Ryunosuke successfully escaped Himeno's pursuit and returned to Arisu's room.
Seeing him come to meet her again, Arisu was slightly surprised. "Why did you come back again?"
Miki, who was in the same room, lowered her head shyly and intended to leave the room. This time there was no Ryunosuke blocking the door, so Miki could exit smoothly.
Arisu smiled sweetly at the departing Miki. "Yamamura-san, please help us guard the door outside~"
"Akasaka-kun and I have important business to discuss — no one is allowed to disturb us."
Miki covered her chest with both hands and nodded hesitantly. "I understand... Sakayanagi-san, I'll stand guard at the door."
Arisu nodded with satisfaction. "In that case, I'm counting on you."
Miki immediately waved her hand. "It's no trouble, no trouble at all."
After that, she left the room and truly carried out her duty of guarding the door.
Ryunosuke looked at Arisu. "You didn't need to order her around like that, did you? Yamamura looks very timid..."
Arisu, sitting on the bed, sighed. "That's precisely why I have to order her around and make use of her. So that others know she's my person, Sakayanagi's person..."
"That way, she won't be bullied. Besides, Yamamura-san looks like the type who's very easily bullied, doesn't she?~"
Ryunosuke understood the good intentions behind Arisu's attitude and didn't comment further. He began his main business. "I want to cooperate with Class B (currently)."
Arisu's eyebrows rose slightly, showing interest. "Tell me, what kind of cooperation?"
Ryunosuke didn't beat around the bush and explained his entire plan in detail.
Arisu rested both hands on her cane while thinking, and quickly made a decision.
"70-30 split. Seventy for me, thirty for you."
Ryunosuke nearly stumbled and fell from shock.
"Damn! You're asking for seventy percent? That's robbery!!!" He couldn't help but curse.
Arisu showed a fox-like smile. "You're the one who needs my help, not me who needs yours. It's only natural... that I get the larger share."
She said it with full confidence as if she already had complete control over Ryunosuke. And in reality, she did hold the control...
Ryunosuke felt like a deflated balloon — he lost the will to debate. If he wanted to rake in big points through this exam, he had to unite all four classes. Missing even one wouldn't work. If there was one traitor causing trouble, a chain reaction would occur, and the ideal Outcome 1 wouldn't be achieved.
The ideal Outcome 1 was to have the "Target" (VIP) admit their identity as the spy and let all class members submit the same answer simultaneously. If even one person tried to submit an early answer for personal gain, it would be considered a failure.
The school wasn't stupid. To prevent the perfect Outcome 1, the Target would be given a reward of 2 million personal points if they successfully hid their identity from everyone. This was the school's way of exploiting human greed.
Very few people could resist the temptation of four times the average share. After all, the ideal Outcome 1 only gave 500,000 points per person, while if taken alone, the reward reached 2 million points. Other people's money wasn't one's own money; betrayal was almost inevitable...
Moreover, if an outsider successfully guessed the Target's identity, that person would also receive 200,000 points. This made achieving the perfect Outcome 1 almost theoretically impossible.
The school was willing to put up those points because they were certain no one could win that easily. Even if someone was lucky enough to achieve Outcome 1, the school would prepare another exam to "vomit back" those points.
In the end, the school made the rules. If someone wanted to gain an advantage, they had to steal points from the gaps in those rules.
Ryunosuke immediately agreed to Arisu's 70-30 split because he had no other choice.
Arisu, realizing this, confidently made an excessive demand.
After the transaction was agreed upon, he rolled up his contract. As if remembering something, she gave a warning that sounded friendly. "Akasaka-kun, have you settled your Class C yet?"
Hearing that, Ryunosuke was reminded of Class C's current state, split into three factions. His face twitched with irritation. He only answered "Not yet..."
Then fell silent.
Arisu seemed to have anticipated this. She nodded with a sly smile. "I signed this contract with you personally, not representing your class. Meaning, until now you haven't even been able to unite your own class, Class C, right?"
Although asking, Arisu was already very certain of it.
Ryunosuke took a deep breath and slowly released it while shaking his head helplessly.
"The situation in Class C is a bit complicated — I'll find a way to resolve it. If there's nothing else, I'll be going."
Since the cooperation with Class B was complete, Ryunosuke stood up to leave. Arisu didn't see him out due to her limited mobility.
After Ryunosuke left, Miki returned to the room with a shy face. "Finished talking?"
Arisu nodded and told Miki the general outline.
Although Miki was timid, she wasn't stupid. She also voiced her opinion. Raising her small hand, she asked in a soft voice.
"Um... is it really okay for us to cooperate with him? He's taking thirty percent of our class's total profit — won't our classmates mind?"
"Oh?" Arisu looked at her with surprise. "I didn't expect Yamamura-san to think that far ahead. But you don't need to worry — they won't mind... Because if we don't sign this contract, no one will be able to get big points. Even though we have to give thirty percent to the other party, we still hold seventy percent. Overall, we don't lose."
"Besides... without this contract, we won't earn a single point, right? You must understand. Without cooperating with him, we won't get anything. By cooperating, we can rake in almost 14 million personal points — why not?"
Arisu stared straight at her until the girl felt goosebumps.
It was then that she realized this girl named Sakayanagi Arisu was their true leader. Miki fell silent, acknowledging the truth of those words.
Arisu smiled with satisfaction at her question. At least this proved that the Miki beside her wasn't a useless tool.
Actually, there was one thing Arisu didn't say out loud. She had to use this cooperation to cover up her failure on the deserted island yesterday.
The failed island exam had caused her position as Class B's leader to be questioned. She needed this contract to stabilize class morale so it wouldn't split into two factions again. If it were before, she wouldn't have cared about leader status. But now it was different...
(I want to win against someone just once!)
Arisu gripped her cane tightly.
This was the second time in her life she had such a strong desire to win against someone.
The first was Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, whom she met as a child, and the second was Akasaka Ryunosuke.
For Arisu, how could she possibly care about class interests? She only wanted to accumulate enough capital to gamble with Ryunosuke again.
Because Ryunosuke had once said: if she wanted to challenge him again, Arisu had to bring points to bet...
Arisu laughed softly. That smile looked very terrifying, making the Miki beside her scared half to death.