This island exam requires mandatory participation from all students. Absence or illness will result in a 30-Point deduction for the class.
Additionally, roll calls must be conducted on the island. Every day at 8 AM and 8 PM, students must return to the gathering point on the beach for roll call. Each absent student will result in a 3-point deduction from the Base Points. There are 12 roll calls in total.
The current time is 19:58.
All Class A students have arrived and formed four lines, making it easier for the teacher to count.
"All 40 students are present." Tomonari said, checking off everyone on the attendance sheet.
The beach isn't occupied by just Class A students — Class B and Class D students are also present.
The Class B students look uniformly exhausted, as if they've endured a tremendous ordeal. They seem rather pitiful. Meanwhile, Chie is taking attendance.
Class C's homeroom teacher Kazuma stands alone off to the side, looking quite solitary.
All Class D students have arrived as well. Their classmate Rokusuke has used the class's last 5 Base Points to exchange for a vanity set: a face mask, mirror, and comb.
He's now intensely focused on grooming his hair and admiring his perfect face in the mirror, while Ken holds it for him with a constipated expression.
Finally.
"Alright. Thanks, red-haired boy — while you may not be good at much else, you make a decent mirror holder." Rokusuke said.
"Kōenji, watch how you talk!" Ken was furious.
"No, no, no, I'm giving you friendly advice." Rokusuke said, "Do you think your violence is impressive? I think you should work on your temper — that way people can see your good points."
These words sounded like guidance.
"You bastard!" But Ken wasn't grateful.
"Now, now—" And Yōsuke quickly moved to ease the tension.
By now it's 20:03.
"Looks like Class C is entirely absent." Kōhei said from Class A's ranks.
Roll call is at 8 o'clock, morning and evening. Being late counts as absent.
Though Class A's roll call is complete, Kōhei hasn't dismissed the students yet. He's noticed Class C's teacher Kazuma standing alone — not a single Class C student showed up for roll call.
What could Kakeru be planning?
Through their cooperation with Rokusuke, Class A secured 5 outposts immediately upon landing on the island.
With such an abundance of outposts, Class A had the luxury of choosing between three different locations for their camp. They settled on an outpost near the river.
Though they have supplies from their exchange with Class D's Base Points and don't need river water, being near a water source is naturally reassuring. The water pump and heater also make bathing comfortable.
Their five outposts will eventually earn them nearly 120 Reward Points.
That's Class A's position.
As for the other classes? With most outposts already claimed, they face limited options — mainly waiting for the 8-hour occupation limit to expire so they can claim one of Class D's outposts.
Class B is clearly struggling. After landing, they found all outposts taken and could only wander the island searching for new ones.
Some of their students can barely stand — a pitiful sight.
But this is a competition between classes, a school exam. If Class B failed to act quickly at the start, that's their problem, not Class A's.
Yet here's the pressing issue: not one Class C student showed up for roll call.
Will they forfeit all their Base Points?
"Could Class C have formed an alliance with Class B?" Masayoshi suggests, "Ryūen knows how to exploit situations."
Kōhei doesn't answer immediately. Instead, he glances toward the side of the formation.
"Hmm?" Houtarou notices the attention.
He's never been comfortable with group activities.
At school, he'd often use Teleportation to return home, never once sleeping in the dormitory. The thought of spending tonight in a tent is rather...
This island exam is proving quite stressful for him.
Still, he pulls up the system prompt.
〖 Side Task: Give Me My Money, Dumb ATM! 〗
〖 Task Requirement: In the Island Exam, gain control of Class D and turn them into an ATM! 〗
〖 Task Duration: 7/8 Days 〗
〖 Task Reward: Enhancement of Restoration Ability (Extending disease healing duration) 〗
〖 Task Punishment: When using Clairvoyance, eyes will become cross-eyed (Charm decreased by 20) 〗
〖 Task Progress: 15% 〗
The quest progress isn't bad, and he's already arranged for Rokusuke to take action. The guy won't slack off when his own Points are at stake. All Houtarou needs to do is wait for Rokusuke to finish swiping cards to end the exam.
But now Class A students are watching him. Their current strategy is quite conventional — if the exam ends now, they'll only earn around 400 Class Points.
