Unanimous Special Exam (Continued)

The next morning, Shuichi Kanda time, just as usual.

Chabashira-sensei arrived at the classroom as the bell rang, but her expression was somewhat strange—a mixture of sadness, relief, and anticipation.

"Before the Sports Festival in October, I'd like to ask you to take on a new Special Exam."

Upon hearing Chabashira-sensei's announcement without any prior warning, the students in the class exchanged bewildered glances, but they remained unmoved.

At this time last year, actions were already being taken for the Sports Festival, and there were no other Special Exam, but this year is a little different.

"Hmph, Special Exam? I couldn't be happier! Before I become invincible at the Sports Festival, let's easily get past this Special Exam."

It was Sudo who said this, and he was certainly qualified to say it, because his progress was indeed significant. Even though the academic data on the OAA had not yet been updated, his overall evaluation had already reached the intermediate level.

Conversely, some people are more worried.

"Jian, don't get too cocky."

"It's okay, we Kanda in our class anyway, right?"

Upon hearing Sudo's words, the students in the class felt inexplicably relieved, as did Chabashira Sae was standing on the podium.

Yes, Shuichi Kanda in this class.

"To be honest, Special Exam are rarely held during this period in previous years. In fact, Special Exam are not administered to first-year and third-year students either."

"So, only we second-year students take Special Exam before the Sports Festival?"

Sato, who had been leaning back in his chair, leaned forward and asked this question.

Chabashira nodded without any denial.

"This means that you second-year students are very excellent, so the school has made a corresponding evaluation."

"Huh? Eh? Because they think highly of us, they're giving us Special Exam... Isn't that a bit strange?"

"There's nothing strange about it. Outstanding people always have to undergo more trials, Special Exam do come with the risk of making you more vigilant."

Students may lose Class Points or personal points, and sometimes they may even be expelled from school.

However, risks often come with rewards, and you will have the opportunity to gain a large number of Class Points."

"Indeed, happiness and unhappiness are two sides of the same coin; it is precisely because of the accompanying risks that there are benefits. And even if we complain here, the Special Exam will not be canceled."

Many students in the class calmly accepted this fact.

"That's how it is." Chabashira nodded, then revealed the truth behind this Special Exam: "This time, we're asking you to take on the exam known as the [Unanimous Special Exam]."

"Unanimous Special Exam?"

What is that?

"Is it tasty?"

"Have no idea."

Then, as Chabashira operated the screen, it lit up, and accompanied by the increasingly routine video, Chabashira-sensei began to explain:

"This Special Exam was very simple, which is why I'm open to questions about anything I'm interested in."

I think you can guess the content from the name: you are asked to vote repeatedly in class until a unanimous result is reached from the multiple options.

The Special Exam will be held tomorrow, during which time classes will be cancelled. The exam will begin at 1:00 PM after the afternoon break and end at 6:00 PM, lasting a total of five hours.

"Tomorrow?... That's really sudden."

Even Shuichi Kanda was unaware of this, so it was indeed very sudden.

"As I just said, this Special Exam is very simple. The school believes there's no need to spend time discussing it beforehand, and it can be held directly tomorrow without any problem."

The process of conducting repeated voting within the class until a unanimous result is reached seems quite simple if you only consider the literal meaning.

"So, this time it's not going to be a battle against other classes, right?"

"That's right. This Special Exam can be completed only within our class, so there will be no competition with rival classes."

After the exam begins that day, the school will give you five "topics." Furthermore, the content of the topics is the same for all classes, so there will be no difference.

"To help you understand this more deeply, let's look at some examples right away."

Example: Five Class Points will be lost, but all students in the class will gain 10,000 individual points.

Options: For & Against

The topic was displayed on the screen, and the content was the same as what Chabashira-sensei had told us; it was a very simple question that was easy to understand.

Upon seeing this topic, Shuichi Kanda was suddenly speechless. Was this some kind of insult to his intelligence? This kind of topic really required an hour? Don't be ridiculous!

"Hmm? What's this? Let me see... Although I'll lose 5 Class Points, I'll get 10,000 personal points as compensation... Is this the research topic? In that case, is it a gain or a loss?"

There are still nearly 20 months until graduation. With 5 Class Points, each person will receive 500 personal points every month. So, by graduation, the final personal points will be 10,000.

"Only 10,000 points?" The students in Class A had complicated expressions. "This is like giving a beggar a free Delia."

"Regarding this topic, you 40 people will vote on one of the options in a completely anonymous manner."

As the saying goes, seeing is believing. After trying it out yourself, you'll have a real understanding. Whether you agree or disagree, please vote using your tablet.

As Chabashira-sensei finished speaking, the screens on the students' tablets changed to match the image on the blackboard.

The tablet displays the topic content, along with options: for, or against.

Without any hesitation, Shuichi Kanda immediately chose to object. Ten thousand Private Points? That's a joke! How embarrassing!

Soon, all the students in the class had finished answering the questions.

"Very good, everyone has finished voting. Now let's start tallying the results."

As soon as the words were spoken, the result appeared on the screen.

0 votes in favor, 40 votes against.

