August 10th, 11:00 a.m.
The crowd of students who had been enjoying their luxury cruise voyage had their good mood disturbed by the sound of an announcement.
The shipboard broadcast system, installed in every corner of the cruise ship, suddenly rang out without any warning.
[Attention, all students.]
Upon hearing this announcement, whether they were sunbathing on the deck or savoring fine cuisine in the dining hall, all the students, as if by tacit agreement, suddenly felt a rather ominous premonition rise within their hearts.
You see, when it wasn't strictly necessary, in order to avoid disturbing the students' rest, the academy would basically never lightly resort to this kind of all-ship broadcast.
And the last time the academy had used the cruise ship's broadcast was right when they were about to undertake the special exam on the Deserted Island!
Now, with the ship about to dock and the vacation coming to an end, there were only a few short days of relaxation left.
Could it be...
Was this school, which never played by the rules, about to arrange yet another deadly special exam for them at this critical juncture?!
Sure enough, the students' worries quickly became reality.
The broadcast continued to echo, unhurried, through the skies above the cruise ship.
[This is a notice to all first-year students: the special exam is about to begin.]
[The school has already sent the relevant exam notification text to each student's mobile mailbox.]
[Please confirm your email, and be sure to act according to the content and time specified in the email.]
The content of the broadcast was nothing more than that one brief notice.
After this sentence ended, accompanied by a faint "krrzt," the broadcast vanished completely.
But for the students, this was no simple matter—after all, who could stand having another special exam start out of nowhere when everything had been perfectly fine?
At this moment, Shikime Natsu was together with several of his girlfriends, sitting in a quiet café inside the cruise ship.
After hearing the words of the broadcast, the several of them turned their gazes onto Shikime Natsu.
The expression on Shikime Natsu's face showed no great ripple of disturbance.
Calmly, he took his phone straight out of his pocket, lit up the screen, and opened the new email the school had just sent, wanting to see what exactly it was the school had sent over.
The content inside the email was quite simple—basically, it could be summed up completely in a single sentence.
That is, it required him, at a specific time, to go to a specific room on the cruise ship to gather for the exam briefing.
It also specially noted that, inside this room, he would need to listen to a briefing lasting as long as twenty minutes, during which leaving was not permitted.
And so, at the very end, the email even "thoughtfully" reminded him: Please be sure to take care of the restroom and any other private matters before entering this room.
After finishing reading the email.
Shikime Natsu turned his head and looked at Kamuro Masumi, who was likewise checking her phone beside him.
"Masumi, what time does your email say? Which room?"
Shikime Natsu asked.
Kamuro Masumi lit up her phone screen and showed it to him.
The two of them compared their respective information, and discovered that their gathering times and room numbers were completely different.
It seemed that this time the school wasn't notifying students collectively by class, but had shuffled the order, calling students over in batches and by room to tell them the exam information.
Just at this moment, Shikime Natsu's phone buzzed.
At this time, the Class A group chat had also grown lively; Katsuragi Kouhei and the others had directly posted screenshots of their own texts into the group, and then began consolidating the information.
Shikime Natsu swept a glance over the messages in the group and quickly grasped the general gist of the information—basically, it was mostly three to four people forming a small group, with twelve groups in total, and the situation in the other classes was probably much the same.
Then, as for himself, he was gathering in the same time slot and the same room as Katsuragi Kouhei and Sakayanagi Arisu.
Within the Class A group chat, someone soon began discussing the content of this special exam.
[Hashimoto Masayoshi: Could it be a written test like the ones we usually have at school?]
[Sanada Kousei: It probably isn't. If it were just a simple written test, there'd be no need to make it so mysterious, splitting us into batches and sending us to different rooms.]
[Totsuka Yahiko: Say, do you think it might have some connection to the Deserted Island survival from before?]
[Morishige Takurou: Could there be something on this cruise ship that needs to be deciphered?]
Everyone tossed out their guesses, one after another.
But after discussing for a good long while.
They still couldn't manage to discuss their way to any conclusion.
After all, the information the school had given so far really was far too scant—they hadn't been told even the slightest hint about the actual substance of the exam.
They were only told to go gather in a room at the designated time to hear the briefing.
With a question that didn't even provide the riddle, who could possibly guess the answer?
When the time required by the email arrived.
Shikime Natsu punctually arrived at the door of the designated gathering room on the cruise ship.
He pushed open the door and walked in.
Inside the room, the Class 1-A homeroom teacher, Mashima Tomoya, was already standing at the front, waiting.
Shikime Natsu glanced around at his surroundings and found that he was still the first student to arrive in this room.
Mashima Tomoya nodded toward Shikime Natsu, and Shikime Natsu nodded back in response, then casually found an empty seat and sat down.
Before long, Katsuragi Kouhei and Sakayanagi Arisu arrived as well, followed by the four people from Class B led by Ichinose Honami, then Ryuuen Kakeru and two others from Class C, and the three people from Class D led by Kushida Kikyou also arrived one after another.
When he saw that this roomful could practically be said to have gathered all the core leaders of four classes.
