After I finished the questions in the midterm exam hall, I checked them once more and began twirling my pen out of boredom.
A few days earlier, that senior from Class 3-D had already transferred the points to me: 2.4 million personal points in total.
By now, that shop clerk should have been arrested. My income this month had been far too low. It was hard to earn points without a Special Exam!
After the exam, when the results were announced, Sudo from Class D had actually passed this time.
He'd probably done well because he'd quit the Basketball Club after the apology incident and had spent the past month studying diligently.
That meant we'd have one less payment to make to the school. Great!
"How many points did you get from Kiriyama this time?"
Everyone in Class C was gathered in their classroom for the morning meeting.
"I got 300,000 personal points from Kiriyama. Add the 100,000 we get from the Student Council each month, and that's 400,000 in total."
Manabe stood up first to report how things had gone.
"That Kiriyama is going to get what's coming to him sooner or later. We worked so hard, and he only gave us 1.2 million in the end. From what I hear, even the people in his own faction are somewhat unhappy with him."
Most of Class C had helped Kiriyama gather information, and he'd given them so few points. What a cheapskate.
Besides, Kiriyama had no idea how to cooperate for mutual benefit. His Class B had won the second-year Special Exam, but that had only narrowed the gap between them and Class A by a few dozen Class Points. Meanwhile, Class 2-C and Class 2-D had suffered heavy losses.
And Kiriyama hadn't even compensated them with enough personal points. No one could accept a loss like that, so it was no wonder everyone resented him.
"Honestly, Kiriyama deserves to fail. Nagumo gave me two million personal points this time, more than all of you put together."
Nagumo's sincerity was the real deal. Even though most of what I'd given him was false information, he'd still paid me the agreed amount. It was a shame I wouldn't have many more chances to milk him.
"Good morning, everyone. I'm sure you've already seen the changes to our class's Class Points in your accounts.
"Nearly a hundred points have been added to each of the other three classes. Our class gained the fewest points, mainly because you all let your guard down after the behavioral test in the first month. You've also committed many more violations of student conduct during class, so more points were deducted from you than from the other classes."
Sakagami projected the Class Points for each class onto the whiteboard.
Class A: 1,054 Class Points.
Class B: 1,009 Class Points.
Class C: 940 Class Points.
Class D: 611 Class Points.
Classes A and B had already surpassed the 1,000 points they'd received at the start of the school year. The first-year classes now had a total of 3,614 Class Points, bringing them much closer to the 4,000 points they'd started with.
This month, everyone in Class C had contributed a total of 3.643 million points. With Class D's 900,000-point repayment added in, Class C now had 28.846 million personal points in its account.
It was a shame that 3,614 Class Points would probably be the peak before the Uninhabited Island Exam. The Class Points after that exam would likely become the peak for the entire school year.
After that, it seemed there wouldn't be any outside points coming in, only points circulating within the school. All in all, the first step of our plan had gone pretty well. We'd preserved most of our Class Points.
Still, why had my right eyelid been twitching all day?
"Next, I'll announce the rules for our first Special Exam of the term."
"?"
Something felt off. Wasn't the Uninhabited Island Exam supposed to be the only Special Exam in the first year's first term? Where had this one come from?
Had I somehow sped up the plot?
"The school considers the level our first-year students demonstrated in this midterm exam to be the highest in the school's history, so it has arranged this Special Exam in response.
"Everyone, there's no need to worry. Special Exams like this will become a regular part of your lives. Don't fear them. Instead, you should learn to get used to them.
"The rules for this Special Exam are very simple. Each class must send a total of nine students. Before the exam begins, each student will receive nine cards, numbered from one to nine.
"The cards with even numbers will have black backs, while those with odd numbers will have white backs.
"Before the exam begins, each class must submit a list to its homeroom teacher. The list must include the students taking part and the order in which they'll compete.
"The exam will consist of nine rounds. In each round, every class must send out a competitor according to the order on its list.
"In each round, the competitors from all four classes must choose a card from their hands and compete to see whose card has the highest number.
"The order of play in the first round will be A, B, C, D. After that, play will proceed clockwise from the winner of the previous round, who will play first.
"If there's a tie, the order resets, and play will once again proceed A, B, C, D.
"The player with the highest card earns one point. If two or three players tie, none of them earn a point. If all four players tie, all points the four classes have accumulated so far will be erased, and scoring will start over from zero.
"The cards each player chooses will not be revealed. The judges will confirm the results and keep score, and the scores will be made public.
"The classes' final rankings will be determined by the total points their students earn over the nine rounds. The more points a class earns, the higher its ranking; the fewer points it earns, the lower its ranking.
"If there's a tie after all nine rounds, the school will require each tied class to select another student who didn't take part in the first nine rounds. That student will receive a new set of cards, and the competition will continue until one class wins."
The rules sounded a little complicated, but at its core, this was just a game of comparing numbers and keeping score. The winner took all, and unless all four players tied, the losers would simply lose out.
There was also plenty of room for the classes to manipulate the rules. For instance, they could trade cards between classes. It would be easy to give one student a hand full of nines.
There were even more underhanded options, like cheating. Since only the player and the judge knew what card had been played, someone could cheat and pretend to have nothing but eights and nines, as long as nobody challenged the rules. But that was too risky. There was no need to go that far.
"The class that places first in this Special Exam will receive 50 Class Points and a reward of one million personal points.
"The class that places second will not lose any Class Points and will receive a reward of 500,000 personal points.
"The class that places third will not lose any Class Points, but it will receive no personal points.
"The class that places fourth will lose 50 Class Points."
What a generous Special Exam. I'd thought the school had arranged it to cut down on all the Class Points we first-years had saved up.
Getting 1.5 million personal points for free was pretty great.
Before you continue