A Seat at the Good Table!

On paper, Ken Sudō's team undoubtedly holds a significant advantage, given that everyone except Yukimura Teruhiko is tall and strong, and they also have athletic stars like Ken Sudō and Yamada Albert.

Especially after seeing Yamada hunch over and brace himself against the end of the rope, even the teacher in charge thought they had already decided on the champion for them.

Everyone had their palms coated with talcum powder to increase friction and reduce the chance of injury, and they were all focused, waiting for the teacher in charge to give the order.

"Start!"

With a sharp whistle, Sakayanagi Arisu, at the forefront of Kitagawa Ryo's team, instantly felt tremendous force coming from three directions. Teams with quick reaction speeds can easily widen the gap at the very start of the tug-of-war.

Directly opposite Kitagawa Ryo's group was Shibata Group from Class B. Shibata Sō placed the only girl in her group in the middle and volunteered to stand at the very front, directing and shouting commands:

"One, two, one!"

But before the tug-of-war between their group and Kitagawa Ryo's group had even begun, both sides felt immense pressure on their right/left sides. Sudo Ken and Yamada Albert from Sudo Ken's group fell backward, and their counterpart, Class A Takemoto Shigeru's group, was almost unable to maintain their line. The two girls in the front row had already started to stagger and were pulled forward by the rope.

Kitagawa Ryo stood at the end of the rope and began to adjust the direction of his force.

Simply pulling the rope backward with all your might is not the key to winning a tug-of-war.

In tug-of-war, it is necessary to consider the friction force on the hands from the rope, the friction force on the feet from the ground, and the vertical resistance. Gravity is also a crucial influencing factor, so the heaviest person is usually placed at the end to stabilize the formation.

Kitagawa Ryo gripped the rope as tightly as possible, stretching his legs out.

At the same time, lean backward while keeping your body straight.

Within Kitagawa Ryo lies a golden talent known as [Strength to Carry a Tripod].

The rope was instantly taut, and the red marker, which had begun to move towards Ken Sudō's group, started to sway and tilt towards Kitagawa Ryo's group.

Shibata Sō, who was opposite Kitagawa Ryo's group, felt a sudden, tremendous force coming from the other end of the rope. Even though he gritted his teeth and tried desperately to pull back, he was still pulled over step by step.

It has turned into a tug-of-war between Kitagawa Ryo's group and Ken Sudō's group.

The red marker visibly slid towards the southeast.

To the east is the Ken Sudō group, and to the south is the Kitagawa Ryo group.

Just as Sakayanagi Arisu Kitagawa Ryo had imagined, Sakayanagi Arisu started to feel like her feet weren't touching the ground after the rope was tightened, and she was hopping around a bit. If Kitagawa Ryo hadn't been so busy that he couldn't free his hands, he would have loved to capture this moment with his camera from behind.

Fortunately, Ken Sudō's group also Yukimura Teruhiko as a burden, so the two could be considered to be evenly matched, highlighting the importance of participation.

In fact, Kitagawa Ryo didn't expect his group to be able to hold out against Sudo Group for so long, since he and Horikita Suzune were the only two actual combatants in the group.

Thinking of this, Kitagawa Ryo also turned his gaze past Horikita Suzune in front of him and placed it on Ichinose Honami's back.

At this point in the tug-of-war, neither the boys nor the girls cared about manners anymore. Everyone had a ferocious look on their faces, gritted their teeth, closed their eyes, and pulled desperately in their own direction.

But even among these people, Ichinose Honami's expression was the most distorted.

"Cool! Keep going!"

Cheers from Shiina Hiyori and Karuizawa Kei could be heard from the audience.

Shibata Sō's group in Class B felt like they were about to vomit blood. They were just saying they were going to beat them to a pulp, but now they were the ones cheering them on. Is this some kind of little quirk between you couples?

"..."

Kitagawa Ryo bent his knees, and then exerted force again when his knees were close to his waist.

The power in her waist exploded to its fullest extent in that instant. As if realizing something, Horikita Suzune also chose to squeeze out her last bit of strength at this moment, and as if she were about to lie down on Kitagawa Ryo, she desperately pulled the rope backward.

Then, the red marker finally drifted into the area of Kitagawa Ryo's group.

After realizing this, the four of them finally collapsed from exhaustion, lying down haphazardly like a human pyramid.

Even after applying talcum powder, all four of their palms were rubbed red. The only one who was less affected was Sakayanagi Arisu, who was half-hanging on the rope after the match became intense, and couldn't exert any force.

"Honami, are you alright?"