A trace of amused interest flickered in the depths of Shikime Natsu's eyes.
Once everyone who had been notified to come here had all arrived and each found a seat and sat down.
Mr. Mashima Tomoya cleared his throat and began to prepare to give the briefing for this special exam.
"First of all, before the briefing is finished, at this stage I will not accept any questions from any of you."
Mashima Tomoya's stern face bore no expression at all, his voice low and deep.
"All of you, right now, need only stay quiet and listen carefully to the briefing I'm about to give."
The room instantly fell silent.
Mashima Tomoya glanced at everyone and continued.
"For this special exam, the school has adopted a brand-new method of grouping."
"We have shuffled all the students and re-divided them into 12 large groups—for example, the Rat Group, the Ox Group, the Tiger Group, and so on."
"Over the next few days, you will take the exam within the small group you've each been assigned to."
"As for the purpose of this exam, it's actually very simple."
Mashima Tomoya paused, his gaze sweeping over these students who could each be called elites within their respective classes.
"And that is—to test your thinking ability, in other words, your capacity for thought."
Mashima Tomoya continued, his voice echoing through this quiet room.
"As an adult about to step into society, the basic abilities society demands you possess can roughly be divided into three kinds."
He held up three fingers.
"The first is Action, that is, the power to act. The second is thinking, the capacity for thought. The third is teamwork, the ability to cooperate as a team."
"The school believes that only a person who possesses all of these abilities at once will, in the future, be called an excellent adult who is useful to society."
"In the previous Deserted Island special exam, what we mainly tested was your teamwork—your ability to cooperate as a team."
"And this cruise ship exam."
Mashima Tomoya lowered his hand.
"Is mainly meant to examine your thinking ability."
"In other words, it's to test your ability, when facing complex information, to analyze the present situation and grasp the essence of the problem—as well as your ability to clearly work out the process of solving the problem in your mind, and then carry out thorough preparation and reasoning."
After finishing this opening preamble about the exam's purpose in detail.
Mashima Tomoya finally gave a slight nod.
"Alright, now I'll permit you to ask questions."
The moment his words fell.
Katsuragi Kouhei, seated in the Class A area, exchanged a glance with Shikime Natsu, who was seated not far from him.
Then Katsuragi Kouhei returned his gaze to Mashima Tomoya and raised his hand.
"Mr. Mashima."
Katsuragi Kouhei asked in that composed tone of his.
"May I ask, on what exactly is the basis for dividing all the students into 12 groups this time?"
He swept a glance over the people seated in this room.
Faced with Katsuragi Kouhei's question, Mashima Tomoya spoke without any change in his expression.
"Regarding the grouping this time, what the school has adopted is a completely random method of grouping."
"However, what I can tell you is that over the next few days of the exam period, the members of your group will be fixed and will no longer undergo any changes."
Although what Mashima said with his mouth was "random grouping."
The people present certainly wouldn't think this was simply random grouping—basically the leader of every single class was already present, so how could this be random grouping?
The school's explanation here was honestly far too perfunctory, far too much treating them like fools.
Of course, these matters didn't really amount to anything for them all—after all, if this school intended to stir up trouble, they couldn't stop it anyway, and besides, it was just an exam.
At this point, Shikime Natsu spoke up.
"Mr. Mashima, if it was merely to say these things, then there was no need at all to call us here in batches, was there?"
"Wouldn't it be better to explain the exam rules clearly sooner?"
Shikime Natsu's words were also met with considerable agreement from the others present—after all, the things Mashima Tomoya had said now still had nothing to do with the exam.
Things like this "thinking" business were already inherently contained within the exam itself when the time came; there was no need at all to waste breath repeating it.
"Fine, if that's the case, then I'll go on. Among the twelve groups the school has arranged this time, each is formed by drawing a few students from each class and mixing them into one of the twelve groups."
"In other words, in this exam, when facing an unknown problem, you will be the ones choosing whether to form a team with members of other classes and cooperate sincerely, or to guard against one another for the sake of your respective classes' interests."
"All of this depends entirely on your own thinking and choices."
Then Mashima Tomoya picked up a stack of printed sheets and began distributing them to each person present.
"By the way, all of you here in this room right now—for this grouping, you are all members of the 'Dragon Group.'"
"This is the sheet listing all the small-group members of your Dragon Group. You may memorize the list here, but this sheet absolutely must not be taken out of this room."
Everyone took the sheets and began quickly skimming and memorizing the names on them.
For Shikime Natsu, there really was nothing worth memorizing here—after all, Shikime Natsu knew everyone in the entire school, so he was hardly like those who needed this slip of paper just to remember certain people.
Once everyone had finished memorizing, Mashima Tomoya finally clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention back to him, and continued speaking.
"Next, I'm going to begin formally explaining the rules and content of this exam."
"First, a word of advice for you: in this exam, if you can set aside the prejudices between classes, disregard the hostile relationships among the various classes, and cooperate fully, then this exam will be relatively easy for you to pass."
"This exam will, in the end, have only four possible outcomes."
As Mashima Tomoya spoke, he took out another set of materials.
