I have a life simulator.

It was Chabashira Sae, the one he hadn't sent the inquiry text message to before.

The other party first shared a photo of Hotaru eating cat food, and then got straight to the point, saying that she had all the information about the next special exam and asked Kitagawa Ryo to meet her at the same old place.

Kitagawa Ryo and Chabashira Sae used to meet at the special teaching building, but because Tsukishiro Tsuneshige later reinstalled surveillance equipment there, their meeting place was moved to the drama club's activity room. After all, only Kitagawa Ryo and Karuizawa Megumi had the key to this place, making it a very secluded spot.

Seeing that the other party had brought up the next special exam, Kitagawa Ryo readily agreed. After putting his phone in his pocket, he took the key to the club activity room and headed towards the club building.

At this time, all the clubs had long since stopped their activities, and the club building was naturally empty. When Kitagawa Ryo arrived at the entrance of the drama club's activity room, Chabashira Sae was already waiting there.

After silently unlocking the door with his key, Kitagawa Ryo went in first. He carefully drew all the curtains closed before turning on the lights and looking at Chabashira Sae, whom he hadn't seen alone for a while.

Because it was her day off, Chabashira Sae wasn't wearing her usual professional office lady outfit. Instead, she was dressed in more casual, homey clothes. Her tight jeans made her long legs look even straighter, and instead of her usual high ponytail, she had her black hair down, looking like she had just taken a shower, with the ends of her hair feeling a little damp.

Judging by appearances alone, Chabashira Sae certainly has the qualities to make most of the unmarried male faculty members at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School go to great lengths for her cat for months. However, that's only in terms of appearance. Majima Tomoya, who was already aware of her terrible personality, has always kept his distance from her.

"firefly……"

"Let's talk about the next special exam first."

Interrupting the other party's preparatory remarks, Kitagawa Ryo tried his best to appear to Chabashira Sae as if 'we'd try to talk about work'.

"it is good."

However, Chabashira Sae didn't seem to care much, since that was the excuse she used to invite Kitagawa Ryo here.

“Our homeroom teacher has received confirmation from the school that students in all three grades at Dongyu will be taking the special exam known as the All-Around Unified Exam in the middle of next month.”

When the name was mentioned, Chabashira Sae's eyes flickered somewhat unnaturally, clearly recalling the past.

"I'm telling you in advance because the specific details of this special exam will only be announced to the students by our class leader the day before the exam officially begins."

"In other words, students are given almost no preparation time."

"The rules of the exam are quite simple. Just like the name, students are required to vote repeatedly in class until a consensus is reached among the multiple options."

Although he had glimpsed that special exam from back then, which was unanimously agreed upon by everyone, in Sakayanagi Arisu's simulation, Kitagawa Ryo listened quite attentively, considering that the rules might change.

"Although this special exam is being conducted simultaneously by all classes across all three grades, there is no competition or rivalry between the classes and grades. Each class will take the exam independently. On the day the exam begins, the school will give you five topics. Furthermore, the topics are common to all classes within the same grade, but the topics for different grades will not be the same."

Seemingly to help Kitagawa Ryo understand further, Chabashira Sae quickly began to supplement her explanation with examples:

"Research topics can generally be divided into these types."

Example 1: The class loses five class points, but each student in the class gains 10,000 personal points. The options are "agree" or "disagree".

"This is a simple choice question that involves giving up or making a trade-off."

"Then there is the second type, example two: give one million personal points to one person in the class, with the options being either yes or no."

"This type of school issues a voluntary list, allowing students to decide who gets the points. Even if everyone agrees, there still needs to be a vote to determine who gets the points."

"When faced with this type of topic, students need to select specific students on a tablet. To maintain complete anonymity, the position of the student's name is changed every time a vote is cast. The positions of the 'for' and 'against' options are also randomly changed. This is to prevent someone from peeking at the student next to them voting or guessing which option someone voted for based on the position of their finger."

