He simply waited for them to decide. All five of them spoke as Cassien stood behind them to study their behavior.

"First priority should be communication and survival stability."

"Agreed."

"We buy one large tent instead of multiple smaller ones. Keep everyone centralized during nighttime. Medical kits and water kits are mandatory."

"Hell no, the women and men need to be separated. No telling what will happen if the tents are combined."

"Oh yeah, sorry about that," Alex apologized nicely.

"Shouldn’t we save some points instead of spending everything immediately?"

The classroom paused for a second.

’Good point.’

"That’s actually smart, there might be hidden purchases available during the exam," Olivia intervened.

Cassien lightly tapped Ren’s shoulder, "See? You’re learning." He then took a step back, continuing to study them.

"We need proper organization before tomorrow morning. We’ll all be transported from the gymnasium onto the luxurious cruises they’re offering. Everyone, be here ten minutes earlier than usual."

Olivia began writing categories across the classroom board.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Class Priorities]

→ Resource Management

→ Leader Protection

→ Information Gathering

→ Alliance Possibilities

→ Night Watch Rotations

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"The cruise itself is probably part of the exam as well," Audrey added. "No way in hell would the academy give us one full day for nothing."

Cassien nodded his head as if he wasn’t simply watching.

Then, he rejoined the discussion. "I’ve had the same suspicion as her. Don’t allow some of the men and women in here to be seduced by others from different classes." Cassien looked at the extras. "Yeah, just looking at them feels like we’re already at a loss..."

"Hey!" One of the boys in the back immediately protested. "What’s that supposed to mean?"

Cassien pointed directly at him. "You specifically look like the type to reveal military information because a pretty girl smiled at you once."

The classroom burst into laughter.

"T-that’s not true!"

"Your reaction alone proved his point," Audrey sighed.

Another girl crossed her arms confidently. "I think you’re all overreacting. Nobody’s dumb enough to leak information that easily."

Cassien looked at her. "That mentality is exactly why manipulation works so well. Think about it for a second. The island exam isn’t testing strength. It’s more so about greed, ego, trust, paranoia, attraction, fear, and desperation. Put a bunch of teenagers on an island for six or so days while rewarding betrayal and hidden information, and eventually someone cracks."

Even Olivia listened quietly now. She agreed with all that he was saying.

"Which means, our greatest enemy won’t necessarily be Class 1A."

"Then who?" Ren asked nervously.

Cassien’s eyes slowly scanned across the classroom. "Ourselves."

Everyone remained silent, including Siv, who awkwardly lowered his hand from talking about swimsuits.

Because deep down, everyone understood he was right. No matter how much you tried to run away from it, that was a clear and undeniable fact.

Olivia placed the Game-System down carefully. "Then we establish one rule before the exam begins." Everyone looked at her. "No unnecessary secrets within the class."

Cassien almost laughed hearing that. ’That’s impossible.’

But instead of saying it aloud, he simply smiled.

"A beautiful ideal." He leaned against the desk afterward. "Let’s see how long it survives once people start panicking."

Olivia clapped her hands together once. "Alright, enough with the depressing atmosphere. Let’s finish preparations before everyone starts assuming their classmates are traitors."

"Too late for that," Audrey muttered under her breath.

"I heard that."

"Good."

Cassien quietly smiled while watching the exchange.

The class actually had far more chemistry than the original storyline described. Back then, Class 1C barely communicated with one another. They were selfish, separated, and filled with students who only cared about individual survival.

But now? Because of the caverns incident, Jameson’s defeat, and the constant pressure Cassien indirectly created, they were already functioning more like an actual group.

Which ironically made finding the traitor even harder.

"Okay," Olivia pointed toward the board again. "First issue. Supplies."

...

After a little while, they finally collectively decided on what to get after a bit of back and forth from Alex and Audrey... and a tiny bit from Siv with his swimsuit dream.

Their purchases:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Class 1C Purchases]

→ Standard Tent ×2 — 30 Points

→ Water Purification Kit ×1 — 10 Points

→ Emergency Medical Kit ×1 — 20 Points

→ Flashlights ×2 — 10 Points

→ Food Rations [3 Days] ×1 — 15 Points

→ Sleeping Bags ×1 — 8 Points

[Remaining Points: 7]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Cassien thought of something quite weird.

Maybe the reason the academy didn’t give them a good amount of points wasn’t because of balance. It was because they didn’t want students purchasing everything comfortably. The answer wasn’t balance; it was stealing.

They wanted the tension to rise.

’Now thinking about it, if we kept more points, we could’ve had an edge against other classes. Because in the end, the people with the most points win. But the final result won’t rely on that either way. Just thinking about it really boils my blood.’

"Great, if we overuse the flashlight batteries, we’ll purchase a new one with the remainder of our points. Fishing for food will be one of our top priorities."

Cassien stepped forward. "I think you’re forgetting something."

"What?"

"We’ll steal other classes’ supplies. Remember, if they starve, it wouldn’t be our fault; it would be their own. They can die from starvation, and we still wouldn’t be blamed. So what do you say, Class Rep? Do you agree with the idea?"

She tried to seem serious. Olivia didn’t want to. But just as much as she hated it, there was always something strangely attractive about his confidence.

"Why not?"

Cassien smiled. "I’m glad to be your assistant, Ms. Cart."

The rest of the group simply nodded. They couldn’t go back on the idea now. Some still stood there, shaken by his ruthless words. But then they thought it through in their heads...

"He does have a point..."

"Not that I support murder, but this wouldn’t exactly be our murder."

Cassien began examining everything in their cart that the class representative was about to submit toward the student council.

While Cassien took a real and serious look, his eyes dimmed with only one true ideal.

’Let the first examination commence. But first...’

"So... no swimsuits?" Siv asked, afraid of getting rejected this time around. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Olivia sighed. "Fine, bring your own if you want. But don’t think we’ll have time to have fun there."

"Yes."

Cassien waved a hand goodbye, walking out of the classroom as he lied about going back to his dorm.

No, that wasn’t it at all.

’Time to orchestrate some things of my own...’