Chapter 131: Such a Boring Trick

Kanda Shuichi thought that after Hirata heard about this, he would be shaken, but to his surprise, Hirata simply nodded calmly and said that he understood.

"I'll take care of this. Thanks, Ayanokouji."

This left Kanda Shuichi a bit confused. What exactly was going on between Hirata and Karuizawa?

But since Hirata had said that, Kanda Shuichi decided not to dig deeper. Instead, he picked up the group list that Hirata Yosuke had passed him and started looking through it.

The list Hirata gave him was different from the one the school provided. Although the names were listed in order from Class A to Class D, they weren't sorted alphabetically by the 50 sounds.

Why would the school's card sort the names of the students in each class alphabetically? Was it because they used a computer to sort them?

Kanda Shuichi let his thoughts wander.

"By the way, Hirata, do you know if anyone brought a computer?"

Since the school used a computer to sort the names, Kanda Shuichi was thinking of replicating their method.

"Well, it seems like no one brought a computer because our backpacks are pretty small, so no one brought one."

Having a source of information for the entire class was helpful. It saved Kanda Shuichi the time of looking for a computer.

Since there was no computer, he would have to do everything manually.

Meanwhile, Ayanokouji had already gotten up to leave. He didn't have anything else to do here—he had only come to gather information about Karuizawa.

Then Hirata left as well, and soon the room was empty except for Kanda Shuichi.

After they left, Kanda Shuichi tore two sheets of paper from the notebook Hirata had brought, aligned them, and taped them together to form a square.

Then, he arranged the names horizontally according to the order of the zodiac signs, and vertically by the first character of each group member's name in the 50-sound order, writing them down one by one.

159 names, along with the group name sorting—Kanda Shuichi spent over half an hour finishing it.

After checking everything over again, he sighed in relief and prepared to take a break.

If he had a computer, this task would have been much easier. He could have just entered each group's list into a table and sorted them alphabetically by the first letter.

Then, Kanda Shuichi circled the names of the three VIP students from Class D.

At the top was Karuizawa from the Rabbit group, then Kushida from the Dragon group, and lastly Minami from the Horse group.

In an instant, Kanda Shuichi saw the pattern. 

The Rabbit group, ranked fourth in the zodiac.

Karuizawa, the privilege student of the Rabbit group, was also in the fourth position of that group.

Next was Kushida from the Dragon group. The Dragon is ranked fifth in the zodiac, and Kushida was also in the fifth position in her group, with the four people ahead of her being Ichinose Honami, Katsuragi Kohei, Kanda Shuichi, and Kanzaki Ryuji.

Finally, in the seventh position in the zodiac was the Horse group, and Minami was in the seventh position in his group.

After realizing this, Kanda Shuichi rubbed his forehead and laughed. Such childish behavior. How many times had he solved this kind of simple puzzle in his previous life?

Looking for patterns?

That's something you start doing in elementary school!

What kind of messed up school is this? Are they trying to look down on me?

Kanda Shuichi had originally been somewhat excited about this exam, but now, he had lost all interest.

As for whether this was a coincidence, Kanda Shuichi didn't doubt it at all. After all, how could there be so many coincidences in the world?

And, whether it was a coincidence could easily be verified, right?

So, Kanda Shuichi marked all the privilege students on the paper, then found the three from Class B—one from the Ox group, one from the Monkey group, and one from the Dog group—and entered their names into his phone.

To make sure Ichinose wouldn't misunderstand, Kanda Shuichi had even marked out the groupings.

Just three minutes after sending the information to Ichinose, her phone rang.

"Yo, Ichinose, good afternoon."

"Ahaha, good afternoon, Kanda." Ichinose's tone sounded a bit forced.

Well, of course it does!

It felt like when you first log in to a game, and suddenly, the screen forces you to view your base, where there's someone standing next to it holding a hammer, about to destroy it, while your base is left with just one last bit of health.

Who could handle that? I was just about to play peacefully, and suddenly my base is being attacked?

Did the demolition team really work that fast?

At that moment, Ichinose once again felt the way she had felt when Kanda Shuichi figured out the class leader's intentions on the deserted island.

Could there be a traitor in our class?

No, that's impossible. The people who had special privileges only told me, and I made sure to tell them not to spread the word. The communication was in a completely secure room, so there's no way there's a traitor.

So, did Kanda Shuichi figure out the selection rules just by talking to the three students with special privileges from his class?

The selection rules weren't exactly a secret, and after seeing the message, it would be easy for a sharp person to figure it out. But still, this was way too fast, right?

Forget it, thinking about it won't solve anything. It's quicker to just call and ask directly.

Anyway, my fate is already in someone else's hands, so I might as well let things be.

Of course, she could choose to deny it, but that would just be deceiving herself. Even if she tried to deny it, she couldn't hide it from Kanda Shuichi for long.

No, maybe it was never possible to hide from him in the first place.

"Uh, you have already figured out the rules?"

Since Ichinose decided to accept the situation, she was straightforward, cutting to the point without any unnecessary chatter. After all, useless probing would only lower her standing in Kanda Shuichi's eyes.

"Yeah, looks like I was right based on your reaction."

"Ahaha, so what do you want us to do?"

Ichinose was quick to understand. Since Kanda Shuichi didn't immediately hand over B-class' answer, it meant that he needed B-class to help with something.

So Kanda Shuichi really wants to aim for the full-group result?

Ichinose let out a sigh of relief. If Kanda Shuichi had chosen to directly get 450 class points, then D-class would rise straight to A-class in this exam.

Meanwhile, B-class would experience the awkward situation of rising to A-class, only to drop back down before their class license had even been changed.

If this happened twice in one semester, and both times because of D-class, then even B-class students might start to doubt themselves.

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