The Pain of an Inferior: A Blistering Love Comedy That Begins After a Broken Heart - Chapter 30

After they were assigned to their respective groups in the classroom, the students followed the homeroom teacher to a big bus in the outdoor parking lot.

“Please take care of me, Obi,Ria.”

“Let’s have a pleasant week, Yunika-san.”

“Let’s work hard together, Yunika.”

They greeted Yunika, who runs up to them, and the three of them walk side by side.

“We’re going to be in recreation from today until Friday, I wonder what we’re going to do?”

“We’re going to do something that the King thought up, something we probably don’t understand.”

Yunika spits out in dismay, remembering her days during elementary school.

While chatting with each other, they reach their destination and get on the bus.

The windows of the bus are fogged up, so that they cannot see what is going on outside. This makes me them little uneasy.

Since Haruka’s group was assigned to the second floor of the bus, they went to the second floor by the stairs right after the entrance.

Seats were assigned for each group, and the positions of the students were indicated individually through the Talisman. Haruka and Ria sat side by side in their assigned seats. Unfortunately, Haruka and Ria were blocked by the aisle, although their seats were in a row.

The other members of the group are two boys, Kaburaki Ryouhei and Ootsuki Takeru.

The four female students are Shiono Yunika, a familiar face, and the other three students whose personalities are not well known: Fujimiya Narumi, Kousaka Rina, and Satou Renako.

There are four boys and four girls, for a total of eight members. There were five groups of forty students in the class.

Haruka and Ria have never been involved with anyone other than Yunika, and they do not know the personalities of the group members. In addition to being completely out of the school caste, both of them are not at all interested in people they do not care about.

The girls other than Yunika should be the prettiest in some classes, or at least the second or third prettiest if they are unlucky, but this class is an anomaly, being the seventh prettiest at best, due to the reign of the top caste who are too strong in terms of appearance.

Kaburaki Ryouhei was as tall as Haruka, but he was thin and poor-looking. He did not seem to be interested in fashionable clothes, but this week he seemed to have his hair done with hair styling products, probably because he thought he’s gonna spend time with the girls of the group. Perhaps because of his inexperience, his hair style was not so neat. The original image of being a bit unkempt has not been dispelled, and he looks as if he tried hard to be taller than he actually is. However, his face is above average, so there will be girls who will choose him even if he is a bit unrefined.

Ootsuki Takeru is a man of medium height and medium build. He has single narrow eyes and a slightly crooked mouth. He had a pimple on his forehead and a stain on his cheek. He had such a dirty skin that Haruka involuntarily groaned in his heart saying, “You should take better care of your skin.”

Compared to Kaburaki, he looks a bit vulgar.

With a fresh smile, Haruka greeted Kaburaki sitting next to him.

“Kaburaki-kun, I’m looking forward to working with you all week.”

“Aaa…”

Kaburaki does not seem to have a good impression of Haruka and does not respond favorably to his greeting. He probably has a similar attitude toward Ria. He is a complete status supremacist.

Kaburaki and Ootsuki seemed to have a solid record in a major VRMMO [Horizon Record]. They seem to be good enough to be in the top 20 percent of the top players in a game that is played by hundreds of millions of people.

Perhaps because of that, he seemed to be a bit proud.

It was easy to imagine his attitude toward Haruka, whose status was not worth dating, and Ria, whose existence was out of the question, a citizen of rank E. So Haruka didn’t engage with him any further.

Even though they are in the same group, there is no need for them to get along.

All Haruka wants is to spend the forest school together with Ria in peace. That’s all that Haruka wants.

[Then, we will depart for the destination.]

A woman’s voice came over the cabin speakers, and with a heavy engine sound, the bus starts to move.

The bus carrying Haruka and the others goes through the highway to the designated area, driven automatically by the AI.

An hour has passed since the bus started moving. The bus is as lively as ever, when suddenly a woman makes an announcement.

[Attention, we are now going to explain about the recreational activities in the forest school. Everyone, please be quiet, be good, and listen carefully.]

The students listen to the teacher’s words in silence. The contents of the forest school vary from school to school and from grade to grade. They were all interested and waiting for the next words.

[When you arrive at the forest school, I will give you one special tablet and drop you off in groups at regular intervals.

