"A special exam on an uninhabited island for the second year in a row. Although it's not like I haven't thought about this..."
"I thought it was coming, and it really has."
After returning to the classroom, the routine conversation to prepare for the special exam began.
Everyone, along with Yosuke, gathered around the front row seat of Horikita, sorting out the current situation.
Kouenji also returned to his seat, using his usual mirror to look at himself, revelling in it.
"The particularly important part of this exam is, although there are certain conditions, we can form groups with anyone in the same year at will."
This was a new rule that had never existed in the special exams up to now.
And in the end, the appearance of such a rule was beyond what had been expected.
"But, what about the distribution of class points when you win? Although I understand the reason behind it, there's no benefit in grouping up with other classes. It just feels like we'd be messing around if we do that."
Exactly. Sudo's thoughts were just a matter of course, as he delved into the point. This special exam was not just a competition across the year groups, but also a battle between classes of the same year. Forming groups consisting of members of just your own class was the only way to complete this exam efficiently.
Even so, the school had prepared some interesting rules.
Grouping up with strong students within the school year would make it easier to get into the upper rankings. Low risk, but low reward. On the other hand, grouping up with only members of the same class would present a high risk, high reward opportunity.
The ideal situation would be forming groups of 2 or 3 within the class, and then converging into the big groups later.
However, it was not easy to form big groups after the special exam began. If there was no guarantee of being able to form a big group before freely, then the danger of failing would be great. But despite this, it was also true that this special exam hid previously unimagined destructive power. If one class took all three top spots, they'd receive 600 class points. If Class 2-D achieved this goal, it'd be an express ticket to Class 2-B.
"But if we rely on only our class, there are some talents that can't be offset. And if it's only our class that forms groups within our own class... What if the other classes join forces? The worst-case scenario would be that only Class D falls behind as the gap widens."
It would be ideal to win with only Class D, but at the end of the day, that is just an ideal situation.
If any class chose to challenge the special exam alone, that class would run the risk of getting targeted by all the other three classes working together. If that class lost, there wouldn't be any sort of high reward waiting for them.
"If it's just that we can't win, that's a different story, but if we withdraw too early, we'll run the risk of expulsion. In other words, if we have enough self-confidence... No, if we can't be certain of victory, then we'll have to form groups of 6 with the other classes."
A special exam like this one, in which the other classes were both comrade and enemy, had never existed until now.
When considered this way, wasn't it also an important part of a strategy to form groups with the students in the other classes right from the start? However, there was no easy guarantee that the pace of the other classes would be in line with each other. Although in terms of results, there's not much advantage in grouping up within your own class, since there could be a large change in class points this exam, you'd want to try to outperform the other classes as much as possible. Not to mention the classes that are at the bottom.
And so, under the premise of having to form groups, which direction to turn the rudder to start with?
"How will Sakayanagi, Ryuuen, and Ichinose act?"
In order to decide on the groupings, Horikita used Yosuke's words as a basis to speak to everyone.
"Class A, who is in the leading position, probably wouldn't be troubled by the mixing together of the classes. It doesn't matter which group wins, as long as the gap of points between their class and the other classes does not become narrower. On the contrary, the next three classes that rank below them, including us, would like to narrow that gap."
"Then how about an alliance between the three classes? If the gap is extended by Class A, let's first establish an alliance from Class B to D. To be able to narrow that gap with Class A wouldn't be bad."
Sudo, who was listening to the conversations, came up with a good idea.
Joining forces with which we have a common enemy, to attack Class A together.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend, is what you mean. It's not a bad objective to isolate Class A. If it is Ichinose, she probably will accept this proposal."
"But if we propose to isolate Class A, we have to be prepared for Class A's hostility. Considering Sakayanagi's character, I think that, even with our Class D, the bottommost class, she'll still mercilessly use her resources to deal with us."
In general, Class A's energy would be focused on the 2nd place Class B that is trying to catch up.
But, as Yosuke said, Sakayanagi tended never to let the prey she decided on escape.
"We still need to quietly get closer to the top classes as much as possible."
"Even if the three classes are to fight together, it's better if it's not us who makes that proposal."
Allowing the other proposers to accept Sakayanagi's hostility.
Easier said than done.
The most troublesome thing about this special exam is that only negotiating within your class couldn't solve all the problems.
No matter how heated the discussion got here, nothing would get done. If we couldn't grasp what Class B and Class C were actually thinking, if there would be no unified guidelines being implemented, then it'll end up as nothing more than a theoretical plan, useless in practice.
That being said, it wasn't so easy, getting the three classes to talk with each other without any trouble.
Ichinose aside, it's hard to imagine Ryuuen would readily agree to it.
If Sakayanagi became aware of this information, she would naturally make her move as well.
"Seems hard to make a judgement..."
Although there was more than a month to form the groups, there was no way to stay calm as groups formed around us, one by one.
"It would be of great help if another class raises a similar proposal..."
The students of Class D were having a hard time with this.
"Just forming a group by itself is quite a headache."
Besides forming a group, there was another important thing.
That is the existence of cards with various effects. Tomorrow morning, the school would give all students each a unique card that couldn't be transferred between classmates. And because cards that have been transferred once would be locked in place, they couldn't return to the original owners' hands. In other words, you could only simply trade, or buy, or sell them with students outside of the class.
"Actually, most people will probably start to act tomorrow."
"Yeah. Gathering effective cards into a group is also a key point."
The day when the prohibitions of forming a group for the next special exam were lifted.
Of course, there would occur a significant change in the situation of the classes, including Class D.