Chapter Summaries

As Class D faced an upcoming uninhabited-island exam, Gu Heng proposed a leadership structure with Suzune Horikita as the class’s public representative, Hirata as the bridge, and himself managing plans behind the scenes. Horikita accepted the arrangement for now, but Gu Heng recognized that getting her to share control would remain a challenge.

• Hirata told Gu Heng that Class D’s group chat was divided over choosing a temporary leader and deciding who would have authority.
• Gu Heng told Hirata he would put Horikita at the front, handle rules and assignments himself, and rely on Hirata to keep classmates engaged.
• Gu Heng asked Horikita whether she wanted to represent Class D and explained that she should lead publicly without trying to control every role.
• Horikita accepted Gu Heng’s division of responsibilities provisionally, while reserving the right to challenge it with a better plan later.
• Horikita asked classmates to submit their physical condition, strong subjects, and camping experience before the end of the school day.

Gu Heng confronted Horikita about her need for control and her role in Class D, and the two reached a tentative agreement on their responsibilities. Afterward, Ayanokoji observed that Gu Heng was willing to challenge Horikita’s pride and left him to continue pursuing the plan.

• Horikita stopped Gu Heng after class and asked why he had criticized her division of responsibilities in front of everyone.
• Gu Heng told Horikita that she prioritized total control over efficiency and that her need to claim power was costing Class D.
• Horikita asked what value she had left if she gave up control, and Gu Heng praised her judgment, execution, presence, and ability to lead from the front.
• Horikita agreed not to fight Gu Heng over responsibilities before the special exam, on the condition that he tell her directly before assigning her a position again.
• Ayanokoji told Gu Heng that he was bolder than expected to challenge Horikita’s pride, and Gu Heng suggested Ayanokoji could only clean up afterward.

Hirata confronted Gu Heng about being treated as a go-between and agreed to take an active role in helping Class D act together, while setting conditions on Gu Heng’s decisions. The chapter left Hirata openly challenging the back row as the first students began to resist his new position.

• Hirata told Gu Heng he did not want to become his loudspeaker and explained that he wanted Class D to learn to move forward on its own.
• Gu Heng clarified that Hirata could question, revise, or slow his plans, and Hirata agreed to help unite the ordinary students in Class D.
• Hirata required Gu Heng to disclose his bottom line before major class-wide pushes and warn him if a fast result might crush a group of students; Gu Heng agreed.
• Hirata told Gu Heng he was not Gu Heng’s person but Class D’s person, and reported that Sudo had stopped himself during an argument to check whether Horikita would record his name.
• Yamauchi and another student questioned Hirata’s loyalty and complained about the class rules, so Hirata told the back row he would stop them if they kept pulling the class apart.

Horikita enforced Gu Heng’s class rules when Sudo nearly escalated a confrontation, recording warnings for him and two boys who had provoked him. The class began accepting the notebook’s authority, while Gu Heng received an anonymous message saying the class was finally starting to look like something.

• Sudo stood to confront two boys after one implied he had caused trouble for the class, but Horikita warned she would record him if he took another step.
• Sudo backed down, and Horikita recorded one warning for him before class began.
• After the lesson, Gu Heng explained to Sudo that the rules applied to his provocateurs too, and Horikita recorded both boys for stirring up trouble.
• At lunch, Horikita showed Gu Heng the notebook entries and said she did not regret taking responsibility, though the role was troublesome.
• Gu Heng received an anonymous message saying his class was finally starting to look like something.

Gu Heng enforced Class D’s rules and made Hirata share responsibility for keeping records, while Ayanokoji warned him that Manabu Horikita and Class C had noticed his actions. The chapter ended with Gu Heng receiving a note about a third price and Ryuuen asking who was backing Class D’s public face.

• Horikita gave Sudo a warning and marked two students for provoking others, while Gu Heng supported enforcing the rules without escalating further.
• Ayanokoji told Gu Heng that the rules would draw scrutiny, Manabu Horikita had noticed, and Class C would act without prompting.
• Ayanokoji advised Gu Heng to delete his message, but Gu Heng kept the text saying Class D was finally starting to look like something.
• Gu Heng gave Hirata the notebook and asked him to share responsibility for tracking the class’s rule violations before the uninhabited island.
• Gu Heng found a note offering to change a name at a third price and warning that Ryuuen was asking who backed Class D’s public face.

Gu Heng coordinated Class D’s responses to reconnaissance from Class C and arranged a limited exchange of public preparation methods with Class B. The two Class C scouts reported separate but partly consistent accounts to Ishizaki, leaving Ryuuen to interpret incomplete information.

