5.7

It was a little after 2pm. There was still plenty of time before the treasure hunt game would end, but I felt it was safe assume that we'd already searched most of the area. I took pictures of a total of six QR codes. We ranked them objectively, with three of them judged to be a 4 out of 5 in terms of how difficult they were to find. It would be a good idea to choose one of those to scan first.

"Could you open up the camera?"

"Which one should we scan first?"

"You can pick whichever one you intuitively think is good, Satō."

"E-ehh? Is it really okay for me to choose? W-what if I pick a bad one?"

"There should only be carefully selected QR codes left. Besides, it's possible that they've all been scanned already, so we might end up having to try them all in the end."

We would have a better chance if we made a quick decision rather than taking our time.

"O-okay."

Satō took my phone and scrolled through the photos. She seemed to ponder it for a few seconds, but then at last decided to point her own phone camera at one of the photos. It was the QR code I found when I stuck my phone underneath the sofa.

However──

"Ahh, this one's no good. It says it's already been accepted so it's gone."

It was quite well hidden, but it seemed some other students had managed to find it.

"Don't worry about it, try the next QR code."

She nodded, and this time she didn't hesitate to scan the QR code that she scrolled to.

However, it seemed the second one had also already been accepted, and Satō stomped her foot in frustration.

"Even though it was so hard to find! This is so frustrating!"

She hurried to scan the third QR code.

After that, Satō stared at the screen for a while, but then suddenly jumped into the air.

"It loaded! Look, something like a treasure chest came out!"

It was a simple illustration of a treasure chest with the word TAP.

"I wonder how many points we'll get…"

Satō went to tap the treasure chest with her index finger, but stopped just before her finger touched it.

"Y-you press it, Ayanokōji-kun!"

It appeared that she was afraid of seeing the results, so she handed me her phone. From Satō's point of view, she had to use her precious 10,000 points to participate, so she was scared our efforts wouldn't bear fruit.

I received the phone from Satō and touched the treasure chest on the screen.

"Wah, Ayanokōji-kun, you're so bold!"

I didn't exactly do anything that could be called bold.

The treasure chest glowed simply, and a blue light came from inside the box.

And then──

"Ah!!…oh~"

For a moment, Satō was intensely surprised, but she soon realised the truth and her joy began to fade.

The reason for this was because what came out of the treasure chest was not one million points, but 100,000 points. She was dreaming of the 300,000, 500,000, or even one million points rewards, so she was a little disappointed.

"It appears that the QR code wasn't as difficult to find as we thought."

"I see~…that's too bad. But, but, even after taking away the participation fee, we still get 90,000 points, so it's more than enough!"

Even without confirming it, I could brazenly say that I was glad I participated.

"Thank you, Ayanokōji-kun."

"I'm the one who should be saying thank you. After all, the one who found the QR code that hadn't been scanned yet was you, Satō."

"…Hehe."

Showing an expression that was both pleased and embarrassed, Satō smirked.