Your objective is to arrive at the final location over a period of five days.

On the way, you will have an opportunity to collect points.

On the last day, the group that reaches the final base will be ranked by the points they have.

The ranking of the group will affect the class selection for the second year, as well as the internal examination points, and the group with the lowest ranking will have its internal examination points significantly reduced. So, please do your best.

Please do not leave the first base you dropped off until the signal for the start of the recreation. If you move, you will be disqualified.

If you give up in the middle of the game, you are allowed to retire only if all group members agree to do so. However, retiring is considered as the lowest rank, so please do your best as much as possible.

Other detailed rules are written on the tablets, so please check them individually.]

After the explanation, the students demanded further explanations and asked questions verbally. However, there was no response.

The students seemed a little anxious, but the atmosphere was soon transformed into a positive one by the energetic people.

Eventually, the bus has arrived at its destination and comes to a stop with a bump.

A notification is displayed to all the members of the group.

[You are now in group A. Please receive your tablet terminals and get off the bus immediately.]

Haruka and the others got up and started to get off the bus.

Around the exit, a tablet terminal appeared on the wall from inside the bus with an electronic sound. Yunika, who was in the front of the bus, receives it and gets off the bus.

All the students get off the bus, being seen off by many of their classmates.

After Satou Renako, who was in the last row, gets her feet on the ground, the door of the bus closes and the bus drives away to the next location. The women, with the exception of Yunika, look a little anxious.

Feeling the fresh air outside, Haruka felt a little better. He looked around.

Nearby are five chairs, a simple roof, a bus schedule, a vending machine, and a restroom. A huge mountain with tall trees loomed over the area.

A paved road branched off and headed deep into the thickly overgrown mountains.

“The Talisman stopped working, this is a restricted area, isn’t it?”

At Ria’s words, everyone silently tries to activate their Talisman. However, none of them could activate them.

“What are we going to do now, Yunika?”

Kaburaki calls Yunika by her first name and points at the tablet terminal. Yunika frowned at being called by her name so casually and operated the tablet.

Haruka and Ria look at the tablet screen from both sides.

“There are quite a few paths, but it seems that we can basically reach the prepared base by following the paved road… It’s just-“

“Just-?”

Yunika faltered, and Haruka urged her to continue.

“It’s about twenty-two kilometers from the first base. And there are no images after that.”

“Ha? You’re kidding right?”

“I can’t believe it.”

“That’s not good enough.”

The group members express their negative emotions at the news.

“Yunika, what time is it?”

“Nine o’clock in the morning.”

Assuming an average walking speed is three kilometers per hour, it would take about ten hours to get there, considering the time needed for meals and other things.

“Cooking and toilet facilities are arranged beforehand, and the water from the river is drinkable. Does this mean that we should go forward while surviving?”

“I don’t think so.”

The other girls except for Yunika looked clearly dissatisfied with the situation.

“Anyway, let’s wait for the signal to start”

The announcement said to stay at the first base until the signal to start the recreation. First of all, they have to wait for the notification to be sent to their tablet terminals.

For a while, Haruka and the rest of Group A waited for the start of the recreation. Kaburaki and Ootsuki were whispering at a little distance from the group, and the other girls except Yunika were sitting in a row on chairs complaining at a moderate volume.

“…. I wonder if this vending machine works. I’m thirsty.”

Kousaka Rina stands up and reaches for the battered vending machine. It is a rather old-fashioned vending machine that requires coins. Haruka has only seen this machine in old fiction.

Despite its rusty appearance, the drinking water lined up inside are new. Rina casually presses the purchase button, and an electronic beep sounds at Yunika’s terminal.

[Are you sure you want to purchase? Spend 100 points].

“What’s this?”

A quick search of the screen reveals that Yunika now has 1,000 points.

By spending 100 points, Yunika guessed that she could get the drinking water that Rinne had pushed.

Haruka and Ria, who were nearby, show interest.

“Does it mean we can buy food with the points?

“If so, we can’t spend them here.”

“I understand that you are cautious, but we are going to travel long distances, and if we can drink water from the river, can we just buy four PET bottles.?”

Haruka gently shows the importance of Yunika’s words. It was expected that they would have a disagreement, but Yunika readily agreed with Haruka’s opinion.

