Chapter 30

-*- (Day 3)

Waking up the next day, I felt like shit. Sleeping in a cramped, uncomfortable tent combined with the amount of walking I had been doing was not the best combination.

Seeing that I had already gained many private points from Class A, I honestly couldn't think of a good reason to put myself through the pain of staying on this island for 4 more days.

Even if I wanted to get more private points, I couldn't. Ryuen would definitely not give me any private points even if I offered the identity of all the leaders. Katsuragi would most definitely not deal with me, and it goes without saying that Class D dislikes me a tiny bit. You know how I tried to extort them for private points.

Seeing that the morning roll call was soon, I stepped out of the tent and stretched my back briefly. When Hoshanomiya appeared with her clipboard in hand, I decided to tell Ichinose about my "condition" and then follow Hoshanomiya back to the cruise ship to retire.

Seeing that everybody was still sleeping, I walked to the boiling pot of water we used to purify the river water and filled a cup with it. Drinking hot water would raise my body temperature, making it easy to trick Ichinose and Hoshanomiya. After waiting for the boiling water to cool down, I reluctantly chugged the hot water. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but the tastebuds on my tongue were definitely burned.

After the roll call, I pulled Ichinose to the side to tell her about my condition, but surprisingly, she asked me about something completely different.

"What do you think of Kaneda?"

I had nothing to gain from telling Class B that he was a spy, but if I did say, Ryuen would probably harass me or something.

"We should definitely be more careful when claiming the location, but he seems good."

"hmm, yeah."

"Anyway, Ichinose, I-i w-wanted to l-let you know I have a fever in case anything happens. I was thinking of retiring, but I don't want the c-"

Ichinose stopped me mid-talking and placed her hand on my forehead. Feeling my warm forehead, she responded.

"Don't worry about the class, Hikigaya. We'll take care of the exam. You should retire. Your temperature is too high. I'm surprised that your watch didn't beep."

After that awkward talk with Ichinose, I was about to start heading towards the beach when I heard a commotion. 

Turning around, I saw a group of girls surrounding Shiranami, our class leader, as she sobbed. Amikuro and Himeno brought her into a tent while Ichinose gathered everyone around.

Great, just when I was about to leave.

Sighing, I headed towards the class huddle. However, I could see that there was something wrong. Ichinose's usual cheerful face was darkened. I looked around for Kaneda. Did he act against the class yet? To my surprise, I could still see him near the edge of the camp with a smile on his face.

I felt an ominous premonition coming.

In the huddle, the boys looked around, confused, while the girls were clearly pissed. Breaking the silence, Ichinose spoke.

"This morning, Shiranami's keycard went missing. Right now, she's in her tent being comforted by Amikuro and Himeno."

Ah, that's why Kaneda was smiling. I was curious about how Ryuen figured it out so fast, but I guess it wouldn't be that tough with the naivety of Class B. Still, I was confused about why he stole the physical keycard when he had a camera with him.

Speaking of the camera, why the hell did Ryuen make him bring a camera? Does he not trust the words of his own classmate? Also, why was that girl crying so much about it? What is this kindergarten? It's just a special exam; there's no need to bawl your eyes out. 

Kanzaki, who had been thinking for a minute, asked.

"What should we do? That's minus 50 class points."

"I guess we'll just have to h-"

Finally, someone interrupted Ichinose with the obvious question.

"Do we have a traitor?"

I noticed a couple of glances being shot my way. I guess it was unavoidable; I did seem pretty comfortable with Classes C and D from their perspective. But... why the hell are they glancing at me when there's a student from another class not even 10 feet away from us?

Sensing the hostility in the air, Ichinose spoke again.

"Let's not point figures; that won't help us now. What's done is done."

Someone like Ryuen would have beaten everyone up in his class until there was a confession, but Ichinose completely ignored the topic, leaving the traitor completely safe. Such was the weakness of Class B.

However, this time, not everyone blindly followed Ichinose, as I could hear whispering and questioning who the traitor was. Surprisingly, Kaneda was not even mentioned by barely anyone; instead, you know whose name was mentioned the most. Yes, mine.

Amikuro and Himeno, who returned from Shiranami's tent, talked about how I disappeared during their food gathering trip and how nobody had seen me yesterday. To be fair, those were valid points.

Hearing all the rumors, Ichinose probably thought they were made up due to my loner reputation, so she asked to clear my name.

"Hikigaya, where exactly were you yesterday?"

Seeing the entire class staring at me, I decided this would be the perfect time to test how far Class B's kindness would last.

---- (Flashback to Day 2)

As I got ready to head to sleep and began thinking of the other classes' leaders, I realized. 

I completely forgot about Class D and Kushida. She must be pissed.

After ensuring everyone else was asleep, I headed towards the meeting spot on the beach. To no one's surprise, Kushida wasn't there. She would have probably waited for around three hours and then left.

However, as I stepped onto the secluded beach, I saw a name written on the sand. 

"Horikita"

Ah, she probably thought I didn't want to reveal my identity and that I just needed their class leader's name. And since the class leader was someone she hated so dearly, she didn't care if other classes found it, so she wrote it down on the beach.

After clearing the sand to ensure no other classes saw, I returned to the tent with Class D's leader.

------ (End of Flashback)

"Ah, I was doing some espionage. I actually found out Class D's leader by watching them reclaim the location. I was going to tell you after this, actually."

