They got 650 points but only gave the class 150 points, pocketing the remaining 500 points?
Moreover, according to Honami's account, that Rokusuke guy had put significant effort into this exam, even sacrificing himself by falling ill and withdrawing.
As a result, of the points earned, he only received 200 points. As for Suzune — having seen Houtarou and her appear together as a pair multiple times — Kakeru was certain that those 300 points in her possession actually belonged to the guy.
In other words, in this exam, Houtarou had secured points for his own class, Class A, while simultaneously operating from Class D's side.
Holy fu**! This guy really is a money-eating monster. 300 Class Points equals 1.2 million Private Points per month.
This made Kakeru envious, but he couldn't attempt something like this right now.
Class C's situation was dire. If they couldn't seize this opportunity, his classmates would rebel against him. At that point, forget about reaching Class A — he'd be abandoned first.
After all, he had no achievements to show.
His initial plan to establish an agreement with Honami and others — where they would steadily provide Private Points and he would take one-third or half — was no longer feasible.
Because his track record was terrible, taking even a small share would invite criticism. This agreement had to be treated as void.
"Anyway, let's continue gathering points." Kakeru said, "Though we don't know the content or direction of this next exam yet, controlling people first will still be beneficial!"
"Understood!" Satoru stood up, preparing to execute the plan.
However, at this moment:
[Attention all students. The school has just sent emails containing contact information to all students. Please check your phones and follow the instructions—]
The ship's broadcast system came to life with the voice of Class B's homeroom teacher, Chie Hoshinomiya.
In other words, the exam was starting again. Once more, the time left for him to operate was insufficient.
"My 50,000 points vanished like a stone in water without making a sound!" he cursed.
Others looked at him sympathetically — this was the third time Kakeru had been tricked out of money by Class A's Houtarou.
However, everyone quickly lowered their heads as they noticed that the school's information about the exam had already arrived.
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On deck, Houtarou also received the message from school.
Masumi was by his side. He noticed that this time, they had received the messages simultaneously.
This meant it was a mass message from the school — pre-edited information.
For an exam that could be announced directly, why send separate edited messages to students?
He pondered this, then opened the school message on his phone.
The school's proxy name was XF, similar to a transfer.
| XF |
| Special exam will begin shortly. Students must gather in their designated rooms at their designated times. Those who are more than 10 minutes late will be penalized. |
| Please gather in Room 204 on the second floor at 6:30 PM. The required time will be approximately 20 minutes. Please use the restroom beforehand and set your phone to vibrate or power off before coming to the gathering place. |
The message didn't indicate the exam's content or direction. It didn't even specifically note the receiving student's name.
However, after reading the message, Houtarou looked toward Masumi, and she handed over her phone.
| XF |
| Special exam will begin shortly. Students must gather in their designated rooms at their designated times. Those who are more than 10 minutes late will be penalized. |
| Please gather in Room 206 on the second floor at 7:30 PM. The required time will be approximately 20 minutes. Please use the restroom beforehand and set your phone to vibrate or power off before coming to the gathering place. |
Both messages were from the school, but the gathering times and room numbers differed. The current time was 3 PM, giving Houtarou several hours before he needed to go to Room 204 for the exam.
"Let's open the class group." He said, "We need to collect everyone's received messages."
"Understood!" Masumi immediately nodded and began working.
The same instructions were passed to Class B and Class D.
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Class B.
Ding Ding!
After reading the school's message, Honami noticed she had received another one. Because of its importance, she had marked the sender's contact information with a special notification sound.
"A message from Houtarou Oreki?" Ryūji asked from across the table.
They had been reviewing Class B's performance in the island exam. While they hadn't exactly won, they hadn't suffered a terrible loss either — especially compared to Kakeru's situation.
When they discovered that Class B's leader information had leaked, Houtarou had suggested having Chihiro fake an illness and withdraw. However, Honami had firmly refused this plan, and even though Ryūji found it somewhat regrettable, he agreed they shouldn't sacrifice a classmate's health for victory.
In the end, they learned that Kakeru received 50 points, with Houtarou's help. They now owed him a favor, since he could have instead collaborated with Kakeru to obtain Class B's leader information.
Had Classes A, C, and D all correctly guessed Class B at that time, their class would have been devastated.
"After returning to the ship, there will be another exam, and for that exam, cooperate with me."
Those were Houtarou's exact words — he had chosen to turn the favor directly into a transaction.