• Gu Heng established a controlled set of half-true responses about Class D’s preparation, while Horikita and Sudo agreed to keep official positions and exact numbers undisclosed.
• Hirata answered a Class C student’s questions about Horikita, coordination, and Sudo, withholding exact numbers unless Class C offered information in return.
• Sudo rebuffed a second Class C student’s attempt to learn about the front line, giving an answer that matched the class’s prepared information without following a script.
• Hirata exchanged public preparation methods with a Class B student, and neither side shared names or position lists.
• Gu Heng reviewed the three contacts with Horikita and Hirata, concluding that the consistent Class C accounts might steer Ryuuen’s first inquiry and buy Class D time.
• The two Class C accounts reached Ishizaki, who checked their timing and questions but could not reconcile their differences or add details about tone.

Ryuuen realized that Gu Heng had deliberately given Class C misleading intelligence about Class D’s roles and decided to test the class’s support structure instead of confronting Gu Heng directly. He sent Ishizaki to provoke Hirata, Sudo, and Horikita and watch who Class D relied on first.

• Ryuuen noticed that Sudo’s and Hirata’s accounts differed in wording but both placed Gu Heng in charge of internal plans and group assignments.
• Ryuuen concluded that Gu Heng had limited what Class D’s students could reveal, steering Class C toward a test of the apparent division of labor.
• Ryuuen told Ishizaki to watch Gu Heng but not confront him yet, and identified Hirata as the first person to probe.
• Ryuuen instructed Ishizaki to publicly pose opposing questions to Sudo and Horikita, then observe whom Hirata or Gu Heng moved to support and in what order.
• Ishizaki recorded the two scouts’ accounts separately so their differences would remain visible.
• Another short report was delivered to Class A’s after-school study room.

Sakayanagi Arisu met Gu Heng and decided to invest patience in him, while warning that Class D’s rules would be tested by the coming special exam. The next morning, Sae Chabashira gave Class D preliminary declaration forms and ordered the class to prepare a division-of-labor plan.

• Hashimoto told Sakayanagi that Class C and Ryuuen had begun paying attention to Gu Heng and his influence on Class D.
• Sakayanagi met Gu Heng in the library corridor, assessed him, and said she was willing to bet on his potential.
• Sakayanagi warned Gu Heng that Ryuuen had reached out and remarked that Class D’s rules would depend on the first rain.
• Sae Chabashira distributed special-exam declaration forms and demanded that Class D submit them and prepare an organizational plan by the end of the day.
• Gu Heng explained that the class had begun the round of coordinating everyone for the special exam.

Gu Heng organized Class D's response to the island exam forms by creating work categories and encouraging students to share their strengths and limitations privately. The class began coordinating, while Kushida collected sensitive information from the girls and drew Gu Heng's suspicion.

• After Chabashira left, Horikita urged the class to fill out the forms, but Gu Heng stopped them and argued that uncoordinated answers would be useless.
• Gu Heng wrote six work categories on the blackboard and explained that students should be assigned tasks according to what they could handle.
• Gu Heng, Horikita, and Hirata agreed to keep private details confidential, and Gu Heng asked each student to list one strength and one task they should avoid.
• Hirata, Yukimura, Ike Kanji, and Yamauchi shared their abilities and limitations, prompting other students to begin completing their forms.
• Hirata gathered information from the boys while Kushida collected forms from the girls, easing their reluctance to share personal details.
• As Kushida gathered more forms and private concerns, her Gathering stat rose, and Gu Heng watched her with growing suspicion.

Hirata, Horikita, Gu Heng, and Kushida reviewed Kushida’s misleading hypothetical about nighttime leadership and set new limits on her interface permissions while retaining the concerns she had uncovered. Their preparation review found that Class D had only three independently rotatable students for consecutive nighttime duties, leaving the class exposed when the special exam rules arrived.

• Hirata verified two independent reports that Kushida had described a hypothetical nighttime leadership arrangement as tentatively assigned, while protecting the sources’ identities and consent limits.
• Kushida admitted she had used the wording to elicit genuine concerns, and Gu Heng, Horikita, and Hirata restricted her authority while preserving her ability to collect and classify feedback.
• Hirata corrected the message by stating that no nighttime leadership arrangement had been decided, and Kushida shared concerns about rotations, hygiene, and requesting shift changes.
• Hirata and Yukimura summarized 27 usable forms, finding that only seven students could handle consecutive nighttime rotations and only three could be rotated independently.
• Gu Heng asked the class to identify replaceable tasks before assigning night shifts, and the school announced that the official special-exam rulebook would be distributed at seven the next morning.

