The Mad Survival Expert Enters Kera Island
Kizen Training Center.
Whooooosh.
Even in the late hours of the evening, a man was hefting a massive barbell in slow, weighty reps. Every time the jet-black dumbbells rose, the muscles of his upper body and arms swelled taut, then contracted, over and over.
Meanwhile, a male student fiddling halfheartedly with a pair of light dumbbells beside him kept stealing glances before speaking up.
"H-Hector."
CRASH!
The huge barbell hit the floor with a sound that shook the entire room. The student flinched and hunched his shoulders.
"Whoooosh……."
Hector wiped the sweat from his face with the towel hanging around his neck. The black glow rippling across the barbell faded, and it reverted to its original form as ordinary steel equipment.
"Where are the kids?"
"Uh… yeah! They're all gathered in the building next door."
"No need for a long speech. Just pass along my words."
Crack. Pop.
As Hector rolled his neck, a chilling sound rang out.
"During this island survival evaluation, we capture Simon Polentia. Without fail."
Flames blazed up in Hector's eyes.
The chance to finally break Simon had arrived. No longer would he have to wait and hope for the duel evaluations to match them up.
"You all saw it in this Cyclops evaluation, too. As long as that guy is alive and well, we can never take control of Class A or claim the top scores in the class."
"Th-that's right."
"Class A is under the direct charge of none other than Kizen's vice chancellor. Dominating that class matters more than anything."
As he listened, the male student let out a dry laugh inside.
At Kizen, eliminating obstacles or rivals was so common it barely registered as remarkable. Factions and alliances alike would understand a target like that perfectly well.
But there was something about the way Hector dealt with Simon that felt like more than simple removal.
Why was he so obsessed with suppressing Simon, anyway? Was there some old grudge between the Moore family and the Polentia family?
"If you get it, go."
"Y-yeah!"
As Hector raised the massive barbell again, it dyed itself jet-black from end to end. It was a training method that tempered physical stamina and jet-black manipulation simultaneously.
"Hoo-ah!"
Sweat poured off Hector's body like rain. He was bristling with killing intent.
The outskirts of Kizen.
An abandoned building, neglected for years, was so decrepit and dust-laden that it seemed it might collapse outright at any moment. Moonlight streamed in through the hole-riddled ceiling, and the flickering of half-dead light bulbs only deepened the gloomy atmosphere.
Into this very ruin came a male student, brushing aside cobwebs with an irritated scowl. None other than Haren Coke, the one who'd been shattered in his duel evaluation against Simon.
Arriving at the promised meeting spot, he looked around warily. The person who had summoned him appeared not to have arrived yet.
'I'd better not be wasting my time.'
He stuffed the crumpled letter back into his pocket, crossed his arms, and closed his eyes.
'……Simon Polentia.'
Even now, he couldn't forget those words from the final moment of their duel.
—I don't know what kind of grudge you hold against me. But with power that isn't truly yours—with "that kind of power"—you'll never beat me.
Crunch!
His teeth ground together. Simon had spoken as if he knew everything.
Either Simon knew he'd received a procedure from Bahil, or he had at least guessed it.
It was dangerous. He couldn't understand why Simon hadn't reported it to Kizen and made an issue of it yet, but as long as someone out there knew his secret, he needed to be removed quickly.
Haren clenched his fist hard.
'This power…….'
He may have lost to Simon, but this power was the real deal, no matter what anyone said.
In last week's duel evaluation, he had overpowered a student who was rated superior to him in every respect and climbed up to the Mid Squad.
Because of it, Haren Coke's abilities were finally acknowledged by his classmates, and lately he'd even been hobnobbing with the rising stars of the school.
Each day, his self-esteem climbed to dizzying new heights.
'But.'
He could feel it draining away, little by little. Bahil had told him this power would last two months at most.
'I have to get back into Professor Bahil's good graces, no matter what it takes.'
There was only one way: become Bahil's direct disciple. And for that, he needed to complete the mission he had failed last time.
This time, for certain, he would break Simon and prove his worth to Bahil.
"I-is someone there?"
Just then, an unfamiliar girl's voice echoed through the abandoned building. Haren called out.
"I'm alone. Who is it?"
"Oh."
A girl peeked her head in, saw Haren's Kizen uniform, and came inside with visible relief.
"You got a letter too?"
"You too?"
She nodded.
"My name's Jessica Cananor. Class H."
"Haren Coke, Class G. You got a grudge against Simon too?"
She glanced away awkwardly.
"N-no, not really. He apologized, and it's not like I hold anything against him or anything……."
"Then why are you here?"
"I just……"
Watching Simon's duel had left a deep impression on Jessica.
The feeling of facing a monster from a different plane of existence entirely—someone born into a different league. And looking back on that moment, there had been a strange, heady exhilaration in it.
I wanted to be like that too. I wanted to become stronger than I am now.
Step—
Just then, a crisp, clear footfall rang out through the abandoned building.
Step— step—
Haren and Jessica swept their surroundings with tense faces. Haren shouted.
"Who's there!"
The footsteps cut off abruptly. The two of them were drawing jet-black up from their cores, bracing for the worst—
Fwoooosh—
Moonlight came pouring down in a radiant cascade through the ceiling of the abandoned building. The two grimaced and hurriedly shielded their eyes.
