Alfonso entered the room and a silence fell over it. “Stop this immediately, Y47 and B5, come with me immediately.” Looking at him, Luca saw he wasn’t the only person who saw him cowering in fear. Behind him stood the dean but he seemed oddly amused.

“So, I assume there is no wondering about why you two are here in my office?” The burly man spoke from behind the desk.

“No sir.” Luca said, and B5 shot him an ice cold look.

“Jose?” The dean reiterated.

“No sir.” He finally spoke.

“Good, we will not allow fighting here, leave the fighting for the arena and the other academies. I can’t make you do anything but try not to waste your time on each other here and focus on becoming the best you can. Two months seem long, but they will fly by and I need your full cooperation to do my job properly. Understood?”

“Yes sir,” Luca uttered.

Jose didn’t respond and finally the dean spoke again. “Jose, you can leave, Luca please stay for a minute.”

Jose looked at Luca again with hatred in his eyes and whispered “This isn’t over, for you or your little girlfriend.”

“JOSE!” The dean raised his voice and Jose scurried out of the door. “Now Luca. You might be wondering why I kept you behind but do not be alarmed. I read your file, and you have my sincere condolences about your father. I also lost my father as a young boy.” The words stung and Luca could feel his eyes moisten.

“Thank you sir. Can I go now?” He wanted to get away from this awkward, friendly situation as quickly as possible.

“No, not yet, I don’t want you fighting, with them I mean. They are children, you are a man. You have to think about your family. If they bother you, come straight to us. Understood?”

Luca nodded, surprised by the affectionate display.

“Now you may go. You’re going to be late for morning training.” He showed him the door and Luca quickly made his way out. Ana and Carlos were the only two left in the dinner, waiting for him.

“Listen Luca, I am really sorry, it’s my fault, I should’ve looked where I was going, and now you got beaten up for a stranger.”

Luca held up his hands.

“Whoa, slow down Carlos. It is fine. I've had much worse beatings than that.” He snorted, remembering the pummeling he took from Milo. “Forget about it alright?” He could see Ana looking at him caringly and made eye contact with her. “I'm alright, really. Let’s go, we're going to be late for training.”

Outside of the large building there was an athletics field with obstacles set up. The group of students were split up into different classes and were each doing different exercises. The three of them got placed to do warmup running on the track and they set off at a comfortable pace. After one lap Carlos was struggling and his cheeks had already turned blood red.

“Don’t push yourself too hard, it’s only the first day, you have plenty of time to get fit.”

“Yes, I agree with Ana, maybe you should take a seat and then join us for the next round of exercises.”

They passed the spectators' seats and Carlos left them.

“Thanks for what you did this morning,” Ana said, “I think it meant alot for Carlos, even though he feels terrible about it.”

“Yes, no problem, hopefully that was the end of it.”

They finished exercising in the late morning and gathered in the food hall for lunch. Afterwards they had an introduction to wartime strategies and were expected to do homework on it.

Late that night when the trio finished doing their homework together in the food hall, Carlos finally laid his pen down.

“Alright, that’s me guys. I need to get some rest.”

“Yeah, I think all of us could do with a little bit of rest. Let’s call it a night and finish tomorrow morning. 5am back here?” Ana suggested.

“Sure,” Carlos and Luca accepted.

Luca walked Carlos to his room and saw he was opposite of Jose in the hall. Jose sneered.

“Well, well, well look who it is.”

Carlos muttered under his breath. “Just ignore him, Luca.”

“Good evening Jose,” Luca said cheerfully. “I hope you have a lovely night's rest.”

“Oh we will.” He laughed and entered the room with one of his followers.

“Gosh, hate is a strong word but I am pretty close to hating that guy and I don’t even know him.”

Luca patted him on his back reassuringly, “Nah, just forget about him, he’s a nobody. Goodnight man.”

Luca watched Carlos enter his room and left. Walking back to his room, he had a feeling of loneliness, of missing his family. He doubted if he was doing the right thing and should have found a more surefire way of getting an income. He just hoped his mom was able to find a job, providing for them both. At least they didn’t have to feed him for a while as well.

