Falling into a Trap / Believe First

"What are your thoughts on the current situation, Ayanokoji-kun?"

Katsuragi Kohei, who had been worrying and had a headache all night and hadn't slept well, turned his head and asked Ayanokoji Kiyotaka beside him.

"Let them shift their attention to other things and create an even more hateful enemy for the team."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka naturally didn't want Class A to fall into such a predicament because of a few secrets, so after a moment's thought, he offered his opinion.

"The enemy? Class B?"

"Class B has already used it; using it again won't be as effective."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka shook his head. He looked at the somewhat somber atmosphere of the camp before him and softly voiced his thoughts:

"If a student in our class who's fairly popular gets ambushed and injured by a student from another class, forcing them to withdraw from the exam, that should be enough to garner sympathy, right?"

"It's not that easy. Our watches all have the school's GPS tracking system installed."

Katsuragi Kohei shook his head and expressed his concerns.

"But there's one person on the island who likes to wander around without a watch."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka said this.

Chapter 210: Falling into the Trap

"You mean Ryuen from Class C?"

Upon hearing Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's description, Katsuragi Kohei immediately thought of Ryuen Kakeru, who delivered supplies to their group daily, and asked with some doubt:

"Aren't we in a cooperative relationship with Ryuen?"

Ryuen Kakeru's score remained zero not because he didn't participate in any projects to earn points, but because he converted those points into supplies every day and gave them to Katsuragi Kohei's group for their use.

It can be said that the reason why Katsuragi Kohei's team has been able to maintain its position in the top three of the group rankings is not only because of their own excellent abilities, but also because of the support provided by Ryuen Kakeru.

That's why Katsuragi Kohei was so confused when he heard that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka planned to take action against Ryuen Kakeru.

"I did reach a cooperation agreement with Ryuen beforehand, but now I believe that his elimination at this moment would be more beneficial to Class A."

Having already realized that Ryuen Kakeru was a double agent, and had even deceived him once, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka Katsuragi Kohei about his speculation that Ryuen Kakeru might have already cooperated with Class D.

"He's probably the most flexible individual on the entire island now. The Resurrection card ensures he's completely unconstrained by rules and tasks. He only needs to perfunctorily complete one task each day to deliver the supplies to you, and then he can roam the island without restraint."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka glanced at Katsuragi Kohei expressionlessly:

"Furthermore, we can use the pretext of delivering supplies to spy on your strongest squad in Class A."

His meaning was very clear: compared to the intelligence disruption that Ryuen Kakeru might cause to Class A, the supplies the other side sent could be completely discarded.

"I see."

Katsuragi Kohei also made a quick decision. He took a deep breath, lowered his voice, and continued to ask Ayanokoji Kiyotaka:

"So, Ayanokoji, have you decided who should leave the stage?"

Karuizawa Kei had already proven during the early stages of the Uninhabited Island Exam that if you want to maximize the emotions and fighting spirit of the students in Class A, the person being targeted must be popular in the class.

As we all know, the most popular boy and girl in Class 1-A are Hirata Yosuke and Kushida Kikyo, respectively. However, both of them happen to be members of Katsuragi Kohei's group. If they leave at this time, the effect will indeed be achieved, but Katsuragi Kohei's group, which is missing one member, will probably have to say goodbye to the top three groups in this Special Exam.

Seemingly sensing Katsuragi Kohei's concerns, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka did not reveal the two men's names, but instead spoke softly:

"Hashimoto Masayoshi."

"... Um."

Katsuragi Kohei considered it for a moment and felt that Hashimoto Masayoshi was indeed a good candidate. On the one hand, Hashimoto Masayoshi was quite popular in Class A, and on the other hand, since only he and Kito Hayato were left in his group after they were eliminated, they could no longer compete for a higher ranking.

"However, it would be best if you, Katsuragi, personally persuaded him to agree, after all, you are the Leader of Class A."

"This is my duty."

Katsuragi Kohei was naturally unaware that Hashimoto Masayoshi had been secretly exchanging information with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. He only felt that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka respected him quite a bit and had begun to put in effort for the class affairs, which were undoubtedly welcome changes.

After discussing the new plan with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, Katsuragi Kohei took the initiative to find Hashimoto Masayoshi. After explaining the pros and cons in detail and fully demonstrating his personal charm, Hashimoto Masayoshi nodded in agreement.

Ryuen Kakeru continued to wander through the forest as always. After more than a week, he had become familiar with the terrain and paths of the entire Uninhabited Island. Especially now that the four-wheeled circumvention was over and the activity range was shrinking, his efficiency in gathering useful intelligence was even faster than before.

