With the point distribution settled, the game began.
Ayanokoji rose to his feet and headed into the steel jungle of stacked containers.
Unlike the others, who all had clear objectives driving them forward, he wasn't in any rush. As he walked, he stitched each new stretch of corridor together with the routes he'd already memorized, gradually assembling a full 3D map of the exam zone inside his head.
Charging ahead blindly and hoping for the best wasn't his style. Mastering the terrain and plotting his escape routes first — that was the absolute prerequisite for surviving.
Two corners later, his peripheral vision caught something: inside a half-open container to his left, a faintly glowing card hovered in midair, perfectly still.
He didn't move toward it immediately, because someone was walking straight toward him from dead ahead.
Ibuki Mio.
From the start, Ayanokoji recalled, she'd been paired with Kaneda Satoru as one of Class C's representatives.
He stopped and angled his body slightly to the side.
Under normal circumstances, a posture like that — deliberately appearing non-threatening — was exactly the kind of thing that invited opportunists to come take a swing.
To Ayanokoji's surprise, the moment he made clear he had no intention of attacking, Ibuki Mio simply ignored him entirely.
She blew straight past, moving with a pace that could only be described as... urgent. Like someone racing against a clock.
Ayanokoji frowned, watching her retreating figure.
Same as me — prioritizing the layout first? Or is there something more pressing pulling her somewhere?
A beat of thought, and he dismissed the idea.
Ibuki Mio's acting wasn't polished enough to conceal a sense of purpose that obvious. She wasn't searching for something. She was sprinting toward a predetermined target.
While Ayanokoji was still puzzling over it, GANTZ's electronic announcement chimed overhead:
[Class A +10,000 points. Current total: 20,000.]
Almost before that one finished, a second announcement followed right on its heels:
[Class C +10,000 points. Current total: 20,000.]
A look of quiet understanding settled over Ayanokoji's face.
"Ah. So that's it."
It was obvious now — Class A and Class C had struck a deal, with each side touching the other's base as the agreed condition.
Under this ruleset, both classes only needed to post two people back to guard their own base, then send one person each to tap the opponent's.
That left four people walking around the field with ten thousand points apiece — living natural disasters. They could ransack the entire zone for items without a single care in the world, completely untouchable in any duel.
Barring intervention, the winner of this exam would almost certainly come from one of those two classes.
A clever little scheme, he noted internally.
Ayanokoji turned and stepped into the container, reaching up to pluck the floating card from the air. The instant his fingertip made contact, it dissolved into particles of light.
The watch on his wrist gave a faint buzz. His points jumped from [501] to [2,501].
Simultaneously, an announcement rang out:
[Class D +2,000 points. Current total: 12,000.]
A 2,000-point item, clearly. High value.
Modest compared to ten thousand, perhaps — but in Ayanokoji's eyes, these 2,000 item points were actually worth more than the inflated base scores Class A and Class C were racking up.
Base points couldn't be carried out of the exam. Item points, once tallied, stayed with you afterward.
He was still thinking that through when a male voice came from behind him:
"Looks like you're the first one to find an item... hah. Didn't expect Class B to be the ones lagging furthest behind right now."
Ayanokoji turned. Kanzaki Ryuuji was standing just outside the container's entrance.
"Are you here for a duel?" Ayanokoji asked, tone flat.
"Pass." Kanzaki shook his head. "Now that Class A and Class C have started cooperating and inflating the scoreboard, fighting amongst ourselves is pointless. No matter how many duels we win, we can't close a ten-thousand-point gap."
He met Ayanokoji's gaze directly and got straight to it: "So — how about we do the same thing? Class D and Class B. An alliance."
Ayanokoji raised an eyebrow.
"Aren't you worried about getting stabbed in the back? If I remember right, you have no margin for error."
"Getting betrayed by you is the same outcome as losing the exam outright," Kanzaki said evenly. "Either way, it's over."
Kanzaki Ryuuji smiled, his gaze open and frank. "Besides — I'm pretty sure someone in Class D is in the same boat as me. Someone who can't afford to lose this."
Ayanokoji looked at him, just about to reply.
Then — two announcements dropped in rapid succession from above.
[Class B +1,000 points.]
[Class D +500 points. Current total: 12,500.]
[Class B −500 points. Current total: 10,500.]
The two of them exchanged a glance.
