Arriving in a completely unfamiliar place, the first thing anyone should do is get a feel for their surroundings.
For instance, learning every possible route to the power room and surveillance office... you know, the essentials.
That's exactly what Wu Yi had in mind.
At least, that's what he thought when he first caught sight of the artificial island from the bus, watching it rise from the sea like a fortress. This place was nothing like any school he'd known.
First off, nearly every part of the island's coastline was tightly wrapped in diagonal security fencing, like the kind you'd see around a military base or high-security prison. These fences, only about twice as tall as an average person, were reinforced at the top with 45-degree outward angles to prevent climbing. Often used in military installations, these fences aren't just about keeping people out — they're just as good at keeping people in.
Typically, these setups come in pairs, separated by a deep, trench-like path, about one and a half times the height of a person, and running the entire perimeter of the facility, with only a handful of exits. If you fall in, you might as well lie down and wait to be caught unless you're superhuman enough to clear both barriers in one leap.
And if this were a true military base or prison, the tops of those fences would be wrapped with razor wire — not the kind you find in video games like Rainbow Six, where you can break it with a few swings, but the kind that tears flesh on contact. The really nasty ones even have the wires electrified.
Fortunately, the school hadn't gone that far. They'd only put up the basic diagonal fences, with no razor wire, and in some places, only a single layer. It was secure, but not completely locked down. After all, this was still a high school, and most of the students here had willingly signed up, not prisoners being held against their will.
"Still… the number of surveillance cameras here is a bit much, don't you think?"
Wu Yi muttered to himself as he strolled through a deserted path far from the main building. His eyes swept the surroundings, his pen scratching over the map he'd been handed at the school gate, circling each camera he passed.
The pen itself wasn't even a proper pen — just a half-spent black ink cartridge he'd fished out of a trash bin on the way in. But for marking camera locations, it did the job well enough... barely.
In the short distance he'd walked since entering the school grounds — maybe 200 meters — he'd already marked a dozen cameras. That worked out to about one every twenty meters.
Jesus. Does this place have no concept of privacy?
And this was just a side path leading in from the main gate. If the rest of the campus was similarly covered, he'd need a much larger map to keep track of it all.
Whatever. For now, he'd just focus on logging as many camera positions as he could. He'd have time to get a better map later.
As Wu Yi continued his impromptu reconnaissance, the faint echoes of voices drifted from the gymnasium nearby. From the sound of it, the freshman representative had just finished their speech, and the faculty was now directing students back to their homerooms.
He'd better move if he didn't want to be swarmed by a hundred fresh faces.
Pulling his shades a little tighter, Wu Yi ducked down a quieter side path toward the classroom buildings. According to the text message he'd received earlier, his homeroom was Class 1-D.
After weaving through a few hallways and passing several more cameras, he finally reached his assigned classroom. A few students had already arrived, most of them scattered around, picking out their seats.
Fortunately, the spot Wu Yi had his eye on was still free — the coveted last row by the window.
Not because of some cheesy "protagonist seat" nonsense, but because it gave him a clear view of the entire room, including the hallway outside if the door was open. The perfect spot for someone who liked to keep an eye on his surroundings.
As more students trickled in, he took a moment to size them up. Most were unfamiliar, though a few faces sparked a hint of recognition — like the blond pretty boy from the bus and the short-haired, bubbly girl he'd almost gotten into a spat with.
Huh. Didn't expect those two to end up in the same class.
The blond was already preening in his seat, fussing over his reflection in a pocket mirror, while the girl had wasted no time making friends with a nearby group of girls. Clearly, neither of them had taken the earlier bus spat to heart.
Shame. Would've been fun to watch them tear into each other.
As he mentally cataloged his classmates, a familiar voice chimed in from beside him.
"Oh? What a coincidence."
Wu Yi glanced up through his dark lenses, pausing for a moment before offering a relaxed, faintly amused smile.
"Yeah. Real coincidence."
It was the girl with shoulder-length, purple-tipped hair from the bus, the one who had been watching the earlier drama unfold with just as much interest as he had.
"I'm Yukinoshita Haruno. Nice to meet you."
"Wu Yi. 'Wu' as in 'without,' and 'Yi' as in 'clothing' — like the old saying."
"Ah, 'Without clothing'... interesting."
She gave a small, mischievous smile, the corners of her lips curling up in a way that suggested she'd just discovered a secret.
"Got it. Nice to meet you, Wu Yi-kun."
She settled into the seat beside him, and within moments, they were chatting easily, their conversation blending into the low hum of the classroom as more students filed in.
From there, their first day at this strange, isolated academy truly began...