[Read back from the previous chapter... There are some changes in the story]
Day 1, 10:27 AM.
"Some students from class A just slipped by our campsite earlier," I announced.
"So, they had their eyes on this spot, huh?"
"Yeah, it's a good thing that we managed to secure this spot before them." Hirata sat down on a rock. He was covered in sweat, probably due to the humidity and the heat of this forest.
Almost an hour had passed since the survival test began. The other classes had already set their positions alongside their leaders. Class C was almost done with the setup too. All that was left for us to do now was to somehow survive the upcoming challenges.
"Now in terms of survival situations, the first thing we need is water. Any suggestions?" Hirata asked his classmates.
With the toilet issue now resolved, there came the next issue; drinkable water. Even with the river, it didn't appear as though everything would be easily settled.
"Haven't you noticed? There's a river right behind the cave. We've resolved the problems of bathing and drinking water, right?" Ike's eyes sparked brilliantly as he dreamed of saving points. He intended to use this as an all-purpose river.
"Huh? Drink from the river? Are you insane?" Shinohara and the other girls, however, did not appear to agree, glancing at the river in disgust.
"Well, it'd be great for swimming, but...to drink from?" Hirata seemed to be at dismay trying to decide which side he should take.
"What the heck? It's perfectly fine. The water's clean and pure, right?" Ike said.
Even though the water didn't look muddy or cloudy, the girls were not the only ones to hesitate. The boys also looked unsure.
"Are you sure this is safe to drink? I mean it is a river." Karuizawa inquired, suspicious of Ike's knowledge.
"Well, yeah. It certainly seems like you can drink it, but..."
"I disagree. I don't think we can drink directly from that." I strongly objected to that remark.
"What the heck, you guys? What's wrong with you? There's no reason not to use the river after going through all the trouble of finding it."
"Then you drink it, as an experiment." Shinohara dared him in a condescending tone.
"Huh? Well, fine, whatever..." pressured, Ike scooped up some water with his hands.
"Ah. Wait. Don't drink it before-" Before I could finish, Ike gulped all the water down his throat.
"Ah! Whew, that's ice-cold. It feels great! It's damn good!"
"....."
Although it didn't seem to cause him any problem in the original light novel, I couldn't help but think about how perilous his actions were.
"Ike, why are you so reckless?" I sighed.
"Guys, I come from a family of campers. We used to go every weekend when I was little. I had no problem drinking river water. Sometimes, you can tell if a spring is drinkable just by looking at it." Ike replied.
"I'm not doubting your expertise, Ike. But you should never drink water from a natural source that you haven't purified, even if the water looks clean. Water in spring, river, or lake may look clean, but it can still be filled with bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can result in waterborne diseases, such as cryptosporidiosis or giardiasis!"
"Okay, that's a major turn-off. No way, no way! There's no way I'm drinking that!" Shinohara crowed in a horrified tone.
But that was not the worst of it though. The water could also contain natural chemicals like Arsenic, which may potentially develop into skin disease, Cancer even, if not treated properly. Also, the situation could've been much worse if our side of the river ended up being on the bed of the stream. What if some other class had occupied a spot upstream? In that case, we would wind up drinking all their used water. A disgusting scenario I prayed to never happen to us.
However, I refused to further elaborate on the idea to my classmates. Naturally, it would be a bad idea to suggest this kind of hypothesis to others. The students were already hesitant to drink the water from the river. Causing such a breakthrough would only make them skeptical of the water's condition. Forget about illness; just the mere thought of drinking someone else's used water would make anyone vomit. They'd rather die than drink any of the river-originated water. As a result, we would be coerced into buying some water supplements; which would cost us even more points.
This information was almost equivalent to the 'Russian Nuclear Codes'. Something I should never expose to the general public.
"Huh?! You're the one who told me to drink it, Shinohara!" Ike rasped, annoyed.
"No way! Ugh, I hate barbarians like you most of all, god!"
"What the hell?"
The two of them exchanged glares hot enough to send sparks flying. Hatred is the closest thing to love, which certainly seemed to be the case for this young couple.
"Listen, if we simply boil the water, it'll become sterilized. We could also use some of our clothes to filter it. Why don't we try that?" I suggested.
Boiling was the best way to kill disease-causing organisms, including viruses, bacteria, and parasites. The high temperature and time spent boiling are very important to effectively kill the organisms in the water. Boiling would also effectively treat water if it was still cloudy or murky. And if we filtered all the excess debris, we would have perfectly consumable water.