Entering his room, empty of life he sat down at his desk. Sleep has not yet knocked on his door and he used this opportunity to go through his strategy manual. He focuses on the Fast & Hard sections. Where he specialized and already had experience in.

Luca studied for a few hours and finally decided to go to bed. He looked at his clock just above his doorway and it read 2:30am. “Well this is tomorrow’s problem.” He shrugged and slammed his book shut. He laid down in his bed and sleep washed over him.

The next morning they were all held back instead of training again, which Luca could see Carlos was very grateful for. After breakfast a large projection was printed on the white wall and the dean entered the room.

“Welcome everyone, I trust you are all well-rested and prepared for today. We will be conduction an intro to all the rules of game we know so far.” He paused as he saw Jose high fiving his friends. “I can imagine you are all very curious as to what it may hold. Well I have bad news, not even the academy knows all the details but I will share today what we know so far.” He clicked on the remote in his hand and a wall of text appeared on the projection.

Welcome to The Modern Domain. A three month tournament in which you will travel through Baria in search of the Golden Katana. First person to find it will receive $1 000 000. Second person to EQUIP the weapon will receive $500 000, and third will be rewarded $250 000. The player equipping the sword has to be killed to drop the sword.

The Katana can not be unequipped and will be visible to everyone around you. Every hour spent with the Golden Katana in your possession will grant you $500. Every kill will grant you $350. So there is money to be gained throughout the whole tournament.

The combat and leveling system has been revamped for this challenge. Certain body parts will take more damage and you only have one level to increase. Hero level. Experience points are spent to upgrade your weapon which is bound to you. Everyone starts out with a knife and will spend experience points to upgrade their base weapon, attachments, gear, mounts and custom colors. Ammunition is a limited resource but will be dropped by all monsters and dungeon bosses. All damage is determined by your upgrades to a realistic output. IE a headshot without a helmet will almost always kill you. Once dead, you will not respawn.

This is a LifeSim. Thirst, hunger, stamina, heat and cold all affect your health. Players will be put into a coma for the duration of the three months monitored by the best doctors of the world.

After 75 days of the tournament running, the Golden AK’s position will be shown on a real time map which is replacing the World map for this challenge.

Armor and gear can be crafted through the crossed swords interface in your HUD using gold when you are close to a crafter in a city. Every city will start out unclaimed and up for grabs. Keeping a city for 12 hours will reward your current party with $50 each. Find a team.

Good luck, may the best hero win.

Luca read the introduction and raised his hand.

“Yes Luca,” the dean looked at him.

“Excuse me sir, I have a lot of questions as I have never played The Shadow Domain. Will we get a chance to get answers on all of them?” And he heard a groan behind him, guessing it was Jose again.

“Ofcourse, after this class you will be divided into teams according to your own choice, and will be assigned a teacher and mentor who will be your guide until the tournament starts. Any other questions?” A brunette girl in the back raised her hand and the dean continued.

After most of the questions had been answered the Dean held his hands up. “Okay, enough questions, save them for your teachers. That's why I pay them.” He laughed. A row of new faces entered the room and Luca could see Isabel and Aflonso amongst them. “These are your new teachers. Please, introduce yourself and then divide yourself amongst them. There are 750 students and 30 teachers. So average around 25 students per. Oh and remember, no infighting between the teams. We are all part of a bigger team. The enemy is out there. Please continue.” He left the building and the teachers started the process. Each teacher had specialized experience in certain domains of gaming. When it was Alfonso’s turn he introduced himself and his specialities, rush tactics and full assaults. Luca thought he might be a good match for himself. He had heard Ana is a support player but he was not quite sure what Carlos preferred.

“Hi everyone, you all probably know me, I am Isabel and I have experience in defensive play and support. I also have experience in self-defense courses and make a good sniper when I need to. I would love to have any of you and you are welcome to come see me after introductions.”

The three of them looked at each other and there was a mutual agreement that they were going to Isabel.

“Carlos, what do you play?”

“Usually I play what the team needs but I enjoy tanking and support as well.”

“Great then have two tank supports, can never have enough support.” he looked at Ana.

