Full-Class Mobilization

After Chabashira finished handing out the stack of forms, Class D stayed quiet for less than ten seconds before erupting.

"Why do we even have to list our Private Points?"

"And we have to write what positions we can take? We haven't even gone to the island yet."

"What the hell counts as wilderness experience? Who's ever been somewhere like that?"

Questions came one after another.

The voices piled on top of each other.

Compared with the briefing in the auditorium, this was when it truly felt like the pressure had landed on their heads.

Back then, all they had heard were "rules."

But what they held in their hands now were names, numbers, and responsibilities.

Sudo flipped through two pages of the form, and his face darkened.

"Who designed this thing? They've got to be sick."

Ike Kanji could not help speaking up as well.

"Teacher, once we fill this out, it won't end up being something everyone in class can see, right?"

It was a practical question.

And it immediately dragged out a lot of people's concerns.

Several forms were flipped back and forth until their corners were creased.

Some people covered the "Private Points" section, while others pressed their palms over the "Health Status" line.

"The school only requires you to submit the results." Chabashira stood by the podium, her gaze as cold as the back of a blade. "How your class collects those results is your own business."

"You can choose to muddle through."

"Or you can choose to die together even faster during the exam."

After saying that, she offered no further explanation.

Chabashira closed her handout folder and did not pick up the chalk again.

The faint commotion below the podium had not even died down when she turned and walked out of the classroom.

Once she left, the classroom became even more chaotic.

Horikita was the first to stand, her voice cold and direct.

"If you've argued enough, fill them out."

The effect of that sentence was almost nonexistent.

Someone in the back clicked their tongue.

Someone in the front frowned too.

Not everyone dared to confront her directly.

But no one truly wanted to obey her just like that.

Some people held their forms without moving, while others pressed their pens to their desks, the tips lingering above the paper.

Gu Heng watched the scene, lightly tapping the edge of his form twice with his fingers.

After Horikita's words fell, a pen cap was still rolling across a desk in the back.

No one wrote the first stroke.

Hirata stood as well, softening his tone first.

"Everyone, don't panic," he said. "Let's separate the issues one by one. Otherwise, we'll just keep arguing."

The noise in the back was pressed down a little by those words.

Someone lowered the hand they had just raised back onto the desk.

But it was not enough.

The forms on the desks were still blank.

Under the first line for their names, no one had written anything further.

"Don't fill anything out yet," Gu Heng finally said.

The classroom immediately fell somewhat quiet.

Many people looked up at him.

Horikita turned her head as well.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean, if everyone fills out this form in silence by themselves right now, then eighty percent of the answers will end up being useless." Gu Heng set down his pen, stood, and walked to the podium. "People afraid of embarrassment will write less. People afraid of being assigned dirty work will lie. People who want to slack off will leave it blank. People trying to show off will boast themselves to death."

"What gets handed in won't be information."

"It'll be garbage."

The two people in the back who had been about to retort opened their mouths, then swallowed their words.

Gu Heng did not give them much time to process it. He picked up a piece of chalk and wrote several lines on the blackboard.

`Frontline Physical Work`

`Midline Transport`

`Logistics and Supplies`

`Records and Accounts`

`Night Watch`

`Loss Control and Reserves`

There were not many words on the blackboard.

But the moment they appeared, many faces changed.

Because this was not "let's all do our best together."

They were starting to assign positions.

"You're kidding, right?" Yamauchi was the first to cry out. "We're dividing people up like this already?"

"Don't think of it as dividing people yet." Gu Heng turned to look at him. "Right now, I'm dividing up the work."

"You'd better understand that we're not going to the island for a group photo."

"People without a function won't become useful just because they feel better about themselves."

Yamauchi's face stiffened at once.

Ike Kanji was even more direct.

"Then people like us, with average stamina and no wilderness experience, are we just classified as dead weight?"

This time, Gu Heng did not answer immediately.

He swept his gaze around the classroom before speaking.

"I don't have a category called 'dead weight,'" he said. "I only have what you can handle and what you should avoid touching."

"If your stamina is average, you can transport things, guard supplies, run errands, and save the people in front some energy."

"People who are afraid of dirty work, afraid of the night, afraid of hunger, afraid of exhaustion, yet refuse to say what they can do—that's real dead weight."

Once those words were spoken, the classroom quieted even faster.

Ike Kanji loosened his grip on the corner of his form slightly.

Yamauchi did not immediately shout back either.

Hirata immediately followed up.

"What Gu Heng means is that everyone should give us their real situation first," he said. "It's not so we can watch anyone in public. It's so we don't go into the exam with the wrong judgment."

"If someone has physical problems, or there are things they truly should not do, saying so now is far better than forcing themselves to endure it after we reach the island."

Horikita stood beside them without interrupting.

She pressed her form down slightly, no longer urging everyone so quickly.

"One more thing," Gu Heng added. "Private Points, health conditions, and things like that won't be read out publicly."

"Only give them to me, Horikita, and Hirata."

"Afterward, the class will only see the compiled results, not your personal details."

As soon as those words fell, the tightest layer of wariness in the classroom finally eased somewhat.

Someone lowered their head, drew a circle beside the "Private Points" section, then pulled the form closer to their chest.

"So how do we start?" Hirata asked.

"Don't hold one huge meeting first," Gu Heng said. "We'll do it line by line."

"Each person adds another line to the back of the form."

"The one thing you're best at."

"The one thing you absolutely should not force yourself to do."

"Write both."

This was simpler than the entire declaration form.

And easier to talk about.

Because no one needed to lay their entire self bare from the start.

They only had to hand over one strength and one weakness.

"I'll go first," Hirata said.

He picked up his pen, barely hesitating.

"I can handle coordination and night shift records."

