Exam Rules

At 8:30 PM, with ten minutes remaining until the designated meeting time, Sawahara and the others had already arrived on the second deck of the cruise ship.

"Are you all here at this time too? Well, I suppose it would be surprising if you weren't."

Katsuragi, whom they encountered in the hallway, said this.

"I see, is that what you think?" Sawahara quickly grasped Katsuragi's line of reasoning. It was clear that the other party was convinced the school's grouping had a specific purpose, and he speculated that the school intended to pit the most capable students against one another in the same group, which was why he made that comment.

"I don't know what to say about your recognition; it's somewhat melancholic." Sawahara sighed. "If this were the Katsuragi from before the last exam, perhaps I would have felt a bit pleased."

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

"..." Katsuragi fell silent at these words, and the Class A students beside him wore complex expressions.

Arrogance can only be shattered by equal or greater arrogance; the arrogance of a Class A member had been broken by the arrogance of a victor.

Come to think of it, since Sawahara could transfer to Class A before graduation simply by relying on the contract with Class A, it was hard to say who the "true" Class A really was.

The time had not yet arrived, and neither Sawahara nor Katsuragi were in a hurry to enter the room. After all, everyone arriving at this hour belonged to the same group; there was no harm in getting to know the upcoming opponents in advance.

Soon, the members of Class B arrived as well, though unexpectedly, Ichinose was not among them. Instead, it was Kanzaki, accompanied by two female students from Class B.

"Sawahara-kun, Ryuen-kun." Kanzaki looked toward Sawahara with a somewhat complex expression; Sawahara had left a deep impression on him during the last exam.

"Good evening, Kanzaki-kun." Sawahara nodded slightly in greeting.

Katsuragi frowned slightly. Could it be that his previous guess was wrong?

Sawahara, however, didn't think there was anything wrong with Katsuragi's speculation. After all, there were many factors that could influence the groupings. As the memory of Hoshinomiya's shock upon learning that Class D had withdrawn from the exam slowly surfaced in his mind, he began to form a few theories.

Compared to the arrival of the students from Classes A, B, and C in groups, Class D was much more scattered. First to arrive was Horikita Suzune, followed by Hirata and Ayanokoji.

"Oh? Was Ayanokoji-kun also assigned to this group?"

"No, I'm just accompanying Hirata." Hearing Sawahara's inquiry, Ayanokoji shook his head.

"I see." Sawahara narrowed his eyes, various thoughts flashing through his mind before being dismissed one by one.

The last person from Class D didn't keep them waiting long. Everyone present recognized this person: the popular figure from Class D of the first year, Kushida Kikyo.

Once everyone had arrived, the students from Classes A, B, and C moved directly to the rooms specified in their emails with tacit understanding.

"I didn't expect that it would be you, Hoshinomiya-sensei, who would be explaining things to our class." Sawahara looked at the teacher before him.

"Oh, don't stare at me like that, Honami will get jealous." Hoshinomiya lowered her head slightly and blinked, putting on a shy act.

"Yes, indeed, she would be angry with you, Hoshinomiya-sensei." Sawahara replied flatly.

"Ugh, Sawahara-kun is such a bad boy." Hoshinomiya pouted.

Ryuen stood to the side, remaining silent and looking as if he were watching a show.

"Hoshinomiya-sensei, please take your work seriously." Sawahara felt a headache coming on regarding this unprofessional teacher. Was this school too free? Were there no requirements for the teachers at all?

It was one thing for Sakagami-sensei to have flexible morals, but for this Hoshinomiya-sensei to actually tease her students... Ichinose really had it tough.

"Sawahara-kun, you won't be popular with girls if you act like that." Once Hoshinomiya-sensei finished speaking, she finally became serious and began to explain the exam.

"Sawahara, Ryuen, Suzuki, and Oda-kun from Class C, I am now going to explain the special exam, so listen carefully.

In this special exam, the school has divided all first-year students into twelve groups based on the Chinese zodiac. We will hold the exam within these groups. The purpose of the exam is to test your thinking ability."

