In practice, I can issue tasks to my master.

"After that, you will need to meet twice a day in a room designated by the school. Each meeting will be a free discussion lasting up to an hour, with the aim of identifying the best performers in each group."

"The assessment ends at 9:00 PM on the fourth and final day. From 9:30 PM to 10:00 PM that night, answers to 'Who is the preferential recipient?' will be accepted by sending an email to the designated email address. 'Preferential recipients' are not allowed to answer. Each person can only answer once. Answers from groups other than their own will be considered invalid."

"The results of this exam and the rewards and punishments are all written on the paper, so I won't go into details. If you have any other questions, you can ask them now."

Nangong Cheng pretended to stroke his chin as if he was thinking, but in reality he was just waiting for Horikita Suzune to digest the exam rules that Majima Tomoya had said.

It only takes about two or three minutes.

Horikita Suzune raised her head.

Under the watchful eyes of Nangong Cheng, Kushida Kikyo, and Majima Tomoya, she spoke up, "I have a question."

"Excuse me," Majima Tomoya gestured.

"If someone finds all the favored students in the other classes on the first day and gets all the students in the four classes to answer the same question after the two discussions on the first day, can this be considered as achieving Result 1?"

Volume 1: Chapter 104, Shiina Hiyori: Could it be that you also...?

Result 1: When the exam ends, if everyone guesses the identity of the favored student correctly, the school will pay all group members 500,000 personal points, and the favored student will receive 1,000,000 personal points.

Result 2: If anyone fails to answer or guesses the recipient's identity incorrectly, the school will pay the recipient 500,000 personal points.

Result 3: The student gave the correct answer to the school before the exam ended.

The class to which the respondent belongs will gain 50 class points, and the respondent will receive a reward of 50 personal points. The class whose preferential treatment is discovered will have 50 class points deducted, and that group's exam will end at that point. If a student in the same class as the preferential recipient answers correctly, their answer will be considered invalid, and the exam will continue.

Result 4: Giving the school the answer before the exam is over, and answering it incorrectly.

The class to which the respondent belongs will lose 50 class points, while the favored student will gain 50 personal points, and their class will also gain 50 class points. The group's exam will end at this point. If a classmate of the favored student answers incorrectly, their answer will be considered invalid, and the exam will continue.

In summary.

Compared to the maximum reward of 150 class points that can be obtained by guessing other class beneficiaries, the personal point reward, which can theoretically reach up to 8600 million, is equally tempting.

Horikita Suzune did not forget the "way out" that Nangong Cheng had mentioned.

In addition, she also believes that personal points are a special school currency with the same purchasing power as yen, and that there is no inherent difference in importance between personal points and class points.

While 2000 million personal points is certainly a "small goal" that is difficult to accumulate, it is at least a path to Class A.

The huge reward of 8600 million personal points that can be achieved by the first exam is enough to make a "small goal of transferring to another class" even if it is divided equally among the four classes. Therefore, in terms of this exam, Horikita Suzune felt that there was a theoretical possibility of cooperation and win-win among the four classes.

"Well...theoretically speaking, each student has one opportunity to send a text message before the exam ends."

Majima Tomoya was somewhat surprised by Horikita Suzune's question. After all, from the school's perspective, these students should normally wait until the last day of the exam to answer. It wasn't impossible for them to answer in advance, but the probability was still too small.

This is similar to entrance exams; no matter how confident a candidate is, very few would choose to hand in their paper early during an important exam.

However, the situation described by Horikita Suzune is indeed possible, since text messages can be scheduled to be sent at a set time, which could lead to everyone identifying the recipient of preferential treatment at the same time.

"While I personally think your idea is feasible, well... how about this, I'll check with the school later, and if there are no problems, your homeroom teacher will get back to you."

"So, besides that, do you have any other questions?"

“No more.” Horikita Suzune shook her head.

In reality, the answer to this question isn't very important, since it only relates to whether the exam ends early or late, and has little impact on the exam results.

Now she understood why Nangong Cheng had proposed a collaboration with Class C, but another question arose—

Did Nangong Cheng know the content of this exam from the beginning, which is why he made arrangements in advance?

The answer is unknown.

If you ask her directly, she will definitely be brushed off, and if you let her guess, there is no conclusive evidence.

However, this planted the seed of doubt, and Horikita Suzune decided to continue observing from the shadows.

If she's just being paranoid, that's one thing, but if her guess is right...

