After leaving with Ichinose, Yi Chen went to the restaurant on the cruise ship's top deck and looked out at the sea.
The two of them ordered two premium drinks. Even though it was late, the restaurant was still fairly crowded.
Yi Chen looked around at the people in the restaurant.
Before long, he spotted Kushida chatting with Ryuen and the others.
Yi Chen watched quietly.
"Kushida?"
"Right, she was the traitor."
A memory suddenly came back to him.
"There's another exam on the cruise ship—the Werewolf game?"
"Kushida had been betraying us from the start!"
"How did I forget about that?"
"Damn, I've been living way too comfortably."
"I've nearly forgotten why I came here in the first place."
"I have to make it into Class A!"
Albert noticed Yi Chen looking their way and told Ryuen.
Ryuen stood up, and the five of them walked over to Yi Chen.
When Ichinose saw Ryuen approaching, she stepped in front of Yi Chen to shield him.
Yi Chen was amused by her gesture.
Ryuen said teasingly,
"What's wrong, Ichinose? What's with that look?"
Yi Chen stepped forward.
"What is it, Ryuen?"
Ryuen replied,
"I just spotted an acquaintance and came over to say hello."
"Isn't that right, Angela? Yi Chen?"
Yi Chen smiled.
"Is that so? Anything else you want to say?"
At that, Ryuen laughed instead of getting angry.
"I just want to see how you're going to lead Class D into Class A."
As he spoke, Ryuen put an arm around Kushida.
Kushida disgustedly brushed his hand away.
She glanced at Yi Chen but said nothing.
After exchanging a few words, they all left.
Yi Chen left with Ichinose and simply told her he was a little tired.
The two of them went their separate ways to rest.
That night, Yi Chen started thinking through the exam, running every possibility through his mind.
He looked at the world with the utmost suspicion.
The next day.
August began.
After sailing for a day and a night, the cruise ship soon reached the vicinity of a small island.
Yi Chen got up early that morning.
Angel:
"Mission issued
Uninhabited Island Class Exam
First: one Diamond Card
Second: one Gold Card
Third: elimination
Fourth: complete erasure
Yi Chen glanced over the mission. He was already used to this sort of thing.
Still, the Diamond Card reward for first place was quite tempting.
Ever since he'd gotten all these random cards, he'd felt like a total badass.
Then an announcement came over the cruise ship's speakers.
"All students and teachers, assemble on the deck."
Yi Chen gazed out the window of his cabin, unperturbed.
"An uninhabited island."
"Is it starting?"
When they assembled on the deck, the students from Class D arrived very slowly.
By the time Yi Chen got there, the other classes were already lined up.
Yi Chen calmly looked at Ayanokoji, Horikita, and the others. Only nine students from Class D had arrived.
Yi Chen looked at Chabashira as well.
As usual, Chabashira didn't look particularly pleased.
While they waited, Yi Chen stayed where he was and kept imagining everything that might happen during the exam.
Before long, the rest of Class D trickled in. Some students were still grumbling and complaining.
Chabashira looked at her class helplessly.
She told everyone to quiet down.
Then she gave them a brief explanation.
"Next, we'll be going ashore."
"You can't bring personal belongings."
"Everyone's student ID will be confiscated."
Chabashira then took out a watch and told them,
"You'll need to wear this watch from now on."
"Don't take it off. There will be severe consequences if you do."
Soon, the homeroom teacher of Class A came to the center of the deck.
He set up a podium.
The Class A teacher addressed everyone.
"Next is a week-long Special Exam."
"Everyone will live on the island for a week."
"How you manage that is up to you."
"All right, everyone. You can start preparing to go ashore."
At that, everyone was shocked.
Many students looked at Yi Chen.
"Was he just bluffing? Is this really an exam?"
But they only glanced at him and didn't think much of it.
After all, even if they knew, it wouldn't help much. As far as they were concerned, it just meant they'd found out a little earlier.
Then all the homeroom teachers began confiscating the students' IDs, phones, and other personal belongings.
After that, each student was given a Smartwatch.
Chabashira then explained the exam.
"The exam starts when you land on the island and ends at noon on the seventh day."
"Each class has 300 Class Points to use for the exam."
"You can only use those 300 points to buy things on the island."
"Any Class Points left when the exam ends will be added to your class's school points."
"In addition..."
Chabashira took out a green card.
"Each class needs to have a leader."
"There are occupied zones on the island. Capturing one as leader will earn you bonus points."
"Those bonus points won't count toward your current usable total."
"Each occupied zone can only be held for eight hours."
"This card is the key to claiming one."
"The leader can't be changed at will."
"Any misconduct on the island that violates the student rules will result in point deductions."
"Finally..."
Chabashira stared gloomily at Yi Chen and Ayanokoji, then gave them a chillingly eerie grin.
"At noon on the seventh day, when the exam ends, you can guess which student is the leader of another class."
