Survival Exam (10)

"If we do it on bare skin… it works better, right?"

Elise caught my hand where it rested on her shoulder and locked eyes with me as she said it.

"Uh… hang on. Wait a second."

She'd dropped that bombshell with a look of complete seriousness, which only threw me further off balance.

"…Hmm."

I had a feeling I'd poked something I shouldn't have again.

Elise had always been fiercely proud. A congenital mana disorder kept her from ever showing the full measure of her talent, but she couldn't afford to let her homeland down. Back in France, they already thought of her as the Iris Guild's rising star. That was why she pushed herself so hard to break this situation open, why she hid the disorder by any means she could, and why she wanted so badly to overcome it and grow stronger as fast as possible.

For years she had poured astronomical sums of money into finding a treatment. Every attempt had failed. And then I had shown up with a cure in hand. A lie, of course — but every time I pushed mana into her, she would feel her mana circuits stretching open, so she had no choice but to believe me. Which meant she was taking that massage story I'd spun on the spot completely seriously.

"Let's save that for tonight. It's way too bright out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠right now."

"Okay."

The way she agreed so matter-of-factly somehow made me the embarrassed one. It was too bright out anyway. There was no way Elise could show bare skin like this. Even if she said she was fine with it, I wasn't. What if someone walked by?

"Uh… you want to eat first?"

I steered the awkward atmosphere toward food. When you don't know what else to do, a meal is always the answer.

"Sure."

Elise followed behind me with a blank expression, and I had no idea what was going through her head. She'd gone cold again all of a sudden, and I couldn't figure out how to handle it. Had something shifted in the way she was looking at all this?

We returned to the tent we'd spent the previous night in and started preparing lunch. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠While the water came to a boil and the instant rice heated through, I checked my accumulated points. One hundred thirty cadets still alive, naturally. Once tonight passed and tomorrow arrived, that number would update.

"Three hundred fifty points… if I keep this pace, first place is mine."

I'd pulled in a solid haul from monsters, the boss, other cadets, and treasure. In the original story, first place depended on which route you took, but it usually went to the protagonist. The average score by the final day sat around seven hundred. At this rate, I was cruising.

"Is three hundred fifty going to be enough? Nam Da-eun is still out there."

"Nam Da-eun? She probably already withdrew."

Elise had her guard up against Nam Da-eun. She didn't need to worry. Midterms consisted of three subjects: a written exam, a practical exam, and a special exam. The special exam usually folded in all kinds of factors besides raw combat power, which meant luck played a huge role — so it didn't count toward the condition of placing first in the practical. In the original, Nam Da-eun withdrew on the first night so she could call her little sister. Odds were she'd do the same this time.

"…True. She doesn't care about anything except the practical, so maybe."

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's what happened."

Nam Da-eun's withdrawal was an event that fired on every route. Unless something unusual had come up, it was a lock.

We settled lunch with the steaming rice and smoked pork belly. I should've bought a wider variety of side dishes. I'd stocked up on smoked meats because I was worried about spoilage, which turned out to be a completely pointless concern.

"Huh? Isn't that a supply crate?"

We were stretching after the meal when a supply crate came down some distance away.

"It's a ways off, but if we run we can make it in time…. Want to go?"

"Yeah. But you have to put it in first."

"Okay."

I took Elise by the shoulder and pushed mana into her. The sensation of injecting mana was starting to feel familiar. Stimulating the inside of her mana circuits might be worth trying, too. The process of pouring my mana in already sent a jolt through those circuits. If I could guide that stimulation on purpose, I could control how much of a "treatment effect" Elise felt. There was no real treatment happening, of course — but if she was going to be fooled anyway, she might as well enjoy it.

"Let's go."

After feeding her a decent amount of mana, we sprinted for the supply crate. Luck was on our side; we reached it without running into another cadet. Heart pounding, I popped it open. Jerky and a blanket.

"Ah, dammit… bust."

We didn't need either, but I wasn't about to do anyone else a favor, so I stuffed both into my subspace pouch. The important part was still left. I pressed my smartwatch to the crate and scanned the code.

"Oh, this is huge."

Scanning a supply crate's code updated the app at random. The abilities that popped up were all over the place. The best ones let you pinpoint nearby cadets or check the rankings. Landing the point-ranking check was a jackpot.

"Want to use it right now?"

"Yeah. Let's see."

Elise's eyes were already glued to my smartwatch; she was clearly curious about the standings. In the slot where the 100% Stamina Recovery Ticket had been, an icon labeled Point Ranking Check had appeared. I'm probably running away with first. I tapped the icon, and a hologram screen bloomed above the watch face.

"…?"

"…"

The two of us stared at the rankings and shut our mouths at the same time.

