Early the next morning, before the thin mist over the island had fully dissipated, the Class D camp had already begun operations in accordance with the orders Natsuki Subaru issued the previous night.
Although the atmosphere remained oppressive, order had at least superficially been restored.
Suzune Horikita and Yosuke Hirata were responsible for organizing manpower to reinforce the camp and prepare breakfast. The stolen food rations were indeed replenished using class points. While this somewhat quelled the dissatisfaction, the doubt and unease in the students' eyes did not disperse.
Subaru rose very early—or perhaps, it was more accurate to say he hadn't really slept at all. He hadn't had a truly peaceful sleep in a long time.
Once, Subaru could only find rest by Emilia's side. Of course, that was before Emilia faded away. Even though this current world was completely different from the previous one, Subaru remained the same.
He sat alone on a high rock at the edge of the camp, gazing into the jungle-covered heart of the island. His fingers tapped unconsciously against his knee, seemingly in thought, or perhaps just waiting.
"Subaru."
At that moment, Horikita's voice sounded from beside him.
"Horikita, what is it?"
"Is handling it this way really okay?" Horikita frowned. "Although exchanging class points for food has temporarily stabilized morale, if we continue like this, our points will be far from sufficient."
"This is fine," Subaru said slowly.
"Subaru-kun... may I ask what exactly you are thinking?"
"Exam points... once they are deducted to zero, they cannot be deducted further."
"What?"
"Our exam points don't necessarily need to be abundant—at the very least, having more than the other classes is enough."
Subaru's gaze swept over the others in the class. To him, the majority of the class's existence brought only negative effects. The fewer people in the class, the slower the consumption of resources.
"Eight hours have passed. Next, we will move to another Spot. Today's goal is to explore the second potential Spot in the south, marking water sources and usable resource points along the way."
Subaru opened the guidebook. It contained a very crude map that was generally useless, yet he had precisely marked the locations of the Spots upon it.
"Horikita, Hirata, each of you will lead a team. Five people per team. Proceed according to the routes I've marked."
His commands remained direct, leaving no room for explanation or negotiation.
"And you, Subaru-kun?" Horikita couldn't help but ask. She noticed that Subaru hadn't assigned himself to any team.
"Me?" Subaru looked up at her, expressionless. "I have my own matters."
He didn't say what those matters were, but his unquestionable attitude forced Horikita to swallow her follow-up questions.
"Additionally," Subaru's gaze swept over the list of members preparing to depart, pausing briefly on a few names. "Sakura stays in the camp today to assist with housekeeping and guarding. Kushida, you stay too. Your foot injury hasn't healed; it's not suitable for you to move around."
Airi Sakura, having been named, visibly sighed in relief and nodded timidly. Kikyo Kushida, however, paused slightly before a sweet smile—a mixture of regret and understanding—immediately surfaced on her face.
"Okay, Subaru-kun. I'll do my best to help!"
Subaru nodded and said no more.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji was assigned to Hirata's team. Before setting off, he glanced at Kushida and Sakura, who were arranged to stay behind, and then at Subaru, who was walking alone toward the other side of the camp. His eyes shifted slightly.
Deliberately keeping Sakura and Kushida behind... what is the reason? To prevent Kushida from leaking more intelligence? No, if that were the case, why did he deliberately let Kushida leave yesterday?
Ayanokoji followed the team silently, but in his heart, he raised his alert level once again.
After the exploration teams departed, not many people remained in the camp. Aside from a few students responsible for guarding and organizing, there were only Sakura, Kushida, and two or three other girls with weaker stamina or cooking duties.
Kushida worked diligently to help organize the cooking utensils, but her eyes drifted occasionally to Subaru, who sat alone under a tree not far away, seemingly studying the guidebook again. She also glanced at Sakura, who sat at a distance from Subaru that was neither too close nor too far, looking somewhat at a loss.
The opportunity... seems to have arrived.
Using the excuse of getting a clean rag, she slowly approached Sakura, her face wearing her usual friendliness and concern.