Class D received strict island-exam rules, and Gu Heng organized the class into functional teams while setting priorities for supplies and responsibility. He discovered that designated areas refreshed and were evaluated twice daily, forcing him to reconsider the plan before the exam began.

• Gu Heng assigned Class D members to scouting, transport and camp, supplies and accounting, girls' liaison, discipline, and flexible response roles.
• Gu Heng prioritized water, medicine, rope, rain shelter, purification supplies, and recording tools, while Kushida addressed the girls' separate needs.
• Gu Heng asked Horikita to serve as the public responsible person and promised to manage the class's internal assignments and record anyone who bypassed her.
• Gu Heng read that designated areas refreshed and settled at 06:00 and 18:00 each day, and realized the twice-daily cycle disrupted the class's plans for stamina, supplies, shifts, movement, and sleep.

After learning that the island exam objectives refreshed twice daily, Gu Heng scrapped much of Class D’s all-day plan and reorganized it around separate morning and evening rounds. He left Hirata to steady the class and stepped forward to take responsibility for their doubts as the revised plan began.

• Gu Heng noticed the rulebook’s two daily refresh times and told Hirata and Horikita the morning and evening objectives had to be planned separately.
• Gu Heng called Horikita, Hirata, Kushida, Sudo, and Ayanokoji together, replaced the major first-day camp with light footholds, and ordered the frontline team to save stamina for the evening round.
• Gu Heng assigned Hirata to manage the class’s emotions, Horikita to help explain the changes, and Kushida to track who might struggle later in the day.
• Ayanokoji questioned Gu Heng about abandoning his previous plan, and Gu Heng said an expired advantage hurt more than a disadvantage.
• When classmates challenged Hirata about the repeated revisions, Gu Heng walked over and took the first wave of their distrust upon himself.

Gu Heng took charge of Class D’s supplies, route declarations, and external coordination as the class prepared to board the ferry. As the island drew closer, other classes began treating him as the person leading Class D, putting the whole class’s framework under scrutiny.

• Class D’s supply distribution descended into disorder, so Gu Heng established reporting channels with Hirata, Kushida, and Horikita handling different responsibilities.
• Gu Heng submitted Class D’s supply and route documents to the teachers, who marked him as the class representative while students from other classes watched.
• Gu Heng returned the terminal to Hirata and assigned Kushida to collect the girls’ nighttime concerns and Horikita to maintain discipline.
• After the ferry began moving, Ayanokoji remarked that Gu Heng had stepped up quickly, and Gu Heng said he wanted to prevent Class D from falling apart on the island.
• Students from Class C suggested that others should target the person at the front rather than Sudo, while Ryuuen watched as the island drew nearer.

Gu Heng used Sudo as a decoy to draw Class C away from the judgment zone, helping Class D claim the first round without a fight. As Class D regrouped, Ichinose Honami approached Gu Heng and asked to speak with him alone.

• Gu Heng assigned Sudo and Ike Kanji to draw Class C's attention while Hirata led the main group along a shaded route and Gu Heng took Horikita and Ayanokoji toward the judgment zone.
• Sudo held his position at the perimeter and provoked Ishizaki's group into focusing on him, leaving the slope-side entrance unguarded.
• Gu Heng's team entered the judgment zone before Class C could reach it, and Sudo blocked Ishizaki from crossing the boundary as verification began.
• Class D secured the first round, and Gu Heng told Hirata that Class C had made a costly mistake by expecting Sudo to lose his temper.
• Ichinose Honami approached Gu Heng and asked to speak with him alone.

Gu Heng defended his deliberately harsh strategy to Ichinose, arguing that Class D needed to conserve its strength and that Sudo had to prove he could control himself. After Ichinose warned that Class C and Class A were watching him, Hashimoto offered negotiations on Sakayanagi’s behalf, and Gu Heng told her to set the table first.

• Ichinose confronted Gu Heng about deliberately putting Sudo where Class C could provoke him, and Gu Heng said the tactic was necessary because Class D could not afford a direct contest.
• Gu Heng argued that Sudo’s ability to hold back would show whether Class D had grown, while Ichinose warned that Gu Heng treated people too much like functions.
• Ichinose acknowledged that Gu Heng had not abandoned the weakest students, though she still considered him too cold and herself too idealistic.
• Ichinose warned Gu Heng that Class C and Class A would be watching him after his actions that day.
• Hashimoto approached with Sakayanagi’s offer to negotiate Class A’s route preferences, supply windows, and target-zone assessments, and Gu Heng replied that she should set the table first.

