Chapter 3 Part II

We arrived at the multipurpose room within the special building, the room that seemed to be the central hub for the special exam.

"It seems like the other three have already arrived."

The door was already open. Inside, I could see the homeroom teachers from the other classes, each accompanied by a single student. From Class A, it was Sakayanagi. From Class B, it was Ichinose, and from Class D, it was Kaneda.

Unsurprisingly, every single one of us had a protection point.

There were also two computers set up directly opposite of one another, each connected to a single, large monitor.

"Now that all the commanders have gathered, let's get started with deciding the class match-ups. I'll have each of you draw a slip from this lottery. The student who draws a slip with a red circle on it will be allowed to choose their opponent."

Mashima-sensei presented us with a lottery box and prompted Sakayangi to draw from it. However, she refused.

"As they say, good things come to those that wait. I don't mind going last, so by all means, Ichinose-san."

"Well, I don't mind if I do!"

Ichinose drew first, followed by Class C and D. Since the slips weren't folded, we knew the results of the draw almost immediately. In the end, Class D's Kaneda drew the winning slip with the red circle on it.

That is to say, Class D had won the right to choose their opponent.

"It seems there's no need for me to check the last slip, right Mashima-sensei?"

Mashima-sensei drew the final slip from the lottery box and, needless to say, there was no red circle on it.

"It seems good things didn't come this time, Sakayanagi."

"I wonder about that. I don't necessarily have to draw the winning slip to come out on top in the end."

"It sounds to me like Class A thinks they can rest easy no matter who they end up facing."

"Oh, that's not the case. If at all possible, I'd like to avoid confrontation with your class, Ichinose-san."

Sakayanagi's response made it hard to tell if she was just being polite or if she had given her honest opinion.

"Could you tell us which class you'll be choosing?"

At Mashima-sensei's request, Kaneda gave a small nod.

At some point since this morning, even Class D had probably held a discussion to figure out which of the other classes to go against to secure the highest chance of winning.

"I won't hesitate then. Class D would like to compete against… Class B."

Kaneda declared war against an entirely unexpected opponent.

"And you're sure you want to choose Class B?"

"Yes."

Having confirmed Kaneda's decision, Mashima-sensei finalized the class matchups.

With the competition between Class D and Class B set in stone, Class C would naturally compete against Class A.

"I was convinced you would choose Class C, but Class B? Why is that?"

Sakayanagi asked a question, interested in finding out Kaneda's reasoning.

"In order to turn things around from how they are now, we have to take away as many points as possible from the upper classes. Having said that, we also want to avoid fighting against Class A for the time being."

Since Class A was an understandably difficult opponent, they had opted to target Class B instead.

"Is that so? As far as I'm concerned, you've saved us from the trouble of matching up against a formidable opponent like Class B. I wish Class D the best of luck."

Sakayanagi offered her gratitude to Kaneda with a slight bow. Though, a little bit of trickery behind the scenes had led us to this current situation. While it goes without saying that Kaneda winning draw had been nothing more than a coincidence, this outcome had already been arranged no matter who drew the winning slip.

I had contacted Ichinose and Ishizaki before school had even ended for the day, telling them that I wanted Class C to compete against Class A.

Apparently, Ichinose had been genuinely interested in competing against Class A and was even planning on doing so, but ultimately, she conceded because she owed me a favor. As for Ishizaki and Class D, they had apparently been planning on challenging Class B anyway, so there hadn't been any complications in the first place.

All of this just to secure my match with Sakayanagi and Class A.

The only problem would've been if I had won the draw.

Since Horikita had told me to choose Class D if given the choice, I would've needed to come up with a convincing excuse.

However, my probability of winning was just one in four, so I wasn't all too concerned. Put simply, the whole thing had been a fixed job from the start. I was also pretty sure Sakayanagi was aware that I had made some arrangements beforehand.

In this way, the class matchups had been decided ahead of time.

"With that done, I'll now explain the system you'll be using on exam day. You'll be in this room, using a computer similar to the two we have set up right over here. This is where you'll be assigning your classmates to the events in real-time."

Chabashira went to the left computer and broadcasted the screen onto the large display.

As Chabashira operated the computer, Mashima-sensei continued his explanation.

"As an example, this is a catalog of all the Class A students. Using the mouse, you'll drag a student's portrait and drop it into the box of the event you'll have them participate in. If you make a mistake or reconsider your choices halfway through, just drag and drop the photo out of the box and reselect from there. Alternatively, you can also do all of this with the touchscreen."

"This kinda feels like a video game, right?"

"It totally does, doesn't it!"

Ichinose and Hoshinomiya-sensei engaged in a fun little side conversation with each other.

"There will be a time limit imposed on selecting the participants for each event, which is represented by the number you currently see counting down on-screen. The more students there are in a given event, the more time you'll have to select them. You can expect to be given approximately thirty seconds per person."

That is, given a ten-person event, we would have roughly 300 seconds to make a decision.

"If you don't make a selection within the provided time limit, any remaining spaces will be filled with somebody chosen at random, so do keep that in mind. Conversely, if you end up selecting too many students, the excess participants will be forced out at random as well."

In other words, it would be strictly forbidden to go over the time limit.

"Once an event begins, the match will be broadcast live on this large monitor."

Stock footage of a shogi match began to play on the monitor, much like what one would see on TV.

"The rules for how a commander can participate in the current event will be listed on your screen after the event has started."

The footage on the monitor changed over to show the screen of the left computer once again, where the words

『At one point during the match, the commander can pause the game and re-do a move』 were displayed.

"This was probably an example of the rules that Mashima-sensei had just referred to.

"As the commander, you can choose to intervene at any time by clicking on the rule you want to act upon. Be sure to keep this in mind."

The monitor changed back to the shogi video once again.

"You won't be allowed to provide your classmates with instructions over the phone. Instead, we will be adopting a text-to-speech system that will read out the messages you send them. After you type out your message and send it, it will be played through your classmate's headset."

This meant that a machine would be automatically reading out our messages after we sent them. This was probably done in order to prevent us from conveying more information than we were allowed to. Using the shogi match as an example, the commanders are only allowed to intervene a single time to change one move on the board, but if they're careful with how they phrase their instructions, they might be able to convey two or three move's worth of instructions instead.

"Should a commander step out of line and interfere with an event in a way the rules don't allow, their class may be faced with disqualification and lose the event."

I had expected this. It'd be safe to assume that a third party would be carefully checking every message we sent our classmates.

"For each event, only one person in each class will be allowed to wear one of the headsets. Even in a team event, only one person will be allowed to receive instructions. As the commander, you'll have to choose who this person will be."

From the looks of it, I had more on my plate than I expected.

While there were plenty of things we could decide on beforehand, we would always have to be ready for unexpected circumstances.

"You'll be allowed to send out your instructions whenever you want, so long as it abides by the rules."

We could freely change our screen layouts whenever we wanted, including minimizing or maximizing certain aspects of the display to show only the information we wanted to see.

Between observing the students in the current event to making preparations for the next one, there would be plenty of stuff to do to keep us occupied.

"This wraps up my explanation of the commander's duties and procedures. Are there any questions?"

Mashima-sensei did a quick glance throughout the room, but it didn't seem like anyone had something they wanted to bring up.

"Alright then, that'll be all for today. If any of you want to go over the system or check on something, you'll be allowed to visit the multipurpose classroom under teacher supervision until one week before the exam. You're all dismissed."

With that, the explanation was finished and we all left.