Hachiman's thoughts went deeper.
Guessing a Class's Team Leader information correctly only gives +50 points and deducts 50 points from the opponent, while invalidating the stronghold points.
Because Kouenji monopolized the strongholds, the stronghold points Class A obtained could almost be ignored.
However, guessing Class A's Team Leader once could deduct 50 points from Class A, and their own Class would gain 50 points, shortening the distance by 100 points.
However.
It didn't say that a Class could only be guessed once.
So, what if Class A was guessed correctly by 3 Classes?
Then they would have to deduct another 50X2 = 100 points.
So, overall, they could shorten the distance with Class A by a maximum of 200 points in the Team Leader guessing phase.
But it didn't stop there.
It would be even better if Class A could guess the Team Leaders of other Classes incorrectly.
Hachiman's Class took in Ibuki, and it was almost certain that Ichinose's Class probably took in Kaneda.
Then.
If both of them sent back incorrect Team Leader information for Class B and Class C, letting Katsuragi of Class A know.
Then.
Class A would also be deducted points for guessing 2 Class Team Leaders incorrectly.
A deduction of 50X2 at once.
Just thinking about it was delightful.
However, doing this would require two conditions: Katsuragi must guess the Team Leaders of his Class and Ichinose's Class, and then guess them incorrectly.
And then they would need to obtain Class A's Team Leader information.
Regarding the latter point.
Katsuragi was an honest person, but also a cautious one, so it would be difficult to obtain his Class's Team Leader information.
Although Class A students were divided into two factions, Hachiman didn't think that Sakayanagi Faction members would intentionally leak Team Leader information at this time.
Therefore.
Hachiman's Class didn't have a spy like Ibuki in Class A, so they still had to rely on Ryuen to gather information.
It was only the first day of the exam, and Ryuen might not have obtained Class A's Team Leader information yet.
He needed to give Ryuen a little more time.
At the same time, he also had to make Ibuki transmit incorrect Team Leader information.
Hachiman confirmed that Kouenji would change the Team Leader at the end.
So, Ibuki had to see Kouenji's Team Leader card.
And now. He could slightly act for Ibuki.
So Hikigaya said,
"Possibly. After all, their Class's points have already been deducted, but they made deals with other Classes, so they have already gained a lot from this exam."
"So there's no need for the Team Leader to suffer on the island. I think their Class has already given up on the exam."
"Ryuen is truly a ruthless person," Hachiman said.
The other students nodded, seemingly in agreement.
At this moment, in the corner of the bonfire.
A short-haired girl suddenly spoke.
This was Ibuki, who had also returned after going to the beach.
"It's regrettable, I seem to have truly been abandoned by my classmates," Ibuki said. "Perhaps I'll have to trouble you all again. I don't want to go back to the boat and see Ryuen's face."
"There's nothing we can do about it, Ryuen from your Class is too terrifying. He can even be cruel to girls," Hikigaya said. "So stay for now."
"..." Kushida.
But at this moment, Kushida looked at Hachiman.
It seemed she was saying, 'Why are you stealing her saintly lines?'
And Horikita Suzune was also paying attention here.
Her body was still in that state, but her mind had become clearer.
Now, looking at Hachiman's actions, she thought of how Hikigaya had previously made Kushida give fruit to Ibuki to use Ibuki as a guinea pig for poisoning.
So, was there another purpose in deliberately keeping Ibuki now?
...
As night fell, coupled with working for most of the day, the students were all a bit drowsy and tired.
So they went into the set-up tents to rest.
Due to the abundant supplies.
Besides the 2 tents provided by the school, they exchanged for 2 additional tents, and the space inside the tents was quite large, not very crowded.
However, perhaps because he rarely camped outdoors, Hachiman's sleep was very light.
Then, around 5:30 AM, a men's tent was opened.
And three boys walked out from inside.
Kouenji Rokusuke with golden hair.
Sudo with a red buzz cut.
And Hikigaya Hachiman, who had dead fish eyes and looked like a delinquent.
"Then let's go."
Hachiman said.
Then he, Sudo, and Kouenji left the camp.
This was a meeting held last night while Ibuki went to the beach to confirm the Class's situation.
Ibuki had been abandoned by Ryuen Class, looked pitiful, and as a student from the same school, seeing her alone outside without supplies and with snakes around, it was quite dangerous, so they temporarily took her in.
