In the novel, the Mock War continued for 6 days—6 days of continuous bloodshed and relentless killing.
While I kind of liked the depiction of so much blood, gore, and violence intriguing, as a participant, I see no reason for it to continue for that long.
I mean, not to be rude or anything, but I really think there are thousands of other things that require my focus right now.
So, to end the mock war early, I devised a foolproof plan.
There were two reasons that resulted in the factor of Mock War dragging out for 6 virtual days.
Firstly, there was a traitor in the protagonist's class– Grace Goodwill. She released crucial information to Class 1-C-8, which made her own class struggle to fight.
Secondly, Alberto was stronger than expected.
During their meeting at the academy cafeteria, all Nero had to do was release his Silver-ranked mana pressure to bring Alberto down to his knees.
There were two reasons why Nero was able to do that. First, Alberto was caught off guard by Nero. And second, he didn't try to resist since he knew this was something their class could use against Class 1-A-1.
But contrary to the cafeteria incident, in reality, defeating Alberto wasn't that easy. Not only did his Gift buff all his physical stats by 60% and gave him an armor-like exoskeleton, but he was also a formidable fighter.
Yes, he was definitely very, VERY strong.
Plus, in the novel, Alberto never took on Nero alone, unlike their last fight, which happened because I intervened with the plot.
In the novel, Alberto and one of his sidekicks, Jason, along with eight of the strongest members of Class 1-C-8, ganged up on Nero.
That, added to the fact that Class 1-A-1 had no food supply, brought them all to near defeat.
As a result of this, Nero had no choice but to use his Gift against Alberto as well, summoning out one of the Heavenly Swords and laying waste to everyone.
That event, as I've explained before, resulted in another chaotic event that would be too bothersome for me to deal with.
In short, I had two tasks at hand when the Mock War started.
First, don't let Grace meddle with our class, and second, find a way to make a 1v1 battle between Nero and Alberto possible.
And during the battle earlier today, I temporarily completed both of those tasks.
However, the emphasis here is on 'temporarily' since I couldn't remove Grace completely from the equation and Nero couldn't kill Alberto during their showdown.
So what do I have to do now, you ask?
I'll completely eliminate Grace Goodwill and create another opportunity for Nero to fight Alberto alone.
With me giving them orders, this class just can't lose.
As Kent and I navigated through the wreckage and debris filling the abandoned building here and there, we finally arrived in the hall room where the big round table was set.
Several people were seated around the round table, and it seemed like they were waiting for us– well, for me. Kent was only here because I asked him to tag along.
"Lucas, you're here."
The first one to greet me was Nero, as everyone else sat there silently with troubling expressions.
I gazed around and saw all of the Lieutenants alive and present here– Anastasia, Grace, William, Ella, and Quinn.
Some of them had some minor cuts and wounds, but nothing that would keep them away from the next battle.
Aside from them, there was Amelia, Kent, me, and a tall, well-built guy with sharp facial features and light brown hair tied into a man bun.
Wait, he was Chase! Chase Woods! Why was he here?
I pointed at him and casually asked, "Why is he here?"
And for some reason, that little action of mine sent Chase into a fit of fury.
"What the fuck do you mean, you little shithead?" he roared. "Do you have a problem with me, you motherfucker!"
Right. I almost forgot how vulgar and short-tempered he was. Ah, what should I do now? Let's just ignore him.
So that's what I did. I stared at him without a speck of emotion present on my face.
"What?! Do you have a problem, fuckface–"
Kling—!
Before he could continue to spit out vulgarity from his mouth, Anastasia, who sat right beside him, chimed in to stop him.
"Okay, Chase, calm down! And you too, Lucas, calm down!"
Almost simultaneously, Nero spoke up too, "Yes, Lucas, we don't need to start a fight between us right now. Surely you must understand that. And you, Chase, tame your tongue!"
What the hell are they talking about? Why were they asking me to cool down when I didn't even say a word?
A frown of confusion appeared on my face when I heard them both. I looked around and everyone was anxious or thrilled for some reason.
"Lucas," right then, Kent called out to me. When I turned my gaze to him, he pointed at my right hand with his eyes. "Put your hidden blade back. Let's calm down, yeah?"
"Huh?"
I instinctively looked down and saw that I had pulled out my hidden without even realizing it.
"Ah," frowning, I retracted the hidden black back in my sleeves. "My bad, I don't know how it popped out."
"I-It's fine," with a relieved expression, Anastasia waved her hands. "By the way, I was the one who brought Chase here because I wanted to discuss making him the leader of Squad 6, whose previous leader was killed just now."
Right. Squad 6 consists of some of the strongest close combatants we have to offer. Their role is to act as the vanguard for the rest of our troops.
But their leader was killed during the battle, so now we have to appoint a new one.
During the battle, Anastasia and Chase fought side by side since I intentionally positioned them both together. Despite their spitting opposite personalities, they both make a good combo.
Maybe as a result of that, they both bonded and quickly developed a friendship, which was supposed to happen later in the story.
"Is that so?" I raised an eyebrow. "But unfortunately, we can't do that, Anastasia."
"Oh yeah?! And who the fuck are you–"
Again, before Chase could speak up, Anastasia put her hand in front of him.
"Why is that?" Anastasia inquired calmly. "I've fought with him on the battlefield, so I know he's more than qualified enough to fill the position."
"That's because I have a candidate of my own who I want to suggest making the leader of Squad 6," I said before pointing my thumb at the blue-haired elven boy beside me. "It's him."
"That twat?! You are suggesting he should be the squad leader instead of me?!" the first one to disagree was, of course, Chase.
"W-Wait, me?!"
While Kent was just surprised that I took his name without any prior warning.
"That's stupid," the third person who retorted to my decision was William.
His duty is to watch the left flank. Whoever leads the vanguard shouldn't even bother him, so why was he showing his disagreement?
Well, if our center formation breaks, then the left and right flanks will be attacked next. He just probably doesn't want to trust his back to someone weaker than him.
"Chase is clearly stronger than Kent," William stated before a pause. "We should have him lead the vanguard."
Yeah, I was right.
"Do you have any specific reason, Lucas?" Nero questioned, to which I simply nodded my head.
"Yeah," I replied. "I only trust Kent."
