Classroom of the Elite, A Hypocritical Gray Life

How would you feel at that moment? You would likely feel extreme hatred toward the voice first, then shift that dissatisfaction and annoyance onto the person causing it.

This is because your comfort zone did not get the result it wanted, or rather, the thing you desired was in someone else's hands, and that person was playing with it without a care.

When something that feels like an extension of your own personality is provoked, how could anyone be satisfied?

"...I thought of a way, but I don't know if you all can accept it." As everyone fell silent, Soma Shuhei offered a glimmer of hope.

"Could you explain the plan first?"

"Aren't plastic bags provided in unlimited supply? We can take a large number of them and pad the ground under our tents; that way, the floor won't feel so hard."

"...Eh, that actually seems doable."

"But doing this will have a side effect."

Before the girls could even rejoice at this solution, Soma poured a bucket of cold water on them.

"Is there a problem with that..."

"Yes. It's just that whenever you move while sleeping, the plastic will make a 'rustling' sound. It might affect your ability to fall asleep."

I had expected Soma to mention a serious side effect, like violating environmental regulations, but I didn't expect it to be a noise issue.

"You scared me, I thought it was something serious. If it's just a small thing like that, I don't think it will be a problem for us."

"So it's just sound, but that's still much better than a hard 'mattress'."

"Agreed."

"Then there shouldn't be any problems."

"That's a great idea, Soma." Ichinose praised him happily.

"But wouldn't this be considered environmental pollution? After all, it's plastic..." Sumida voiced a cautious concern, but it was quickly resolved by Soma.

"As long as we return them to the school after use, there won't be any issues."

"Then I'll go submit the request to Teacher Hoshinomiya right now."

"Everyone, it's time for roll call, please come over and gather."

As luck would have it, the time had just reached eight o'clock, and Teacher Hoshinomiya walked over from the independent tent set up not far from ours, holding the roll call register.

The guidebook has a point-deduction rule: if a class is absent for the 8:00 AM or 8:00 PM roll call, five points will be deducted. This rule inevitably requires us to gather, so this time can be considered the most chaotic moment for us internally.

We intentionally didn't occupy the base equipment at the first opportunity, precisely to take advantage of this crowded time to huddle together and seize the machine. This is very effective at blocking the view of prying eyes.

After finishing a series of tedious discussions and necessary tasks, we finally welcomed our brief moment of freedom for the day.

I had wanted to observe the ants moving on the tree trunk, but Kanzaki suddenly sought me out.

"I'm asking if you did that on purpose." As he spoke, Kanzaki stared straight into my eyes.

"What are you referring to?"

"I walked in the direction you told me but didn't see the firewood you mentioned, yet I unexpectedly discovered a cornfield... Could it be that you did this on purpose? Because you didn't want to take credit for it yourself, you deliberately found an excuse to lead me over there."

"Now that you mention it, you didn't bring back the firewood I asked for... Wait, why would I do something like that? Getting credit for finding corn wouldn't cause me any trouble. Either you went the wrong way, or I pointed the wrong way; I did leave half the firewood on the path. If you followed the direction I pointed, then I must have pointed incorrectly."

"Was it just pointing incorrectly?"

"...Are you trying to flatter me?!" I suddenly understood Kanzaki's speculation and expressed my disdain for his line of thinking.

"If you want to fool me, you'd better give up; I've already seen through your tricks."

"I'm being serious."

"...Are you sure you know what you're saying?"

"Isn't it highly likely that the facts are the same as what I guessed?"

"Are you okay? Think about it carefully: I came back with Ichinose. If I could discover the cornfield on the way, wouldn't Ichinose have discovered it too?"

"..."

I considered my explanation to be very reasonable, but the look Kanzaki gave me was still filled with suspicion and doubt.

This is probably what it's like when you know something, but can't put into words exactly what you've understood.

"I feel like I'm starting to not understand you."

"You're the one making things too complicated." I irresponsibly pushed the problem onto Kanzaki.

"But because of this, I still have to go pick up that firewood myself tomorrow." I sighed.

"...I'll go with you tomorrow to make amends. And while I'm at it, I'll see how much truth there is in your words."

