[Attention all first-year students, please gather in the banquet hall on the first floor.]

  [I repeat, all first-year students, please proceed to the banquet hall on the first floor.]

  The announcement echoed through the ship, reaching everyone’s ears.

  “The banquet hall? What kind of trick is the school pulling this time?”

  Inside a karaoke room, Ryūen Kakeru frowned as he listened to the broadcast. He had already worked out a solid strategy for this special exam, and the st thing he wanted was for the school to introduce some absurd new rule.

  At the same time, Horikita Suzune, Katsuragi Kōhei, Hirata Yōsuke, and several others on the cruise ship also paused upon hearing the announcement.

  More exam-reted rules?

  ---

  Luxury Cruise Ship – First Floor, Banquet Hall

  The banquet hall, originally intended for hosting guests, rarely saw many students gathered at once. But today was different—it was completely packed.

  All the first-year students were assembled, split neatly into four distinct groups, whispering among themselves.

  “Haven’t the exam rules already been expined? Is there something else?”

  “If there was more, they should’ve told us yesterday. Why wait until now?”

  “Maybe there’s an additional rule that absolutely needs to be announced?”

  Suddenly, an ear-piercing sound screeched through the hall, making everyone instinctively cover their ears.

  Students turned toward the source of the noise.

  “Wait, isn’t that—?”

  “Did he trick us?”

  “Uesugi, you bastard!”

  A furious voice came from Css C’s side, as Ryūen Kakeru gritted his teeth.

  Cough, cough. “Ah, my bad. I was just adjusting the equipment.”

  Uesugi Gen cleared his throat, a mischievous smile on his face as he gazed at the assembled students.

  “By the way, the one who called all of you here isn’t the school. I spent some points to bring everyone together.”

  “…You used points to gain access to the ship’s broadcast system?”

  Katsuragi Kōhei gnced at the speakers before responding seriously, “For you to go through this much trouble, you must have a reason.”

  “Of course.”

  There was a lightness in Uesugi’s tone.

  “My goal—”

  A spotlight suddenly illuminated the bckboard behind him, revealing its contents for all to see.

  “—is this 85.5 million personal points.”

  Horikita Suzune’s eyes flickered toward the board as she murmured, “The first exam outcome, huh?”

  “Hah, as expected of you, bastard Uesugi.”

  Ryūen Kakeru grinned wildly as he stared at the board. His thoughts had been heading in the same direction.

  Meanwhile, Katsuragi Kōhei narrowed his eyes, staring at the number on the board as he voiced his concern.

  “Uesugi, you should be well aware that given the current situation, achieving Outcome 1 is practically impossible.”

  “Let’s not rush ahead just yet.”

  Despite the skepticism in the air, Uesugi Gen’s tone remained rexed. He faced the entire first-year cohort.

  “Before we get into that, let me first show you all a little bit of good faith.”

  Ding.

  A series of notification tones rang out from the phones of three css leaders. Without hesitation, they took out their phones to check the messages.

  “…This is—”

  Katsuragi Kōhei’s expression darkened with shock as he stared at the message.

  “How did you do this?”

  Even he only knew the identities of two of Css A’s VIPs. The st one, aligned with Sakayanagi’s faction, had deliberately kept their status hidden from him. Yet, Uesugi had somehow uncovered all of them.

  “Damn it… this bastard really moves fast.”

  Ryūen’s hands clenched slightly as he read the message.

  He had been absolutely certain that no one outside of his inner circle in Css C knew the VIPs’ identities. But for Uesugi to extract all that information so quickly meant his vague suspicion was correct.

  Still, he hadn’t expected Uesugi to find the solution this fast.

  “Wait… could it be—?”

  Horikita Suzune furrowed her brows, staring at her phone with a bad premonition forming.

  “All of your css’s VIPs have now been sent to your respective css leaders’ phones. Judging by their expressions, I’d say it’s 100% correct.”

  Uesugi’s voice rang through the hall, like a stone dropped into still water, sending ripples of shock throughout the crowd.

  “What the hell? How does he know all the VIPs’ identities before the exam has even started?”

  “No way, this has to be cheating! There’s no way this is allowed! I’m reporting this to the school!”

  “Wait, does this mean we’ve already lost before the exam even began?”

  The banquet hall erupted into chaos.

  “Calm down, calm down.”

  Uesugi Gen waved his hand dismissively. “Everything I did was perfectly within the school’s rules. If you don’t believe me, feel free to ask the staff.”

  He then turned toward Katsuragi.

  “Well? What’s your offer?”

  Katsuragi let out a long breath.

  Since Uesugi hadn’t ended the exam immediately despite knowing the VIPs, and since he had gathered all the first-years here, it meant he had a rger pn in mind.

  “…What are your conditions?”

  “This, huh…”

  Uesugi stroked his chin, then grinned.

  “Let me ask first—if I forced everyone to achieve Outcome 1, and then had you all transfer your points to me, would you agree?”

  The entire first-year student body, minus Css B, shouted in unison:

  “Hell no! Even if we lost all 150 css points, we wouldn’t give you those points!”

  They were already over 400 points behind Css B. If they let him pocket 85.5 million, they might as well forfeit the competition entirely.

  “So in other words, you all believe that this 85.5 million is more important than the 450 css points?”

  A hush fell over the crowd.