Now that the ship's exam had been announced and they had received messages from the school, Honami had to decide whether to cooperate.
The fact that Houtarou gave up the chance to team up with Kakeru and push Class B further behind suggested he valued this upcoming exam highly.
So should they...
"Let's follow through." Honami said, "We owe him a favor. Besides, I think Ryūen might try something during this exam. Cooperating with Oreki might help us guard against that."
"Mm." Ryūji nodded.
Actually, he wondered if she was being too conservative rather than aggressive enough.
This differed from his own thinking — he preferred a more aggressive approach.
However, he realized that relying solely on himself probably wouldn't lead to success. They needed to play it safe for now.
During the island exam, the appearance of spies and Class C's ambition to climb up had shocked him. There was no telling how Kakeru would try to strike back in this exam.
At the same time, the current class evaluation scores were:
「Class A: 1801 Points」
「Class B: 970 Points」
「Class C: 490 Points」
「Class D: 730 Points」
While Class A's score was despair-inducing, he had checked the second-year building's bulletin board and found that second-year Class B's Points were also around 1000.
In their third month since enrollment, they were already approaching next year's second-year Class B's score level — not too shameful.
Moreover, they had recovered many Points lost in the first month's behavioral standards exam.
However, 15 students in the class had participated in Houtarou's store plan, and although the store had failed, they still had to pay Points monthly.
This made Ryūji somewhat uneasy.
Kakeru had called this plan a scam, but now that their Class Points had increased, they should be able to manage — terminating now would cause major losses for those 15 students.
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As for Class D.
Kikyō: "..."
She had also received work from Houtarou to collect information about the school messages received by Class D students.
Though annoyed that he treated her like a test subject and showed no interest in her, she would still do it for now.
After all, he had given her 50 Class Points as a reward.
Moreover, based on her understanding of Houtarou, of the 300 points Suzune received after the island exam, 270 were actually his.
In other words, that lone girl only got 30 points from this exam, while she got 50.
Although she didn't get any money, being able to gain popularity was still acceptable.
Ten minutes later, a large amount of data appeared before Houtarou.
A total of 109 pieces of information had been collected, recording names along with their assigned rooms and times.
From the collected student information, they could see that everyone was scheduled to gather in 12 rooms, numbered 201 to 212, between 6-9 PM.
Additionally, the timing for the same room was consistent within each class, but different classes were separated.
For example, Houtarou and two male students named Shigeru Takemoto and Kōji Machida were notified to go to Room 204 at 6:30 PM.
Then Honami was also notified to go to Room 204, but at 6:45 PM.
And for Class D, those notified to go to Room 204 were scheduled for 7:00 PM.
However, Class D's execution ability was indeed lacking. Despite Kikyō being viewed as the class angel and this exam bringing a positive 50-point reward, she had only collected 29 pieces of information.
If they were only relying on Suzune, the amount of information they could collect was predictable.
In other words, to win this exam, they needed to be tougher on Class D. For an opportunity provided by the school, there was no need to hold back just because of Class D.
Meanwhile, Houtarou sat in a coffee shop while Masumi worked on recording.
Though the exam's content wasn't clear yet, her recording and statistical work was mostly complete. She had compiled a list of students from Classes A, B, and D related to Houtarou's exam.
The students going to Room 204 with him were as follows:
Class A: Shigeru Takemoto, Kōji Machida, Houtarou Oreki
Class B: Honami Ichinose, Tetsuya Hamaguchi, Ryōta Beppu
Class C: Unknown
Class D: Akito Miyake, Kei Karuizawa, Hideo Sotomura, Teruhiko Yukimura
"Ichinose is in there—" Seeing this name, Masumi muttered.
Honami Ichinose.
At school, Arisu had arranged for her to tail this Class B representative because Houtarou wanted to meet with her. Then during this island exam, they had also interacted directly.
She was a unique existence that made one feel sympathetic.
And now, meeting Honami again... And in the same exam room as Houtarou.
Houtarou: "..."
He knew that the now-obedient Masumi was still carrying out Arisu's task of investigating his relationships.
However, was this girl currently concerned about Honami?
Unfortunately, his thoughts were focused on Kei from Class D, who was also assigned to that room. She was the most adorable girl in her class.
Her complete devotion to him was precisely what made Houtarou most uncomfortable.
With these thoughts in mind, at 6:30 PM, the privileged student exam began.
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