Class C Roster Emerges, Logical Deduction Blocked

The night wind swept across the deck, the sound of waves shattering against the ship's hull. The cold, hard metallic chill drifted through the air, gradually suppressing the lingering scent of gunpowder from the recent standoff. The entirety of Class C fell silent; no one dared to openly refute the situation anymore. They obediently raised their hands to reveal their student terminals, handing them over to Hiyori Shiina one by one for verification.

Shiina strictly adhered to her previous statement, checking only the official school text messages throughout the process. She did not browse private chat logs or pry into private correspondence. Her movements were gentle yet orderly; she neither crossed the line into privacy infringement nor failed to execute the screening instructions issued by Ryuen. The conflict, which had been on the verge of escalating once more, was smoothed over in this silent fashion.

Mio Ibuki stood to the side with her arms crossed, watching the entire process with a cold eye. The suspicion in her heart grew more certain: she was convinced that Ryuen and Shiina had been working in coordination from the start. One played the villain to exert pressure and establish authority, while the other played the peacemaker to ease the tension. Her own head-on confrontation had, in fact, fallen right into the trap they had laid in advance, leaving her with a reputation for being impulsive and stubborn for no reason.

The verification process moved extremely quickly. In just over ten minutes, Shiina returned all the terminals one by one. She lowered her head to compare the registration ledger in her hand, quickly organizing and summarizing all valid clues. She turned and walked slowly to Ryuen's side, lowering her voice to a volume that only the two of them could hear. She avoided the eyes and ears of the other group members to prevent internal information from leaking prematurely. "Ryuen-kun, the verification is complete. However, by cross-referencing the native group notifications received by everyone with the site access permission texts, I have precisely locked onto the VIPs associated with this batch of Class C."

A sharp glint flashed in Ryuen's eyes, and a cold, frigid aura instantly gathered around him. He asked in a low voice, focusing on the key point: "How many are there, where are they distributed, and is there any clustering or grouping?" At this moment, he was filled with anxiety, hoping only to unearth concentrated clues to reverse the passive, declining trend Class C had suffered for days.

Shiina raised her eyes, her tone steady and objective, devoid of any subjective speculation, and stated the results of the verification truthfully: "Within our Class C, there are a total of four VIP slots. Furthermore, the four individuals are not concentrated in the same group; instead, they have been randomly split by the system and scattered across four completely different discussion and collaboration groups. There are no conditions for them to coordinate with one another, nor is there any unified intersection of action."

As her words landed, the tense and oppressive atmosphere on the deck instantly fell into absolute silence. All the Class C members present froze in place, their eyes filled with shock and bewilderment. None of them had expected the school's assessment mechanism to be so devious—not concentrating the VIPs by class, but deliberately scattering and splitting them to cut off the shortcut of grouping for screening and internal verification at the root.

Some people subconsciously sighed in low voices, lamenting that this assessment was far more rigorous and thorny than anticipated; others felt a chill in their hearts, realizing that Class C alone had no way to precisely track and lock onto the targets.

Ryuen's brows knit slightly. While his cold aura remained undiminished, his tone lost some of its agitation and gained a measure of composure: "Four? And all scattered? The school has certainly calculated well; it's clear they don't want us taking shortcuts through internal checks. After all this effort, we haven't gained a breakthrough we can use directly." He raised a hand to rub his chin. Though the frustration and unwillingness accumulated over the past few days remained, he did not let it erupt uncontrollably. The humiliation of the deserted island failure and the heavy pressure of Class C's points being wiped to zero were forcibly suppressed deep within his heart, leaving only the sharpness in his eyes increasingly apparent.

Hiyori Shiina remained calm throughout, not swayed by the restless emotions of those around her. She raised a hand to gently smooth the corner of the ledger and began to deconstruct the situation with clear logic: "Ryuen-kun, the more scattered this layout is, the more it confirms the core rule—this VIP assessment was never a simple game of on-the-spot observation or gambling on intuition. It is a genuine, pure logical-thinking contest. From the very beginning, the school left us no room to take shortcuts through personal connections, confrontations, or private investigations. All the answers are hidden in the underlying logic of the grouping rules, access permissions, and text message distribution."

