As Class C withdrew, Class A remained in hiding, and the alliance between Classes B and D strengthened, the uninhabited island exam began to stabilize.
Time always flies during pleasant days, and in the blink of an eye, it was already the morning of the seventh day.
To identify Class D's leader, Katsuragi once again sent someone to observe the camps outside Class A's cave. As expected, Koenji, like a modern Tarzan, descended from the trees to claim those positions.
"Even now, you won't give up?"
"Damn Class D, this is your fatal mistake! Just wait!"
At 10:30 AM, all the students who had ventured out to secure positions returned. Kanda Shuichi glanced at Ibuki Mio, who had been freeloading here for several days.
"Ibuki, are you ready?"
"Of course."
"Then let's begin."
After Ibuki completed her task, Kanda Shuichi collected the keycards one by one and handed them over to Chabashira-sensei for safekeeping.
"Chabashira-sensei, we..."
At the same time, urgent words came through Ryuen's walkie-talkie:
"Ryuen, I'm on my way to the agreed location. I don't know what trick Class D used, but when I occupied the river post just now, it wasn't Koenji—it was Miyake Akito!"
"What did you say?"
Katsuragi, on the same channel, was the first to react in shock. He had just seen Koenji taking control of the post moments ago.
With the exam almost over and less than an hour remaining, such a dramatic twist occurred. Are you telling me Class D switched leaders now?
Could it be that Koenji got too cocky, fell from a tree, and they had no choice but to replace him? Am I supposed to believe that?
Ryuen's face lit up with a sly smile as he spoke into the walkie-talkie:
"Ibuki, it seems having you stay hidden until the last moment was the right call. Did they notice you?"
"No, Class D was packing up at the time, and the scene was chaotic. They didn't notice me taking photos," Ibuki said while running and describing the scene earlier.
Evidence secured!
Katsuragi's heart skipped a beat.
"Yahiko, the plan has changed. Class D switched leaders at the last minute, but Ryuen already has their new leader's identity. I need to confirm it."
Totsuka Yahiko was even more shocked than Katsuragi had been. Class D pulled this move at the very last moment?
"If I don't return before the exam ends, don't fill in the name of Class D's leader."
"Got it, Katsuragi," Totsuka Yahiko replied with a firm nod.
Katsuragi grabbed his walkie-talkie and dashed out of the cave. After coordinating a meeting point with Ryuen, he immediately headed there.
At the same time, Ryuen and Ibuki also moved toward Katsuragi's designated location.
Fueled by urgency, Katsuragi reached the spot in just a few minutes, but Ryuen and Ibuki were still on their way.
"Whew… whew…"
"Katsuragi, you sure are fast," Ryuen remarked as he arrived with Ibuki.
Without wasting any time, Katsuragi stepped forward. "Give me the camera."
Ryuen gave Ibuki a signal. Obediently, she took the digital camera from her bag. Katsuragi took it without hesitation and checked the photos.
Sure enough, as Ibuki described, the person swiping the card at Class D's base was no longer Koenji but Miyake Akito.
The timestamp on the card reader revealed the moment of the swipe:
Class D 7:59:59
The timestamp in the camera confirms that this photo was just taken.
When humans uncover the first layer of lies and reach the second, they strongly believe they've found the truth. The more confident someone is, the more likely they are to make this mistake.
What's more, with less than half an hour left until the exam ends, Katsuragi couldn't afford to stay calm and think things through.
Little did they know, this second layer of lies was a carefully crafted trap set by the deceivers.
"It's almost time for the exam to end. I'm heading out."
After throwing the camera to Ryuen, Katsuragi ran quickly toward Class A's camp, hoping to make it in time at the last moment.
If Totsuka Yahiko couldn't keep Sakayanagi's faction in check and they wrote Koenji's name as the answer, it would be a disaster.
Losing 50 initial points for Class A was a small matter, but failing to stop Class D's plan to earn temporary points would be a much bigger issue.
Watching Katsuragi leave, Ibuki breathed a sigh of relief. Just as she was about to say something, Ryuen covered her mouth.
Ibuki frowned and raised her leg to kick Ryuen, but stopped when he gestured at the walkie-talkie in his hand.
After turning off the walkie-talkies, Ibuki finally spoke. "Sorry."
"It's nothing. Let's go. Don't keep Sakagami waiting."
Ryuen picked up his backpack and headed toward the first registration point.
"Do you think the leader of Class D is Miyake Akito?"
"Are you joking? It's definitely not him," Ryuen sneered. "If I were Kanda Shuichi, I'd make everyone who held a key card pretend to be sick and return to the ship. Then, I'd randomly pick a leader from the remaining students."
"Randomly? What if another class guessed correctly?"
"Ridiculous. Who would risk losing 50 points to bet on such a low probability, lower than one in thirty?" Ryuen continued without looking back. "Besides, I already know who the leader of Class B is, so I won't take risks guessing about Class D."
"What if Class B changes their leader too?"
"Class D spent all their initial points from the start, so they aren't afraid of switching leaders. But Class B is different. They've saved their points carefully. If they lose 30 points just because of suspicion and replace their leader, it would mean Ichinose is also hiding her true strength. Spending just 50 points to uncover Class B's real capabilities is actually a great deal."
That's Ryuen. If he can use points to get critical information, he won't hesitate.
For this exam, his main goal was to extract 800,000 private points from Class A every month. Now that the plan is complete, everything else is secondary and not worth worrying about.
In Class D, except for Horikita Suzune, all the students who held key cards have given up their leader positions.
That's right—they didn't drop out of the exam as Ryuen had guessed but simply relinquished their leader status.
Changing leaders requires two steps: the current leader must give up their position, and a new leader must be chosen. Both conditions need to be met for it to count as a change. Since no new leader appeared after Class D's students gave up their status, it doesn't qualify as a leader change.
In summary, Horikita Suzune of Class D has always been the leader, so there's no such thing as changing the leader.
The reason for confirming this with Chabashira-sensei from the start was because the method, though seemingly reasonable, felt far-fetched and had the same issues as the earlier multi-leader setup.
.
This is why Kanda Shuichi asked Chabashira-sensei to verify it. But the result turned out to be extremely favorable for Kanda Shuichi, so much so that he started to suspect whether the school was openly biased in his favor
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