“So, Sousuke?”

“Yeah, I’m awake.”

Answering Shouko’s voice, I raised my upper body.

Yesterday had been Shouko’s turn, so after we cleaned up, we had gone to sleep together.

And now we had both woken up at exactly the same instant.

Just as the mystery blackboard had said, this had to be the forced awakening at five in the morning.

Feeling my way to the window, I opened it. Outside, it was faintly bright.

“We’ve only got ten minutes. Let’s get ready fast. We need to form a party with everyone and get our gear in order.”

“O-okay...! B-but before that...”

Shouko stood up and came over in front of me, then pressed her lips to mine with a quick kiss.

“Morning, Sousuke. Last night was pretty wild.”

“Y-yeah, morning, Shouko. Thanks for last night.”

The memory of what I had done with Shouko last night almost made my crotch react on reflex.

This was obviously not the time for that, so I somehow forced it down.

“Yeah. O-oh, I’m fine staying in my school uniform, but what about you, Sousuke?”

“Yeah, I’m changing into mine too.” 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

I placed my uniform on top of the desk.

“Then I’ll wait out in the hallway first.”

“Got it.”

I hurriedly changed into my uniform, then stepped out into the hall.

Shouko was waiting there, but the others were not out yet.

If I listened closely, I could hear movement, so they were probably changing into their uniforms too.

Shouko quietly reached over and took my hand, and even though it made my heart jump, I squeezed back.

“Only ten minutes is way too brutal. I want to wash my face, and fix my hair, and I slept in this so my uniform’s all wrinkled too.”

“If it’s just your uniform, I can still use Storage & Replacement on it right now.”

“Thanks. But... nah. It kind of smells like you, so I’ll keep it like this.”

She said that while lifting the area near her collar and sniffing at it.

It was not that she was trying to be sly... she was probably saying that naturally.

While my heart was getting pierced by how cute Shouko was, the doors along the hallway started opening one after another, and everyone came out.

Shouko quickly let go of my hand. Apparently she got embarrassed about being seen by everyone.

“It looks like if you focus on it the way you do when opening the ability explanations, you can bring up the party function.”

Apparently Chiyu had already tested it.

I tried °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° thinking party function too—and there it was.

Kuno SousukeCurrent party — none“Create Party”“Join Party”“So first one of us creates a party, and then everyone else joins that party, correct?”

Minori’s suggested flow sounded fine.

“If that’s how it works, then the leader of our group is obvious—it has to be Sousuke, right?”

At Shion’s words, everyone but me nodded at the same time.

It made me feel proud, and also embarrassed.

Still, if it was unanimous, I had no reason to refuse.

I focused on “Create Party” and made one right away.

Current party — “Sousuke Party”The name was way too straightforward, but apparently it could be changed later, so for now it was just temporary.

There was no point wasting time agonizing over it.

“Ah, ‘Sousuke Party’ showed up under ‘Join Party.’ If we join this, does that mean we all get sent together?”

After Shouko found it, everyone else did too, and my own “party function” display showed, “Requests to join your party have been received.”

I approved all four of them.

“Good. Everyone grab the gear you need and meet outside the entrance. There’s a chance this place could be discovered during the event, so I’m storing everything away first.”

Everyone was traveling light, so we were able to gather outside the entrance almost immediately.

I stored the house, the bath area, Mashiro’s Fenrir hut, the stone wall surrounding the grounds, and everything else.

What remained was only the gate fence, the one with its posts buried into the ground.

That was “connected to the ground,” so I would not be able to store it unless I dug it up first. Leaving it there was fine.

“Sousuke! Do you think Mashiro can teleport with us!?”

Shouko’s voice came out in a panic.

“Ah, I forgot to ask that too. Unless they’re being especially nasty, I’d think your summoned beast should be able to teleport with us...”

“Mashiro, if only we suddenly disappear, will you come find us by scent?”

Mashiro nodded as if to say, Of course I will!

I looked over my companions again.

All of them had their bodies concealed by linen robes, and the hoods could hide their faces too.

Unless someone already knew their abilities, that ought to keep their identities hidden.

At point-blank range it would probably be risky, but my companions were planning to ride Mashiro, so it should not be a problem.

I had also had them conceal blades just in case, though I could only hope they would not need to use them.

“As far as I remember, the things we need to be most wary of are ‘airplane,’ ‘fire,’ and ‘guns,’ then after that, anything involving blades in general.”

The things the other students had said in the first dream had already been shared with everyone in the group.

“With fire, you mean it’d be really bad if the stage was a forest and it turned into a wildfire, right?”

Shion looked thoughtful.

Someone with a lighter or matches could turn it into a major disaster if they used it to set nature itself ablaze.

I did not think anyone would be stupid enough to do that, but it was worth being cautious anyway.

If we stayed on guard, then even if the worst really did happen, we could respond without panicking.

“As for ‘guns,’ that goes without saying, and ‘airplane’ would be dangerous if the person had storage and placement the way you do, Sousuke.”

“Yeah. If they didn’t care about dragging other people into it, they could place an airplane directly above the sphere of light and try to claim it.”

I thought that would not really be a viable option once you factored in the penalty, since there was no telling how many classmates it might drag into the blast.

“If someone can launch a suicidal charge, then the kid with ‘immortality’ is dangerous too.”

At Chiyu’s words, I nodded.

“Mm. She’s not the kind of person who’d hurt people, though...”

Shouko, who said she was friends with that girl, looked conflicted, but there was no harm in being cautious.

And the truly terrifying part about the girl with “immortality” was how well it paired with the penalty system.

If killing someone meant losing enough points to equal five years of coma time, then what if that also applied when the “immortal” girl died?

If someone who could throw away endless extra lives did absolutely anything, and you wound up killing her while trying to stop her from dragging others into it, then the one who killed her would probably be penalized.

There was also a death penalty applied to the person who died, but that one only equaled a hundred days.

That felt like enough to act as a deterrent, but still—it meant that kind of tactic was possible.

“...The ten minutes should be almost up by now—”

Without any warning at all,

the scenery changed.

We were still in the forest, but not in the shaded area beneath the cliff that we had been using as our base.

I checked quickly, and everyone—Mashiro included—had been teleported together.

So the “party” was functioning properly.

“Teleportation... experiencing it firsthand is terrifying.”

Minori was quietly stunned by what had just happened.

“Mashiro? There you are! Thank goodness, you came with us!”

Shouko threw herself at Mashiro.

“...So it’s starting.”

Shion looked tense.

No—everyone probably felt the same.

Then the sky lit up.

“So-kun, look.”

A sphere of light floated in the sky Chiyu was pointing at, then slowly began to descend.

They had said it would appear where all participants could see it at first, and that was exactly what it had done.

Now everyone would be racing for it.

“Everyone, get on Mashiro. Chiyu, give me the buff.”

Everyone moved quickly.

Chiyu’s enhancement magic made my body glow faintly.

“Let’s go.”

The battle for the sphere of light had begun.