First Year, Class B.
Your identity is...
Priest!
The Goddess of Luck had descended upon Arisu Sakayanagi this time. The girl didn't even need to ask her classmates to reveal their identities.
"Random, or intentional?"
Staring at the Priest identity on her phone screen, Arisu raised an eyebrow.
If her father were still at the school, she could have gone directly to ask him how the identities for this special exam were distributed.
But that wasn't possible now.
Chairman Sakayanagi was already sailing on a journey to find a cure for Arisu's illness.
Arisu couldn't be blamed for overthinking; the assignment of this special identity to her was just too coincidental.
In the last special exam, the White Cat hadn't visited Class B for a single day during the entire week. Yet, for this special exam, the special identity was assigned directly to her.
And at such a unique time, right after she had finished integrating Class B.
Was the special identity assigned to the leader of each class, or was it truly random?
There were too many variables involved.
"Sakayanagi, the special identity this time is actually you."
Masumi Kamuro, who had been guarding behind Arisu, widened her eyes as she looked at the message on Arisu's phone and exclaimed in surprise.
Fortunately, Kamuro was self-aware enough to keep her voice low, so only Arisu heard her.
"My, my, Kamuro-puppy, are you trying to be insubordinate?"
Arisu turned around and looked at Kamuro with a dangerous gaze, speaking in a gloomy tone.
Currently, the students of Class B only obeyed Arisu on the surface because of her status. Privately, who knew what schemes they were hatching? Therefore, Arisu didn't want the class to know that she held the special identity for this exam.
Class A had Katsuragi Ren... no, he had transferred to Class D. Class D had Koenji Rokusuke and Katsuragi Ren.
If the classmates confirmed that Arisu held the special identity, these two ostensible young masters might just sell her out for a better future.
Koenji might ignore the crowd, but Katsuragi Ren might not.
There were three "canaries" kept by Katsuragi Ren in Class A. It was entirely possible that Katsuragi Ren would wave his hand and buy her special identity information directly.
"Sorry..."
Startled by Arisu's unprecedented gaze, Kamuro began to apologize timidly.
"I forgive you~"
Arisu forgave Kamuro magnanimously.
Now, Kamuro was the only one she could trust by her side. Arisu didn't want to push her away with her own hands.
As for Masayoshi Hashimoto? Full of smooth talk, with zero loyalty.
After playing chess and interacting with Katsuragi Ren, Arisu had lowered her stance significantly. Without that arrogant air of superiority, she had also figured out many things.
Someone like Hashimoto, who chose to follow her because of her background, would one day choose to betray her for someone with an even greater background.
Turning her thoughts back, Arisu began to read about the abilities and mission of her special identity without avoiding Kamuro behind her.
Priest.
Abilities: Judgment and Preaching.
Introduction: As a devout believer of the light, you are irreconcilable with dark creatures. God has a merciful heart, but also thunderous punishment.
Judgment: You do not need to confirm the exact identities of the Werewolf and the Fox. As long as you are certain they are dark creatures, you can eliminate them directly.
Preaching: You can preach to the Hunter and the Villagers. When you successfully hunt dark creatures in cooperation with them, it will be considered that you have successfully brainwashed them. After the exam ends, all the Class Points they obtained will belong to you.
Note: When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
Mission: Successfully take out a Werewolf or a Fox, and then survive!
"So strong..."
While Arisu was still thinking, Kamuro's whisper reached her ears.
At this moment, Kamuro had leaned close to Arisu's head, reading the abilities and mission of the Priest on the phone with relish.
On the surface, the Priest had the advantage from the very beginning.
Whether it was the four classes guarding against each other with no one making a move—resulting in a draw that counted as a Priest victory—or successfully hunting a hostile creature to end the game immediately without giving others a chance...
Everything seemed to indicate that the Priest was the top draw among special identities.
"Kamuro, you only see the benefits."
Turning off the phone screen, Arisu spoke softly.
"Eh?"
Kamuro turned to look at Arisu with eyes full of confusion. It wasn't because Arisu was explaining things to her specifically, but because Arisu hadn't called her "Kamuro-puppy."
Did the damn loli change her nature today?
Patting the head Kamuro leaned over, Arisu explained patiently.
Her father wouldn't return until next year. In this school, perhaps the only classmate truly close to her was Kamuro. Arisu decided to treat Kamuro a little better.
This was something Arisu learned from Katsuragi Ren.
Arisu had observed Class A carefully and also chatted with Kohei Katsuragi about the situation regarding his transfer and his thoughts at that time.
It turned out that domestication didn't necessarily require holding leverage and training slowly.
"If a lord treats me as a statesman, I will repay him as a statesman." Wasn't this also a form of domestication?
"Kamuro, the Priest seems like the best draw, and many rules in the special exam are favorable to this identity."
"But look at Results 3, 4, and 5. These three all require a lot of killing."
"Among the abilities given to the Priest, Judgment is only effective against the Werewolf and the Fox. For the Villagers and the Hunter, there is only Preaching. This means when we preach, we must be cautious of these two special roles."
"The warning at the bottom: 'When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.' Doesn't this imply that when we target the Hunter or Villagers for preaching, they might also be targeting us as their next prey?"
"There are a total of five special characters. We have no information on which one is the hidden character. If the hidden one is the Hunter or a Villager, it's still acceptable for us."
"If the hidden identity is the Werewolf or the Fox, does this mean our Judgment only has one target? That also means we only have one chance."
"This special exam has no punishment for failure. When the last day comes, even if the special identity holders of other classes haven't found the special identities of the other classes, will they try to tag a random student from another class to try their luck?"
"The rules never said that Ordinary Villagers cannot be targeted and killed."
"People are self-interested. In the end, it's impossible for them to use no abilities at all and let the Priest win for free."
"The Priest is the special identity with the highest risk and also the highest return."
Arisu broke down the gains and losses of the Priest identity, trying to feed it into Kamuro's mind.
Kamuro felt her brain was about to stop working. Why are there so many twists and turns?
"So troublesome... don't understand."
If you don't understand, give up. Giving up allows the brain to rest. Kamuro plonked her head on Arisu's desk and spoke listlessly.
Normally, Kamuro wouldn't dare do this, but Arisu was clearly acting differently today, so Kamuro chose to be bold for once.
Facts proved that Kamuro's guess wasn't wrong.
Arisu stroked Kamuro's head gently, as if fantasizing she was petting Koharu, raised by Katsuragi Ren.
After petting for quite a while, almost turning Kamuro into a real cat, Arisu spoke softly.
"It doesn't matter if you don't understand, Kamuro."
"You just need to know that your current identity is the Priest."
Kamuro was stunned.
"Me?"
-----------------
Currently on Patreon: 380 chapters available.
https://www.patreon.com/cw/LIZBETH1242