Since the trial, Class D and B had been close, so I was curious as to how far Ichinose's kindness would stretch. After having their leader discovered, they were put in a bad position, and this was the perfect chance to turn the tables. Obviously, any sane person would thank me for this information, but as expected, Ichinose was the opposite.

"Hikigaya, I don't know if you know, but we've actually had a cooperative relationship with Class D, so I can't guess their leader."

At Ichinose's words, another voice broke out from behind me: Kanzaki.

"Ichinose, wait, wait, think this over for a moment. We've just lost 50 class points at the minimum. We don't even know how many classes know our leader, and now we have the perf-"

Ichinose kept firm.

"Kanzaki, I've talked with Horikita and agreed that being alli-"

I interrupted Ichinose as I was tired of this bullshit act.

"Ichinose, Horikita isn't even the leader of Class D; even if she wanted to help us, I doubt that we have all their full class support. This school is a competition, so there's no point in maintaining meaningless relationships if it hurts our class."

Speaking from behind me, Kanzaki also nodded his approval. This was just Kanzaki and me, though. Unsurprisingly, the rest of the Class agreed with Ichinose without even considering the costs.

"Even if it's a competition, I still want to make fri-"

Realizing any conversation with Ichinose about this would be futile, I pretended to listen to her words, gave a brief nod, and stepped away from the group.

Through the mysteries of the leaders and different strategies like Ryuen's 0 points and Katsuragi's conservativeness, I decided that I would like to compete in these exams. If I was going to be at this school for the next 3 years, I might as well take part in the most fun part of it; however, competing with these goodie-too shoes was too much for me. It was about time I put my private points to use. This conversation with Ichinose just solidified that it would be impossible for Class B to rise even with my help.

Ignoring the murmurs and discussions behind me, I headed towards the beach. Even if Ichnose had told them about my fever from earlier, the rest of the class would still be mad that I retired and cost them another 20 points, so right now, I was solidifying my departure from Class B.

Arriving at the beach, I saw Hoshanomiya on her phone under the nurse's tent.

"Teacher, I feel a bit hot and have a fever, so I was going to retire."

"... Ok, feel better!"

It's odd, very odd. Since that incident with Class D, Hoshanomiya has been nicer to me. She knew my personality well enough to know that I was probably faking it, but she didn't even try to stop me from dropping out. She didn't even take my temperature or test me at all. Anyway, I wasn't going to complain about this nice change in attitude.

I walked up the board and onto the cruise ship, only to see almost all of Class C in the front pool splashing around. I guess they're already out of exam points.

There goes my quiet vacation.

Though my tastebuds were burned, I was still hungry and ready to eat some actual food, so after stopping by the room to pick up some things, I headed to the empty buffet room.

I opened my book and began reading while eating the first-class food. Now, this was a true summer vacation.

After receiving my food, I checked my private point balance with the phone I had gotten back.

[12,567,000]

Even with the 3 million points from Katsuragi, I would still need 5 million private points. Returning to Class B after the summer vacation would be awkward and annoying, so I wanted to leave soon.

Sighing, I sent a message to Manabu, who was probably enjoying his summer break right now as third years didn't have any exams.

[Hikigaya: Hey, I kinda need private points right now; if you send me 5 million, I'll nullify the other 5 million you owe]

Within 5 minutes, I received a notification and rechecked my balance.

[17,567,000]

Just like that, I became the first student in the school's history to obtain 20 million private points that were all owned by me. Looking at the quiet buffet, I realized how anticlimactic this "special" moment was. Then, feeling another vibration on my phone, I looked again.

[Manabu: Guess this means you dropped out of the exam. Planning to transfer to Class A]

As a student council member, I didn't even know the reach of the president's power, but seeing that he knew about the specifics of the island exam, I could tell he had probably helped create or organize it. 

Speaking of that, since I was the only first-year, would I be student council president one day?

[Hikigaya: Guess you could say that]

After sending a quick reply, I was finished eating, so I got up and headed outside to find a secluded space.

Since Class C was on the front deck, the back pool was empty, so I grabbed a beach chair and sat down, taking in the sun.

------

[A/N: Some of you may be disappointed by his lack of performance in this special exam; however, don't be worried; in the next one, he'll actually do his best. Also, after thinking about the possibilities, I decided on 5. Let me know which one you would like to see the most.

Option 1: Hikigaya goes to Class C with Ryuen and becomes second in command.

Option 2: Hikigaya uses all his private to create a "Class E" and recruits 10 members. Of these 10 members, I've kinda decided on 3 so far. Kanzaki, Ayanoji, and maybe Ryuen. If you choose this option, please let me know what others should be in the class. Don't say people like Sakayanagi and Horikita, as the balance between classes will definitely be broken.

Option 3: Hikigaya goes to Class A and creates a faction to rival Sakayanagi and Katsuragi.

Option 4: Hikigaya goes to Class D. This option doesn't really make sense, but I decided to add it anyway.

Option 5: Hikigaya stays in Class B and creates a faction with Kanzaki to rival Ichinose's rule. Like the previous one, this one doesn't really make sense, but I added it in case you wanted it.

Show your support for the option by commenting on the words for each one, and after around 2-3 days, I'll do the one that gets the most support. Also, if you have any other ideas, comment on these words.

In the meantime, if you guys are curious, I might write an Oreki (from Hyouka) in the elite fanfiction classroom.]

(If you're reading this somewhere other than Webnovel.com, show your option support by commenting as well)