Chapters 250-253 (Four-in-One)

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka said expressionlessly:

"Well, we still need to see the list."

Ignoring their conversation, Mashima Tomoya, pushed out another piece of paper:

"In addition to the group assignments, the school has prepared other materials regarding the results of this Special Exam. Please refer to this document."

The four sets of papers were handed out to each person separately.

The edges of the paper were slightly curved, and there were obvious creases from being turned over, indicating that this paper was reused to explain the exam rules to students in each group.

Summer Group Special Exam Instructions

The core information of this document is clearly marked on the page.

Later, at 8:20, in Ryuen Kakeru's room, facing the smiling Hoshinomiya Chie, he crossed his legs and began to summarize the key points of the exam rules.

"Firstly, everyone will receive an email at 8:00 AM to confirm their eligibility for VIP."

Secondly, the exam schedule is from tomorrow until 9 PM four days later.

"Thirdly, group members must gather twice a day in a designated room at a specified time for a one-hour discussion."

Fourth, the content of the discussion is entirely determined by the group's autonomy.

Fifth, after the exam, the school will only accept answers to "Who is the VIP?" between 9:30 PM and 10:00 PM on the same day. Furthermore, each person can only answer the question once.

"Sixth, the school will inform all students of the detailed exam results via email at 11 p. m. on the last day."

And perhaps we can utilize, but we need to be careful about, the rules of word-for-word interpretation.

"The school only accepts answers submitted by students using their own mobile phones to send emails to the designated mailbox."

"VIP" are not entitled to send answers via email.

"Answers from groups other than the one to which you belong will be considered invalid."

Ryuen Kakeru: "..."

The rules are not meticulous, and there are clearly not many points of leverage. At the moment, it is not clear what the school's purpose, thoughts, and attitude are.

Of course, there are also rules and prohibitions, which are much more detailed than the rules for the Uninhabited Island Exam.

"It is prohibited to use methods such as stealing other people's phones, making threats or other intimidation to confirm information about VIP, or to use other people's phones without authorization to send out answers."

"Students must be dismissed immediately after the exam, and are prohibited from talking to students from other classes for a certain period of time."

"All acts of copying, forwarding, or altering mail sent from the school are prohibited."

"A certain number of Private Points will be deducted each time you fail to take the exam."

Perhaps because the loopholes in the Uninhabited Island Exam were too great, the attitude towards the prohibitions this time seems to have become quite serious.

Aside from the penalty of deducting Private Points for not taking the exam, the other three violations all result in expulsion from school.

That's right, it's not simply a matter of disqualifying someone from the exam, nor is it about confiscating all Private Points, and it certainly won't affect the entire class.

It's simply 'dropping out of school'.

This school seems to prefer threatening students with expulsion more than one might imagine.

However, compared to these restrictive details, the outcome is clearly what influences the direction of action more.

Seemingly noticing that Ryuen Kakeru had already read the rules, Hoshinomiya Chie added with a smile:

"At the end of the exam, the school will only announce the results for each group, as well as the increase or decrease in points for each class."

In other words, we will not disclose the names of the VIP or respondents.

She held up her index finger and circled it, saying, "If you wish, we can issue a temporary ID for remittances, or allow withdrawals in installments. As long as the person remains silent, there will be no suspicion of being discovered after the exam."

So, everyone can 'feel free to do what they want' without worry, right?

"I can secretly mix it with the money the school gives out at the beginning of each month, and no one will notice."

Hoshinomiya Chie's seductive voice echoed in the room, but no one showed any sign of wavering.

Class C has long been dominated by Ryuen Kakeru.

No one dared to show greed in his presence.

"Stop yelling." After thinking for a long time but unable to find any obvious loopholes, Ryuen Kakeru waved his hand and said, "Where is our group's roster again?"

I want to watch it again.

So, obediently, the classmate next to him quickly handed over the list.

Ryuen Kakeru is in the Dragon Group, which is the Dragon Group.

The list looks like this.

[Class A: Ando Sayo, Kanzaki Ryuji, Tsube Hitomi

Class B: Katsuragi Kohei, Nishikawa Ryoko, Matoba Shinji, Yano Koharu

Class C: Oda Takumi, Suzuki Hidetoshi, Maruta Masashi, Ryuen Kakeru

Class D: Kushida Kikyo, Hirata Yosuke, Horikita Suzune]

The distribution of the quantity is 3443. Is there any deeper meaning behind this?

There's no Asakusa Toru in Class A, but Kanzaki Ryuji. Class B has Katsuragi Kohei. As for Class D, well, let's just leave Class D out.

Although they seem to be the only two most outstanding 'popular contestants,' Class D is Class D, and their existence is not worth considering.

The punishment for this exam was terrible. Expulsion was the punishment that Ryuen Kakeru hated the most. Although reducing the number of students might seem to widen the gap in numbers, it also reduced the Private Points circulating throughout the first year, which was quite detrimental to his Eight Hundred Million Plan.

With that in mind, the prohibitions can basically be ignored, and there's no intention to encourage students from other classes to break the rules.

Among the other precautions, only the information that 'Personal Terminal' is very important can be extracted.

So, does that mean we can only focus on the 'result'?

If we calculate the changes in gain or loss individually for four different outcomes...

Result 1: Private Points increased by 14 x 50, totaling seven million Private Points.

Result 2: Private Points increase by 500,000, enjoyed exclusively by the single individual.

Result 3: Private Points increased by 500,000, while 50 Class Points were 'transferred'.

Result four is the same as result three.

