70 Keep going.

By the time we finished setting up the net, the small cycle we had to work on saving ourselves finished. It was time for the first batch of students to be thrown down.

While we were aware from the start the strongest would be thrown down first, it did not give us much information on what criteria determined the strongest and what criteria determined the weakest.

As such, the probability of one being among the first batch to be thrown was too high to be ignored, which is part of the reason why everyone cooperated with each other so well up until the end.

The last few students working on the net left it right when it happened.

Without warning, several students, I included, were suddenly up in the air.

We didn't expect the thrown batch to not be announced, as the director always announced by name so far, so we couldn't get grapplings to the first batch.

Thankfully, we were right above the net.

[11 / Jack]

There are three main reasons why the net is placed where it is. The first reason being it is highly likely that we will be thrown on the side of the library, as we were advised to go there. The second being that there is no other floating island higher than it, and we need to at least try to get to the library. And finally, the third being I am sure to be among the physically weakest of all students. It might not seem like much, but given that we were stripped of all other strengths, it should be the only metric of strength measurement. This means that even if we aren't thrown down on the side of the library, I'd still have time to make sure to get the net moved to the side we are thrown on.

[213 / Nadia]

The landing was rough, as we expected, but none of us lack in brains, we all knew how to cushion it. The best possible landing on a net with reasonably large holes is to maximize the landing surface. The front of the body is the most delicate side, and as such, one must fall on their back, with their head raised in order to protect it. The arms and leg must be stretched at an angle as far as possible to make sure one doesn't fall into a hole bigger than others.

We made grappling for those who would be thrown on that side of the building but off the net, but it seems like it won't be necessary. Of course, all will want to keep one as a measure of security.

Once I got down to the library from the net, we just had to wait for the next batches to be thrown down.

[11 / Jack]

Everyone will want to keep a grappling. While they do not have a habit of fighting using their body, they sure will fight to get one for themselves.

But the ones who will get a grappling will be the strongest. So it isn't a problem as far as I'm concerned. As I am in the last batch, I am guaranteed to have one anyway.

[Sofia]

The first batch landed, it's right about time for me to make a move.

As far as our alliance goes, they are still enemies, there is no need for me to share any benefit with them.

We couldn't save them to get influence, so now is right about time for us to make a move. There aren't that many things that the students need and they could get from books. And each one of them should be a form of power.

This works for me. Rather than learning from books which is something they aren't used to and can't be sure of which one is the strongest, the students will prefer to learn from someone strong whose power is already proven.

I just need to teach them my version of the seed, and I'll get many more followers I can manipulate at will.

With the limited strength of our body, using forces to fly up is impossible, but there are other ways to get there. Impossible is a word for the weak of mind.

I run in the school building, signaling my followers to go after me.

[Anna]

I can only think of one way to get up there. And it seems like Sofia had a similar idea. I'll follow her for now. I can't do much to compete against her in the current situation anyway.

[DarkSasuke]

I see the other running into the building.

They lack imagination.

The surface of the walls surrounding the school is pretty flexible. Using forces of equivalent strength, one pushing towards the outside and the other slightly below, pulling towards the inside, it is possible to stretch a part of the wall into a surface to step on.

From then, all I have to do is to walk up the wall.

Once I get high enough, I just need to float down towards the library.

[...]

Before as well as while going up, I had time to think through my strategy. With my little scheme back in the tower, it's unlikely for students to trust Sofia. As I portrayed myself as threatened by Sofia, there are good chances however of people trusting me if I create some kind of resistance group. They won't trust me however as long as Sofia could have a hand in it. This is when all the observing I've been doing over the past cycles is going to be of use.

Once I landed, I went straight to talk to someone familiar:

-72, can I trust you with this?

According to my observations, this student is one of the top candidates for a Resistance.

What I gave him is a small piece of paper. I got it back when I inspected all the islands at my arrival at the school. I didn't know what use it would have and whether it would be useful at all so took a sample. [1] And I was right to do so. On the paper are actually several packs of points. Each one matching the number of students among my list of possible resistance members. [2]

It seems like I didn't get much time, as right after I did so, Sofia was about to reach the top of the building.

To correspond to my precious narrative, I act startled and get further away in a suspicious manner, ignoring 72's questions.

Neither Sofia nor Anna are looking at the scene right now, but the scene should fit my narrative of an unwilling servant in 72's and other students' eyes. It'll also dissociate my actions just now from Sofia while still keeping that idea of me being forced to follow Sofia's instructions.

[11 / Jack]

In the end, I couldn't disregard the situation getting chaotic. Since we have a whole small cycle, I explained my reasoning about the quantification of strength and used the influence I gained lately to organize a series of fights. In absence of any better means to quantify strength, it's going to be used to class everyone by strength.

There are currently fice matches going on.

It's then that the door of the rooftop suddenly opens.

Even the fighters stop fighting to look over.

[Sofia]

-I'm not here to interfere. Keep going.

I jump from the rooftop, floating towards the library, followed by Kawaii 1, Kawaii 2, and Anna.

[1] If it isn't foreshadowing, I don't know what you need! Something he did right when he was introduced is used now! Feels so good to make characters shine one after another in a different way!

[2] Did you notice how I used the fact they don't think with a brain? They can count numbers of points in the hundreds easily. The human brain hardly counts more than 4 by 4, yet they can read numbers fine. I'm pretty proud of that detail. It can be noticed by how DarkSasuke chose to use raw points. If it were humans with no writing system, they could still do a legend by doing a table (each row would be a value and each column an equivalent), you could then match 1 point with 1 point, 10 points with a shape, 10 shapes with another shape (10*10=100), etc... But DarkSasuke didn't think it was necessary despite his prudent nature because it's natural for him to be able to manage big data quantities instantly. This is also why they are able to use something like the seed. The seed needs you to manage a dozen complex parameters for each force, with them using their seed hundreds of times a second. No human could do that with the needed precision when we struggle to manage a few muscles to coordinate our hands we had for years for a new use. We'd need to spend months learning each use of the seed in a particular, rigid way.