Chapter 222

Then I entered a name.

[Ibuki Mio]

That's right, the VIP from the Rabbit Group wasn't Karuizawa Kei, but Ibuki Mio.

Ryuen Kakeru: "..."

"That's fine, the name is correct."

Ryuen Kakeru remained silent for a moment before putting away his Personal Terminal.

Ryuen Kakeru nodded, while Kamuro Masumi was bombarding Sakayanagi Arisu with information.

[1111111]

[Sis, hey, hey, Sakayanagi, Sakayanagi- sama, stop being so dramatic! Tell me quickly, have you figured out the selection pattern for the Special Exam's VIP? We've already got the whole list! We're ready to distribute the exam results!]

[Have you received a text message from the school? He's already finished the horse group exam. If you don't come soon, I really can't make any decisions!]

[Help! Help! Help! SOS!!!]

After typing a long string of 1s, Kamuro Masumi sent a series of messages.

However, to her dismay, the small "unread" mark next to the message never changed to "read".

What to do?

Cold dish.

"There are twelve groups in total. The school has evenly distributed the VIP to four classes, with three students in each class. Excluding the three groups from Class D, I can end the exam directly. For the remaining nine groups, we need to find a way to get the students from Class D to submit incorrect answers."

"Because the proportion of VIP is fixed, I cannot transfer all the points to Class A. It is imperative that each of you receive 150 points."

"Well, let's consider it a concession." Asakusa Toru clasped his hands together. "How about you figure out a way to make the people in Class D guess wrong?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Ryuen Kakeru blurted out a sarcastic remark without hesitation:

"Are you acting crazy again?"

"Even without cooperating in the normal exam, our idea would certainly be to find a way to protect the VIP in our own class. Either we would make the students from other classes guess wrong, or we would wait until the end and submit the correct answers together to achieve result one."

"If that's the case, limiting the target to Class D would not only be meaningless, but might also increase the likelihood of exposing the VIP of that class?"

However, it's not without its advantages.

The biggest advantage is that Asakusa Toru, who already knows the list of VIP, will not personally identify the VIP from other classes.

"That's why I showed you the list." Asakusa Toru wasn't embarrassed at all. He casually said, "Here's what we'll do: I'll handle the Ox Group, Rabbit Group, Monkey Group, Chicken Group, and Dog Group. As for the rest, you and Alice can discuss how to fool the students in Class D."

As he spoke, he pulled out a pen and crossed out those groups on the list.

"Whether you bribe them, scam them, or set a trap for them to fall into, there are only four groups left. Two of you each should be fine, right?"

"As for the Private Points and Class Points earned after achieving the results, they are still allocated by the individuals themselves."

At this point, Asakusa Toru paused, then smiled:

"Of course, if you have filial piety, you can offer me some tribute."

He was too lazy to sign any more contracts or provide any guarantees.

Let's just finish these stupid exams as soon as possible.

Recently, Asakusa Toru took some time to roughly organize the remaining exams for the next grade.

Then he realized one thing.

These exams are all so boring.

The only thing that seems somewhat interesting is the command tower.

Let's move towards the Command Tower then. Once we've completely mastered Advanced Nurturing, we can end our high school career.

"Oh right, the Dragon Group can achieve result one, so the Class Points won't matter." As if suddenly remembering something, Asakusa Toru suddenly looked up and said, "Hirata Yosuke won't cause trouble, and as for Horikita Suzune... you guys just pretend to play Werewolf with her for a while, and then tell her the answer at the end."

After finishing his self-introduction, Asakusa Toru pulled out his terminal again and sent a few more messages.

Then, he simply crossed out the name of another group.

[The Sheep Group's exam is over. Sheep Group students do not need to take any more exams. Please be careful and do not disturb other students.]

He finished another group's exam.

Leaving behind the paper with only a few group names remaining, Asakusa Toru stood up and nonchalantly chose to leave.

No one stopped him, nor did they say anything more.

It was as if everyone had chosen to listen to him.

"Ah, well, I should go now." Seeing him leave, Kushida Kikyo stood up with a smile, "Goodbye."

Seeing Asakusa Toru and Kushida Kikyo leave one after another, Kamuro Masumi glanced down at her Personal Terminal, then looked up at Ryuen Kakeru and Ibuki Mio.

Without hesitation, she chose to get out of there as soon as the wind picked up.

"I'll go back and discuss it with Sakayanagi."

Finally, only Ryuen Kakeru and Ibuki Mio remained in the open room.

"... You've been exposed." With perfect composure, Ryuen Kakeru suddenly spoke, "He saw through you immediately as VIP."

"Hey, Ibuki, tell me, what's the chance that he saw through your weakness, and what's the chance that he really understands the pattern of VIP selection?"

Ibuki Mio: "..."