"What I'm least suited for is direct conflict and high-intensity trailblazing."

Once he wrote that down, several people in the front lowered their heads to look at their own forms, and someone had already picked up a pen.

Hirata pushed his own form slightly to the side without covering it.

The people beside him who had been clutching their pens without moving finally pressed their pen tips to the paper as well.

"I'll handle the first round of compiled records." Yukimura, seated near the middle front, suddenly pushed up his glasses. His tone was not particularly warm, but it was steady. "I'm more suited than most people to things like numbers and supply statistics."

Gu Heng glanced at him and nodded.

"Fine. You'll set up the accounting line first."

Once there was a first person,

there would be a second.

Ike Kanji scratched his head, then finally spoke in a low voice.

"My stamina's decent. I can carry things and run errands."

"But I don't want to stand watch all night. Staying up late makes my head go foggy."

Gu Heng made a note.

"Fine."

Yamauchi muttered in the back for a long while, but in the end, he wrote honestly as well.

"I'm not fast, and my stamina's average."

"But I'm good at getting familiar with people, calling people over, passing messages, and running miscellaneous errands."

The moment he said that, even Horikita raised her eyebrows slightly.

Someone in the back shook with suppressed laughter, but the sound was quickly lowered.

Yamauchi's face reddened a little, but he did not pull his form back.

That line of writing was crooked, but at least it was no longer blank.

The atmosphere in the classroom began to change bit by bit.

It was not that everyone suddenly started cooperating.

It was that blank forms began to be pinned down one after another.

Some people wrote slowly.

Some wrote something, then crossed out half a sentence.

But at least their pens were moving.

"I'll take the boys' side first." Hirata looked toward the group that had gradually begun to get moving, his voice completely natural.

Then, from the other side, a sweet voice that was just right followed.

"I'll handle the girls' side."

Kushida raised her hand, smiling in the same way that always made people relax easily.

"Some physical conditions and things people do not want to say publicly would probably make everyone uncomfortable if they had to talk in front of the whole class."

"I'll help collect the first round, then organize it and give it to you. How does that sound?"

Several girls visibly relaxed.

Even the few who had not spoken at all until then leaned slightly closer to Kushida.

"Sure."

"That would be much more convenient."

"I knew Kushida would be easier to talk to about this kind of thing..."

As soon as those words were spoken, the girls' side of the classroom, which had still been tense, quickly had people shifting their chairs half an inch toward Kushida.

Horikita's brow furrowed faintly.

She watched those girls pass their forms toward Kushida, and the fingers holding her own form tightened slightly.

She could suppress the noise.

But the people who had been covering the corners of their forms earlier had not handed them to her.

Gu Heng did not immediately state his position.

He merely watched Kushida move between the seats, bending down to listen to people. Her tone, smile, and pauses were all perfectly measured.

When one girl first spoke, her voice was very low.

Kushida did not rush her. She simply moved her notebook slightly to the side, blocking the view from the back.

Only then did the girl continue speaking.

Gu Heng watched that scene as the chalk in his hand slowly stopped moving.

Something flickered faintly at the edge of his vision.

That transparent thing rose and settled above Kushida's head.

Gathering 92

Filtering 88

Concealment 90

Gu Heng's gaze darkened slightly.

Too high.

When she took the first form, her fingertips tightened around it, and her eyes were a little brighter than before.

That was not the brightness of someone simply helping out.

It was more like she had suddenly been handed a key that could unlock countless doors.

By the time the last class of the afternoon ended, Class D's classroom no longer resembled what it had been that morning.

Desks and chairs had been moved aside to create several temporary aisles.

People in the front were checking numbers.

People in the middle were comparing physical abilities and assignments.

In the back, some had already started arguing over who was best suited for the first round of night watch.

They were still arguing.

But it was no longer the kind of argument that scattered everyone apart.

They were beginning to pull together around the same thing.

Chalk dust in front of the blackboard had been trampled and scattered back and forth.

Forms piled up beside the podium one after another. For the first time, Class D was not huddled in their own seats, waiting for someone else to make arrangements.

Hirata looked at the people constantly moving around the classroom to hand in forms and let out a soft breath.

"It actually got going."

"It's only just started," Gu Heng said.

"Even so, that's already remarkable," Hirata said quietly. "At least now, it looks like they're no longer filling things out separately and being afraid separately."

Gu Heng did not argue.

The most obvious change from today's round was not how many forms had appeared on the desks.

It was that people in the back were already taking their own forms to ask Hirata questions, while people in the front had begun dividing up tasks by the blackboard to fill in the gaps.

"Gu Heng."

Kushida walked over carrying a small stack of forms, the corners pressed neatly together beneath her arm.

She lowered her voice.

"I've collected the first round from the girls' side, but there are a few issues I may need to talk to you about separately later."

Gu Heng accepted the stack and let his gaze rest on her face for half a second.

"Sure."

"Then I'll come find you later."

Kushida drew the remaining two forms closer to her chest, the corners of her eyes still curved in a smile.

"Some people say they're fine, but they actually have quite a few concerns."

The instant she turned around, the brightest stat above her head ticked upward slightly.

Gathering 95

As she carried that stack of forms back, even her steps seemed a little lighter than before.

Gu Heng watched her return to the girls' side and listened as she continued chatting with the others with a smile.

Another girl beside her handed over a form.

Before handing it over, the girl glanced around to both sides. Kushida shifted her notebook outward, blocking the gazes coming from the back rows for her.

When the form landed in Kushida's palm, the girl's shoulders visibly relaxed.

Soon, someone else moved over from the side and added a few quiet words.

Kushida lowered her head to listen, her pen lightly moving across her notebook.

The chalk in Gu Heng's hand paused at the edge of the blackboard, and he did not continue writing.