"Boiling? This isn't some chemistry experiment, Levent-kun! Stop coming to us with such unexpectedly thoughtful suggestions." Shinohara was being rather aggressive towards everyone as if she were prepared to fight against anyone who displeased her.
Let's see if she could fight against my sound logic.
"I'm painfully aware that this is not a chemistry experiment, Shinohara-san. This is a battle of wits and preservance. We must use whatever recourses we have at our hand to win. If we could, we would spend more points on various things. However, if we are not careful with our expenditure, class C would inevitably fall back to the very gutter where we initially started at."
"But still... it's a river. Just the thought about drinking that makes me nauseous!"
"I know this is asking too much from you. And I can understand why you're uncomfortable about this. But please try to understand that we also feel the same way. We just don't know if we're ever going to get another chance like this. Every single point that we save would be added directly to our class points. We could finally increase our points and reduce the gap between other classes. This is a small sacrifice for the sake of long-term benefit. That's why I'm asking you to cooperate with us, Shinohara-san"
"That's...." my silver tongue seemingly managed to calm her down. She seemed to be on the fence about whether she should hold onto that stubbornness or not. All that was needed to do was to just give her a small push.
I looked at Hirata who was already looking in my direction. The moment my eyes reached his, he immediately understood what I intended him to do.
"I also agree with Levent-kun. Shinohara-san, can you please tough it out for us? For your friends?"
"Ah.. fine. If Hirata-kun says so." apparently my logical blackmail fell weaker than Hirata's ikemen-ness.
"So it's decided then."
In the end, we decided to settle for boiled spring water to quench our thirst. Ike was satisfied, points were saved, and conflict was avoided. Plus Shinohara seemingly skipped a few beats when Hirata persuaded her.
'It was for the wrong person though.'
"Hey, you're surprisingly good at outdoorsy stuff," Ayanokouji asked Ike.
"Hmm? Oh, I wouldn't really say that. It's just that I used to go camping together with my family back when I was little. I was not opposed to drinking river water. I could always tell if the water source is clean just by looking."
Ike was being honest rather than boastful.
"Well then, wouldn't it have been a good idea to tell us about your camping experience from the beginning? If you'd gained people's trust, things might've gone more smoothly." Ayanokouji remarked.
"If I'd been in the Boy Scouts, I'd have legitimate bragging rights. But just going camping isn't anything to brag about. Besides, Levent was right. There really is no saying what's in these waters. I guess it really wasn't a good idea to scoop a big one."
Apparently, Ike was disheartened because of my lecture. And even if he was right and me being wrong, his method of approach was floppy. Girls like Shinohara and Satou were the stubborn type who would never do anything that was forced onto them. Whether I interjected or not would have changed the outcome either way. As someone who wanted to show off to the girls, this was without a doubt, painful for him. But then...Ike said something unusual.
"It seems like I was being full of myself. It's everyone's first time camping out, isn't it? I thought that everyone had at least a little experience. I guess the stuff I said was probably a little unreasonable."
He'd realized he made a mistake and even admitted it. Words can't describe how beautiful of a scene that was.
"Sorry. I gotta think of how to take care of this. I'm gonna go for a swim in the river."
'Mistakes' are an essential part of our life. It is a trait that helps us develop psychologically. In actuality, mistakes are our greatest teachers. The ability to recognize and learn from our mistakes makes us different from other lifeforms. All humans make mistakes, there's no doubt about it. But when someone falls, they also learn to pick themselves up. Each mistake comes around with different life lessons. Ever since the dawn of mankind, we've been learning from our mistakes. If we ever end up making a mistake, we always garner thoughts like, 'What did I do wrong?', 'Which part made it worse?' or, 'How could I have done it better?' etc. Questions like these give us clues regarding the 'Do's and 'Don't's for future challenges.
Think of it this way. When a child wants to touch a naked fire, instead of correcting them with words, you should take their hands and bask it a little above the fire. The child would experience heat. When the heat becomes unbearable for the child, they would naturally learn to avoid fire as it is not something that should be touched.
What made me happy was the fact that our sinfully bright and cheerful Ike was slowly taking his baby steps toward maturity.
••••••
Day 1, 10:35 AM.
"So this is the place you want to select as the base camp?" Chabashira asked.
"Yes."
"Alright. From now on, this is your base camp. You can't change it for the next seven days. All of your roll calls will be held here. Make sure to attend them."
