How to Survive as an Extra Chapter 97 : Chapter 97

Chapter 97

Two hours had passed since the tactical evaluation began.

We were hiding in the bushes, watching another team that was passing nearby.

The distance was roughly a hundred ters.

For cadets who used guns, it was an effortless range.

By chance, the opposing team consisted of one non-combat support cadet and two combat cadets who used magic.

Since this was a fight where all you had to do was break the clothing equipnt, if we ambushed them with our gunners, we would have a high probability of seizing the advantage.

Sure enough, Gwon Chihun exhaled and muttered, “Should I just snipe them?”

Do Minyeong and I could not reject his suggestion too quickly.

It really was a situation worth trying.

And as hard as it was to believe, Gwon Chihun’s marksmanship was good enough to at least follow at Cha Yeri’s heels.

However, there was one problem: we had been given far too little information about this evaluation.

For all we knew, the mont we eliminated soone, we might receive a penalty.

“Ji Seokhyeon, do you think they have a clue?” Do Minyeong asked while keeping her eyes on them.

She was subtly urging to use my Demonic Eye.

In other words, she wanted to check for a clue box with it.

With no choice, I activated my Demonic Eye and answered, “No.”

“Really? Hmm.”

As an aside, Do Minyeong tried as much as possible not to rely on my Demonic Eye when searching for clues.

Even if she allowed to use it briefly, like now, she still considered the Demonic Eye itself to be unfair in the process of finding the treasure.

Even though Kim Shinwoo had decided not to restrict my Demonic Eye, I could not say I failed to understand her intentions.

If I found the treasure using the Demonic Eye, she knew Kim Shinwoo would not recognize her efforts, so she clung stubbornly to that principle.

After a short mont of thought, Do Minyeong made her decision.

“Let us not ambush them. We might expose our position to other teams, and there is no need to attack an opponent that does not have a clue.”

“Tsk. Fine.”

Co to think of it, I was the team leader, yet Do Minyeong had sohow begun deciding everything.

Was it simply the difference in will—her determination to take first place?

Well, if she was going to burn with that kind of resolve, I did not care who the leader was.

I had intended to make Do Minyeong take first place in this evaluation anyway.

“Wait. I think I hear sothing over there,” Gwon Chihun said, pointing in another direction.

Just as he said, soone soon ca into view, pushing through the bushes.

“Is that… Park Jeongchan?”

“Yeah, it looks like him.”

The cadet forcing his way through the undergrowth was Park Jeongchan from the Investigation Division.

He was fleeing with everything he had, and there were two striking oddities.

First, he was running alone—without any teammates—and without a weapon…

“How many people are chasing him?” Do Minyeong muttered.

The second oddity was that more than seven cadets were pursuing Park Jeongchan.

Each team in this evaluation had been assigned three mbers.

For that many people to be moving together, they could only have ford an alliance on their own.

“Damn it. Those bastards definitely ford an alliance,” Gwon Chihun ground out.

“An alliance?”

“They announced the team rosters last week, did they not? They used that to make alliances in advance. I had heard there were people trying to secretly band together, but I did not think they would actually do it.”

Gwon Chihun clenched his teeth, clearly furious.

I found it absurd and quietly curled my lip into a long grin.

Because in the original work, Gwon Chihun had joined an alliance like that as well.

“But are they even allowed to form teams like that?” Do Minyeong asked, and at the sa ti she subtly caught my sleeve.

It seed she was asking whether I had received any prior notice as the leader… though there was no reason she needed to touch my clothes to do so.

“They did not say we could not. I do not know whether it matches the evaluation criteria, but it is not explicitly prohibited.”

“Then they can share clues, too.”

“Probably. Though I do not know how much they trust each other.”

“If they are attacking like that, does it an there is no penalty for attacking cadets?”

“Even if there is a penalty, it must be sothing they are willing to accept. We will not know until we eliminate soone ourselves.”

“….”

When I kept giving chanical answers, Do Minyeong read the mood, released my sleeve, and silently tracked Park Jeongchan with her eyes.