"Then you may leave."

While pondering, Majima Tomoya began to shoo people away.

Horikita Suzune stopped thinking, stood up, glanced at Nangong Cheng who had stood up with her, and then turned and walked towards the door of the room.

The group left the room decisively.

...

...

the other side.

After receiving the rules for this special exam, Honami Ichinose, while marveling at the accuracy of Makoto Nangong's prediction, analyzed the situation of the exam.

First of all, this exam was essentially a game similar to "catching spies." The school set up two group discussions to give them the opportunity to "catch spies," but the school also hinted at how students should choose from the four possible outcomes.

Result 1 symbolizes a future of cooperation and mutual benefit among the four classes. Result 2 represents the student, as the favored student, choosing to hoard personal points without trusting anyone. Only Result 3 and 4 better reflect the actual situation of competition among the four classes.

However, Ichinose Honami had a question in her mind.

"Even if no students drop out of Class D, the total number of first-year students is only 160. What is the purpose of dividing them into 12 groups?"

Since 160 is not divisible by 12, there will inevitably be some groups that have one more person than other groups.

The only explanation she could think of was that the number of people in each group was an irrelevant factor that had no impact on the exam results; rather, it was the number of groups that mattered.

Why not divide the students into 8, 10, or 16 groups by integers, instead of 12 groups?

Therefore, there is definitely a problem with the number of groups.

Honami Ichinose immediately edited her guess into a message and sent it to Makoto Nangong, who gave her an affirmative reply right away.

This made the girl very happy.

Net Cang Mako, standing to the side, was already numb to her best friend's behavior. She just wanted to numb her mind with things like class and exams, so she wouldn't think about anything related to Nangong Cheng.

Unfortunately, this exam will likely still be manipulated by Nangong Cheng.

...

...

Class A.

Inside a private room.

Katsuragi Kohei and Sakayanagi Arisu sat facing each other on sofas on either side of a coffee table, with students from their respective factions standing beside them.

Oh, by the way, the neutral faction also sent a representative.

After all, they have the right to know the topics to be discussed, and may even need to express their opinions if necessary.

"Sakayanagi, I don't recommend that Class A cooperate with Class D or, more specifically, with Nangong Cheng."

Katsuragi got straight to the point and stated his reasons for opposing the exam: "We are both clear about the rules of this exam. If Class A and Class D cooperate in this exam, then there is only one possible outcome."

"Even if the 8600 million personal points are divided equally among the four classes, compared to the situation of the four classes, the benefit that our Class A receives from these personal points is actually less than that of Classes B, C, and D."

"I think you should be aware of this as well."

Sakayanagi Arisu fiddled with the folding fan in her hand, inwardly unsure whether to agree or disagree with Katsuragi Kohei's analysis.

After all, there's a lot of room for maneuver with 20 million personal points. Whether it's using them to change classes or to expel a student, it's all within the rules. So, compared to classes other than Class A, Class A doesn't really need those 20 million personal points as much.

but--

"Katsura-kun, what kind of score do you think we could get if we took the exam normally?"

"The maximum exam reward is only 150 class points. Even if you wait three years, you can barely reach 2000 million personal points. From a cost-effectiveness perspective, it is the best choice for all four classes to achieve the same result."

"This not only maintains the current class ranking and gap, but also provides a substantial amount of personal points that can serve as a reserve of hidden resources to deal with unexpected situations that may arise in future exams. Isn't that a good thing?"

Katsuragi remained silent.

He could certainly solve this simple arithmetic problem, and he knew that from both a short-term and long-term perspective, there was no problem in agreeing to cooperate with Nangong Cheng.

But...

"Aren't you afraid he'll turn around and bite back on Class A like Long Yuan did? Don't forget that during the deserted island exam, it was he who got Class B to sign a points transfer agreement with us."

"In addition, he has a history of selling information and then publicly disclosing it on the second day of school."

learn from mistakes.

Although Katsuragi felt that if Nangong Cheng wanted to achieve a situation where everyone got the same result, he would not betray Class A, but that was Nangong Cheng's current reputation, so he had to be on guard.

"In short, I don't recommend cooperating, but if you insist, Sakayanagi-san..."

He stopped halfway through his sentence.

Sakayanagi Arisu smiled and continued, "Actually, I can understand what you're thinking, Katsuragi-kun. After all, you were just tricked by Ryuen, so it's only natural to be wary. But I want to say that Nangong-kun is a different kind of person from Ryuen."

