On the beach, a staff member under a tent was on the phone, typing on a keyboard at their desk:
"Three 20kg bags of rice, dried meat, mahjong? Playing cards? Yes! We have them! ...Alright, I'll record the items Class C needs."
The staff member glanced at their point balance and chatted with a colleague nearby: "Speaking of which, after taking all this stuff, Class C's points are down to zero. Looks like our workload will be reduced by about a quarter."
"Don't forget the freely supplied sanitary products and plastic bags. Classes A, B, and D all requested a lot. I heard they plan on making mattresses and pillows. A bit extravagant."
"Tell me about it. Back in our day..."
"Hold it! A student's coming."
"You little rascal!"
As they spoke, Ayanokōji emerged from a small path in the woods. After explaining his purpose, he quickly received his smartphone.
Meanwhile, in the woods by the beach, Ibuki and Kaoru Hatanaka were hiding under a tree, each holding a stick, playing tic-tac-toe out of boredom, occasionally glancing toward the beach.
When she noticed someone approaching, Ibuki was the first to react, putting a finger to her lips in a "shush" gesture and pulling her companion along as she watched Ayanokōji's actions. And then she saw—
Ayanokōji put the phone in his pocket, thanked the staff, and slipped back into the forest the same way he came.
"Isn't that Ayanokōji-kun from Class D?" Kaoru Hatanaka asked in a curious whisper. "It looked like he just got a phone. There are no signal towers on the island, so what's the use of something like that?"
"It was definitely a phone," Ibuki nodded, then asked with some surprise, "But how do you know him?"
Kaoru Hatanaka seemed puzzled. "Huh? Isn't Ayanokōji-kun really famous? Top five most handsome first-year boys."
"..."
Ibuki fell silent for a moment, having forgotten about such trivial things. She spoke with a hint of annoyance, "I just remember him and that Horikita bullying Hiyori."
Kaoru Hatanaka retorted, "Just go spend the rest of your life with your Hiyori..."
Ibuki shot her a look, then said after a moment's thought, "We should make a note of this. We'll report it when we get back at noon."
Her task was to watch for any students from other classes heading to the exam area. Although she felt it was odd for Ayanokōji to come all this way just for a phone, she couldn't figure out why. Better to let Ryūen worry about it.
Time passed, and it was soon noon.
After handing off their duties to the girls who came to relieve them, Ibuki and Kaoru Hatanaka returned to the campsite. At a glance, she saw Hiyori, Rika Morofuji, Ryūen, and Kazuma Sakagami sitting around a waterproof tarp. Then she saw—
"Hiyori Shiina" pushed over the mahjong tiles in front of her and said with a smile, "Tenhou," for a grand total of forty-eight thousand points.
"Heh..." Ryūen let out a cold laugh, his gaze shifting to Kazuma Sakagami beside him. "How many times is that now?"
"Exactly the tenth time," Kazuma Sakagami replied, his voice seemingly calm as he pushed up his glasses with a slightly trembling hand.
Rika Morofuji spoke up timidly, "Shiina-san's luck is a bit... a bit too good."
It's more than just a bit good, it's practically a law of causality at this point—she thought, but didn't dare say it out loud.
"As we agreed, I'll cover Morofuji's share. Three hundred and twenty thousand points. I'll transfer them to you when we get back."
Saying that, Ryūen pushed the mahjong tiles away and declared in an icy tone, "I'm done!"
He had been sitting there for less than half an hour, hadn't even drawn a single tile himself, and had already lost three hundred and twenty thousand. Whoever wants to play this game can play, but he was never touching mahjong again in his life.
Kazuma Sakagami looked stressed. "Ryūen, what about my share?"
Ryūen sneered, "You just made 2 million off me a few days ago, and now you want me to cover your measly one hundred and sixty thousand in gambling debts?"
As he spoke, Ryūen glanced over at Ibuki, noting her annoyed expression. He said calmly, "Don't look at me like that. I didn't teach this woman how to play mahjong. Any news from this morning?"
"Just saw Ayanokōji from Class D pick up a phone."
Ibuki said casually, sitting down next to "Hiyori". After a moment of thought, she added, "Oh, right. The other classes seem to have requested a lot of sanitary products and plastic bags. An unusually large amount."
"A phone, huh..." Ryūen's eyes glinted.
Meanwhile, Symon paid no mind to these things. He got up, walked over to the stove, and took out two pre-saved lunches.
He gave one to Hatanaka-san and placed the other in Ibuki's hands, saying with a smile, "Let's eat first."
Ibuki was taken aback. She glanced at the four people around them, hesitated for a moment, then got up and moved to the side—being watched by four people while she ate was a form of torture she'd rather avoid.
Following the body's senses, Hiyori watched Ibuki walk away and chuckled inwardly, "Ara~ Mr. Ghost, you're surprisingly caring."
"It's nothing. I quite like this girl," Symon replied casually.
Hiyori mused, "Mmm... but based on your ideal type, Mr. Ghost, Morofuji-san doesn't seem to fit, does she?"
From what she knew of Symon, if she were to rank the girls in her social circle by his standard, the top three would probably be Airi > Shiranami > Mei-chan, all of them being girls with softer personalities.
"An ideal type, huh? I actually have one of those," Symon retorted internally.
"You do~" the girl's voice was playful.
While the two were chatting in their minds, Ryūen pulled himself out of his thoughts. He turned to look at "Hiyori Shiina" and said with an amused tone, "I never thought I'd see the day someone would get the best of me."
Symon was a bit surprised. "What's wrong?"
Ryūen pulled three cameras from his pocket, casually picked one up, and tossed it to "Hiyori Shiina" with a sneer.
"These are the cameras I retrieved from the waterfall and beach spots. Take a look and you'll understand."
Symon picked up the camera and examined it for a moment, finding a small switch. He also pulled out a memory card and couldn't help but remark, "This is..."
What a piece of junk—he stopped himself from saying it out loud, considering Hiyori's image.
"Looks like you get it," Ryūen sneered.
"These surveillance devices are all connected via Bluetooth. I don't know if you've ever used Bluetooth headphones, but that kind of thing's security is basically non-existent.
Especially when the device isn't in your hands. After a factory reset, it can be connected to a new device at any time."
"I see," Symon said after a moment's thought. "But more than your devices being compromised, I think what you should be worried about now is where the other party will place them, assuming they buy more cameras."
At this point, Symon changed the subject, smiling as he said, "However, you don't actually need to worry about that problem.
Working backward from the outcome, there are really only four possibilities—victory, defeat, mutual destruction, or a draw."
"The perfect outcome is you obtain the leader information for all three classes and are only guessed correctly by Class A, netting you 100 temporary points."
"The worst outcome is Class D becomes wary and tricks you into guessing wrong, or Class D obtains the information by installing their own cameras or by getting it from Class A. In either of those scenarios, you get 0 points."
"As for a draw, that would be if both you and Ayanokōji hide well and give up on guessing each other's class leader, directing all your attacks at Classes A and B. The final result would be you getting 50 points and him getting 100."
"And finally, mutual destruction is simple—if you go and expose this whole thing right now, no one gets to profit. Both sides end up with 0 points."
"So, all the possibilities are on the table. If it were you, what would you choose?"
Ryūen's eyes lit up with amusement. "What do you think?"
...
____
🔥 New stories are out! 🔥
🔥 New history!: Genshin Impact: Starting by Stuffing Columbina 🔥
✅ Read 40 chapters ahead on all series.
✅ Get exclusive content and updates.
Help us hit our targets:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 free chapter for all
🚀 80 MEMBERS = +5 bonus chapters (all stories)!
👻 P - Walnutchan