Park Jeongchan did not get far before the cadets surrounded him.

As soon as his clothing equipnt took damage, a red LED lit up on it.

“He is eliminated… Let us get out of here, too. If allied teams are nearby, they are probably all around this area.”

It was not a bad judgnt from Do Minyeong.

Even so, leaving this place would not change much.

Given the ti, there was a high chance those people already had this whole region in their grip.

That alliance had been described in the original work as well—cadets gathered around Choi Minsang, the right-hand man of Gong Minwu.

Their strategy was regional lockdown.

In other words, they ant to occupy the area with sheer numbers and strip away every clue they could find.

If necessary, by eliminating cadets as they went.

Worse still, most of the allied cadets were combat types, so the mont you ran into them, you were cornered on all sides.

But there was a saying that a crisis was an opportunity.

In the end, only one team could find the treasure, and in a survival ga like this, alliances like that tended to collapse easily.

Because there was always at least one person who grew greedier than necessary.

“Wait.”

I called out to Do Minyeong and Gwon Chihun as they started to move.

“I just had a good idea. Want to hear it?”

***

It was a fairly wide clearing.

Choi Minsang’s group had unpacked their gear in an exposed spot and were resting.

It looked as if they had forgotten they were in the middle of a tactical evaluation, but in truth, it was confidence—confidence that they controlled the surrounding area.

“The sun is going to set soon, so let us take turns standing watch by team.”

“Do we even need to stand watch? There is not even a rat around. The other teams have probably already spread out and settled down anyway.”

“Probably. But it is the first day. Nobody knows what kind of device the instructors might have prepared for the night.”

“Well, that is not wrong.”

In barely half a day, Choi Minsang’s group had cleaned out the cadets in the vicinity.

Not only that, they had found three clues, and by looting the resources other teams had left behind, they had built a comfortable camp.

It was hard to tell whether they were evaluating tactics or simply camping.

‘Still, it is strangely reassuring that Gong Minwu is nowhere to be seen.’

Choi Minsang was satisfied with the fact that he had beco the undisputed leader of the group.

If Gong Minwu had been here, they would not have been securing a campsite at all—they would have been tearing through the island nonstop throughout the evaluation.

‘I should avoid running into Gong Minwu’s team for as long as possible. That way, even if I lose, I can still remain in the upper ranks. Of course, the best scenario is getting the treasure before that.’

Choi Minsang began to ponder the clues they had obtained.

The letters his group possessed were AES.

As so cadets had been babbling, it could an SEA, referring to the ocean, or it could connect into EAST, indicating the east.

Of course, letters should not duplicate, but even so, moving toward the sea in the east would not be a bad choice.

Because it was the farthest point from the west, where the runway and starting point were located.

Even if it was not his own group, teams that had gathered a decent number of clues would likely head east.

‘Yes. We should move east before dawn.’

If they lay in wait and ambushed others before those teams arrived, they could easily seize their clues.

While Choi Minsang was lost in such swelling dreams, a cadet who had gone out on watch returned with a prisoner.

“Everyone, co here! Look who I brought!”

The captive was none other than Do Minyeong.

She had no weapon, and her hair was disheveled, as if she had been attacked by other teams.

At a glance, she looked like soone who had barely escaped elimination.

Choi Minsang approached Do Minyeong and asked the cadet who had captured her, “Why did you not eliminate her the mont you saw her?”

“I was going to, but…”

The cadet trailed off with an uneasy expression.

From that face alone, Choi Minsang understood.

The cadet had not dared to attack Do Minyeong, a direct descendant of the Sword Saint.

Of course, since this was an evaluation, there would be no public backlash at all.

Still, the cadet who had been on watch seed to have judged that since she was not ard, there was no need to eliminate her.

To Choi Minsang, it was ridiculous, but then it occurred to him who Do Minyeong had been tead with.

‘Ji Seokhyeon… that absurd bastard with the Demonic Eye….’

Ji Seokhyeon, like Gong Minwu, was a pri candidate for first place in this evaluation.

With the Demonic Eye, he could monopolize every clue.

