An Unexpected Special Exam

I finished the questions on the midterm exam, checked them over once more, and began spinning my pen out of boredom.

A few days ago, that senior from Class D of the third year had already transferred the points over, totaling 2.4 million private points.

By now, that shop clerk should have already been apprehended. This month's income was truly too low; it's hard to earn points without a special exam!

After the exams concluded and the results were announced, Sudo from Class D actually passed the test normally this time.

It must be because he quit the Basketball Club after the apology incident and had been studying very honestly for the past month, which is how he managed to achieve such good results.

Being able to avoid handing over another sum of money to the school is just wonderful!

"How many points did you all get from Kiriyama this time?"

Inside the Class C classroom, the entire class was gathered for a morning meeting.

"I received 300,000 private points from Kiriyama, plus the 100,000 from the Student Council each month, totaling 400,000."

Manabe was the first to stand up and report the situation.

"That Kiriyama is going to be finished sooner or later. We put in so much effort, and in the end, he only gave us 1.2 million. As far as I know, aside from us, the people in Kiriyama's camp are also somewhat dissatisfied with him."

More than half of Class C went to help Kiriyama gather information, yet he only gave such a small amount of points; he's truly stingy.

Moreover, Kiriyama doesn't understand the concept of win-win cooperation at all. In this second-year special exam, although Kiriyama's Class B achieved victory, they only narrowed the gap in class points with Class A by a few dozen points, but the cost was that Class C and Class D of the second year suffered heavy losses.

The key is that Kiriyama failed to provide them with sufficient private point compensation. No one could accept such a casualty ratio, so it's no wonder everyone has grievances against him.

"I have to say, it's his own fault that Kiriyama can't be helped. Nagumo gave me 2 million private points directly this time, which is more than all of yours combined."

Nagumo's sincerity is the real deal. Even though much of the information I gave him was fake, he still gave me the points as promised. It's a pity there aren't many opportunities left to fleece him.

"Good morning, everyone. I believe you all already know about the changes in our class points from the points deposited into your accounts.

Aside from our class, the class points of the other three classes have all risen by nearly a hundred. Our class had the smallest increase, mainly because you all relaxed your mindset after the first month's behavioral assessment and displayed many behaviors during class that did not conform to student regulations, leading to more points being deducted from you than 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.

Class A and Class B have already exceeded the 1,000 points given at the start of the term, and the total class points for the first year have reached 3,614, which is not that far off from the 4,000 points at the start of the school year.

The total points handed over by all of Class C this month reached 3.643 million, and adding the 900,000 repaid by Class D, Class C's account now holds 28.846 million private points.

It is just a pity that these 3,614 class points will likely be the peak before the Uninhabited Island Exam, and the class points after the Uninhabited Island Exam will, barring any accidents, also become the peak for this school year.

Because after that, it seems there will be no external replenishment of class points, only internal circulation. All in all, the first step of the operation was quite smooth, preserving the majority of our class points.

However, why has my right eyelid been twitching all day today?

"Next, I will announce the rules for the first special exam of this semester."

"?"

Something seems wrong. Isn't the Uninhabited Island Exam the only special exam for the first semester of the first year? Where did this special exam come from?

Is it because my actions have accelerated the plot?

"Because the school feels that the level demonstrated by us first-year students in this midterm exam is truly the highest in recent years, they have specifically arranged this special exam.

You don't need to worry; special exams like this will accompany you often in the future. You should not fear them, but rather learn to get used to them.

The rules for this special exam are very simple. Each class needs to send a total of nine students. Before the exam begins, each student will receive nine cards in order, numbered 1 through 9.

Among them, the backs of the even-numbered cards are black, and the backs of the odd-numbered cards are white.

Before the exam starts, each class must provide their homeroom teacher with a list specifying the participating students and the order in which they will compete.

The exam consists of nine rounds of competition, and in each round, every class must send a contestant to compete according to the designated order.

In each round, the contestants sent by the four classes must choose a card from their hands to compete in a game of 'higher value wins.'

The order of play for the first round is A-B-C-D. Thereafter, the order of play will proceed clockwise from the winner of the previous round, with the winner playing first.

If there is a tie, the order of play resets, meaning it will follow the A-B-C-D order again.

The side with the higher number wins one point. If two or three people tie, none of the tied contestants receive points. If all four people tie, all previously accumulated points for the four classes will be cleared, and the count will start from 0.

The cards chosen by the contestants will not be revealed; the outcome will be confirmed and scored by the judges, and the scores will be announced.

The final victory of the competition will be determined by the total points obtained by each class's contestants over the nine rounds. The higher the score, the higher the ranking; the lower the score, the lower the ranking.

If there is a tie after the nine rounds are completed, the school will require the tied classes to select one student from their class who did not participate in the first nine rounds, issue them a new set of cards, and have them continue the competition to decide the winner in a single round."

Although this set of rules sounds a bit complicated, it is essentially a point-based game of comparing numbers. The winner takes all, and unless a special four-way tie occurs, the losers suffer a net loss.

Furthermore, there is plenty of room for maneuvering within these rules. For example, classes could trade cards; it would be easy to assemble a student with a hand full of 9s.

There are even more extreme methods, such as cheating. Since only the person playing the card and the judge know what card is being played, in the absence of a challenge rule, one could even manage to have a hand full of 8s and 9s. But the risk of this is too high, and there is no need for it.

"The class that wins first place in this special exam will receive 50 class points and a reward of 1 million private points.

The second-place class will not have any class points deducted and will receive a reward of 500,000 private points.

The third-place class will not have any class points deducted and will receive no private point reward.

The fourth-place class will have 50 class points deducted."

What a conscientious special exam. I thought the school wanted to weaken us because we first-years had saved up too many class points.

Getting 1.5 million private points for free is truly wonderful.