'Ichinose and Ibuki are also in our group?'
Saiki narrowed his eyes slightly. Ichinose Honami was fine, but Ibuki Mio might be a bit of a problem.
After all, that person had previously infiltrated their class as a spy, and had been fed false information.
And also…
Saiki once again couldn't help but glance at Karuizawa Kei, 'Ibuki probably has some mistaken perceptions about Karuizawa, huh.'
"Next will be the test content of this exam, please watch carefully."
Immediately, Tomonari Mashima distributed another document to everyone, densely packed with text.
[Special Summer Group Exam Explanation]
[This exam is a task based on the "Privileged Student" assigned to each group. If you answer using the designated method, you will definitely receive one of four possible outcomes.]
[1. On the morning of the exam start day at 8,00 a.m., the school will simultaneously send emails notifying students. At the same time, the person chosen as the "Privileged Student" will be informed of being selected.]
[2. The exam schedule lasts from tomorrow until 9,00 p.m. four days later (one fully free day is included).]
[3. Group members must gather twice a day at the designated time and location and conduct one-hour discussions.]
[4. The discussion content is to be fully decided by the group autonomously.]
[5. Regarding answering, after the exam ends, the school will only accept answers to "who is the Privileged Student" during the time window from 9,30 p.m. to 10,00 p.m. that same day. Each person can answer at most once.]
[6. The school only accepts answers submitted via students' personal phones sent to the designated mailbox.]
[7. The "Privileged Student" has no right to submit an answer via email.]
'A game similar to finding the traitor?'
Saiki quickly judged the rules of the exam, 'As a school, every time it has to do these strange kinds of exam contents... really inexplicable…'
His gaze continued to move down, at the bottom of the document, possible outcomes of this exam were written.
[Result One: Excluding the Privileged Student and the students belonging to the Privileged Student's class, if everyone else answers correctly, the school will award personal points to all group members. (Students from the Privileged Student's class will each receive the same amount of points.)]
[Result Two: Excluding the Privileged Student and students of the same class, if even one person in the group either does not answer or answers incorrectly, the school will award the Privileged Student 500,000 personal points.]
Faced with the vast amount of information, Karuizawa Kei's eyebrows were tightly knit; her facial expression matched her inner thoughts exactly.
[I Didn't understand anything!]
Tomonari Mashima seemed to have noticed that Karuizawa Kei hadn't understood the exam rules at all.
"There is one key point in this exam, once you understand it, it's not so difficult. This key point is the existence of the Privileged Student."
"The name of the Privileged Student is the answer to the exam. It's very simple. For example, Yukimura, let's say you are selected as the Privileged Student. Then the answer for the Rabbit Group is 'Yukimura.'"
"After that, you share this answer with all group members. Then, on the third night after the exam ends at 9,00 p.m., send the answer to the school by email."
"That way, the group will pass, and Result One will be confirmed. Every group member will receive 500,000 points as a reward. And as a reward for leading the group to Result One, the school will even double the payment and give the Privileged Student 1,000,000 points."
"There's a reward that good!?"
Upon hearing these words, a look of joy surfaced on Karuizawa Kei's face. In fact, in her head, she had already begun fantasizing about how she would spend the 500,000 personal points.
"Now onto Result Two... This happens when the student chosen as Privileged Student does not tell anyone or intentionally misleads everyone to pick a wrong person, and their true identity remains undiscovered until the end of the exam."
"Just as written, only the Privileged Student will be awarded points, the amount being 500,000."
"Then if I get chosen as the Privileged Student, that would be amazing."
Karuizawa Kei had an extremely eager look on her face, desperate to be chosen.
[No, the school would never possibly offer such a no-loss condition. There are four possible outcomes in total, and two haven't been revealed yet.] Ayanokoji thought to himself.
"If you all have understood, I'll explain the remaining two outcomes."
Tomonari Mashima continued.
