Although Hikigaya was very blunt, Ichinose was very easy to talk to.
"Uhm, let me think."
Ichinose gently bit her index finger, thought for a moment, and replied, "Things like hammocks, small tents, fishing rods, cooking utensils, and outdoor showers, plus the food consumed, it all added up to eighty point."
This was completely different from the extravagant Class C.
Even though they were both spending money, Class B tried to choose cheaper options.
For example, for showers, Hachiman's Class chose a shower room that looked like a large refrigerator, costing twenty point each.
But Class B chose an outdoor shower for ten point, paired with a free small tent that came with the simple toilets provided by the school.
After all, an outdoor shower, as its name suggests, has no cover, so a small tent is needed to serve as a shower room.
And for accommodation, Hachiman's Class chose an eight-person tent for ten point without a second thought, and even bought two.
They even spent twenty point on soft mats for comfort.
But Class B chose hammocks, two for one point.
They could be used simply by tying them between two adjacent trees.
And on the tent side, Hachiman also noticed that their tents weren't hard, but they didn't buy mats; instead, they used the free simple toilet bags provided by the school.
This was probably because they collected a large quantity of them.
Since the simple toilets were free, the accompanying bags were also free, so they took many and used them as mats, saving money.
She was so good at managing a household.
Hachiman felt that Ichinose might also be someone he could learn from.
Since Hachiman's goal was to be a househusband, he also needed to learn how to manage a household. So he could find time to learn from her.
"It can't be helped."
Saying that, Ichinose then said with some discouragement, "Although drinking water can be solved—there's a well here in the vegetable field, seemingly used for irrigating the vegetables. A student from our Class volunteered to drink from it, and after half a day, nothing happened. It can be boiled and drunk, so drinking water has been resolved. But for food, relying solely on this half-acre of vegetables is difficult. Moreover, the diet would be monotonous, and we have to stay here for a week. Everyone's health might also suffer. So we can only exchange some food with point as a supplement."
Being in a vegetable field, with water resources and vegetable resources, it was a good base.
However, simply relying on eating vegetables was not enough.
Therefore, exchanging for food was also necessary.
And for food expenses, even if they only ate two meals a day, it would cost at least 10 point daily.
Adding the eighty point already spent, by the end of the week, Class B's expenses would exceed one hundred fifty point.
As she spoke, Ichinose also glanced at Hikigaya and his group with some resentment.
Because if Class C hadn't occupied all the visible bases on the Uninhabited Island, and without permission, they couldn't use other Class's bases, nor could they collect resources from other Class's bases.
Otherwise, Class B could have saved all their point.
An alliance is an alliance, but giving everything away would be too cheap, and an alliance doesn't mean Hachiman has to give Class B a bunch of point for free. So Hikigaya pretended not to see, turned his head to look elsewhere, and changed the subject, "Can I try that hammock?"
He didn't have much camping experience, and his hammock experience was zero.
Now seeing Class B students exchanging for a bunch of hammocks, he suddenly felt it was a bit regrettable that his Class, despite having a lot of supplies, didn't exchange for these enjoyable things.
"Eh?"
Ichinose was slightly stunned, then saw the direction Hachiman was pointing, and nodded with a light smile, "Of course."
"Thank you."
Hachiman nodded, then walked straight over and sat on it.
"Hmm, he really isn't polite at all."
Ichinose puffed out her cheeks, as if surprised, but she wasn't angry.
Instead, she generously sat on the hammock as well, sitting side by side with Hachiman.
Because space was limited, they were very close.
Ichinose had a faint fragrance on her.
The school's rules for personal items that students could bring did not include perfume, so this was likely Ichinose's own natural scent.
This made his heart flutter a little. Of course, Hachiman knew very well that Ichinose sitting down so generously was a sign that she had no other thoughts about him.
This was truly reassuring.
However, the two of them, appearing intimate yet undeniably innocent, left everyone else stunned.