"Sakura-san, are you okay? You must have been terrified last night, right?"
Sakura raised her head as if flattered by the attention. Seeing it was Kushida, she relaxed slightly and nodded gently. "Mn... a little. Thank you for your concern, Kushida-san."
"It's okay, we're in the same class after all." Kushida squatted beside her, lowering her voice, her tone filled with sympathy. "Actually... I'm also very scared. Subaru-kun... although he is very amazing, I always feel he's a bit hard to figure out, right? When that happened last night, he seemed... not to care much about our feelings."
Sakura pursed her lips and continued, "If it's Subaru-kun... he isn't a bad person."
Her voice was very small and still carried a tremor, yet it was incomparably firm.
Kushida observed her reaction and continued in a gentle voice, "However, it's good that we stayed behind. At least the camp is safer. It's just... we also have to be careful. I heard Class C's Ryuen-kun is very scary. Maybe he will even..."
She deliberately left the sentence unfinished, leaving an unsettling blank.
Just then—
"Ah!"
From the edge of the camp, near the jungle, a short scream suddenly rang out! It was the voice of another girl who had stayed behind.
Everyone's heart tightened, and they immediately looked in that direction. They saw the girl, face pale, pointing at the grass on the edge of the jungle.
"There... there's something moving over there! It looks... looks like a human shadow!"
The atmosphere instantly became taut.
Subaru put down the guidebook in his hand, stood up, and cast his gaze toward the grass. His face remained expressionless.
"Two people go check it out," he ordered calmly.
Two bolder boys picked up tools and walked nervously toward the spot. Sakura shrank back in fear, and Kushida timely revealed a frightened expression, moving closer to Sakura.
The two boys carefully parted the grass—
"...There's nothing here?"
"Did we see wrong?"
Behind the grass, it was empty, save for traces of the wind blowing.
"Maybe it was a small animal, or a trick of the eye..." one boy shouted back, heaving a sigh of relief.
False alarm.
Everyone's suspended hearts lowered slightly, but the feeling of being watched and unsafe grew even stronger.
However, just as everyone's attention was attracted by this "false report," no one noticed a darker, swifter shadow on the other side of the camp. In the shadow of the small tent storing tools and spare supplies, it flashed past like a ghost, silently approaching the position where Sakura had just been sitting.
The shadow's hand shot out extremely fast, grabbing towards Sakura with a clear target. Just as the fingertips were about to touch her strap!
Whiz!
A fist-sized stone shot out from Subaru's direction with a fierce, wind-breaking sound. With incomparable precision, it grazed the shadow's hand and smashed heavily into the ground beside it, kicking up a small spray of dirt!
The shadow's movement froze abruptly. As if bitten by a venomous snake, the hand retracted instantly. The figure looked up at Subaru in horror.
Subaru had turned around at some point. He was toying with another stone in his hand, his icy eyes locking onto the direction of the tent's shadow. There was no surprise in that gaze, no anger—only a kind of indifference, bordering on boredom, as if he had been waiting for a long time.
"Played enough?"
He spoke. His voice wasn't loud, but it traveled clearly through the suddenly deathly silent camp. "Or is it that Ryuen's subordinates only dare to make moves on girls?"
The black figure in the shadows was completely exposed to everyone's gaze—it was a lean Class C boy with fierce eyes. Not a core member like Ishizaki or Albert, but clearly a character under Kakeru Ryuen meant for this kind of "dirty work."
His face held the shock and rage of a plan seen through, along with a trace of disbelief. He couldn't figure it out—how did Subaru discover him? Everyone's attention had clearly been drawn to the commotion on the other side!
Only now did Sakura realize with a delay that she had almost been attacked; her entire body shivered.
Kushida's heart also gave a violent jump, her gaze toward Subaru filled with shock and suspicion. He anticipated this long ago? He even calculated the opponent's diversionary tactic? How is that possible?!
