Examination Rules

At 8:30 p.m., with ten minutes left before the meeting time, Sawahara and the others had already arrived on the second floor of the cruise ship.

"You're here at this time too? I suppose I'd be surprised if you weren't."

Katsuragi said this as they ran into each other in the corridor.

"I see. So that's what you think?" Sawahara quickly understood Katsuragi's reasoning. It was clear that Katsuragi believed the school had a reason for its group assignments and suspected that it would put capable students in the same group to compete against one another. That was why he'd made the remark.

"I'm not sure how to respond to your confidence in me. It's a little disheartening." Sawahara sighed. "If this had been the Katsuragi from before the last exam, I might have been a little pleased."

After all, Katsuragi had already lost too much in the previous exam.

"..." Katsuragi fell silent. The Class A students beside him wore complicated expressions.

The only thing that could break arrogance was arrogance. The arrogance of Class A's students had been shattered by the arrogance of the victors.

Come to think of it, Sawahara could transfer to Class A before graduation simply by relying on Class A's contract. It was hard to say who the real Class A was.

There was still time before the meeting, and neither Sawahara nor Katsuragi rushed into the room. Everyone arriving at this time belonged to the same group, after all, so it couldn't hurt to get a look at their upcoming opponents.

Before long, the members of Class B arrived too. Unexpectedly, Ichinose wasn't among them. Instead, it was Kanzaki and two of their female classmates.

"Sawahara, Ryuen." Kanzaki looked at Sawahara with a somewhat complicated expression. Sawahara had left a deep impression on him during the previous exam.

"Good evening, Kanzaki." Sawahara gave him a slight nod in greeting.

Katsuragi furrowed his brows. Had he been wrong in his earlier guess?

Sawahara didn't think there was anything wrong with Katsuragi's guess. Many factors could affect the group assignments. He recalled Hoshinomiya-sensei's shock when she'd learned that Class D had withdrawn from the exam, and a few suspicions began to form.

Unlike the three other classes, whose members had arrived together, Class D was scattered. Horikita Suzune arrived first, followed by Hirata and Ayanokoji.

"Oh, Ayanokoji, were you assigned to this group too?"

"No, I just came with Hirata." Ayanokoji shook his head in response to Sawahara's question.

"I see." Sawahara narrowed his eyes slightly. Several thoughts crossed his mind, but he dismissed them one by one.

They didn't have to wait long for the last member of Class D. Everyone there knew her: Class 1-D's popular girl, Kushida Kikyo.

Once everyone had arrived, the three classes—A, B, and C—headed straight to the rooms listed in their emails, seemingly by mutual agreement.

"I never expected you to be the one explaining things to our class, Hoshinomiya-sensei." Sawahara looked at the teacher in front of him.

"Aw, don't stare at me like that. Honami will get jealous." Hoshinomiya-sensei lowered her head slightly and blinked, putting on a bashful expression.

"Yes, she probably will get jealous of you, Hoshinomiya-sensei." Sawahara replied flatly.

"Aw, Sawahara, you're such a meanie." Hoshinomiya-sensei pouted.

Ryuen hadn't said a word the whole time. He just watched the exchange as if enjoying the show.

"Hoshinomiya-sensei, please focus on your work." Sawahara was a little exasperated with this flighty teacher. Wasn't this school a little too lax? Were there no standards for teachers?

Sakagami-sensei's flexible morals were one thing, but Hoshinomiya-sensei was even teasing her students... Ichinose really had it tough.

"You won't be popular with girls if you keep acting like that, Sawahara." After saying that, Hoshinomiya-sensei finally got serious and began explaining the exam.

"Ryuen, Suzuki, and Oda from Class C, I'm going to explain the Special Exam now, so listen carefully.

"For this Special Exam, the school has divided all first-year students into twelve groups based on the Chinese zodiac. The exam will be held within each group. It's designed to test your ability to think."

