On the day after the exchange was finalized, Ryuuen publicly raised a new challenge.
"Was Class D's acquisition of a strength specialist the result of Gu Heng's review, or Horikita's submission?"
This time, he did not attack any specific condition. Instead, he tried to attribute Class D's outcome to a single person.
Horikita did not answer, "Neither."
She released the exchange application, personal confirmations, and review records in sequence.
"Gu Heng confirmed that the conditions were met. I confirmed the class's acceptance. The five members confirmed that they would bear the responsibility."
"The result was produced by four separate actions."
Ryuuen sneered. "If Gu Heng hadn't written that the conditions were met, you wouldn't have submitted it."
"If I hadn't submitted it, his review would not have automatically become the result either."
Gu Heng took over. "If the five members had not confirmed, the first two steps could not have been established either."
Ryuuen's gaze shifted between the two of them.
He wanted to force the Dual Core into a superior-subordinate structure, only to find that every action came from a different source.
"Then let me change the question."
"If Gu Heng makes a mistake in his review next time, will Horikita still submit it?"
Horikita answered, "That depends on which category the error falls under."
"You even classify errors?"
"Otherwise, we wouldn't know who needed to fix them."
Ryuuen did not press further. He directly announced Class C's strategy for the next round: they would no longer target Gu Heng, nor would they target Horikita. Instead, they would feed the two of them different pieces of external intelligence.
One piece of intelligence would go to Gu Heng, the other to Horikita.
Both could be true, yet they could not both stand at the same time.
This was a bait