Chapter 140: Exam Rules, Cruise Ship Werewolf (Two-in-One 5k) (Patreon)

Hikaru Naruse looked down at his phone, eyes skimming the message.

"The Special Exam is about to begin. After receiving this email, report to the designated room at the designated time. Anyone more than ten minutes late will be punished."

"Please report to Room 201 on the second floor before 8 p.m. tonight. Use the restroom, get yourself ready, and switch your phone to vibrate or turn it off before you arrive."

After reading it through, he looked at Suzune Horikita across from him.

"When's your assembly time?"

Horikita looked up at the question. Ever since that hug, her tone around Naruse had softened considerably.

"Eight tonight. Room 204 on the second floor."

Naruse thought it over. Sure enough, it matched the original story: Horikita was a member of the Dragon Group too.

"Then it looks like we can walk over together. I'm at eight as well, but Room 201."

"Room 201?"

Her delicate brows drew together slightly, and she took a moment before speaking slowly.

"So this exam has split the students into several batches."

She paused for a beat, then went on with her analysis.

"You and I aren't in the same class, yet our assembly times are identical."

Her frown deepened.

"Could they have scattered the students across all the classes?"

Naruse nodded slightly. Horikita's thinking was solid, and she really was sharp.

"Quite possibly."

"We still don't know how they've divided us, but if there's a competition right after the island exam ends, could it be held on the cruise ship?"

"That would make things a lot easier."

"You must have been perfectly at home on the island, too," Horikita remarked.

"Sure, but a comfortable bed on the ship is what I was really hoping for."

"True. Good sleep restores your energy fast."

"Let's head over together later, Horikita-san." Naruse smiled faintly. "Maybe this time we'll actually get to work well together."

"Work together?"

Horikita thought about it, then suddenly raised her head.

"I'll show you how much I've grown."

"Now that's something to look forward to."

---

Around ten to eight that evening, Horikita and Naruse set off together for the assembly point.

The route ran through a corridor lined with academic-style decorative paintings on both walls. It looked like an area set aside for offices.

They turned a corner on the second floor and saw a row of rooms ahead, with students milling along the corridor.

Every class was represented.

Naruse's gaze swept quickly over the crowd and picked out several familiar faces. After all, he knew the Dragon Group roster well.

There was Kohei Katsuragi from his own class, and Class B's core members, Ryuji Kanzaki and Sayo Ando. Class D had sent Yosuke Hirata and Kikyo Kushida.

And of course, there was Kakeru Ryuen, who had just won himself dead last in the exam a few days ago.

Compared with the wretched, half-feral savage from the island, he looked much cleaner now.

His red hair had been combed back into shape and the stubble on his chin was gone. He looked far more alert.

Ryuen's gaze passed over everyone present, then settled on Naruse.

"Well, well. If it isn't Naruse-san, our big winner from last time?"

"Looks like we've landed in the same group this time. And plenty of familiar faces here, too."

Ryuen didn't yet know why the groups had been arranged this way, but nearly everyone in front of him was a top student from their class, and that gave him a preliminary read.

"This exam doesn't look like it'll be boring."

Katsuragi naturally didn't bite on Ryuen's remarks, and the few Class B students disliked Ryuen as well. The "mole incident" was still fresh in their minds.

Only Hirata, that nice guy, noticed the odd atmosphere around them and spoke up with a smile.

"What a coincidence. I hope we can all get along this time."

Naruse glanced at Ryuen and spoke calmly.

"You sound confident. Honestly, I'm looking forward to playing another round with you."

He paused, studying Ryuen's face, and smirked.

"I just hope you won't pull another grand entrance that ends in such a humiliating finish."

The line was sharp, and Ryuen's expression darkened at once.

His failure on the island had hurt his standing in Class C. Of the dozen-odd people who'd once backed him, even more had drifted away.

"Hmph. We'll see."

---

Naruse ignored Ryuen from then on.

Once he'd confirmed where Room 201 was, he exchanged a look with Horikita beside him and pushed the door open.

Katsuragi followed right behind and stepped into Room 201 as well.

Across the way, Horikita glanced at Hirata and Kushida standing on the other side. She said nothing and went in first, through the door of Room 204.

Inside Room 201, Naruse quickly scanned his surroundings.

The room wasn't large, about the size of an ordinary standard room. A small round table stood in the middle with four chairs set around it.

Standing on the far side of the table was a full-figured woman, Class D's homeroom teacher, Sae Chabashira.

She wore her hair in a neat ponytail and a standard office-lady outfit: a black blazer over a white shirt. Her figure was striking enough that even a business suit couldn't hide its lines.

Her expression, though, was cold, as if someone owed her several million.

After sitting down, Naruse quickly checked who was in the room. Because of his involvement, the boy who'd originally been there was gone, while the two girls were unchanged.