The basic abilities of a working adult are divided into three aspects: thinking ability, action ability, and teamwork ability. The previous exam on the uninhabited island tested teamwork ability, though unfortunately, not all classes used that method to pass.

However, Sawahara still noted this down; it might become a clue in the exam.

"Just like you, the members of your group are receiving explanations in the rooms nearby." The expressions of Sawahara and the others didn't change much. They already knew this; after all, many groups had already finished. He actually already knew the content of the exam, but to avoid any omissions or errors in the information obtained from his classmates, he still had to listen carefully.

"Each class has three to five members in the group, and your group is the Dragon group."

The Dragon is the fifth of the twelve earthly branches. Sawahara immediately thought of this. The school had indeed intentionally arranged the leaders of each class together. As for why Ichinose wasn't there... the teacher standing before him who didn't follow the rules was likely the reason.

"The special exam officially begins tomorrow and ends at 9:00 PM four days later, including one day of complete free time. Starting tomorrow, you must go to the room designated by the school every day at 1:00 PM and 8:00 PM to conduct a one-hour free discussion. Aside from the first day when you meet, you must introduce yourselves; for the remaining time, you can do as you please, but you cannot leave the room. You can only leave once the time is up."

"You must introduce yourselves"—this meant that there was definitely a piece of information within the self-introductions that served as a clue to the exam results.

"These are the paper copies of the exam precautions." Hoshinomiya said, handing over the documents. "The students in your class are a bit ridiculous; everyone wanted to copy it down directly and didn't intend to listen to my explanation at all. How excessive."

Ryuen turned his head to look at Sawahara. There was no doubt that this was a task Sawahara had assigned. It looked like everyone had been working hard.

"However, these materials cannot be taken out, and you cannot take photos."

Sawahara knew this; later, the people in his class had seized the time to start memorizing the text while listening to the exam explanation.

How should he put it? There might not be many geniuses in his class, but there weren't many who liked to play clever tricks either. Still, he really felt for those people, especially Ishizaki and the others; it was truly impressive that they could memorize this stuff with such pained expressions.

He scanned through it roughly, and it was no different from the information his classmates had brought back.

'This exam is based on the "Target" assigned to each group. Answering the school's questions using the specified method will yield one of the following four results.

The school will send an email to notify students at 8:00 AM on the day the exam begins. It will also inform the Target of their status.

Result 1: If everyone answers correctly, excluding members within the group and those belonging to the Target's class, the school will pay 500,000 Private Points to all group members, and double that for the Target.

Result 2: If no one answers or the answers are incorrect, excluding the Target and students belonging to the Target's class, the school will pay 500,000 Private Points to the Target.

Result 3: If someone other than the Target tells the school the answer before the exam ends and is correct, the class to which the answering student belongs will receive 50 Class Points, and the school will pay 500,000 Private Points to the student who answered correctly. Conversely, the class whose Target's identity is exposed will be penalized with a deduction of 50 Class Points, and the group exam will end early. If a student from the same class as the Target answers correctly, it will be considered invalid, and the exam will continue.'

Result 4: If someone other than the VIP reports the answer to the school before the exam ends, but the answer is incorrect, the class to which the student who provided the wrong answer belongs will be deducted fifty Class Points, the VIP's class will receive fifty Class Points, and the group exam will end early. If a student from the same class as the VIP provides an incorrect answer, the answer is invalid, and the exam continues.

"The school has also considered the issue of anonymity this time. At the end of the exam, the school will only announce the results of each group and the increase or decrease in Class Points for each class. In other words, we will not disclose the names of the VIPs or the respondents, and the rewards can also be placed into temporary IDs; installment withdrawals are also possible, so no one will find out after the exam ends."

"Teacher, you are still missing one thing: the list of exam participants for our group," Sawahara spoke up. This was considered a standard procedure, and like the other materials, this list was something that could not be taken out.

The information on it must be a key clue to the exam.

However, after taking the list, there was nothing but the list itself; nothing special was written on it. But if it weren't important, why would the school attach so much importance to it?

So, does that mean the importance lies in the list itself?

Sawahara thought to himself, having gained some insight into the key to this exam.