NOVEL WEB Chapter 159
Chapter 159: Ryuen – Damn!
The groups containing the three privileged students from Class A and one privileged student from Class B had their exams forcibly ended.
This sent the students of Class A and Class B into a frenzy.
Ten Minutes Earlier
Hachiman was contacted by Ryuen.
To be precise, he realized that he was being blocked by someone.
“Hikigaya Hachiman!”
However, it wasn’t Ishizaki Daichi or Albert, who usually followed him.
Instead, it was a short-haired girl with blue hair—Ibuki.
“You need something?”
Faced with the girl who had once planted Karuizawa’s underwear on him during the deserted island exam, Hikigaya wasn’t particularly polite.
“It’s not me who wants to see you,” Ibuki Mio shook her head.
“It’s me.”
A slightly teasing voice came from behind Ibuki.
Then, a red-haired boy stepped forward.
Ibuki moved aside like a subordinate.
This was surprising—previously on the deck, Ibuki had openly fought with Ryuen, and Ryuen had even ordered Albert to hit her.
Yet now, she was his loyal follower.
But no one cared about that anymore.
Because after the deserted island exam, Class D’s overall evaluation score was zero.
A total defeat for Ryuen.
“Ryuen, huh?”
Hachiman looked at the red-haired tyrant of Class D.
“I already turned you down this morning, didn’t I? And yet, you’re here again. You still haven’t given up?”
“Heh…”
Ryuen simply smirked without replying.
And then—
As expected.
“Hikigaya-kun!”
A clear, crisp voice called out from the distance.
A girl with long, straight black hair ran over with a slightly anxious expression.
It was Horikita Suzune.
For her to show such visible emotions—clearly, when Ryuen’s people came to fetch her, they must have deliberately said something terrifying.
“Horikita, you’re here too, but we’re still missing a few people,” Ryuen said with a leisurely smile, looking as if he had already won.
“Having all of you present makes my victory even sweeter.”
In other words, Ryuen had called not just Hachiman and Horikita, but others as well.
“You discovered something?”
Hachiman frowned.
As expected, things weren’t that simple.
“As sharp as ever,” Ryuen said with a hint of admiration.
“I’ve never suffered such a loss at someone else’s hands before.”
“Hikigaya Hachiman, you’ve caught my interest.”
At first, he had thought Hikigaya was just an idiot who tampered with the school’s security cameras.
But after the deserted island exam, Ryuen realized that Hikigaya was actually the mastermind of Class C.
Even Horikita Suzune seemed to be merely assisting him.
“I believe in the natural order of things—birds of a feather flock together. The strong should band together, and trash should remain trash forever.”
“And your class…” Ryuen continued.
“It’s full of garbage. People like Sudo, who can be played like a puppet, are everywhere.”
“That’s only because you keep targeting our classmates!” Horikita interjected.
“…” Ryuen.
Being interrupted was one thing, but did this girl have no sense of atmosphere?
Cutting in so bluntly.
“Overall, I do think you and Hikigaya are quite competent,” Ryuen admitted.
“And I’ve taken note of your actions during the deserted island exam.”
“So—”
“This is your final chance.”
“Work with me in this exam, or else—”
“I’ll settle the score from the deserted island.”
So this time, Ryuen had come seeking cooperation?
Horikita’s sharp gaze turned to Hachiman.
“How did he get you to come?” Hachiman asked.
“Ryuen sent Shiina Hiyori to see me,” Horikita answered honestly.
“She said their class has already figured out the pattern of the privileged students.”
I see.
If Ryuen’s class had truly deciphered the pattern yet still sought an alliance—
There could only be one reason.
He wanted to obtain Hachiman’s best possible solution for this exam.
That is—to maximize the number of groups reaching Outcome 1.
Everyone would send their group’s privileged students information via their phones on the third night, no one would betray their group, and the answers would be correct.
As a result:
• Every student in the group would receive 500,000 points.
•
• The privileged students of the group would receive 1,000,000 points.
•
But there were two major obstacles:
1. Mastering the privileged students pattern and using it to dictate terms to all first-year students.
2.
3. Ensuring as many groups as possible choose Outcome 1, which required the full cooperation of students across all four classes.
4.
And for that to work, the class leaders of all four classes had to be controlled.
Additionally—
A greedier approach wouldn’t just be making everyone choose Outcome 1.
It would involve withholding the 6.5 million points the school allocated to each group and claiming it as their own.
Essentially, cutting a piece out of everyone’s share.
Pulling this off would require extortion, and in a closed campus where everyone saw each other daily, even if successful, the perpetrators would be infamously despised.
So—
It was extremely difficult.
“Hikigaya Hachiman.”
Seeing the serious expression on Hachiman’s face as he considered his options, Ryuen smirked, clearly enjoying himself.
“I admit I underestimated you last time, which led to my crushing defeat on the island.”
“I simply failed to account for how shameless you are.”
“But this time is different.”
“I’ve already figured everything out! Victory is mine!”