"Then let's get this straight: you're still the one carrying the firewood."

"..."

Chapter 61: Operation in Progress

Special Vacation Exam, Deserted Island Survival Assessment.

Before the exam began, the school granted each class 300 special exam points and issued a guidebook. As long as the items exist in the guidebook and the expenditure does not exceed the total amount, each class can purchase necessary supplies at will.

At the same time, in order to give each class an opportunity to close the point gap, additional points can be obtained by meeting specific conditions, which will be tallied uniformly at the end of the assessment and cannot be used during the exam period.

As for the so-called specific conditions, they refer to the "occupation of devices" and the "designation of a leader."

On this uninhabited island provided by the school, there are hundreds of occupation devices, and every location where one exists can be used as an assessment camp for a class. Occupying one is a simple and straightforward task in itself, yet a series of additional conditions forces us to proceed with caution.

At the forefront is the "designation of a leader," a rule that severely restricts the leader's movements. If they were to be spied upon by others during their activities, the class would face the danger of losing fifty points.

The second is that the specialized unlocking card can only be used by the leader, and once a person is designated, the target cannot be easily changed. This means that if we want to occupy a base while out searching for food, we must bring the leader along, which creates risk; at the same time, even if we are discovered, we cannot change our target.

Once I understood the rules, I thought of an extremely simple and brutal solution. That is, to assign the leader role to someone with professional physical fitness, relying on superior speed and agility to frantically occupy various bases within a week. In this way, even if discovered, it would be enough to offset the loss of one hundred and fifty points.

However, unfortunately, our class leader possesses neither superior physical fitness nor agile movements; she is a frail girl.

Of course, this method is also too idealistic. It could only be realized if everyone were clearly aware of a certain matter and if the lone wolf were completely cut off.

Therefore, based on the points above, the importance of the leader is already self-evident.

For this reason, we have also made double insurance to protect the leader's identity. The first layer is, under the premise that Shiranami Chihiro is known to be the leader, to entrust the specialized unlocking card to Ichinose Honami for safekeeping. This way, even if others discover who is carrying the specialized unlocking card, we can ensure safety when the leader is identified.

The second layer is the operational handling when occupying a base. A fixed first team is selected from within the class to tightly surround the occupation device to prevent spying, while a second team guards the safety of the surroundings. After the occupation is finished, the specialized unlocking card is passed through everyone's hands before finally being handed over to Ichinose.

Although the content is not eye-catching or seemingly profound, it is absolutely effective in protecting the leader's identity.

The premise is that the specialized unlocking card will not be leaked and...

--stolen.

1

An individual's sleeping posture is related to the health of their body organs and their sleeping habits; furthermore, if a person is tossing and turning in bed, it is because they are trying to adjust for the spinal fatigue caused by being too active during the day.

The latter alone cannot be said to mean one has a bad sleeping posture; it is just that they were too exhausted during the day.

Therefore, I am definitely not making excuses for accidentally damaging my tracking watch; if one really must place blame, it can only be said that these are all Ichinose's problems.

I shouldn't have gone to help gather firewood.

I sighed helplessly at the shattered screen. The watch's temperature, heartbeat, and positioning systems all showed abnormalities, with only the counter that could barely show the time still putting up a fight.

Three-fourteen in the morning; that is the current time.

I stretched my body, took the damaged watch off my wrist without permission, and placed it on the rock that had been in intimate contact with it not long ago.

Then, I got out of the hammock without making a sound.

It did not rain this morning, yet even so, it did not affect the dampness of the surrounding forest environment in the slightest.

The faint, fishy smell of soil, mixed with the fresh scent of leaves, and the heavy fragrance of fallen leaves and rotten wood...

I haven't encountered these strange yet familiar scents for over a year.

However, I am not here for nostalgia.

After making sure I hadn't woken anyone up, I walked slowly to the luggage piled on the plastic mat.

The tents provided by the school are not large. In order to leave enough space for themselves to turn over at night, the girls did not choose to bring their personal luggage inside, so we boys followed suit, which led to the phenomenon where all the class's luggage was placed together.

