This Move Is Called Playing Hard to Get

After all, not every group is like Ryuen Kakeru, leaving no points behind.

"Judging from the rate of increase, our class ranking will probably surpass Class C in about three more days."

Sakayanagi Arisu analyzed while biting her chopsticks:

"But if the increase in each class remains the same, by the end of the exam, we won't be able to surpass Class B, let alone Class A."

"That's why Liang wanted to upgrade his Discount card to the highest possible level. If he could monopolize a certain essential item on the island with an extremely low discount, he would have the opportunity to negotiate with students from other classes."

"Although I think Liang's plan is indeed good, I still believe that if that day really comes, the school will intervene."

Sakayanagi Arisu head and expressed her thoughts. Her grandfather and father had both served as Chairman of the board of directors of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, so she understood the school's style better:

"In my opinion, the temporary rest area that appeared this morning was a countermeasure that the school had arranged in advance to deal with the cold weather."

"If we were to list the supplies that everyone on the island needs, drinking water would definitely be the first thing that comes to mind. But if it really happens that all the drinking water, or even water purifiers, are exchanged for cold drinks, the school can use the 'temporary rest point' setting to circumvent the rules."

"For example, it's said that Liang did indeed redeem all the drinking water listed in the manual, but the drinking water provided free of charge at the temporary rest stop and the drinking water in the supplies are not related..."

Sakayanagi Arisu paused here:

"Rather than trying to gain an advantage from the school, I think it would be better to just deceive... cough cough, and communicate with students in other classes."

"Ideally, we could use this to significantly reduce the scores of other classes."

Horikita Suzune and Ichinose Honami both nodded thoughtfully.

"Huh? The phone's ringing?"

"Looks like we haven't completely gone overboard yet."

Sakayanagi Arisu glanced at her watch, which had suddenly vibrated on her wrist, and smiled knowingly.

Let's leave him out for a while.

"During the repair period, we received calls from other people."

"I remember... there were about a dozen."

Hoshinomiya Chie watched Kitagawa Ryo come to retrieve his watch, noticing that there was another girl following behind him besides Karuizawa Kei from noon. She decided to stop her own little schemes and readily reattached the watch to Kitagawa Ryo's right wrist.

"Keep it safe, it's going to interfere with your research and getting grades."

"You've worked hard..."

He thanked him politely, just as he had when he arrived. Before Kitagawa Ryo could finish speaking, Shiina Hiyori and Karuizawa Kei dragged him back from either side, making Hoshinomiya Chie seem like some kind of monster.

Looking at the dozen or so missed calls displayed on the newly lit watch face, Kitagawa Ryo felt a chill run down his spine. He smiled wryly, pointed to his watch, and gestured for Karuizawa Kei and Shiina Hiyori to remain silent before calling back.

Because the first call was from Sakayanagi Arisu, Kitagawa Ryo called back Sakayanagi Arisu. Although the call was connected quickly, it was quiet on the other end, as if someone was silently sulking.

"Hello, Moshi Moshi, can you hear? Hello, hello?"

"... Not good."

"My watch broke after being submerged in water, and I didn't mean to ignore your calls."

Seeing that the other party had at least responded, Kitagawa Ryo breathed a sigh of relief and explained somewhat helplessly.

"Isn't Liang supposed to be in the E5 area on the back? Why did the watch break after being submerged in water? That area seems to be mostly mountainous."

"A lot has happened. I'm not there right now, but on the beach in the D9 area, near the port. The school's cruise ship also docks here."

"Huh? D9?"

"It seems to be very close to us."

"We're in C8, right?"

On the other end of the communication line, three voices came through immediately upon hearing the D9 area code. The noise mingled together chaotically for a while before finally subsiding. This time, however, it was Horikita Suzune who was making the call.

"We're in area C8 right now, we'll pack our things and come find Liang soon."

"Just stay there and don't move."

"By the way, are there any other groups next to you?"

Kitagawa Ryo, then spoke, feigning composure:

"Hui received a reward of a regular card upgrade opportunity from a project this morning, so she came to me to transfer it. She's right next to me now."

"Then, because the news that Hiyori possessed a special card was leaked to Ayanokoji, for safety reasons, Hiyori was also with me."

Both seem reasonable... I guess.

Although Kitagawa Ryo.

A cold laugh could be clearly heard from the other end.

"We're coming right away."

The communication was then disconnected.

One, two, three, four, five.

Kitagawa Ryo raised her head, vaguely remembering the last time five girls Matoba two and a half plays. It seemed like it was the last time.

The only good news is:

My good brother Sudo didn't need to be shaken up this time; he's already here.

Chapter 187: This tactic is called feigning indifference to lure the enemy.

In a short period of time, Kitagawa Ryo seriously considered a question.

Given seven girls on Uninhabited Island Ichinose Honami, Horikita Suzune, Sakayanagi Arisu, Karuizawa Kei, Shiina Hiyori, Amasawa Ichika, Sakura Airi, how many different combinations of five girls can there be?

This wasn't a difficult mathematical problem, but Kitagawa Ryo kept drifting off into non-mathematical directions as he thought about it. He decided to try his best to save himself before the real battle began.

At this point, the advantage of having all four members of Ken Sudō's group being male became apparent. They instantly transformed the Matoba one man and eight women (plus Ibuki Mio) to five men and eight women, increasing the male-to-female ratio fivefold from one to eight. This is truly commendable.

Then, Kitagawa Ryo attempted to create a Matoba where he was working hard to achieve the results of the exam.

So, when Horikita Suzune and her two companions hurried from area C8 to area D9, they saw Kitagawa Ryo kindly instructing Yamada Albert on Matoba to drive Jet Ski. The two were chatting and laughing, riding the waves side by side, chasing each other, perfectly showcasing the friendship between boys...

