I have a life simulator.

"Has Ayanokouji-kun never been to a fireworks festival before?"

Noticing Kiyotaka Ayanokouji's slightly bewildered expression, Yosuke Hirata asked with some surprise.

"I've only read about it in books."

Kiyotaka Ayanokoji cast his gaze upon the deep night sky. The moon was bright tonight, but there were few stars.

Yosuke Hirata followed Ayanokouji's gaze and looked up at the sky, as if a dazzling fireworks display was about to explode there at any moment.

"What are you all looking at? Are they going to set off fireworks?"

Ken Sudo and the other two looked up, their necks aching, but they still couldn't see anything.

Fireworks are not allowed on campus, but the promotional posters say there will be a special program tonight.

Class C of Grade 1 diligently posted numerous promotional posters throughout the school during the day, which is one of the reasons why almost half of the school's students gathered here tonight.

"Oh, isn't that Kitagawa?"

After turning a corner, the crowd thinned out slightly, and the tall and imposing Takeru Sudo spotted Ryo Kitagawa standing in front of a stall at a glance, taking advantage of his height.

"There was a girl with him."

He peeked again on tiptoe, then, seeing the other man's female companion, he sheepishly withdrew.

"Damn it, even a guy like Kitagawa has a female companion."

What do you mean, even someone like Kitagawa?

He silently made a mental remark, but Ayanokouji Kiyotaka didn't dare say it aloud. Hirata Yosuke, standing beside him, smiled and explained:

"That must be Shiina from Class C, right? I heard they were dating a couple of days ago."

"Um……"

Takeru Sudo stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment, then spoke somewhat uncertainly:

"But the girl I just saw seemed more like Ichinose from Class B?"

-------------------------------------

"It's cold, are you choking? Do you want some water?"

"Thirty seconds left... mmm."

Kitagawa Ryo stuffed large mouthfuls of takoyaki into his mouth while staring at the countdown clock on the table.

Finally, with less than three seconds left, he swallowed the last dumpling. After seeing the stall owner nod leisurely, he hurriedly took the cold water that Ichinose Honami had prepared beforehand, took a big gulp rather awkwardly, wiped the sauce from his mouth, and then weakly said:

"Is that...done?"

"signal."

The vendor, looking all businesslike, asked as he took the next batch of takoyaki out of the oven.

"Ten soldiers went out for a treat, but unfortunately choked, and only nine of them survived."

After reciting this dark nursery rhyme quoted in the world-famous suspense novel "And Then There Were None," Kitagawa Ryo twitched his lips and took a note from the boss.

"You young people these days, you have so many tricks up your sleeves."

The vendor uncle clearly didn't understand any of this; he just thought the code sounded creepy. However, since it matched what the girl had told him, he simply sighed and went back to doing his own thing.

"It feels like Ryo and Shiina are racing towards the script of 'The Gift of the Magi'."

Ichinose Honami covered her mouth and chuckled as she watched Kitagawa Ryo walk back with the note.

"I never expected that Hiyori would plan a surprise for me at the end of summer vacation."

Although he sighed, Kitagawa Ryo's tone still carried a hint of excitement.

Just like Honami Ichinose mentioned in "The Gift of the Magi," the story involves a couple secretly preparing their own surprises for each other. Tonight, Kitagawa Ryo went to Shiina Hiyori's room to invite her out, but he was disappointed. He knocked on the door but no one answered, and he couldn't get through on the phone. He had to use his spare key to open the door, and on the bathroom mirror, he found a bright red word painted with lipstick:

【Geschenk】

He discovered that his girlfriend had disappeared from an empty room, leaving behind only this eerie mark that seemed to be a coded message.

This might be a panic-inducing situation for others, but Kitagawa Ryo saw right through Shiina Hiyori's little trick.

The word means "gift" in German, and coincidentally, one of the mystery novels the two had read contained a German word left in bright red at the scene by the murderer.

The novel is Conan Doyle's first novella with Sherlock Holmes as the protagonist—"A Study in Scarlet".

The blood-written words at the scene in the story are the German word "RACHE," meaning revenge.

Realizing that Hiyori Shiina was playing a little game with him, Ryo Kitagawa quickly found the first challenge letter in the sink.

According to Hiyori Shiina, as long as you follow the instructions in the letter, you can find yourself at the end, and you will also receive a surprise gift.

The information left in the letter came from Agatha Christie's world-famous mystery novel, And Then There Were None.

As for Ichinose Honami?

She was the "Watson" designated by Hiyori Shiina.

However, upon closer reflection, the communication with the off-campus vendors was basically driven by Ichinose Honami from the student council. Although it's unclear when Shiina Hiyori and Ichinose became so close, Hiyori's ability to set up the puzzle in such a short time definitely required Ichinose Honami's assistance.

"Don't look at me, there's no sign on my face."

Seeing Kitagawa Ryo's gritted teeth, Ichinose Honami responded with a gentle smile.

Shiina Hiyori suddenly approached her two days ago after her application for the party was approved. Just as Kitagawa Ryo, Ryuen Sho, and Horikita Suzune formed a secret action team, Shiina Hiyori also started her own secret action team. It can only be described as a coincidence.

However, there is now less than an hour left before Kitagawa Ryo's scheduled drone takeoff time.

In other words, he had to find Shiina Hiyori within those 40 to 50 minutes, otherwise, if the person he was going to confess to wasn't there, all his carefully planned scheme would be ruined.

Kitagawa Ryo quickly opened the note and looked at its contents:

Seven little soldiers, wielding axes to chop firewood; they accidentally chopped off their heads, leaving only six.

