Just then, the teacher at the front of the classroom rapped on the lectern.
"Attention, all first-year groups. Line up immediately and head to the open area on the south side."
No further prompting was needed.
The students quickly got into formation and followed the signposts out of the teaching building.
Their gazes swept across the broad expanse of gravel.
Several enormous cargo trucks were parked there.
"Each group, board the truck with your assigned number."
Every student had to run at least 1.2 kilometers.
The distance between handoff points had to be a multiple of 1.2 kilometers.
Anyone unable to finish the course or meet the minimum distance due to an accident would be disqualified.
It was the simplest division problem imaginable.
Eighteen divided by fifteen equaled 1.2.
There was no room for adjustments.
No one could use their freakish physical prowess to run extra distance for a weaker teammate.
In other words, every one of the fifteen runners had to run exactly 1.2 kilometers.
The truck drove along the steep mountain road. Its tires skidded over the rough, gravel-strewn surface, carving several long, dark-gray streaks.
The cloud of dust it kicked up instantly swallowed the rear of the truck.
"Seventh relay zone. Students assigned to this leg, get off."
Kazehara Tetsu wasted no time.
This was the seventh relay zone.
Kazehara Tetsu's gaze passed over the desolate, withered grass around him and swept along the winding track that climbed ahead.
During their group's "test run," they had marked this as the most dangerous stretch of the entire course.
What lay before them had lost any semblance of an ordinary "road."
The terrain rose in abrupt, stair-like slopes throughout this section.
That meant the runner would be unable to maintain a steady pace or breathing rhythm over the