Time flew by, and before anyone knew it, the last Friday of June had arrived.
The Tian Shu Sha competition was set to officially begin that morning.
Throughout the week, Classes A, B, and D had held several practice matches.
After all, Tian Shu Sha only required five players, and its rules weren't complicated, making practice matches easy to arrange.
Apparently, after hearing about the unusual rules of this year's first-year exam, quite a few second- and third-year students had even turned Tian Shu Sha into a private pastime.
For example, whoever lost as Lord might have to bring someone breakfast for a week.
It was Friday, and the participants for all four matches would be announced ahead of time.
In Class 1-D, as everyone waited anxiously, Teacher Chabashira wrote the team assignments on the blackboard—
Class D Lord Group:
Seat 1 (Class D): Horikita Suzune (Lord)
Seat 2 (Class A): Katsuragi Kouhei
Seat 3 (Class D): Ayanokoji Kiyotaka
Seat 4 (Class C): Ryuen Kakeru
Seat 5 (Class B): Ichinose Honami
Class C Lord Group:
Seat 1 (Class C): Shiina Hiyori (Lord)
Seat 2 (Class B): Kanzaki Ryuji
Seat 3 (Class A): Tozuka Yahiko
Seat 4 (Class D): Yukimura Teruhiko
Seat 5 (Class D): Wang Meiyu
Class B Lord Group:
Seat 1 (Class B): Hamaguchi Tetsuya (Lord)
Seat 2 (Class D): Karuizawa Kei
Seat 3 (Class D): Kushida Kikyo
Seat 4 (Class C): Tennoji Kaede
Seat 5 (Class A): Sakayanagi Arisu
Class A Lord Group:
Seat 1 (Class A): Kamuro Sumire (Lord)
Seat 2 (Class C): Kaneda Satoru
Seat 3 (Class D): Miyamoto Soshi
Seat 4 (Class B): Kobashi Yume
Seat 5 (Class D): Hirata Yousuke
After the teams were announced, Class D quickly launched into a brief discussion.
Horikita Suzune spoke first. "I looked into that game Miyamoto mentioned earlier, the one similar to this exam."
Miyamoto Soshi looked proud. He'd made a major contribution this time, and he was determined to win the Room A match, too!
Horikita continued, "But unlike a standard five-player game, we in Class D have a huge advantage this time. If we can identify everyone's roles, we can even form alliances across different sides."
"For example, in the situation we practiced earlier, let's say I'm in Room A. If Ayanokoji is a Rebel, he could pretend to kill me once, then immediately declare himself a Loyalist and kill another exposed Rebel. That would quickly give the Lord's side a major advantage and earn our class the Second Tier reward."
If the Spy won alone, he would earn the First Tier reward, worth 30 points of weight.
If the Lord won, the Lord's side would receive the Second Tier reward, worth 25 points of weight.
But Class D had more participants, so it could also earn the losers' reward of 5 points of weight. That was equivalent to the First Tier reward.
If the Rebels won, they would receive the Third Tier reward. They could only earn 20 points of weight by taking the Lord's head, making it the least favorable outcome.
Hirata said, "I think everyone understands now. Even if all eight of us lose, we can still earn 40 Class Points and 400,000 Private Points. We've already agreed that even if we end up with only those 400,000 points, we'll split them among everyone. And that's the worst-case scenario for Class D!"
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka marveled inwardly. This exam really did favor Class D.
Not only was the ceiling higher than the other classes', but even the floor was twice as good.
And why was he paired with Horikita again!?
This time, Ayanokoji had genuinely planned to slack off and do nothing. Now he'd have to put some thought into things...
Once each class's scheduled Class Meeting ended, the Tian Shu Sha competition was about to begin.
The twenty first-year participants entered their assigned special competition rooms according to their teams and seat numbers.
Each room had five judge-teachers. The first-year homeroom teachers had been mixed up and assigned across the four rooms.
For example, Chabashira was in Room B, while Hoshinomia was in Room D.
The rooms were also equipped with multiple cameras and other devices, like those used for an international chess tournament.
The other students in each first-year class were all back in their classrooms.
Everyone could use a special livestreaming app temporarily installed on their Student Terminals to choose which match they wanted to watch.
And if they didn't mind straining their eyes, they could watch all four split-screen feeds at once.
The Tian Shu Sha competition officially began!
Inside Room B.
Hamaguchi Tetsuya (Lord), Karuizawa Kei, Kushida Kikyo, Tennoji Kaede, and Sakayanagi Arisu stood clockwise around the high-tech round table, in order from seats one to five.
One of the judges said, "Before the match begins, I'll send everyone except the Lord their roles through the identity app on your Student Terminals. Once you've confirmed your roles, we'll collect everyone's terminals."
"When the match starts, please follow the speaking order. Do not argue."
"If you experience a physical issue, such as needing to use the restroom, raise your hand and report it to your personal judge beside the table. The match will be paused, and the clock will stop. However, deliberately pausing the match for a malicious reason and wasting time is strongly discouraged. Anyone who does so will bear the consequences."
"If there are no questions, please check your roles. The identity app will then automatically be deleted. After that, place your terminals face down on the table. They'll be returned once the match ends."
Tennoji Kaede and the other three nodded and took their seats. After everyone had checked their roles, the teachers behind them collected their terminals.
By coincidence, the teacher standing behind Tennoji Kaede was Chabashira Sae.
The match in Class B's Lord Room began.
The displays in front of the other four players showed four health points, while the one in front of Hamaguchi Tetsuya showed five.
The Loyalist actually had three health points, while the Spy had five. Both could feign death for one round, but the Loyalist was a landmine. The Lord couldn't casually finish off someone with low health whose role was unknown. They might be a Loyalist, after all.
However, the match in Room B was the quickest of the four to end!
The distance displays in front of the five players began calculating in real time. In the official matches, the distance cards were calculated quickly by machine.
Round one in Room B began:
[Distance cards: +2, +1, +1, -1, -1]
[Distance range: 0–2]
[The Loyalist has 3 actual health points (the fourth point of damage only keeps them alive for two rounds); the Spy has 5 actual health points (after dying, they revive in turn order on the next round with 1 additional health point)]
Hamaguchi Tetsuya said, "Hi, everyone. I'm the Lord from Class B, Hamaguchi Tetsuya. Let's just treat this as a regular game and have some fun. But let me say this first: don't kill me! Haha."
Kaede said, "Your distance is already 2 in the first round. Looks like you drew a +1 distance card, Lord. You're pretty lucky."
"Oh, and I'm a Loyalist! But we're seated across from each other, and our distance is 2, so even after you get -1, you still can't kill me~"
Hamaguchi said, "Haha, Kaede, you're funny. I can still kill Kushida, who's across from me at distance 0."
Kushida said, "No, no, Hamaguchi! I'm the Loyalist!"
Sakayanagi said, "Hehe, I'm the Spy. I got a boring role, so I can just play around this match."
The other four were shocked. Was Sakayanagi really just blurting out that she was the Spy?
As the first-year classes watched the livestream, their classmates in each of the four matches had revealed their roles. Their classmates could see their true identities.
But the players themselves didn't have their terminals during the match, so there was no need to worry about anyone outside cheating.
At that moment, the members of Class A's Katsuragi Faction were utterly speechless.
On their livestream, Sakayanagi Arisu from Class A, playing in Room B, really was the Spy...
Didn't that mean she could just do whatever she wanted?
After all, Class A's goal was to prevent the Spy from winning.
And now the Spy was from Class A—and it was Sakayanagi, the one with the most laid-back attitude...
Before you continue