Kanzaki Ryuuji let out a wry smile and rubbed his brow. "Looks like the transfer student got into a duel with someone from your class while searching for items."
"The transfer student, hm." Ayanokoji kept his expression neutral.
——
At the same time.
On the far side of the port, at the outermost edge of the container maze.
When the announcement came through — Class A and Class C both jumping ten thousand points at once — Koenji Rokusuke stopped walking.
"Heheh... so we're not the only ones feeling out the edges of the rulebook."
He flicked the golden hair from his forehead.
As long as Class A and Class C kept touching each other's bases back and forth, even accounting for the return trip to unlock their bracelets, their point totals could balloon into an astronomically intimidating number with terrifying ease.
Class D had their own "porcupine tactic," of course — but that wasn't something to reveal in the opening moments. Show it too early and other teams would simply copy it.
More to the point.
Like Ayanokoji, Koenji cared far more about item points that could be carried out than about duel victories. The difference being — he had absolutely zero margin for error.
Just as he was about to head back to base and recalibrate his strategy.
The corner of his eye caught it — a flash of vivid red hair. Amase Kazuna, stepping with a light, unhurried gait around the corner of a container.
Koenji Rokusuke didn't hesitate. He turned and followed.
The moment he rounded the corner.
He spotted it — hovering on top of an abandoned oil drum a short distance ahead of Amase Kazuna: a shimmering card printed with a cactus design.
A point item, without question.
Koenji Rokusuke dropped all pretense of subtlety and broke into long, fast strides, angling to snatch it first.
Sensing movement behind her, Amase Kazuna instantly accelerated.
Koenji's physical capabilities were already monstrous by high school standards — but Amase Kazuna was a White Room fifth-generation student. Even without having formally graduated, her physical conditioning was in a completely different league from ordinary people.
She couldn't say she had a decisive edge over Koenji — but with the clear distance advantage and the head start, she was never going to be overtaken that easily.
Smack!
When Koenji finally lunged, his fingertips only grazed Amase Kazuna's arm as she pulled it back at the last possible instant.
The cactus-printed card had already dissolved into the girl's palm.
Ding.
[Duel registered.]
The tone from his bracelet chimed, followed immediately by the class score exchange announcement.
"...Pathetic. One step short, and a little kitten beats me to the punch." Koenji clenched his fist, genuinely annoyed.
Clang!
His fist connected with the container wall, leaving a clean, distinct dent.
He shook out his hand, displeased with himself for failing to maintain his usual composure.
Amase Kazuna, witnessing this, made a show of stumbling back two steps, patting her chest with exaggerated relief, eyes shimmering with crocodile tears:
"Senpai, you're incredible~ I spotted it first, and you almost snatched it anyway~ You nearly gave me a heart attack~"
Koenji Rokusuke watched the point total tick on her bracelet and let out a cold laugh.
"Down to 1,001... seems your class has a very clear idea of where you fit in!"
She'd just lost 500 in the duel, plus whatever the item was worth.
That meant she'd started with exactly 501 points — same as him.
Amase Kazuna smiled sweetly and fired back:
"Senpai, your total after stealing my 500 is now 8,997... your class has a pretty clear picture of you too, wouldn't you say?"
Koenji gave no reaction.
He knew full well — the duel was done, and with his bracelet now in lockout until he returned to base, there was no point in pushing further.
Koenji smoothed his golden hair and recovered his elegance:
"Any interest in passing along a message?"
"Class D wants to form an alliance with Class B."
"The way this inflation is going, if we don't band together, Class A and Class C will just pick us off one by one."
"I'd imagine your class's goodhearted representative would hate to see it come to that, wouldn't they?"
Amase Kazuna shook her head, putting on a long-suffering expression:
"Senpai, you can see from my point allocation that I don't exactly carry a lot of weight in my class. Even if I agreed, it wouldn't mean much in practice — you'd be better off going straight to our base and waiting for the vice-rep to come back before you talk alliances."
Koenji raised an eyebrow. "You're not going back to unlock?"
Amase Kazuna spread her hands, the picture of innocence:
"And do what? Refresh my bracelet just so you all can hunt me down again and strip me of these hard-earned item points?"
"I'm not that foolish~"
Koenji Rokusuke stared at her for two full seconds, then said nothing more, turned on his heel, and walked away with long strides.