Although Kushida maintained her cute smile, she felt that Ichinose and Hikigaya had a very good relationship, and perhaps, without her knowing, their private interactions were also very good, or perhaps something had happened.
And she didn't know about this.
"This is really…"
Horikita's mouth was slightly agape, a little surprised and unsure what to say.
Of course, with Horikita's current emotional intelligence, it probably wasn't about Hikigaya and Ichinose being close, but rather, "They just politely said you could sit on the hammock, and you actually went and sat on it?"
It's like when someone says they'll treat you to dinner sometime; do you really think they're going to treat you to dinner?
"By the way, Ichinose."
After feeling the hammock for a bit, Hikigaya turned his head, looking at her beautiful face so close, and said seriously, "Let's cooperate."
Cooperate?
The two Classes had already signed an alliance agreement.
So cooperation was not surprising.
In fact, after Ichinose's Class occupied the vegetable field base, they had considered whether to go to Class C, who occupied most of the bases.
They hoped to exchange the vegetables they obtained for other edible food from Hachiman's group.
However, the vegetable field base was initially occupied by Class C, and they would be exchanging resources that originally belonged to another Class, which felt too shameless. So Ichinose and Kanzaki had not yet made up their minds.
And now.
Hikigaya brought up this topic?
If it was cooperation, the vegetables from their vegetable field wouldn't be enough to eat.
Which meant.
Ichinose actually thought of a plan.
That was to pay Class C a portion of point as compensation, so that their Class's initial point could be saved as much as possible.
In this exam, they wouldn't get many point from the bases, so they could only try their best to preserve their initial point.
So, was Hikigaya here to help them and discuss business with them?
"How do we cooperate?"
Ichinose thought for a moment, then said with a sense of relief and interest.
Because Hikigaya was here to cooperate.
Then they could probably save about 20-40 point on their initial point.
Then she heard Hikigaya say,
"It's no exaggeration to say that most of the bases on this island are currently in our Class C's hands."
"Because when we were notified by the school broadcast to check the deck before landing on the island, we used a camera to record the appearance of the island."
"So we could quickly and accurately find the bases," Hachiman said.
"Oh, I see—"
Listening to Hachiman, Ichinose was a bit dazed, because they only realized then that there might be an exam, but because they had no preparation, even when they were called to the deck to view the "meaningful scenery," they were still confused and lost the initiative.
And Kanzaki also understood why Hikigaya and his group could occupy so many bases.
It turned out they were prepared long in advance, and their preparation was quite impressive.
From this perspective, their Class was indeed inferior to them.
Kanzaki immediately felt the pressure.
And Hikigaya continued, "My Class's initial point have already been spent."
"So the main part of this exam can only be the base point."
"However, I also want to try the Team Leader guessing part," Hachiman said.
Oh.
Because they realized that Hikigaya wasn't talking about selling them abundant supplies, but about the Team Leader guessing part, Ichinose and her group's interest seemed to have waned slightly.
"It's true that we want to guess the Team Leader, but we haven't arranged anyone to guard the Team Leader of other Classes and earn base point."
"Moreover," Ichinose said. "Regarding Class D, when our Class went to the beach for roll call yesterday, we found that they had withdrawn."
"Some people had already returned to the ship, and some students were still waiting on the beach, but they also withdrew in the end."
"Although it's a bit embarrassing, when we found out they withdrew, we wanted to see if there were any supplies left, but they took everything with them," Ichinose said with some embarrassment.
"We already knew that," Hachiman said, stroking his chin. "Komiyama and Ishizaki Daichi from Ryuen Class came over to mock Ibuki, whom our Class took in. Then I arranged for Sudo to follow them, and they really did withdraw."
"It seems Ryuen Class has given up on this exam," Ichinose said. "I can somewhat understand their feelings."
Yes.
They could somewhat understand.
The scoring for this Uninhabited Island Exam was divided into three parts: guessing the Team Leader, base point, and initial point.