Upon seeing the uniform numbers above, Chabashira was momentarily stunned, but quickly recovered.

"Congratulations on successfully passing this individual's test."

"That's all?"

The students in the class seemed a little confused. This project really takes an average of one hour? They must be looking down on us.

"This is just an example question, so there will be a relatively clear preference. Because you don't have much need for Private Points, you've reached this consistent result."

But what if you've been living in poverty for several months in a row? At that point, some of you might choose to deduct Class Points to gain Private Points, right?

The students in the class looked at each other, and then couldn't help but think of the first semester of first grade, when they had squandered all their Class Points as soon as school started and had to live in poverty for three months.

If it were that time, I probably would have chosen Private Points.

"If your choices differ, then you will have to vote again. In the formal exam, the break between the start of the next vote is fixed at ten minutes."

During this period, you can talk freely as you do now, and sometimes you will be allowed to leave your seats and exchange opinions.

I see. Allowing communication makes things much easier.

"You are all excellent students, and I'm sure you've already understood this problem. Now let's move on to the next example."

Example question: Give one million personal points to one student in the class. (If everyone agrees, the student to be given the points must be designated and a vote must be taken.)

For & Against

"You should have some ideas about the example questions, but during the official exam, private conversations are prohibited before the first vote. In other words, you must first vote purely on the topic itself."

The students nodded and then began operating their tablets, quickly completing the voting for the example problem.

The first vote resulted in 40 votes in favor and 0 votes against.

1 million points can be obtained without any additional cost; who wouldn't want free money?

"You will encounter similar topics during the formal exam. If everyone objects, the topic will naturally be terminated without any follow-up."

If everyone agrees, then the second part of the project will proceed, in which a member will be selected from the class to be the subject of the previous project.

Then, with a series of actions by the Chabashira, a new image appeared on the large screen, showing the headshots of all the students in the class, forty in total.

"Next comes the selection of candidates, but before that, we need to choose one person as the voting candidate."

"Um, what does this mean?"

"It's simple. The previous project said that one million Private Points would be given to someone, but it didn't specify who. I think the distribution will be done through a vote later."

Shuichi Kanda shrugged.

"That's right, for example..." Chabashira first looked at Shuichi Kanda, then at Ike from the class, "For example, Ike, do you want these 1 million Private Points?"

"Of course! Nobody complains about having too much money."

Chi readily agreed. Although he was already a millionaire, as he said, who would complain about having too much money?

"Then let's take Chi as the subject and proceed to the next step of this project. As the person involved, Chi naturally cannot vote."

Now you can click on Chi's profile picture on the tablet to vote for him. As long as he receives more than half of the votes, he will be put on the voting stage.

As the students interacted with the screen, the image on it changed.

Example question: Grant Kanji Ike one million personal points.

For & Against

The second vote resulted in zero votes in favor and thirty-nine votes against.

Chi was completely dumbfounded upon seeing this result.

"Pfft!"

"Ha ha..."

"Ha ha ha ha..."

Then, someone in the class started it, and the students began to laugh wildly.

About half a minute later, the class fell silent again.

"If the entire audience unanimously opposes this vote targeting Chi, it will pass the decision to [not award Chi points]. However, this only means that Chi will be removed from the list of candidates for the project; the fate of the one million points is still uncertain."

Therefore, students need to be selected again from the remaining thirty-eight to continue the research project.

However, if in your vote just now, some people voted in favor of giving the pool points and some people voted against it, it means that no consensus was reached.

So, students will still be selected from the thirty-nine people, and it's not impossible that Chi will be selected again.

Furthermore, if no decision can be made on who to give the gift to by the end of the time limit, and no consensus can be reached, the exam is considered a failure.

Not only that, but the million points won't be given to anyone; you should be aware of that.

I see. However, Shuichi Kanda's focus was not on that, but on what Chabashira-sensei had just said.

"Teacher, what will happen if I fail the exam?"

Upon hearing Shuichi Kanda's words, Chabashira-sensei paused for a moment, then sighed softly, as perceptive as ever.

"If you fail the exam, you will have 300 Class Points deducted."

Chabashira's words immediately caused an uproar in the class.

Deducting 300 Class Points? Are you kidding me? Even if they're in Class A, they can't afford such a loss.

"Alright, you can discuss anything else downstairs. Since everyone unanimously agreed that Chi shouldn't receive the million Private Points, the mock exam will continue."

You now have ten minutes to discuss this topic. During this time, you will also need to select one person from the remaining thirty-nine people to vote.

Is anyone willing to volunteer? If so, those who register first will be designated as students.

The students looked at each other blankly, clearly still reeling from the punishment of losing 300 Class Points.

"If no one volunteers to step forward, or if no one has more than 20 nomination votes, then someone will be randomly selected."

However, the next person to be nominated came soon – Shuichi Kanda.

"Very good, let's begin the discussion with Kanda as the voting candidate. Of course, Kanda himself cannot vote."

Example question: Grant Shuichi Kanda million personal points.

For & Against

The third vote resulted in 39 votes in favor and 0 votes against.

"And that completes your project."

Hearing Chabashira's words, the students in the class all breathed a sigh of relief.