Kai pondered for a moment, forgetting about how he became the center of attention. Well, he himself didn’t care about the attention anyway. He never sought it, but he also never avoided it. He just did his own thing, and if he received exposure because of it, it wasn’t a big deal at all for him.

“My answer is still the same.”

“Why do you choose that answer? Care to tell me about it?”

“If I need to choose between those two teams, then I’ll choose the latter. As for the reason… I’ll explain it from my point of view, positioning myself as a member of those teams.

“I’ll start with the team that emphasizes teamwork. It’s good to emphasize teamwork, but without a good foundation, teamwork will never work.

“Teacher said that they’re average, not good and not bad. Then, at some point, they’ll miss something that can threaten the whole team’s survival. It can be the scout that misses a magical beast, a vanguard that fails to block an attack, a support that doesn’t come with the right timing, or not enough damage dealt to the magical beast.

“Different from that team, the second team has high abilities. Even if they don’t emphasize teamwork, they know what they’re doing. A scout that can spot everything, a vanguard that can protect their teammates, a support that comes with perfect timing, and a high-power attacker.

“Even though they don’t emphasize teamwork, as long as they do their own thing perfectly, I feel that the second team has better teamwork than the first one,” Kai explained.

The whole class was astonished. They never thought that far. They only focused on the question but didn’t see the true meaning. Even Sanae was impressed by his train of thoughts.

“So is teamwork a bad thing to you?” Sanae tried to show a hard front.

Kai shook his head. “No, I never said teamwork is a bad thing. Teamwork is good. I only want to say that you can’t ignore the fundamental skills. It might also be the reason why Teacher asked this question when we’re talking about the practical class.”

‘You brat.’ She realized that Kai figured out her intention, so she cursed inside her heart. Of course, her face didn’t show any change of expressions. She just nodded her head and explained.

“That’s right. This is the reason why the school wants you to make a group of two in the practical class. Ignoring the fundamental skills just won’t cut it. In this kind of environment, you’ll practice various fundamental skills from being a scout to being an attacker.

“If you manage to train your fundamental skills and your teamwork, I’m sure you’ll be a good team. 

“Take a scout role as an example. If you learned how to be a scout, even if you’re not the scout in the team, when the scout says ‘This area is clear,’ You might be able to ask, ‘Did this happen or is there any sign of a magical beast’s trace?’ If the scout can answer then, that’s good. Having more detailed information will increase your chance of survival.

“That’s why, in this practical class, you’re going to pair up with someone, so you can learn multiple fundamental skills. If you have any questions, you can ask me later. I’ll give you five minutes to choose your partner.”

Sanae walked outside after she explained.

The students took a while to realize what was going on. Most of the students immediately rose from their seats, especially the female students.

They went either to Katsuragi Takaki or Kai Carter. They chose Katsuragi Takaki because he was handsome and was a famous A-rank magician. As for Kai, they chose him because he was the younger brother of Tasha Carter. At the same time, his explanation earlier was splendid. Teaming up with him should be a good choice. He would at least know what to do.

But the atmosphere suddenly turned to the worst when Katsuragi Takaki stood up and walked toward Kai.

“Will you pair up with me?” Takaki asked Kai.

“No.” Kai’s answer was obvious. But that rejection wasn’t because he didn’t want to. He just needed to fulfill his promise to Ayaka. After all, he had promised that he would pair up with her for this class a few days ago.

“Such a shame. It looks like I need to ask another person.” Of course, he hated to pair up with Kai. But he needed to fulfill the basic formality as he was currently known as Tasha’s fan. His objective was Ayaka.

After Kai rejected him without any explanation, he misunderstood the situation. He walked toward Ayaka and asked her, “Ayaka, please pair up with me?”

“No. I’ve paired up with him,” Ayaka said uninterestedly while pointing at Kai.

“Why are you pairing up with him? I’m your fiance.” He blurted it out out of anger. He was already uncomfortable when he couldn’t sit beside her. To an obsessive person like him, it was unbearable. Thankfully, Kai and Ayaka didn’t interact that much. If not, he might not be able to hold himself back. But after hearing this, he couldn’t hold back his anger.

Ayaka showed a disgusted expression. After that day, when Takaki presented himself as a transfer student, she asked her father for confirmation. And it turned out, he was really the ‘fiance’ her father talked about.

Fortunately, her father seemed to have broken the engagement. She was relieved after she heard that.

