Chapter 25: Retreat Meta I didn't care whether Akito was busy having "lucky sukebe" accidents or enjoying his harem life; I moved immediately to secure a base.
Normally, Chika would have been complaining her head off, but she was surprisingly quiet—perhaps lost in thought after seeing Akito flirting with all those other girls. It worked for me.
Having entered the island quickly, we easily secured a prime base.
There was water flowing nearby, and despite being on a hill, the ground was level. It was an excellent spot in many ways. Masayoshi, the self-proclaimed survival expert, gave a satisfied thumbs-up, while Rio shot me a suspicious look.
"How did you find a place like this? You didn't even wander around."
"I have an excellent teacher," I replied with a distant look in my eyes. Rio didn't press further this time.
I'm grateful to Frey, but man, she really put me through the wringer. She practically hammered the knowledge into my skull. My brain worked overtime to memorize everything just so my body wouldn't have to suffer the consequences of getting something wrong.
'I've taught you everything. If you mess this up after all that, you'd better be prepared.'
Between Derek's special assignment and Frey's threats, the pressure was on. I felt proud to be held in such high regard, but the weight on my shoulders was heavy.
At least Masayoshi, who I thought would be useless, was helping out with his survival knowledge. He was pulling his weight. As for the other two freeloaders...
"Huh? You want me to do that right now?"
Chika was as uncooperative as ever, and Rio was no help at all. Fine, I'll just do the work of three people. At least it's not four.
A few other groups approached but left with a polite greeting after seeing we'd already claimed the spot. As we were setting up the base, yellow smoke began to rise into the sky.
Heading toward the smoke would signal the start of the minigames prepared by Yggdrasil.
Red smoke meant a game for one person, blue for two, and yellow for four. Participation was optional. However, since they provided food and tools as rewards, there was no reason not to go. Anyone who didn't show up either had a serious problem or had been sabotaged.
"Wait, yellow smoke means we need four people, right? But there are five locations?"
"There are a lot of first-years, so they're probably splitting us up."
In the game, Akito headed west, so that should be the right direction. I led the group toward where he would be, utilizing my knowledge of the game as much as possible.
Since I'd already proven my leadership skills on the aircraft carrier, even Chika was following orders. This was easier than I thought.
When we reached the source of the smoke, a teacher checked the gathered groups and explained the rules. It was a competition among the participants, divided into four rounds with one person from each team participating in each round.
It sounded simple, but these group competitions usually drained a lot of physical and magical energy. Yggdrasil's cruelty in tormenting the students from day one was truly impressive.
Oh, Yukina came this way too...
Wait, Akito, you little punk. You're the one who dumped her, so why are you acting all friendly now?
Yukina, who was talking to him, spotted me and kept glancing over nervously, but Akito—oblivious as ever—just kept chatting away. I'd already cleared the highway toward saving Yukina and triggering her "First Time" event; if he tried to swoop in and snatch it now, I wouldn't just stand by.
As I stared, someone poked me in the ribs. It was Rio.
"Hey, could you stop staring? You guys are creeping me out."
It wasn't just me; apparently, Chika was glaring too. Though her target was Yukina, not Akito.
"I'll go third."
Perhaps annoyed by Akito's conversation, Chika timed her turn to match Yukina's. But there was no need to waste stamina and mana right now.
"No, we're sitting this one out."
"What?"
"We won't get any points this time anyway. Save your strength."
"Then why did we even come here?"
"You'll see if you wait."
Do you all know about the "Retreat Meta"?
It's that deceptive tactic where they make everyone compete fiercely, only to mock their efforts by dumping a massive amount of points on everyone at the very end.
I only saw it from Akito's perspective, so I wasn't sure if it was exclusive to this location, but the first day's minigame usually had one final round with huge prizes. I'd let everyone else huff and puff as they drained their energy; I was just here to swoop in and take the cream of the crop.
"Trust me. You saw what happened earlier."
"..."
Despite her dissatisfied expression, Chika stayed quiet, likely assuming I had something up my sleeve after my performance on the aircraft carrier.
Some people looked at us strangely for not participating, but once the matches started, everyone became too engrossed to care about us.
Ah, look at these youths, sweating and competing for food and equipment. The future of Yggdrasil is bright indeed. It's wonderful to see them giving their all. Run more! Work harder! Get even more exhausted!
Once the four prepared matches ended, the teacher spoke calmly.
"Since it's the first day, that concludes today's testing. Everyone, manage your condition well. I'll see you tomorrow."
Wait, what?
"Excuse me! Aren't you doing one more?"
"Didn't I say there would be four rounds?"
No... usually, there's one more at the end.
Hey, come on! Don't joke around! You're going to do one more, right?
