. But it was too late until he felt a cold and sharp thing that thrust through his heart. 

His eyes are wide open while feeling his blood flowing over his body through his pierced heart. He can’t think of anything now as he already knows how messed up he was. And for the very last time, Vincent glanced at his former classmate, Philip who is right in front of him. 

He can see the demonic aura inside his body and the great malice it shows through his eyes. He couldn't say a thing anymore until his back was already lying on the cold and hard floor. That is the cue for Philip to slowly take his hands off to his body. 

He can still see the blood upon his hands that is clearly bright colour. Red, maroon, black. The victim he slaughtered, was lying on the ground with its heart pierced. He slowly got the heart with his hands and looked at it. 

He smiled while looking at his prize of killing the guy. His psychotic side can be seen in his eyes as he doesn’t care about the guy lying on the ground. His attention is only on the heart he is holding.

Another guy walked toward him holding a small box. Philip is still smiling while holding the heart as if he doesn’t want to put it away of his sight anymore. When he already put the heart inside the box, the guy holding it secure the box by locking it then left. 

He looked again to the guy lying on the ground. 

“Clean my mess,” he ordered his men while looking so happy. 

“Yes sir!” all of his men chorused in answering. 

He walked towards his seat and got the notebook on his desk. He then walked again to the place where Vincent died. He slowly let his fingers cross to the blood on the floor. He smelled it first then used his blood to mark “X” on Vincent’s face on his list. 

“Vincent Finesse… dead,” he said while smiling then he licked his fingertips. He even closed his eyes while tasting the blood from Vincent’s dead body. 

“This is the best! The finest of them all!!” he said while smiling wide open. Even his men almost lost their control after seeing his reaction. They wanted to taste it too! 

After a minute, he looked at his fingertips and let the last drop of blood pour right in the face of Vincent in the list. 

‘Marking the dead… Tasting the sweet yet iron taste like liquid from the student. Bloodshed is the best!’ he said to himself. 

Blood is the devil's ink.

Meanwhile, in the boy’s dormitory…The other guys are busy playing their online games trying to make up the remaining time they have on using phones. As a part of the rules and regulations in this school, the students must focus on their study and limit all distraction as much as possible.

They can only call their parents through the telecommunication lines provided by the university. Ryota Yuu, a 19 year old guy walks inside his room and takes his notebook. He started studying instead rather than playing games on his phone. He even put an earphone on his ear even though it doesn’t have any music. 

The formal class will start tomorrow so he doesn’t want to be left behind again during the first class. Ryota is actually a running valedictorian during highschool but because of the tight competition, he didn’t make it to the top. That’s why he wanted to make an impression on the teacher during the first day. 

“There he is again,” Kenji utters as he sees Ryota go inside his room. He’s been observing Ryota a while ago as he keeps seeing it lonely while reading a book. 

“Is he a type of nerdy guy?” he asks out of curiosity. 

“Maybe?” Rio answered then shrugged his shoulders. Kenji looked at Rio. They actually knew each other earlier since their rooms are beside each other. 

Kenji paused a bit then shrugged his shoulders as if he was wondering about something. 

“Oh well, maybe he is.” 

The loud noise coming from the bell wakes every student in both the dormitories. Others even tried to cover their ears trying not to hear the bell but it only irritates them because it's becoming louder strike after strike. While the others didn’t wake up at all making them late for their first class. 

Every student looked at their schedule per subject but to their dismay, all of them were all in one classroom. Mr. Rayven who guided them and told them that this will be the temporary arrangement of the classroom as they will separate good quality students to the students who still need improvement. 

But of course, no one defies what they heard so they have no choice but to  sit on their chosen seats. They also got their own identification card which states their student code number. 

While walking towards the back part of the room, Emma Sutton suddenly bumped into someone. 

She raised her brows while looking at the guy. Her eyes can show how annoyed she was while looking at the thin and pale guy kneeling over the floor. 

“I-Im sorry. I’m really sorry,” the guy apologises while bowing in front of her. Other students looked at them as if they were getting their attention. Emma just raised her brows as if she was disgusted by what she saw. Unlike the guy she adores, Mr. Rayven, this guy in front of him is a total opposite of her type. 

