The Heartbroken Alliance

In Class B's group, Himeno Yuki mouthed the following words, indicating that she had chosen to submit her answer, and the other three nodded in agreement.

On one hand, Ichinose Honami from Class D is very popular in the grade, and she also has close relationships with some students in Class B. On the other hand, from Class B's perspective, it is more acceptable for a member of Class D to win first place in the project than for Ayanokoji Kiyotaka from Class A to win it.

After all, Class A and Class B are the most direct competitors.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka still chose to submit his answer. This was his last chance to score. If he could get the three points from the first place, Ichinose Honami would have to get more than five points in this round to surpass him and take first place.

"This round is over."

The teacher in charge gave Ichinose Honami a deep look. He didn't think it was an indescribable word, and announced the answer loudly:

The correct answer is... 'Mother'.

"First place: Sakayanagi Arisu, three points."

"Second place: Horikita Suzune, two points."

"Third place: Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, one point."

Sakayanagi Arisu let out a deep breath. Although Honami wouldn't admit it, for her and Horikita Suzune, all of her struggles and anxieties on stage actually became a kind of information gap.

The information gap that only Kitagawa Ryo's group and Karuizawa Kei would know.

"Five people answered correctly this round, Ichinose Honami five points."

The two remaining correct answers were from Class B. The other two students from Class B submitted "father" first, causing them to miss the deadline by a mere millisecond, since there were only a few seconds left.

The final result of this round of research is:

"First place: Ichinose Honami, 27 points."

"Second place: Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, twenty-five points."

"Third place: Sakayanagi Arisu, twenty points."

"This project has concluded, and the rewards have been sent to the electronic accounts of the top three winners. Please confirm your participation and then line up in an orderly fashion to collect your participation prize (food) from the nearby supply point."

The teacher in charge, speaking in his usual manner, began collecting everyone's tablets one by one, with the last one placed on the stage for the artist to use.

"Um?"

As the teacher was preparing to shut it down and put it in the box along with the other tablets, she seemed to notice something.

After the final round of the assignment ended and the other students' tablets no longer displayed the artist's image, Ichinose Honami seemed to have added a few more strokes.

The dot in the center of the screen was replaced with eight long, radiating lines.

At first glance, it looks like the sun.

But the lines are curved, and after looking at them for a while, they look like the legs of some kind of arthropod.

The teacher in charge shook his head; he was too lazy to think about such things anymore. Now, only thinking about going back to his shift to rest, he cleanly and neatly turned off the tablet, put it in the box, sealed it, and then stretched out a big yawn.

"Sometimes I feel that my mother is like a spider. She is smart, patient, and skillful like a spider, and she is always working hard. In winter, she knits beautiful and comfortable sweaters for my sister and me."

"Spider eggs are very fragile. I think that spiders grow into such fierce and frightening creatures in order to protect their offspring."

"At the same time, like a spider, my mother would arrange everything for me methodically."

It's like invisible threads have been laid throughout every corner of my life.

Chapter 185: The Alliance of Heartbroken People

Are you alright?

Noticing Ichinose Honami's unusual behavior, after the "Draw and Guess" assignment ended, Horikita Suzune and Sakayanagi Arisu exchanged a glance and walked over to Ichinose Honami at the same time, asking her with concern.

"It's nothing, it's nothing."

Ichinose Honami wore her usual smile and raised her index finger at the two of them:

"We got first place!"

"Although leveling up my [Supply Card] isn't very useful, at least I prevented Ayanokoji from getting it, which is a help to Ryo."

"And I even got some ingredients, though the quantity is a bit small, but you can't refuse something for free... Let me see, Suzune got prawns? I didn't know Ryo would cook them like this."

As if trying her best to prove that she was completely normal, Ichinose Honami kept bringing up topics, jumping from one thing to another, and it was obvious at a glance that she was putting on a brave face.

Neither Ichinose Honami Sakayanagi Arisu Horikita Suzune spoke, and Ichinose Honami scratched her cheek in slight distress.

"Don't worry, you should all believe in Liang just like I do."

"Since he said he would help me that night, there's no problem."

"Yes, no problem!"

As if to encourage herself, Ichinose Honami raised her little fist and repeated what she had just said.

"Since Honami has said so, let's leave it at that for now."

Sakayanagi Arisu nodded in response, then looked at Horikita Suzune:

"Let's talk about everything after this exam is over."

"That's how it is!"

Ichinose Honami slapped her hands together and immediately stated the information she had just noticed:

"Ayanokoji just left in what seemed to be the east. Should we follow him?"

"Those who can't keep up have a difference in physical strength."

Horikita Suzune sighed, choosing to suppress Ichinose Honami's strange behavior for the time being, and said after glancing at Sakayanagi Arisu:

"Just the journey from E9 to C8 was already quite a long one, Arisu's stamina must be almost depleted."

"Ryo said that Ayanokoji's stamina is about the same as his, and we witnessed that in the Open Water Swimming event."

"However, let's tell Ryo about Ayanokoji's appearance in area C8 first."

Horikita Suzune raised the watch on her wrist:

"I've already called."

"Um."

"Go ahead and fight, I wonder what Liang is doing right now?"

Sakayanagi Arisu and Ichinose Honami nodded together.

Just as Horikita Suzune turned on her watch and was about to dial Kitagawa Ryo's contact, she suddenly opened her mouth slightly, as if she had seen something incredible, and even lost her composure:

"Ha?"

"What's wrong?"

Sakayanagi Arisu then opened her watch:

What urgent notice has the school issued this time?