Upon landing on the island, they found that most of the bases were already occupied.
So there was no base to set up camp. They could only carry their luggage and walk around, which was very difficult.
Ichinose and her group waited for 8 hours, then occupied a vegetable field belonging to Hachiman's Class, and only then did they have a place to stay.
Ryuen's Class seemed to have stayed on the beach the whole time, unable to find a base.
This meant they probably thought all the bases were taken, so they wouldn't get many base point.
And as long as they stayed on the island, there would be consumption, which would certainly require supplies. So it was hard to say how much of their initial point they could save.
Therefore, rather than enduring hardship on the island and not getting many point, it was better to withdraw and enjoy themselves back on the ship.
Ryuen and his group's actions were understandable.
Oh, so that's what you thought.
Hachiman remained well-behaved.
At this moment, he was about to speak again but suddenly stopped, as he noticed a new face approaching.
"Ichinose."
A blonde boy wearing glasses suddenly walked over, "Is there anything you need help with?"
"Ah, about that."
Ichinose said softly, "Then, could I trouble you to go over there and assist Chihiro and the others?"
"I understand, thank you."
The boy thanked her and bowed to Ichinose before leaving.
"That's a student from Ryuen Class, isn't it?" Horikita Suzune said.
Although this was Class B's camp, Horikita had been tricked by Hachiman into memorizing the entire Class roster, so she recognized that this boy was not a student from Class B.
Instead, he was a boy named Kaneda from Ryuen Class.
"Yes, Kaneda is a student from Class D," Ichinose explained with a smile.
"Apparently, he had a conflict with Ryuen and was kicked out by him. Ryuen and his group have already dropped out, leaving him all alone. How should I put it... since we encountered him, we couldn't just leave him be."
Ichinose's actions and words seemed very much like a saint's.
However, this made Hachiman, Horikita, and Kushida feel a sense of calm.
Because even though Ryuen Class had withdrawn, Hachiman had said at the time that Ryuen must still be on the island.
And he also said that Ibuki was a spy.
This could be identified from the communication device in the small cloth bag Ibuki had buried.
And now.
Class B also had someone from Ryuen Class, which confirmed that Ryuen was deliberately planting spies in other Classes to obtain information about their Team Leaders.
Obtaining the Team Leader information of Hachiman's Class could invalidate their base points.
However, Class B didn't have many base points either, so Ryuen's goal was to guess their base, causing Class B to lose 50 points and him to gain 50 points.
Ryuen's ambition was indeed not small.
After selling off the initial points, he still wanted to score more; his "0-point strategy" was fake.
"So he's a student from Class D," Hachiman said with a knowing look, smiling.
"Coincidentally, our Class has also taken in a student from Class D.
Her name is Ibuki, and like Kaneda, she was kicked out because she resisted Ryuen.
However, Ibuki had it worse; she seemed to have been physically abused by Ryuen."
"Is that so? That's truly pitiful," Ichinose said with a sympathetic expression, pressing her lips together.
"To encounter someone like Ryuen, the students of Class D really have bad luck."
"..."
Hachiman.
He deliberately pointed out that his Class had also taken in a student from Ryuen Class to make them more vigilant.
But instead, they sympathized with the spies.
He had previously thought about not helping Class B too much, keeping their points from rising too quickly so they could easily defeat Class B.
But now, Hachiman felt that even if he gave Class B a lot of points, they would lose them all due to their own saintly nature.
He had originally chosen what seemed like a good Class to ally with, but now he suddenly felt that Class B might also be a drag.
However.
What was important now was cooperation; first, they would scheme against Class A and annoy Ryuen.
So.
Hachiman looked around and asked, seemingly casually, "Who is your Class's Team Leader?"
"..." X4
Instantly, Ichinose and Kanzaki from Class B, as well as Horikita and Kushida who had come with Hachiman, were stunned.
Because, was it really acceptable to ask such a question directly?
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