Chabashira Sae Can't Hold Back Any Longer

The first round presented a total of eight topics, which directly resulted in eight students withdrawing from this Special Exam.

One student from Class A, two students from Class B, three students from Class C, and two students from Class D.

The Uninhabited Island previously had a total of 150 students (one of whom was deemed unable to continue the exam due to drinking untreated water), and this sudden disappearance represents nearly one-fifteenth of that number.

However, the group cannot give up participating in the project for fear of further reduction in group members.

Not participating in the project means not getting any points, and staying on the island requires spending points to exchange for necessary supplies.

If we calculate it this way, the total points left by the entire group might be more than the points left by those who barely survived on the island until the last day.

The school's design for this Uninhabited Island Special Exam was entirely interconnected.

It is determined to reduce the number of students on the Uninhabited Island to a certain threshold.

Even Kitagawa Ryo was now somewhat curious about the purpose behind this.

But such thoughts didn't last long; Kitagawa Ryo's watch vibrated, and someone dialed his number.

It's the name of a student in Class C.

"Hello."

"I am Ryuen."

A familiar voice came from the other end.

"They didn't fall in the first round! Are they this strong in both solo and group competitions?"

Kitagawa Ryo greeted him jokingly.

"Heh--Of course the school considered both solo and duo teams; not all projects require as many people as possible in the group."

Ryuen Kakeru replied somewhat lazily:

"The task I just participated in was [Group Parallel and Horizontal Bars]. The scoring method was to average the scores of all group members. Other groups had people who dragged down the team to some extent, so their final average score was not as high as mine, since my score was the average score of our group."

"Karuizawa was on the same project as me. I came in second and she came in first. This averaging algorithm is quite friendly to students in groups, but of course, your score can't be too low."

"Hmm, have you seen Ayanokoji?"

Kitagawa Ryo agreed, then turned to ask the question that concerned him most.

I was just about to tell you.

Ryuen Kakeru paused, somewhat surprised himself:

"Ayanokoji's event is the [Group 4x100m Relay]. If the team has fewer than four members, the last runner will run the entire race alone."

"Then he ran 400 meters by himself and completely outpaced the other four relay teams. Although passing the baton does waste time, it's still pretty incredible."

"In sports, I wouldn't really recommend a direct confrontation with Ayanokoji."

Kitagawa Ryo considered for a moment and then said:

"However, it's in topics like Encyclopedia Knowledge Quiz that Ayanokoji might slip up."

"I will inform everyone in the class."

Ryuen Kakeru clicked his tongue. After all, the students from Class C had the most eliminations in the first round, with a total of three. This meant that in today's first round of the project alone, three groups from Class C ranked last.

After exchanging information, Kitagawa Ryo hung up the phone.

"Ryuen."

When receiving calls from guys, Kitagawa Ryo would be quite sincere and open in showing it to the girls in the group.

As expected, after hearing the name Ryuen, Sakayanagi Arisu and the others lost interest in checking up on him and gathered together to think about their next assignment.

In this round of the [Four-Person Cavalry Battle], basically only Sakayanagi Arisu and Kitagawa Ryo put in any effort, Ichinose Honami and Horikita Suzune basically just followed behind and did nothing after a few laps.

After all, as long as Kitagawa Ryo doesn't lose her position, it won't be easy for the enemy to catch the two of them with their headscarves.

"Come to think of it, it seems like girls always come out on the losing end in every project. Could the school come up with a few projects where girls have an advantage?"

Sakayanagi Arisu on her hand, picked up a twig from somewhere, and idly drew circles on the ground.

From the previous "Multi-party Tug-of-War" to today's "Four-Person Cavalry Battle," if it weren't for Kitagawa Ryo's amazing fighting skills, their group would actually be at a natural disadvantage.

"Aside from the topics I encountered when I first arrived on the island, such as [cooking] and [Tea Ceremony], it seems I haven't really met any other women who specialize in these areas."

Horikita Suzune nodded in affirmation.

