Things Have Come to This

"What is the one thing that is always mentioned in a self-introduction?" Back in the dormitory, Sawahara asked Ryuen and Kaneda.

"In this school, it would probably be your class," Kaneda pondered for a moment before giving his answer. After all, in this school, most situations involve acting as a unit based on one's class, so people generally introduce their class during self-introductions.

"That kind of thing is completely meaningless," Ryuen refuted Kaneda's statement without hesitation. "Even without a self-introduction, you can tell at a glance which class a student belongs to just by looking."

After all, when discussions take place, students from the same class undoubtedly sit together.

"The key should be the name." Ryuen looked at Sawahara. "You disgusting bastard, you figured it out too, didn't you?"

This was the one thing that was always mentioned in a self-introduction, yet precisely because it was so common, it was easily overlooked.

"Why is your way of addressing me getting even worse? But you're right, the clue to solving this exam must lie in the names."

Although he was speechless at Ryuen's increasingly nasty choice of words, he shared the same opinion that the name was the key to the exam.

Seeing the confusion still lingering on Kaneda's face, Sawahara began to explain.

"The subject of this exam is thinking ability, not teamwork. In other words, this exam can be solved by an individual using their own reasoning to identify the problem, resolve it, and obtain the final answer—that is, the identity of the VIP." Sawahara had realized this the moment he heard the exam was testing thinking ability.

"The VIPs were chosen by the school, and this selection definitely wasn't completely random. After all, even the members of each group were chosen with a certain amount of consideration."

"As long as one can discover this pattern, one can directly grasp the entire list of VIPs and completely conquer this exam."

"So, the so-called group discussions are actually just the school misleading us?" Kaneda believed Sawahara's analysis immediately. Past exams had proven that Sawahara was correct, so this time would certainly be no exception. If Ryuen had said this, he would have been suspicious, no matter how reasonable it sounded.

"No, using group discussions to find the VIP is indeed the correct approach, but this exam is also testing our way of thinking and our perspective. Even if the method is correct, searching through twelve groups one by one is too time-consuming and labor-intensive." Sawahara shook his head. The school wasn't misleading the students; the way of thinking and one's perspective were also part of the test.

"However, we must still take the group discussions seriously, at least until we find the pattern." Although he said that, he wasn't very optimistic about what the class could gain from the group discussions.

"I understand." Kaneda nodded.

After sending a command to the students in the class to gather in the second-floor lounge at 7:50, Sawahara went to bed.

7:50 AM on the first day of the exam.

The students of Class C arrived at the lounge designated by Sawahara. Not a single person was late, though many were yawning and lacked energy.

"Ishizaki, what happened to your face?" Sawahara looked at the slight redness on Ishizaki's cheek with some confusion. He could tell at a glance that this unnatural flush was caused by a slap.

Ishizaki glanced at Yamada, who was standing next to him, curled the corner of his mouth, and hissed in pain. "It's nothing, I just tripped when I got up this morning."

You were probably unable to wake up this morning and got slapped awake by Yamada, Sawahara thought, though he didn't expose him.

"Everyone did well yesterday." Sawahara was very satisfied with the execution of his classmates. Although their abilities were lacking, their attitude was decent.

"I assume you all know that in ten minutes, the school will send out information regarding the VIPs for this exam."

"Later, everyone hand over your phones. I will check them one by one and then delete the messages."

Sawahara provided his strategy for dealing with the group discussions. As long as the VIPs themselves didn't know they were VIPs, students from other classes wouldn't have a way to guess their identities.

However, upon hearing Sawahara's words, the students in the class looked at each other, and then a female student spoke up.

"Isn't that inappropriate?" The girl who spoke was Nishino, a member of the class's sports club, whose courage was greater than that of the average student.

"There are a lot of private things on our phones."

It was true that for modern people, phones played too many roles in daily life, recording many private things, such as bold selfies, chat histories from girls' small groups, browser history, and so on.

Sawahara was, of course, aware of this. "I know what you're worried about. I won't look through your phones; I will only look at the message sent by the school for this exam. Everyone line up and confirm it one by one, and you can supervise from the side."

"For the boys, Ryuen and I will be responsible for checking, and for the girls, Shiina and Ibuki will be in charge."

Hearing Sawahara say this, Nishino nodded and didn't speak again. As long as her privacy wouldn't be leaked, she had no objections.

Seeing that the people in the class were still somewhat reluctant, Sawahara gave one final explanation.

"In this exam, no matter what we do during the group discussions, there is a possibility that our class's VIP information will be exposed. But if we don't know who they are from the very beginning, the other classes won't be able to find any flaws."

"But isn't this a prohibited action?" A student in the class still remembered the rules the teacher had mentioned earlier.

"The school only prohibits copying, forwarding, or changing the emails sent by the school. Deleting the emails is not a prohibited action." Sawahara provided an answer to the student's question.

Hearing his explanation, the people in the class finally understood the ins and outs of the matter. Shortly after, Sawahara felt a vibration in his pocket.

It seemed the school had sent the information.

"Now, everyone, start lining up."

"What a pity, none of us were chosen as a VIP." After checking and deleting the messages for all the students in the class, Sawahara let them go, leaving only Ryuen, Kaneda, Shiina, and Ibuki behind.

"Hmph, it's really bad luck to be in a group with you." Ryuen didn't have any objections to not being chosen as a VIP, but he habitually took a jab at Sawahara.

"These are the VIPs for the Sheep, Snake, and Dog groups, along with the lists of their group members. Can you see any pattern?" Sawahara ignored Ryuen, wrote down the lists of the groups containing his class's three VIPs, circled the names of the VIPs, and handed the paper to those present.

"Wait a second." Ryuen directly interrupted Shiina, who was about to speak. "Look at the time. Even an emperor doesn't send a hungry soldier to war."

"..." It was true; after collecting the VIP information, it was already nearly nine o'clock.

Since things had reached this point, let's eat first.