Kamuro Masumi, standing to the side, subconsciously rolled her eyes, thinking that with Nangong Cheng's mind and style, Ryuen was no different from a loli in front of him.

Of course, the most crucial difference is that Nangong Cheng is fond of women, but Long Yuan only sees useful people and useless people. This is the biggest difference between the two.

Sakayanagi Arisu naturally had no idea what Kamuro Masumi was thinking, but even if she did, she would probably agree with her.

She just needs to say some good things about Nangong Cheng now.

"You can tell from his decision during the deserted island test that he is actually a conservative like you, just like Longyuan. But when he acts aggressively, it's because he is confident of winning."

"The intelligence war at the beginning of the school year is based on this principle. Because we suffered from the information gap, we have to suffer in return. This is an open strategy."

"On the contrary, the scheme that Ryuen and Nagumo Ya later conspired to set up for Class D was the real conspiracy."

Sakayanagi Arisu snapped open her folding fan to cover the lower half of her face, then squinted to observe the expressions of Katsuragi and Totsuka Yahiko behind him.

"Of course, there's no need to rush into confirming the cooperation. You can try to take the exam as normal if you want, but you'll have to worry about Nangong Jun demanding an exorbitant amount, which might leave our Class A with less than 20 million points."

This wasn't her exaggeration; given Nangong Cheng's style, that man was truly capable of such a thing. So she was just giving Ge Cheng Kangping a heads-up in advance to prevent him from being blamed later.

"...Well then, let's leave it at that for now."

Katsuragi was also unsure whether to cooperate with Nangong Cheng, so he looked at the representative of the neutral faction and asked, "Shiraishi-kun, what do you think?"

Seemingly not expecting to be involved in this situation, the girl named "Shiraishi Asuka" naturally replied since she had been asked: "Katsuragi-san's concerns are reasonable, but Sakayanagi-san's statement is also correct. So my opinion is to consider both of your judgments and wait until the first or second group discussion is over before deciding whether to cooperate."

Sakayanagi Arisu and Katsuragi Kohei exchanged a glance, which was considered an admission of this statement.

"In that case, I'll take my leave."

Sakayanagi Arisu slowly walked towards the gate, leaning on her cane. Just as she brushed past Shiraishi Asuka, her lips moved, but what she said was unknown even to Kamuro Masumi and Yamamura Miki, who were following behind her like bodyguards. They could only catch a glimpse of the fleeting stunned expression on her face.

On that day, no one else knew what Sakayanagi Arisu had said.

...

...

The following day, with only a few minutes left before the school sent out the notification text message, students from each class gathered at the same location under the arrangement of their class leaders.

At this moment, in Class C.

Shiina Hiyori held the book and read it as if no one else was around, while on the other side, Ryuen waited impatiently with his arms crossed.

Soon, the "ding" sound rang out one after another.

"Don't move, hand over all your phones to me."

Ryuen immediately instructed Ishizaki Daichi and Albert to collect everyone's cell phones, then checked them one by one, and finally wrote the names of the three recipients on a piece of paper and handed it to Shiina Hiyori.

Hiyori Shiina had already closed the book.

She glanced at the note Long Yuan handed her; it had three names on it, but that alone didn't reveal anything.

She added the group to which the three belonged, then handed it back to Long Yuan, explaining, "As expected, there should be a shortcut or special problem-solving technique this time as well."

"Considering that the school has specifically divided the students into 12 groups, there is probably a pattern to the selection of the preferential treatment recipients. However, the information from the three preferential treatment recipients is probably not enough to draw a definitive conclusion."

Long Yuan nodded without saying anything more.

He himself was aware of this, but as Hiyori Shiina said, they were unable to make the right judgment without clues.

Of course, that's not important, because when he learned about the exam content from the teacher, he decided to cooperate with Nangong Cheng to win the huge amount of personal points awarded in this exam.

This time, Hiyori Shiina naturally did not object to Ryuen's decision, since it was a good thing for Class C as well.

However, like Horikita Suzune, she suspected that Nangong Cheng's advance proposal to cooperate with Class C might be because he already knew the content of the exam. But logically speaking, it is absolutely impossible for the school to reveal the exam content to the students in advance.

Even if the class advisor wants to intervene in the competition between classes, their influence is extremely limited, and they cannot possibly reveal the exam content.

So what is the truth?