two contracts

// Lucy's POV //

After the first exam I have been low on private points with a total of 1,212,738 points. I had spent over a million points in the last few days and that simply won't do. That is the reason why I have come up with a plan to maximize the number of points I get from this exam. In fact I have come up with 2 ways but have sort of fused them together into one plan which can be altered if needs be.

Walking out of my bedroom holding two large stacks of paper, I looked at a clock on the wall seeing it was 7:51 AM, meaning that our meeting will start in 9 minutes. It would take me roughly 4 minutes to get to the destined room so I walked over there in a slow stroll, on the way I saw Kei Karuizawa walking and speaking into her phone seemingly on a call.

She didn't seem to notice me so I spoke up, "Hey Karuizawa." I wanted to wave but my hands where full at the moment so I settled with just giving her a smile.

I didn't stop walking to my destination and just settled for another smile when she greeted me back. I was by myself and was bored so I began humming the intro to attack on titan season 4, ah what a great OP.

When I was stood in front of the door I realized that I had a problem, I couldn't open it. My hands where full and I had to push the handle to be able to get in, so I used the one method remaining to me. My foot, I had bent my body at such an angle that my foot could latch onto the handle and pulled it down and forward to open it.

The stacks of paper in my hands hadn't moved an inch luckily. I look around only to see everybody in the room looking at me strangely, probably because my foot was still on top of the door handle. "What? My hands where full."

Yosuke Hirata scratched his head, "You could have tapped the door with your foot and one of us would have opened it for you."

I blinked once, twice, three times. Why had I not thought of that? Well it's obvious isn't it? Yosuke Hirata is the smartest man in existence! He is the only person who could ever think of such a convoluted plan, us mortals don't hold a candle to him! Truly a man of brilliance.

I gave him a proud look and dumped the two stacks of papers on the table in the center of the room, "Everyone take one of each please. There are 3 pages per contract for two contracts per person." I of course drafted one up for the class B students and I as well.

After 20 minutes Ryuen spoke up, "I guess you want us to choose?" I nodded at him. "Well the second contract looks most fitting. It benefits us all after all."

// Horikita's POV //

Lucy has us all in the palm of her hand, she gave us two options and she benefits from both of them.

I personally want the second outcome to occur as our class is does not have the most money right now. I'm guessing that Ryuen had the same thoughts as me. "I agree, I think option two is the only way to end this peacefully."

Option one would be ideal to end in our favor but we can't afford for that risk, to enter a bidding war with the other classes to compete for the name. This contract had an initial fee of 20,000 points to enter the bidding war and minimum increases of 5,000 points. The starting price of the VIP name is 150,000 points. If you win that bidding war your class will obtain class points, the contract also has a clause that states Lucy Hall and the rest of class B may not enter the name of the VIP with a penalty of 20,000 points to everyone in this room.

option two was much better for us. Outcome 1 occurs, Lucy will share the name of the VIP and everyone will receive private points. The catch is that everyone must agree for this to go forward and everyone (Besides members of class B) will be forced to pay Lucy Hall 35,000 points each. There are 11 people excluding class B so she will be receiving the 500,000 points for the outcome of the exam on top of 385,000 points given to her by everyone else.

Of course it goes without saying that if neither of the two contracts are agreed upon, Lucy will just give the name of the VIP herself. She's just doing this to benefit as much as possible. In that case class B will gain 50 class points and class D will lose 50 class points. So contract two is optimal.

The main problem right now is that the VIP is in our class, meaning we need option two otherwise we are in big trouble.

The other classes on the other hand may be all for the 3rd outcome of Lucy herself winning this exam as they won't lose anything. This is a dangerous game for class D.

// Lucy's POV //

I'm sure they all understand how this works now that they have had time to digest all the information. My prediction is that class A will opt for the bidding war, class C will want the 3rd option and class D will want the VIP identity to be shared.

Ryuen gained a smirk, "Of course we can always just not sign anything and allow her to win this."

The idea was put out there even though the majority of the people in this room may have figured out that it's another option.

that is to just do nothing and allow me to win this exam with minimal points going toward me. The only drawback being that my class gains 50 class points and the VIP's group will lose 50 points.