From the sky.
Someone descended.
They wore a black robe that concealed their entire body, hood pulled low over their head, making their identity impossible to read. Hovering in midair as they were, even their build, age, and gender were impossible to guess.
But the presence they gave off was profoundly, unsettlingly alien.
"Wh-who……?"
Jessica's terrified eyes darted up and down.
It had to be this person—the one who had sent the letters.
In answer, the figure moved their hand slowly.
Flap!
"……!"
Behind the robe they wore, enormous wings unfolded. Lifting the edge of the hood slowly with a fingertip, the figure spoke.
"I bring you an offer you cannot refuse."
The moment Haren saw what lay beneath the hood, his eyes went wide.
"Y-you're……!"
The day of the Island Survival.
On the eve of the massive event, Kizen students buzzed with excitement, chattering back and forth with flushed faces.
Fourteen large-scale teleportation circles in total were being prepared, and Class A stood waiting on one of them.
A huge central magic circle had been inscribed on the ground, with smaller circles branching out from it like the veins of a leaf. The students stood atop the smaller circles.
"I-I'm a little nervous."
Camibarez said, hugging her shoulders.
"What if I'm the only one who gets separated from you guys?"
"Where you land doesn't matter, Kami. They said the transport is completely random."
Simon replied with a gentle smile.
"Want to swap spots if you're worried?"
"N-no, that's alright! I'm fine!"
"Anyway, ladies."
Dick propped his arms behind his head and asked.
"Are you two seriously planning to butcher monster meat and eat it?"
"I-I only did a bit of fishing practice. Heheh……"
Camibarez said with an awkward laugh. Meilin let out a light sigh as well.
"If we're really starving, we'll eat monsters the way we were taught. But first, our best bet is going for the supply drops."
Supply drops were one of the detailed rules of the Island Survival. Over the course of the event, a large magic circle would occasionally appear in the sky.
And exactly one minute later, supplies would descend from it—not just food, but apparently special artifacts usable only within this survival event.
Competition was bound to be fierce. Any student in the vicinity could be assumed to be converging on the drop, all aiming for those supplies.
"Alright! Ready yourselves!"
At that moment, henchmen came running and shouting the announcement.
"You will now be teleported to the island!"
"Do not, under any circumstances, step outside your circle!"
The students gathered their feet together inside the circles and waited with nervous faces.
Simon stood with his arms crossed, heart pounding, when he spotted Hector glaring daggers at him from across the way.
'Great. If I run into that guy, we're going to have another blowout fight.'
He honestly couldn't fathom what he'd done wrong to make the man so desperate for his blood.
But if a collision was inevitable sooner or later, getting it over with this time didn't seem like a bad idea.
Vmmm!
Vmm!
The magic circles lit up. Cheers and screams crossed paths from every direction.
"G-good luck, everyone!"
Camibarez shouted, squeezing her eyes shut.
"Heheh, survive well, all of you—see you back at Kizen!"
"Didn't I tell you?! Don't go charging off toward the center just to die for nothing! Just somehow avoid last place!"
FWOOOOSH!
Meilin's nagging scattered into the air, and the light of the magic circles grew ever fiercer.
His vision blurred white, and he felt both his feet lift gently off the ground.
For a while, the world had been nothing but blinding light. Then, slowly, outlines began to take shape.
His sense of touch returned before his sight, and he could feel the wind brushing ticklishly against his body. Simon took his time, not rushing, waiting patiently until his vision came back—then scanned his surroundings.
"……Whoa."
He had been dropped smack into the middle of a jungle.
Green in every direction he looked, green everywhere else. He had never been anywhere this dense, this bursting with plant life.
Tropical plants bearing huge, broad leaves, and vines growing with reckless abandon until they swallowed whole trees. On top of that, the climate was oppressively hot and humid. The air felt heavy, and the soil was damp, as if it had rained recently.
"So I have to survive here for four days, huh?"
A shiver ran through Simon's body.
A peculiar tension crawled up his spine and spread through his whole frame. A bursting, overflowing catharsis came surging up without end.
"This is going to be fun!!"
Startled by his shout, birds fluttered away in a flurry of wings. The clone of Pier that had been hanging from his uniform woke up and turned to look at him.
[We seem to have arrived. Though I fail to see why you're quite this worked up.]
"Adventure is calling my name, sir."
[……You lunatic. Don't tell me you've forgotten our actual objective?]
Simon grinned.
"Of course not. We have to find Big Kroom, commander of the Giant Corps, faster than anyone else—don't we?"
Saying this, Simon lifted a foot and stomped down hard on the ground.
Crunch! Something burst with a wet snap.
"There we go."
Simon bent down and picked it up.
[Ugh! What in the blazes is that repulsive thing?!]
Simon answered with a beaming smile.
"My snack for today."
A large, net-patterned snake lay limply in his hand. Delighted with his luck, Simon tucked the dead snake into his subspace.
"Snacks secured this easily, and a great start to boot!"
[……Boy, you seem even more wound up than usual.]
"I am."
Simon swept his gaze over the jungle around him and grinned.
"Because no matter what anyone says, this place is my stage."
The mad survival expert of Leshill had set foot on Kera Island.