Chapter 143 ↦ Traitor Treatment

"The current time is 7:58. Everyone put your phones on the desk. I need to check the messages that will come from school shortly. Don't try to hide anything."

In the recreation center of the ship, Kakeru addressed all the Class C students he had gathered.

Since the first week after enrollment, he had focused on one consistent goal: using force to bring the class under his control, turning Class C into a place where only he could speak.

While Class C had some academic stars like Hiyori and Satoru, and capable fighters like Albert, Mio, and Daichi, the class was generally unremarkable — including Kakeru himself.

But with the school's intriguing system of class competition, wasn't it too early to give up?

In his view, if wielded properly, Class C could become a sharp weapon.

However, after consolidating his control, he discovered that 36 students despised him. These same students had been swindled by Houtarou from Class A, resulting in a loss of over 2 million class points to settle the contract.

Their misfortunes continued: they lost another 800,000 points at school, received a criminal record, and suffered a complete failure in the island exam — a true wilderness survival that earned them zero points. Even their agreement to exchange Base Points for living expenses with Class B couldn't be adjusted due to this failure.

Now back at school, they faced the threat of demotion as Class D had surpassed their Class Points.

It was, without question, a miserable situation.

Despite losing another 50,000 Points and still lacking the ability to plan ahead, yesterday's privileged student exam offered a glimmer of hope. Upon learning the rules, Kakeru immediately recognized the crucial element: obtaining information about privileged students.

This information was vital for both coordinating actions and gathering intelligence from other classes.

Class C did have one advantage: Kakeru could personally verify and prevent his classmates from lying.

Being selected as a privileged student in this exam meant receiving preferential treatment — a 75% chance of earning between 500,000 and 1 million points.

For Class C, 500,000 points equaled 10 months of living expenses — an irresistible temptation.

Students might try to hide their status by silencing transfer notifications, hoping to quietly collect the guaranteed 500,000 points when the exam concluded.

Without proper oversight, the exam could devolve into classmates secretly betraying one another.

But Kakeru wouldn't allow this. By checking everyone's phones, no one could hide their privileged student status.

"Eh... doing this again—"

"Ryūen, we've been surpassed by Class D now. If we don't get points in this exam, we'll become Class D," a student said, clearly resistant to having their information checked.

"Shut up!" Kakeru snapped. "Unless you're volunteering to take responsibility? If privileged student information gets leaked, we'll lose 50 Class Points, and you'll have to cover those costs. Can you handle that? If you're willing to take the fall for failure, I won't check your phone."

"Uh..." The student fell silent immediately.

At least they had some security: Kakeru had arranged an agreement with Class B during the island exam. Regardless of results, Class C would receive 600,000 in living expenses until graduation — 15,000 per person.

Though modest, it was enough to survive on.

Still... the island exam results had been truly disastrous.

Classes A, B, and D all obtained large amounts of Class Points. On the first day on the island, Class C had fallen behind, and that wild card Rokusuke had dominated most of the basepoints — it was as if he were using cheat codes.

With Class D and Class A working together, their loss was inevitable.

While most students returned to the ship to rest and relax, only Kakeru, Mio, Daichi, and Satoru stayed behind to continue the exam.

Given these circumstances, complaining about the results seemed inappropriate.

Satoru, sitting closest to Kakeru, was the first to hand over his phone voluntarily.

As a loyal supporter and top student, his action prompted others to follow suit.

However, when the next male student submitted his phone, Kakeru did something unexpected — he opened the student's ID instead of checking messages.

"Damn, you took money from Class A! Planning to betray our class, huh!" Kakeru slapped him. "100,000! You sold us out for just 100,000? The privileged student reward is 500,000 — are you a pig?"

"Uh..." The student broke into a cold sweat, speechless.

The transfer information showed a 100,000 point payment.

Masayoshi from Class A had approached him before the island exam.

He had hoped to establish ongoing cooperation with monthly payments, but Masayoshi had declined. Yesterday, however, Masayoshi offered 100,000 points upfront.

The deal was simple: 200,000 points for each privileged student's information he could gather from his class.

The 100,000 was merely a down payment — the real reward would be much more.

He decided to let Kakeru believe what he wanted. Revealing the full truth would mark him as a class traitor — though he already was one.

Kakeru turned to address the remaining students.

"Everyone open your student IDs for me to see!"

What began as a check for privileged students had evolved into a spy hunt.

Kakeru's anger was palpable. Even Satoru, who had submitted his phone first, appeared shocked at his classmates' lack of loyalty.

Though Kakeru had intentionally allowed his classmates to socialize — partly to implement his flesh-wound strategy and partly to identify potential spies — traitors had emerged at the first opportunity.

In fact, there were multiple spies within their class.

He understood why Kakeru was so angry: Class C simply couldn't afford any more losses.

What others didn't realize was that upon returning to school, Class B students would report to the Student Council. Though he, Mio, and Daichi were executing the flesh-wound strategy, from everyone else's perspective, they had been thoroughly defeated by Kakeru.

With Kakeru's criminal record, the class would automatically lose 100 Class Points.

If they suffered more losses in this exam, Class C might descend into chaos. They could miss crucial opportunities and struggle to recover in the future. This was why Kakeru had to capitalize on this exam.

The pressure was mounting — each leaked privileged student's information would cost them another 50 points.

Such losses would be devastating for everyone.

In the end, only one student had accepted money from Class A. He was punished by being made to squat, and through this inspection, Kakeru had successfully gathered his class's privileged student information.

Three privileged students.

"What do you think, Shiina?" After confirming the list of privileged students, he returned the phones.

His attention turned to Hiyori.

Called over, she was busy with paper and pen.

"Something's been bothering me." She said, "I've categorized the exam results."

Indeed, her paper showed four exam outcomes, divided between rushing and not rushing to answer.

{ If group members don't rush to answer, between 9:30 and 10 PM on the third day of the exam, these outcomes will occur:

Outcome 1: Group members correctly guess the privileged student's identity:

• 500,000 points awarded to each group member

• 1 million points awarded to the privileged student

Outcome 2: Failed or incorrect guess:

• No point deduction

• Privileged student receives 500,000 points

In cases of rushing to answer:

Correct rush guess:

• Guessing class: +50 points

• Individual: +500,000 points

• Privileged student's class: -50 points

Incorrect rush guess:

• Guessing class: -50 points

• Privileged student: +500,000 points

• Privileged student's class: +50 points

These are the four possible outcomes. }

Kakeru finished reading this note.

In fact, when he'd returned to his cabin yesterday, instead of sleeping, he had also organized the exam rules and outcomes.

He was quite intelligent — during the island exam, after learning each class would receive 300 Base Points that needed to be settled at exam's end, he'd had the foresight to seek cooperation with Class B to minimize risks.

His analysis matched Hiyori's perfectly.

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