Besides himself and Katsuragi, the other two were Class A's Koharu Yano and Ryoko Nishikawa.

Nishikawa, Asuka Shiraishi's best friend, even gave him a little wave and a wink when he walked in.

"Naruse-san, good evening~"

"Good evening, everyone."

The four Class A students took their seats around the same table.

Chabashira looked them over, then spoke evenly.

"It's time. I'm about to read out the rules, so please stay quiet."

"Incidentally, I'll hand out the exam rules shortly. Don't bother asking me questions. I won't answer any of them."

"Understood?"

Chabashira's cold attitude put everyone a bit on edge, but it was an exam, so they only exchanged glances and said nothing.

Naruse sat on the left side of the table, with Katsuragi on his right and Nishikawa and Yano across from him.

Before Chabashira even began explaining, he had already sorted out his thoughts.

According to the original rule design, even though he'd been assigned to the Dragon Group, the group's VIP hadn't changed. It was still Kushida.

His surname started with "Na" (Naruse is pronounced "na-ru-se"), so it didn't affect Kushida's position in the surname ordering within this group.

In the original, groups were divided by the zodiac, and the VIP within each group was determined by the Japanese gojuon order of the first syllable of each surname.

Kushida's first syllable is "Ku," which ranks fifth in the Dragon Group's order, and the Dragon is fifth in the zodiac. So it was her.

On the other hand, Naruse knew that with the relationship he and Kushida had now, getting information out of her would be easy. The real question was how to squeeze out the maximum benefit.

After all, his creed had always been the same.

If he wasn't going to do something, he'd slack off and coast through.

If he was going to do it, he'd do it to the extreme and come out as the biggest winner of this exam.

---

Chabashira began reading out the rules.

Her voice was as flat as ever. She taught Japanese history, so the Class A students all knew her, though they didn't care for her teaching style.

"For this Special Exam, the school has divided the entire first-year student body into twelve groups, ordered by the zodiac."

"The Special Exam will be conducted separately within each group."

"The theme of the exam is [Thinking]."

Thinking, as the name suggests, tested everyone's ability to think.

Naruse glanced at Katsuragi beside him. As class representative, he had clearly come prepared.

The bald-headed boy had tucked a palm-sized notebook into his uniform pocket and was already bent over it, taking careful notes.

The two girls across the table were in rather different states.

Nishikawa looked entirely at ease, smiling now and then and staring dreamily at Naruse's face. Yano was more nervous. She was mid-ranking in Class A and knew she couldn't compare to Naruse or Katsuragi, so she felt on edge.

Chabashira continued.

"Your group is the Dragon Group."

As she said this, she picked up a stack of postcard-sized slips of paper from the desk and casually set it in the center of the table.

"These cards list the names of your fellow group members."

"Per the rules, the cards cannot be taken away. If you want a record, you may make one now with your own belongings, or commit them to memory."

Katsuragi opened his notebook and began copying down the names on the slips one by one, while Naruse only glanced at them. They were nearly all old acquaintances.

Dragon Group members:

First-year Class A: Kohei Katsuragi, Ryoko Nishikawa, Hikaru Naruse, Koharu Yano

First-year Class B: Sayo Ando, Ryuji Kanzaki, Hitomi Tsunobe

First-year Class C: Takumi Oda, Hidetoshi Suzuki, Masashi Sonoda, Kakeru Ryuen

First-year Class D: Kikyo Kushida, Yosuke Hirata, Suzune Horikita

Once Katsuragi had finished writing, Chabashira went on to explain the arrangements for the exam.

"The students on this list are your group members for this exam. This time, you needn't dwell on the issue of being in different classes. You are one unit."

"The exam will be conducted within each group, and the final result is tied to every member."

Katsuragi rubbed his chin, apparently pondering what that meant. Naruse decided to tease Chabashira a little and spoke up.

"By that rule, doesn't that mean we have to team up with the Class D students this time?"

"That's correct."

Katsuragi had no idea what Naruse was up to and simply answered the question.

"Honestly, I hope they'll cooperate obediently. If the groups weren't set up like this, I'd have no interest in working with those defective goods from Class D."

Naruse put on a smile and aimed the line squarely at Chabashira, as though he truly looked down on Class D.

"Right? I don't like the Class D crowd either. What a pain~"

Nishikawa had no clue what Naruse was doing either, but she loved stirring up drama, and she jumped right in to back him.

Katsuragi looked at the two of them, hesitating, unsure whether he should say anything.

"It can't be helped. That's how the exam rules were designed."

Naruse shrugged and turned to Chabashira.

"Chabashira-sensei, please continue with the rules. We'll put up with it."

