[Ichinose sat right next to Saiki! Damn it, I wanted to sit next to her too, she's one of the top 3 school beauties! So jealous!]
'I didn't want to sit here either.'
[He's close to that disgusting otaku? Then he probably isn't any better himself!]
'I'm absolutely not a shut-in, absolutely.'
[What a troublesome guy, just looking at him is annoying.]
'Yare yare…..'
At this moment, Saiki didn't know what to say. He had undoubtedly become the most focused-on presence in this meeting room.
Not only strangers he was meeting for the first time, but even people he knew were the same.
[This guy, originally was the leader, but then swapped identities. He actually tricked me!]
This thought came from Ibuki.
Very quickly, the remaining students also entered the room one after another, and Karuizawa was the last one to come in.
After Karuizawa came in, several people's attention was successfully shifted elsewhere.
[This girl, is she Karuizawa Kei?]
Saiki heard a slightly hostile inner voice, the source was a girl from Class D, sitting next to Ibuki.
It took Saiki a few seconds to recall that this girl seemed to be called Manabe Shiho.
[Karuizawa, she's the one who had an argument with Rika before, right?]
[Not completely sure if it was her, but if it is, then she needs to be taught a good lesson!]
Two other girls also from Class D, Yabu Nanami and Yamashita Saki, had similar thoughts and paid close attention to Karuizawa's arrival.
Meanwhile, Ibuki's thoughts were completely different.
[Karuizawa, although she looks glamorous on the outside… she actually doesn't really change clothes much… As a girl, isn't that kind of too sloppy?]
While thinking this, a look of disgust appeared on Ibuki's face.
During the previous special island exam, Ibuki, in order to cause chaos in Saiki's class, had purposely stolen Karuizawa's underwear, but Karuizawa acted like she hadn't even noticed.
This confused Ibuki. She even went on to steal underwear several more times, to the point of almost stealing all of Karuizawa's underwear, yet Karuizawa still showed no reaction at all.
That made Ibuki firmly believe one thing, Karuizawa never changed her underwear, which is why she never realized it.
'Yare yare…..'
Saiki shifted his gaze elsewhere, pretending he hadn't heard anything.
To silently deal with Ibuki's actions, every time after she stole Karuizawa's underwear, he would use his telekinesis to return the underwear.
'This misunderstanding… probably won't be resolved for a lifetime…..' Saiki thought this in his heart.
"Then, let's now begin the first round of group discussion."
At this moment, the broadcast started.
There were no teachers, no organizers, and no additional rules, this exam was completely left to the students to manage themselves.
However, in this meeting room, no one took the initiative to speak first. A strange silence spread throughout the room…..
But in Saiki's ears, it was a completely different situation.
[Geez, I don't want to speak first.]
[These guys are all enemies.]
[If someone could just expose themselves as the VIP, that would be great.]
No one wanted to be the first to speak.
For Saiki, this exam already had no meaning, because he already knew the identity of the VIP.
If the VIP was from another class, that would be fine, but the VIP was his own classmate, Karuizawa. So Saiki couldn't just submit the answer and end the exam on his own.
If the exam doesn't end, then he'd have to keep attending this meeting for the next three days…..
'What a hassle.'
[This won't do!]
At that moment, someone stood up.
It was Ichinose Honami.
"Hello everyone! Although I already roughly know everyone's names, but since the school has also given related instructions, I think we should do self-introductions. After all, some of us may be meeting for the first time."
Ichinose took the initiative to act as a kind of host.
"At this point, is self-introduction still necessary? Besides, I don't think the school was serious about it. Just let whoever wants to introduce themselves do it."
At this moment, a male student named Machida Koji said this.
He was from Class A, and his behavior carried the arrogance of an A class student. In the inner voices earlier, he was one of the people most dissatisfied with Saiki.
"If Machida-kun wants to do that, I won't force you. However, there may be recording microphones hidden somewhere in the room. If we get points deducted later for skipping the self-introduction part, it'll be your responsibility!"
Ichinose kept smiling as she spoke.
"Tch…"
The students from Class A, hearing Ichinose's words, seemed ready to comply.
[Although I need to follow Katsuragi's instructions for now, to remain silent and not share information with other classes, but if it's just self-introduction, it should be fine.]
'Yare yare, so that's the tactic you're going with?'
Saiki narrowed his eyes slightly. Using telepathy, he understood Class A's strategy, maintain silence and take a defensive posture during the exam.
That way, whatever happens, their class could avoid getting points deducted.
"First, I'll go. I'm Ichinose, nice to meet everyone!"
Ichinose introduced herself full of energy. If there were outsiders here, they might be captivated by this energetic girl.
[She's really a beauty.]
[She could totally be an idol, like she walked straight out of an anime!]
[Damn, should've picked that seat.]