Yet ironically, Do Minyeong—his teammate—had fallen into Choi Minsang’s hands.

Choi Minsang did not know what had happened, but instinctively, he caught the scent of opportunity.

He drew the weapon at his waist to keep Do Minyeong in check and spoke again.

“Where are your teammates? Just so you know, I am not soft like that idiot. I am the type to do what needs doing, no matter your social standing.”

It was a threatening tone.

But Do Minyeong answered boldly.

“If you are going to eliminate anyway, then hurry up and attack.”

“What? You…!”

What was the source of her confidence?

Did she expect Ji Seokhyeon to rescue her?

Or had she already given up completely?

Either way, Do Minyeong refused to reveal her teammates’ whereabouts and kept diverting the conversation.

In other words, there was a high chance her teammates were still alive.

‘They must have scattered and run. That is far easier.’

After wrestling with the decision, Choi Minsang made up his mind.

He would use Ji Seokhyeon’s Demonic Eye to his advantage.

“First, tie her to that tree. The sun is going down, and there is no point making a commotion.”

Tying down an awakened being was aningless in principle, but even if Do Minyeong, who was powerless, managed to undo the bindings, there was no way she could break through the surrounding cadets and escape.

“Oh, and from now on, our team will stand watch, so let us switch like this.”

“Huh? Already?”

“Yes. Switch back again at dinner.”

“Fine. All right.”

Just as he intended, Choi Minsang led his own team away from the camp.

Once they were far enough from it, he laid out his plan to his teammates.

His “teammates” were simply the cadets who always followed Gong Minwu alongside him, so there was little opposition, and his opinion was accepted.

Naly, that they would betray the other teams at the camp and eliminate them.

Because if they could use Ji Seokhyeon’s Demonic Eye, the alliance would beco nothing but dead weight—useless beyond this point.

Even if, in the worst case, they failed to persuade Ji Seokhyeon, it was still a choice worth attempting.

They had planned to dissolve the alliance within two days anyway, and the mont persuasion failed, they could attack and eliminate Ji Seokhyeon, a first-place candidate.

No matter what, even if he was only a probationary investigator in the Special Affairs Division, there was no way he would fail to land a single bullet into clothing equipnt at close range.

After finishing their discussion, Choi Minsang’s team turned back toward the camp.

Twelve people remained at the camp.

The thod of eliminating cadets was to strike their clothing equipnt.

“Then… let us do it.”

The mont the sun slipped beyond the horizon, Choi Minsang’s team launched a surprise attack on the camp.

“W-what is this?!”

“Damn it! Betrayal?!”

“Everyone, run—!”

With an overwhelming difference in skill, Choi Minsang began shattering the cadets’ clothing equipnt.

The cadets who had relaxed because they thought they had posted a watch had naturally lowered their guard, and they could do nothing but be overwheld.

In the first place, Choi Minsang had beco the leader of the alliance because he was the strongest.

“You bastard! What are you doing, Choi Minsang?!”

“You are pulling this? Are you insane?!”

“I told you! I told you not to trust that bastard!”

Choi Minsang’s betrayal drew a storm of curses.

No matter how important the evaluation was, nobody would let betrayal among friends pass quietly.

Naturally, Choi Minsang ignored their voices. In the midst of the chaos, he walked toward Do Minyeong, who had remained still.

But then…

From sowhere, two suppressed shots rang out, and they pierced straight through the clothing equipnt worn by Choi Minsang’s teammates.

…!

It was a snipe.

‘There was supposed to be nobody nearby!’

In an instant, Choi Minsang was left alone. He hurriedly looked around to find cover.

But at that mont, a cadet began strolling out from the forest as if it were a leisurely walk.

Choi Minsang stared at the figure with a face as pale as if he had seen a ghost.

“…Y-you!”

That familiar, lanky build.

That ugly, shambling gait with one hand shoved into his pocket.

And the nakedly exposed discoloration of his pupils.

“As you can see, your strategy has failed. From now on, we will be taking the clues.”

It was Ji Seokhyeon.