"…"

Chabashira was silent for a moment. Truthfully, she'd heard about Naruse's reputation all along, but she'd never expected him to be this sort of person.

Was he putting on an act? Or did he really look down on Class D?

Chabashira wasn't one to jump to conclusions, so she went on in the same icy tone.

"For this Special Exam, each large group will end up with only four possible outcomes once the exam is finished. This is the core of the design: whatever choices you make, only four results can emerge."

"So you need to work out how to approach the exam."

"Here is a document with the exam materials. It also may not leave this room, but you may take your own notes."

With that, she placed several printed pages in the center of the table.

Faced with the document, Katsuragi handed the decision-making over to Naruse and spoke gently.

"Naruse-san, please go through the rules. For you to be the first to learn them should work in our favor."

"Heh, then I won't hold back."

Naruse smiled and reached out, pulling all of the pages toward himself.

"Everyone, please give me a moment. Since Chabashira-sensei says she won't answer questions, once I'm done reading I'll help sort out the rules for you all."

"Thank you, Naruse-san."

"No need to thank me."

---

Naruse lowered his head and ran through the pages at speed. He read fast, and the rate at which he absorbed information was frankly terrifying.

Chabashira had meant to sit back and watch the show, but barely thirty seconds had passed before the handsome boy across from her set the pages down.

He murmured to himself for a moment, as though he'd already grasped the exam's whole purpose and was now figuring out the best way to get the other three to understand it as simply as possible.

The rules of this Special Exam were detailed, and also easy to follow.

[Summer Group Special Exam: Explanation]

This exam is built around the [VIP] assigned to each group. The exam takes the form of a final answer round in which you guess who your group's [VIP] is.

On the day the exam begins, the school will notify all students that it has started, and will simultaneously send a text message to those selected as [VIP].

After that, the exam period lasts four days, from August 10 to August 14. Since today's assembly is already in the evening, the real exam period starts tomorrow: the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th.

The event revealing the VIP identities takes place at 8 a.m. tomorrow, and the end of the exam will be announced at 9 p.m. on the 14th.

Over these four days, three require fixed activities, while the 13th is free time.

The fixed activity rule isn't complicated. All members of a group must gather in the same room twice: once at 8 a.m. and once at 8 p.m.

After assembling, members may discuss the [VIP] or not. They only need to coast through the hour. The school won't require discussion every time; it's up to each group member.

Finally, there's the answer submission period.

Half an hour after the exam ends at nine, from 9:30 to 10 p.m. on the 14th, the school will accept everyone's answers. The sender must enter the message on their own phone and send it to the email address designated by the school.

Note that the [VIP] cannot submit an answer. A [VIP] has only one objective: do not expose yourself.

Also, each person may answer only once, and only with the identity of their own group's VIP. Submissions close at ten, and an hour later the school will notify everyone of the exam results by text message.

Once Naruse had sorted the rules out in his head, he began explaining them to the other three.

Since they were all Class A students with above-average comprehension, he only picked out the key points rather than going through every rule in detail. After all, once you'd explained the earlier ones, everyone could figure out the rest on their own.

Watching Naruse handle the whole room with ease, Chabashira felt a flicker of surprise.

She knew Class A's representative was Katsuragi, but now it looked like Naruse was the real leader of this group.

"Does everyone understand?"

"Got it… So we really do have to do some Thinking, don't we?"

Nishikawa stroked her braid, smiling brightly.

"Indeed."

Katsuragi nodded, then said earnestly.

"So our goal is to find the group's [VIP] and submit the correct name to the school, correct?"

"No need to rush, Katsuragi-san."

Naruse spread out the last page of the document on the table, a meaningful smile on his lips.

"The school has built in all these convoluted twists. Besides making us think and guess who the group's [VIP] is, it's even more about testing our ability to grasp the big picture."

"After all… guessing the VIP of just one group won't earn the best score."

"…"

Chabashira's heart gave a jolt. She hadn't expected Naruse to realize this right away.

In the earlier group sessions before eight, other students had been quicker or slower to understand the rules, but not one of them, like Naruse, had arrived at the optimal solution the moment they finished reading.

This was indeed the core idea behind the school's design. If you only guessed within your own group, you'd earn ordinary points.

To take everything as the winner, you had to uncover the [VIP] identities of every group.

Katsuragi seemed to catch up to his line of thought, and he perked up at once.

"You're right, Naruse-san. After all, this time it comes down to grasping the VIPs' identities, plus a psychological battle of offense and defense."

"Exactly!"

"Sounds a lot like a Werewolf game, this rule set."

Nishikawa glanced at the page with the four outcomes written on it, looking thoroughly entertained.

"Mm, then let's start guessing… Who exactly is the [Werewolf]…"

Naruse smiled faintly and looked at Chabashira in front of him. He already had it all figured out.