  Which was more important—85.5 million or 450 css points?

  “No… Not 450 points. It’s 300 points.”

  Horikita Suzune corrected him with a calm voice.

  “If you were able to find the other csses’ VIPs using some method, then we could do the same for B-Css. That means at most, you’d only gain 300 points.”

  Ayanokōji Kiyotaka rubbed his temples. Whose side are you on, Horikita?

  Though she had a point, everyone knew that repeating this kind of exam under these conditions meant no css would realistically earn more than 200 points at best. The css leaders were all too cunning to let that happen.

  And even if they earned 200 css points, it wouldn’t be enough to surpass Css B. Over three years, those points would transte to about 20 million personal points—far less than the 85.5 million at stake now.

  Seeing the hesitation on everyone’s faces, Uesugi raised his voice.

  “So, you all admit that achieving Outcome 1 is the best possible scenario?”

  Silence. But the ck of an answer was an answer in itself.

  “But Uesugi, you and I both know—the way the school structured this exam, there’s no way the csses will trust each other enough to achieve Outcome 1.”

  Katsuragi warned.

  “Then let’s throw the school’s rules away.”

  Uesugi spread his arms wide, addressing the entire first-year student body.

  “We all sign a contract. We all aim for Outcome 1. We all secure 85.5 million points. B-Css takes 20 million, and the remaining 65.5 million? We divide it fairly. Evenly split, each css would still get 16 million.”

  “Exams will keep coming. You’ll have plenty of chances to catch up to B-Css. But this? A one-time chance to earn 16 million personal points? That only happens now.”

  “And if you don’t agree? Then not only do you lose everything, but you’ll also lose 150 css points.”

  His tempting, almost hypnotic words lingered in the air.

  A collective realization spread through the hall.

  Why even follow the school’s rules?

  A realization dawned on the students.

  If Outcome 1 is better than any other possible result, then why should they follow the school’s rules?

  A game designed to pit the four csses against one another—why not just bypass the entire framework and win together?

  Fifty million. Sixty-five million.

  Even if the distribution wasn’t perfect, it was still better than nothing.

  D-Css’s students swallowed hard.

  Sixteen million.

  That meant each of them could walk away with 400,000 personal points.

  They hadn’t seen any personal points for months. Every time they had to eat from the cheapest meal pn, every time they were looked down on in the cafeteria, every time they had to ration their spending—this was an escape.

  Even if it was halved—even if it was just 200,000 personal points—it would be enough.

  “Hey, Hirata, Horikita… We should take this deal, right? I mean, we already lost, haven’t we?”

  “Yeah… 65.5 million… even if we just get a piece of it, it’s still something.”

  “I haven’t bought new clothes in months. Even with the 100 css points we just earned, it’s barely enough…”

  Horikita Suzune crossed her arms, staring at Uesugi Gen.

  There’s no need to even think about it.

  D-Css had no choice but to accept.

  Whether it was css points or personal points, refusing this offer meant that all their efforts from the uninhabited isnd exam would be wasted.

  More than that, D-Css was desperate for personal points. Many students were already in debt. If they took the deal, they wouldn’t just be able to repay those debts—they’d actually have points left over.

  After processing all this, Horikita raised her hand.

  “We, D-Css, accep—”

  “I accept this deal on behalf of C-Css.”

  A loud, arrogant voice cut her off.

  Ryūen Kakeru’s wild grin stretched across his face as he leaned back casually, arms folded.

  “This time, I lost. Fine. Take your 20 million for B-Css. But as for the remaining 65.5 million—” His smirk widened. “Don’t think I’ll let you have that without a fight, Uesugi, you bastard.”

  Even this, he wants to fight over?

  Horikita twitched, veins threatening to bulge on her forehead.

  She raised her hand once again.

  “D-Css also accepts these terms.”

  Cp. Cp. Cp.

  Uesugi Gen cpped his hands, completely unbothered, then turned his gaze toward the st remaining css.

  “And what about you, Katsuragi? What’s Css A’s decision?”

  Katsuragi Kōhei let out a sigh.

  Honestly, he hated the idea of letting Css B secure an additional 20 million points.

  But he hated the idea of Css A losing even more.

  And if Css A rejected this offer, they would become the sole target of the other three csses.

  “…We accept.”

  Katsuragi’s voice held a tinge of resignation.

  “Alright then.”

  Uesugi Gen nodded.

  “Let’s put this contract in writing.”

  His tone remained calm, as if everything had unfolded just as he expected.

  With the entire first-year student body now on board, the pn was in motion.

  After the students left the banquet hall, Uesugi casually pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

  Ring… Ring… Click.

  The call connected.

  “How do you like that, Director? I won.”

  A low chuckle came from the other end of the line.

  “…I see. I certainly didn’t expect you to manipute the exam into achieving Outcome 1 like this.”

  The voice belonged to Sakayanagi Arisu’s father—Sakayanagi Narumori, the Director of Advanced Nurturing High School.

  “As promised, the school will support your upcoming battles among the four csses. But really… your methods are far from conventional.”

  Uesugi Gen smirked.

  “But isn’t that what a true meritocracy is all about?”

  ---

  T/N: umm idk if the number of points is correct... can someone super smart tell me :D because i remember it only being 8.5 million before now its 85million? which one is correct AHHHH