"Don't you think that's going too far?" Honami said quickly, "This is special exam time, and these are just self-introductions. Although the behavior standards exam is over, we're still being evaluated. Since the exam rules allow us to talk, completely refusing might result in a very low evaluation.
Besides, there are cameras in this room, and our homeroom teachers might be watching, Machida-kun."
Hmm. She had directly identified Kōji.
This showed she had done her homework and gathered information about Class A students.
"Uh... is that so..." After noticing the camera in a corner of the ceiling, Kōji showed a moment of panic.
As Class A students, though they were at the top, they had their weaknesses.
Class A students were selected through the school's complex evaluation system. While their credentials looked good on paper, they knew that in this school's class warfare, they weren't truly excellent enough. They could only rely on their more capable classmates to carry them.
Being Class A students, they were also very conscious of evaluations. After Honami's comment, Kōji began to worry about his evaluation dropping.
"Self-introductions should be fine." Houtarou said, "I'm Houtarou Oreki. I don't have any particular interests, but I believe in not doing unnecessary things and keeping necessary things as simple as possible."
In other words, he was an energy conservationist — something everyone found quite novel when hearing it for the first time.
"Ahem..."
Kōji and Shigeru quickly introduced themselves.
And so the first round of introductions ended.
But as mentioned, Houtarou was an energy conservationist who disliked unnecessary things.
His plan was to have all students aim for his desired outcome, where everyone would collectively earn 80-90 million points. Then he would harvest half of those points.
However, it was now clear that Class B students had their own agenda. Honami and her group seemed intent on using this opportunity to make up the difference in Class Points.
This was troublesome. Guessing one group would mean losing that entire group's chance to earn 7-8 million points. This directly affected whether he could secure his 40 million at the end.
He had already accumulated 20 million Points over two months — a considerable investment of time and effort.
But now, a 40 million point reward lay right before him, obtainable in just 3 days. This was exactly the kind of efficiency Houtarou sought.
After all, future opportunities to harvest huge amounts of Points might only arise during crucial periods in second or third year, when he could take advantage of chaos — and even then, it wouldn't look good.
So if Class B and Class C students were fixated on guessing other classes' VIP information, he would need to handle it.
Thinking this...
"Ichinose-san, what do you think would be the best choice for our group in this exam?" Houtarou said.
"Me?" Honami blinked gently, "I hope we wait and answer correctly together. Since everyone learned the rules last night, I personally think this is the best approach.
Everyone could announce the VIP identities together between 9:30 and 10:00 PM on the third day. That way, each of us gets 500,000 points, and we won't lose any Class Points. What do you think about this proposal?"
In other words, taking the path of common prosperity.
Common prosperity made sense. After three months at this school, everyone understood the basic rules. They received monthly living expenses calculated from their Class Points multiplied by 100.
While Class A remained wealthy, the other classes were barely getting by — Class D had been struggling in poverty for two months.
When Honami mentioned everyone earning 500,000 Points together, they immediately perked up.
Though Suzune had collected their phones, she hadn't said she wouldn't return them. If the group stayed united and didn't betray each other, everyone could earn 500,000 points.
The three Class D boys began to waver, along with the Class C students.
Class C seemed to have Class Points, but after participating in Houtarou's shop plan and being plundered by Kakeru, they were actually struggling.
Even if they had to hand over some Points to Kakeru, they could still keep a portion for themselves.
Half of the fourteen rabbits were already wavering.
And Honami had chosen the outcome — exactly what Houtarou wanted.
But it was unfortunate. Honami wasn't being honest.
Thinking this...
"It seems we've confirmed that our rabbit group's VIP isn't in Ichinose-san's class." Houtarou suddenly said.
"Why do you say that?" She blinked gently, but the expressions of the two Class B students behind her shifted.
Noticing this, Houtarou smiled slightly. Honami knew immediately things had gone wrong.
The Class B students trusted her deeply, and she trusted them too. For this VIP exam, knowing her class's VIPs would make it easier to act. She had revealed she wasn't a VIP, hoping the chosen VIPs would find her. Quickly, she had learned about three VIPs in her class.
Her two classmates weren't VIPs themselves and knew Honami wasn't one either. That's why they had reacted to his words.
Honami felt instant defeat.
If Houtarou had been trying to draw out their thoughts, he had succeeded.
Were Class A students truly this formidable?
But she was skilled at acting. Maintaining her sweet demeanor, she gazed at him with dewy eyes.
"Why do you say that, Oreki-kun?" Honami deployed her angel-like charm.
"Because I'm a Class A student and you're Class B — and you, Ichinose-san, you're still struggling." Houtarou said. Though he felt the attack land, he pressed on for his 40-million-point plan, "The final results from the island exam show that the gap between your Class B and our Class A has widened. If you can't reduce that gap as much as possible in this exam, you won't have a chance to move up for the rest of this year.
So you can't give up this opportunity. If we talk about mutual prosperity, as soon as I reveal that this Rabbit group's VIP is in my class, you'd immediately betray and rush to answer, wouldn't you?"
Ah. I see. Indeed.
Honami broke into a sweat.
The gap between Class B and Class A was enormous — over 800 Class Points. If they didn't reduce it now, everyone would lose motivation later.
Their battle plan this time was simple: obtain as much VIP information from other classes as possible, then make a rush answer to catch up.
However.
"Why do you say that? Why say we won't be able to move up for the rest of the year if we don't seize this opportunity?"
At this point, Class D's Teruhiko joined the conversation.
He was Class D's top student, and one of the few who would listen to others — probably someone who hoped to move up to Class A.
Houtarou glanced at him and said, "Look at last month's written exam — the highest Class Points were only 100. The island exam and this VIP exam both have high point values. The school isn't stupid; they won't keep giving out lots of Class Points as rewards since they have to convert these into living expenses for us. These are all costs.
I think the school might only have one or two high-point opportunities per year. Even after returning to school, the monthly special exams might only offer maximum rewards of 100-200 points.
Therefore, no matter how hard Class B students work later, even if everyone gets high scores, they won't be able to narrow the gap with Class A. You can only seize this opportunity.
The same applies to Class D. If you can maintain the large number of Class Points you gained in the island exam during this VIP exam, you basically won't need to worry about later exams."
"Uh..." Teruhiko felt awkward.
Class D had 730 Points, but 530 had to be given to Suzune and Rokusuke, leaving only 200 points for them.
According to Houtarou, if later exam Class Points rewards would be small, then point deductions would also be small.
But this would only protect Suzune and Rokusuke's Class Points. They had made it clear today that any point deductions would come from everyone else's share.
So he felt awkward.
"Although Class B has strong offensive capabilities." Houtarou continued, "I still suggest going for this outcome. Plus, the VIP isn't in my class anyway. So I think Ichinose-san won't betray us."
Honami: "..."
Ah. He shouldn't drag her out like this. She hadn't said she would definitely betray.
Although, if the VIP was in Class A, she would definitely betray. And if the VIP was in Class D... for Class B's safety, she would consider betraying too.
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