The final preliminary event of the Inter-Academy Festival loomed before us, a virtual crucible designed to forge victors from chaos. Sixty students, each handed the reins of an army, would step into a sprawling VR battlefield where strategy and strength would collide. The rules were deceptively simple: capture glowing objectives scattered across the map to swell your forces.
The catch?
The higher your rank, the weaker your starting soldiers—a so-called balancing act to level the playing field. I saw it for what it was: a puzzle begging to be solved, a challenge daring me to outthink the system itself.
I stood by my assigned pod in the VR hub, arms crossed, a faint smirk tugging at my lips. "This won't be simple," I murmured, my voice a quiet thread lost in the hum of the chamber. Simple was dull.
