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Volume 13, Chapter 3: Summer’s almost here, a premonition of a fierce battle Part 3

After school, the cell phones of the students who had excellent academic or physical abilities, rang at the same time. Horikita approached me as she watched this situation unfold.

“It seems like everyone’s rapidly making their move. After all, it’s natural to want to bring the outstanding students into one’s group.”

Regardless of the strategies of the class to which you belonged to, the first to make their move wouldn’t lose anything.

“Didn’t anyone call you, Horikita?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“I see. After all, there are only very few people who have your contact information.”

“You knew that already, and yet you deliberately mentioned it. You’re a nasty guy. So, did anyone contact you? Ayanokouji-kun, who got a perfect score in math? Your cell phone is surprisingly quiet.”

Horikita asked me back, so I decided to look at my phone, which hadn’t made a sound yet.

“Unfortunately, my battery’s dead. I haven’t charged it for two or three days.”

“If you don’t use your phone frequently, you’ll charge it less often.”

As much as I would like to deny that it wasn’t the case, she wasn’t wrong. If you didn’t use your cell phone much, you might simply forget to charge it.

“Don’t you need to pay more attention to our classmates? It’ll be really troublesome later if they hastily form groups now.”

“I’ve already instructed them on what they should do. I summed it up in an easy to understand way and sent it to everyone. But you probably didn’t notice it, since your battery was dead.”

While Horikita said that, she turned her cell phone screen towards me.

-Please don’t form a group before Class D reaches an agreement.

-Nevertheless, if you absolutely want to decide on your group as early as possible, please contact Horikita.

It seemed like Horikita had anticipated this situation, and set up some minimum regulations.

“This is not enforceable in any way, because this matter ultimately depends on one’s personal judgement.”

Whom to group up with or not to, was indeed a matter of personal choice. You couldn’t form a group with people who didn’t mesh with your personality, which would directly affect your chances of being expelled. Even if all four classes worked together, there was no ideal combination of groups where no one would get expelled.

Due to that, she could only make some suggestions.

I always carried my phone charger with me, so I plugged it in and left my seat, since there might be some students in the classroom eavesdropping on our conversation.

“Has there been any communication from Ichinose? It wouldn’t be strange if she proposed a plan for the whole year to help each other.”

“There doesn’t seem to be any contact from her yet. Neither Class A nor Class B have made any proposals. If all the 2nd years had the desire to come together, then there probably should be some communication at this stage.”

If people teamed up without permission based on their own preferences, cooperation would become more and more difficult. If there were no plans for a peaceful discussion from the beginning, it would end up with all the 2nd years fighting each other. If Horikita wanted to establish a cooperative relationship between the classes, she’d have to take preemptive action from the start.

Horikita didn’t show any particular signs of displeasure at me leaving my seat, instead she followed me.

It seemed like she still had something to say.

After walking into the corridor, and confirming that no one was around, she spoke to me again.

“This time’s uninhabited island exam… Can you get first place by yourself?”

“That’s too reckless. The only thing we know for now is that it’s an uninhabited island special exam.”

“I was wondering if you, who got a perfect score in math, even needed a group.”

What kind of reasoning was that? It sounded like she was clutching at straws by just mentioning it.

“If we come in first place, our Class D will gain points for certain. We can let the 1st and 3rd years fight for the 2nd and 3rd place. It’s better than letting the other 2nd years get it.”

Easier said than done.

“If that’s the case, we can form the groups with the core objective of avoiding any dropouts, and it’d be easier .”

If we shifted our direction to forming strong groups to win, then weak groups would inevitably be created.

“Not everyone can afford to pay the private points required for relief.”

“Yes. For the students who are a little worried, I would like to collect as many private points as possible, but if the student who lends me points receives the penalty of expulsion, that would be terrible.”

There’s nothing more futile than helping someone pass while failing yourself.

“If you don’t want that, then you can only ask students with a surplus of points.”

That would work, but there were a limited number of such students.

“Although a method that’d result in no dropouts exists, I don’t think anyone would want to do it.”

“The plan to withdraw intentionally from the start?”

It seemed like Horikita had already noticed a loophole in this exam. According to the rules, only the first 5 groups to withdraw would get expelled. In that case, if we intentionally prepared 5 sacrificial groups and let them withdraw, the rest of the students wouldn’t have to worry about getting expelled. However, to do this, a total of 30 million private points would need to be prepared, not to mention the fact that the years of the top three groups would take class points from the years of the bottom three groups. Even if the groups were in the same grade, the rewards would be decreased by a bit. It didn’t have any benefit at all. The fact that the top three and the bottom three groups were linked together could be considered as the school’s way of trying to prevent such improper methods.

“I guess it’s up to us to do our best to win in the exam.”

“That’s right. Can I consult with you again?”

Horikita, who had stopped walking, said that.

“As long as it’s within my abilities to do so.”

“That’s enough, thank you.”

It seemed like Horikita had something to talk about with someone, as she returned to the classroom.

I watched Horikita’s back as she left, and decided to head for the exit.