Alex Knight's knee nearly slammed into the ground.
The pressure hit him like a truck—no, like a mountain suddenly dropped on his back.
His entire body screamed in protest.
His legs buckled.
His vision wavered.
But he didn't fall.
He refused to fall.
Gritting his teeth, he dug his feet into the ground. Muscles quivered. His back arched. Every fiber in his body strained under the invisible weight, but somehow—he held.
The Proctor hadn't just turned things up a notch.
He'd tripled it.
Not a gradual rise. Not a smooth ramp-up.
Just—BOOM—three times the pressure.
And the effect was brutal.
THUD!
THUD!
Two tutorial players dropped like puppets with their strings cut.
One collapsed face-first with a sickening thump.
The other let out a shaky whimper before fainting entirely, their body unraveling into shimmering particles of light.
Gone.
And just like that, only ten remained.
Eight new realm players.
Two tutorial survivors.
