Chapter 109. Survival Exam (2)
At Professor Kim Jinhyuk's insistence to submit even the smallest item, cadets began timidly offering up their morning snacks and drinks for inspection.
Elise had around ten mana stones.
Probably backups in case she ran out of mana. With those, she might just scrape by for a week.
Still, what's up with her lately? I don't get it.
Even checking her status window, all I see are thoughts calling me trash or filth—no real insight.
Wait a sec.
Could it have been Elise who caught me having sex with Lumi in the club room?
Considering Elise is the daughter of the Iris Guild, a well-known intelligence guild, she could've ordered someone to investigate me.
Then I got caught through my own carelessness, and word got back to her.
'But seriously, is banging my girlfriend in a club room really enough to call me trash...?'
Lumi was the only one who saw me, so any investigator would've just assumed she was my girlfriend.
Ugh, I don't know. And this is all just speculation anyway.
"Enter one at a time."
We began stepping into the teleportation portal one by one.
This must be the one that drops us onto the island.
I stepped into the portal. When I opened my eyes, I saw endless ocean and dense, Amazon-like forest behind me.
The cadets around me were chatting—it looked like we had landed on a beach of the island.
"Class A, gather here."
Homeroom professor Kim Jinhyuk exited the last portal and called us together.
"This island is privately owned by Victoria Academy. There are no traces of human presence, and its natural ecosystem has been preserved. You will survive here until Sunday."
He began briefing us on the special exam.
The densely grown trees really did make it feel like a tropical rainforest. It didn't look like anyone had ever set foot here.
"The island has poisonous animals and monsters. Even the non-poisonous ones could be lethal. If you ever want to give up, use your smartwatch to contact me. If there's a real emergency, use this."
Kim Jinhyuk handed out stickers we could attach to our smartwatches.
"Tear this sticker, and you'll be teleported to safety. But if you use it, your exam score will be the lowest possible."
Unlike our previous training, there were no safety nets. But apparently, the island was swarming with drones and surveillance cameras, so it wasn't as dangerous as it sounded.
"Isn't this kind of dangerous?"
"I didn't even get to tell my girlfriend I'd be gone..."
Kim Jinhyuk continued explaining, ignoring the murmurs.
"Here's how the exam works. You each start with 10 points. There are several ways to earn more on the island. First, kill monsters and register them with your smartwatch to gain points. Fights between cadets are allowed as well..."
His explanation was absurdly long.
Basically, you get points for killing monsters and cadets.
Weak monsters give small points. Stronger monsters yield more.
If you take down another cadet and register their smartwatch with yours, you get half their points.
Supply drops from the sky or hidden treasures around the island also offer points.
"To steal another cadet's points, you just need to take their smartwatch. Register it with your own, and you get half their stored points. The other person is disqualified."
Kim Jinhyuk tapped his smartwatch while explaining.
"I doubt any of you would go so far as to fight to the death... but just in case. This is still a training exercise. The goal is to gain experience in unpredictable, high-stress scenarios. Don't risk your life over pride."
"But professor... what if emotions run high during fights?"
One cadet raised a hand to ask.
A fair question, but let's be real—if this place worked like that, we wouldn't even be here.
"You're students of Victoria Academy. Whether it's your talent, your background, or your wealth, none of that matters now. From the moment you enrolled, it was only natural you'd face harsh and dangerous training."
Victoria Academy is globally recognized as a top-tier institution.
Behind its prestige and elite graduates lies this kind of grueling Spartan system—but to be fair, tough trials do build stronger people.
"If you're not confident, just contact me and give up. Even if you're near death, tearing the sticker will save you. As long as you're breathing, the medical team will bring you back. But we won't save fools who stubbornly refuse help and end up dead."
Sounds scary when he puts it like that. But I won't die, so whatever.
"That concludes the briefing. Lastly, you'll each receive a map and emergency rations."
We each got a map and a pouch.
The so-called rations were two chocolate bars and two eggs.
'What is this, a joke...?'
"Your map will have a marked location. Once everyone reaches their mark, the test begins. From this moment until the test starts, no talking or contact is allowed. Any violations mean instant disqualification. Also, if you don't reach your mark within 30 minutes, you're out. Now move!"
With that, Kim Jinhyuk vanished into a portal.
He was probably heading to some sort of command center to monitor us.
The cadets looked around in confusion, but no one dared speak.
"..."
This was the same for all classes.
Over 200 first-year cadets had just been dumped on the island's shore.
After a few seconds of hesitation, everyone quietly headed into the forest.
I exchanged glances with Lucy and Lumi, then checked my map and went off to find my location.
*
While waiting at my assigned spot, my smartwatch buzzed.