"Understood."
I guess, I made a mistake in my deductions, huh?
Apparently, once we claimed a spot to be our base camp, it'd be marked as our class for seven days. This means the long and detailed lecture I previously gave to Ike and Yamauchi was nothing but a cock-and-bull story. But in any case, that only made things much more convenient for us.
Now that it was out of the way, there was this one other thing I had to check off my list. I took a deep breath and sighed.
'This is going to be interesting.'
"E-everyone, can I have all of your attention please?" I boldly announced to all of my classmates. My antics seemed to have worked as everyone looked in my direction. Now, that I had garnered everyone's anticipation, there was only going forward from there.
"I would like to distribute the tasks to everyone. I know some of you are not used to this current situation yet, so feel free to call me or Hirata if you disagree with anything. We will do our best to compromise."
"Um... Levent-kun, about the toilet?" Asked Karuizawa.
"Yes, I'm going to order it alongside the other necessities. Once it gets here we will get down to installation immediately."
All girls sighed breaths of relief.
"Listen, we'll set a goal. I want us to save at least 150 points by the end of this exam." I announced.
"Huh? That's like the half of what we're given?" Ike remarked.
"Aren't we spending a bit too much?" Karuizawa asked.
"I know. In hindsight, it may seem unreasonable at first. But remember, this is a survival exam. We have seven whole days ahead of us. From a realistic standpoint, it should be plenty."
"But still..."
"I'm not necessarily saying that we should spend our points recklessly. We previously had a heated argument over this topic. If anything, it'd be great if we manage to save some more points. However, it would not be a good idea to sacrifice the must-haves." my monotone voice reverberated throughout the cave.
Hirata, Horikita, and Matsushita seemed to be on the same page with me. However, the others were seemingly not too convinced by my logic. They agreed to my demands anyway.
After asking for a basic toilet, I should be able to order some vinyl bags. How about a few dozen? I think I'll be asking too much but... it's also part of my plan anyway.
"Firstly, we need four more tents for the boys. I know that we can sleep inside the cave without needing them. However, when the night will fall, the temperature will go down drastically. Of course, we can try and tough things out but... it's not a good idea overall to make others fall ill for the sake of an exam. There are privacy reasons too." I explained to my classmates.
"That's actually kinda reasonable," Makida added.
"Yeah, I don't really wanna sleep out in the open, even if it's inside the cave."
The boys nodded in approval. It's a good thing that they agreed.
"Now, we have found three fishing rods inside the shed. It'd be much more efficient if we used them for hunting for some extra food. Can anyone here even fish?" I asked.
"I know how! Leave it to me, Levent! I'll teach anyone who wants to fish with me." Ike raised his hand with a grin.
"Hey, me too. I'll join you!" Yamauchi immediately followed. I didn't know where did he get that motivation from. Was it because he was really excited to fish with his friend or did he do that because it required the least amount of work? Either way, he had a chance to be useful at something.
"Then, for the last person... Sotomura-kun, will you join them for fishing?" I asked.
"Uh... Sure. I don't mind."
Sotomura's build was on the healthier side of the scale. Naturally, giving him tasks that required hard labor would've been counter-intuitive. He was having a hard time coping with the others too. That's why I decided that for him.
"Great. I'll be counting on you, Ike. Next, I want some of us to scout ahead of the stream. There should be one of two spots nearing this. If we follow the spring we should be able to scout some of those spots. And at the same time, we'll be able to confirm whether or not we should drink from this."
"I'll do it!" Makida enthusiastically raised his arm. But he was the only one who volunteered. In that case, I had no choice but to assign some of them myself.
"We need some more people to accompany you. Matsushita-san, Miyake-kun, Hasabe-san, and Ai-uh... Sakura-san. Are you okay with joining him?" I asked.
The setup was kind of intentional. In the future, Sakura would eventually join the Ayanokouji group. They emit the same wavelength in my opinion. Hence, I thought that she would feel a little bit comfortable being around them.
"Sure! No problem." Matsushita replied nonchalantly while Haruka simply nodded. Sakura was seemingly nervous. For some reason, she was clutching her face. Was she that afraid to approach others?
'She'll be fine.' I mused.
"Now, I want to assemble a search party for finding consumables in the forest. Are there any volunteers?"
"We'll do it!" aside from Kikyou, Inogashira, Onodera, Mei Wang, and Nishimura immediately raised their hands.
