Rules Arrive Before People

What truly jolted everyone in Class D awake was not the words "uninhabited island."

It was the moment the rulebook landed in their hands.

In the briefing room on the first floor of the special teaching building, the air conditioning was clearly set low, yet the sound of pages turning still seemed dry.

Everyone had been given a thin booklet.

It was not thick.

But every rule inside felt like it could press them down onto the island in advance.

"Shared purchasing quotas are limited."

"Designated areas refresh and are settled daily."

"Withdrawal midway, serious mistakes, and rule violations will directly result in class point deductions."

"Before landing on the island, each class must submit its first round of supply requests, basic division of labor, and responsible personnel information."

As the teacher read through the rules one by one, people in Class D were already unable to sit still.

"Wait, what does it mean, shared purchasing quotas are limited?"

"You mean we have to calculate even tents and medicine ourselves?"

"How often do designated areas refresh?"

"We have to submit responsible personnel too? Isn't that just making someone take the blame?"

Voices immediately rose.

This time, no one was merely dissatisfied anymore.

Someone turned to the page about "responsible personnel," their finger stopping at the edge of the paper.

Someone slapped the booklet shut on the desk, then quickly opened it again.

Stamina, points, health, whether they could stay up all night.

The things they could usually laugh and joke away had been laid bare on the table by rule after rule.

Gu Heng said nothing, merely flipping the booklet back to the first page.

He smoothed the edge of the paper beneath his fingers.

"Quiet." Horikita spoke first.

Her voice turned cold, and the front rows quieted down a little.

But people in the back were still frowning as they flipped through their booklets.

"What's the use of just being quiet?" Ike Kanji could not help saying. "The rules are this strict. Who knows what we should buy first?"

"Yeah." Yamauchi added, "We can't just sort everyone into groups right now, can we?"

"We have to." Gu Heng suddenly spoke.

With that one sentence, the classroom's noise died down considerably.

Gu Heng pressed the rulebook onto the desk and stood.

"You'd better understand something first," he said. "This is no longer about whether we want to divide ourselves up."

"If you don't take your position first, then once we're on the island, the rules will assign one for you."

"And they'll do it based on where you make mistakes."

No one answered.

The page-turning in the back skipped a beat, sheets suspended between several people's fingers.

Gu Heng walked to the front, took out a marker, and quickly wrote six lines on the whiteboard.

Forward scouting

Transport and camp

Supplies and accounting

Girls' liaison

Discipline and execution

Flexible response and negotiation

"Those forms from yesterday weren't collected for nothing." Gu Heng turned to face the class. "Starting now, everyone takes their place according to function, not pride."

Sudo frowned.

"Then where am I?"

"Forward scouting." Gu Heng did not even look at him. "You, Ike, and two others with steady physical ability. You'll move out in the first wave."

"Why do I have to bring Ike?"

"You're not bringing him," Gu Heng said. "The two of you are tied to the same line."

Sudo's frown deepened.

"I have to listen to him?"

"He pulls you back when you charge too far ahead." Gu Heng looked at Ike Kanji. "You push him forward. Don't let him drag the whole group off course by himself."

Ike Kanji immediately looked displeased.

"Since when did I become someone who watches people?"

"Since you wrote 'can carry, can run, but my mind gets dull if I stay up late' on your form," Gu Heng said evenly. "You submitted it yourself."

Ike Kanji choked on his words.

Sudo had been about to argue, but his gaze swept over Ike Kanji's form and he forcibly swallowed his response.

Ike Kanji lowered his head to glance at his own form, then swallowed his words as well.

"For supplies and accounting, Yukimura will take the lead," Gu Heng continued. "Anyone who reported yesterday that they could reliably handle numbers and charts will be assigned under him for now."

Yukimura adjusted his glasses but did not nod right away.

"Let's make this clear first," he said. "If the accounts are wrong, is that on me, or on the person who took things without authorization?"

Gu Heng's hand paused before the whiteboard, the marker tip not touching down immediately.

Several people in the back who had been about to lower their heads and look through the supply pages also stopped at the edge of their papers.

"You're responsible for recording mistakes," Gu Heng said. "You're not responsible for covering them up."

Horikita looked up.

Gu Heng tapped the marker beneath the line labeled "discipline and execution."

"Anyone who touches communal supplies without going through accounting gets named directly by the discipline line."

Only then did Yukimura nod.

"Fine."

"Girls' liaison will still be Kushida."

Kushida lightly tapped the edge of her desk with her fingertips. A faint smile rose on her lips, but the words that reached her mouth were held back by half a beat of silence.

"I knew you'd keep using me."

"Because you're useful," Gu Heng said.

Kushida's fingertips paused against the desk edge. The sharpness in her eyes faded slightly, and for once, she did not snap back at him.

"Then I'll take that as a compliment," she said softly.

"Discipline and execution, Horikita."

"Flexible response and negotiation, me."

"Hirata won't be assigned to a single function." Gu Heng looked at him. "You'll act as a buffer between every line. Whoever gets stuck, whoever starts arguing, whoever is about to break down emotionally—you handle them."

Hirata nodded.

"Understood."

Once the arrangement was laid out, the complete chaos in the classroom finally subsided somewhat.

