"Information warfare?"
Hasebe and Inogashira Kokoro both looked confused.
"You guys saw the list of group members just now, right? Did you notice anything?"
Hikigaya wanted them to think for themselves. Instead of just giving them the answer or leading them too much, he preferred they develop their own reasoning skills.
Unfortunately, Inogashira Kokoro looked troubled. But after a moment of thinking, Hasebe suddenly raised her head, her eyes lighting up as she looked at Hikigaya. "Each group has students from all four classes, right? And to keep things fair, the number of students from each class should be about the same!"
Hikigaya nodded. "Exactly. In fact, based on what Sakagami-sensei just said, there are 159 first-year students participating in this special exam. They're split into 12 groups, meaning each group has around 13 or 14 members. That means each class contributes about 3 to 4 students per group."
To be honest, Hikigaya had been tempted to ask if that little troublemaker Sakayanagi wasn't participating. If she wasn't, would she get penalized like in the deserted island exam? But in the end, he decided against it—no point in giving her an excuse to call him petty behind his back.
"And each group only has one designated VIP..."
At this point, the answer was obvious. Hasebe's eyes widened, and she quickly said, "So to keep things fair, the school would distribute the 12 VIP spots equally across all four classes! That means each class has exactly three VIPs!"
Her face lit up with excitement. This kind of step-by-step deduction was the kind of thing that really got the brain working.
"Now you see it, right? Once people start figuring this out, identifying the VIPs becomes a simple process of elimination. And that's exactly what the school is trying to prevent."
After learning the rules of this exam, Hikigaya had been confused about why the school had separated students from different classes for the rule briefing. The most likely reason was to prevent information sharing between students in the same group.
At the same time, it was a form of misdirection—keeping students focused only on their own group and making them overlook the bigger picture.
But if you stepped back and looked at the whole situation, you'd reach the same conclusion as Hikigaya.
"I see... So it's not just about gathering info within our own group—we also have to consider information from other groups. Ugh... this exam is so hard!"
Hasebe let out a sigh.
It was true—this test required a high level of observation, information gathering, communication, and analysis. It was a full-on challenge of multiple skills.
"That's why, if any of us receive the VIP email, I hope we can keep it a secret—at least among just the three of us."
Hikigaya spoke seriously. "This isn't just about your own situation. If your identity gets exposed, it could affect other groups as well. It's all connected. Also, don't tell other members of our class from different groups. We don't know their group dynamics, and one mistake could drag us down."
Hasebe and Inogashira Kokoro both nodded quickly. Without realizing it, they had already started looking to Hikigaya as their leader.
"Wouldn't it be best if everyone just worked toward Outcome 1?"
Inogashira Kokoro, who had barely spoken up until now, suddenly asked. In her mind, Outcome 1 seemed like the happiest ending for everyone.
"The ideal situation would be for everyone to reach Outcome 1, but that's almost impossible."
Hikigaya let out a sigh. "In reality, things are much more complicated. It depends on the strategy of each class. But..."
"But?"
Hasebe asked curiously.
"But this exam might not be completely hopeless when it comes to achieving Outcome 1."
Hikigaya narrowed his eyes as if deep in thought.
"The reason Outcome 1 is so difficult is because the school deliberately created rules that increase the risks. They know all four classes are in competition, so they're not worried about people cooperating. But what if—just hypothetically—everyone temporarily set aside that competition?"
"What would happen?"
Hasebe and Inogashira Kokoro started thinking.
"Cooperation?!"
"C-Cooperation?"
Both of them came to the same conclusion.
"Yeah, if all four classes worked together, that result wouldn't be impossible!"
A sharp glint flashed in Hikigaya's eyes as he subconsciously recalled his conversation with Haruno the day before.
But he quickly shook his head and scoffed at himself.
"That's just an ideal scenario. In reality, getting all four classes to cooperate would be nearly impossible."
Hasebe and Inogashira Kokoro both nodded in agreement.
Of course, there was something Hikigaya didn't say out loud. Calling it "nearly impossible" was just another way of saying that the benefits weren't tempting enough yet. If the rewards were high enough, forget climbing to the heavens—people would be landing on the moon already.
But as always, the ideal is beautiful, while reality is harsh.
The three of them went their separate ways after that, though Hikigaya unexpectedly got Hasebe and Inogashira Kokoro's contact info—Hasebe insisted on it before they left.
When he returned to his room, he found it empty. It seemed the others were still in the middle of their exam debriefing. So, he grabbed a blank sheet of paper and started scribbling on it.
"Too bad I only know the members of Group Tiger. Without information on the other groups, it's hard to analyze anything useful."
Hikigaya scratched his head. There just wasn't enough info to work with.
So, he pulled out his phone and sent a request to a certain someone.
He got a reply almost immediately. It looked like Kushida's meeting time was scheduled for a bit later.
By around 10 PM, the briefing for the VIP exam had finally wrapped up. In the meantime, Hikigaya had also gathered some partial member lists for different groups from his dormmates Miyake Akito and Hondou Ryoutarou. Unfortunately, they only knew their classmates—the students from other classes were complete unknowns.
"Looks like our Pochi Boy already has something in mind."
Out of nowhere, Koenji, who usually kept to himself, spoke up. But that was all he said before drifting back into his own world.
The next afternoon, at exactly 1 PM, Hikigaya followed the ship's broadcast announcement and headed to the designated room for the first discussion of the VIP exam.
The moment he stepped in, he could immediately feel multiple gazes locking onto him. The entire atmosphere in the room shifted into something strange.
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