But to protect their Class's Team Leader information, they had Kouenji carry 2 students with him when swiping his card to create confusion.
This was to act for Ibuki.
To make Ibuki confirm that three people always went out to swipe the card together, so that Ibuki couldn't confirm who the Team Leader was.
Although he felt this method was meaningless, Kouenji didn't stop it.
Moreover.
He also had something he wanted to say to Hikigaya.
So the three of them left the camp together, but before reaching the first stronghold, Kouenji said to Sudo.
"Red-haired boy, you can rest now."
"That short-haired girl from Class D didn't follow us."
"And, can you not be in the way?"
"My time is precious."
"..." Sudo. "Kouenji!"
Sudo instantly became annoyed. Because Kouenji was saying he was in the way. Even though Kouenji's personality was terrible.
"Then I'll rest too," Hachiman said. "I'll leave the rest to you, Kouenji."
It was Kouenji's turn to clear the base, and Hachiman, who had been carried by the other party earlier, felt very uncomfortable and didn't want to be carried again.
After all.
Although he aspired to be a kept man, he didn't want to be favored by some muscular type of guy.
It was too strange.
"Hikigaya," Kouenji looked over. "What do you intend to do?"
"What do you mean?"
"You have an idea about keeping the short-haired girl in the Class," Kouenji said.
"…" Hachiman.
Kouenji was indeed a very intelligent person.
"This Class cannot be uplifted," Kouenji said.
That was what he wanted to say.
Hikigaya seemed to be trying to turn the tide, aiming to gain a lot of Class evaluation points, which meant his goal was Class A.
But he didn't think this Class had the standard to match Class A.
"I know," Hachiman said. "So, I'm just aiming to bring the Class up once, and then I'll just slack off."
"Quite interesting," Kouenji said. "So you want to prove your own strength, right? That's fine. If you can really bring the Class to Class A, then after graduation, I'll allow you to work at my company."
"Before entering this school, I had already started my own company," Kouenji said.
In other words, this was a guaranteed job offer for the future.
But this kind of thing…
This was what Hikigaya rejected the most. He didn't want to go to work as a corporate slave. Becoming a househusband was his life goal.
Thus.
After waiting for more than half an hour at a base, Hachiman, Sudo, and the others returned to the camp together after Kouenji came back.
This counted as clearing one base.
Then, as long as Ibuki remained in the Class, they would need to continue this act several more times. Then, they would let Ibuki find an opportunity to see Kouenji's Team Leader card, and then report back to Ryuen.
…
However.
When Hachiman and the others returned to the camp, they found that there were some problems at the camp.
It had become noisy.
The boys and girls seemed to be confronting each other, with the boys looking innocent and the girls appearing very angry.
"What happened?"
Hachiman had returned.
"Hikigaya," Hirata looked as if he had found a savior. "Something big has happened."
Something big?
Time rewinds to 10 minutes ago.
Hachiman, Sudo, and Kouenji had gone to clear a base, but most of the students were still sleeping.
The boys were also still sleeping, but there were sounds of girls' dissatisfaction outside the boys' tent.
"Boys, boys, hurry up and get up!"
"Is something wrong?"
Although very sleepy, out of a sense of responsibility, Hirata still groggily unzipped his tent and poked his head out.
Just one look made him instantly lose all sleepiness.
Because outside the tent, a dozen girls had already surrounded the boys' tents.
Moreover, everyone had an unpleasant expression and looked aggressive.
They clearly came with hostility.
The leader was Shinohara Satsuki, a girl with short blue hair. She was part of a small group with Karuizawa.
Because she usually stood up for the girls, her relationship with the boys was a bit strained.
And she often showed hostility towards boys, which was not uncommon.
But it wasn't just Shinohara Satsuki; the other girls also looked unwell.
"Hirata, something big has happened."
Seeing that it was Hirata who came out, the girls' expressions softened slightly. "Although we know this has nothing to do with Hirata, there's something we absolutely must confirm."
"What exactly happened?"
Hirata was bewildered and couldn't help but ask.
"This morning, Karuizawa's panties went missing."
"…"
"Karuizawa is still crying in her tent, and Kushida and the others are comforting her."
Because she was speaking to Hirata, even though Shinohara Satsuki was very angry now, her tone was not as harsh as before.
