Don't celebrate too early when there are special rules

The day of the special exam arrived, and all first-year students gathered in the gymnasium.

A temporary stage had been erected in the center of the gymnasium, upon which sat a square table resembling a mahjong table.

The original stage already present in the gymnasium was abandoned, and students from the four first-year classes took their seats on the four sides of the stage in clockwise order—Class A, Class B, Class C, and Class D—waiting for the exam to begin.

Sitting in the back row, I had no particular thoughts on this special exam; the brilliance belonged to those on stage, and those off-stage could do nothing but sit and cheer.

"The exam begins. Will each first-year class please send their representative to the stage in order."

The broadcast voice rang out, and this special exam officially commenced.

The first to take the stage for Class A was Shimizu Naoki. This person had some connection to Hashimoto Masayoshi; on the surface, he was part of the Katsuragi faction, but in reality, he was a centrist who sided with whoever held the upper hand.

The first to take the stage for Class B was Tokito Katsumi. He was a distant relative of our Class C's Tokito Yuya, and the relationship between the two was quite good.

The first to take the stage for Class C was Tokito Yuya. He had previously agreed with Tokito Katsumi to both compete in the first round, engaging in a battle between relatives.

The first to take the stage for Class D was Yukimura Teruhiko. He was a high-pressure individual, though not in a double-standard way, as he pressured not only students with poor grades but himself as well. His academic ability was excellent, making him a standard template for an honor student. Considering this special exam leaned toward testing calculation skills, he was chosen as the representative.

"This exam will be a victory for Class A; you all only need to fight for second place."

Shimizu Naoki placed the five white cards and four black cards he brought into the card slots on the table one by one.

In this competition, participants only needed to press firmly on the slot containing the card they wished to play during the card-playing phase. The underside of the tabletop was transparent, invisible to the audience below, but the image would be fed to the tablet used by the proctors.

"Arrogance requires backup... ability, and I don't see that in you, Class A."

Tokito Katsumi also placed the five white cards and four black cards he carried into the slots. The strategy Class B adopted for this special exam was to remain unchanged to meet all changes.

Kanzaki and Ichinose trusted the abilities of the Class B students, so in this short time, they had only conducted several internal practice matches. When taking the stage, every Class B student carried a neat set of cards numbered 1 through 9.

"Is everyone really being that honest? I find that hard to believe."

Tokito Yuya stifled a laugh as he watched the two in front place their cards into the slots.

Then, under the gaze of everyone, he took out nine white cards and placed them into the slots, becoming the first student to openly deviate from conventional thinking.

"Then your hunch was right."

Yukimura Teruhiko did not exchange much with the three, instead quickly placing the six white cards and three black cards he carried into the slots, beginning this round of competition.

"Results announced: Shimizu Naoki wins. The scores for classes ABCD are 3:1:0:0. Class A leads. Shimizu Naoki will play first in the next round."

After four rounds, the score on the board declared that Shimizu Naoki held an absolute advantage.

Tokito Katsumi and Tokito Yuya had tied when comparing points in the fourth round; the battle between the two brothers was currently led by Tokito Katsumi.

Trailing behind, Tokito Yuya did not feel anxious about his disadvantage; his energy was now entirely focused on card counting.

For the first seven rounds, the only thing the Class C students had to do was record the approximate points of the cards consumed by their opponents in that round.

In the eighth round, they would pass the ball to Hiyori, who would complete the statistical summary, and finally hand it over to Ryuen in the ninth round to execute the point-clearing plan.

Class A knew that Class C did not have 8s or 9s. The 8s and 9s Ryuen obtained from Kushida were two "assassins." No matter how much of a point advantage Class A gained in the first nine rounds relying on the eighteen 8s and 9s, as long as Ryuen seized the opportunity in the ninth round, the scales of victory would begin to shift.

"Results announced: Shimizu Naoki wins. The scores for classes ABCD are 5:2:0:1. Class A leads. The first round is over. The second round will now begin. Will classes ABCD please send their second representatives to the stage."

In the first round, Class A took the lead by relying on the advantage of their cards, while Class B only scored through the 8 and 9 cards.

Among them, the 7 card even resulted in a tie between classes A, B, and D. Because the points of the cards played by Class C in this situation were lower than 7, no one scored in that round, resulting in only 8 points being scored across 9 rounds.

"My analysis should be pretty close to the mark. My cousin's cards haven't changed order; they're arranged very neatly from 1 to 9. Class A used at least three 7s in the first round."

"I understand. Leave the rest to me."

After passing the information he was confident in, along with his notebook and pen, to the next companion taking the stage, Tokito Yuya returned to his seat.

When the second round began, the Class C student brought out nine white cards as well.

This was a solution born of necessity. Because Class C possessed eighteen 1s and eighteen 2s, they had to sacrifice a great many opportunities.

Tokito Yuya had enough confidence in himself and enough understanding of his relative, coupled with the intelligence obtained beforehand regarding Class B's battle plan.

He dared to take the stage with nine 1s, analyzing the points based on Class B's plays.

The subsequent Class C students lacked that boldness and that keen eye, so they unanimously adopted another battle plan.

Under Ryuen's guidance, the Class C students were the most creative class; they had a plan the moment they received the cards.

They discovered that the backs of the white cards and the black cards were actually identical; after scanning and layering the images in software, one could not tell the difference between the two.

Therefore, they printed and self-made 36 white card backs, "turning" all the black cards into white cards.

This way, they could distribute the card points and guess the cards based on the expressions of the Class A participants. In any case, Class C knew the configurations of Class B and Class D for the final round.

By leveraging the strength of three classes to guess Class A, it was enough to roughly determine how many 8s or 9s Class A would have left for the final round.

"Results announced: Katsuragi Kohei wins. The scores for classes ABCD are 24:14:11:17. Class A leads. The eighth round is over. The ninth round will now begin. Will classes ABCD please send their ninth representatives to the stage."

After the eighth round ended, the advantage Class A had gained on the field was already obvious, and they still held an absolute nine trump cards for the final round.

This trend had already begun to emerge at the start of the seventh round, so every time Katsuragi won a game in the eighth round, the Class A students would begin to cheer.

However, what they did not know was that they were rejoicing far too early.