[Totally didn't understand at all.] Karuizawa Kei answered in her mind without hesitation. Her focus was entirely on personal points, she hadn't grasped the rules at all.
Even so, she still nodded, pretending to have understood.
Tomonari Mashima's eyes revealed a trace of doubt, but he continued explaining the remaining two outcomes.
[Result Three, If someone other than the Privileged Student gives the correct answer before the exam ends and submits it to the school, then the class of the answering student will gain 50 class points, and the answering student will receive 500,000 personal points.]
[On the other hand, the class to which the exposed Privileged Student belongs will lose 50 class points, and the group exam ends at that moment. Furthermore, if the correct answer comes from a student in the same class as the Privileged Student, the answer will be invalid, and the exam continues.]
[Result Four, If someone other than the Privileged Student submits an incorrect answer before the exam ends, the class of the mistaken student will lose 50 class points.]
[Meanwhile, the Privileged Student receives 500,000 points, and their class gains 50 class points. The group exam ends at the moment the wrong answer is submitted. Furthermore, if the mistaken answer is given by a student from the same class as the Privileged Student, the answer is invalid and not accepted.]
'As expected, this is more like a tabletop game such as Werewolf.' Saiki thought to himself.
Although the first two outcomes give the Privileged Student a big reward, the latter two outcomes are entirely different.
If someone guesses a Privileged Student from another class early, then their own class can gain bonus points while also causing another class to lose points.
[You can use the identity of the Privileged Student to attack other classes. The Privileged Student could even deliberately reveal themselves to aim for a win-win result, but you'd also have to worry whether students from other classes will reveal the answer early. In short, this is a psychological battle exam.]
Ayanokoji analyzed internally, thinking through the different possible scenarios.
[If it's Saiki, he should be especially suited to this kind of exam, he can probably deduce everyone's possible actions easily.]
'Oi oi oi... your misunderstanding of me just gets deeper and deeper.' Saiki sighed in his heart.
'Though this exam seems very unserious, if you think about it another way, it's basically the simplest form of a tabletop game... I don't like participating in these social games.'
'Because I have telepathy, I can instantly perceive what others are thinking, but now that I have this ring, maybe I can find a bit of fun from this exam...'
Saiki thought to himself, while reaching his hand into his pocket, preparing to wear the ring.
[Actually, the Privileged Students' identities were already determined, I wonder if these students can figure out the pattern.]
[This time, the Privileged Students were selected in order of names.]
[The Privileged Student of this group should be this student named Karuizawa Kei.]
'…..'
Saiki felt a bit helpless. Some exams are basically over before they even begin.
Normally, Karuizawa Kei's info would only be revealed at 8,00 a.m. tomorrow, but Saiki already knew she was the Privileged Student.
He turned his head to look at Karuizawa Kei, squinting slightly, while she was intently staring at the exam list in front of her.
Saiki was very aware, Karuizawa Kei's exterior and inner self were completely different.
[No matter how annoying I become, it's still better than experiencing that situation again. I don't need youth or friends. What matters is protecting myself. For that, I'll do whatever is necessary, even if it means using any means possible.]
[I'm just a parasite, a weak being unable to survive alone.]
[Right now, is he the only one I can rely on?]
Soon, after this brief but unpleasant meeting ended, Saiki and the others left the room, leaving only Tomonari Mashima behind, sighing.
It was his first time feeling truly helpless toward certain students.
After leaving, Saiki originally intended to return straight to his room to rest, but after seeing his classmates seemingly gathering together, he had no choice but to follow.
Others were exchanging information about the exam, but students like Kushida and Suzune had gathered later and hadn't yet attended the group meeting. So, they could only learn the details of the exam from others.
'Kushida and Horikita's meeting time and location were the same, those two will be in the same group.'
Saiki glanced in their direction out of the corner of his eye. Suzune sat alone to the side, listening to others with a serious expression, while Kushida looked curious and asked more questions about the exam.