"If more than half of the students choose the same student, the vote will go back to a unanimous vote, and all the students will decide whether to award the one million personal points to the selected person."

"Of course, if a consensus cannot be reached, then we can only continue to repeat the process or replace the candidate."

"Finally, this is a topic that has nothing to do with class points or individual points, but is related to the school itself, Tokyo Advanced Educational High School."

"This is an example."

Example 3: The school has decided to add facilities to the Beech Tree Shopping Center. Which of the following facilities would you like to see added? (The answer will be based on the votes of the four classes, and the facility with the most votes will be selected.)

"Restaurants, grocery stores, entertainment facilities, and medical facilities."

Unlike the previous example, this is not a question of for or against, but rather a question of choosing one of four options.

“If each topic passes with options such as ‘agree’, its content will be actually recognized and implemented. However, when a topic of type three appears, the option that reaches unanimous agreement is just a vote decided by one’s own class. Even if our class unanimously votes for the restaurant, if more than half of the twelve classes unanimously vote for the amusement park, the amusement park with the higher number of votes will be added in the end.”

Based on Chabashira Sae's meticulous spoilers and Horikita Suzune's information today, Kitagawa Ryo has a pretty good grasp of the upcoming special exam that everyone agrees on.

However, Chabashira Saeko herself seemed to feel that this was not enough. After thinking for a while, she handed Kitagawa Ryo a folded chart from her pocket. Kitagawa Ryo opened it and saw that it was a summary of this special exam:

Rule description:

1. For the assignments given by the school, all classmates will vote on the prepared options. (There are a total of five assignments, with a maximum of four options.)

Second, unless everyone agrees to vote for one option, the same question will keep repeating.

Third, if the project expires before the deadline, no matter how far the project has progressed, it will not be recognized or implemented.

Fourth, topics that are unanimously approved by the entire audience will be recognized and implemented regardless of whether the special examination is successful or not.

Fifth, completing all the assignments given by the school will earn you fifty class points.

6. If all tasks cannot be completed within five hours, 300 class points will be lost.

The procedure for the special exam with unanimous agreement across all participants:

First, the school assigns a research topic and conducts the first vote (within sixty seconds).

2. If a consensus is reached, proceed to the next topic, then proceed to step one. If there is no consensus, proceed to step three.

3. A ten-minute break (only in the classroom, during which you are free to move around and discuss with each other).

40 seconds for voting (no discussion allowed, only voting).

(Students who fail to vote within 60 seconds will face cumulative penalties.)

(If the accumulated punishment exceeds ninety seconds, the student will face expulsion during this period.)

Fifth, announce the voting results. If a consensus is reached, move on to the next topic and continue with step one.

If a consensus cannot be reached, return to step three.

Repeat this process until all five questions are answered in unison, at which point this special exam will conclude.

"However, we teachers have no idea what kind of questions the school will set this time. In addition, it should be noted that this exam strictly prohibits any contracts or other behaviors that restrict other students from voting for specific options. Also, private point trading to restrict someone else's options is of course not allowed. These regulations not only apply to other classes, but also have the same effect on our own class."

"If the facts are found to be true, they will also be subject to expulsion."

"At the same time, to ensure fairness, all communication devices, including cell phones, will be collected midway through this special exam, as contact with external parties could create unwritten rules during the exam. If anyone is found to have brought such items in—they will also be expelled."

After recounting everything in one breath, Chabashira Sae quietly waited for Kitagawa Ryo to gather his thoughts. She then slowly strolled to the trophy display case on the inside of the room, passing the time by looking at the names of the various awards.

In a sense, this was the deepest nightmare that had haunted her for over a decade before Kitagawa Ryo appeared during the special exam on the deserted island. Chabashira Sae would dream of that scene on countless nights afterward.

"I understand, thank you."

While Chabashira Sae was still somewhat dazed, Kitagawa Ryo had finished organizing all the information and politely thanked the other party.

