At night, Sakura sat next to Saiki and had dinner together. Tonight, she seemed to talk a little more than usual.
Ayanokoji, off to the side, noticed the interaction between Sakura and Saiki.
[Sakura seems to be getting closer to Saiki. Did Saiki do something? Is he planning to use Sakura as a tool for achieving his goal? What method did he use?]
And on the other side, Ibuki was planning to steal someone else's underwear tonight, but the moment that thought appeared in her heart, the plan was already doomed to fail.
———
Late at night, everyone had already returned to the tents to sleep, while Saiki, as usual, used teleportation to return to his own home.
However, he did not go to sleep directly but instead sat down in front of his computer desk.
At this time, in Saiki's hand, he was holding Sakura's digital camera.
Although he used psychic powers to make Sakura think she was dreaming, all these photos truly existed, and naturally Saiki couldn't allow others to discover them.
But just as he was about to delete these photos, Saiki's action paused slightly.
'Yare yare, I'll keep them for now. Perhaps they might come in handy if something similar happens in the future.'
Saiki made a backup of the photos from the camera onto his computer, and only then deleted all the photos from the camera.
———
Another day passed, and in the morning, everyone was preparing to move separately.
Saiki was the first to find Kiyotaka Ayanokoji.
"Ayanokoji, I can help you get a high score in this exam, but in return, I need you to help me with something."
"What is it?"
"When the time comes, shift all the credit to someone else."
"You want to avoid having everyone's attention shift to you after the exam, right?" Kiyotaka Ayanokoji asked.
"That's right." Saiki nodded.
"If you're the leader, that won't be easy to do."
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji responded, and at the same time, quickly came up with a plan in his mind.
[But if we can replace the leader, it will work. According to the original plan, we can deliberately let Ibuki discover the existence of the keycard, causing her to misjudge who the class leader is.]
[At the same time, destroy her digital camera, forcing her to take real action to gather evidence of the leader.]
[Then we deliberately create chaos in the class, say, by starting a fire, giving her a chance to escape and pass on the wrong information, making other classes guess the wrong leader.]
[After that, we use the rules to replace the leader, so that other classes guess wrong, and at the same time shift the attention of the classmates. Saiki must've thought of the same strategy.]
[But there's a key point, in order to replace the leader, the leader must withdraw due to force majeure, like illness or injury, otherwise the exam cannot continue.]
'This guy… he had this plan from the start?'
Saiki heard Ayanokoji's inner thoughts and couldn't help but comment in his heart, 'And… in the end, it turns out you were the one who started the fire?'
Saiki had previously foreseen a future where a fire might occur. He thought it would be due to some kind of accident, but it turned out it was probably caused by Ayanokoji.
'This guy is seriously terrifying.'
"As long as the leader is replaced, it can be done, right?"
After thinking for a few seconds, Saiki pursed his lips and continued speaking, "We can also take this opportunity to pass false information to Ibuki, and then…"
Saiki repeated the plan Ayanokoji had just thought in his mind, though omitting the part about destroying the camera.
"Mm." Ayanokoji nodded.
[As expected of Saiki, his plan almost completely matches what I thought.]
'Sorry, but that plan was yours to begin with.'
Saiki looked at Ayanokoji in front of him and continued speaking, "When the time comes, we can create an opportunity for Ibuki to take the keycard and escape this area to meet up with others."
"Mm, when that time comes, "
"First of all, we can't start a fire. That method is way too dangerous."
"Alright."
Ayanokoji nodded, "But now the biggest problem is how to replace the leader. Normally the leader needs to withdraw due to force majeure to allow replacement, like getting sick or injured. So…"
[Saiki has already shown physical qualities beyond normal people, it's not easy to claim he's sick. The only way is if he's injured by accident…]
"Leave it to me."
Hearing Ayanokoji's words, Saiki already had a plan in his heart, "When the time comes, just arrange the next leader. In return, I'll write down the names of the other classes' leaders for you."
After all, Saiki and Ayanokoji had made a promise, in this exam, Class C must take first place. Ayanokoji would help Saiki divert attention, and Saiki would tell him the identities of the other class leaders.
"Honestly, even if I didn't tell him, Ayanokoji probably could've figured out the other leaders himself."
"Alright."
Ayanokoji nodded.
After a short conversation, Saiki once again went to the riverside. This time, he picked a place closer to Ike Kanji to fish.
"Saiki, why are you here?" Ike Kanji was a bit surprised by Saiki's appearance.
"Just changing fishing spots to try it out."
