Deserted Island Special Test 2

"Do you have any problem with it?" Ryuen asked looking at Ibuki but Ren felt like this question was also aimed at him.

"Tch! Do whatever you want" Ibuki clicked her tongue hatefully before walking away from the group.

"Why Class D?" Ren asked even though he already knew the answer.

"Because Class B will be too easy and Kaneda will take care of them. As for Class A, I have different plans for them" Ryuen said before he explained he wanted to sign a contract with Class A to work against other classes.

'He is already comfortable enough to share bits of his plans with me, huh?' Obviously, Ryuen didn't say everything but a vague explanation was more than enough for now.

"But you don't seriously plan to let Class A off the hook just because of some contract, do you?"

"Heh, it seems like you know me plenty by now. How would you go at discovering their leader?" Ryuen once again asked Ren as if he was testing him.

"I did my homework, I know there are two factions in Class A, two leaders. I also looked up who they are and coincidentally, I didn't catch the sight of the other leader back on the beach, meaning the one missing from Class A is their other leader. You could just contact someone who follows the missing leader and strike a deal with them. Make them reveal the person with the card and put all blame on the present leader, making him lose credibility."

Hearing Ren's words, Ryuen's eyes slightly widened before he frowned at Ren, wearing quite a wary expression.

"Why exactly are you in Class C?" Ryuen grew a bit suspicious since Ren's grades weren't bad at all plus he could be social if he wanted to, it could be Ren's physical abilities, however even in that subject he showed average results. Judging by everything Ren managed to do, it would make better sense to put him in Class B.

"If I have to guess it would be some past trouble from middle school." Ren replied with a quickly made-up excuse. He already gained access to the previous owner's memories but he didn't bother to look since it was kind of useless to him till now, however, Ryuen's question indeed garnered a little curiosity about his past.

"Alright, aside from Kaneda and Chiba, the rest can go back" Ryuen said and started walking toward the edge of the forest with Kaneda and Ren right behind him.

When they were completely out of sight inside the forest, Ryuen didn't waste any time and punched Kaneda who had no time to react to his quick fist.

"Take this." Ryuen threw a bag on Kaneda who was sitting on his butt groaning in pain.

"Contact me once you find something"

Kaneda quickly grabbed the bag and disappeared deeper into the forest with a begrudging look on his face.

"Are you planning to use a walkie-talkie for communication?" Ren asked when he looked into the bag he already received from Ryuen.

"Yeah, any problem with that?"

Ren was slightly surprised by Ryuen's tone because his "question" sounded like a genuine question.

'Will he finally let me influence his decisions a little?'

"Not really, however, if anyone catches sight of even one of them, they might assume that someone stays on the island once everyone returns on the cruise. I would rather not use them at all, there is no reason to do that, I don't know about Kaneda but I won't have any trouble finding you"

"Hoo, really? You don't have to worry about it" Ryuen dismissed Ren's worry.

'He is going to be found out'

"Now, it's nothing personal" Ryuen said as he took a few steps closer before throwing a punch at Ren.

Ren's eyes widened and dodged the punch by lowering his head, quickly jumping away from Ryuen to gain some distance.

"Hey, wait for a second! I don't want to be punched due to past trauma" Ren put his hand up

"You should have thought about it before you agreed to this, it needs to look genuine!" Ryuen frowned when his punch was dodged but he didn't think too much about it.

As he started slowly approaching Ren again-

"Wait! You don't have to punch me and we can still make it look genuine, in fact, we can make it look even crueler and more believable!"

Ren's next words caused Ryuen to stop with a curious expression.

"Speak, what do you mean?"

"I have the trauma of being punched however, you can use this to hit my face" Ren grabbed a thick enough stick and threw it at Ryuen who easily caught it before inspecting it, finding out the surface was too uneven and would most likely even cut his skin.

"Are you serious?" Ryuen frowned, maybe even he didn't seem too keen on injuring Ren too much and whether it was because of school or his nature not being that cruel was unknown.

"Do it"

"Fine, don't blame me later!" Ryuen swung the stick at Ren's left cheek. At the moment of impact, the stick broke in half and Ren's head jerked to the right, hiding his current expression.

"...Oi, you fine there?" Maybe Ryuen applied more strength than he intended but he looked a bit surprised, though it could be due to Ren withstanding the hit while standing still.

Ren raised his head and turned toward him, revealing a bruise and a small cut on his cheek, blood rolling down from his cheek to his chin.

"Good hit" Ren replied with a smile that slightly disturbed Ryuen.

"You are crazy" Despite saying so, Ryuen was smiling, perhaps seeing something within Ren.

'It's been a while since I got injured...now that I have a complete mortal body without any enhancements, the pain feels more intense...more genuine.' Ren reminisced about the past when he several times found himself captured and tortured for the information.

'So distant past I barely can remember now. Yes, it was also around that time I started getting stronger with each death' Instead of growing insane from experiencing intense pain and death numerous times, Ren rose stronger than before. Back then he was still kind of naive and childish, trying to follow a similar mindset as that of Pantheon from one of his favorite games, this in return made his willpower extremely strong but with increasing strength, he also gradually lost his way and passion to fight for what he felt was right.

'Heh, maybe once I travel to another world, I might try to act like a true hero'

"Hey, get going and patch yourself before leaving, our teacher should carry a first-aid kit." Ryuen's voice brought him back from his distancing thoughts.

"That's fine, it will look more believable if they see me this way. Don't worry about any infections" Ren grabbed the bag and walked deeper into the forest, leaving Ryuen staring in the direction he left.

He was currently elevating his opinion of Ren after what he witnessed.

'Trauma of getting punched...what a bullshit' Ryuen turned around with a smile on his face.

.

.

'Well, now to wait for Class D to set up their main base and sit somewhere near to wait for someone to find me. I shouldn't worry about what I eat here since I have passive poison resistance skills after enduring those tortures, at least it was worth something.'

Ren decided to first locate the main group of Class D students since by now they should have formed groups to explore the surroundings.