"I can also cook and Tea Ceremony..."

Kitagawa Ryo peeked out from the side.

Then an awkward silence fell over the field.

"I think Arisu meant that girls are at a natural disadvantage in many sports-related subjects."

Ichinose Honami tried her best to steer the conversation back on track.

"Yeah, the previous [Beach Flag Capture] was divided into male and female teams, but now it's all mixed. In [Multi-party Tug-of-War], there are teams of one man and three women competing against teams of four men."

Sakayanagi Arisu accepted the offer.

"But we won [the Multi-party Tug-of-War] too."

Kitagawa Ryo leaned over again.

"All right--"

Sakayanagi Arisu a deep breath.

"I just want to involve Liang Ying in a research project, is that alright?"

She has a very strong competitive spirit, and yesterday's [Multi-party Tug-of-War] made her a burden to the whole team. If it weren't for the efforts of the other three, they definitely wouldn't have won the first place prize.

Today's victory in the [Four-Person Cavalry Battle] was largely due to Kitagawa Ryo's design and the strength of Ken Sudō's team.

Sakayanagi Arisu showed a defiant expression.

"Alice's expression is quite unusual."

Kitagawa Ryo could understand Sakayanagi Arisu's feelings, and he smiled as he pointed to a certain location on his watch.

"Then let's go with this topic."

He extended his hand to Sakayanagi Arisu and said slowly in a dismissive tone:

"I'm lying down now."

"Please—take me flying."

Chapter 195: The Uncontrollable Chabashira Sae

Following the direction Kitagawa Ryo pointed, Sakayanagi Arisu also saw the full picture of the topic.

[Topic Title: Group Free Combat]

"Ahem, this... this one over here, you're pointing to the wrong one."

Sensing the sudden chill in Sakayanagi Arisu's gaze, Kitagawa Ryo quickly moved his fingers to the other side.

[Topic: Group Speed Mental Arithmetic Competition]

[Topic Type: Academic Ability]

[Project Description: Participation is by group. Registration closes when four groups have registered or one hour after the project is announced.]

[Starting from the first round, each group sends one person to participate in turn. The person who answers the questions successfully within the specified time can continue to participate in the next round. The person who fails to answer is eliminated, and a member of the same group will take their place until all members of the group are eliminated. The group represented by the last surviving student is the winner.]

[Note: If the initial number of people in a group (i. e., when they arrive on the island) is less than four, the last person to appear will have an extra chance to survive. For example, if a student is in a group alone, they will need to fail four rounds of answering questions before being eliminated.]

[First Place: 2500 points, one chance to upgrade to a regular card]

[Second Place: 2000 points]

The group whose members are eliminated first will be the last place in this project. If multiple groups are eliminated in the same round, a tiebreaker will be held until a final place is determined.

[The group that finishes last needs to select one member to withdraw from the exam within the allotted time. If no selection is made by the end of the time limit, the school will randomly select one member from that group to be eliminated.]

"How was it? I guess you could say it Arisu turf?"

"Liang's Speed Mental Arithmetic skills are clearly superior to mine..."

Sakayanagi Arisu shook her head. Although she would prefer to find a subject that Kitagawa Ryo was not good at, but that she was the only one who was good at, she couldn't think of a similar project for a while after thinking about it in her mind.

Whether it's Chess or Speed Mental Arithmetic, which she's most confident in, if you really look into it, Sakayanagi Arisu is actually a defeated opponent of Kitagawa Ryo.

It's fortunate that the TV show "Genius Duel" doesn't exist in this timeline.

However, facing everyone except Kitagawa Ryo, Sakayanagi Arisu didn't think she would lose, so she confidently turned to her teammates Horikita Suzune and Ichinose Honami and said:

"I'll go first; I can handle the whole game by myself."

"Well, that just happens to be what I'm not very good at Speed Mental Arithmetic."

Ichinose Honami smiled, not seeming to think anything of it.