"I see. We'll be looking forward to it." Hirata replied.
"Karuizawa-san, can you guys clean the area for our tents? We also need to fix a spot where the bonfire would be." I asked.
"Yeah, don't worry. We totally got this!" Karuizawa gave a thumbs-up with a determined smile. I thought that if she agreed, her group would also agree by default. Fortunately, that seemed to be the case.
"Thank you. And finally, everyone else would be responsible for securing our things. We want to prepare for the night as fast as we can. It would be great if we're up and ready before the sun set."
"Sure!"
"I think we can do that."
My classmates were being surprisingly cooperative with me. They listened to all of my commands without any complaints. Leadership is a power that I should never underestimate.
"Alright, that's all I had to say for now. I'm going to end this by saying this. Let's win this unreasonable special exam, Class C!"
"Let's do this!" Everyone yelled in unison.
I felt satisfied as listened to their screams of determination. But really! That was an uncomfortable experience. I had to completely step out of my comfort zone. No, I was practically floating away from it. I can't clearly describe how overwhelming it was for me. Giving a speech in front of everyone wasn't like me at all. If I were given a choice, I never want to do that ever again!
"That... was kinda unexpected." Onodera audibly mused.
"But he was being pretty cool there, don't you think?" Inogashira replied.
"Yeah. He's surprisingly good at this, considering how he stays silent all the time."
But then again, doing that definitely influenced the story, hopefully for the best. My classmates probably saw me in a new light. A majority of them were impressed by me, while some of them probably found it creepy.
Everyone immediately began to do their assigned tasks. Miyake and the others began their journey to track the riverside while Kikyou and her group vanished in the forest. Sudou and the others began setting up the main tents which we were provided by the school.
"Guess I'll do my part."
Chabashira was sitting on a rock outside the entrance. I approached her with the survival manual in my arm.
I ended up ordering a basic toilet, four tents, a set of cookware with gas, some ropes, a big water container, and a few threads and needles. I could've also brought a set of meals which merely cost an amount of ten points. However, I think we should be able to go by with the resources we gathered. I also ended up asking for twenty dozen vinyl bags, which seemingly made her chuckle in amusement. Seriously, did I ask too much?
After registering my input, Chabashira parted without any delay. After a brief calculation, I realized that we ended up spending 70 special exam points on our first day. Kouenji would inevitably resign from this exam later on, which... quite frankly, I think it's impossible to prevent.
Well, that's 30 points down the drain.
Only half an hour later, our items were delivered to us. The boys immediately got to work. The toilet installation was surprisingly easy, but the same couldn't be said about the tents. Inside the cave, the ground was completely made out of granite. Nailing the anchors to the ground was undoubtedly a tiring feat.
"If we put all the grasses inside the bag and sew like this, then it should get more fluffy," Satou added.
"Then we'll make multiple layers of them and sew them on top of each other," replied Karuizawa.
While the boys were at it, I had asked the unoccupied girls to fill some of the vinyl bags with weeds and grasses. We would somehow connect them together later to turn them into makeshift pillows or mattresses even. After all, no one wanted to sleep on a hard surface.
"...."
I really did end up ordering too much...
••••••
Day 1, 11:13 AM.
I wanted to scout out some areas. Currently, we were on the western side of the island which had relatively more spots than the eastern side. I intended to begin capturing all those spots as soon as possible. However, I needed accomplices to watch my six.
I set out to look for a partner. As I began hunting for potential members, my eyes fell on Horikita. She was standing completely still, gazing up at the sky. She must have noticed that I was looking at her because she came over.
"You're normally incredibly inconspicuous, but you're being rather cooperative today," she said.
"I'm not sure how my classmates would react if their 'leader' was being a lazy bum. I might as well be a bit reliable if you understand what I mean."
"Hirata-kun must be grateful, huh? Despite being the big man in Class D, he still has to rely on you to help him. Pathetic, isn't it?"
"I can't turn down his request, as he's already doing a big favor by cooperating with me. Besides, there's nothing pathetic about relying on your comrades. If anything, I'd say it's a commendable trait. Something you clearly lack."
"....."
Well, I expected her to pounce back at me with her trademark response. But instead of that, Horikita simply stared at me in silence.
"You never fail to surprise me, Levent-kun." she suddenly stated without any specific context.
"Why this all of a sudden?" I asked.
