The deployment shuttle descended through the thick, turbulent atmosphere of the designated wilderness zone, its heavy thrusters roaring against the air resistance.
Unlike Planet V-17’s unmapped wasteland, this specific region had been engineered and maintained for official academy survival evaluations.
Dense, towering forests stretched across the landscape below, broken only by jagged rocky hills, winding streams, and clusters of genetically modified alien vegetation.
Hundreds of freshmen were systematically dropped at different coordinates across the wilderness, each equipped with identical, standardized survival packs.
The moment Rhaevia’s military boots touched the damp earth, her deployment shuttle immediately lifted away, vanishing back into the sky.
She stood silently beneath the enormous, twilight-shaded canopy of synthetic trees. The surrounding forest looked perfectly natural at first glance.
It looked altogether too natural. Rhaevia crouched down, her slender fingers pressing against the cold, damp soil to examine the density. Her dark eyes narrowed into thin, analytical slits. Something was distinctly wrong here.
According to the trial briefings, the environment was supposed to be randomly generated and pristine. Yet, the soil beneath her fingertips had been disturbed recently, the compression showing signs of heavy machinery.
She stood up and examined several broken branches on a nearby cluster of brush. The cuts along the wood were unnaturally smooth and clean.
"Not caused by wild beasts," she murmured softly to herself. "And certainly not caused by natural weather patterns."
Someone with high-level access had deliberately modified this environment before the cadets arrived. Rhaevia straightened her posture, adjusting her equipment harness.
Instead of following the marked routes toward the primary resource supply caches, she pulled a compact tactical scanner from her survival pack.
The academy expected cadets to compete aggressively for points by hunting training beasts, gathering supplies, and claiming strategic territories.
Rhaevia, however, had zero interest in playing their predictable game. She pulled up a blank topographical map interface on her wrist display and began walking inward.
Every twenty meters, she recorded a precise geographic landmark onto her local system. She logged a massive, twisted tree with metallic bark, a shallow stream with artificial current flow, and three unusually smooth boulders arranged in a tight triangle.
She cataloged a steep, unnatural ravine and a patch of crimson vegetation growing in a perfect circular pattern. She memorized every structural detail with practiced precision.
If an unknown force had modified this training ground, they had done so with a specific purpose.
Nearby, a squad of three freshmen rushed past her position, their energy rifles drawn.
"There is a high-grade resource cache marked two hundred meters ahead!" one of the boys shouted eagerly to his squadmates.
"Move faster!" his companion yelled back, vaulting over a fallen log. "We can’t let the elite teams from the capital claim it first!"
The students sprinted toward the distant hills, competing fiercely for the limited supplies scattered throughout the wilderness. Rhaevia didn’t even turn her head to glance at them.
Food, water, equipment crates, and artificial survival points were obvious, dangling objectives. In her extensive war experience, obvious objectives were almost always intended as convenient distractions.
She continued moving deeper into the unmapped interior of the forest. Twenty minutes passed in total quiet. Then thirty.
The further she traveled away from the drop zones, the quieter the surrounding woods became. It became unnaturally, suffocatingly quiet.
There were no training beasts prowling the brush, no synthetic birds in the canopy, and not even the sound of local insects. Rhaevia brought her pace to a complete halt.
Her hand slowly moved downward, her fingers resting lightly on the hilt of the energy blade attached to her waist. Why would an artificially controlled, beast-populated wilderness suddenly fall completely silent?
She raised her scanner and swept the surrounding terrain once more. The academy’s official tactical map displayed nothing unusual, showing only empty woodland.
Her hardened survival instincts, however, strongly disagreed with the official feed. Rhaevia took a slow, silent step backward, shifting her weight.
As her heel brushed against a thick layer of moss, her eyes caught something unusual beneath the green growth. It was a straight, perfectly machined metallic edge poking out from the dirt.
She crouched down and brushed the thick vegetation aside with her gloved hand. More smooth metal appeared beneath her fingers. A massive circular structure was buried deep beneath the forest floor. Her dark eyes narrowed as she cleared away another section of soil.
A heavy, sealed hatch emerged from beneath the earth. Unlike the academy’s modern, polished alloy equipment, this metal was obsidian black and strangely reflective.
There were no imperial markings stamped on the hatch, no academy insignia, and no standard identification codes. Rhaevia carefully placed her bare palm against the cold metal surface.
It felt freezing, ancient, and heavy with dormant power.
THUM.
A deep, subterranean vibration echoed from far beneath the ground, responding directly to her touch. Rhaevia immediately withdrew her hand, taking a step back as her tactical scanner flickered wildly.
[UNKNOWN HIGH-DENSITY ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED.]
Her expression turned thoroughly serious. This underground structure was definitely not part of the academy’s survival evaluation.
She studied the sealed entrance intently. Someone had hidden an entire underground facility beneath the wilderness zone, and judging from the architecture, it had been here long before the academy ever built this training world.
Rhaevia slowly reached toward the hatch’s primary locking mechanism. The moment her fingers hovered over the edge, a faint crimson line suddenly split across the black metal.
Ancient, geometric symbols illuminated across the hatch surface one after another, glowing with a soft, ominous light. Her breath caught in her throat.
The glowing symbols were not standard imperial script, yet somehow, deep within her soul, she understood their meaning perfectly.
A quiet chime echoed from the hatch as a single line of translated text floated into her mind:
[SOVEREIGN ACCESS IDENTIFIED.]
Rhaevia’s pupils contracted sharply into tiny points as the heavy sealed hatch began to unlock. The ancient facility buried beneath the academy’s grounds had recognized her presence.
Before she could process the implications, the ground beneath her feet trembled as the massive hatch slid open with a deep, hydraulic groan. A cool blast of sterile, pressurized air rushed out from the darkness below, carrying a strange, metallic scent.
Rhaevia stood at the edge of the opening, looking down into a long, dimly lit stairwell that descended into the unknown. Her hand tightened around her weapon as she mentally prepared for whatever lay buried in the dark.
"Well," she whispered softly to herself, her lips curving into a faint, dangerous smile. "This is certainly more interesting than gathering resource points."
She stepped into the dark facility, the heavy hatch sealing shut behind her as she embarked on a discovery that would alter her fate forever.