Just as Ryuen Kakeru nimbly jumped off a cliff, preparing to take a shortcut to another area, he suddenly heard a sound that was quite familiar to him from ahead.

It's the alarm sound from my watch.

As one of only two students (the other being Kaneda Satoru, who drank tap water) to have triggered the watch alarm system during the Uninhabited Island Special Exam, Ryuen Kakeru recognized the voice almost instantly.

He frowned and quickly walked towards the source of the sound.

For Ryuen Kakeru, his motivation stemmed from two factors: his desire to obtain this information and his concern that some of his students might be in danger.

After all, since the Uninhabited Island Special Exam began, only he and Kaneda Satoru from his class had triggered the alarm, which was really strange.

Ryuen Kakeru pushed aside the weeds and branches in front of him, and after turning a corner, he saw a student lying on the ground at the foot of a hillside at the end of his field of vision. It looked like he had fallen off a cliff, and he was lying in the weeds, covered with grass clippings and leaves, so he was not very clear.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Faced with this situation, Ryuen Kakeru first called out from a distance. Seeing that the other party did not respond and seemed to have lost consciousness, he clicked his tongue helplessly, took two steps closer, and was just about to reach out and pat the other party's shoulder when he immediately recognized the student's blond hair.

Hashimoto Masayoshi from Class A?

Just as the name flashed through Ryuen Kakeru's mind and he was about to withdraw his hand, he heard hurried footsteps coming from the woods beside him. Several students from Class A, led by Katsuragi Kohei, rushed out and shouted sharply the moment they saw the scene:

"Ryuen! What did you do to Hashimoto?"

Realizing he had been tricked, Ryuen Kakeru maintained his composure, calmly stood up, and sneered. The students from Class A quickly stepped forward and surrounded him tightly, as if to restrict his movements.

About two minutes later, the school's medical team, which had quickly located the location via the alarm, also arrived at the scene. Because the alarm indicated that it was for a student in Class A's Chabashira Sae, also rushed over.

"What happened?"

Seeing that Hashimoto Masayoshi had been given a simple bandage by medical staff and then carefully lifted onto a stretcher to return to the school headquarters for further medical examination, Chabashira Sae asked with a somber expression.

"We came after hearing the alarm, and then we saw Hashimoto lying here, and we also discovered Ryuen."

Katsuragi Kohei calmly began to explain.

Having also learned of this, Class C's homeroom teacher Sakagami Suma, rushed over and immediately refuted with a serious expression:

"I believe Ryuen would not do such a thing."

Actually, he didn't believe that Ryuen was incapable of doing such a thing, but he just didn't think that Ryuen would do it so crudely, and be caught off guard on the spot.

"Before Hashimoto woke up, I suggested that the school retrieve the watch's GPS location data for investigation."

Katsuragi Kohei immediately raised his hand.

Sakagami Suma initially thought it was a good idea, but he immediately noticed Ryuen Kakeru's empty right wrist.

His heart sank.

This is... indeed a bit difficult.

Chapter 211: Believe First

The school staff present were not limited to Chabashira Sae and Sakagami Suma. After a quick inspection and taking photos of the scene, another staff member offered a more neutral perspective:

"Although we can determine that the injured student fell from the hillside, we don't actually know whether it was an accident or intentional. There's no point in the two of you arguing here now."

Sakagami Suma breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. Class A's attack was so swift that he had almost forgotten that this incident could very well be a non-human-caused accident, just like the one involving Ryuen Kakeru.

But Ryuen Kakeru still sneered. He wasn't as naive as the homeroom teacher, expecting the unconscious Hashimoto Masayoshi to give testimony that he accidentally fell off a cliff after waking up.

The moment Katsuragi Kohei arrived at the scene, he realized that this was a long-planned tactic by Class A, aimed at him.

Just like when Kitagawa Ryo was the first to arrive at the scene after his watch went off due to injury, was treated as a suspect, it would indeed be easy for him to be considered a suspect simply because he was present at the scene of the incident.

However, unlike Kitagawa Ryo, who was able to prove his innocence by using the tracking system on his watch to establish his route, Ryuen Kakeru, who destroyed and removed the watch without authorization, is now in a much worse situation.

If Hashimoto Masayoshi, upon waking up, insists that it was him—no, the other party doesn't even need to be so certain—simply saying that he felt someone push him off the cliff from behind, then Ryuen Kakeru, who cannot prove that he wasn't at the scene of the crime, would undoubtedly be the biggest, or even the only, suspect.

Ryuen Kakeru narrowed his eyes, convinced that all of this was the work of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was not present at the moment.