The basic abilities needed in society were divided into three areas: thinking, action, and teamwork. The Uninhabited Island Exam had tested their teamwork, but unfortunately, not every class had passed using the same approach.

Still, Sawahara made a note of it. It might be a clue to the exam.

"Several rooms nearby are also being used to explain the exam to the other members of your group." Sawahara and the others showed little reaction. They already knew that, since so many groups had finished their briefings. In fact, he already knew what the exam involved. But to avoid relying on possibly inaccurate information from his classmates, he still needed to listen carefully.

"Each class will have three to five members in the group. Your group is Group Dragon."

Dragon was the fifth of the twelve zodiac signs. That was the first thing that came to Sawahara's mind. The school had deliberately put the leaders of each class together. As for why Ichinose wasn't there... the teacher in front of him, who wasn't exactly known for following the rules, was probably the reason.

"The Special Exam officially begins tomorrow and ends at nine tomorrow night, four days later. One of those days will be completely free. Starting tomorrow, you'll need to go to the room designated by the school at one in the afternoon and eight in the evening each day. You'll have one hour of open discussion there. You must introduce yourselves the first time you meet. You can use the rest of the time however you like, but you can't leave the room. You may only leave once the session is over."

They were required to introduce themselves. That meant some information shared during the introductions had to be a clue leading to the exam's outcome.

"This is a printed copy of the exam instructions." Hoshinomiya-sensei handed them the instructions. "Your classmates are pretty outrageous. They all wanted to copy everything down themselves instead of listening to me explain it. That's so mean!"

Ryuen glanced at Sawahara. There was no doubt that this was a task Sawahara had assigned. It looked like everyone had done their best.

"However, you're not allowed to take the handout out of the room or photograph it."

Sawahara already knew that. Afterward, his classmates had made sure to memorize the instructions while listening to the explanation.

What could he say? There might not be many clever people in his class, but there weren't many who liked to game the system either. Still, it must have been tough for them, especially Ishizaki and the others. He couldn't believe they'd managed to memorize all this while looking so miserable.

He skimmed through the instructions. They were no different from the information his classmates had brought back.

"This exam revolves around the 'VIP' assigned to each group. If you answer the school's question using the prescribed method, one of the following four outcomes will occur.

"The school will email students at eight in the morning on the day the exam begins. The chosen VIP will also be informed that they've been selected.

"Outcome One: If everyone in the group, except for the VIP and the students in the VIP's class, answers correctly, the school will award every group member 500,000 Private Points. The VIP will receive double that amount.

"Outcome Two: If nobody answers, or if everyone answers incorrectly, except for the VIP and the students in the VIP's class, the school will award the VIP 500,000 Private Points.

"Outcome Three: If someone other than the VIP gives the school the answer before the exam ends and answers correctly, their class will receive 50 Class Points, and the student who answered correctly will receive 500,000 Private Points from the school. Conversely, the VIP's class will lose 50 Class Points if the VIP's identity is exposed, and the group exam will end early. If a student from the VIP's class answers correctly, it will be considered invalid, and the exam will continue.

"Outcome Four: If someone other than the VIP gives the school an answer before the exam ends but answers incorrectly, their class will lose 50 Class Points, the VIP's class will gain 50 Class Points, and the group exam will end early. If a student from the VIP's class answers incorrectly, the answer will be considered invalid, and the exam will continue."

"The school has also taken anonymity into account this time. At the end of the exam, it will only announce the results for each group and the changes to each class's points. In other words, the names of the VIPs and the students who answer won't be made public. You can also have your rewards deposited into a temporary ID and withdraw them in installments. No one will find out, even after the exam is over."

"You left out one thing, teacher: the list of students taking the exam in our group," Sawahara said. This was a standard part of the process. Like the handout, the list wasn't allowed to leave the room.

There had to be a key clue to the exam on that list.

But when he looked it over, it was just a list of names. Nothing seemed unusual. Still, why would the school be so strict about it if it weren't important?

So the list itself is the important part?

Sawahara thought it over. He was beginning to understand the key to the exam.