"Um, is this the kind of grotesque stuff you guys usually watch?"

Ryuen Sho, who had been urgently summoned to the vicinity by Kitagawa Ryo after a phone call, heard Kitagawa Ryo read the dark nursery rhyme aloud as soon as he arrived. He frowned and asked a question:

"And what does this mean?"

Which activity here does it resemble in this description?

Kitagawa glared at Ryuen Sho, then quickly ran to a roadside stall, asked a question, and took the black cloth handed to him by the shopkeeper to blindfold himself.

"...It's actually cutting watermelons."

Ryuen Sho looked at Kitagawa Ryo with a shocked expression as Kitagawa Ryo walked step by step toward the watermelon placed on a plastic sheet not far away. Cutting watermelons is a traditional summer activity here, but it is mostly done on the beach.

"Their thought process is indeed something I can't quite understand."

Honami Ichinose covered her face and sighed.

"In fact, it's more accurate to say that only the two of them could connect with such radio waves."

Long Yuanxiang also twitched the corners of his mouth and complained.

With his exceptional sense of distance and direction, Kitagawa Ryo cleaved the watermelon in two with a single stroke, splashing red juice everywhere. Ryuen Sho was about to grab a piece, but after hearing Kitagawa Ryo confirm the sinister code between him and the shopkeeper that "accidentally beheading someone" would make him hesitate.

"Can you make it?"

Seeing Kitagawa Ryo return with a new note, Ryuen Sho glanced at the time on his phone. He knew about Kitagawa Ryo's drone plan, so he asked with some concern.

"There's still time. I already had Lingyin do the next task."

Kitagawa Ryo smiled broadly as he showed the contents of the note in his hand:

Four little soldiers went to the seaside together; a bluefish swallowed them whole, leaving only three.

"It was very easy to predict."

Following Kitagawa Ryo to the goldfish scooping stall not far away, Horikita Suzune was confidently dipping her finger into the water, holding a paper net with a rather dashing air.

Then the net broke, and the goldfish jumped back into the water, splashing water droplets onto Horikita Suzune's face.

"Come again!"

"Ten Nets will receive 200 points."

The shop owner had already taken out the card reader quite skillfully, and it seemed that this process had been repeated several times.

"Uh, so this is what you meant by 'prepare in advance'?"

Ryuen Sho looked speechlessly at Horikita Suzune, who was squatting there and seemed to have been arguing with the fish for half a day, and turned to Kitagawa Ryo to ask.

"..."

Kitagawa Ryo's expression was solemn, while Horikita Suzune seemed quite focused, not even noticing that Kitagawa Ryo had already walked up to her and squatted down beside her.

Until a net probe gently scooped up a goldfish from the water.

Is it difficult?

Horikita Suzune looked up and met Kitagawa Ryo's gaze. Although the other party did not say anything, for some reason, she easily read that information.

"Ring sound..."

Kitagawa Ryo hesitated, but his hands kept moving, casting the net and catching a fish in one go.

He stood up again after collecting all ten required items, which took one minute and twenty seconds.

Horikita Suzune remained squatting there, looking rather foolish.

She looked at Kitagawa Ryo and the boss and gave them instructions:

"Give her another hundred internet connections, and swipe my card."

"Hmm, if we still can't get her, we'll give her these ten of mine."

"It's alright, it's alright. Even if this girl doesn't catch any, I'll still give her a few."

The boss laughed heartily:

"After all, the points she spent with me could buy dozens of goldfish."

Then Kitagawa Ryo slowly turned around, revealing a gentle smile as if coaxing a child:

"Take your time, have fun, there's no rush."

"When I was a few years old, I couldn't get any either."

Horikita Suzune gritted her teeth in shame and indignation, and then the net in her hand tore again.

Three little soldiers were playing in the zoo; a bear slapped them, and only two remained.

After leaving the goldfish scooping stall, Kitagawa Ryo unfolded the note in his hand.

Long Yuanxiang, who had come over from the side, asked in shock:

"You didn't hire a circus, did you?"

"What are you thinking about?"

Kitagawa Ryo curled his lip, glanced around briefly, and then walked towards a stall that seemed to be quite popular.

"Ring toss?"

Long Yuanxiang, who followed along, also noticed something amiss: right in the center of the prize pool was a giant teddy bear.

This is probably the most valuable item here, and many students are eager to try to ring it up. However, its large size does not mean it is easy to ring. The teddy bear sitting there can only barely fit into the ring with the width of its head and neck. Ordinary students simply cannot do this and can only watch as rings hit the teddy bear one after another.

"Longyuan!"

Kitagawa Ryo shared half of the ring toss game he was holding with Ryuen Sho, implying that the two of them would have a higher success rate if they tried together.

However, things were clearly more difficult than Kitagawa Ryo had imagined. They tried to loop the teddy bear for more than ten minutes and hundreds of times, but none of them managed to get it on. The closest they came was even blown away by the evening breeze and floated over their heads.

Just as time was running out and nervous sweat began to seep from Kitagawa Ryo's nostrils, someone suddenly patted him on the shoulder.

"cold?"

"Oh, it's Hui."

Turning his head, he saw Karuizawa Kei standing excitedly behind him. However, Kitagawa Ryo really didn't have time for pleasantries right now. If Ichinose Honami, as the supervisor, hadn't been unable to help, he would have already pulled Ichinose Honami along to join the fray.

"Huh? Wait a minute."

Kitagawa Ryo suddenly thought of something and shared half of the ring toss game with Karuizawa Megumi:

"Hui, do you see that teddy bear right in the center?"

"Does Ryo want that?"