Subaru tossed the stone in his hand and walked step by step toward the frozen Class C boy. His pace wasn't fast, but it carried an invisible pressure that made the notoriously fierce Class C boy subconsciously take half a step back.
"Ryuen sent trash like you?"
Subaru stopped a few steps away from the other party, his tone as flat as if he were evaluating an object. "Even the sneak attack is so uncreative."
"You...!"
The Class C boy's face flushed red with a mix of shame and anger, but stared at by Subaru's bottomless dark eyes, he didn't dare to move rashly for a moment.
"Ryuen only sent you as a pawn," Subaru said slowly.
He knew clearly that after Kushida leaked the intelligence yesterday, Ryuen had dispatched some Class C students to monitor Class D's every move from the perimeter. Their goal was to pressure Class D. After confirming the main force had left, Ryuen had a student launch a raid on Sakura.
There is no surveillance in this exam—which means violence is permitted.
"Go back and tell Ryuen," Subaru interrupted him, his tone still lacking fluctuation but every word clear. "The probing is over. Next time, tell him to come himself. Or, play something more interesting."
He paused, then added a sentence, the corners of his mouth hooking into an extremely faint arc that chilled the heart: "For example, come find me directly. I, Natsuki Subaru, Leader of Class D, welcome him anytime."
He stated his identity. Not a secret, not a guess, but a calm declaration made right in front of a hostile class member in an almost provocative manner.
Just as the opponent was thinking about how to respond, Subaru suddenly took a step forward.
He grabbed the arm. Controlled the force.
It was the sound of bones colliding.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!"
Screams echoed endlessly through the camp as the student lay on the ground in agony.
"Relax, no broken bones, just a dislocation—probably. I tried not to kill you," Subaru yawned.
He had controlled his strength slightly so as not to kill the other party. After all, if someone died, it would be a bit troublesome. Unless there were special watches; those watches could locate student coordinates, making it hard to disguise a murder as an accident. Though, even if Subaru were to do it, he wouldn't bother disguising it.
Beside them, Kushida was stunned by the scene before her. Subaru... dared to go to this extent.
Then, he turned sideways, clearing the path, as if the intruder who had come with malicious intent was just a bug that could be crushed at will.
"Now, get lost."
The Class C boy's expression shifted rapidly. Finally, under Subaru's suffocating gaze, he gritted his teeth in hatred and fled into the forest.
The camp was dead silent. All the students who stayed behind stared dumbfounded at the scene. No one had expected him to go this far, and to... directly publicize his Leader identity?
If Horikita had been present, she would likely have retorted against this reckless behavior on the spot. But at this moment, what surged in the hearts of the remaining students, aside from shock, was an indescribable complexity—fear still existed, but within that fear, there seemed to be a trace of... the heart-pounding absolute control displayed by their leader in the face of a threat?
Compared to Class C, Subaru was even more terrifying.
Kushida's face turned slightly pale.
Subaru ignored everyone's gazes. He bent down, picked up the stone that had repelled the intruder, weighed it in his hand, and then tossed it aside casually. He walked back to where he sat before and picked up the guidebook again, as if everything that just happened was truly just an insignificant farce.
Boring. Is it really... just this level?
Subaru thought indifferently. Ryuen's probing, Kushida's petty actions, the other students' unease... In his eyes, all of this remained like a clumsy game played by children.
What he anticipated was a more intense conflict, a more thorough exposure of nature. He wanted to splash even a trace of vivid "color" into this unchanging gray world.
Meanwhile, at Class C's temporary spot.
After listening to the stuttering report of the subordinate who had returned in a sorry state, the ferocious grin on Ryuen's face slowly bloomed, and flames of unprecedented excitement burned in his eyes.
"He admitted it personally? And told me to find him directly? Haha... Hahahaha!"
Ryuen couldn't help but laugh aloud, his laughter echoing through the forest, filled with violent pleasure.
"Interesting! Too interesting! Natsuki Subaru... you indeed haven't disappointed me!"
____
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