She can’t take it that this guy dares to bump into her knowing how sassy and special their group are. She slowly walked towards the guy and raised his foot. A second of silence envelops the whole room, curious about what she’s about to do. Even Emma’s friends, Mae and Ivy, are curious about what she has in mind. 

It shocked everyone when they saw how Emma kicked the guy's face. Emma’s face is so cold. The guy can clearly see how cold it was that makes him think how ruthless she was. His neck and forehead are already bleeding but he still doesn’t know how to make her stop. 

Even the students around are just simply looking at them waiting for what will happen next.  Emma repeatedly stomped over the guy’s face making him bleed even more. When the guy almost passed out, that was the cue for Mr. Rayven to stand between them. 

“H-hey! M-miss Emma! Stop it,” he said while holding Emma’s arms. The girl immediately calmed herself down as she noticed who was holding her hands. The professor immediately called the nurse to assist Fletcher Peyton, the guy who was lying on the floor. 

After a minute the commotion went away and the murmuring around the room was almost quiet, every student tried to keep themselves busy while waiting for Mr. Rayven. 

June makes himself busy scribbling on his note while his earphones are still stuck on his ear. He likes to be alone so he takes the seat at the back near the window, the usual seat for those who want to be alone. 

We put his chin over his hands while looking at the window. From his direction, he clearly sees the whole thing below the building. The university is surrounded by trees. They can’t even see the ocean over the building even knowing that they are on an island. 

After a minute he saw someone walking below the building. There should be no students below because this area is restricted for them only but there is someone who doesn’t belong to the new 25 students with them on the boat. 

June frowned while looking at the guy. It seems like he was being cautious while looking in both directions before continuing walking. He still wants to continue looking at the guy but Mr. Rayven suddenly enters the room. 

He just shrugged his shoulders and  put his attention to their teacher. As the discussion continued, they learned about the different tests they need to answer every week. Unlike any other university, every student has a chance to move from one level to another. The higher the level, the higher the possibility of graduating first. So basically, they won’t be graduating in the same year. 

The university doesn’t count the performance of the students just by the test but also by the areas where they excel. As of now, they will only have the basic discussion about certain subjects to recall the topics. 

June slightly frowned as he looked over Mr. Rayven with his usual bored face. After the introduction between the students, the bell rang again as a signal to take a break. Since it's the first day of class, it only lasts for half an hour and now, every student is free to do what they want. 

As usual, Emma and her friends try to hit on other guys while flirting. While others like Rio Wills do sports in the gym. 

Days have passed, and the test has already arrived. These past few days, they only do nothing but to recall the past lessons they learned in highschool so they don't have any idea of what will be the content of the tests. 

On the other hand, there’s a guy who covers his face while walking along the hallway. It’s the day he’s been waiting for to avoid the bullies. Since the first day, Emma hasn't stopped bullying him so the only thing he can think of to get out of his situation is to pass the exam and proceed to the next level, a different class as Emma. 

Fletcher smiled as he successfully passed over where Emma was seated. After a minute, the test instructor came and distributed the tab where we were going to answer. 

‘This is it, I need to pass!’ Fletcher said to himself while looking at his test paper. 

It was already 11:30 when Mr. Rayven and the test instructor decided to let the students start the test. At first students are shocked how random the tests are. It is not like what they expected. Unlike the top and elite universities with such hard exams, here in Hyakku University, no one expected how easy and basic the questions were. 

The only hard question to answer is the logic hidden in every text.  It only takes half an hour for the students to answer the whole booklet. They waited until the evening before the results came out. Every student gathered in one room below the intersection of the dormitories to see the results. 

Fletcher seemed so nervous while trying to peek at the posted list of results and he almost cried as he saw the code number of the top list. 

Top 1: Code 135174

He looked at his identification card and saw the same number written to his own. 

‘Seventy…four?’ he said to himself and couldn't stop himself from smiling. It’s him! Fletcher can’t wish for anything more as he already knows that it is him. 

The one who became top 1 on the test!