Chabashira Sae saw the same confidence on his face as always, which inevitably made her wonder what choice he would have made if he had been there and faced the same dilemma as her.

If the other person can pass this special exam with perfect unanimity, she will probably be even more determined to push for his transfer to another class.

However, what Chabashira Sae was unaware of at this time was that another class in the second year had reached an astonishing unanimous agreement on the issue of Kitagawa Ryo transferring to another class.

"Just before the major special exams in the summer."

Long Yuanxiang thus set the tone.

P.S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing.

Chapter 55: You're here to tell stories too?

Perhaps because it was getting late, Chabashira Sae did not make any further invitations to Kitagawa Ryo, such as to go to her dormitory room. After all, if such a thing were discovered, whether intentional or unintentional, it would inevitably cause quite a bad influence and unpredictable consequences.

Like other middle schools, Tokyo Advanced Educational High School is quite strict about managing close contact between teachers and students. In fact, the more a school cares about its social reputation, the more it will care about this aspect. If such a scandal were to occur, Kitagawa Ryo and Chabashira Sae would only face expulsion.

After all, just last year, Totsuka Yahiko's death note was enough to make the school nervously invite the two of them to the academic affairs office for investigation. It was precisely because of this that even though Chabashira Sae's thinking was somewhat different from that of ordinary people, she still couldn't do something like inviting Kitagawa Ryo to a teacher's single dormitory at this time.

However, before leaving, she gave a meaningful hint:

“I will take good care of your cat. If you want to come see it or take it back, please contact me in advance via text message.”

"……it is good."

After watching Chabashira Sae leave, Kitagawa Ryo didn't choose to leave right after her. Instead, he turned off his phone and sat alone in the drama club's activity room for a while, as if waiting for someone.

Sure enough, about two minutes later, Kitagawa Ryo, who had successfully been lying in wait, found the two girls acting suspiciously in the corridor near the classroom door.

Arisu Sakayanagi and Ichika Amasawa.

Speaking of which, since the latter joined the student council, the two of them seem to have been together much more often. Today's special exam was no exception. Hotaru had mentioned to me that she had run into them, but she was vague about the specifics of their conversation and glossed over it rather perfunctorily.

"Looking for me?"

With one hand on each arm, as if lifting two kittens, Kitagawa Ryo easily grabbed the brim of the hoods around their necks and carried them into the activity room. It can only be said that neither Amasawa Ichika nor Sakayanagi Arisu are particularly tall, but despite having similar heights, their physical development is quite different.

"I set up couple location services with Arisu, not so you could monitor my location in real time..."

"Today is just an exception, okay? After all, anyone would find it strange to see Ryo suddenly showing up at the drama club late at night, right?"

"What about last time?"

"Um, which time?"

"Of course it was that time with Yuki and Sakura, having the younger sister bother the older sister. I can't believe you could come up with that idea, Arisu."

First, Kitagawa Ryo gave Sakayanagi Arisu a verbal reprimand, then looked at Amasawa Ichika on the other side, his tone somewhat helpless:

"Why is Ichika starting to join in Arisu's antics too?"

"It's not exactly making a fuss, well, it's just that I'm a little worried about what Ryoma and Chabashira might do here... So, Ryoma, give me a couple location so I don't have to share it with Arisu."

"So you can check up on things by yourself now, right?"

Seeing Amasawa Ichika trying to act cute and foolish to get by, Kitagawa Ryo could understand what she meant. After all, the situation was different now than when school started. Yuki and Sakayanagi Arisu's behavior was much more human-like, so she naturally didn't need to maintain that image of a good wife anymore and could let her true nature show a little.

"No, it's clearly Liang who was secretly meeting with a beautiful homeroom teacher behind our backs, right? How come we're the ones being questioned? Liang should explain quickly."