Watching his retreating back, Amase Kazuna let the pitiful expression fall from her face. The corner of her mouth curved into a wicked little smile.
In truth, she'd deliberately slowed her pace earlier — leading Koenji Rokusuke right to this spot.
Because the instant she'd spotted Koenji, she'd picked up something else in her senses: beneath the salt-tinged sea breeze, layered beneath Koenji's heavy, unmistakably male footsteps, there was a second set — faint, slightly unsteady.
Those who'd been through professional training knew this instinctively.
Men's dress boots and women's dress boots produce fundamentally different sounds — because of the contact surface area, heel height, and the way force is distributed with each step.
That was definitely a girl.
It could have been any girl from another class out hunting for items.
But Amase Kazuna had observed before the game started — aside from Class B, every other class had sent only one female participant.
With Class A and Class C busy farming their bases together, there was no reason whatsoever for their lone female representatives to be out in the field.
Which left exactly one possibility: Matsushita Chiaki.
So Amase Kazuna had used the item she'd spotted earlier as bait — a way to test her theory.
If the one trailing behind Ayanokoji's group was Matsushita Chiaki, she would have been right beside Koenji.
But if Chiaki was nowhere to be found... then only one answer remained.
The "Ghost."
The one the system listed — worth 2,500 points.
And sure enough, Matsushita Chiaki was nowhere near Koenji.
"Gotcha, little mouse."
Amase Kazuna licked her lips and set off without hesitation, tracking toward the direction that faint sound had come from.
——
As for Shiranami Chihiro at that moment.
When she'd made her contract with GANTZ, she'd been briefed on the exam's hidden rules — and she was well aware of just how tempting a target she was for these point-hungry classmates.
Her original plan had been to find somewhere discreet to lie low — maybe slip into the water at the shoreline and simply tough out the full hour.
The problem was, GANTZ had dropped her directly into the dead center of the exam zone from the very beginning.
Reaching the ocean at the edges meant actively cutting through this treacherous container labyrinth.
Honestly, with Class A and Class C now cooperating, the value of her 2,500-point bounty had been somewhat diluted — the pressure wasn't as crushing as she'd feared.
Still, running into Amase Kazuna of all people — a White Room operative with professional counter-surveillance training — felt, at least a little, like fate having a laugh at her expense.
Weaving through the gaps between containers, Shiranami Chihiro suddenly realized she'd cornered herself in a dead end.
Just as despair was setting in, she noticed something on the side of the container next to her: a metal maintenance ladder, the kind workers used to climb up.
Without a second thought, she kicked off the last of her shoes and climbed barefoot, as quietly as she could manage.
Then.
When she hauled herself, breathless, up onto the top platform — a surface formed by several containers laid side by side — she froze.
Sitting right in the middle of that platform, utterly calm and motionless, was...
An MH-53 armed helicopter?!
Before Shiranami Chihiro could even process the visual shock.
Amase Kazuna, having reached the dead end below, spotted the ladder.
She caught the faint trace of sweat still clinging to the metal rungs. The red-haired girl's lips curled slightly.
Looks like those 2,500 points are coming home with me after all.
She climbed without hesitation.
Seconds later.
When Amase Kazuna vaulted onto the platform and got a clear look at the enormous machine in front of her, even she — seasoned and unflappable as she was — couldn't help but pause.
"No way... there's an armed helicopter just sitting in a port?"
——
At the same time.
Kaneda Satoru, inside a container on Class C's side, had found something too: a black-and-white police car.
Any dedicated Transformers fan would have recognized it on the spot — it was a dead ringer for the Ford Mustang police cruiser that Barricade disguised himself as in the films. Same model, same badge number on the door, down to the last detail.
Unfortunately, this world had no Transformers films. And even if it did, nobody in a situation like this was going to be paying attention to those kinds of details.
But the naturally suspicious Kaneda Satoru felt an instinctive wariness toward the car.
"In an exam zone built by the Black Sphere... nothing shows up without a reason."
He hadn't actually seen what a real exam item looked like yet, though.
If he walked away and it turned out to be a high-value item — with only six items scattered across the whole field, two already taken (2,000 points and 100 points) — leaving something like this for Class A would be catastrophic for Class C.
As Kaneda Satoru stood there weighing whether to step forward and touch the car.