"Didn't you just say Nam Da-eun had definitely withdrawn?"

"…Sorry."

Elise was looking at me with ice-cold eyes. Come on, people get things wrong sometimes…

No. I wasn't supposed to get this wrong.

And what the hell had she even done to rack up 1,125 points…?

"…This is giving me a headache."

Just where was she, and what was she doing?

"Captain. We still haven't pinned down Lee Ho-yeon's location. But we've got reports that he's with Elise."

"That so? And I told you not to call me that. What's with 'Captain'?"

"It's fun. Feels like we're at war."

"Fair enough — going up against Pretty Boy and Elise really is a war. Those two are basically the student council's poster children."

Kim Young-han smiled as he looked over the cadets. More than thirty of them had formed a team, and they had a single target: Lee Ho-yeon.

After a designated-cadet tracking privilege had come out of a supply crate on the second day, Kim Young-han had steadily recruited people to his side. The bait, naturally, was the food Ho-yeon was carrying. No matter how much Ho-yeon had packed, it was nowhere near enough to keep everyone here fed for a week. Split among thirty people, it would last two meals at best. But for cadets who had been surviving on nothing but foraged fruit for three days, a hot meal was something they needed badly.

"So they're just pigging out on the good stuff by themselves? That's cheap."

"Well, Ho-yeon's the crazy one for packing all that food because he saw a survival exam coming."

"Still! He could share a little."

"Would you share, if it were you?"

The male cadet shut his mouth, looking sullen under Kim Young-han's jab.

"…Kim Young-han. You're our captain. You can't take Ho-yeon's side."

"I'm just doing this 'cause it's fun~."

Kim Young-han shrugged and turned his head.

"Another supply crate, nine o'clock!"

"Okay! Hold on!"

Kim Young-han had been hogging every crate scan. Scanning a code randomly updated the Survival Exam app, and the abilities added by those updates never overlapped — once someone obtained a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠given ability, it would never appear again. The moment Kim Young-han figured that out, he'd asked everyone to funnel the codes his way.

"Finally…"

The ability that would let him hunt Ho-yeon had dropped at last.

"I can get my revenge for that one-on-one duel with Pretty Boy."

"Young-han, didn't you say you were doing this for fun?"

The cadet beside him asked, looking incredulous. Kim Young-han shrugged again.

"It is fun. That's the fun."

"Hold on — someone's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠coming this way…"

At the cadet's words, Kim Young-han looked in that direction too.

Footsteps, slow and even. A striking young woman with features sharp enough to have been carved, and eyes just as keen. Nam Da-eun was walking toward them. Her face still said she had no interest in anyone else. You'd think a crowd of thirty people might warrant at least a glance, but she didn't look like she cared in the slightest.

"…What do we do. Should I try acting friendly?"

"Y-yeah. We've got over thirty people. No reason to get nervous."

Ordinarily they would have ignored Nam Da-eun and let her pass, but Elise and Ho-yeon had teamed up. This side needed serious firepower too.

"Da-eun. Hey."

Kim Young-han stepped in front of her with confidence.

"…?"

Nam Da-eun looked at him with a faint frown of confusion.

"Uh, want to stick with our team? We've already got thirty people together."

"No."

"Ah… right."

It was the answer he'd expected, and Kim Young-han backed off cleanly. You couldn't force someone you couldn't control into the pack.

"I have a question."

Nam Da-eun, who he'd assumed would simply vanish, asked one instead.

"What is it?"

"Lee Ho-yeon… do you know where he is?"

"…"

Kim Young-han thought that, if he played this right, he might just be able to bring Nam Da-eun along.

Night fell, and we picked a familiar kind of spot to pitch the tent.

"Around here should be good."

I popped the one-touch automatic tent and laid out the blankets and pillows inside. The two of us had been rotating watch, so we'd never actually slept in the tent together. We shared pillows and blankets, sure — but that much was fair game under the excuse of a survival exam. That wasn't the important part.

Rustle, rustle—

Elise was taking her clothes off inside the tent. She's not going to strip all the way… right? I had no idea how much she planned to show me, but the odds were high it wouldn't be much. In that case, what did I need to do?

Make the effect unmistakable. If we were doing this as a bare-skin massage, I had to make sure she felt like it was working even better.

"…Come in."

I swallowed hard and stepped inside.

A snow-white back stole my eyes. The undone straps of her bra fluttered loosely at either side, and Elise — her stomach and chest still covered by her cadet uniform and the cups of her bra — showed me nothing but her back.

"H-hurry up."

The voice that came out of her was nothing like her usual tone — soft, almost girlish. She was embarrassed. I had to pull this off. If she didn't feel an effect, I was completely screwed.

My eyes flooded with gold, and I gathered mana at the tips of my fingers.