Chapter 309: The Standing Muscle

“You guys really are best buds, aren’t you! Yeah, yeah, it’s a beautiful thing!”

“Shut up, you standing muscle.”

“S-standing muscle...?”

“You were utterly useless during the last exam. It’s a fitting name, don’t you think?”

He’d gotten himself knocked out without even managing to protect Cecil. Getting a nickname like that was the least he deserved.

“Wh-what?! Weiss, you bastard! I can move my muscles however I want! You want me to show you my twitching pectorals?! Is that it?!”

“How about you go back to Noblesse Academy and start over? Maybe this time you’ll actually acquire some reading comprehension.”

“Why you—!”

“Would you two just give it a rest?! Look, it looks like the teachers are moving out!”

Good grief. He just had to butt in and ruin a precious unreleased scene.

“Even a rough Weiss-kun when he’s fighting… is so cool… huff, huff.”

I caught a glimpse of Luna lurking in the shadows at the edge of my vision.

Has her perversion level increased again? Is there no ceiling for this girl?

“Now then, everyone, allow me to review the rules for this exam.”

As per usual, Chloe stood before the student body.

The objective this time was incredibly simple, yet they had still managed to put an elaborate spin on things.

“We have erected four shrines somewhere in this wasteland. Each one has a name written on it. Those shrines represent the ‘second lives’ of us faculty members.”

Basically, it boiled down to this:

We students were being given two options.

The first was to eliminate the faculty directly. Simple and clear—we just had to beat them.

The second was to destroy the shrines. For example, if we destroyed the shrine with ‘Milk Abitus’ written on it, she would be forced to withdraw from the battlefield.

This wasn’t just a simple test. It was a practical exercise modeled after a real-world scenario where we’d have to protect or target high-profile individuals.

I remembered a similar vibe during the incident with Sophia, but I’d needed a lot of help back then. I definitely couldn't have won that on my own. This time, however, I’m going to overwhelm them with my power alone.

“Should we split into teams? One to take down the shrines and another to stall the teachers?” one student suggested.

“True, that might be the way to go,” another agreed.

“The location of the shrines is the key. I wonder if they’re all clustered together?”

That was the extent of the information provided.

It was a new development that hadn't appeared in the Original Story, but these guys just didn't get it.

Who did they think they were up against? Coco was guaranteed to have a defensive perimeter set up. I knew all too well that this wasn't going to be nearly as easy as they thought.

But I didn't have time for idiots. The ones who actually knew what they were doing already understood the situation. Of course, one person had realized the truth before anyone else.

“Cecil, is it mostly as you expected?”

“Yes. Even if we can stay in contact with the lowerclassmen, I don't think we'll be able to coordinate with them effectively.”

“Don’t sweat it,” I told her. “It’s better to just let Belk and Meryl run wild. Trying to force coordination with them will only make the situation worse. This isn’t like a Calamity—nobody’s actually going to die. Sometimes, you need to make sacrifices. You get that, right, Cecil?”

“Of course,” she replied. “I know it’s not right to treat this the same as Battle Universe, but I understand that there are some things that can’t be helped if we want to win.”