Originally, we also wanted to resolve the issue of personal luggage, but since doing so didn't seem to be a problem, and we truly had no extra space to store it, we left it as is.

The tent the school initially gave us to use as a simple toilet was empty, but to save five points, it became the location for the outdoor shower.

If I wanted to get my hands on the intimate apparel of the women I like in the class, then now must be the best time.

Relying on the faint light of the moon, I identified the only bag in the luggage that showed a different color and stealthily brought it to the edge of the plastic mat.

The mechanism for night vision is relatively simple. Because the rod cells that dominate night vision are far more sensitive to light than cone cells, but lack the ability to perceive color like cone cells, we can see things in the dim night, but we often cannot perceive the colors of objects.

Even though I have undergone corresponding special training, I cannot guarantee that I can absolutely identify the color of an object in the dark, but I can basically judge the differences.

Before the exam started, each of our classes was assigned backpacks of different colors. Precisely because of this, the luggage in my hand belongs to Class C student Kaneda Satoru.

Please do not misunderstand that I like him, nor do I intend to steal his personal items.

I slowed my movements, trying my best to unzip the zipper without making a sound.

I know that if I were discovered illegally checking someone else's luggage at this time, I would certainly be subjected to moral condemnation, even if the person condemning me were my own classmate and there was a reason for it...

I had sensed something was wrong the moment I saw Kaneda carrying his backpack. If it were just clothes and toiletries, it would absolutely not show those curves with a clear mechanical feel on the outside of the backpack.

In addition, the weight of the bag was also a problem. If our luggage only had two sets of change of clothes, then his bag had at least ten.

Towels, change of clothes, underwear...

Most of the things were the same as what we used.

However, this is--

I took out the object that felt cold and had a hard, metallic quality. Other than that, there were no other items in the backpack.

...A digital camera?

After finding the power switch, I started it without hesitation. Although Kaneda-kun only arrived at our camp yesterday, it would be better to check just in case.

"Beep... beep... beep..."

I filtered the content in the most direct way. At this point, I could only finish the inspection quickly to avoid making too much noise.

There were traces of it having been used, but the data loaded consisted of landscape photos of this island; no figures related to our class appeared.

After looking through it, I made some minor adjustments to the digital camera and then restored everything to its original state.

After finishing my preparations, I prepared to leave the campsite, yet just at that moment, a faint rustling sound came from inside the girls' tent.

It was the sound of a zipper being pulled open.

"Zzzzt—"

The next moment, the dim light of a lantern illuminated the space behind me.

Chapter 62: Midnight Terror

H.P. Lovecraft once wrote a famous quote in his work Supernatural Horror in Literature—fear stems from the unknown.

There is some truth to that, but it is not absolute.

Fear itself is very simple; it is merely an instinct etched into our genes, a warning signal to seek advantages, avoid harm, and protect life. All fear can be attributed to the dread of death itself. As an emotion, while it can serve as a warning at most critical moments, it is also a killer of rational thought when faced with the unknown.

Sigmund Freud divided the human psychological structure into three parts: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious. The conscious needs no explanation; it is the senses we perceive and recognize in our daily lives. The unconscious consists of experiences that are difficult to enter into the conscious, including primitive instincts, which are usually not accepted by the conscious mind. The preconscious is more flexible, situated between the conscious and the unconscious; in the words of this psychologist, it is a "censor" that ensures the unconscious does not intrude into the conscious space at will.

Since fear is a killer of thought, perhaps transforming the unconscious into the conscious would be a good way to erase it.

0

"Clack, clack—"

Hmm... is it morning yet?

I struggled to open my eyes, but the surroundings remained pitch black, and the sound of the girls' breathing could still be heard faintly in my ears.

"Beep, beep, beep—"

Since it isn't morning yet, let me sleep a little longer.

I turned over in a fit of pique, but because of the sweltering weather, I couldn't fall back asleep, and my consciousness became increasingly clear due to the sensation of my body growing hotter.

Hmm, I should have switched the tent to the mesh ventilation mode. Even though it's summer, there don't seem to be any mosquitoes around the campsite, right? It's just too stuffy; if the night breeze could get in, it might be a bit cooler.