The point value looks good.
But it doesn't satisfy Houtarou. This isn't the most efficient approach.
The optimal strategy would be to ally with other classes, letting them handle the supply burden, while having one powerful person monopolize most outposts. This could yield nearly 1000 Points — enough to leave other classes in despair.
For reference, the previous written exam was worth 100 Points.
According to Katsuragi and other classmates, both Miyabi and Manabu gained significant Points in this month's exam. Yet even Manabu only earned 400+ Points.
Their bragging about these modest Points suggests that opportunities to widen Point gaps are rare — or perhaps nonexistent for the rest of the year.
President Manabu, the most distinguished Student Council President in history, is already in his third year. Last month, third-year Class B closed the gap by 280 Class Points, suggesting that special exam was worth 300 Points.
This puts his third-year Class A at a serious disadvantage.
As Student Council President, Manabu controls exam Point values. A different president, seeing a class leading by over a thousand Points, would likely minimize all third-year exam values.
So a 300-Point exam? Pure fantasy.
Yet it happened — proof of Manabu's fairness.
Therefore, exams during his term follow the traditional point values for students at this stage.
For Houtarou's first-year class, three months into enrollment, this means one thing: there likely won't be any more opportunities to gain a significant Point advantage.
But Class A lacks someone as athletic as Rokusuke, so they can't quickly circle the island and claim all outposts at once.
And having Rokusuke do it? That wouldn't be about efficiency — it would mean him doing all the work alone. Worse, if this succeeds, they'd likely push all difficult tasks onto him in the future.
Houtarou refuses.
After all, having one person carry the whole class would make him end up like Manabu. Everyone remembers how exhausted he looked at the Student Council, buried in paperwork.
That's terrifying.
And right now, when a single problem arises, why aren't Class A students — including you, Kōhei — thinking for yourselves?
Houtarou desperately wishes Arisu were here.
But everyone is watching.
"You want to ask about Ryūen, right?" He quickly analyzed, "Based on my interactions with them, I suspect Ryūen and his group haven't just skipped — they've completely withdrawn."
"..."
??? Withdrawn?
All the students from Class A and the nearby Class B students who remained looked over.
Class B students had returned to the beach that afternoon. They had seen Class C students, who also couldn't find empty outposts. At that time, they had completed a supply exchange agreement with Kakeru worth 100 Base Points.
At 6 PM, just before Class D's leader came to swipe their card, they watched the card reader show Class D's occupation time had expired.
They then swiped their cards, arranged for some students to set up camp, and sent others to find Kakeru. They exchanged for more supplies — 50 Base Points for 5.
After that, Class B students got busy. Since none had camping experience, they had to figure everything out. They finished setting up camp just in time for roll call.
Had Kakeru really withdrawn?
"Heh heh—you've finally figured it out." Kazuma said, "Yes, half an hour ago, my Class C students withdrew."
"Withdrew — you mean they're taking zero points?" Yahiko spoke up.
Ryūji, standing next to Honami, looked surprised.
"It's not that strange." Kazuma said, "Ryūen made an agreement with Class B to exchange Base Points for supplies. Once they secured that agreement, there weren't enough supplies left for my class's students, so naturally they left. After all, Class D and Class A took all the outposts, didn't they? Why stay just to guard some worthless outpost for a mere 20-something Reward Points?"
But this wasn't something a teacher should announce in front of everyone — especially the agreement between Class C and Class B.
Some of Class D's students were looking over in surprise.
Even Class A's Kōhei and others were watching intently, clearly hearing this information for the first time.
"Sakagami—" Tomonari looked over with concern.
As teachers, even though they believed in merit-based advancement, they shouldn't interfere too much in student matters.
Kazuma had clearly crossed a line.
"I just feel my work has gotten easier." Kazuma said, changing his tone, "With Ryūen and the others withdrawing, I don't need to do the 8 AM and 8 PM roll calls anymore. And since my shift is tomorrow, I'm heading back to the ship to rest."
He walked toward the small boat at the beach's edge, attendance book in hand.
The ship was anchored about 1,000 meters offshore, requiring the small boat for transport.
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