With the current class points at the moment, no one would want that so I knew that idea would be out of the question soon. We are close to catching up with class A and quite far ahead of class C and D.

Horikita spoke up next, "I would rather we share the identity of the VIP and pay the small fee that comes with it, this way there are no class point changes and we all benefit with private points. It would be dangerous to have class B gain any class points right now, don't you see that? Your plan is stupid."

Ryuen's eyes where focused on Horikita now, as if he had found some interesting prey, "Oh? Tell me, do you know who the VIP is? I have a feeling that it's someone in class D. After all, you wouldn't be so quick to rebuke my idea otherwise right?"

This brought on the attention of the other students in the room toward class D, it seems Ryuen has figured it out. It doesn't matter though, there are 3 class D students here right now and he doesn't know who it is.

Katsuragi seemed to realize that silence is no longer the best option, "It doesn't matter if we find out which class they are in, we need to know exactly who it is Ryuen. I have thought of another possibility however, the safest option is to guess the VIP and get it wrong."

Oh? Now that is something I hadn't thought of before, instead of going for what benefits his class the most, he is going for the option of reducing the most amount of possible damage he can.

Ryuen gave up on the glaring match between him and Horikita and gave Katsuragi's strategy some thought, "You know, that would be the option that is the safest for everyone in the room and most of all," He looked at me with a grin on his face, "Stop her from getting anything out of this." He looked very gleeful saying that, I wonder why?

It was at this moment that I was utterly shocked however, the person I had thought to discard the moment this exam was over spoke up, "Not if she's the VIP."

It was a simple sentence, one that was quick and to the point. Made by no other than Ryuji Kanzaki. He had failed the test I had thought up and came back with a quiet bang. It did force me to alter my plans slightly but it has helped me as well.

No one will refute my being the VIP because that would tell everyone that the VIP is in there class and bring focus toward them, it also stops them from going the safe route and lures them further into my trap. The illusion of choice.

Maybe Kanzaki isn't so useless. That's something to think about.

Katsuragi spoke up again, "That would be a long-winded plan but plausible, if this exam has told us anything, it's that Lucy Hall is greedy. I wouldn't put it past her to do all this just for us to give her points even though we thought we were not."

One thing I have noticed is that Class A and C students who are not Katsuragi and Ryuen have been absolutely silent besides a few whispered conversations between them and to antagonize us at the start.

The room devolved into chaos between Ryuen, Katsuragi, Horikita, Hirata and surprisingly Kushida. Kushida was backing up Horikita with the plan to share the identity. The reason Kushida hasn't shared it herself is because she knows the moment she tells everyone without a contract, the quickest person is going to become a traitor.

There was only one way to solve this then! ~Clap!~ With a clap everyone looked over to me, "I don't think this is fair on all the underlings here." Class C students seemed the most angry at being called that so I stopped them before they even spoke, "So how about we put it to a vote?"

I got multiple nods for that but there where also a few students who opposed me on this because Horikita didn't want to, "No, it's unfair. Both my and class A have an extra student each so it's not fair on class D right?"

Katsuragi had a quick fix for that, "Fine, me and Ryuen will not participate." Ryuen was about to oppose that idea before Katsuragi began talking again, "Because of that mercy, class D will pay both class C and A 15,000 points each. Are these terms acceptable?"

After a look between Hirata and Horikita, it seems they have decided, "10,000 and it's a deal." Ryuen grinned but agreed to the the deal while Katsuragi just nodded his head.

I took control of the room again, "Well without further ado," I pulled out 9 sheets of blank paper from my blazer pocket and it all out to the participating students. "Please write your vote on the paper given to you all."

Ryuen began laughing, noticing what happened, "So you just so happened to have exactly nine sheets of paper on you?"

He didn't say anything specifically but everyone got the message, I knew it would turn out like this. "No I don't just so happen to have them, they just appeared there all of a sudden actually. How strange." I shrugged off all the looks from everyone in the room and looked toward the anomaly in the group, he was smiling at me again.

This whole time Hirata has been smiling at me and giving me meaningful looks as if I care if everyone benefits or not. He seems to think that I was going for everyone to benefit in the first place, in reality this is just the best way for me to benefit the most.

I collected the nine sheets of paper and spread them out across the table turning them over one by one and tallying the outcomes. The end result was...