As it turned out, Ibuki wasn't just bragging, and the theory-only swimming lessons were actually useful.
Leveraging the natural advantage girls have in body density, "Hiyori Shiina" learned the breaststroke and backstroke in just one afternoon, even managing to grasp the freestyle and butterfly strokes on her own, which left Ibuki somewhat shocked by her "genius."
As for Hiyori herself, the girl was surprisingly uncoordinated, but with Symon's "hands-on" guidance and switching control of the body a few times, she naturally learned as well.
The scene changes.
At dusk, "Hiyori Shiina," now in casual clothes, arrived at the Western-style restaurant on the cruise ship and met Ryūen, who was already waiting in a private booth, crossing his legs as he flipped through a book.
Symon spoke with a smile: "Seeing you read a book is quite a rare sight."
Ryūen ignored her, pushing the booklet in his hand and a map from beside him over to her. "This is the guidebook for the upcoming special exam and a map of the uninhabited island," he said. "The key parts are the rules on the first page and the special rules on the last page. Take a look."
Although he already had his own plans, the lesson from investigating Nagumo last time taught him not to act autocratically. He was prepared to consult Hiyori Shiina's analysis.
Symon took them casually and asked offhandedly, "How many points did this cost? And what's the time limit?"
Information often has an expiration date. The amount of time available determines the room for maneuver, so it was a necessary question.
Ryūen sneered, "2 million points. And there are two days left."
"That price is a bit low."
Symon spread the map on the table, glanced at it briefly, then picked up the "Uninhabited Island Special Exam Guidebook" and opened it. "Unlike the exam at the start of the school year, students have no other way to get information in advance on this cruise ship," he commented casually. "I'm starting to doubt the value of this thing."
Ryūen crossed his arms, leaned back against the sofa, and said calmly, "You're right. I'm also thinking of reselling this to offset the cost."
Don't ask why. If you have to ask, it's because he regretted it. Deeply.
Understanding the implication in his words, Symon chuckled but didn't say anything more to twist the knife. He focused on reading the guidebook and summarized its main points:
This special exam is called the "Uninhabited Island Survival Exam" and will last for a total of seven days.
At the start of the exam, the school will provide students with items like tents and safety wristbands to ensure their basic survival and safety.
Additionally, each class will receive 300 temporary Class Points. Students can use these points to exchange for various items from a list in the guidebook through their homeroom teacher.
After the exam begins, each class must designate a leader, who cannot be changed without a valid reason. The leader will receive a key card tied to their personal information.
At the same time, several spots will be set up on the island. According to the map, these are a pond, a waterfall, a stream, a well, a watchtower, a safe house, a beach, and a cave—eight spots in total.
The class leader can occupy these spots, with ownership refreshing every 8 hours. Each occupation earns 1 spot point, and the occupying class gains exclusive use of the spot.
There are four key points to pay special attention to:
① Before the exam ends, each class can submit a list of other classes' leaders. Each correct guess earns 50 temporary Class Points. The class whose leader is correctly guessed loses 50 points and all their spot points. An incorrect guess results in a 50-point deduction.
② At the end of the exam, each class's remaining temporary points and spot points will be added to their Class Points.
③ The leader cannot be changed without a valid reason.
④ Points cannot become negative.
Besides these basic rules, the last page of the manual lists the school's demerit review, consisting of four rules, which are essentially measures to prevent students from acting recklessly and to ensure their safety.
Only one of these is noteworthy—if a student is clearly unwell, injured, or deemed unable to continue by the school, that student must immediately withdraw from the exam, and their class will be penalized 30 points.
Just as he finished summarizing, Hiyori Shiina's voice emerged in his mind, clearly relieved: "Even though it's uninhabited island survival, the exam doesn't seem to have much survival pressure. That's for the best."
"You're not wrong to think that. If it were too extreme, I wouldn't have planned on participating either."
Replying this way in his mind, Symon closed the book, pointed a finger at the four scattered water source points on the map, and after a moment of thought, looked up at Ryūen across the table and tapped the desk to get his attention:
"Judging from the rulebook and the map, this special exam isn't inherently very competitive. It seems the school doesn't intend for you all to create a huge gap in this exam, but there is still some room to maneuver."