But the quiet lasted less than half a minute.

Standing beside the podium, Chabashira placed the briefing papers in her hand on the desk.

"The first supply request must be submitted in twenty minutes."

"Twenty minutes?" Yamauchi nearly dropped his booklet. "How is that enough time?"

"You'll submit it even if it isn't," Chabashira said without much change in tone. "The school will not pause the exam just because Class D has not finished discussing things."

From this moment onward, mistakes would be written onto the very first form.

"Wait a second." Someone in the back raised a hand again. "What about the supplies?"

"Right, how much water, how much medicine, tents, sleeping bags—who decides?"

Several voices that had just quieted down slowly rose again.

"Set the bottom line first." Gu Heng looked at everyone. "Water, basic medicine, rope, simple rain shelter, purification supplies, and recording tools take priority."

"High-comfort supplies come after."

"What do you mean?" Yamauchi froze. "We're not buying more things to sleep with?"

"Not as a priority," Gu Heng said. "If you want to sleep well, the first condition is not exhausting everyone in the first two days."

Several girls immediately tensed, their hands holding the booklets stopping as well.

Kushida immediately took over.

"It's not that comfort doesn't matter." She withdrew her hand from the desk edge, softening her voice first. "We're just dealing with the places most likely to cause problems first. On the girls' side, changes of clothes, hygiene, and things that are inconvenient at night—I'll handle those separately. We won't make everyone endure it."

Several girls placed their booklets back on the desk. Their previously tense shoulders relaxed a little as well.

Gu Heng's gaze paused at her hand for half a second, but he did not stop her.

"One more thing." Gu Heng raised the rulebook in his hand. "Personal points and detailed health information will not be read out publicly."

"They'll only go into the core summary."

"What gets released later will only state whether you can take on certain types of tasks. Your individual baseline information will not be released."

A girl in the back had been gripping the corner of her booklet. Only when she heard that did her fingers slowly loosen.

"What about the responsible personnel information?" Horikita asked.

"We submit the broad framework first, not the full logic," Gu Heng said.

"Don't lay out all the class's internal lines for the school at once."

Horikita's gaze lingered on his face for a moment, but she did not press him further.

She closed the rulebook halfway, then opened it again.

Chabashira turned another page at the podium.

"The responsible personnel field may be left blank."

"If it is left blank, it will be regarded as the class failing to complete its basic preparations."

Sudo cursed under his breath, and Ike Kanji fell silent as well.

Gu Heng's hand holding the marker paused beside the whiteboard. His knuckles turned white from the pressure, then slowly relaxed.

"Horikita, put your name at the front."

Horikita's grip on the corner of her booklet tightened.

"You're pushing me out there?"

"Yes," Gu Heng said.

"The teacher, the other classes, the public responsibility—they come to you."

"How the class divides itself, who can't hold up, where someone needs to be replaced—I'll handle that."

Horikita did not accept immediately.

She stared at Gu Heng, her thumb pressing a shallow mark into the booklet's corner.

"Don't brush it off by saying you'll handle it," she said. "If there's an error on the supply list, the teacher sees my name first."

"If someone in class is dissatisfied, they'll use my name as an excuse too."

Gu Heng tightened his grip on the marker. Its end touched the edge of the whiteboard with a faint sound.

"They can use your name to question the teacher," Gu Heng said. "They can't use your name to alter the class's internal lines."

"Anyone who bypasses you, or uses your name to pressure others, gets recorded under me on the spot."

Horikita stared at Gu Heng for two seconds before closing the rulebook.

"And if you can't keep it under control?"

"If the first round falls apart," Gu Heng said, "you can tell the entire class it was my misjudgment."

This time, even the sound of pages turning in the back disappeared.

The briefing continued.

The teacher flipped through the detailed sections page by page.

Gu Heng read through them page by page as well.

For the first few pages, his marker tip still moved down along the six lines on the whiteboard.

The broad common ground remained.

Resource competition.

Route selection.

Discipline tied to stamina.

All of it could still fit into the framework he had already built.

But when he reached the latter half, his page-turning abruptly stopped.

The marker tip hovered above the paper, and an ink dot darkened slightly in the blank space.

That line was not long.

Yet it was like a thin nail driven directly into the plan he had already constructed.

Designated area refresh and evaluation: updates and settlement occur daily at 06:00 and 18:00.

Gu Heng pressed his fingertips tightly against the paper's edge.

He read that line again.

The marker tip stopped beneath 06:00, 18:00 and did not move on.

Once in the morning.

Once in the evening.

Which meant it was not one round per day.

It was two rounds a day.

Stamina, supplies, shifts, movement, sleep—everything had to be recalculated.

Gu Heng stared at that page for two seconds before slowly closing the rulebook.

Hirata beside him noticed his pause.

"What is it?" he asked quietly.

Gu Heng merely pressed his thumb against the page corner, leaving a white mark along the paper's edge. Two seconds passed before he let go.

The six lines on the whiteboard were still in front of them.

But with this page brought down, frontline scouting could no longer be run in one continuous push per day. Transport and camp operations could no longer be arranged around a heavy camp setup. Supplies and accounting would also have to be split into two calculations, morning and evening.

"There's a problem," he said softly.

"And it's not a small one."