“You fine with Isabel?”

“Uh-huh.” She nodded.

After the introductions they made their way to Isabel. “We would like to be on your team Isabel.”

Her face lit up, “Sure! Come along with me when everyone has decided.”

The crowd thinned as they filled up the teams and went with their chosen mentors. When Isabel’s team was formed they left to the far side of the athletics field.

“Okay, so,” She put her hands together. “First things first. Introductions. We will be doing a lot of team building activities to get to know each other so just names for now. And then we are going to do an introduction to the system this afternoon.”

Everyone gave out their names and Luca made a mental note of each one. Isabel gave them a rundown of the system and the tournament rules and Luca asked,

“How does the city system work?”

“The shadow domain is built inside the world of Baria. And in Baria there are many villages and cities. Now, if you and your party or team stay within the city long enough with the overwhelming force for a certain period of time, the city will be yours.”

He said his thanks and she continued. “The other thing that stood out to me was you all start out with a knife which is seen as your “base” weapon. This item can’t be dropped or unequipped and is the weapon which will be upgraded via the interface if we understand correctly. There will be weapons, upgrades, tools and equipment scattered around the world so be sure to check every nook and cranny for something which might help you.”

Luca, Carlos and Ana excitedly discussed what they have learnt, and theorycrafted which weapons will be available. Entering the food hall at lunch time, everyone gulped down their food to be able to test out the system.

Each mentor came in with a big box in their arms and carried it to their meeting place where she handed a rectangular carton to each one of them. Luca examined it and opened it revealing a shiny green case with GlassOS S engraved on the top.

“These are special versions created for this tournament only and with them you can only enter the tournament world. Each academy has been given their own world and will be allowed to spend a number of hours training inside it to get used to the environment and available equipment.”

There was a chorus of oohs and ahs in the small group as they excitedly fiddled with their new pairs of glasses. Luca looked at his, and thought of the monetary value something like this would have and how long he could feed his family with it.

“Please everyone,” Isabel's voice pulled Luca back to reality. “Put on your glasses and go through the character creation. Remember there is only one race available, humans. To keep it fair for everyone. You can choose in which City you want to spawn, so feel free to enjoy the game for 2 hours before we need to go back.”

Luca found himself laying on the grass. He took a deep breath and exhaled. Fresh cool air filled his lungs and he smiled at the smell of nature filling his nostrils. He opened his eyes and it revealed a large grass square in the middle of towering buildings.

“Whoa! Look at this knife!” He heard a voice behind him. He saw players all around him appear after a brief white light. The voice turned out to belong to one of his classmates, Turner, a well-built man who looked to be in his mid-twenties.

“Here you are, where’s Carlos?” He saw Ana walking up to him.

“I don’t know, I haven't seen him.” Just as he finished his sentence he saw Carlos spawn in, his character being a gigantic muscle mass of a man. Couldn’t keep her laughter in.

“Really, how are you going to hide behind anything,” She said between the tears streaming down her face.

“Well just wait until I have to dig you out of rubble.” He retorted.

“Let’s see what's going on around here.” He opened his map and saw his indicator being in the middle of the city named Breau. “Looks like we are in Breau, and that seems to be the castle.” he pointed to large towers pointing out above the rest of the medieval buildings.``

They made their way towards the castle and walked past a few classmates who had been exploring the city.

“Right, let’s find the crafter, he should be here somewhere.” Carlos suggested.

“I need to get used to the map,” Luca said worryingly. “This thing is huge!”

“It’s easy once you know the basic layout.”

They found the crafter, but all the options were locked and they could not see what weapons would be available. So they decided to go out into the countryside belonging to the city and its castle. Luca and Ana lost themselves in the tall trees and all the greenery they could feast their eyes upon. They walked to the nearby forest which Ana said was named the Golwynn forest and showed him the Eagmeareb mountain range and the first dungeon entrance. After two hours a voice could be heard in the atmosphere and asked them to log out. Luca’s consciousness flooded back to him and he found himself back on the athletics field.

The highly excited crowd walked back into the food hall, where their introduction to hand to hand combat will be given, but Luca had more hope, everything just became real.