She paused for a moment, scanned the members with their varied expressions, and continued her rigorous deduction: "The four VIPs being scattered across groups is by no means a random distribution; there must be a fixed pattern behind it. For example, it could correspond to the attendance numbers of each group, the seat numbers in the discussion, or the gradient of basic academic ability. As long as we can align the scattered VIP lists held by each class and cross-reference the common patterns, there is a high probability of finding the entire set of logic behind the questions and subsequently locking onto all remaining VIPs on the ship."

This deduction made Ryuen's train of thought much clearer. A flicker of movement flashed in his eyes as he immediately grasped the key: "You mean forming alliances across classes and exchanging the VIP ledger intelligence held by each? Grouping together to deduce the pattern is a hundred times more efficient than searching blindly or using uncertain personal language probes?"

"Exactly." Shiina nodded solemnly, then shifted the tone of the conversation to point out the most thorny practical obstacle: "But the risk is extremely high, and it is entirely not worth the loss. The assessment rules clearly state that if we privately form alliances to share core VIP intelligence, once the other party commits an act of betrayal—it doesn't even need to be the leadership circle of the classes that reached the agreement—if someone betrays us at the final execution stage, our class will have a large amount of basic points deducted. Added to the failure of the previous assessment, Class C simply cannot bear the consequences. Moreover, even if we risk an alliance, the other class will likely hide information and not hand over the complete list truthfully. We would be gambling our future for uncertain gains; it is simply not worth the cost."

The wall of reality stood before them, perfectly blocking the only shortcut to breaking the deadlock. Ryuen's expression darkened, his tone calm yet carrying an unquestionable sense of oppression: "Knowing the pattern is useless, and we dare not gamble on an alliance. We cannot just sit here and wait to die, letting other classes get there first." Under his calm weighing of the situation, he hid his unwillingness, yet he maintained the posture of someone in control of the overall situation.

Just as the entire scene fell into a stalemate once more, with no one able to break the deadlock, Shiho Manabe, who had been silent the entire time, stepped forward at the right moment. She broke the dull atmosphere, a flash of sharp calculation in her eyes, and bowed to offer a strategy: "Ryuen-kun, Shiina-kun, I have a concrete piece of preliminary information that is enough for us to pry open a precise breakthrough."

Everyone's gaze instantly focused on Manabe. Ryuen raised his eyes and asked in a low voice: "What clue? Speak plainly." At this moment, he desperately needed an action to escape the current dilemma.

Shiho Manabe explained slowly: "I suspect Kei Karuizawa of Class D. During the summer vacation, she cut in front of us in line, and both sides had a very unpleasant conflict; this is an open grievance between us. During the previous discussion, she saw us girls from Class C and didn't seek help from her Class D boyfriend Hirata or her classmates, but instead acted in a way that leaned toward the boys from Class A. She is highly suspicious of being a VIP."

She did not elaborate on the specific plan, only proposing concisely: "Ryuen-kun, I intend to take a few girls from Class C to find her. We can use the previous conflict as a pretext to strike up a conversation and see if we can extract some clues from her. Contact between girls is less likely to arouse her vigilance and won't be too conspicuous to attract the school's attention."

Upon hearing this, Ryuen's gloomy expression eased slightly, and he immediately nodded in approval: "Fine, do as you say. Mind your limits, don't make too much of a scene, and avoid attracting the school's risk control. Everyone else, stay put and rest. No unauthorized outings or private contact with members of other classes. Wait for further news." As the order landed, all of Class C responded and dispersed in formation. The night wind on the deck remained cold, and a probe led by the girls had already quietly begun to gather momentum, leaving sufficient space for subsequent actions.