The Class's First Real Payoff

The day before the official assessment, the four tracks went through another round.

Sudo's correct answers on the basic questions rose from seven to ten, though he remained on the minimum-guarantee track; Ike Kanji moved onto the minimum-guarantee track after completing his retest; Yamauchi sat through the full twenty minutes for the second time but refused to take on more questions; after keeping her first-round answers, Sakura made three fewer corrections that turned out to be wrong.

In the end, four people on the high-score track were willing to each take one classmate under their wing, and no one gained a permanent obligation to be "a good student who had to take responsibility."

None of these changes were dramatic, nor did they immediately lift Class D out of last place.

But every one of them could be tested on the official exam.

Once the exam began, Gu Heng read through the questions first, then answered at his own pace. Everyone else in the room had their heads down. Whether the training had worked could only be determined after the papers were handed in.

The training that could be done was over. In the exam room, everyone could only take responsibility for their own choices.

When Sudo saw a basic question he had practiced, his first instinct was still to skip the steps. His pen paused, and he ultimately filled in the intermediate work; when Ike Kanji reached the latter half of the paper, he wanted to put his head down, but after looking up and seeing the remaining time, he read through the last two multiple-choice questions; Yamauchi still left plenty blank, but for the first time, he did not hand in his paper early.

No one completed those actions for them.

There were also questions on the official paper that the training had not covered.

Someone on the remedial-basics track got stuck again on an unfamiliar question type, while one boy on the high-score track spent too long on the first half and still left an entire major question blank. Two days of training could reduce known mistakes, but it could not turn unfamiliar questions into free points.

Gu Heng himself misremembered a condition in one question and only corrected it during his final review before handing in the paper. He had no right to package the outcome as though he had seen through the exam in advance.

The next morning, individual scores were sent to every student's terminal; Class D also received a class summary, while the public grade page listed only each class's average score and ranking.

Class D was still last in the grade.

The classroom fell silent for a moment.

Then Yukimura turned to the second page of the report.

Basic question completion rate: improved compared with the entrance assessment.

Blank-answer rate: decreased.

Gap from the average score of higher-ranked classes: narrowed.

The school awarded no points, nor did it announce that Class D had made a comeback. But these three figures turned the previous two days of training into visible results.

There was also a less appealing section later in the report.

No improvement in basic-question scores: seven students.

Increase in blank-answer rate: two students.

Hirata read out those two items as well, rather than choosing only the parts that proved Gu Heng right.

Those in charge only reviewed the personal records voluntarily submitted, without revealing any names. Some had left early during the first round and shown no improvement; others had participated fully but performed poorly. The tracks needed further adjustment. They could not use one class average to hide individual failures.

Sudo was the first to look for his personal report.

His total score was still unimpressive, but he had earned a noticeable number of additional points on the basic questions compared with the entrance assessment.

"Did I clear the minimum line?"

"Check tomorrow's short test of the same type first," Gu Heng said. "One official exam can't prove you'll be stable from now on."

"But I cleared it this time, right?"

"You cleared it this time."

Sudo slapped his terminal facedown on the desk. He pressed down the corners of his mouth for a long time, but he still could not completely hide them.

Ike Kanji stared at his blank-answer rate several times.

"I left eight fewer questions blank."

"Your score is still low," Yukimura said.

"Can't you let me be happy for ten seconds first?"

"It's already been twelve."

Laughter rose from the back of the classroom.

Not everyone accepted Gu Heng, and not everyone was willing to continue on the same track. Yamauchi still thought the grouping was humiliating, and someone on the high-score track clearly stated that they would not take anyone else on in the next round.

Hirata wrote down all those opinions as well, without letting the positive feedback turn into a classwide declaration of loyalty.

The student who would not take anyone else on spoke bluntly. "I completed the one time I agreed to. Next round, I need to prepare my own questions."

Gu Heng immediately removed his name from the teaching rotation. He did not use the class's newly gained results to pressure him into extending the agreement.

Ike Kanji applied to remain on the minimum-guarantee track; Sudo applied to move to the remedial-basics track after a retest; Sakura remained on the remedial-basics track, but requested that she still be allowed to keep her first answers.

The payoff did not eliminate disagreements. It only made everyone begin discussing the next step based on results.

Someone asked, "So from now on, do we just do whatever Gu Heng says?"

Horikita answered first.

"No."

The noise in the classroom stopped for a moment.

"What works is the short tests, the score lines, and the reviews—not Gu Heng's name," she said. "If the plan produces no results next time, we change it."

Gu Heng did not argue.

"She's right."

Those words pushed the budding dependence back onto the method.

What Class D had gained for the first time was neither money nor ranking, but a visible amount of reduced loss. For a class that had long thrown away basic points for nothing, every point they lost less was a point they had first earned back from their own hands.

The other classes could not see Class D's individual scores, basic-question completion rate, or blank-answer breakdown. They could only see the class averages and rankings on the public grade page.

In Class C's classroom, Ishizaki saw that Class D was still last and did not think much of it at first. Only after looking at the change in the score gap did he send a screenshot to Ryuuen.

They didn't rise in rank, but the gap is shrinking.

Ryuuen replied with only one sentence.

Keep watching those responsibility tracks. See which one stops first.

The student in Class B responsible for compiling public data first recorded Class D's narrowed score gap in the comparison table. The class then reviewed which of its own basic-point losses could still be reduced. The last-place class was still at the bottom, but it was no longer suitable to use the entrance gap to directly estimate the next round of competition.

A new entry also appeared on Class A's analysis sheet: Class D remained last, but the average-score gap from the higher-ranked classes had narrowed.

The entry carried no one's name. Before deciding whether Class A should pursue a new development, they usually first watched to see whether the cane-using girl at the back of the classroom took it up. When the student responsible for compiling the data handed over the terminal, Sakayanagi Arisu did not take it. She only told him to archive it in the original format.

"Not pursuing it?"

"A one-time fluctuation in average scores isn't worth finding an owner for."

She did not request contact, nor did she alter the existing order of observation. The available public data could only prove that Class D had lost fewer points this time. The reason and whether it would continue still required observation.

That afternoon, the school affairs terminal sent a notice for a preliminary briefing.

First-Year Special Exam Orientation, 7:00 p.m. tonight.

Each class may submit up to four temporary liaisons. Liaisons are not equivalent to exam leaders. Official rules will be announced at a later briefing for all students.

Class D had only just seen its first payoff when the larger exam gave them only one night to decide who would go listen to its direction.