At this moment, Sakayanagi Arisu finally regained her senses from the slight panic of being caught red-handed, and realized that, objectively speaking, they should have been on their side this time.

"I just chatted with Chabashira about the next special exam and some things about Hotaru. It was just a simple exchange of information, like before."

"So Hotaru's matter can be included in information exchange? I'll tell Hotaru next time, hmph."

"I'm talking about Neko Ying."

"Oh yeah, it seems like some people on the forum were talking about cats today."

Upon hearing this, Amazu Ichika nodded in understanding, then gestured with her chin towards Kitagawa Ryo:

"So, do you still want to come back? If it's inconvenient for Ryo to go to that tea pillar dormitory, either Arisu or I can go in your place."

"You two might not be able to bring Ying back..."

Although Kitagawa Ryo meant to express that the kitten's running away from home was entirely at the other person's behest, to Sakayanagi Arisu and Amasawa Ichika, who were unaware of the details, it sounded like they were saying that they weren't very familiar with Hotaru.

"I feel that Hotaru and I still have a very good relationship."

Sakayanagi Arisu made this declaration without even realizing it. Even if Hotaru herself wasn't here, Kitagawa Ryo would have rolled his eyes at Sakayanagi Arisu on her behalf. After all, he could sense that among the four female protagonists in the chapter simulation, Hotaru's ranking was clearly first, followed by Horikita Suzune, then Ichinose Honami and Karuizawa Megumi, and finally Sakayanagi Arisu.

God knows what this guy did to the poor kitten while he was away.

"I'll find some time to pick it up myself; that's what Chabashira himself thinks too."

"Going to the teachers' dormitory alone... um, how about having Hoshinomiya or Mashima, the homeroom teacher, accompany you?"

"The latter is still debatable, but you really dare to suggest the former? I certainly can't imagine what it would look like."

At this point, Kitagawa Ryo waved his hand, indicating that he would figure out a solution himself, and then directly shifted the topic to the special unanimous exam that would be held in mid-June.

As someone who witnessed the unanimous special exam more than ten years ago with Kitagawa Ryo in a simulation, Sakayanagi Arisu is no stranger to this type of special exam. However, what interests her more at this moment is the content about the large-scale summer special exam that Kitagawa Ryo speculated about by Horikita Suzune.

"Using this special exam to determine the type of the next special exam feels like a first for Dongyu School since its founding."

Compared to the enthusiastic Sakayanagi Arisu, Amasawa Ichika was clearly still somewhat resentful that this summer's large-scale special exam wasn't held on the deserted island. After all, the deserted island was her lucky place where she started her life, filled with wonderful memories in every way.

"If the deserted island is gone, then the cruise ship will be gone too..."

"It's not that the deserted island is gone yet, is it? We'll have to see the final vote. Maybe in the end everyone will still choose the deserted island?"

Although he comforted Amaze Ichika with these words, Kitagawa Ryo didn't even believe it himself when he said it. After all, if you were to interview second-year students, probably not many of them would really like that arduous 14-day wilderness survival experience. What decent person would choose to take a special exam on a deserted island for no reason?

Tianze Yixia was well aware of this fact, and could only sigh, as if reminiscing about the deserted island that was getting further and further away from her.

"However, even if we go back to the exam itself, which was unanimously taken by everyone, our class's situation is really not good."

Sakayanagi Arisu has always been keenly aware of the current situation in Class 2-B.

The special end-of-year exam two months ago not only pulled them down from Class A, but also exposed all the problems and hidden conflicts in the class. Although they did not erupt in a more intense way, Class B can hardly be called a united group now.

This can also be seen from the special pairing test for first and second graders last month. In this special test, only Class A and Class D, under the full coordination of their respective class leaders, formed pairs with the first graders as a class and successfully passed the test.

Class B, like Class C, adopted a completely individualistic approach where students had to find their own partners. This behavior itself conveyed a crucial message, and Horikita Suzune herself didn't have a good solution for it.