"In order to let you understand the judgment mechanism and reward-and-penalty conditions of these four outcomes more intuitively and more clearly, the school has also prepared detailed materials on the four outcomes."
"Just like the list a moment ago, these materials are likewise strictly forbidden to be taken out of this room or photographed with a phone. The instant it's discovered, your exam qualification will be revoked outright."
"Now, the materials are being handed out—confirm them carefully right now."
Soon the materials reached Shikime Natsu's hands.
Shikime Natsu lowered his head and began rapidly examining the content on the materials.
At the very top of the materials, written in bold, heavy black type.
[Summer Special Exam Briefing]
[This exam is a problem that uses the 'preferential person'—secretly pre-assigned by the school into each of the 12 groups—as its baseline.]
[As long as the group members use the method stipulated by the school to answer the question the school poses regarding the identity of the preferential person, one of the following four outcomes is certain to result.]
[1. On the morning of the exam day, that is, eight o'clock tomorrow morning, the school will uniformly send an email notification to all students, and at the same time, will secretly convey to those 12 students chosen as 'preferential persons' the fact that they have been selected.]
[2. The exam schedule runs for four days, beginning at eight o'clock tomorrow morning and ending at nine o'clock in the evening four days later.]
[3. During the exam period, all students must, within the times each day, at the times and locations designated by the school, conduct two collective gatherings, and each gathering must involve a one-hour group discussion.]
[4. As for the theme and content of the discussion, the school will not interfere in any way, leaving it entirely to the group to freely decide internally.]
Regarding the most crucial answering mechanism, the materials read as follows:
[1. Regarding answering, the school will only accept the final answer to 'who is the preferential person' uniformly between 9:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on the last day of the exam—that is, within that half hour.]
[2. Each person has only one chance to answer; once sent, it cannot be retracted or modified, so please treat it with the utmost seriousness.]
[3. The school only accepts students using their own phones to send an email to the dedicated mailbox designated by the school in order to answer.]
[4. The student personally chosen as the preferential person cannot participate in answering.]
[5. For the answering student, the target of their guess can only be the preferential person belonging to their own group; guess emails regarding the preferential persons of other groups will all be deemed invalid answers.]
[6. At eleven o'clock on the evening of the last day of the exam, the school will, in the form of an email, inform all students of the final result of this exam as well as the detailed score situation of each class.]
Next.
Came the detailed reward-and-penalty briefing for the four outcomes, which was the very core of the entire exam.
[Outcome One: Within the stipulated answering time of 9:30 to 10:00 p.m. on the last day of the exam, every other student in the group—except for the preferential person themselves and the classmates in the same class as the preferential person—answers correctly.]
[Everyone in that group (except the preferential person) can obtain 500,000 personal points, and the preferential person who was found out can obtain a generous reward of 1,000,000 personal points.]
[Note: This outcome must be answered within the stipulated time; it cannot be done early.]
[Outcome Two: Within the stipulated answering time, no one in the group answers, or someone answers incorrectly.]
[The preferential person has successfully concealed their identity; in this case, only the preferential person themselves can obtain 500,000 personal points, and there is no reward for the others.]
[Outcome Three: Someone other than the preferential person, at any time before the exam ends (that is, answering early), sends the answer to the school, and guesses correctly.]
[The student who answered early and correctly can personally obtain 500,000 personal points, and at the same time the class they belong to can obtain 30 class points; meanwhile, the preferential person who was guessed early and had their identity exposed will lose all personal point rewards, and the class that preferential person belongs to will have 50 class points deducted.]
[Outcome Four: Answering early before the exam ends, but sending an incorrect answer.]
[The class the student who gave the wrong answer belongs to will have 50 class points deducted outright.]
[That group's true preferential person will obtain 500,000 personal points, and the class that preferential person belongs to will obtain a reward of 30 class points.]
Shikime Natsu looked over these rewards—the rewards and penalties for class points were already not equivalent. Was the school starting to control class points as well?
After finishing reading these materials, everyone present couldn't help but fall into deep thought, beginning to analyze the pros of the four outcomes. If one could let one's own class obtain all the benefits, that would naturally be best, but that would be very difficult.
Especially since, as of now, the preferential person had not yet been confirmed.
And just at this moment, Shikime Natsu's information system refreshed, and Shikime Natsu casually tapped in to take a look.
After clearly seeing the content inside, Shikime Natsu couldn't help but smile—he hadn't expected this intelligence to directly hand him the list of preferential persons for all twelve groups, and even spell out the assessment content of this exam.
[The preferential-person assignment rule for this exam: The school sorts the names of all students within each group according to the gojūon (kana) order, and then decides that group's preferential person according to the Chinese zodiac order.]
[For example, in the Rat Group, after sorting all members' names by gojūon order, the person ranked first is the Rat Group's preferential person; for the Ox Group it's the person ranked second, and so on by analogy.]
Shikime Natsu had originally been wondering whether he might need to play some kind of decryption game, but to his surprise, he had directly speed-run it—this really was a direct ruling in his own favor.
In that case... this exam could also end early.
____
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