Just then, Ayanokoji came over to Saiki's side and asked quietly, "Saiki, what do you think of this exam?"
"Karuizawa....."
Saiki almost revealed that Karuizawa Kei was the Privileged Student, but fortunately remembered in time that the identities hadn't been publicly announced yet. Even Ayanokoji couldn't possibly know it now.
"Karuizawa?"
"No, I mean, the most important thing in this exam is to identify the Privileged Student. After that, we'll make decisions depending on the situation…"
Saiki quickly said some harmless words to deflect the topic.
"We'll have to wait until 8,00 a.m. tomorrow when the identities are revealed before we can know for sure."
"Mm."
Ayanokoji nodded. For now, he also couldn't get any useful information.
"There's nothing more here, so I'll head back to the dorm."
The next day, at eight o'clock in the morning, Saiki was eating breakfast in a café. Around him there were also some other students, and at this moment, his phone vibrated once.
"After the school's arrangement, as a result you were not selected as a preferentially treated person, please act independently as a member of a group and challenge the exam."
"The exam will begin at one o'clock this afternoon. This exam will be held for three days starting from today. By then, the students of the Rabbit group please gather in the Rabbit room on the second floor."
'Yare yare, has the information about the preferentially treated persons already been decided?'
Saiki thought in his heart. At the same time, he could also hear the thoughts of some nearby people.
[Damn it, I'm not a preferentially treated person!]
[If only I were a preferentially treated person! What a pity!]
[Am I a preferentially treated person?]
Saiki heard a familiar voice sounding beside him. It seemed to be the voice of Kushida.
'Was Kushida selected as a preferentially treated person? But it's another group, it has nothing to do with me.'
Saiki finished the coffee in front of him and prepared to return to his own room to rest for a bit.
But at this moment, Saiki again picked up another wave of familiar inner voice. He was just about to get up and leave here, and at that moment, the owner of the voice had already appeared in front of Saiki.
Suzune, and Ayanokoji was also beside her.
"Saiki, are you preparing to leave just because you saw me coming?" Suzune's sharp gaze was cast onto Saiki's body.
"I just happened to finish eating."
"But you don't have anything planned next, right? Just right, let's talk a bit about this exam."
In Suzune's words, there seemed to be a tone that did not allow refusal.
[As expected, Saiki would appear here.]
'Did she come to find me on purpose?'
Saiki felt a little helpless. Since things had already reached this point, he could only stay.
"Ayanokoji, you're in the same group as Saiki, right?"
Suzune, while ordering a cup of coffee, sat beside Saiki.
"Mm."
Ayanokoji also sat on the other side and slowly nodded.
"This is our group's name list."
Suzune, while speaking, placed her own phone in front of Ayanokoji and Saiki. On it was the name list of their group, Dragon group.
Saiki swept a glance over it. Suzune and Kushida were in the same group. Hirata Yosuke was also in their group, but the other students from other classes were just a little special.
Class C's Kakeru Ryuen, Class B's Kanzaki Ryuji, and Class A's Katsuragi Kohei, the names of these few people also appeared prominently on the list.
Ryuen and Kohei were each the leaders of their respective classes, and Kanzaki Ryuji held the position of Ichinose Honami's assistant within Class B.
One could say that the people in the Dragon group were basically those who held leadership positions within their classes.
"I feel the groupings must have followed some kind of rule. Maybe it was according to academic ability, or maybe according to overall evaluation score or something like that." Suzune said to the two of them.
"So, I feel that the identity of the preferentially treated person in each group is not random, but comes according to some kind of rule. By the way, I'm not the preferentially treated person."
'There is indeed a rule... But if I told you that actually it was chosen according to the order of names, would you be disappointed…..' Saiki thought this in his heart.
[I must find a way to let the D-Class members in each group get high scores. That way, our class's points will further increase.]
Suzune thought this in her heart. What she was concerned about wasn't only the situation of her own group, but the situation of the entire class.
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