“…. That’s true. Shall we buy four bottles of tea or water?”

“Uh, I’d like juice.”

“On the contrary, you’ll get thirsty so don’t.”

“Shiono-san is a cheapskate.”

Ignoring Renako’s opinion, Yunika spent 400 points to buy four bottles of water from the vending machine. She immediately distributes them to the two pairs she has chosen.

As each pair passes the water around, Yunika’s tablet terminal finally sounds the signal to start the recreation.

“Let’s go!”

Yunika leads the group into the mountains. The group members followed her.

Haruka and Ria walk in the back of the group.

“I thought ‘recreation’ meant rest and recreation to relieve fatigue?”

“Well, it also means distraction, so isn’t it right?”

Ria smiles and points out.

“Competition as a distraction…. People in this world have to be competitive, don’t they?”

“It’s a national trait, isn’t it?”

Despite his complaints, Haruka loved walking in nature. It could be said that it is the only hobby for Haruka , who is basically a person with no interest in anything.

Casually, he took Ria’s hand next to his.

“Eh? Haruka… W-wait…!”

“I’ll let go if I’m about to get found out.”

Haruka smiles mischievously and silences Ria’s whispered protests. They walked with the group, leaning in close and lightly intertwining their fingers so that they can pull their hands away at any time.

Ria is not a pushover, and although she protests verbally, she does not resist at all.

“So, what do you think? This recreation?”

“I don’t know… Rather than testing the students’ survival skills, I think they’re more interested in seeing their unity and humanity.”

“It’s too warm for survival, isn’t it?”

The river water is drinkable, and there are facilities for cooking, toilets, etc. scattered around the camp. It’s hard to imagine that they would want to see their students’ survival skills in such a favorable environment.

Although they have not yet found a way to acquire food, they are not likely to be asked to hunt and dismantle wild animals on their own at this level of difficulty.

“Well, it’s just a distraction, so let’s take it easy.”

“The others are getting desperate, though.”

“Getting good grades is important, so it can’t be helped.”

The two of them continued to walk at the end of the group, holding hands amicably as they talked about nothing but trivial matters.

?

After walking for about five kilometers, Haruka’s group decided to go to the places indicated on the map where there were icons of treasure chests.

As soon as they arrived at the location with the treasure chest icons, they received a notification on their tablets.

“The key to open the treasure chest is buried somewhere around here.”

Yunika reads out the contents of the notification.

The wooden treasure chest about one meter wide and fifty centimeters long that Yunika is currently using as a chair is solidly built, and it did not get knocked down by a kick.

The key to this sturdy and solid treasure chest is said to be buried in this area.

Beside the chest, there were five shovels lying on their sides.

“The rough location is from here to here.”

Yunika jumps down from the top of the treasure chest, picks up one of the shovels, and draws an area with the tip of the shovel.

There are five circles, each about one square meter in size. She says there is a key in one of them. She doesn’t seem to know how deep the key was.

“Okay, Ise. Take care of the rest. It’s a small place. I’m sure you’ll find it easily.”

“What?”

Narumi abruptly shifts the role to Ria and leaves with the other girls.

Ria is stunned, not understanding what she said.

Kaburaki and Ootsuki followed her, not caring about Ria’s state.

“We’re taking a rest at the kitchen too, so call us when you’re done.”

“You guys!”

Haruka is indignant, but Ria quickly controls him.

“It’s okay. I’ll take care of it.”

Ria responds with her best smile. Smiling with satisfaction, Narumi and the others leave.

“Well, thank goodness we have a Rank E.”

“Do your best to contribute, Ise. This is your chance to atone for your sins.”

They said whatever they wanted, Kaburaki and Ootsuki also went to the nearby kitchen.

Haruka glared angrily at their backs as they walked away. Yunika, who had been watching the event, was surprised to see how far away from his usual image Haruka looked.

“You’ll help me, won’t you, Haruka?”

“Of course.”

Ria stares at Haruka with a puzzled looked, to which Haruka replies in a strong tone.

Haruka picks up a shovel and immediately starts digging from the center of the circle.

“Obi, I don’t think you need me to tell you this but-“

“Don’t worry, I know.”

Haruka interrupted Yunika

Everyone in their society already knew.

That’s how rank E citizens are treated.