“You may have also thought about deducing the privileged students pattern—which is commendable. But too bad, you haven’t actually figured it out yet, have you?”
“But I have!” Ryuen boasted proudly.
At this—
Hachiman remained expressionless, staring at Ryuen in silence.
He wasn’t surprised by this behavior.
After all, anyone who reflected on their past mistakes would regret them.
Thinking, If only I had done this sooner… would make the outcome feel entirely different.
That’s why Ryuen was acting like some kind of hindsight genius.
It wasn’t strange at all.
“You don’t believe me?”
Ryuen chuckled at Hachiman’s blank expression.
“Then, let me show you.”
“I also invited Katsuragi and Ichinose to join us. But I scheduled them to arrive ten minutes later than you.”
“The reason?”
“So you could witness your own defeat first.”
As he spoke, Ryuen pulled out his phone.
It seemed he was sending a message to someone.
“In this exam, aside from waiting until the final day to submit, there’s another option—early submission.”
“And if someone submits early, whether the answer is right or wrong, the group’s exam ends immediately.”
“Wait…”
Horikita suddenly realized Ryuen’s strategy.
“That’s right,” Ryuen grinned.
“Now that I’ve figured out the privileged students pattern, I’m going to use it!”
Almost immediately after he spoke—
A broadcast from the ship’s speakers echoed throughout the area.
“Beep!”
“Due to an early submission, the exam for Group ‘Horse’ has ended. Students in Group ‘Horse’ are no longer required to participate. Please wait for results to be announced.”
As Ryuen’s message was sent, everyone’s phones simultaneously vibrated or rang.
An email had been delivered to every student.
“The privileged students of Group Horse was a Class A student—Minami Setsuya.”
“Katsuragi will arrive soon, and you can confirm with him.”
Ryuen grinned even wider, exuding confidence.
“Minami Setsuya… What a trashy name.”
“And for your Class C…”
Ryuen sneered.
“The privileged students of Group ‘Dragon’—is none other than Kushida Kikyo.”
Kushida Kikyo.
Indeed, Kushida Kikyo is the privileged student of the Dragon Group.
“Then, in the Rabbit Group you belong to, the privileged student is still from your class—Karuizawa Kei, right?” Ryuen said disdainfully.
Ryuen had a look of disdain on his face, but his smugness betrayed him completely.
“Hikigaya…”
At this point, Horikita suddenly became flustered and quickly turned her gaze toward Hachiman. She had completely lost her usual composure.
This was because the students in her class did not know who their privileged students were.
However, she, along with Hachiman and Kushida, had checked the information from the students’ phones.
She now knew the identities of the three privileged students in her class.
Kushida Kikyo (Dragon Group), Sudo Ken (Mouse), and Karuizawa Kei (Rabbit Group).
She could directly confirm two privileged students’ information without much doubt, which meant that Ryuen truly knew the pattern of privileged students.
“It seems you really have figured out the pattern,”
Hachiman said, his expression a bit complicated as he sighed.
“Hehe, that’s right. The advantage is mine this time!”
“I’ve figured out the pattern and obtained the identities of all the privileged students in your class C. Your class C, which has been stepping on our D class’s advantage, will be completely defeated!” Ryuen said.
“Well, then you continue finishing the group exams,” Hachiman said. “Isn’t there still two privileged students in Class A that haven’t been identified?”
“So, let’s identify them all. Class A will be deducted 150 points, and your class won’t stay at zero points but will get 150 points instead.”
“…Ryuen.”
Damn.
Although Hachiman’s comment was somewhat baffling, Ryuen quickly understood.
It seemed like Hachiman had figured out his true intentions behind inviting the four class representatives.
The goal was to achieve Result 1.
Yes.
Ryuen wanted both the points and the money.
A child might face a choice, but he wanted both!
Although it was difficult to achieve both, by using the privileged students’ identities as leverage and applying pressure on the class representatives of all four classes, it was still possible to achieve.
“You should know that I already know the identities of the three privileged students in your class,” Ryuen deliberately lowered his voice and spoke with a threatening tone.
“But the students in my class are all using backup phones. So as long as we don’t speak and don’t return the phones to the students, your Result 1 won’t have any chance of being achieved. In fact, as long as my class doesn’t participate, your Result 1 won’t give you a single point!”
“And you specifically called me and Horikita here because we’re the most difficult to deal with, right?” Hachiman said.
“…” Ryuen had nothing to say.
He confirmed once again that Hachiman was indeed an annoying person.
And for Hachiman to make his class use backup phones was truly heartless. Even if he wanted to use money to win over and bribe the students of Class C one by one, it wouldn’t work because the students of Class C didn’t even have their phones!
Thus,
The ship’s public announcement and all the students’ phones continued to receive notifications that three groups’ exams were over.
“Beep!”
“Because someone sent the answers in advance…”
“The Cow Group exam is over. The students from the Cow Group do not need to participate in the exam anymore. Please wait for the results.”