Wow, what a great actor. Anyone would think you were serious. Hurry up and bring out the surprise round! This is a retreat! Don't keep us in suspense!
As I stared blankly, the teacher disappeared as if there was nothing left to say.
"..."
You bastards!!! Are you discriminating against me now?!!!
Whether it's the first playthrough or the second, there's always one last game! Why aren't you doing it?! Is it because Akito's group won a lot and got plenty of supplies?!
Are you discriminating right now?!!!
If you just leave like that, what does that make me?!!
"So, why didn't we do it?"
If I gave the wrong answer here, the leadership trust I'd built on the aircraft carrier would crumble. Rio and Masayoshi seemed to still believe I had a plan, but Chika was shooting me a look of pure disbelief.
But I didn't know they'd skip it either...
"...The, the teachers want us to use up a lot of our stamina and mana."
I quickly scrambled for an excuse, spitting out the first thing that came to mind. Since the matches had been intense and they'd watched them with me, the kids nodded in agreement so far.
"That's why... there was no need to push ourselves. Conserving energy is the priority. We already got some supplies from the aircraft carrier, after all."
"But wouldn't it have been better to go for something like a tent? We don't have one. Even the last-place team gets something small."
Rio, read the room. Why are you suddenly being logical when you don't even pull your own weight?
"We can manage to build something with branches and leaves, but it's a far cry from a real tent. A tent provides psychological stability as well as physical rest."
"So, why didn't we do it?"
As Masayoshi nodded along, Chika asked with a look of utter contempt, her trust in me completely gone.
"...I'm sorry?"
"Sigh—"
And just like that, the trust I'd built on the aircraft carrier vanished in an instant.
Hey, come on, you guys got supplies because of me. We even had canned food and...
When we returned to the base, we could only stand there in stunned silence.
Wasn't Yggdrasil a prestigious school? Why were there petty thieves here?
Our base, left unattended, had been turned into a dumpster. Every single supply we had worked so hard to get was gone.
"..."
"...The person who stole it is the bad one, not the person who got robbed—"
"Shut up."
I shut my mouth at Chika's command. Honestly, it wasn't entirely my fault. We all got robbed together.
"At least a few useful things are left. The food and tools... are all gone, though."
Masayoshi laughed awkwardly as he looked over the items scattered around like trash. Just like that, we were bankrupt.
Thinking about it calmly later, I realized they might not have been "thieves" in the traditional sense. It was just that I was too efficient and secured a base too early.
When the smoke went up, everyone else was still busy looking for a base and didn't have any supplies of their own. Even Akito's group hadn't decided on a base yet, so all four of them were still carrying their backpacks.
Students passing by probably saw our stuff and thought, 'Oh, look! Free supplies!' and looted it.
Regardless of the intent, we were cleaned out and left penniless.
If we'd had nothing from the start, we wouldn't have had any expectations, but losing everything we'd gathered left everyone drained of energy. At least Masayoshi was showing off his survival knowledge and keeping busy.
God-Sayoshi! The adult magazines I invested in you weren't a waste after all.
Chika sat leaning against a tree, doing nothing but muttering insults and curses at me, while Rio did what he was told but lacked any motivation.
Was it the psychological effect of losing our supplies? Even though we'd only missed one meal, I felt incredibly hungry.
Time for me to step up.
"Just wait. This great man will provide for you."
"Bullshit. You dumbass."
Ignoring Chika's remark, I set off alone.
We had arrived on the deserted island with nothing but our watches and clothes, so the teachers had been quite generous on the first day. Even the last-place teams were given something, so right now, everyone was busy setting up bases and consuming their rations.
This was the perfect opportunity, while no one was paying attention.
There were animals on this deserted island, though not many. Hunting animals was a part of the game's content, and I'd confirmed it with the Eye of Yullat. Now that this was reality, other groups would start hunting once their food ran out, so I had to get some now.
I also needed to restore my credibility as a leader.
An hour later, I returned to the base with a triumphant look.
"Daddy's home!!"
"Daddy!! I knew I could count on you!!"
"What?! How did you catch that?!"
Masayoshi played along, chanting "Daddy," while Rio looked at my shoulder in shock.
The plump, fat deer—or maybe it was a roe deer—draped over my shoulder looked reliable to anyone's eyes. I dropped the prey onto the ground with a deliberate, heavy thud.
So cool.
I could feel my leadership rating skyrocketing as I provided food in a moment of crisis. Masayoshi immediately hovered over it, wondering how to process it, while Rio just gulped.
"So that's why you asked if I could make a smoker?"
"This won't last us a week, but we need to preserve the food."