The sky delivered another score update:
[Class D +10,000 points. Current total: 20,500.]
[Class B +10,000 points. Current total: 22,500.]
Kaneda Satoru immediately read the situation. His expression darkened.
"Those guys..."
"So Class D and Class B have started farming bases together — just like us."
He watched his own class's point total, which had fallen to dead last in just these few minutes of hesitation, and rubbed his chin.
"If everyone's playing it this way..."
"Then it comes down to who moves fastest."
Kaneda Satoru adjusted his glasses and made up his mind.
Compared to this unknown item of uncertain value, sprinting back to accelerate the base-touching cycle was far and away the most reliable way to score.
He turned without a backward glance and broke into a full run toward Class A's base.
The Ford Mustang sat quietly in the shadows behind him. In the end, he never touched it.
——
Back at Class D's base.
When Koenji Rokusuke returned, he found Kanzaki Ryuuji already waiting there — and noticed that of the two who'd been holding the base, Hirata Yousuke was gone.
Before he could ask, the announcement for Class D's ten-thousand-point gain rang out overhead.
Immediately after, Kanzaki Ryuuji reached out without hesitation and pressed his hand to Class D's glowing base pillar.
Koenji Rokusuke cracked a grin and glanced over at Ayanokoji, who was standing nearby:
"Your call, was it? Heheh... interesting. Boy, you're starting to intrigue me."
Once Kanzaki confirmed the points had registered, he turned to Ayanokoji:
"Who's coming back to Class B's base with me? Class A and Class C are probably already planning their next exchange — we can't afford to fall behind."
Koenji cut in: "If we're doing this, we go all the way. Everyone goes together."
"What about the base?" Matsushita Chiaki asked, looking uncertain.
Ayanokoji shook his head, tone certain:
"They have no reason to waste time coming here. As long as the inflation hasn't hit a ceiling yet, they can just keep cycling between Class A and Class C without any detours."
Kanzaki nodded in agreement. "The only downside is that once we lock into this race, almost nobody has the time to hunt down scattered items anymore."
"Winning right now matters more." Koenji settled it with a single line.
Kanzaki didn't argue.
Because what lay before them all was a naked, unavoidable truth.
And so both factions, without any coordination, arrived at the exact same decision: cycling their full rosters through base touches for maximum scoring efficiency.
Predictably, until the exam clock crept toward its final moments, everyone would quietly operate under the same strategy by unspoken mutual consent.
Up above:
[Class A +10,000...]
[Class C +10,000...]
[Class D +10,000...]
The electronic announcements rang out one after another in overlapping waves.
Class A surged by twenty thousand at a go. Class C, twenty thousand. Then Class D began multiplying too.
Only Class B — missing one of its members — could gain at most thirty thousand per cycle, and slowly began losing ground in the total standings.
Perched on the edge of a container, swinging her long legs idly, Amase Kazuna let out a guilt-ridden little sigh:
"Oh dear~ If Class B loses because of me, the upperclassmen are definitely going to hate me~ Sob sob sob~ How terrifying~"
The words were all woe and distress. Her eyes were absolutely gleaming with excitement.
But that ghost made it all the way up here and clearly can't fly — so where on earth is she hiding?
She turned her head, gaze locking onto the enormous armed helicopter not far away.
The answer, in her heart, was already obvious.
Made sense, really.
The Ghost wasn't a proper examinee — so why would the rules that bound ordinary examinees have any hold over her?
"Seriously — you hid inside that giant thing?"
"You've really got a talent for hiding. Like a tiny little mouse."
Amase Kazuna gave the container beneath her an exasperated kick, then stood up and made her way lightly over to the hatch of the MH-53.
Fine.
3,000 points in items, plus 2,500 for catching the Ghost.
A full five thousand points in portable item score — worth a little risk.
After all, she'd come to this school in the first place because of the Black Sphere exam that followed the preliminary. If she could win the preliminary and also get a front-row seat to what the Black Sphere exam looked like — that was a win-win by any measure.
And so.
As the next overhead announcement rang out —
Taking advantage of the brief window when Class B was temporarily ahead in total points while the other classes' members were mid-transit —
Amase Kazuna stepped up to the helicopter.
Clack —!
The hatch was yanked open.
Let's see — little Ghost, are you hiding in here~?
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: JJK: Naoya Zenin Reborn as a Woman
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