The second one was Saiki.
"I'm Saiki. Nice to meet you."
[Ichinose is so pretty.]
[Will I have a chance to exchange contact info with her during this exam?]
[I wish I could sit next to her.]
'Hey hey hey, I don't like being the center of attention, but was my self-introduction just completely ignored?'
[Saiki's self-introduction caused an even bigger dead silence than when I entered school.]
This inner voice came from Ayanokoji.
'You're the last person qualified to say that!'
Very soon, everyone went around introducing themselves. After the self-introductions ended, Ichinose continued, "Alright, with that we've completed what the school requested. Next is to decide how we want to proceed with the discussion. If anyone doesn't like me being the host, feel free to say it, I'm totally fine with switching."
[Jeez, just because she's a bit pretty, now she's acting all high and mighty?]
[Hosting is annoying anyway, just let her do it.]
[I don't feel like getting involved in any of this.]
Unlike the boys, Manabe Shiho and a few others were somewhat dissatisfied with Ichinose's approach, but didn't voice it directly.
"Well then, I have something to ask everyone. From my standpoint, I'd like to ask this under the assumption that none of us are the VIPs. I want to ask, Do you think aiming for Result One, where everyone passes, is the best plan?"
Ichinose's stance was clear. She hoped for an outcome where everyone could reach a happy ending in the exam.
"Of course."
"Since we've formed a group with effort, it's obviously better to win together."
"I personally really lack points, so if possible, of course I'd want to reach Result One."
Many people agreed.
But Saiki knew very clearly, that was simply impossible.
[Win together? How could that be? This affects class points. If we could identify the VIP, we'd get the chance to widen our point gap with other classes.]
Following the voice, Saiki looked over. It was a student from Class A named Morishige Takurou.
Not just Saiki, Ayanokoji also understood this.
[Achieving Result One is unlikely. For the sake of class points, anyone could become a traitor. But Ichinose's approach is clever, if someone responds carelessly, it might reveal they're the VIP.]
[She can gauge everyone's mood while also pressuring the VIP to lie. She might catch a slip-up this way.]
"You saying it like this is too sly, right?"
At this moment, Machida Koji frowned and spoke to Ichinose, "If oneself is not a preferentially treated person, of course one would want to expect the group reward with benefits, and generally speaking, no one would openly declare that they will betray. I think your question has no meaning."
On Machida Koji's face seemed to be a trace of dissatisfaction.
"As for the exam, this should be a very appropriate question, right? And Ichinose-san didn't say anything like threatening that you must answer either. If you're unwilling, just not answering is fine."
The one speaking was another student from Class C, Hamaguchi Tetsuya.
"Then we won't answer. We, Class A, will maintain silence throughout."
Machida Koji said directly like that, and the other students from Class A also kept silent all along, not willing to participate in the discussion.
Very quickly, everyone present began discussing about "what kind of result from this exam would be the most appropriate."
Ichinose wanted to reach a win-win result, but the people from Class A didn't think so. They simply carried out a defensive strategy.
[Is this a tactic executed collectively by Class A? Feels like it should be Katsuragi's style. This way, they can maintain the point gap with the lower-ranked classes.]
Ayanokoji thought like this in his heart, while Saiki only wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.
The discussion in the meeting room quickly fell into a bottleneck; no matter who it was, no further progress could be made. It seemed today's first discussion meeting was going to end like this.
'What to eat later?'
While Saiki was thinking about a more meaningful question, a figure appeared next to Karuizawa, who was playing with her phone.
"Excuse me, are you Karuizawa-san? I have something to ask you."
The speaker was Manabe Shiho. Although she used relatively polite words, both her tone and expression were very serious.
"What's the matter?"
Karuizawa didn't expect the other party would suddenly mention her name, and she was stunned for a moment. Her eyes quickly moved away from the phone screen and landed on Manabe Shiho.
This scene was seen by Ayanokoji.
[Karuizawa's behavior seems a little different from usual.]
"If I didn't misunderstand... before summer break, didn't you have a dispute with Rika?"
"Rika? Who's that? What are you talking about?"
A confused expression appeared on Karuizawa's face.
"She's a girl from our class who wears glasses and ties her hair up. You don't remember?" Manabe Shiho frowned.
"I don't remember. Absolutely no impression."
Karuizawa immediately answered, shifting her eyes back to her phone screen again.
"Really? Earlier we heard from Rika. She said she was bullied by a girl from Class D named Karuizawa. She said she was lining up in a café and then you cut in line, even knocked her over."
And upon hearing the other party's words, Karuizawa's expression changed slightly in that instant.
"...What does that have to do with me? What exactly are you trying to do? You seem to have some problem with me?"
Her voice raised a few decibels, but it sounded as though she lacked confidence.
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