The gofer project

Part of the fake backstory created for Shuichi and the other fifteen students was The Gofer Project, which supposedly happened before the killing game started. It was initiated by the government after countless meteorites crashed into Earth. To try and preserve the last vestiges of mankind before the Earth’s destruction, the government decided to select a number of excellent human beings, put them in a spaceship, and have them escape.

Shuichi and fifteen other high school students were chosen to participate. However, not wanting to abandon their loved ones, they attempted to escape from the plan.

Around that time, an extremist cult came into power. They believed that the meteor crashes was a punishment humanity brought upon itself, and having heard of The Gofer Project, they tried to stop it. As a result, the “Ultimate Hunt” started and spread throughout the world, and the sixteen students were hunted down

The government then decided to counter the situation by faking the students’ deaths, calming down the “Ultimate Hunt” while providing protection to the students. The Gofer Project was then put into action while the Earth was being destroyed. Shuichi and the others went to space in a massive spaceship colony, the true form of Ultimate Academy of Gifted Juveniles.

Kokichi Oma who declared himself as a member of Junko Enoshima's Remnants of Despair said that he is the mastermind behind the Killing School Semester who let Monokuma enter the spaceship, effectively forcing Shuichi and the others to participate in the Killing Game.

Shuichi was able to receive the complete memory about The Gofer Project in Chapter 5 via the Flashback Light.