Saiki casually said, while waiting for the right moment, the moment to fall ill.
As a psychic, the probability of Saiki falling ill was very low.
However, he could pretend to be sick.
Saiki secretly used psychokinesis and applied force to the other end of his fishing rod. The surface of the water immediately rippled violently, as if he had hooked a big fish, and Saiki pretended to struggle, leaning forward.
"Saiki, let me help you!"
[Wait, is it even possible for a river to have a fish that size?]
Seeing Saiki's state, Ike Kanji quickly rushed over to help, but Saiki had already "made the first move," pretending to lose his balance and then jumped into the lake.
———
An hour later, Saiki, now wearing a new set of clothes, was lying in the camp.
"Saiki-kun, you were too reckless!"
Hirata Yosuke was sitting beside Saiki and shook his head.
"Saiki-kun…"
On the other side, Sakura had a worried look on her face.
'Sorry, but to avoid future trouble, this is the only thing I can do.'
Saiki thought in his heart.
"Did you guys know? Saiki-kun fought with a fish over a meter long just so everyone could have delicious grilled fish tonight. In the end, he lost his balance and fell into the water… It's all my fault… I didn't help him in time."
Ike Kanji was making a wiping-tears gesture while dramatically embellishing the story.
"Saiki-kun actually worked that hard?"
"I didn't expect Saiki-kun to be such a warm-hearted person…"
"Saiki-kun…"
A group of Class C students had gathered around Saiki, and some were even moved to the point of tears.
Although Saiki desperately wished Ike Kanji would shut up, this absurd story only earned Saiki more attention, but since he had to pretend to be sick, he couldn't act otherwise.
'Falling into the water in front of Ike was intentional, so that pretending to be sick afterward would make sense.'
Saiki thought to himself, then opened his mouth and said, "I feel a little dizzy… Maybe I have a fever."
"A fever?"
Ike Kanji looked confused, reached out to touch Saiki's forehead, and immediately let out a scream, "So hot, so hot!"
"Temperature too high…"
Saiki quickly adjusted the temperature around his body, keeping his surface temperature within a biologically reasonable range.
"Really?"
Hirata Yosuke was surprised. While it wasn't unlikely to catch a cold from falling into water, this seemed a bit too fast.
He also touched Saiki's forehead and could confirm that Saiki really had a fever.
Saiki glanced at Ayanokoji on the other side, Ayanokoji understood and spoke up, "If it's a fever, the situation could be serious. I think it's best to let Saiki-kun return to the ship for treatment."
"Yeah, I agree!"
"Saiki has done so much for us recently."
"Thanks, Saiki!"
This time, no one had any objections. The reaction was completely different from when Koenji Rokusuke withdrew from the exam earlier.
'Yare yare, I'm really sorry. Although the class will lose 30 points, the food points saved from fishing these past few days and the bonus points from guessing other class leaders' identities will more than make up for it, consider it my repayment.'
As Saiki thought this, he could also clearly hear the thoughts of the people around him.
Like Ayanokoji, [Saiki actually managed to convincingly act sick. I thought he'd hurt himself on purpose, but he used a more clever method instead. How the hell did he do that?]
'Answer, psychic powers.' Saiki answered in his mind.
At the same time, Saiki could hear the voice of Ibuki outside the tent.
[Found it!]
Saiki turned his head toward the direction of the voice, and his vision gradually penetrated through the tent, reaching the camp outside.
Ibuki was outside, secretly rummaging through the luggage of every Class C student, searching for the keycard. Right now, everyone's attention was focused on Saiki, so no one noticed her movements.
Ibuki finally found the keycard in Saiki's backpack.
[Saiki?! He's the leader?! I never would've guessed.]
[Sorry, Class C. Even though I don't agree with Ryuen's methods, bleeding-heart nice guys have to face the consequences.]
[I hope you learn your lesson next time.]
With a sense of glee, Ibuki quickly pulled out a digital camera from her backpack, took several photos, then immediately left Class C's camp with the camera.
About ten minutes later, Chabashira Sae arrived at the shore with Ayanokoji and Horikita Suzune, escorting Saiki. Medical staff quickly took Saiki back to the ship for rest.
"Yo, glasses boy, didn't think you'd be back too!"
As soon as Saiki returned to the ship, he saw Koenji Rokusuke lying on a deck chair, sunbathing.
"You're not feeling well too? Same as me then, I've been getting proper treatment, you know. But really, in this scorching weather, how come there's no iced water on this ship?"
'I'll break the air conditioner in your room next.'
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