Gu Heng negotiated with Hashimoto over Class A's request for information, insisting on a verifiable exchange rather than giving anything away for free. As rumors about his terms spread, Class D members began blaming him for the strain of the exam.

• Hashimoto approached Gu Heng and Ichinose on Sakayanagi's behalf, asking about the first round's target area.
• Gu Heng set the price for his assessment: Class A's route preferences for the next two rounds and a verifiable assessment of a supply window.
• Hashimoto accepted Gu Heng's terms for Sakayanagi to consider and warned that other classes would remember his stance.
• Ichinose and Ayanokoji reacted to Gu Heng's blunt approach, while Gu Heng told Hirata he preferred being seen as difficult to work with over being tested for free.
• Horikita noted that others had witnessed the negotiation, and a struggling Class D student prompted rumors blaming Gu Heng for the class's exhaustion.

As Class D prepared for the second round, Gu Heng saw the class’s fatigue and complaints turning him into the focus of blame, so he divided responsibility among Hirata, Horikita, and Kushida. Class D took a modest position in the western shallows without anyone collapsing, but Hirata’s concern for morale and Horikita’s strict record-keeping began to clash.

• Hirata warned Gu Heng that classmates were blaming him for the team’s exhaustion, and Yamauchi collapsed with a leg cramp as complaints spread.
• Gu Heng gave Hirata authority over physical limits and morale, Horikita authority over discipline, and Kushida the task of gathering information.
• Before the second round, Hirata assigned struggling students to the rear while Horikita recorded their slowdowns, and Gu Heng told them to handle adjustments and records separately.
• Class D secured a modest position in the western shallows, and Yamauchi was assigned to the water supply line while Hirata rearranged night shifts.
• Hirata and Horikita disagreed over whether strict records would discourage students from reporting problems, and Gu Heng let them manage the conflict without deciding for them.

Class D began handling camp duties without relying on Gu Heng for every decision, and the class held steady in the morning round. Ryuuen recognized the change as a threat, warning that Class D would be harder to break once its members grew accustomed to their responsibilities.

• Hirata reassigned tired students, Horikita enforced camp rules, and Sudo asked which section he was responsible for instead of waiting for Gu Heng's direction.
• Gu Heng delegated duties to Hirata, Horikita, Yukimura, Sudo, and Kushida without repeating his instructions, and Class D finished the morning round in the upper-middle ranks.
• Horikita recorded two students who tried to carry less shared equipment and told them to make up for it during the afternoon rotation.
• When Ishizaki's group watched Class D's camp, Gu Heng sent Sudo and Hirata to confront them while Horikita stayed behind.
• Hirata told Ishizaki that Class D had its own work to do, and Sudo and Hirata returned without Gu Heng intervening.
• Ryuuen concluded that Class D would become harder to defeat if its members learned to manage their own responsibilities.

Gu Heng negotiated useful intelligence from Class A while drawing attention from the other first-year classes. As first-stage settlement began, he faced the upcoming submission of Class D’s final leader roster and material loss records.

• Gu Heng demanded an actionable assessment from Hashimoto in exchange for Class D’s half-day strategic tendencies, and Hashimoto reported that Class C would likely contact the water-source route first.
• Gu Heng stopped Sudo from confronting Ishizaki, who had come to observe Class D and its records.
• Ayanokoji told Gu Heng that he had become someone the first-years could no longer casually overlook.
• Ryuuen told Ishizaki to remember Gu Heng and make Hirata, Horikita, and Sudo each make a mistake before moving against Class D.
• Sakayanagi approved of Gu Heng’s negotiation and said he was beginning to make others reassess him.
• Gu Heng received a school-wide notice that classes had to submit their final leader rosters and material loss records for first-stage settlement.

Class D finished the first phase of the special exam above last place, and Gu Heng accepted a larger role in planning alongside Horikita. A school-wide preview warned that the second phase would begin at 06:00 the next day, putting the class’s supplies, condition, and territory under dynamic evaluation.

• Class D saw its results and realized its pace and later adjustments had kept it from falling to the bottom of the rankings.
• Horikita gave Gu Heng an assignment sheet and asked him to help plan future work, resources, and contact with other classes while she remained in charge.
• Hirata urged Gu Heng to stop handling everything himself so other classmates could take over, while Sudo and Ike Kanji worked together around camp.
• Ayanokoji told Gu Heng that he would keep going and warned that what came next would be more troublesome.
• Gu Heng received a school-wide notice that dynamic evaluation of camp coordinates would begin at 06:00 the next day and include supplies, participant condition, and control of designated areas.