Horikita Suzune nodded, indicating that she wasn't too worried. When she first arrived on the island, she had actually participated in a [Speed Mental Arithmetic] project with Sakayanagi Arisu, but that project was simply about doing test papers.

It didn't emphasize competition; it was simply a competition of the final scores. Horikita Suzune remembered that after Sakayanagi Arisu won first place, she said to Kitagawa Ryo with lingering pride that the final question on the test wasn't difficult and that Ryo could have gotten first place just as well.

On the contrary, Speed Mental Arithmetic, which constantly increases in difficulty until it eliminates people, might be more suitable for Sakayanagi Arisu to reach her full potential.

However, it's best to avoid running into Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

It's not that Horikita Suzune was certain that Sakayanagi Arisu couldn't beat Ayanokoji Kiyotaka in the [Speed Mental Arithmetic] event; it's mainly because the rules of this event were somewhat favorable to solo teams like Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's.

If we define Sakayanagi Arisu and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka as being of similar skill levels, then Sakayanagi Arisu is essentially facing Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's four lives with only one life.

The margin for error is extremely low, or rather, there can be absolutely no room for error.

But humans are not computers; under intense mental calculation, it is almost inevitable that a mistake will occur at some point.

However, Horikita Suzune couldn't possibly voice these concerns at this moment. On one hand, they hadn't actually encountered Ayanokoji Kiyotaka yet, and on the other hand...

Horikita Suzune looked at Kitagawa Ryo, who was walking ahead of her.

She naively... trusted Liang.

Horikita Suzune's worst fears did not come true; Ayanokoji Kiyotaka did not appear at the [Group Speed Mental Arithmetic Competition] event.

What caught Kitagawa Ryo's attention was that all three groups that came here were from Class 1-A.

However, the only group that Kitagawa Ryo was somewhat familiar with was Matoba Shinji's group. Shimazaki Kazue and Fukuyama Shinobu, who were both highly capable students, were in their group. The last time Kitagawa Ryo's group encountered them was during the "Draw and Guess" project. Kitagawa Ryo's group still had all four members, and it seemed that they had successfully escaped unscathed in the first round of the project.

Just as Kitagawa Ryo was about to register, a hand suddenly reached out from the woods and grabbed his clothes:

"Hey, Kitagawa, do you want to sign up for this project?"

"Ishizaki?"

Perhaps influenced by their class leader, Ishizaki Daichi Ryuen Kakeru, whose style was also leaning towards Tarzan, emerged from the forest. The other three girls from Kitagawa Ryo's group instinctively took two steps back, but he didn't seem to care. Ishizaki Daichi pointed to the three groups from Class A over there and gestured with his lips:

"Wouldn't it be better to let them kill each other?"

"If all three groups are from Class A, then no matter what, one student from Class A will be eliminated."

"We'll talk about that later... Where are your teammates?"

Kitagawa Ryo asked the question instinctively.

"Cough cough..."

After being stumped by Kitagawa Ryo's question for a while, Ishizaki Daichi stammered for a moment before saying somewhat embarrassedly:

"That unlucky guy who drank the tap water was actually Kaneda from our group. He's too weak; we were fine after drinking it, but he collapsed."

"And then, Komiya was eliminated in the first round of the project again this morning. It was really unlucky; she ran into that freak Ayanokoji in the [4x100m Relay Race] project."

Ishizaki Daichi clapped his hands in frustration:

"Then our group was left with just me and Yoshimoto. Ryuen told us to temporarily stop participating in the project and just stay on the island to gather intelligence."

"I see."

Kitagawa Ryo nodded. Ishizaki Daichi had been engrossed in finding various unattended projects a few days ago, but now it seems he used up all his luck back then.

Judging from the configuration of Ishizaki and Yoshimoto's team, it feels like they are basically standing on the edge of a cliff. Moreover, the project's preferential treatment for smaller teams only applies to the initial incomplete four-person teams. Teams like Ishizaki Daichi's, which were eliminated later, do not enjoy this preferential treatment.

"Hey, Kitagawa, it seems like your group members have signed up. Is that okay?"