Hirata was someone everyone trusted.
And the moment Shinohara Satsuki spoke, some boys immediately reacted.
"Hey, what do you mean by that? Are you suspecting us?"
"Do you even need to ask? It must be one of you who came and stole them in the middle of the night while we were all asleep!"
"It's not just Karuizawa; you might have done other things too! It's absolutely disgusting!"
"And Yamauchi, you did it, didn't you!" Shinohara immediately grabbed Yamauchi Haruki, who had also come out of the tent, rubbing his eyes.
"Huh? No, that's impossible…" Yamauchi's mind was still hazy from sleep, but he realized the situation was wrong and quickly said, "I, how could I do such a thing!"
"Didn't you discuss some 'big-boobed ranking' with VILLAGE and them when school just started?"
"I always thought you might commit a crime because of that, and it turns out you really did something like this!"
"Eh!"
That was so long ago.
Yamauchi instantly felt like he'd been shot.
And almost at the moment Shinohara mentioned that incident, Ike and Ayanokoji, who were also involved, subtly moved away from Yamauchi.
They probably worried about being considered prime suspects and quickly distanced themselves from Yamauchi.
"I didn't do such a thing!" Yamauchi quickly said.
He felt the eyes of his classmates on him.
"Rather, I didn't do it, and if you want to suspect someone, you should suspect people from other Classes more."
"Like Ibuki… Ibuki, right!" Yamauchi quickly said. "She, she's from another Class!"
Uh.
This made the people around them stunned for a moment.
Because wasn't it you who was following Ibuki around yesterday, trying to curry favor with her?
And now… you're directly throwing her under the bus.
Even Ibuki looked at Yamauchi in surprise.
"Ibuki is a girl; how could she do such a thing?" However, compared to Ibuki, Shinohara felt it was more likely that Yamauchi would do such a thing.
"How can you be so sure?!"
"I, I really didn't do such a thing!" Yamauchi clutched his head.
"Yamauchi, just admit it," another boy began to persuade Yamauchi. "Just hand over the underwear; don't make things difficult."
"I, but I didn't do it…" Yamauchi looked very distressed.
"It's too late to hand over the underwear now; we won't accept it!" But the girls' side had already directly locked onto Yamauchi as the suspect.
Then Shinohara continued,
"In any case, I will absolutely not live in the same camp as a pervert who steals girls' panties."
Although some students on the boys' side also thought it might be Yamauchi who did it.
But now Shinohara had cursed them all.
The boys' emotions also started to explode.
"Then you guys might as well move out! This island is so big; we still have many bases, don't we?!"
"If anyone's moving out, it's you boys. We wouldn't do something like stealing boys' underwear in the middle of the night."
"Don't act like victims! It was Yamauchi who did it; we are all innocent! Why are you cursing us too?! We are the victims!"
Thus, when Hachiman returned, he found that the boys and girls in the camp were at odds.
And that's why Hirata had such a troubled expression.
Hirata, who valued harmony above all else, was very resistant to such Class divisions.
And Hachiman began to think.
He knew the students in his Class, and Hachiman couldn't confirm that there were no perverts in his Class.
So he couldn't confirm whether the students in his Class would really do such a thing.
Moreover.
"Karuizawa's underwear was stolen?" Hachiman asked.
"Yes, Karuizawa, she's crying in her tent right now, and Kushida is comforting her," Shinohara Satsuki glanced at Hachiman and said.
Hikigaya, Sudo, and Kouenji had just returned from outside; they were giving Kouenji cover to clear a base, as discussed yesterday, so they were safe.
However.
Hachiman felt it was a bit tricky.
Because.
Hachiman's deal with Karuizawa was that he would protect her, and she would do things for him.
And now Karuizawa was crying.
If he couldn't handle the current situation properly, it would have a bad impact on her.
Admittedly.
Blaming Ibuki, an outsider, was the best solution to maintain peace in his own Class. But Ibuki still needed to "discover that Kouenji was the Team Leader, then relay it to Ryuen, and then let Katsuragi of Class A know." If Ibuki was forced away now, this plan would be ruined.
So, should Yamauchi take the blame?
Rather, many people now probably think Yamauchi did it, right?
Then, he would have to inconvenience him for a bit.
-----------------------------
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