"I've always thought of you as a person with an anti-social personality. That you prefer to be discreet and handle everything behind the shadows. But now you're showing signs of a great leader. What's the reason behind your sudden change in approach?"
Look yourself in the mirror, Horikita.
Despite her question being ironic, she asked a reasonable question. Why was I being extremely proactive all of a sudden?
Well, the main reason behind my sudden direct approach was rather mundane. I'm growing as a person every day. My mental age doesn't necessarily indicate anything positive. Before I transmigrated, I was a perfect introvert. I maintained my own space and minded my own business. My life was completely detached from my school's social hierarchy. The others didn't even come near my list of concerns. Each and every single conversation I had was either a question or a formality. It was until I met a certain person. But that's a different story altogether. Even though I recently said that we as humans need to be sociable, I simply didn't care at that period of time. Flowing according to social cues seemed like a pain to me.
Hypocrite, much?
However, things changed after I transmigrated. At first, I wanted to pretend. But then, I realized how childish my actions were. What's the point of a second life if I didn't enjoy it to the fullest?
That's why I had set a goal in my mind; something I should struggle for. I wanted to reach the best ending ever along with my classmates. And because of that, teamwork had become highly crucial for me. Each exam consisted of tasks that required cooperation from the others. More than that, my classmates needed direct guidance.
As Ayanokouji was still playing 'freedom and peace-loving hippie', the duty of guiding others ended up being pushed onto me. Given how oblivious my classmates were, I had no choice but to directly interject. And that's just the scratch of it.
"I have multiple reasons for this. In fact, 'you' are one of the primary reasons why I'm doing this in the first place." I shrugged.
"Me?" Horikita spun at me with a huge flash of red covering her cheeks. "Ahem... May I ask how I ended up being part of this equation?"
"Denied."
Horikita was already sick. But even so, she was determined to win the exam. She was already playing a big role in my plan. That's why I was playing out of character in order to make things easier for her.
"Hmph... Why are you always like this?" Horikita pouted while glaring at me, and in reply, I cracked another joke.
"I have multiple reasons for this. In fact, 'you' are one of the primary reasons why I'm acting like this." I replied in a smug tone.
"You're seriously a bit too much, Levent-kun."
"Yeah, I know."
With that, we quietly split up. Horikita went into the tent. For the time being, I needed a congenial partner who would go with me. Hunting through the available guys, I found Ayanokouji. He seemed bored out of his mind. Might as well make him do something productive. He'd probably help a friend in need.
"Hey, Ayanokouji. I want to scout the central island a little bit. I want you to join me."
He looked as if he had no intention of helping.
"Can I not?"
"Can you stop being useless and start helping?" I scolded him... kind of.
"I understand. Let's go," he replied.
The two of us were about to head into the forest when suddenly...
"Hmph... I suppose it's not a bad time to go for some exercise." a voice rang at the back of our ears. We looked behind above an old oak tree. Kouenji was lying on a branch looking at a mirror while combing his hair.
Wait, I thought they confiscated everything. Did he manage to smuggle those through?
"Are you going to join us, Kouenji?" Ayanokouji asked.
"Yes, I have decided to go for a walk. You two must be overjoyed by the thought of following a perfect existence like mine. I guess you can't help it." Kouenji jumped from the branch which was approximately ten feet above the ground, unscathed. What a guy...
"I guess I am kind of glad that you're coming with us. Thanks." I replied.
"No need to thank me, Levent-boy. I am merely going for a walk." saying that, Kouenji took off.
"Alright." Ayanokouji and I began sprinting. It was kind of surprising, the fact that he was going straight toward the cornfield. Even in the light novel, Kouenji was the one who led Ayanokouji toward the field. I guess even a guy like Kouenji has some use after all. Too bad he's going to retire shortly after.
A/N: A majority of the strategy came from Izaya-Hasegawa sensei's fiction, "Classroom Of The Elite Alter - Self Test". You're not a COTE fan if you haven't read that fic yet. It's so good! I actually like that more than the original light novel. So stop reading this fic and go read that, I dare say! Anyways, thank you for reading. I hope I'm not doing plagiarism... Peace 🤞;]
Initial allotted special exam points: 300S¶
4 Boys tent = 40S¶
Basic Toilet= 20S¶
Cookware Set = 5S¶
Water Container= 2S¶
Long Ropes = 2S¶
Threads and Needles = 1S¶
Remaining Points: 230S¶
Current balance: 1644,970 ¶¶