"Guess correctly, and you'll earn 50 points. Guess wrong, and you'll lose 50."
Everyone was stunned. Excited chatter broke out all around them.
Yi Chen, meanwhile, gazed into the distance at the uninhabited island.
Before long, the school sent speedboats to ferry the students to the island.
Yi Chen examined the watch on the boat. It didn't seem much different from a fitness tracker, except that it had a more advanced GPS.
Once they reached the island, the school gave each class some basic survival supplies.
But it was just a backpack of toiletries, a tent, matches, and things like that.
There were also bags for disposing of waste.
The students let out a chorus of groans.
They all started complaining about one thing or another.
But Yosuke Hirata, Class D's class leader, stepped forward.
Hirata began explaining the plan to everyone.
Yi Chen, meanwhile, kept looking toward the distant woods and observing them.
Yi Chen thought,
"What did Ryuen mean yesterday? Kushida?"
"With the knowledge from the Bear Grylls Survival Manual, surviving shouldn't be a problem."
"I'll need to study the terrain carefully and find as many occupied zones as possible."
"Then I'll see if I can spy on the leaders of the other classes."
"To get the rewards and avoid surprises, I have to stay active."
Ayanokoji watched Yi Chen, who seemed distracted.
He walked over and asked in a low voice,
"What's wrong? What are you thinking about?"
Yi Chen replied calmly,
"We're on an uninhabited island, and I don't know its layout. I'll need some time to figure it out."
Ayanokoji looked at Yi Chen calmly.
"They gave us information about the island after the ship arrived."
Yi Chen looked at Ayanokoji as if suddenly waking from a dream.
"Damn, I didn't notice. Why are you reminding me?"
Ayanokoji said nothing more and went over to Hirata to listen to his arrangements.
Yi Chen watched him.
He thought,
"Did he give up on me because I'm an idiot? Or was he just too lazy to answer?"
"Whatever. It doesn't matter. I'll just have to take things as they come."
Before long, a dispute broke out near Hirata. Yi Chen walked over to see what was going on.
Osamu asked Yi Chen,
"Yi Chen, don't you think we shouldn't spend the points carelessly?"
Yi Chen saw the group of classmates, led by Karuizawa, turn to look at him.
Yi Chen grumbled inwardly,
"Nice one, Osamu. You're trying to shift the blame onto me."
But he still replied calmly,
"Spend them when we need to. We can earn points back anyway, so let's just see how many we can save."
The girls who wanted to spend the points cheered at his answer.
"Yi Chen, you really aren't like those pretentious, selfish people!"
Osamu, Yamauchi, and several others who thought the points shouldn't be spent carelessly argued back,
"Yi Chen, how can you take the girls' side?"
"Then tell me, how are we supposed to increase our living expenses later if we use up all the Class Points?"
"And you girls, what do you mean, 'selfish'? Aren't these points for all of us to use?"
"Even if you want to buy them, shouldn't the whole class vote on it?"
Yi Chen glanced around, feeling as though he'd been caught in a maelstrom of public opinion.
Yi Chen looked helplessly at Horikita and Ayanokoji.
Horikita wore a smug, gleeful expression.
Ayanokoji indicated that there was nothing he could do to help.
Yi Chen looked somewhat helpless, wanting to speak but stopping himself.
The two groups simply stared at Yi Chen.
Airi stepped forward, trembling, and said:
"Yi Chen is right. We'll still have to spend what we need to, and there's no way to know how much we'll have left. There's no need for everyone to argue."
Yi Chen was deeply grateful to Airi for stepping forward.
Amazing, Airi. You're being so good to me. I'll definitely protect you.
Yi Chen stood up and shielded Airi behind him, then said calmly:
"How about this? Let's stop arguing over this and that. We have 300 points, so we'll take 100 out to use over the next seven days, okay?"
"We won't touch the remaining 200. Besides, there's no way we can get through this exam without spending a single point."
Most of the students thought Yi Chen had a point, and he was generally a decent guy. He treated everyone the same and didn't act one way to their faces and another behind their backs.
Everyone trusted Yi Chen well enough.
Seeing this, Hirata hurried to smooth things over:
"Yi Chen is right. We'll definitely have expenses. We should save wherever we can."
"Osamu wants to leave more points for the class out of goodwill, especially since everyone's living expenses will go up."
"Karuizawa's side has a point too. They're girls, after all, and can't be as carefree as us guys."
"So if no one has any objections, let's go with Yi Chen's suggestion. I think we might even be able to earn some points, so let's use no more than 120."
The girls cheered when they heard that. The boys saw Hirata step in and thought it over for a moment. "Let's settle on that."
Seeing how things had turned out, Yi Chen genuinely admired someone like Hirata.
Back at his old school, the class representative had formed cliques.
He wasn't like Hirata, who treated everyone equally.
Yi Chen looked at Hirata and wondered to himself:
What kind of person was Hirata again?
After settling everyone down, Hirata led the class onto the island.
Before you continue