Kitagawa Ryo's first visit was to Ichinose Honami, whose physical abilities were actually only at the average level for a girl; what she had just done was definitely an exceptional performance.

"Thank goodness, it's good that we won."

Ichinose Honami smiled and showed Kitagawa Ryo his palm, which actually had some small abrasions from being squeezed, and was quite red.

However, the teacher in charge had anticipated this situation and had prepared ointment in advance. Kitagawa Ryo stepped forward, took it, and carefully applied it to Ichinose Honami.

With a touch of cool ointment on his fingertips, Kitagawa Ryo carefully applied it to Ichinose Honami's palm, saying as he did so:

"It's all thanks to Honami."

He would never say things like, "Actually, there's no need for that..." If the other person has already made an effort, he would simply praise them openly.

Ichinose Honami nodded with enjoyment. After the medicine was applied to her palm, she took the medicine bottle and applied it to Kitagawa Ryo.

Horikita Suzune had originally planned to support herself, but when she looked up, she saw Sakayanagi Arisu.

Even after recovering my health, I still feel like I'm too weak.

Sakayanagi Arisu had barely contributed to the project, muttered complaints as she applied medicine to Horikita Suzune.

"If Arisu is willing, she can join me for morning exercises from now on."

Horikita Suzune offered her suggestion with a smile.

"Um."

Sakayanagi Arisu glanced at Kitagawa Ryo, then lowered her head and whispered:

"The body... is indeed very important."

Chapter 189: One Private Seat!

After Kitagawa Ryo's team won first place, Ken Sudō's team quickly took second place in the [Multi-party Tug-of-War] event. However, all four of them seemed a little annoyed that they lost to Kitagawa Ryo's team, which had a combination of one man and three women. Even though they received a high reward of two thousand points, they did not show any happy expression.

It's definitely a bit awkward when four boys haven't pulled a button for one boy and three girls.

Now that the project was over, the Takemoto Shigeru group from Class A, who had put in a lot of effort and sweated a lot but had gained nothing, walked the fastest, while the Shibata Hayate group from Class B took the initiative to come up and curiously looked at the jet skis that Kitagawa Ryo and the others had ridden.

Renting Jet Ski for a day costs 2,000 points, which is not something most students on the island would even consider. Even if they didn't know that the remaining twelve jet skis were still in the D9 area, the six big ones that Kitagawa Ryo and his group brought were already excessively conspicuous.

"Want to give it a try?"

Seeing Shibata Sō's eager expression, Kitagawa Ryo also had an idea. He smiled, patted one of the motorcycles, and said to Shibata.

"Is that alright? Thank you so much!"

Shibata Sō is very popular in Class B, and her personality is naturally quite straightforward. Without any hesitation, she hopped on a Jet Ski, her movements appearing quite practiced.

"Have you played this before?"

Seeing this, Kitagawa Ryo withdrew his original beginner's guide and asked another question with great interest.

I sat on the beach when I was in junior high school.

Shibata Sō nodded, eagerly completing the preparations. Before long, he circled the sea and returned to the shore.

"That was so exciting!"

Shibata Sō wildly tossed his water-soaked hair, looking thoroughly satisfied.

"Would you like to drive a little longer?"

Kitagawa Ryo approached with a smile and struck up a conversation.

"This isn't quite right... after all, you redeemed it with points."

Shibata Sō touched his nose a little embarrassedly.

"It's alright, it's alright. Just come with us, drive however you want, even if it's completely open, it's no problem."

Kitagawa Ryo was only thinking about 'getting another one of him up the mountain,' so he put his arm around Shibata Sō's shoulder quite enthusiastically and even brought in Karuizawa Kei to vouch for him:

"Look, even your class monitor is working with us now, how could there be a problem? There's definitely no problem!"

"If it's convenient for you, Shibata- kun, you can certainly participate. This plan was originally designed for Class A."

Karuizawa Kei stood by, seriously suppressing a laugh, supporting Kitagawa Ryo.

Thus, after completing the [Multi-party Tug-of-War] project, Kitagawa Ryo successfully won over Shibata Sō's group from Class B, adding another member to his 'motorcycle taxi' driver army.

After returning to the D9 area, in order to conserve their energy, the group did not venture out to find more research topics. Instead, they participated in a few scattered research topics nearby, and the sky gradually darkened.

Then, surrounded by school staff eating boxed lunches, Kitagawa Ryo generously exchanged for a huge amount of ingredients again. Nearly twenty people set up barbecue grills and large pots directly on the beach, and the aroma of the food soon wafted into the school's tent.

After a joyful and harmonious meal, those who needed to get up early the next day didn't chat for too long and returned to their tents around eight or nine o'clock.