Ryūen raised an eyebrow at this, sat up straight, and was clearly interested. "How so?"
Symon smiled and said, "Let's analyze this with points as the core. First, the 300 temporary Class Points."
"These points are essentially team-building funds provided by the school. Their purpose is to train students' organizational and planning skills, while also letting you build team cohesion, break out of your established social circles, and observe potential talent."
"Although I don't really recommend this, if you absolutely must make a move—you could unite the entire grade, take advantage of the 'points can't go negative' rule to transfer points, and have everyone except the leaders withdraw from the exam. That way, every class would get 300 points at the end."
"However, I've already told you what happens when you fleece the sheep. The school won't just stand by and let that happen. Future exams would certainly be on hell mode."
"Of course, you could also sell all these points to Class B, or split them between Classes A and B. In short, just don't let Class A take the lead. This would be more advantageous for you to stir up trouble."
Ryūen pondered this and nodded. "I was already planning to sell the class points, but I'll keep some as team funds."
He originally hadn't intended to keep any, but the fact that he had no one to use today had indeed given him a small 'Class C shock'. Or perhaps, under his suppression, many people in Class C had yet to show their potential. If he could discover one or two useful talents through this exam, he wouldn't mind spending some points.
"You can decide that for yourself."
Saying this, Symon gathered his thoughts again and spoke gently about the second issue: "Next is the part about guessing the class leaders during the exam. It's a bit strange, you see—"
"I can roughly understand that the school probably wants to increase the competition and train your reconnaissance skills. The reward also seems quite generous; theoretically, you could gain a maximum of 150 Class Points."
"The problem is, as long as a class's key card holder voluntarily withdraws from the exam before it ends, they can spend 30 points to switch leaders, ensuring they won't be guessed. The one who guesses wrong will even lose 50 points."
Ryūen frowned upon hearing this.
Symon didn't notice his reaction and continued in a warm tone, "Also, regarding the spot points that classes are meant to compete for, the school has been quite stingy."
"There are only 8 spots on the island in total. Over seven days, they refresh three times a day, making for a total of 168 spot points."
"After excluding the four spots that will inevitably become the base camps for each class, there are really only four left for everyone to fight over, totaling 84 points."
"It might seem like a lot, but because of the rule that all spot points are reset if the leader is guessed, a leader's identity can't be hidden at all if students just hide a camera near a spot or have someone stake it out."
"By this calculation, even if a leader runs around the island three times a day and captures all the non-base camp spots, after switching the leader at the end, the net gain wouldn't exceed 54 points."
"Heh~!" Ryūen sneered. "So the effort and reward are completely disproportionate?"
"You can't quite say that," Symon said, clasping his hands together with a smile. "The greatest significance of this guessing game is to teach students to make trade-offs and learn when to give up."
"To put it more nicely—the designer of this special exam seems to want to suppress the possibility of inter-class competition, hoping that students can achieve substantial growth through this gentle team-building exercise."
Ryūen sneered again. "You might as well just say the exam's designer has their left and right brain fighting each other."
Symon clasped his hands. "Ara~ You're the one who said that."
"Mr. Ghost, could you please not imitate the way I talk," Hiyori Shiina's voice sounded odd in his mind. "It feels a little weird..."
"Ahem, it just slipped out."
After replying to the girl in his mind, Symon cleared his throat and said with a smile, "In any case, since the reward is completely disproportionate to the effort, and the temporary Class Points can't go negative, my suggestion is—just sell Class C's leader identity as well."
"First, secure the personal points corresponding to 150 Class Points. That's 600,000 points a month. It's a guaranteed profit."
"If you're ruthless enough, after the exam starts, you could sign a contract before the others have realized the leader-switching rule. You might even be able to trick them with some wordplay."
Having said that, Symon thought for a moment and then shook his head. "Never mind. That feels a bit too inhuman. Credibility, once lost, isn't easy to get back."
Ryūen said with a cold look, "No, I think that's an excellent proposal. And I have no need for something like that."
Symon: "..."
Hiyori: "..."
____
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