She later found out that she had met this Takaki guy back then. But she didn’t have any impression on him.

Back then, she greeted him without hidden intention because she didn’t care about that. With her family condition, she didn’t need to.

Her wish ever since she was a child had always been to help her parents. So thinking about sucking up to Takaki never came to her mind. She was relieved that this Takaki guy seemed to be normal.

But a few days later, she finally realized that this Takaki often took a sneak peek at her. The same as him, Ayaka was also often sought after by countless young heirs or heiresses.

She felt that Takaki often took a sneak peek at her face, breast, and thighs with lustful eyes. Of course, Takaki tried to hide it. A normal girl wouldn’t notice it, but Ayaka could as she often dealt with these kinds of people.

She shuddered. She was wondering what her father saw in this guy. At least, Kai was better. When she heard the word ‘fiance’ out of his mouth, she immediately felt disgusted.

“We are not engaged. I never agreed to it, and my father has also canceled that agreement.”

All of them were astounded when they heard their conversation.

‘Fiance?’

‘Agreement?’

‘Canceled?’

‘Breaking an engagement?’

So many doubts suddenly came to their minds, but they didn’t speak those doubts aloud.

Takaki also realized that he blurted that word out of anger.

“And I already asked him to pair up with me,” Ayaka said while pointing at Kai. She didn’t forget to add, “A few days ago.”

“You!” After knowing this, Takaki couldn’t hold himself back. He said while pointing his finger at Kai, “I will challenge you with the score. Do you dare?”

Kai was perplexed. He didn’t know why the situation became like this. A minute ago, Takaki was just his sister’s fan. But now, he was challenging him.

Before he could answer, Ayaka had responded on his behalf… as a teammate, she said, “Fine. Our team will score more points than your team.”

“Hmph!” Katsuragi Takaki snorted and left.

“…” Kai only sighed and shrugged his shoulder.

A few minutes later, Shiratsuka Sanae came back to the class.

“I don’t know what kind of ruckus all of you made to talk about the scores. You might already know what kind of class we’ll have, but I’ll still explain it to you.

“First, in the gym, there are a few training tubes. Each pair will enter a tube together. You’ll be teleported to a world that has been programmed by our engineers. Don’t ask me how the machines work, I don’t know.

“Anyway, it’s only your consciousness that’ll go into that world. We have detailed data from various monsters, so we can replicate them inside that world.

“Your team will strive to survive and kill as many monsters as possible. Don’t worry, if you’re killed in that world, you won’t die in this world.”

“Do you have any questions?”

“Teacher, how many monsters at maximum can we encounter inside the practice tube?” One of the students asked. She was Wada Miyako. She had pink hair, as well as a body that didn’t lose to Ayaka.

She became Takaki’s partner in this practical class as she was one of the B-rank magicians in this class. It seemed that she asked the question on behalf of Takaki, who was eager to beat the Ayaka-Kai pair.

Sadly, the teacher said something they never expected. “Ask something I know.”

“…” Every student was speechless. They cursed in their mind, ‘You should at least say that you’ll look it up if you don’t know!’

What can they say? This teacher was… unique.

“Anyway, since you don’t have a question, follow me to the gym. Oh, I almost forgot. You can’t surrender or anything of the sort to get out of the tube. Just like the real world, you will need to fight until your last breath. In other words, if you want to get out of the tube, you’ll need to die.

“Of course, it is not like we want to send you to die. Experiencing dying a few times might develop your mentality. People tend to lose their rationality in a matter between life and death. We’re training you to get used to it so you won’t lose your rationality if you experience it in the outside world.” The teacher said and left the room, telling the students to follow her. She led them to the gym.

…

In the gym.

One of the practice tubes was opened. There was a screen above the tube.

S – 0

A – 11

B – 31

C – 100

D – 211

E – 232

F – 1301

A pair of a man and a woman came out. The man had green hair and a handsome face. He wore a tight black battle suit, exposing his muscles. The other person was a purple-haired woman. She also wore the same black battle suit, exposing her seducing body.

“As expected of the famous couple team, Adrian and Kirika. We’re honored for you two to test our new simulation world. How is our new simulation world?” The one who greeted them was a muscular middle-aged man. He had spiky brown hair and seemed to be your typical musclebrain guy.

That’s right. He was the principal of this school. The guy said, “It’s really hard, but it’s more realistic. If you can tone down the level a bit, it might be useful for the students.”