Then, amidst a variety of emotions—whether nervous, expectant, or confused—...

The sun finally rose on the seventh day of the Uninhabited Island Special Exam.

[The third round of restricted areas on the Uninhabited Island has been established. Groups still in the restricted areas must leave their areas before noon today. Groups still in or entering the restricted areas after noon will be eliminated, and their scores will be fixed.]

[The specific restricted areas on the third round of Uninhabited Island are as follows: G2, G3, G4, G5, H2, H3, H4, H5, E3, E4, E5, F2, F3, F4, F5]

At 8:00 AM on the seventh day of the Uninhabited Island Special Exam, along with the announcement of the first round of questions, the third round of restricted areas was also announced.

Unlike the previous two rounds, this round has listed a total of fifteen restricted areas, five more than in each previous round.

Kitagawa Ryo, who was prepared in advance, opened the electronic map. Just as he expected, the school's restricted area this time included the F4 Area, which had been designated as a 'temporary rest point' yesterday. Moreover, not only F4, but also a large area around F4 was designated as a restricted area.

Although the curfew will officially take effect at noon, it's only a little past eight now, so the group gathered in F4 theoretically has a chance to evacuate.

But--

F4 Area, temporary rest stop, Class 1-A.

Morishige Takuro was fast asleep.

He was a member of Hashimoto Masayoshi's group. Unlike Hashimoto Masayoshi and Kito Hayato, who were both athletic, Morishige Takuro was an academic star, was even slightly below average in terms of physical fitness. The past six days on the Uninhabited Island had been the biggest challenge he had ever faced in his life. After the fourth day, he felt that he could no longer lift his legs.

Fortunately, their group leader, Hashimoto Masayoshi, volunteered to Katsuragi Kohei to pursue Karuizawa Kei, and their group was able to break up and disperse.

Having just seen the school's notice about setting up a 'temporary rest area,' Morishige Takuro came here alone, intending to rest while waiting for the other group members to contact him.

Compared to the previous days of sleeping in the open and eating rough weather, the complete infrastructure here is like paradise.

After carefully setting up the tent, taking a refreshing shower, and chatting with the other classmates who were also gathered there, Morishige Takuro was still asleep at eight o'clock in the morning.

But soon he heard the sound of footsteps.

Someone rushed into Morishige Takuro's tent and yanked him out of his sleeping bag.

Ishida Yusuke from Class 1-A shouted desperately in his ear:

"The restricted area has been moved to our side! Wake up!"

Still half-asleep Morishige Takuro hadn't quite grasped the situation, but the words "restricted area" instantly snapped him awake. His voice even trembled with fear.

"Huh? Why did the restricted area appear here?"

"Isn't this a temporary rest stop?"

"The school never said that temporary rest areas couldn't be designated as restricted zones!"

Ishida Yusuke, equally impatient, shouted something and threw Morishige Takuro's clothes, which were lying to the side, at him.

"Hurry up and pack your things, I still need to inform the other classmates!"

"I'm speechless, everyone's sleeping in."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Ishida Yusuke dashed out of the tent in another leap.

Morishige Takuro hurriedly put on his clothes and quickly stepped out of the tent. The entire F4 Area was in chaos, and many students, just as disheveled as him, could be seen rushing out of the tents in a panic.

Seeing Machida Koji from afar, looking at his watch as if he were contacting someone, Morishige Takuro quickly went over to him.

"Katsuragi- san, what should we do now?"

On the other end of the phone was Katsuragi Kohei, the Leader of Class 1-A. Although their group had also come to the temporary rest stop to rest yesterday, they had only replenished their drinking water and taken a shower before leaving early in order to compete for a top-three finish in the group competition. Unexpectedly, they had avoided this incident.

"Our entire area has been designated a restricted zone!"

The F4 Area is a canyon region, with mountain ranges stretching across its north and south sides. This restricted area covers a vast area, encompassing almost the entire northern part of the island, leaving only the option of moving south.

However, the southern part is the largest and steepest main mountain range on the entire Uninhabited Island, and it runs in a northwest-southeast direction. Going south from the F4 Area is much more difficult than when Karuizawa Kei crossed from the E5 area to the G5 area.

Katsuragi Kohei also realized this, which is why he remained silent for a while, as if he was nervously thinking of a solution.

"How many groups are there in the F4 Area now? How many are from Class A? How many are from the other classes?"

In the end, Katsuragi Kohei could only manage to squeeze out this one question.

"There are about twenty groups in the F4 Area, from all four classes, probably around six or seven groups each."