39 War (1/2)

The Hunter Union had conducted many surveys on its gold test. For the gold test when asked which was the scenario that one wanted to get the most in the second round, the answers varied from person to person depending on their or their team's skills. Scenarios like Hunt, Search, or Labyrinth usually took the top spots.

But when it was asked which was the scenario that they wanted to encounter the least, there was no top three list. There was only the first. Every surveyor unanimously gave the same answer.

War.

War, or as everyone fondly called it, the Civil War. It was possible to fail the objective of war. In the other scenarios, the objectives were team based. For example, in Hunt, the teams had to hunt demonic beasts for scores and the teams with the best scores win. In labyrinth, the first eight teams to find the exit would pass. And so on.

But the objective of War was a common objective. If the common objective was not met, then every single team could fail. And it was incredibly difficult to pass. Thus War boasted a spectacular ninety nine in hundred chance of failing completely. And even if by some miracle the main objective was cleared, rarely did thirty two people pass the test.

In other scenarios if even a single member of the team died, by which it means that they ere teleported out, the team would be disqualified. In War it was possible for a team to partially pass even if some of members of the team died. Otherwise the chance that a team would pass War was less than one in ten thousand. Even with this rule it was difficult for thirty two people to survive till the end.

The rule of War was exceptionally simple. The base of operations of the participants was a city with a white flag in the center. The city was under attack by the demonic beasts.

The objective of War was to go into the base of the demonic beasts and destroy the black flag that was there before the white flag in the city was destroyed by the beasts. If the black flag was not destroyed, or the white flag was destroyed first, War was considered to have failed.

This means that some of the participants would have to stay behind to defend the city, while some others had to go and destroy the black flag. The only rule was that the entire team had to move together for the same mission. Thus either the entire team stayed behind to defend or the entire team went to attack. It was not possible to split up a team.

These rules gave rise to a lot of problems. First of all, who defended the city and who attacked the beast den was left entirely up to the participants. There was no leader selected too. Thus if some disagreement occurred, and if everyone wanted to defend or everyone wanted to attack, or someone objected to the plan, it was far too easy for a fight to start. And since fighting between participants were not prohibited, it was common for participants to fight and kill others. According to legends, there were quite a lot of times, when the entire group but one was eliminated by the infighting, and seeing that it was impossible to both defend and attack at the same time, the last participant would simply kill himself to save time.

Also in a situation like War, it might be necessary for some special skills like scouting or healing. Since the entire team had to move together, it was possible that people with no skills in scouting had to scout, increasing the chances of death. Also if a person with a good or useful ability was there, the attacking and defending teams might fight over that team, all increasing the chance of failure.

Not only that, in case more than thirty two people passed War, the final thirty two was chosen by the examiners based on their performance in War. Thus there was usually a fight to get posts that people thought would give them an advantage.

But no one complained about War, as this was the only scenario where it was possible to get resources during the round. But the resources that one could get was different depending on the positions. This was another point of contentions.

All in all there was a much higher number of War cases where infighting occurred than those without. In War it was more likely to be killed by others rather than beasts. All of this contributed to war getting its nickname, Civil War.

Many people had tried to change the rules of War, or to simply eliminate it from the gold test entirely. But this did not seem to work. The sadistic bastards in charge enjoyed War the most, and thought of the whole thing as a game. Thankfully War had a very low chance of happening or no one would come to take the exam.

As the team watched the participants rage and complain, they simply smiled as they were used to this. They then quickly explained the rules to the people who did not know of them. But since War was probably the most well known scenario, almost everyone knew of its rules

”The second round would start tomorrow morning. It is currently noon. We have prepared rooms for all of you to stay in until then. Please wait while the teams are decided. If you do not mind which team you are put in, please go through the door on the right so reach the accommodation. If some of you would like to move as a team, please wait here for a while to give your names so that we can try and make it so. Also please note that the maximum number of people that can be in one team is four. Also please note that this is not a guarantee, and we will only try to make teams as per your request, and teams might be broken up if necessary.”