"I don't know, all I know is you should leave my room sooner." She paused for a moment, looked at the open door, and then sighed, "Fine, if you won't leave, I will. It's almost noon anyway, let's grab something to eat and then go to the 'meeting'."

"Honestly, I wish my group's VIP was from Class D, then the exam could have ended early."

On the contrary, she now has to hide her status as VIP and attend two group discussions every day.

... Although I've pretty much had enough fun on the cruise ship this week.

But as expected, students find it hard to like exams, no matter what form they take.

Ryuen Kakeru: "..."

Ryuen Kakeru picked up the list and left the room last, after Ibuki, closing the door behind him.

Then, he was greeted by Ibuki Mio, who seemed to have turned around and returned.

"?"

"... I... I haven't taken my Room Key Card yet." Stiff as she stared at the closing door, Ibuki Mio uttered a pained sound, "Why do you have such a good habit of closing doors behind you?!"

The selection criteria for VIP are actually quite simple.

'Fifty tones'.

That's right, it's the Japanese syllabary (五十音), which corresponds to a simple alphabetical order of 26 letters.

The school divided 160 people into 12 groups, and then arranged the people in each group according to the order of the Japanese syllabary (hiragana and katakana).

Those who are in the corresponding order within the corresponding group will be selected as the VIP.

To give a direct example, let's take the Rabbit Group he belongs to.

The Rabbit Group is the fourth group, which means that the student who is fourth in the Japanese syllabary (hiragana and katakana) order in this group will receive VIP.

If it weren't for Asakusa Toru, the fourth place would be Karuizawa Kei.

However, since Asakusa Toru replaced someone else to become the first in the ranking, the selection of the VIP will go a step further and choose 'Ibuki Mio'.

In other words, he needs to find a way to make the four students from Class D in the Rabbit Group 'guess' the identity of the VIP incorrectly.

If we eliminate Ayanokoji Kiyotaka as an impossible option, there is actually only one person we can choose from from beginning to end.

Our parasite, Karuizawa Kei.

Ox Group, Rabbit Group, Monkey Group, Chicken Group, and Dog Group.

He made his statement about taking action against these groups, and there was a reason for it.

Sakura is in the Ox Group; I'll just tell her to vote for me later.

The Rabbit Group is trying to figure out a solution.

The Monkey Group VIP in their class. The problem is that Koenji is in that group. That guy can definitely figure out the pattern of the VIP and guess the correct answer.

The Chicken Group includes Yamauchi Haruki.

There's nothing special about the Dog Group; there aren't any particularly special people in it. He just randomly picked them to add some extra work for himself.

Logically, his top priority right now should be to find Koenji.

But Asakusa Toru did eventually remember his true identity.

Well, I'm neither a student in Class A nor a graduate of the gym.

The fact that he is the protagonist of the diary stream.

Well, since it's Special Exam, I'll write my diary more carefully this time.

[I can't think of an opening line, so I'll just say a couple of lines.]

Mambo, Mambo, Hakimi Mambo~

I didn't write it in detail yesterday, but anyway, today is the official start of the VIP Exam.

I'm sure everyone has heard the rules explained by the teacher, and I'm sure everyone has looked at the list repeatedly.

I will tell you the answers after the exam.

After being at this school for so long, I'm getting a bit tired, so...

Let's skip the lengthy explanations and get to the point.

I'll tell my spokesperson the answers, and then let him pass the exam quickly.

If you really want to take advantage of the school, option one is obviously the best choice.

But that's too much trouble, so I don't want to.

... Originally, for this Special Exam that was both rare and seemingly not so rare, I actually wanted to do something interesting.

My initial motivation for enrolling in Advanced Nurturing was to find something interesting.

But I don't know if it's because I've been lazy for too long, or because my spirit has deteriorated, or simply because I'm lacking the energy to create something interesting.

Although I'm very sad, I've realized that I feel like I've lost my way.

My thoughts became somewhat sluggish, my mind became heavy and dull. The world was confined to this small school, which should have been freer than ever before, but was actually more restricted than ever before.

Yes, I'm acting crazy again.

No, I'm not acting crazy.

I'm just struggling to admit that it seems I've finally faced this reality.

This can be remedied, this can be undone, this can be changed.

But before that, please let me have that 'perfect' ending.

I like you.

I like you all.

Insults are regrettable, criticism is dissatisfaction; all I can say in my words is simply, "I hate that they don't fight back."

That's why.

That's why.

Sorry... I suddenly don't feel like writing in my diary today, so I'll just give you all some information instead.

'Information that can be disclosed at this stage'

White Room

A special talent development institution that collects various orphans or illegitimate children who are not orphans for training, with the aim of creating valuable all-rounders and cultivating enough geniuses that can be mass-produced.