[The exam starts now! If you want to give up, launch this app and press the surrender button!]
It was an app installed just for the exam.
I'd be using this later to track other cadets and for a few other things. But not yet.
----------------------
『A Sub-Quest Has Arrived. 』
[Brains, Brawn, and Bonus Points!]
A shining example of brains and brawn!
Prove your excellence in the special exam!
- Reward: Agility +2
----------------------
"Oh?"
A sub-quest popped up too.
But I didn't even rank first in the practical exam. Why call it 'brains and brawn'?
And why is the reward Agility? I'd rather boost my Mana stat.
Either way, I need to give this special exam my all.
On Day 7, a boss monster drops an item I need.
I'll just consider this a bonus.
First… let's find a place to sleep.
I plan to set up a base somewhere and operate from there.
I don't want to wander too much—and considering the supply reveal back on the beach, now all the first-years know I'm stacked.
"Isn't there a good spot around here…? Maybe I'll head for the mountains."
Mountain terrain usually has great spots. Maybe even a cave.
"It'd be nice if there was water nearby. Good for washing up."
I brought toiletries, so as long as there's flowing water, I'm good.
I checked the map and picked a path toward a nearby river.
*
Elise started the survival exam with an annoyed scowl.
It was bad enough being pissed after finding out the truth about Lee Hoyeon. Now she had to get dragged into this dumb exam on top of it.
"Fucking pervert."
Just remembering it made her skin crawl.
She never imagined he'd be that much of a degenerate.
'I thought he might be someone I'd want to get closer to...'
There was still a weird sense of regret lingering, but her body rejected the thought of him.
Shaking her head.
Elise erased Lee Hoyeon from her mind. The exam was more important right now.
"Ten mana stones…"
For Elise, who normally needed two to three just for a single training session, ten was nowhere near enough.
Still, she couldn't give up. She'd just have to do her best with what she had.
Elise decided to hunt for treasure. Maybe she'd find something mana-related.
While checking her map for likely treasure locations, she considered heading to the center of the island—until she remembered Lee Hoyeon was going that way.
"… Let's go this way."
The central area did seem promising, but just thinking about him made her mood worse.
Elise turned east and started walking, map in hand.
But her natural lack of direction made things harder, and she ended up somewhere totally different.
"Where am I…?"
A wide river appeared in front of her—the source of the river that ran through the island.
She stepped onto a wobbly wooden bridge to cross, too focused on her map to notice the cadets hiding on the other side.
Those cadets definitely didn't want Elise to cross.
"Dude… are you out of your mind? Elise is coming this way! What the hell!"
Two male cadets hiding in the bushes panicked as they spotted Elise approaching.
"Shit. We're screwed. If she sees us, it's over. We gotta bail."
"Wait, wait. I don't think she's noticed us yet. Want to try something?"
One of them, armed with a bow, asked nervously.
"Even if we ambush her, we can't win. Why bother?"
The other cadet, who had a spear strapped to his back, made a solid point—but the archer shook his head.
"We're not trying to fight Elise. Just take out the bridge. We only need to destroy the side that connects to us."
"Oh… huh. That could work."
The plan to destroy the bridge Elise was on was absurd. Normally, Elise would never fall for such a sloppy tactic. But she was already irritated and laser-focused on navigating.
"Exactly. Even if we got her now, it wouldn't be worth many points. Let's just eliminate a competitor."
"Alright, let's do it. If it fails, we run."
Elise was still frowning down at her map.
"Ugh… this part's trees, that part's trees, this is a mountain, that's also a mountain—where the hell am I supposed to go?"
Rustle—
A clearly artificial sound of leaves moving, and then the presence of someone nearby.
Something was flying toward her.
'Too late!'
Elise quickly drew mana to prepare for an incoming attack.
Clang—!
But none of the attacks were aimed at her.
The spear and arrows had been aimed at the bridge, severing the ropes holding it together.
"Huh…?"
Elise locked eyes with the two cadets high-fiving each other after the sneak attack—and fell into the river.
Splashhh—
'Gotta pull out a mana stone…'
Forcing herself to draw mana had triggered her mana disorder again.
To get out of the water, she needed to use a mana stone for emergency stabilization.
She fumbled at her inner pocket to grab one, but the force of the current made her drop it.
"…!"
At the same time, the jostling from her hand knocked the rest of her mana stones out of her coat.
All ten of her precious backup stones were swept away by the river. Elise struggled to get out of the water, but her body wasn't responding properly due to mana backlash.
"This is bad—ugh!"
Just as she decided to tear the emergency sticker on her smartwatch, her head smacked into a protruding rock.
With her breath short, mana disorder flaring, and a pounding pain in the back of her head, Elise finally lost consciousness and was swept downstream.