He had been caught wearing a watch before, but the other party had once used the vibration of his phone's ringtone to detect it.

But now that he no longer wears a watch, he has once again fallen into a trap that was tailor-made for him.

If it weren't for the monster that is Kitagawa Ryo still existing in Class 1-D, Ryuen Kakeru would probably have already raised Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's name to the highest alert level.

Ryuen Kakeru pondered, his eyes darting around, trying to find a way to break the deadlock.

"How about this, before we figure things out, Ryuen, come back to the school's headquarters with us. Anyway, you don't have a watch now and can't participate in the project scoring, so it shouldn't cause any problems, right?"

After a brief stalemate, the staff discussed the situation and ultimately made a temporary decision.

"I see."

Before he could prove his innocence, Ryuen Kakeru had no choice but to agree to the school's request in silence.

At this moment, he understood another layer of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's intentions.

Regardless of whether he could prove himself during this period, he was no longer able to act and gather intelligence on the Uninhabited Island as recklessly as before.

However, Ryuen Kakeru wasn't overly panicked, because most importantly, he had already conveyed the information about the final task to Kitagawa Ryo this morning.

Perhaps this can be considered a kind of unfortunate fortune.

Just as Ryuen Kakeru was framed and embroiled in a case of intentional assault, Kitagawa Ryo, unaware of the situation, was leading his team to easily win their first task.

In the [Liberal Arts Comprehensive Knowledge Team Competition], the school, as always, liked to arrange a lot of academic-type questions in the first round early in the morning. However, for the Kitagawa Ryo team, these academic-type questions were essentially no different from giving them first place. In fact, their average score in the end was even higher than the highest score among other groups, almost reaching full marks.

Because the algorithm used an average-scoring mechanism, Shiina Hiyori was eager to try, but considering the academic level of her groupmate Ibuki Mio, the two ultimately chose to give up on this round of the project.

"Two thousand five hundred points in hand."

After nearly an hour of working on the problems, Kitagawa Ryo stretched. Although the problems weren't too difficult for him, he was still mentally exhausted.

It's one thing to take exams at school, but to have students take exams at tables set up in the forest on Uninhabited Island is another.

"Let's find some interesting topics."

Sakayanagi Arisu also covered her mouth and yawned softly. She handed in her paper at a speed comparable to Kitagawa Ryo. Although she looked extremely sleepy after the exam, she still received a perfect score of 100.

"It needs to be interesting, but not too physically demanding... it seems difficult to find a topic like that."

Ichinose Honami frowned slightly, constantly checking her watch. She still remembered the disastrous scene of Sakayanagi Arisu's [Multi-party Tug-of-War] project, so she hesitated a bit.

"As long as we score more points, that's fine."

Horikita Suzune nodded rather pragmatically, expressing her opinion. After all, Kitagawa Ryo's dozen or so phone calls that morning had put all the class's material expenses on their group's account, which sounded exhausting.

Shiina Hiyori and Ibuki Mio also joined the discussion. They hadn't signed up for this round, but they sat in the rest area for over an hour, which was quite boring.

Just as Kitagawa Ryo raised his right wrist, trying to find a good topic, he suddenly received a communication from Ishizaki Daichi.

"Hello, this is Kitagawa, what's up?"

Kitagawa Ryo remembered that Ishizaki Daichi had left with Ryuen Kakeru that morning, so he asked another question:

"Did Ryuen send you to call me?"

After all, it's perfectly reasonable for Ryuen Kakeru, who has been penniless for years and can't even get a hundred points in communication, to communicate with him through Ishizaki Daichi.

"I am Ishizaki —no, it wasn't Boss Ryuen who sent me to call you, Kitagawa."

Ishizaki Daichi's voice rarely revealed anxiety and panic:

"Beichuan, Beichuan, you must come and save Ryuen!"

"What's wrong?"

Kitagawa Ryo frowned slightly upon hearing this, but spoke gently to soothe him:

"Calm down and explain yourself clearly."

Perhaps because Kitagawa Ryo's words had an effect, Ishizaki Daichi swallowed loudly on the other end of the communication line before straightening his tongue and recounting everything he had seen:

"When I got there, I heard school officials saying that before the matter was investigated, they wanted Ryuen's leader to come back to the school headquarters with them, as if they suspected him of harming a student in Class A."

"... I understand. Gather as much information as possible, such as who the injured student from Class A is, their current condition, and the circumstances surrounding the incident."

After Kitagawa Ryo gave him clear and logical instructions, Ishizaki Daichi seemed to have found a pillar of support, and quickly nodded in agreement before hanging up the call.

Kitagawa Ryo put away his watch and shook his head slightly.