88 Chapter 88 – Rules for preferential treatment

Not long after Karuizawa left, Ryuen pushed open the door of the KTV private room: "Is it done?"

"Yes." Yukio waved his smartphone, its screen displaying the confidential identities of six privileged students: "I didn't expect the school to be so naive this time, choosing the privileged students based on a rule we both thought least likely."

After obtaining information on two privileged students from Kushida, Yukio and Ryuen narrowed down the scope and found three rules, among which the Japanese syllabary rule was considered the least likely by both of them.

It's just like elementary school homework. The surname of each student in every group starts in accordance with the order of the Japanese syllabary. For example, in the Rat group, the student whose name comes first in the Japanese syllabary sequence is the privileged student of that group, and the same goes for the following eleven groups.

Because this rule seemed too childish, both Yukio and Ryuen thought it unlikely at first. Unexpectedly, after receiving the latest information from Karuizawa, they found out it was indeed this rule!

Ryuen couldn't help but laugh: "Maybe the person who designed this special exam at the school is a fan of detective novels."

In the detective novels, it's common to encounter decryption plots unique to the Japanese syllabary, hence Ryuen's comment.

Previously somewhat intrigued, now that all the puzzles were unveiled, Yukio felt only disappointment: "Alright, I've already gathered the entire Class C in this large room. I didn't expect the school to be so boring."

"At first, I thought using the Chinese zodiac for group naming had some ulterior motive, but it turns out it was just to hide this selection rule. How dull."

***

The night was deep, and the usually differently colored sky and sea shared the night's hue. Horikita, feeling gloomy and tired, talked to herself: "Still no progress, huh?"

She was genuinely exhausted, having thought it would be a fiercely competitive and brainstorming special exam for the privileged students.

However, because Katsuragi and Yukio remained silent, there was no discussion to be had. The topics she painstakingly brought up were, at best, only engaged with by Ichinose out of kindness, leaving Horikita feeling very puzzled. Did these people really not care about the exam?

Ayanokoji seemed even more tired than Horikita, always looking listless: "Sorry, it's the same silence on our side, except for Karuizawa and a few girls from Class C, who are quite noisy, but it's just quarreling, not related to the privileged students at all."

"Sigh," Horikita sighed deeply, slapping her forehead with a crisp sound: "Why does Class D have to be like this…"

Before they could finish speaking, their conversation was interrupted by two text message alerts.

Horikita and Ayanokoji instinctively looked towards their pockets and then simultaneously took out their mobile phones, curious about why the school would send a message at this time.

After all, both of them were the type with very few friends, or even no friends at all, so receiving text messages at the same time could only mean they were sent by the school.

However, upon seeing the content of the messages, Horikita's expression turned extremely grim, while Ayanokoji remained listless.

"What message did you receive?" Horikita asked, showing her own message while inquiring. On her phone screen was a harsh message.

[The Dragon group member has answered in advance, resulting in Outcome Three, the special exam for the Dragon group ends prematurely]

Outcome Three meant someone had correctly guessed the identity of the privileged student ahead of time.

And for the Dragon group, Kushida had not exposed anyone in the class to maintain her identity, so Hirata and Horikita had planned to protect Kushida's identity from the start.

But unexpectedly, in just one day! There were still three days left to go! On the first day, their Class D's privileged student was exposed! Losing fifty class points and five hundred thousand private points!

Horikita was in the Dragon group. When she was already exhausted, someone had answered in advance and correctly? What was all her effort for then?

Already exhausted, she felt even more disheartened at this moment. She truly didn't understand how it was done. Which early answerer managed to find out Kushida was the privileged student?

During the two meetings held by the Dragon group today, no one discussed anything, and the whole scene was silent. How could someone have guessed it so quickly?

She was now much more mentally resilient and could accept failure, but not this kind of inexplicable defeat! Losing without even knowing where she lost!

"I received the same," Ayanokoji showed almost the identical message, the only difference being the Horse group, which also had an early answer resulting in Outcome Three.

Moreover, they were meeting on the deck, and there were quite a few students who had come out to enjoy the evening breeze, with the sound of text message notifications coming one after another, nonstop.

Many students were also exclaiming in disbelief: "Are you kidding me? How did the special exam for the Horse group end already? And it's Outcome Three? Who pulled this off?"

"We too! Our group's special exam ended prematurely as well, also with Outcome Three! What's going on?!"

"Could it be that the school sent the messages by mistake? Or is the school testing the messaging function? It's only the first day of the exam, and we've only had two discussions in total. The exam period is four days long, so it can't possibly end within just one day, right?"

Horikita looked around, combining the messages she and Ayanokoji received, and immediately understood that it's likely a certain class is launching a full-scale attack! Otherwise, it wouldn't be possible for the Dragon group, the Horse group, and other groups to experience Outcome Three almost simultaneously.

It wasn't just the privileged student of the Dragon group that was pinpointed, but also those of the other groups, marking a serious strategic failure on a broad scale.

Although it's unclear which class among A, B, or C is responsible, one thing is certain: in this special exam, there are only three winners!

And the other three classes are just like fish on the chopping board! They can't escape and can only wait powerlessly for the butcher's knife to fall.

'Damn it! This is a total collapse!'

Horikita's face was as dark as the ocean outside, almost blacker, as she immediately dialed Ichinose's mobile phone, only to find it was "in a call."

Listening to the polite message asking her to wait, Horikita felt her anger rising uncontrollably; she had never felt so anxious before!

After waiting more than a minute, she finally got through to Ichinose: "Hello, Ichinose, it's Horikita."

Ichinose's voice came through clearly, even the sudden total collapse seemed not to have disturbed her: "I know what you're going to say, Horikita-san."

"Although I've only just found out myself, several groups have already finished their special exams prematurely, all with Outcome Three, and now more calls from our classmates are coming in asking about it."

"So I can't talk much with you, I'm really sorry, but I've already found out, Yukio-kun is currently at the KTV on the sixth floor of the cruise ship, I'm on my way there now, do you want to come along?"

"…" Horikita's body swayed slightly, she quickly grabbed the railing to prevent herself from falling onto the deck, unsure if it was the anxiety making her unstable or the waves being too rough: "You, you think he did it?"

When she asked this question, there was actually a slight tremble in Horikita's voice.

"Besides Yukio-kun, I don't think anyone else could have done it," Ichinose's reply was also very straightforward: "Sorry, Horikita-san, I need to return calls from my class members now. If you're coming, I'll see you at the KTV."

***

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