Sudo stood before the Preliminary Grouping notice, his finger pressed against the line for the Backup Location.
Class C's registration time was twelve minutes earlier than his, and the source field read, "Submitted after observing public information."
Hirata did not argue immediately after reading it.
"They guessed based on Class D's public version?"
"We can only confirm that they saw the public version. We can't confirm the source of their location," Gu Heng's voice came through the terminal.
Sudo opened the class's backup application page. The original location field had already been marked as conflicting.
"Then I'll change it."
"Changing locations means rechecking the source, and you might lose eligibility for Preliminary Grouping," Horikita said.
"If we stay here, we'll clash with Class C anyway."
Without waiting for Gu Heng's order, Sudo saved the conflict page first, then submitted the Second Backup Location from the class page.
Hirata was responsible for confirming the route, while Sudo was responsible for confirming how many members they could support.
Neither of them treated "What will Gu Heng choose?" as a condition for getting started anymore.
Three statuses appeared on the record board under Class Preparation: original plan verified, first backup conflicted with Class C, and second backup awaiting personal confirmation.
The current resources were still occupied by the first applicant.
She paused before the result field for the second slot and heard the public version update.
"Another class has already snatched the location based on our public status."
"That was their judgment," Gu Heng replied. "But it has now become a real cost for us."
The first applicant had not counted that cost as her own.
"Should I keep going, or stop?"
Gu Heng looked at her personal page and did not answer for her.
"If you stop, the application will remain incomplete.