In other words, if we only focus on Private Points, ending the exam with the result would undoubtedly be the best answer.

As long as we find ways to persuade and control the people in the group, we can find a way to achieve result one.

If it's just this group... Katsuragi is easy to persuade. Once Katsuragi is persuaded, the rest of Class B won't be a problem.

Kanzaki will listen to Asakusa; since he promised, he won't easily betray the cooperation because of an exam like this.

Class D... So it really depends on the people in Class D? Hirata Yosuke should have some brains, Kushida Kikyo wouldn't betray him so easily.

Is Horikita Suzune the last remaining question?

Some of the names are unfamiliar, but if you mention Hirata Yosuke's presence, she'll probably behave herself.

So, does the Dragon Group intend to achieve result one?

Ryuen Kakeru frowned.

(The following content is not included in the word count)

[Result 1: If everyone answers correctly, except for the group members VIP and students belonging to the VIP class, the school will pay Private Points all group members individually. (Students belonging to the VIP class will each receive the same number of points.)]

Result 2: If any member of the group fails to answer or answers incorrectly, the school will pay the VIP 500,000 Private Points, excluding the VIP and their classmates.

Result 3: If someone other than the VIP reveals their answer to the school before the exam ends and answers correctly, the class to which the student belongs will receive 50 Class Points, and the school will pay the correct answer 500,000 Private Points. Conversely, the class VIP status is discovered will be penalized by deducting 50 Class Points. The group exam will end at this point. Furthermore, if a student in the same class as the VIP answers correctly, the school will consider the answer invalid and continue the exam.

Result 4: If someone other than the VIP reveals their answer to the school before the exam ends and answers incorrectly, the class to which that student belongs will be penalized with a loss of 50 Class Points. The VIP will receive 500,000 Private Points, and VIP class will also receive 50 Class Points. The exam will end at the point where the incorrect answer was given. Furthermore, if a classmate of the VIP student answers incorrectly, their answer will be considered invalid and will not be processed.

Chapters 250-253 (Combined)

"Do we need Unanimous Special Exam on result one?"

Unsurprisingly, this was the first thought that popped into Ichinose Honami's mind after reading the rules.

A simple arithmetic problem: if we want to get the most benefit from the school, on the surface, it would be for everyone to get the same result.

Although it's obvious that this is an extremely difficult task, since a group of 14 people might be manageable, but twelve groups with a total of 160 first-year students would be quite uncontrollable.

Not to mention, in order to entice students to "keep" the points for themselves, the teacher patiently reminded each class of the school's policy of keeping it confidential while explaining the rules.

But Ichinose Honami felt that if she really wanted to do it, it wouldn't be a difficult task.

The students in Class A are united enough that they wouldn't sacrifice everyone's interests for something thankless. Class C is under Ryuen's control and should accept cooperation. Class D, although somewhat inferior, should be fine with Kushida Kikyo's help.

The only thing to worry about is Class B under Sakayanagi Arisu.

But there's always a way. If we think about it from the perspective of mutual benefit, we should be able to persuade her.

"No, let's not play result one." But Asakusa Toru gently shook his head. "Let's play result three or four."

Ichinose Honami no need to question or deny Asakusa Toru's decision.

But sometimes, what's needed is a suitable straight man to make the explanations flow naturally.

"Um, then, why?" She rested her head on her hands, blinked her big eyes, and looked at Asakusa Toru with a puzzled expression. "I want to know."

Pure curiosity.

"Do you remember the Class Points the four classes in first grade, A, B, C, and D so far?" Instead of answering the question first, Asakusa Toru asked Ichinose Honami this question.

The girl quickly gave her answer:

"Class A: 2006 points, Class B: 800 points, Class C: 670 points, Class D: 80 points."

"That means the school has to pay out over 14 million a month." Asakusa Toru casually calculated, then added, "If everyone gets the same result, the twelve groups will have a total of 84 million, which is equivalent to six months' worth of Class Points."

"It seems that results three and four are far inferior to result one," he said.

"But what if we turn our attention to Class D and take advantage of this 'transfer' exam to get all of Class Points Class D's points?"

Ichinose Honami blinked:

Will Class D's score drop back to zero?

"It might even be a negative score," Asakusa Toru chuckled. "It'll probably be zero. The school isn't going to set a precedent for negative score classes yet. At least until the situation really becomes one where zero-score classes dominate, the school won't consider allowing negative scores to appear."

Because it's unnecessary.

But this seems to present an opportunity that can be exploited.

"The VIP Exam is divided into twelve groups. If each of the three classes (A, B, and C) tries to 'get' some Class Points from the other class..." After a pause, Asakusa Toru said, "The twelve groups can transfer 600 Class Points."

"That doesn't sound like much. After deducting the 80 points that Class D already has, it's only 520 Class Points."

"Five months have passed since the start of the school year. Even if we calculate based on the remaining thirty months of revenue from Class Points, it would only amount to sixty million."

"That sounds like a far cry from the 84 million in Result 1, doesn't it?"

Asakusa Toru seemed to be actively negating the choice he had proposed through calculation.

Did he not calculate carefully at first, and only realize afterward that the first result seemed to have a higher return?

Obviously not.

"It seems so?" Ichinose Honami tilted her head, following the lead of the conversation.

Asakusa Toru nodded readily:

"If we simply calculate based on the gains and losses of the VIP Exam, then that is indeed the case."

"But if we take a longer-term view, we can consider more." He paused for a moment and said, "For example, the next Special Exam that will 'deduct Class Points '."