The "Pig" I possessed was the anomaly; very few mages were actually fat. Using mana was surprisingly taxing, and the world was full of "physical" mages who were mages in name only, so their appetites were quite large.
"But where did one of the legs go?"
"I traded it with another group for this."
When I held up a jar of salt, Masayoshi and Rio rejoiced. You can't have meat without salt.
Masayoshi began butchering immediately, and Rio prepared to grill. It took some time to set up the smoker, but as the remaining hind leg was skewered on a branch and rotated over the campfire, my mouth began to water.
It was a bit awkward, three guys staring at a campfire in silence and gulping, but looking at the fat dripping off the sizzling hind leg made all other thoughts vanish.
"You can just slice it off from the outside like this."
As Masayoshi demonstrated by slicing the outer layer like a kebab, we all grabbed our stone knives and started carving without a word.
To be honest, the blood hadn't been drained properly and the only seasoning was salt, so I couldn't say it was incredibly delicious, but perhaps because of the "romance" of the situation, it tasted pretty good.
After tasting it, we nodded at each other, and I stood up to approach Chika.
"It's ready. Let's eat."
"..."
Perhaps feeling bad about her earlier outburst, Chika hadn't said a word since I returned. Even when we were excitedly grilling the meat, she only stole glances and didn't join in, keeping her head turned away as if she weren't interested.
That damn pride of hers.
"Aren't you going to eat? You need to keep your strength up."
"..."
"I'm sorry about the mistake earlier, and I'm sorry we lost the supplies. Can you accept this as an apology?"
When I gave them a look, Rio and Masayoshi chimed in haltingly.
"Uh—yeah, this is really good. You, you should forgive him with this."
"Th-that's right, Chika... we have to eat together... to have the str-strength to finish the exam..."
Only then did Chika look at the glistening, grilled hind leg.
Our little handful~ You're hungry, aren't you? Come and eat.
"...I guess I have no choice. Don't think I'm forgiving you just because of this."
"Yes, ma'am. I'll work hard from now on."
If it weren't for that special assignment, I swear...
Even though she was used to high-end cuisine, Chika must have been hungry, as she ate without complaint. For now, the immediate fire was put out...
And as for the bastards who stole our stuff, just you wait until I catch you.
I'll show you a literal hellscape.
*
As Derek was checking on the students by looking through numerous screens, the teacher who had been in charge of the exam for Yeon-woo's group returned.
"Why didn't you follow the plan? You were supposed to hold one more match to give out supplies."
"Well—you saw it. Group 4 of Class A didn't participate at all."
"Does that mean he knew the contents of the exam?"
"I don't know about that. But if we had held one more match while everyone was exhausted, Group 4 would have definitely taken it. Perhaps he noticed that mana recovery is slower here than outside."
Derek understood the teacher's reasoning and didn't press further. Unlike the standard matches that gave supplies based on ranking, the unannounced final match only rewarded the winner.
Getting that many supplies on the first day would have given them a significant advantage in the exam.
Did Seo Yeon-woo know that and act accordingly?
"That kid in Group 4 is the one, right? The one who did the suicide attack at the entrance ceremony, is friendly with the hounds, and even wiped out the Geukryu Society."
"He's quite handsome, isn't he? He doesn't look like the type to do such things."
"You shouldn't judge by appearances. Even the Principal is showing interest in him."
"Oh boy, he was great on the aircraft carrier, but someone cleaned them out."
As Yeon-woo became the topic of conversation, the teachers gathered around Derek, each offering a comment. One way or another, Yeon-woo was the student most talked about by the teachers, alongside Akito.
The teacher who had conducted the exam spoke with a lingering sense of unease while watching Yeon-woo being scolded by Chika.
"But it was a bit unsettling."
"In what way?"
"While everyone else was excited about the prizes, he just watched quietly, like a predator before a hunt. It was like... observation? He was checking the other students' abilities... and the way he glanced at me made me feel like I was being observed too."
At the teacher's words, the corners of Derek's mouth curled up.
"That's just the kind of person Seo Yeon-woo is. He sits still, grasps the situation, and then moves. Even though he's smart, he should show some clumsiness due to lack of experience, but he's calm and seasoned."
"For someone so seasoned, he lost the supplies he worked so hard for on the aircraft carrier."
"That's his biggest flaw. He trusted his comrades too much. The thought that his fellow Yggdrasil students would steal from him didn't even enter his mind. I hope this teaches him that there are no eternal allies."
"Is that what you wrote in your report, Derek? That his flaw is his 'goodness'? That sounds a bit strange."
The other teachers laughed softly in agreement.
Before they knew it, Yeon-woo was being evaluated by the teachers as a seasoned, deep-thinking, and virtuous talent who cared for his comrades.
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