"That's not it..."

Horikita Suzune swallowed hard, and hesitated before speaking:

"Look at our group's score."

Ichinose Honami was the first to open the group's account, and the numbers that greeted her made her eyes widen in surprise. Compared to the morning, the group's score had suddenly dropped by nearly eight thousand, even though the three of them had just won first and third place in the [Draw and Guess] project.

Moreover, if they remembered correctly, Kitagawa Ryo's [Discount] card also enjoyed Discount as low as 30%, meaning that Kitagawa Ryo spent nearly 10,000 points in just one morning.

It's worth noting that many groups ranked in the lower half of the rankings haven't even reached 10,000 points since they arrived on the island.

"Call Liang right away."

Sakayanagi Arisu frowned and urged Horikita Suzune on. She was always worried about Kitagawa Ryo acting alone, and now he had squandered so many points in one go. Could it be that he had redeemed some entertainment activities and was going on vacation with other girls like before?

"It's already been done."

Horikita Suzune listened to the repeated communication connection tones and said softly.

For a moment, the heartbeats of the three people were synchronized with the rhythm of the electronic sound.

"... Sorry, the number you dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."

Thirty seconds later, all that came from the other end was still a hollow electronic voice.

The three of them exchanged a glance, and all of them saw a look of helplessness in each other's eyes.

Following the Tempest night.

Liang has gone missing again.

"Ah... it's broken."

Kitagawa Ryo shook his right arm, or rather, shook the watch strapped to his right wrist, but no matter how he fiddled with it, the watch face remained completely black, as if it had completely crashed.

"What happened to the waterproof feature? This is such a disappointment."

Seeing Kitagawa Ryo, Karuizawa Kei couldn't help but cover her forehead and mutter a helpless remark:

"Although it is indeed waterproof, the school didn't expect anyone to soak it in water for so long..."

"Well, there's nothing I can do about it. I never expected anyone to flip into the water while riding Jet Ski. Miyake is even worse than Megumi."

Kitagawa Ryo stood with his hands on his hips, looking towards the beach not far away. He had already called over the Ken Sudō group. At this moment, the three members of the group— Ken Sudō, Yamada Albert, and Miyake Akito—were riding Jet Ski on the nearby waters with smug expressions, leaving only Yukimura Teruhiko, the good student, sitting alone on the beach in a daze, giving off a feeling of Squidward watching SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star.

How do you feel?

He called out in the direction of the three people from afar, Kitagawa Ryo immediately saw the three of them dock on the shore one after another, excitedly waving their arms and legs as they replied:

"This is so much fun!"

"I didn't ask you guys if it was fun or not."

Ken Sudō rolled his eyes at Kitagawa Ryo, whose face was full of eagerness and wanted to play a few more rounds:

"I mean, how's your driving going? Are you getting the hang of it?"

"Don't end up like some loser who overturned his car and himself after only a few meters, and I had to go over and pull him ashore myself."

He had always felt that Miyake Akito in his class was somewhat unlucky, and the inexplicable confession incident in the Archery Club was the same thing.

"I'm just nervous... okay, it's my first time playing this game."

Hearing Kitagawa Ryo's teasing, Miyake Akito blushed, a rare occurrence. He then followed up with remarks about how he was now a seasoned veteran, drifting around corners with a spray of water and lightning, which made everyone laugh in a friendly manner.

"Alright, alright, I really didn't call you guys over here for fun, but you guys seem to be having a lot of fun."

Kitagawa Ryo clapped his hands and recounted his plan verbatim:

"If I'm not mistaken, tomorrow, during the third round of shrinking the circle, the F4 Area will be directly designated as a restricted zone. At that time, the teams stationed in the F4 Area will only have two escape routes left."

"First, head south and cross the mountain range."

"Second, head north and travel by sea to reach the south."

Kitagawa Ryo, with a righteous expression, pointed to the eighteen Jet Ski belonging to the school, all neatly moored on the shore, his words ringing out with conviction:

"I despise two types of people the most: one is the unscrupulous merchant who sets his own prices in a monopolistic industry—"

"One type is the one that won't let me have a monopoly!"

"Should I say that only someone like you, Kitagawa, could do that...?"

Ken Sudō wiped the sweat from his brow. The price of Jet Ski in the Redemption Manual was two thousand cents a day. Because it was classified as an entertainment activity, no one would think of using it as a means of transportation.

Even if he had thought of it, there was no way he could rent all the school's Jet Ski like Kitagawa Ryo did. After all, even Kitagawa Ryo, who held a Level 11 [Discount] card (Karuizawa Kei's first place in the Acupressure Mat Sprint project gave Ryo a Level 1 upgrade), still spent a full 9,000 points.

"However, points can't be traded between groups... Even if you monopolize it, you can't directly earn points."

Yukimura Teruhiko's mind seemed a little slow to catch on.

"It's pretty simple, just have them exchange points for supplies for us to use, right?"

Kitagawa Ryo shrugged:

"Anyway, they'll be forced to choose one of the two tomorrow. If they're willing to go through extreme challenges, then never mind what I said."

"Alright, alright, if you have time, practice carrying people in the back seat. We're counting on you drivers to be on duty tomorrow. I'm going to get my watch repaired first; it's been soaking in water for too long and it's ruined."

Kitagawa Ryo waved his hand, and Ken Sudō and the other two cheered and rushed towards the Jet Ski. They even planned to carry Yukimura Teruhiko over, apparently intending to let him sit on the back so they could practice driving with someone on the back.