"Dock!"

It seems that Sakayanagi Arisu bought a megaphone with points from the resource exchange point, and she tacitly gave one to Horikita Suzune and Ichinose Honami, and the three of them shouted together at Kitagawa Ryo on the sea.

Yes, yes, yes.

Kitagawa Ryo reluctantly stopped his motorcycle. He walked barefoot on the sand towards the three people, adjusting his sunglasses on the bridge of his nose.

"Three beautiful ladies, would you like to ride Jet Ski together?"

"That sounds familiar... Didn't Liang say that to me a few days ago...?"

Karuizawa Kei Shiina Hiyori behind her, quietly greeting a few people.

"Ahem, I think none of the three of them, Arisu, have ever played with this before, right?"

Kitagawa Ryo raised an eyebrow at Sakayanagi Arisu two. As a master of micro-expression management, he quickly noticed Ichinose Honami's unusual behavior among the three. He then suppressed his feigned frivolous smile, took two steps forward, and put his hand on Ichinose Honami's shoulder.

"What's wrong, Honami?"

"Hmm... I was just a little worried when Liang went missing."

Ichinose Honami smiled and gave Kitagawa Ryo a hug, seemingly oblivious to everyone else, and rested her head on Kitagawa Ryo's shoulder as if nothing was amiss.

"I just hope this exam ends soon."

She whispered very softly in Kitagawa Ryo's ear:

"... I want to go see my mother with Ryo."

Kitagawa Ryo keenly noticed that the subject had been switched. Unlike the promise he made that night, the subject of this sentence had become Honami himself.

"Okay, we'll leave school together to see her then."

Responding to Ichinose Honami's words in a soft voice, as if satisfied with the reply, Ichinose Honami released the embrace contentedly.

"By Ichinose way, is Ichinose dating Kitagawa? Why are they hugging each other?"

Not far away, Ken Sudō, who had also had his fill of Jet Ski, stroked his chin and hesitated.

"Huh? I remember Kitagawa was dating Suzune, right?"

Initially reserved Yukimura Teruhiko became excited after being carried around the sea a couple of times. Wiping his water-soaked glasses, he replied in surprise:

"Before the Midterm Exam or Final Exam, weren't they the two of them always summarizing the key points and explaining them to the class?"

"Moreover, the two of them were even deskmates."

"But I remember the girl who went into Kitagawa's room the most was Sakayanagi, especially before the Uninhabited Island Exam started. I ran into her in the hallway several times. Back then, none of the boys on our floor dared to go out wearing only their underwear."

As if to make his words more persuasive, Miyake Akito nudged Yamada Albert's muscular arm as he spoke:

"Right?"

Yes!

Yamada Albert gave a thumbs-up, grinned, revealing a set of white teeth, but then immediately offered his opinion in broken Japanese:

"Actually, Sakura towards him was different from her attitude towards other boys."

At this point, Ibuki Mio also joined the conversation.

"Haven't you heard the rumors about Hiyori and Kitagawa? What you're saying is just because these girls are in the same class as Kitagawa and they interact normally. Among the girls in other classes, only Hiyori gets Kitagawa's attention so much."

She widened her eyes and spoke indignantly.

"Um, actually, Kitagawa seems to have a close relationship with Karuizawa from Class B as well."

"Oh yeah, last time I was pulled aside by that weirdo Kanzaki from their class and he talked about Kitagawa and Karuizawa dating."

After a long discussion among the group, Miyake Akito suddenly hesitated and said:

"Come to think of it, Kitagawa seems to be a scumbag who's been cheating on his wife with many women."

"I've seen anime with this kind of theme, and the male protagonist didn't die peacefully in the end."

"But Kitagawa is in very good physical condition."

"... No, Sudo, I don't think this is a matter of physical ability."

While the five people on one side were gossiping, on the other side, Kitagawa Ryo, after calming down Ichinose Honami, explained his plan to the group from beginning to end.

"This is too much of a gamble... If the school doesn't reduce the zone as Liang predicted tomorrow, wouldn't all those points have been wasted? Couldn't we check the situation tomorrow morning before renting these Jet Ski?"

Ichinose Honami explained her views with some concern.

"If we do it tomorrow morning, it might not be enough time."

Sakayanagi Arisu shook her head and analyzed:

"The core of this plan is to monopolize every single Jet Ski. If even one motorcycle is rented out by someone else, the plan cannot continue to be implemented."

"Furthermore, in order to complete the act and avoid alerting the enemy, we cannot notify the groups in Class D that are staying in the F4 Area in advance."

"Okay, just pick them up first tomorrow morning."

Kitagawa Ryo nodded and added:

"Right now, the only ones who can drive Jet Ski and guarantee to take people are me, Sudo, Yamada, Miyake, and Ibuki. Actually, the number is still a bit insufficient, but there's no other way. There are just too few groups in the south, and we need people we can completely trust."

Karuizawa Kei raised her hand again:

"Actually, I can drive it too. I can go with Ryo tomorrow."

The previously calm Matoba was suddenly reignited by Karuizawa Kei's words. Horikita Suzune was the first to respond, narrowing her eyes and giving Karuizawa Kei a sharp look:

"I don't think it's anything that difficult."

"Even though I've never played this before, I can learn."

Ichinose Honami clapped her hands together with a snap, then smiled at Karuizawa Kei.

"I..."

"Arisu / Classmate Sakayanagi, let's just forget about it."

Before Sakayanagi Arisu could finish speaking, everyone suddenly and tacitly stopped her.

Given Sakayanagi Arisu's height and weight, let alone leading someone, even being led by someone always feels uneasy, as if she could be blown away by the wind and waves at any moment.