“The Snake Group exam is over. The students from the Snake Group do not need to participate in the exam anymore. Please wait for the results.”
“The Tiger Group exam is over. The students from the Tiger Group do not need to participate in the exam anymore. Please wait for the results.”
The privileged students in the Cow and Snake Groups were from Class A.
All three privileged students of Class A had been eliminated.
And the privileged student of the Tiger Group was from Class B.
So,
In less than two minutes, the class representatives of Class A and Class B quickly rushed toward Ryuen!
…
“Ryuen! You’re too much!”
As expected.
When Class A’s Katsu arrived, he immediately criticized Ryuen because he knew that the privileged students of the Horse, Cow, and Snake Groups were all from Class A.
If all were guessed correctly, Class A would directly lose 150 points.
Now, the evaluation scores for the four classes were as follows:
Class A: 1258 points
Class B: 1121 points
Class C: 1041 points
Class D: 0 points
With the deduction of 150 points, Class A would only have 1108 points, and they would lose to Class B!
And Ichinose and Kanzaki both looked at him with expressions of doubt.
Because the Tiger Group belonged to their Class B.
If it was guessed correctly, Class B would also lose 50 points, but if it was guessed wrong, their class could gain 50 points.
Heh.
Ryuen smiled.
“I’m just returning the favor,” Ryuen said. “Earlier in the Dragon Group, I suggested cooperation to you, but no one paid any attention to me.”
“Fortunately, your class produced a traitor and gave me the list of your privileged students.”
“I only had to pay 500,000 yen for one privileged student to get the list of four privileged students.”
“Tsk tsk,” Ryuen said. “It seems you guys aren’t very united. The students in your class are short-sighted.”
“You’re talking nonsense!” As soon as Katsuragi arrived, his lackey, Totsuka Yahiko, followed and immediately started yelling at Ryuen. “How could the students in my class betray us! Don’t try to shake our unity!”
Since the list of privileged students from Class A’s three groups had been leaked, it meant that if anyone betrayed them, their class would lose 150 points.
Who would dare stop that?
If they were caught, they would be considered public enemies of the class.
So Totsuka Yahiko felt that Ryuen was deliberately trying to destroy their unity.
“I also don’t think the students in my class would betray the class,” Kanzaki said quickly.
He was an elegant person, but he had just thought that Katsu’s lackey had spoken quite compellingly.
Ryuen was just talking nonsense!
Because,
How could there possibly be a traitor in Class B?
“It seems you still have some brains,” Ryuen didn’t continue to sow discord, “Actually, it was Hachiman and the others who cooperated with me. They sold me the information of the privileged students in their class. Didn’t I tell you? Privileged students follow a pattern, so I deduced the pattern.”
Is that so?
Ryuen had realized that stirring discord wouldn’t work, so he shifted the blame to Class C? Perhaps this was the ultimate goal of his earlier remarks.
Hachiman thought.
Ryuen was trying to create a rift between Class C and Class B.
Hachiman’s class and Class B’s alliance had reached the point where it would need to be torn apart, but it hadn’t happened yet. However, if it was recognized that they had betrayed Class B here, their alliance would probably be over.
And since the gap between Class A, B, and C was small, Ryuen was deliberately adding fuel to the fire, creating the image that Class C would do anything to win.
This would make Class A more cautious of them.
The goal was to create chaos among the three classes, so Ryuen’s own Class D could slowly rise from the bottom.
From a certain perspective, Ryuen was very dangerous.
Even more so than Katsu.
However,
Hachiman did not want to play into his hands.
So,
“I haven’t cooperated with Ryuen,” Hachiman said. “And I can prove my innocence.”
“Oh? How are you going to prove yourself?” Ryuen looked over. “You haven’t deduced the pattern of privileged students yet, have you?”
“The privileged student from the Monkey Group is from your class, Ryuen,” Hachiman said calmly.
“…” Ryuen.
Ryuen’s face remained expressionless, and he didn’t reply.
“How do you know?” But then, suddenly, Ibuki with blue short hair spoke.
Ryuen instantly realized something was wrong.
“Well, it seems there’s nothing to worry about. Thanks for the intel, Ibuki,” Hachiman smiled. “Koenji from my class is also in the Monkey Group.”
Then he sent a message.
Ryuen clearly saw that the recipient of his message was also Koenji.
And the message was simple.
[There are still two and a half days of meetings to go. You probably want to wrap up this boring Werewolf game quickly, right?]
[As previously agreed, if you answer correctly about the privileged student, you’ll earn 50 points, and you can keep 25 points for yourself.]
This was a new system from Class C, where points earned above 50 could be split in half for personal use.
After Hachiman sent this message, Ryuen’s eyebrows twitched.
Because Koenji quickly replied.
[OK]
Immediately after, everyone’s phones vibrated, and the loudspeakers made an announcement.
[Because someone sent the answers in advance…]
[The Monkey Group exam is over. Students in the Monkey Group do not need to participate in the exam anymore. Please wait for the results.]
“…” Ryuen.
Damn.